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A Majority Black-Led Nation-State
Declarations of Independence
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The New Afrikan Declaration of Independence - 1968
We, the Black People in America, in consequence of arriving at a knowledge of Ourselves as a people with dignity, long deprived of that knowledge; as a consequence of revolting with every decimal of Our collective and individual beings against the oppression that for 300 years has destroyed and broken and warped the bodies and minds and spirits of Our people in America, in consequence of Our raging desire to be free of this oppression, to destroy this oppression wherever it assaults mankind in the world, and in consequence of Our indistinguishable determination to go a different way, to build a new and better world, do hereby declare Ourselves forever free and independent of the jurisdiction of the United States of America and the obligations which that country's unilateral decision to make Our ancestors and Ourselves paper - citizens placed on Us.
We claim no rights from the United States of America other than those rights belonging to human beings anywhere in the world, and these include the right to damages, reparations due Us for the grievous injuries sustained by Our ancestors and Ourselves by reason of United States lawlessness.
Ours is a revolution against - Our oppression and that of all people in the world. And it is a revolution for a better life, a better station for mankind, a surer harmony with the forces of life in the universe. We therefore, see these as the aims of Our revolution:
To free Black People in America from oppression;
To support and wage the world revolution until all people everywhere are so free;
To build a new Society that is better than what we now know and as perfect as man can make it;
To assure all people in the New Society maximum opportunity and equal access to that maximum;
To promote industriousness, responsibility, scholarship and service;
To create conditions in which freedom of religion abounds and man's pursuit of god and/or the destiny, place and purpose of man in the Universe will be without hindrance;
To build a Black independent nation where no sect or religious creed subverts or impedes the building of the New Society, the New State Government, or the achievement of the Aims of the Revolution as set forth in this Declaration;
To end exploitation of man by man or his environment;
To assure equality of rights for the sexes;
To end color and class discrimination, while not abolishing salubrious diversity, and to promote self-respect and mutual respect among all people in the Society;
To protect and promote the personal dignity and integrity of the individual, and his natural rights;
To assure justice for all;
To place the major means of production and trade in the trust of the state to assure the benefits of this earth and man's genius and labor to society and all its members; and
To encourage and reward the individual for hard work and initiative and insight and devotion to the Revolution.
In mutual trust and great expectation, We the undersigned, for ourselves and for those who look to us but who are unable personally to fix their signatures hereto, do join in this solemn Declaration of Independence, and to support this Declaration and to assure the success of Our Revolution, We pledge, without reservation, ourselves, our talents, and all our worldly goods.
The Haitian Declaration of Independence - 1804
The Commander in Chief to the People of Haiti
Citizens:
It is not enough to have expelled the barbarians who have bloodied our land for two centuries; it is not enough to have restrained those ever-evolving factions that one after another mocked the specter of liberty that France dangled before you. We must, with one last act of national authority, forever assure the empire of liberty in the country of our birth; we must take any hope of re-enslaving us away from the inhuman government that for so long kept us in the most humiliating torpor. In the end we must live independent or die.
Independence or death… let these sacred words unite us and be the signal of battle and of our reunion.
Citizens, my countrymen, on this solemn day I have brought together those courageous soldiers who, as liberty lay dying, spilled their blood to save it; these generals who have guided your efforts against tyranny have not yet done enough for your happiness; the French name still haunts our land.
Everything revives the memories of the cruelties of this barbarous people: our laws, our habits, our towns, everything still carries the stamp of the French. Indeed! There are still French in our island, and you believe yourself free and independent of that Republic which, it is true, has fought all the nations, but which has never defeated those who wanted to be free.
What! Victims of our [own] credulity and indulgence for 14 years; defeated not by French armies, but by the pathetic eloquence of their agents’ proclamations; when will we tire of breathing the air that they breathe? What do we have in common with this nation of executioners? The difference between its cruelty and our patient moderation, its color and ours the great seas that separate us, our avenging climate, all tell us plainly that they are not our brothers, that they never will be, and that if they find refuge among us, they will plot again to trouble and divide us.
