today marks the 40th anniversary of a massive police operation in Philadelphia that culminated in the siege of the headquarters of a radical group known as MOVE, dedicated to black liberation and a back-to-nature lifestyle. The group was founded by John Africa, and all its members took the surname Africa. It was August 8th, 1978, when police tried to remove members of MOVE from their communal home with water cannons and battering rams, even as some continued to hide in the basement with children. This is how an eyewitness described the scene in the documentary MOVE: Confrontation in Philadelphia.
During the siege on MOVE’s house, gunfire was exchanged, and a police officer named James Ramp was killed. MOVE members were beaten by officers as they were forced out of the home, including Delbert Africa, who was unarmed and half-naked as TV news cameras filmed police grabbing him by his dreadlocks, throwing him to the ground and kicking and stomping him. Two years later, nine MOVE members were convicted of third-degree murder in Ramp’s death. They were sentenced to 30 to 100 years in prison and became the MOVE 9.
Philadelphia police attacks on MOVE would later reach new levels on May 13, 1985, when they surrounded the MOVE house, fired thousands of rounds of ammunition, then dropped a bomb on the house from a helicopter. The fire from the attack incinerated six adults and five children and destroyed not only the MOVE home, but 65 homes in the neighborhood.
the attack 40 years ago, in 1978, that preceded the 1985 police bombing of MOVE and led to the arrest of those who became known as the MOVE 9. We’re joined now by Debbie Africa, the first of the nine to be released from prison. At the time of her arrest, she was 8-and-a-half months pregnant with her son Mike Jr. He was born inside the prison. On June 16th, after nearly four decades behind bars, Debbie Africa was released and reunited with her son, who now also joins us. They’re speaking to us from Mike’s home just outside of Philadelphia. Debbie is on parole and unable to leave the county
Debbie Africa talking:
It feels good. It feels good. Feels like a heavy load has been lifted off of my heart, you know, and particularly talking about my son and being united with him, I should say, because it’s not even a reunification because I’ve never been with him. So, you know, it just feels really good.
It also feels a little bit heavy just because—just because my sisters were not released at the same time. We were all up for parole in May. I was released, but they weren’t. And so, leaving the prison was a good feeling for me, but it was also, you know, not a good feeling, because they did not get released. And, you know, as I’ve been saying, that we were all arrested the same day, not only my sisters, but also the rest of the MOVE 9. We were all arrested the same day. We were charged with the same charges. We were tried together. We were given the same sentence, as was stated by the judge at the time. He said, “Since you say you’re a family, I’m going to oblige you and sentence you as a family.” So we were all given 30 to 100 years each. But when it came time for us to be released, we were not released as a family, as the judge said. We were not released together. And even more blatantly, Janine and Janet were not released with me. And so, their case, everything was the same.
I was never directly said to have had a weapon or to have killed the officer. But at this point, 40 years later, it has been 40 years, and it’s 40 years later. What I want to say about that is that it was—it was a tragic day. It was not a good day. You know, I don’t want to glorify it. I don’t have any—you know, I don’t have any glorification feelings in me to even really relive it, because it was a tragic day. I really don’t like even bringing it up, because, you know, people have suffered and still are suffering behind it. And the main thing I would like to focus on is not only getting—not only helping pull people together and unifying people to push forward for a better day, for not only MOVE, but for a lot of people who are suffering out here, but also to bring about the example about the MOVE 9 being innocent.
MIKE AFRICA JR talking:
I was born in prison. First of all, I’d like to say thanks for having us on the show. I appreciate the exposure to get this information out.
But yeah, so, how does it feel? It feels—it feels like my mom said: It feels bittersweet. It does feel really good. I mean, the feeling of bringing her out of that prison and like knowing that I’m visiting this prison that she’s in for the last time, like, that felt euphoric. It was like, this is amazing. This is something that I’ve been waiting for all my life, something I’ve been working so hard for with the rest of the people, my family, the MOVE organization. It’s just been so good. It felt so good to be able to take her home, put her in my car and just never have to go back there for her. But it did feel bittersweet. I mean, every visit that I’ve ever been on with her since I’ve been in the organization, I’ve seen Janet and Janine, too. And so, to leave the prison with her and take her home, knowing that they are still back there, that was heartbreaking. It’s still, just thinking about it now. And like, I almost felt like I was turning my back on them, you know, just walking away. I mean, I had to do it to take mom home, but leaving Janet and Janine in that prison was—it was devastating. And it’s also devastating, too, that although mom is home, my dad is still in prison, and Eddie is still in prison, and Delbert.
