An Afro-Indigenous History of the United States

in Lusaka, Zambia—sent a “pledge of firmest solidarity with the people of
Big Mountain.” The ANC statement also proclaimed “that what is
happening to you is exactly the lot of our people in South Africa.” What
connected the two groups was their common experience as Indigenous
people whose lands had been taken for capital. Under apartheid, Indigenous
Africans “are time and again forcibly removed and resettled against their
will, in the interest of capital.” Finally, the pledge remarked, “The struggle
against capitalist exploitation and total disregard of human beings is an
international struggle.” 71 It was already known that Bellecourt and Kwame
Ture had a relationship. However, this act of solidarity demonstrates that
Indigenous people on the African continent and in North America had a
common struggle, and perhaps had more engagement with one another than
we have previously realized. 72
BLACK AND RED POWER MEET IN LIBYA
In September 1991, Stokely Carmichael, now Kwame Ture, and Vernon
Bellecourt reconvened, this time in Libya. Bellecourt was there to receive,
on behalf of the Indigenous peoples in the Americas, the Gaddafi Prize for
Human Rights. The occasion represented a new era of activism for both
men. To be sure, they were still actively involved in creating a new way of
life for Africans and Indigenous peoples. But this occasion was different.
No longer was Stokely showing up to lend his support to Indigenous
struggles in the US, and no longer were they filled with the energy of youth.
They still maintained their fire, but now their hair was gray, and you could
see on their faces that the years of study and struggle had taken its toll.
Bellecourt and Ture were on a panel discussing the “rights of Indigenous
peoples.” They were joined by two professors, Hans Köchler, president of
the International Progress Organization in Vienna and professor at the
University of Austria, and Silas Cerqueira, a political scientist from the
University of Portugal. The panel was moderated by Harold Hudson
Channer, a television personality based in New York City. While the panel
was on the struggle of Indigenous peoples in the Americas, it was also an
opportunity to discuss why the Gaddafi Prize existed, and who the previous
awardees were.
Nelson Mandela won the inaugural award, in 1989, followed by
Palestinians, and then Native people in the Americas. The prize was