Native citizens, men, women, girls, and children, let your gaze extend on all parts of this island: look there for your spouses, your husbands, your brothers, your sisters. Indeed! Look there for your children, your suckling infants, what have they become?… I shudder to say it … the prey of these vultures.
Instead of these dear victims, your alarmed gaze will see only their assassins, these tigers still dripping with their blood, whose terrible presence indicts your lack of feeling and your guilty slowness in avenging them. What are you waiting for before appeasing their spirits? Remember that you had wanted your remains to rest next to those of your fathers, after you defeated tyranny; will you descend into their tombs without having avenged them? No! Their bones would reject yours.
And you, precious men, intrepid generals, who, without concern for your own pain, have revived liberty by shedding all your blood, know that you have done nothing if you do not give the nations a terrible, but just example of the vengeance that must be wrought by a people proud to have recovered its liberty and jealous to maintain it let us frighten all those who would dare try to take it from us again; let us begin with the French. Let them tremble when they approach our coast, if not from the memory of those cruelties they perpetrated here, then from the terrible resolution that we will have made to put to death anyone born French whose profane foot soils the land of liberty.
We have dared to be free, let us be thus by ourselves and for ourselves. Let us imitate the grown child: his own weight breaks the boundary that has become an obstacle to him. What people fought for us? What people wanted to gather the fruits of our labor? And what dishonorable absurdity to conquer in order to be enslaved. Enslaved?… Let us leave this description for the French; they have conquered but are no longer free.
Let us walk down another path; let us imitate those people who, extending their concern into the future, and dreading to leave an example of cowardice for posterity, preferred to be exterminated rather than lose their place as one of the world’s free peoples.
Let us ensure, however, that a missionary spirit does not destroy our work; let us allow our neighbors to breathe in peace; may they live quietly under the laws that they have made for themselves, and let us not, as revolutionary firebrands, declare ourselves the lawgivers of the Caribbean, nor let our glory consist in troubling the peace of the neighboring islands. Unlike that which we inhabit, theirs has not been drenched in the innocent blood of its inhabitants; they have no vengeance to claim from the authority that protects them.
Fortunate to have never known the ideals that have destroyed us, they can only have good wishes for our prosperity.
Peace to our neighbors; but let this be our cry: “Anathama to the French name! Eternal hatred of France!”
Natives of Haiti! My happy fate was to be one day the sentinel who would watch over the idol to which you sacrifice; I have watched, sometimes fighting alone, and if I have been so fortunate as to return to your hands the sacred trust you confided to me, know that it is now your task to preserve it. In fighting for your liberty, I was working for my own happiness. Before consolidating it with laws that will guarantee your free individuality, your leaders, who I have assembled here, and I, owe you the final proof of our devotion.
Generals and you, leaders, collected here close to me for the good of our land, the day has come, the day which must make our glory, our independence, eternal.
If there could exist among us a lukewarm heart, let him distance himself and tremble to take the oath which must unite us. Let us vow to ourselves, to posterity, to the entire universe, to forever renounce France, and to die rather than live under its domination; to fight until our last breath for the independence of our country.
And you, a people so long without good fortune, witness to the oath we take, remember that I counted on your constancy and courage when I threw myself into the career of liberty to fight the despotism and tyranny you had struggled against for 14 years. Remember that I sacrificed everything to rally to your defense; family, children, fortune, and now I am rich only with your liberty; my name has become a horror to all those who want slavery. Despots and tyrants curse the day that I was born. If ever you refused or grumbled while receiving those laws that the spirit guarding your fate dictates to me for your own good, you would deserve the fate of an ungrateful people. But I reject that awful idea; you will sustain the liberty that you cherish and support the leader who commands you. Therefore vow before me to live free and independent, and to prefer death to anything that will try to place you back in chains. Swear, finally, to pursue forever the traitors and enemies of your independence.