And, you know, when you think about—when I think about the other people, I think about the fact that Janet and Janine, specifically, two of their children were in the earlier-described May 13th bombing, where the city of Philadelphia, the police, dropped the bomb on our house, and Janet and Janine’s kids were in that house. They were murdered. They were shot to death and burned alive. And Janet and Janine remain in prison. And that, to me, is a total injustice.
So, it’s bittersweet. I mean, it’s nice to have her home. You know, I’ll be telling the story about how the first night she came home, I went to her bedroom, and I knocked on her door, and she told me to come in, and I went in. And as she was standing there, we were talking, and I looked down at her feet, and I noticed that she was barefoot. And when I looked down and I saw her feet, I realized that that was the first time that I’d ever seen her feet before. And I was talking to my friend Bobby, and I was explaining to him what happened. And Bobby said something that was so profound to me. He said, “You’re learning, for the first time, at almost 40 years old, what babies learn about their mothers.” You know, and it was just like—it’s really true.
Mom has been—she was in a time capsule. There are so many things that’s happened in the 40 years that she’s been locked away. And so, you know, trying to get her adjusted to life out here on the streets, learning the technology, learning the way the cars are on the streets, learning the way the people think, different things that didn’t exist 40 years ago, like Home Depot or Lowe’s or cellphones or CDs, whatever, you know. So, that process is really interesting, and it’s really fascinating, and it’s also very enjoyable, you know, going through this. It’s almost like a role reversal, like a father—she described it as kind of like a fatherly-type relationship currently. But, you know, it’s really good. But we really need to focus on the other people that are still in prison.
Debbie Africa talking:
just because MOVE was an organization that represented life. And just generally, basically, the whole significance of the city of Philadelphia wanting to stamp MOVE out is because MOVE represented the fact that we would not stand for injustice, and our belief is about stopping the suffering of life. And because life is what people use to make money on, they exploit life in order to make money, it’s big business. Enslaving life like zoos, enslaving life like circuses, enslaving life like incarceration, enslaving people—all those things are moneymakers. They’re all industry. Puppy palaces, pet shows—all those things are industry. They’re making money. They’re exploiting life. But MOVE’s example in exposing that kind of—that wrong, people did not want to hear it. They didn’t want to hear it because it was a direct attack on their industry, on their money, on what they wanted to do. And, I mean, you know how it is when somebody tries to—when you want to do something, and somebody don’t want you to do it, and they’re going against it, and it’s a strong force, you get mad. You know, you get mad, and you want to hurt them people, because they are a direct threat of what you’re trying to keep going. You know, I mean, think about it. If you smoke or if you drink or if you just like to ride bikes, and your wife or your husband or your child or anybody don’t want you to do it, you know, you get mad. You get mad, and you feel like, “Don’t stop me from smoking. I want my cigarette.” You know, “Don’t stop me from—I’ve got to have my drink, every week.” You know, people get mad. “Listen, I’ve to go on this hike every week. You know, I don’t care if it’s going to disrupt your party this weekend.” But they don’t want that. And so, that was the whole issue really behind the Philadelphia administration at that point against MOVE.
– Two others died in jail, of MOVE 9, and the others remain in jail. You went up with the other two women, with Janine and with—for your parole hearing, as you had done many times before, with Janine and Janet, and they did not get parole, but you did. You are not, oddly enough, now able to communicate with your husband, Mike Sr. And I think we have a picture of Mike with his—a number of awards he has won while he’s been in prison. You’re not allowed to communicate with him in any way right now? When you were behind—and you haven’t seen him since 1986, for more than 30 years? When you were behind bars, you were able to write to him. But now, because you’re considered a co-defendant, you’re not allowed to communicate in any way? And, Mike, you’re the go-between to pass information, to let this couple speak to each other?
MIKE AFRICA JR.: Correct. Yeah, that’s the way it’s been. I mean, when my mother or my father wanted to communicate something in a more detailed fashion, oftentimes I’ve been, for the last—I don’t know how many years—I would pass messages from one to the other. And that was like the most of a connection that we all had together as a family. So, if my dad wanted to know something, he wanted to talk about something, yeah, I would pass messages. If my mom wanted my dad to know something, same thing. And that’s the most family bond that we’ve had—you know, had.
DEBBIE AFRICA: And at this point, we’re not even allowed to—we’re not even allowed to have that, just because of the stipulation right now. I’m sure it will lift at some point, because, you know, that’s pretty much the way things go with this—
MIKE AFRICA JR.: We’ll see.
DEBBIE AFRICA: —with the whole thing, but we will see. But I’m not even really allowed to have an even indirect contact with him. And I’m living here in his house, but his dad calls him and talks to him, but I’m not allowed to talk to him or have any indirect conversation with him, either. I’m not allowed to give Mike Jr. a message or anything—and I don’t—to give him. So, you know.
