Spartacus R. came to prominence in the early 70s as the founder and driving force of the first internationally famous African Rock band, Osibisa, at the forefront of the genre now called World Music. After Osibisa, Spartacus recorded the seminal acoustic masterpiece, "Africa I See" one of four successful, self-penned solo albums released on his own Zara Music Records label. With an acoustic guitar, ankle bells and some face paint, Spartacus R. travelled the world playing to audiences of 3 to 300,000 people in Africa, America, Australia, Europe, Japan. An outspoken Musician, Poet, Author, Columnist, Talk Show Host, Seer and TruthSayer, Spartacus R. is one of the most highly respected of writers in the UK. Many of his contemporaries, including the late Bernie Grant, MP, have attested to his "honesty and integrity". As a Human Rights Activist and Teacher, Spartacus has shared platforms with some of the world's most celebrated speakers, including Jesse Jackson who dubbed him the "African", and Paul Boateng, MP.
There is a huge argument raging in the Global African community around the issue of organisation and individuals. Unfortunately, there is no actual debate on the subject. Instead, most organisation leaders and spokespersons accuse individuals who criticise their bad behaviour and refuse to join their organisations, of being the cause of most of Global Africa's problems. They say that since lack of organisation and disunity are our greatest problems, the solution lies in unity and organisation. The only way forward they declare, is for us to come together in love and unity as one family - in their organisations - because as an individual you cannot organise or unite. "If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" they are fond of sloganeering, "Unity is strength" and "If you really love your people, you will join an organisation."
Inevitably, whether they are Pan-Africanists, Garveyites, Scientific Socialists, "conscious" Religious Leaders or African Spiritualists, they will drag the great Ancestor, Honourable Marcus Mosiah Garvey into the argument. They will tell you that Marcus Garvey said: "unite, organise now or perish" and you must "join an organisation". Whether or not Elder Brother Marcus Garvey actually said those words at any time is debatable. Yet, in their desperate scramble for new members, they continue to vandalise his name as freely as any number of religious zealots quote from the Bible, the Koran, or the Tora to support contradictory positions.
The net result is less debate because the most conscious, organised individuals tend to avoid listening to anything else these irresponsible organisation chauvinists might have to say. Communication is arguably the single most important ingredient in all social interactions. With this article, I am hoping to be able to stimulate some sensible, constructive debate around the subject of the Individual and Organisation.
It is true that Global Africa was, and still is, disunited and we will remain disunited until we learn to recognise ourselves as one people (ONE GOD) with one goal (ONE AIM) taking our future in our own hands (ONE DESTINY)[1]. Unity does not come without purpose, it is not possible between contradictory forces, especially where there is little or no communication. Unity can only happen between people with complimentary objectives. Unity of Purpose puts Unity in Action.
As a people, we have always been organised, the melanin factor guarantees that. The only problem is that, due to the effects of our ongoing genocidal war, long term enslavement and our internalisation of negative programming, we are generally organised towards negative, self-destructive ends. We were organised enough in Garvey's day to fill up the churches, the night clubs, the dance halls and the gambling dens, regardless of our impoverished state. But when we are organised towards the same positive ends like we were in Palmares and Haiti[2], the natural African genius takes over and we do impossible things against impossible odds.
And organisations? We have always had more than enough of them. Marcus Garvey himself identified some of the "backward", "lying", "cheating" leaders of many of these organisations.
Anyway, why would a Brother as sensible as Marcus Garvey be telling his listeners something as nonsensical and stupid as "join an organisation" when he knew full well that the vast majority of our people were already active, dedicated members of too many Global European controlled organisations such as churches and various other anti-African entities including the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People)?
One indication of what Garvey was actually saying, is encapsulated in this statement: "Four years ago, realizing the oppression and the hardships from which we suffered, we organized ourselves into an organization for the purpose of bettering our condition, and founding a government of our own.". It is quite clear from these words spoken at the 2nd International Convention of Negroes, at Liberty Hall in 1921, that he was not saying "join an organisation" or organise for the sake of organising. He was saying organise for a particular "purpose", towards a particular objective - "ONE AIM". His use of the words "organized" and "organization" indicates also, that he did not see being organised as meaning being in an organisation or being outside of an organisation as being disorganised.