Done at the headquarters of Gonaives, the first day of January 1804, the first year of independence.
The Deed of independence
Native Army
Today, January 1st 1804, the general in chief of the native army, accompanied by the generals of the army, assembled in order to take measures that will insure the good of the country;
After having told the assembled generals his true intentions, to assure forever a stable government for the natives of Haiti, the object of his greatest concern, which he has accomplished in a speech which declares to foreign powers the decision to make the country independent, and to enjoy a liberty consecrated by the blood of the people of this island; and after having gathered their responses has asked that each of the assembled generals take a vow to forever renounce France, to die rather than live under its domination, and to fight for independence until their last breath.
The generals, deeply moved by these sacred principles, after voting their unanimous attachment to the declared project of independence, have all sworn to posterity, to the universe, to forever renounce France, and to die rather than to live under its domination.
Towards the New Life
and New Society - 1973
We have attempted to show in this Manifesto what is possible. We have demonstrated beyond doubt that there is no reason why we should continue to live in such poverty, misery, suffering, dependence and exploitation.
We must stress that this document is not meant to be a final blueprint for magical change. Some of these views will need to be modified or changed after further consultation with the people and with our National Co-ordinating Council of Delegates. These views, however, do represent the present thinking of the Bureau of the NJM, and we are happy to stand by them. But, until the people take power and implement a planned approach to the economy of the island, after undertaking surveys of our potential resources, the precise timing and implementation of these proposals and the final shape they take can not be exactly known.
To create the new life for the new man in the society, it is necessary that we reject the present economic and political system which we live under. More than this, we need to construct an entirely new system of values where the lust for money, power, and individual selfish gain are no longer the motivating factors. The creation of this new man demands the transformation of the minds and hearts of each and every one of us.
In the new society, our people will be encouraged to give full expression to their sporting, artistic and dramatic expressions. We will encourage local drama, art, native dancing, sports, calypso and steelband, and active assistance will be given to groups already engaged in these pursuits.
The new society must not only speak of Democracy, but must practise it in all its aspects. We must stress the policy of "Self-Reliance" and "Self-Sufficiency" undertaken co-operatively, and reject the easy approaches offered by aid and foreign assistance. We will have to recognise that our most important resource is our people.
Under the new society, students and youth can no longer be regarded as a class separate and apart from the rest of the community. Our aim will be to create an environment where it will be possible for students to be regarded also as workers and workers as students. The new system of values will demand that youth and students make a material contribution to society even while they study. Their preparation will be for entry into a real world where they must join other workers in creating and producing.
We must recognise that Agriculture is, and must be, the real basis of our development. Our people will have to be provided with material and spiritual incentives in their own interest and for their own development.
In the new society, all our people will be encouraged to find answers to the questions:-Who are we? What is the nature of our condition? Why are we in that condition? What can we do to change that condition? What can we change it to? We will together search to find answers to the questions: What do we want? Why do we want that? How can we get what we want? What must we do to make sure we keep what we achieve? We will develop attitudes which will always encourage us to ask questions and move us to find meaningful and lasting solutions. Our real enemies will always be exposed while we will always strive to work closely with our Brothers and Sisters in the Third World. The aim will be to encourage our people always to demonstrate true solidarity with our Brothers; always to strive to find our real identity; always to work harder and harder at developing a true national consciousness, and a real and meaningful integration of the entire Caribbean area. Our Grenadian Brothers and Sisters overseas, in particular, will be encouraged to join hands with us here to build a better land for our children and our children's children.
We know that none of this is possible under the present setup. our first task therefore is the destruction of Gairyism and the system it represents. To this end, we of the New Jewel Movement dedicate ourselves.
ONWARD TO VICTORY! ONWARD TO THE NEW SOCIETY! PEOPLE OF GRENADA,
YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CONTINUED EXPLOITATION;
YOU HAVE YOUR DESTINY TO FULFILL!
EVER ONWARD TO VICTORY!
Declarations of Independence
