The document provides a historical overview of the FROLINAN movement by outlining 4 key epochs in the struggle for Black liberation and independence in America: 1) The Niagara Movement and founding of the NAACP, 2) Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa movement, 3) The rise of the Nation of Islam and civil rights movement, representing separatist and integrationist ideals, and 4) The Black Panther Party which synthesized these ideals and advocated for armed self-defense and community control. It argues this history shows there have been both integrationist and separatist strands of struggle that continue to shape the movement going forward.

1. I am posting this update of FROLINAN: Historical Conception and Overview as to provide a more detailed
overstanding of the film I made entitled Martin & Malcolm & America | A Dream or A Nightmare
RBG Street Scholar vimeo.com
…The dialectical (unity and struggle of opposites) relationship between the Elijah Muhammad separatist and Martin
L. King, Jr. integrationist movement, preserved in historical continuity the ideals of both the Marcus Garvey separatist
and W.E.B. DuBois integrationist movements, forging the course of struggle towards a synthesis of ideals first espoused
with the cry 1 birth pains of "Black Power"…
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2. FROLINAN HISTORICAL CONCEPTION AND OVERVIEW
We accept all aspects of our history from the beginning of civilization on the Afrikan continent,
to the present stages of technological development of Afrikan nation-states, and the continued
struggle of Afrikan people throughout the world against tyranny and imperialist oppression.
With this conception of history, we view the material basis in which history evolved to its
present and ongoing developing modes of history; as Afrikan people relate and interrelate with
one another, other people of color in the Third World, and the European races. This
understanding and materialist outlook of history, notes that dialectically, our present condition
and struggle is based on our past experiences in a continuing development of an Afrikan history.
The New Afrikan experience in America is not separate from the Afrikan experience on the
continent, rather, they are linked in a chain of events which imposes socioeconomic, political and
historical realities encompassing the criteria by which New Afrikan struggle for independence
must be developed.
We call ourselves New Afrikan because of the degree of force breeding and miscegenation we
as a people have suffered, as well the cultural imperialism and the psychological plunder and
rape of our affinity to Afrika - stripping away our Afrikan language, art and world, outlook, and
national oppression, which in our efforts to combat have created a national heritage rich in
resistance based on two ideals of integration and/or separation. These experiences which left us
stripped of our Afrikanist perspective despite miscegenation and cultural imperialism,
encompassing those experiences into an Afrikan national heritage in Diaspora, creating the New
Afrikan Independence Movement.
This conception of history in a dialectical materialist perspective provides the means to
formulate a program and strategy to conquer racist oppression and national subjugation,
utilizing, the truth of our entire history as a guide to enlighten our practice. For instance, in
terms of a (foreign) policy of Afrikan intercommunalism with our people on the Afrikan
continent, it is essential to know what our relationship had been in history -providing a
substantial foundation to develop principled relations today... For New Afrikans, it is important
to know that slavery did not begin as an American phenomenon, but rather, American chattel
slavery of Afrikans is a direct outgrowth of Afrikans enslaving Afrikans on the Afrikan
continent. Many of our ancestors had been enslaved by Afrikans due to internecine struggles,
border wars of territorial imperative- amongst tribes and wars of aggression between Afrikan
nation-states. The prisoner of wars, and/or because of denture, were placed in bondage, and often
sold or traded. When the Europeans (Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, British, etc.) made contact
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3. with Northern and Western coastal areas of Afrika, they not only raided villages and kidnapped
Afrikans, but more often and productively (numerically) brought already enslaved Afrikans from
Afrikan chieftains and traders. Hence, for the most part, our existence in the Western hemisphere
is as much a consequence of Afrikan history as it is of European history.
Thus, as we conceive ourselves in history, we must place responsibility of our condition in
context to the actual historical development leading to our present situation. In this regards, we
don't expect assistance from our Afrikan brothers nations simply because we are of one people --
only separated by distance -- but because history demand recompense for a people (New
Afrikans) whose existence and suffering is based on our unfortunate relation in the history of
slavery mutual to us all, and the commonality of our fight against mutual enemy -- imperialism.
This same conception and relation to history is binding on any relationship established with other
past enslaver, such as the Dutch, Portuguese, British, Spanish, etc.
As we struggle against continued U.S. colonization, New Afrikans must have a determined sense
of history in regard to the New Afrikan Nation relationship to the world. Without this common
national consciousness and perception of our existence, based on history, our practice will
continue to be confused and chaotic, without historical continuity which serves to give practical
guidance on the road to independence. As an oppressed nation, we have a rich history of
resistance to bondage; revolts on slave ships during the middle passage; revolts and rebellions for
hundreds of years on slave plantations; fighting for freedom in the War of Independence, War of
1812, and Civil War; and fighting in the U.S. Army in the name of U.S. democracy (hypocrisy)
can also be considered part of the national determination to be free.
