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Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

New Afrikan Prisoners Organization

The New Afrikan Prisoners Organization was a revolutionary nationalist cadre organization. Its members were imprisoned nationals of the colonized nation - New Afrika. It was committed to raising the awareness of all our people towards the political, economic, and socio-cultural forces which serve to oppress and exploit us, and which seek to maintain the subjugation of the nation. In addition to other materials, this collection contains a complete set of the periodical Vita Wa Watu.

From the mid-1970s, The Statesville Prisoners Organization, which later morphed into New Afrikan Prisoners' Organization, attempted to unite prisoner groups at several Illinois facilities. NAPO was developed in 1977 as a way to sharpen collectivity among prisoners and between prisoners and the urban communities from which they came. Within the Illinois prison system, NAPO led study groups, wrote articles, tried to foster unity among disaffected Black prisoners, and worked to maintain connections to Black organizing in Chicago and other big cities. Ultimately, NAPO ceased being a prisoner group in 1980 after the publication of book seven of Notes from a New Afrikan P.O.W. Journal. The journal transitioned into Vita Wa Watu with book eight and continued to publish writings from those involved in the New Afrikan Independence Movement.


Documents

So that We Don't Fool Ourselves -- Again: Study Notes on Secure Communication So that We Don't Fool Ourselves -- Again: Study Notes on Secure Communication
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationFormat: MonographCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
Introduction by Atilba Shanna; Notes on Secure Communication by Seldom Seen; Reflections on Victor Serge's What Everyone Should Know About (State) Repression by Ata Kawali; So That We Don't Fool Ourselves -- Again by Seldom Seen; The Greater need -- An Open Letter by Iyapo Tsukama
The Fuse No. 8 The Fuse No. 8
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationDate: 4/1978Volume Number: No. 8Format: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
(Formerly Stateville Raps) Articles include War for the Cities Part III, Armed Struggle and National Liberation, Menad: A Constant Reign of Terror, Why Assata was Convicted, more.
Why We Support the Stateville Four: A Political Statement from the Stateville Prisoners Organization Why We Support the Stateville Four: A Political Statement from the Stateville Prisoners Organization
Publisher: Stateville Prisoners OrganizationFormat: PamphletCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
A Political Statement from the Stateville Prisoners Organization.
We Still Charge Genocide: The Thirteenth Amedment: Instrument of Legalized Slavery and the Re-subjugation of New Afrika We Still Charge Genocide: The Thirteenth Amedment: Instrument of Legalized Slavery and the Re-subjugation of New Afrika
Publisher: New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationDate: 8/31/1977Volume Number: 31-AugFormat: MonographCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
The Thirteenth Amedment: Instrument of Legalized Slavery and the Re-subjugation of New Afrika.
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book One Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book One
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationVolume Number: Book OneFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
On Transforming the Colonial/Criminal Mentality; Afrikan POW's and the United Nations; SPO "Prison Movement" Discussion Paper No. 1: Contributions Toward the National Prisoners Movement; SPO "Prison movement" Discussion paper No. 2: The "Prison Movement" and National Liberation.
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Two Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Two
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationVolume Number: Book TwoFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
The Thirteenth Amendment: Instrument of Legalized Slavery and the Re-subjugation of New Afrika; We Still Charge Genocide; Toward Clarity on CC's, PP's, and POW's; On Revolutionary Politics; On Concrete Solidarity; Message to Afrikan American Women for Positive and Productive Change
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Three Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Three
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationVolume Number: Book ThreeFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
Thoughts on the Eve of a New Year - 15 ADM; Are we Asking the Rights Questions?; From one Generation to the Next!
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Four Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Four
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationDate: 5/1980Volume Number: Book FourFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
Vita Wa Watu; Debray Re-Visited
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Six Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Six
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationVolume Number: Book SixFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
Who Killed McDuffie? Poem by Hakim Al-Jamil; Against the Wind - A Response To: Organizational Connection of the Mass Front and the Armed Front; Iranian Excerpts: On the Necessity of armed Struggle and Refutation of the Theory of "Survival" by Amir Pouyan; Armed Struggle: The Road to the Mobilization of the Masses by Bizhan Jazani
Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Seven Notes from a New Afrikan POW Book Seven
Publisher: Spear and Shield - New Afrikan Prisoners OrganizationVolume Number: Book SevenFormat: PeriodicalCollection: New Afrikan Prisoners Organization
Kamp Documents; Coming of Age (Safiya Asya Bukhari); On Transforming the Colonial and Criminal Mentality; In the Spirit of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark: Carry on the Tradition; Excepts from: Thoughts on Consolidation, Ideology, and Organization: A Discussion Paper.