DEBBIE AFRICA: I think the biggest—I’m not going to say “surprise,” but I think the biggest—like the biggest thing that just is so kind of offensive to me is having to buy water, bottled water. I think that is the thing that annoyed me, because—and I say not surprising because John Africa warned us about this over 40 years ago and said that if the system keeps going the way it’s going, that we would be—we would actually have to buy water, drink water, you know, have to scoff for water—and air, at this point. And so, to have to buy water, when water is supposed to be running free, free of germs, free of poison—you know, to have to buy that is just a testament to what John Africa has been telling us, has told us over 40 years ago—and how serious things are.
AMY GOODMAN: MOVE was a back-to-nature movement. We only have a minute. But, Debbie, you gave birth behind bars, and you were determined that officers wouldn’t be involved. How did you do it?
DEBBIE AFRICA: Very quietly. Very quietly, just because, you know, I didn’t want them to know, because I didn’t know what was going to happen after that. And, you know, so, because we were locked in isolation at the time, our cells were very far back. We were the last four cells on a wing of like 84 people. And so, the officers didn’t come back there much. So, you know, because I had had a baby naturally already at home, I pretty much knew what to do, because I had already had a baby at home two years before that. And Janine was my cellmate at the time. And I just had him, thanks to the teaching of John Africa giving me the—giving me the understanding to know that I could do it.
AMY GOODMAN: And you had—you were with Mike for—
DEBBIE AFRICA: And that was—you know, that was in 1975.
AMY GOODMAN: You were with Mike for three days alone, without him being taken from you?
DEBBIE AFRICA: Yes. Yeah, it was about three days, yeah, a total of about three days. They didn’t know it.
DEBBIE AFRICA: Yeah, I was determined to not let them know, because I didn’t want them to do anything that I didn’t want done. I didn’t want to be forced to the hospital. I didn’t want to be force-fed intravenously. I didn’t want any kind of violation against my body or him. I wanted to do whatever I could to protect him. And, you know, because of the past, that wasn’t always—that wasn’t always a city priority. That wasn’t always, you know, something that you could depend on, at that point, to not happen to a MOVE person, a MOVE baby, a MOVE child. And so I was determined not to let them know that, until I was ready for them to know, so that it could be—he could be safe. That was the main reason.
Janine was in the room with me, but I did it by myself, and I did it just with—armed with the principle of motherhood and just the teachings of John Africa that had been given to all MOVE women at that point, because I wasn’t the first MOVE woman to have a baby at home. Sue Africa was the first one, actually, to have a baby naturally, in the era, that era, when people were saying that women could not have babies naturally. And so, she was the first one. I believe I was the third. And so, I had had a baby before, two years before that.
infant cry was just common sense to us. People just started making noise and singing. Merle stood right in front of my doorstep, and she just started singing a song or just, you know, diverting the audio, diverting the ear, and, you know, sang, talked, just talked loud whenever he was—whenever we heard the officers getting close to that area, because we were locked behind another door, you see? And there’s 63 cells, and then we were locked behind a door in isolation, so it was eight cells there. So, while Janine was in the cell with me, you know, she just lay there and watched me, because she had also had two babies by then—no, three.
And, you know, she just—I mean, she didn’t—I did everything myself, because that’s the way John Africa told us, that we were not—we’re not cripple. You know, he’d always explain to us, in the old days, that having a baby was natural, it was not sick. Hospitals were sick, for sick people. And because John Africa aided us in the principle of motherhood by showing us that we could do it, through the example of eating right, exercising, being healthy, being strong, and so these were the principles that we adopted. And as young people, you know, young people are indoctrinated easily and easily influenced, so, you know, we were more malleable. Like I was what? In my early twenties. And so, there was no fear. There was no fear there, because I had not actually been, you know, real, real, real and systematically indoctrinated yet, at that point. And so, it was easy for John Africa to create that example through we MOVE women at the time. And so, by the time I was arrested in 1978, I felt pretty confident that I could do it, you know. And I was strong enough, and there was nothing wrong with me. I was healthy. And that was the result.
– the bomb being dropped on the house. But then the amazing thing is that for over an hour, as the house burned, the police department and the fire department, with all the fire trucks surrounding it, they didn’t turn on any water to douse the flames. They actually let the fire spread, and it ended up destroying an entire city block.
we were horrified. At the time, we were not only in prison, but we were in a special part of the prison called the RHU, which is restricted housing area, also known as the hole. And so, we couldn’t see it, you know, live, but we were told about it. We were told about it by some officer that just came up and said, “You know, your baby’s dead.” We were horrified. We didn’t not believe it. We were just—you know, it was just such a—not only a shock, but it was just so—it was heartbreaking. And it was just an anger, you know? It was angry, because, you know, for us to be told like that. Although I didn’t suffer a child being lost in the house that way, you know, Sue—Sue was there. Janet was there, Janine, Consuela. You know, and all of them had children and babies in the house. And so, that was just—you know, it was just unbelievable.