We preserve four epochs in our history as indicative of our struggle to be free of U.S.
national subjugation and colonial domination. After the signing of the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863 and the 13th Amendment in 1865, and the Civil War having ended
barbaric chattel slavery; the 14th Amendment stripped Afrikans in America of their land
(provided by Field Order No. 115) imposed American citizenship on these Afrikan nationals, this
country entered a period defined as reconstruction and the industrial revolution. This was a
period when the slavocracy gave birth to mercantile capitalism; the gross surplus of such
commodities as cotton, tobacco, sugar, etc., produced from slave labor in the South, provided
economic-textile-industrial growth and development in Northern States. Reconstruction found
millions of New Afrikans either re-enslaved by the vestiges of the Black Code-Law to
sharecropping, unemployment, and landless or migrating North in search of educational and
employment opportunities. But the Hayes Tilden agreement restored racist national oppression
and colonial domination prevailed with terrorist Ku Klux Klan raids, race riots (white against
Blacks), mob violence, lynching of New Afrikans in the North and South.
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4. The First Epoch
In 1905, the Niagara Movement was consummated, we recognized the Niagara Movement as a
significant epoch in our continued struggle for independence. The Niagara Movement was not
the first time New Afrikans organized themselves, as there had been many abolitionist groups
comprising "freedman" of Afrikan descent. But the Niagara Movement marks a stage in which,
under the leadership of W.E.B. DuBois, they developed a concept and an organization which
prevails today. The concept of integration was comprehensively evolved during the Niagara
Movement by DuBois, and is adamantly held today by the NAACP, which came into existence
out of the Niagara Movement in 1910, with DuBois as a founding member and incorporator. It
was DuBois who forged the conceptual appeal of Pan-Afrikanism during this time; while the
NAACP up until 1940 had campaigned for anti-lynch legislation, and from 1950 to present
campaigned for desegregation, integration and civil rights.
The Second Epoch
The second epoch of historical importance was the 1920 Marcus Garvey "Back to Afrika"
Movement. This movement which has yet to be surpassed appealed to and organized millions of
New Afrikans, and established national pride and dignity directly associated to the Afrikan
continent. Although the Back to Afrika movement only lasted until 1925, when viewed in
juxtaposition in historical continuity to the Niagara Movement and Pan Afrikanist ideas
developing at the time, the thread of struggle and our peoples' conscious determination to be free
of colonial domination becomes very significant.
The Third Epoch
The third epoch is divided into two distinct and interdependent parts as they actualized the first
and second epochs in character and content. The Elijah Muhammad Nation of Islam movement
which came-into existence in the 1940, but had not come into national prominence until the
1960, developed many of the separatist ideals held by Marcus Garvey movement; it generally
appealed to those who had been adherents of the separatist movement of Marcus Garvey. In the
1960s, Malcolm X (El Hajj Malik Shabazz) brought the Nation of Islam separatist movement
into national attention, recruitment reported to be approximately 1 million "Black Muslims" by
some estimates. Elijah Muhammad called for the separation of Blacks (New Afrikans) into a
government of their own in the South Black Belt, basing his program on mystified interpretation
of Islam and Black "self-help" economics (the principle now adopted as Black capitalism).
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5. During this same epoch, in 1955, the so-called civil rights movement was launched, with
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. as its primary leader and spokesperson. Given the political
character and objective of Martin L. King, Jr.'s movement, it ushered the line and principle of
struggle first established in the Niagara Movement. The principle organizations of this course of
struggle were SCLC, NAACP, Urban League, CORE and SNCC all working in an united front
strategy for desegregation, integration and civil rights. Politically, this movement could actually
be defined as a negro-bourgeoisie democratic revolution. It attacked and did battle with the
essential foundation and cornerstone of colonial domination of New Afrikans in America -
racism and national oppression. The civil rights movement sought the fruition of democratic civil
-rights guaranteed to white to be equally administrated to Black people It was a nationally
organized movement, which put in motion masses of people in freedom-rides, sit-ins and
marches, which precipitated the eventful call for "Black Power"; nationalist political
consciousness, resulting in riots and rebellions across the country.
The dialectical (unity and struggle of opposites) relationship between the Elijah
Muhammad separatist and Martin L. King, Jr. integrationist movement, preserved in
historical continuity the ideals of both the Marcus Garvey separatist and W.E.B. DuBois
integrationist movements, forging the course of struggle towards a synthesis of ideals first
espoused with the cry and birth pains of "Black Power".
