Mike Africa – FREE!

by Mumia Abu-Jamal

It has been 40 years since MOVE member Mike Africa has been able to walk the streets.

Today, he can do so, because today he is free!

Mike-Africa-Sr.-embraces-wife-Debbie-Africa-on-release-Philly-102318-by-Tommy-Oliver-@producertommy-web-300x180, Mike Africa – FREE!, Abolition Now!
A huge embrace reunites Mike Sr. with his wife, Debbie. Until his father was released on Oct. 23, 2018, Mike Africa Jr. had never seen his parents together. – Photo: Tommy Oliver @ProducerTommy

A text from Mike Africa Jr. announced to the world the following: “FINALLY FREE! On Aug. 8th, 1978, my dad was taken away from me. On Oct. 23rd, 2018, I got him back. – #FREETHEMOVE9!”

Mike Africa is known as a committed runner. Even while he was in the Philadelphia County Jail (Old Holmesburg), he ran the periphery of the yards like a deer.

He is a quiet, serious man, who has suffered extraordinary repression during his prison days.

What lights him up is his wife, MOVE member, Debbie Africa, and their two children, Whit and Mike.

He has also been a serious student of music, playing guitar for many years.

It has been 40 years since MOVE member Mike Africa has been able to walk the streets. Today, he can do so, because today he is free!

Long ago, when I worked as a reporter for WHAT radio, I invited MOVE members to the station to prepare some interviews. Shortly thereafter, four or five MOVE men arrived at the station, and when I looked out into the parking lot, I was surprised to not see a station wagon or bus.

When I asked the brothers where they had parked, they burst into laughter. When I asked them why they were laughing, one brother said, matter-of-factly, that they didn’t drive to the station – they – ran – to the station, from MOVE’s old house and headquarters at 33rd and Powelton, quite a few miles away.

Mike, though, had one thing in mind, asking “Where’s the music at, man?” Even then, in 1976, his love of music was evident.

Now, free, he can listen to music from around the world.

Mike Africa – Free!

© Copyright 2018 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Keep updated at www.freemumia.com. Mumia’s latest book is “Murder Incorporated: Empire, Genocide and Manifest Destiny, Book One: Dreaming of Empire,” published by Prison Radio in 2018. For Mumia’s commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia’s commentaries. Send our brother some love and light: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Mahanoy, 301 Morea Road, Frackville, PA 17932.