MIKE AFRICA JR.: I was—at the time, I was living with my grandmother a few miles away from the house. And I remember looking up. I mean, the house, 6221 Osage Avenue, was a few miles from the house that we lived in, on 39th and Reno. And I remember looking up in the sky and seeing black smoke. And I didn’t know what it was. I just remember seeing black smoke, and I remember seeing a lot of it. And I remember seeing that it seemed like it was never going to end. And I went in the house, and I saw my aunt and my grandmother. They were all watching the news. And when they—as they were watching the news, I saw my aunt on the news, and she was talking about it, and she was saying, “You burned down our house!” and she was going crazy. And I said, “That looks like—that looks like Louise.” And my other aunt, she looked at me, and she said, “It is.” And I saw the house. I saw our house, that was—and I just started thinking about the kids and Tomaso and all the other kids that I was growing up with. And, you know, it was just—it was just such a tragic day, and it was so confusing. I mean, I didn’t understand why this would happen.
I remember being very afraid of police, because of them always attacking us and taking us and putting us in foster homes and always trying to like comb our hair and ripping our hair out of our scalp. And I just remember those bad days. And May 13th, when that happened, it was just—even now, just thinking about it, I just—it just—I was in disbelief. And I think I still haven’t even really fully come to grips with what actually happened. But I do remember that time. Even now, when I look up, and if I’m doing something, you know, at the age that I am now, if I’m driving or running or somewhere and I see black smoke in the air, although the confrontational atmosphere of MOVE in the city of Philadelphia is not the same as it was in 1985, I still find myself calling all the MOVE houses to make sure that it’s not our house that’s on fire.
– Larry Krasner becoming DA, who for so long represented, oh, everyone from Black Lives Matter to activists in Philadelphia challenging the police, now the DA of Philadelphia,
DEBBIE AFRICA: It actually does, because we did get his recommendation for parole—I mean, his office, his office’s recommendation for parole. And that’s something that we had not gotten from the previous DA’s office, for so many years. And, you know, anything, anything that’s going to encourage—that’s going to encourage justice, that’s going to encourage, you know, a more—a peaceful way about, so to speak, ending things, you know, is always encouraging for me. And so, you know—
MIKE AFRICA JR.: I think the point should be made, too, that MOVE is not against what’s right. I mean, if—John Africa said, “If the city can tell us something that’s right, we’ll accept it.” He said, “If anybody can tell us something that’s right, we’ll accept it. But if they’re going to tell us something wrong, we ain’t accepting it. And we ain’t going to be beat into doing what’s wrong.” So, the fact that Larry Krasner is in office and he’s doing things that are positive and in the way of fairness and justice and equality, we’re all for it and happy to have him.
MIKE AFRICA JR.: Yeah, yeah, my father is awesome. That’s the best way that I could describe it. My father was my first hero. My father is Mike Africa. Oh, man, to be his son is one of the biggest honors that I’ve ever had to experience. And just like thinking about him and the kind of person he is and the effort that he puts into being right and the love that he has for his family and, you know, all those—those are—when I sent the message out there about these awards, these are just 20 percent or less maybe of the accomplishments that he has. And as far as like—I mean, he’s in everything, whether it’s music or sports or just academic achievements in sociology or whatever. I mean, he has so much.
But more than that, his love for his family and the understanding and the patience that he has with dealing with issues, helping me figure things out and helping to strategize on his case or in the other people’s case. I mean, for so many years I’ve talked to him and said, “Dad, listen, we’ve got to—I want to help you get this thing or get that,” or “You need any money?” whatever. He’d say, “Yeah, no, send it to your mother. Make sure your mother has it. Is the girls up there all right? I ain’t worried about me, Mike. Just make sure that we get the women out, man. As long as your mom come home, as long as Janet and Janine come home, I’m all right. We got this. If nobody”—he said, “I will do this prison activity a thousand times, if it meant that no other MOVE member or no other person that don’t need to be behind them bars is not behind those bars.” I mean, his his energy toward just being right is just so strong. And, I mean, he is the reason that I am the man that I am today, the husband, the father and all these good things. You know, just—and he got what he got from the teaching of John Africa. So, it just all comes full circle, you know. And we just want our family to be whole for the first time ever.