The Forth Epoch
The fourth epoch, an outgrowth of the proceeding era adopted the synthetic conception of Black
Power, uniting the symbolic determination of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and
Malcolm X Black Nationalist ideas in the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party for Self-
Defense was established in 1966 and in 1967 Black Panthers captured national attention by
entering the California State Capital hearing-on gun control, carrying rifles and shotguns, calling
for community control of police, self-defense, and Black political power. Even through, during
this period, there had been other Black nationalist groups and formations (i.e., RNA, JOMO,
Deacons for Defense and Justice, RAM, APP, etc.) that evolved out of the negro-
bourgeoisdemocratic revolution, none made such an indelible historic impression on the
developing struggle like the Black Panther Party. From its inception, the BPP had considered the
necessity for armed struggle to wrestle Black power from the U.S.' white power structure. The
BPP developed the Black underground which evolved into the Black Liberation Army - a
clandestine network of armed urban guerrillas. It had been the BPP that first raised the concept
of class struggle, introducing and infusing the ideology of Marxist- Leninist-Mao Tse Tung
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6. thought with the Black Nationalist ideas of Malcolm X in accordance to the concrete realities of
the struggle taking shape in Black (New Afrikan) ghettos/communities across the country.
With its Ten Point Platform and Program the BPP attempted to manifest Black political power
on the basis of community control as a tactical objective toward the strategic goal of total
independence.
By 1976, the colonial government (U.S.A.) had directed its attention and counterintelligence
program (COINTELPRO*) on the BPP/BLA and other nationalist formations as the RNA. This
counter revolutionary action by the government was implemented with the intent to discredit,
disrupt and destroy the BPP, with murderous raids, infiltration and provocation. In a four year
battle with the police, by 1971, the BPP had been significantly subverted on a national level,
whereupon, by 1973, the BPP was in all actuality defunct. This inevitably led to the defeat and
decimation of the BLA as a fighting clandestine urban guerrilla network.
*COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often
illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at
investigating and disrupting dissident political organizations within the United States. The FBI
used covert operations from its inception, however formal COINTELPRO operations took place
between 1956 and 1971. The FBI's stated motivation at the time was "protecting national
security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." According
to FBI records, 85% of COINTELPRO resources were expended on infiltrating, disrupting,
marginalizing, and/or subverting groups suspected of being subversive, such as communist and
socialist organizations; the women's rights movement; militant black nationalist groups, and the
non-violent civil rights movement, including individuals such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and
others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People, the Congress of Racial Equality, the American Indian
Movement, and other civil rights groups; a broad range of organizations labeled "New Left",
including Students for a Democratic Society, the National Lawyers Guild, the Weathermen,
almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, and even individual student demonstrators with no
group affiliation; and nationalist groups such as those "seeking independence for Puerto Rico."
The other 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert "white
hate groups," including the Ku Klux Klan and National States' Rights Party. The directives
governing COINTELPRO were issued by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who ordered FBI
agents to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of these
movements and their leaders.
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7. It is these four epochs in the continuing struggle of New for political power and
independence that are of great significance. They had the greatest influence and impact on
New Afrikans nationally in juxtaposition to our relationship to the enemy colonial (U.S.A.)
government.
We accept these four epochs as the foundation in which current and future development in the
New Afrikan Independence Movement will be objectively molded, shaped and forged to victory.
History shows us that there are two basic and distinct lines and influences in the New Afrikan
peoples I struggle f or political power and self-determination. Our oppressed people have fought
for integration and civil rights, and we've fought for separation and human rights. It is these two
directions that characterize any real differences in our peoples' aspiration to be free of racist
colonial domination. Furthermore, it will be integration verses separation that will be a
determinative aspect for the building of national unity amongst New Afrikans to engage the
colonial (U.S.A.) government for political power and self-determination in the future. This
understanding of history and the ideological political forces that have shaped our struggle
provides conscious and deliberate activity to combat national oppression and colonialism, with
the continuity of preserving history and the mode of struggle toward separation. We of Frolinan
must take a stand on the side of separation, and in so doing, give recognition to those forces that
are currently making history in building the independence movement. We recognize the
organization of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika for its contribution,
but not necessarily to subordinate ourselves to its current strategy and program in the movement.
We therefore reserve the right to formulate a revolutionary theory, strategy, and program to
educate, organize and mobilize New Afrikans toward national emancipation, and unite our
strategy and program of action with other New Afrikan revolutionary forces that are also fighting
for separation and independence, not excluding the present Republic of New Afrika - Provisional
Government.
Frolinan recognizes and understands the history of resistance our oppressed nation has fought in
both the integrationist and separatist movements. But because we believe in our inalienable
human rights, as a nation of people, to be self-governed; and because we are anti-capitalist-
imperialist, we find no practical basis - in accordance to our history - to integrate in this colonial
(U.S.A.) government. Therefore, we will concentrate our energies in preserving our nation
peoples' history to separate, to establish an independent self-governed socioeconomic, political
and cultural-sovereign nation in the Western Hemisphere.
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8. FULL STUDIES COLLECTION
Visit RBG New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM)
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