When I looked around blogville for reactions to Cochran's death, most of what I saw was straight up despicable. So I'm glad Rosa Clemente passed this along. (If you don't know the story of Johnnie and Geronimo, this book is highly recommended)
It's not easy to try and put into words one's feelings at a time like
this. So many words and pictures come to mind that it is very hard
to put them in order and transcribe them. What i can say is this:
Johnnie was a beautiful brother, who even after becoming well versed
in the ugly reality of Cointelpro, always remained a calming
influence
for me, encouraging forgiveness for all those puppets that were being
exploited by the system. Despite the sick, sadistic practices of the
government and its stooges, as documented in their own records,
Johnnie continued to believe in the goodness of everyday people, who
were being used as he used to say, "For they know not what they do."
Johnnie would want us all to keep forgiveness in our hearts, but to
remain vigilant of these rats, who are now going to come out of the
woodwork and claim friendships with Johnnie and sing his praises just
to promote themselves and their egos. Johnnie never bought into the
ego trip, and was always willing to give his time and energy to
represent the most underrepresented in society. He was a man with a
heart as big as Yogi Pinell's.
Johnnie and i connected long before he began defending members of the
Black Panther Party against police repression in Los Angeles. We
both
came out of the Mississippi Delta and the great tradition of struggle
by Africans in the south to liberate ourselves from oppression. We
were born into this glorious history of resistance to the slavocracy,
from the Bras Coupee Uprising and many other insurrections, to the
Afrikan Blood Brotherhood and the Garvey Legionnaires in the 1920s to
the Deacons for Defense during the civil rights movement. Johnnie
and
i were comrades in struggle, sometimes employing different methods
but
fighting for similar goals, the freedom and self-determination of
Afrikan people in particular and all oppressed people in general.
The tradition of struggle continued in Los Angeles where Johnnie
"Chief" Cochran Sr. was one of the first men in Los Angeles to
support
the Free Breakfast for Children's program of the Black Panther Party
at the Second Baptist Church with Rev. Kilgore. Soon after, his son,
Johnnie Cochran Jr. began defending the members of the Black Panther
Party in court against the racist police and other agencies who set
out to destroy our movement as part of the federal government's
illegal Cointelpro pogrom.
People were surprised, but not us, that Johnnie was willing to come
to
the fore of our struggle for Reparations. In 1975, while i was
imprisoned on san quentin's death row, he and i began to dialogue via
mail about the legal predicates regarding the money owed the
descendants of African slaves. Johnnie was impressed with the
arguments being made under international law, and the legitimacy of
our right to reparations as was being taught by the great legal minds
of Imari Obadele and Chokwe Lumumba.
His commitment to our struggle and his eager willingness to begin to
engage in the struggle for reparations for Mama Afrika, who was raped
first by colonialism and slavery, makes me suspicious of the
suddeness
and speed in which this healthy, picture perfect man, was taken from
us by this strange illness. Johnnie also recognized that there were
many other political prisoners in the United States such as Sundiata
Acoli, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck,
and too many others to list here. Johnnie was just as supportive of
them as well. He would agree that we needed to go beyond domestic
law, which is inherently racist, and use international law to escape
the many racist trappings of domestic law that have been instituted
since the early days of the slavocracy.
We had spoken about him joining me in Afrika to work on some of the
issues facing our people here, and he had told me it was his next
quest. He was anxious to address the problems of orphans, HIV/Aids,
poverty, genocidal sorties, and patterns of economic exploitation
that
have continued since the days of colonialism. Johnnie wanted to come
and pay homage at the Altar of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but he also wanted
to
meet two of our greatest heroes, Pete and Charlotte O'Neal. Johnnie
was amazed at contradictions surrounding Pete's case, and the fact
that he ,Assata, Don Con and Cetewayo had to remain in political
exile
clearly and only because of the FBI's war against the Black
Liberation
Movement.
Many of Johnnie's detractors like to claim he played the race card in
the OJ trial by exposing the misconduct, racism and ineptitude of the
Los Angeles police. But those critics fail to accept the truth that
Johnnie knew all to well; the Cointelpro card. This dirty,
pernicious, secret, illegal war, that victimized even Johnnie when
the
police pulled him out of his car and had him prostrate on the ground
in front of his children. His past experiences on my case and many
others having shown him how deliberately and shamelessly the police
would manufacture evidence, lie on the stand, and generally use all
sorts of nefarious tactics to get a conviction. Johnnie stood up and
refused to blindly accept the testimony of police or other government
agents. Unfortunately too many people still refuse to acknowledge
the
corruption and injustice that is rampant within the so-called justice
system in America. But Johnnie knew it, and fought against it at
every opportunity.
But Johnnie is home now. Another great son of Afrika has returned to
the Ancestors. He has been a great son. A father, a brother, a
friend and a comrade. We can all feel a little more secure knowing
that while our brother is no longer able to look after us
individually
in the courtroom, he now watches over us collectively alongside
Bunchy, Red, Toure and all the other Freedom Fighters who have gone
before him. Johnnie fought not only for justice, but also for peace.
And he has finally found his. I could talk all day about my
beautiful
brother, but I know he didn't wake me up for that this morning. I
can
hear him calling me now, telling me to get up, get out, and continue
to "Fight the Good Fight!"
Pamberi ne Chimurenga!
(Ever Onward to Liberation)
geronimo ji Jaga
Tanzania, East Afrika
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