DEBBIE AFRICA: Yeah, that’s the truth, because, I mean, he puts 100 percent into whatever he does. And just like the awards that he’s won and—the awards that he’s won and the achievement that he’s accomplished while being in prison, listen, he just—anything he does, he does 100 percent. You know, I mean, he, as other MOVE people—I mean, he didn’t do those things just to win an award or just to win a trophy. You know, he runs—Mike runs because he is coordinated to run, because that is what’s going to make him healthy. He runs for health. He runs for fitness. He runs for his belief. You know, he plays sports to help him release energy. So, these awards are really just being presented so that people can see that the things that was said on his previous parole interviews—lack of motivation for success—are just—it’s not true, because this is—he’s been doing this for years. And so, that’s why these are really—the point is being made that, you know, MOVE people are not successfully unmotivated. We are very much successfully motivated. And that’s why—that’s the point that’s being made here.
– Mumia Abu-Jamal, who became a MOVE supporter and who was, as you well know, been accused, also in prison for the rest of his life, for supposedly having killed a Philadelphia police officer, who he has continuously denied having been involved in the killing.
I don’t really know his case except for what I’ve read. I just know him as a—when he was a journalist, you know, when he was a journalist. And he would come to the prison to interview—you know, to interview us or to talk, and we just started getting really close, just because of his interest in MOVE and in our case. And so that’s actually how I met him. He would just come to the prison and do interviews, especially when we were on trial in the ’70s, late ’70s, early ’80s. And, you know, but I—like I said, I don’t know the specifics of his case except for what I’ve read. But I don’t believe he’s guilty. That’s all I really can say. I don’t believe he’s guilty.
– “For Debbie Africa: Freedom.”
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: For Debbie Africa: Freedom. Debbie Africa is one of a group called the MOVE 9, survivors of the August 8, 1978, police attack on MOVE in Philadelphia. From that day to less than a week ago, Debbie has been in a cell, serving out an outrageous 30- to 100-year prison sentence, one of seven surviving MOVE members. And like other MOVE members, she served 10 years over her minimum term before release on parole. Upon her release, in comments published by The Guardian of London, she remarked on two MOVE sisters who were not granted parole, Janine and Janet Africa. Debbie said, “Having to leave them was hard. I was torn up inside, because of course I want to come home, but I want them to come with me. I was in shock when it didn’t happen that way.”
When Debbie was first arrested, she was 8 months pregnant, and in September 1978 she gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Michael Africa Jr. Fed by her sisters, who smuggled food from the mess hall, she spent three days with her son before it was discovered she gave birth, when the two were immediately separated. Mike Jr. tells of the first night living with his mother. He knocked on her bedroom door, and when she told him to come in, she was standing there barefoot. He looked down at her feet and realized it was the first time in his life that he had seen his mother’s feet. His friend Benny told him that 2-year-old babies and infants knew more about their mothers than he, a man almost 40 years old.
But the story is, Debbie Africa, after 40 years behind bars, is free. May freedom come swiftly for the rest of the MOVE survivors of August 8, 1978. From in Prison Nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
– Debbie Africa, one of the MOVE 9, is the first of the MOVE 9 to be freed. Two other MOVE 9 members died in prison. The others, between the ages of 58 and 72, remain eligible for parole.
MIKE AFRICA JR.: The best answer that I could come up with—I’ve thought about the way to answer this for a lot of years, and the best answer that I could come up with is I was a community kid. Right? So I was raised—I mean, I have so many different women, especially women, that I was with for a year, two years, three years, here and there, all the way up until I was an adult. And one of the MOVE brothers, Mo Africa, was the majority male figure in my life, and his wife, and staying with them. And so, I bounced around from house to house until I was an adult.
DEBBIE AFRICA: My final thoughts—my final thoughts are just—just free the MOVE 9. Free the rest of the people that are still in prison. Like I said, we were arrested together, tried together, tried as a family. So, release us as a family.
MIKE AFRICA JR.: My final thought is the same. My final thought is the same. I want my father home, so that we can—you know, so that he can live out the rest of his life without having to be restricted to having a certain amount of water or a certain amount of food that they give you, or even though the people there have diabetes, the prison still serves them food that increases diabetes. I want my father home. I want Eddie home for the same reason, so that they can drink clean water and so that they can eat healthy food and so that they can live the rest of their lives free.
_____
Debbie Africa
one of the ”MOVE 9” who were charged and convicted for the murder of a police officer in 1978 during a police siege on the MOVE communal home in Philadelphia. On June 16, after nearly four decades behind bars, she became the first MOVE 9 member to be released from prison.
— source democracynow.org