Brother Marcus, from the evidence of his own early writings, was well aware of many organised individuals like himself, who were doing magnificent and praiseworthy things. At the same time, there were many organisations boasting thousands of members doing absolutely nothing of any value or just making things worse. He soon became aware, also, of the destructive, disabling effect of negative power in an organisation. He once said of the High Executive Council of his organisation, the UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association): "Subsequent experience proved that all the majority of these men wanted were the offices with the titles and the privilege to draw large salaries."[3] and, with the exception of two named persons, "... not one of the elected officers was worth more than $1,200 a year as an office boy or lackey. The men were lazy, incompetent, treacherous and visionless, as after results so amply proved."[4].
Marcus Garvey, the individual, had an uncanny understanding of power. He knew that a well organised and self-confident person like himself was powerful and therefore, could do great and wonderful things. He would also have recognised that associating with Amy Ashwood, another organised person, did not just double their power but, rather, multiplied the sum of their individual power by itself many times over.
Garvey may not have calculated it mathematically, but he obviously knew, from his own experience and observations, that the power of two or more people working in unison towards the same goal is many, many, many times greater than the sum of their individual capabilities.
If we accept that "Power is the Exercise of Will"[5], then every individual's power remains latent or potential, until he or she does something or attempts to do something (exercises her or his will). Every individual acting alone has a force of ONE Power Unit {(19±PU) where 1 is the person and 9 is the representative force of the will[6] (See - appendix 1: Mathematics of The Individual and Organisation)}. This power is either Positive or Negative (±) depending on whether that individual is acting in her or his best interest or whether he or she is acting against their own best interests. Note that two or more individuals acting alone and separately, even towards the same objective, have only additive value.
However, when a Positive, Organised individual interacts in unison with another Positive, Organised individual, towards the same objective, their combined power, applies a force of 512 PPU (Positive Power Units) towards achieving their objective. Compare this with 2 PPU for two positive individuals acting alone, even with the same objective.
Similarly, if 2 Powerful but Negative individuals come together they apply a negative force of 512 NPU towards not achieving their objective, or achieving a negative result.
If we take two powerful people whose objectives are entirely contradictory, (negative and positive), their combined power would be Zero (0).
On the group level, if 4 positive people and 2 negative people get together in an organisation, the net force of the organisation would be: 261,632 PPU towards achieving their ultimate objective. Note: this compares with 2 PPU for the same group with all individuals acting alone, independently, even towards the same stated objective.
If we reverse this situation and apply it to the same organisation of 6 people where the majority of the members are negative or are acting in ways contrary to another of the organisation's objectives, the organisation would have a negative force of 261,632 NPU.
The problem of negativism in an organisation becomes much worse when the question of leadership [7] raises its ugly head, where even the positive minority get embroiled in an internecine bloodbath. At the end of such a struggle, if there is a clear victor (leader), he or she would most probably be trying to go forward with an organisation whose net force is over Ten Million NPU against achieving its objectives.
Is it any wonder then, that Global Africans as a people, appear to be going backwards in our ongoing war of liberation, when we have more negative, self-destructive organisations and individuals per thousand people than probably any other group of people in the world?
If only the tiniest majority of the 21 member High Executive Council of Marcus Garvey's UNIA organisation were Positive Individuals, they would have been able to achieve their objectives with a net force of 1.4 Billion PPU.
Imagine what would have happened if all the 6 Million UNIA members were Positive Individuals. The organisation's net force would have reached an incredible figure, too huge for even the computer to describe.
In summary, we can conclude that:
1) Individuals as well as Organisations can be organised or disorganised, positive or negative.
2) Organisations cannot exist without Individuals
3) Every Individual acting alone has a Positive or a Negative force of ONE Power Unit
4) Any Positive Individual is more powerful than any Negative Organisation
5) The effective Net Force of any Organisation is the sum of its Positive and Negative forces.
6) Any Positive Organisation is more powerful than the equivalent number of Positive Individuals
7) Any Positive Individual will be most Effective when Acting in Unison with other Positive Individuals in a Positive Organisation
It is not enough for us to carry on with the ridiculous idea that ANY organisation will do; that even the most backward and destructive organisation, is better than the most organised and positive individual. We can't continue to sideline and undermine positive, revolutionary individuals while, at the same time, celebrating backward, reactionary, traitorous individuals and organisations who are exalted and rewarded by our enemies to work against our interests.
We need to discuss and appreciate the differences:
between being organised and being in an organisation
between an organised group and an individual calling herself or himself an organisation
between a progressive and a regressive organisation
between positive and negative individuals and organisations
between pro-African and anti-African organisations.
We must rediscover ourselves as a people with a glorious history, a people at war, oppressed and deserving of self-determination. We must each commit ourselves to doing everything possible, by any and every means conceivable, to win this war of liberation and build a world fit for us, as Gods, to live in.
--