Nduka Nwosu spoke with Senator Ben Murray-Bruce on the life and times of one of his political mentor and civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson who just passed on at 84 years.
Excerpts:
Concert Promotion:
I was a concert promoter, between 1980 and December 31st, 1983, when the coup took place and halted President Shehu Shagari’s second four-year tenure.and Major General Muhammadu Buhari became Head of State from 1984 to 1985 when General Ibrahim Babangida took over. Jesse Jackson became the second black man in 1984 to mount a nationwide Presidential primaries campaign after Shirley Chisholm He made a second move in 1988 and captured 11 states, winning 6.9 million votes.
Civil Rights Campaigner:
My first meeting with him was in 1983 at Solar Records as he prepared to launch a campaign against white promoters oppressing black promoters. Now, Solar Records was the second largest black record company in the world, behind Berry Gordy’s Motown, the industry defining giant of black music that groomed The Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the Jacksons, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye et al. Dick Griffey’s Solar Records had Whispers, Shalamar, Dynasty, Snoop Dogg, and many other artistes of the time. It was an honor to be Griffey’s friend and partner. I had brought him to Nigeria many times with Dr. Virgil Roberts, Griffeys eputy and legal counsel. And one day he invited me to Solar Records.
It was a meeting of the Black American Promoters Association, That was where I met Jesse and we sat down opposite each other, talking about the Cool Jazz Festival with concerts across the United States of America.
The Black promoters were very upset. They said to Jesse, listen, we are Black promoters. All the artists performing at the Cool Jazz Festival are Black, but the promoters are White. Now, what sense does it make for us as Black promoters not to get a piece of the action? All the Black artists will perform at the Cool Jazz Festival. All the people watching and buying tickets for the Cool Jazz Festival are Black people; you take money from Black communities to watch a Black act, but the money now flows into white hands to white promoters. Jesse listened, and you need to understand his brilliance. He listened for a long time. Then he asked: “Who’s sponsoring this fesstiva?” They said it was Cool Cigarette.
He continued: “Cool Cigarette is sponsoring the Cool Jazz Festival promoted by white promoters in Black neighborhoods, the money coming from the Black people.” Jesse got up and said, this is what we are going to do. We are going to protest tomorrow.”When I say cool,” he raised his hand. “You will say fool,” as he lowered his hand he said: “When I say cool, you will say Foolish Cigarette and when the hands go up you will say Foolish Cigarette.” with the crowd of protesters responding in unison.
That was the rehearsal preparatory for the next day. He added: “We are going to destroy the brand, Cool Cigarette.” The next day, while we were getting ready for the protest, the white promoters got wind of what Jesse was about to do and quickly called for a peace meeting where 50% of the returns meant for the promotion went to the Black promoters. That was how the protest that would have destroyed the image of Cool Cigarette was averted. That was one opportunity for me toI listen to him and appreciate the brilliance of the civil rights leader. He was articulate. He was brilliant. Watching Jackson do what he did at Solar Records blew my mind. Not long after that, we became friends. We communicated regularly.
He was a very busy man and I am an African. I live in Nigeria. I go to Los Angeles from time to time. We met mainly at Solar Records and sometimes at various functions. Although he lived in Chicago, Jesse was a citizen of the world. He moved from onr city to another city leading every city protest. He was leading rallies. He was leading everything that was aimed at moving the blacks in America outside racial discrimination.
1984 Presidential Candidate:
So one day, he decided to run for President of the United States. On November 3 1983, he was at the Democratic Convention Center to announce his intention to contest the Presidential primaries before the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and later the Democratic National Convention, with Shirley Chisholm who had earlier made a bid in 1972 joining him on stage. He had visited Syria to secure the release of a US pilot, thus making him a national hero in the process. The other contestants included former Vice President Walter Mondale and Senator Garry Hart .
I think Andy Young was at that meeting with the CBC. There was division with some Black congressmen endorsing his move while others said his appearance was going to divide Democratic votes and give the Republican incumbent Ronald Reagan an easy ride back to the White House. Jesse insisted on running adding his famous quote: “If I run, I may lose but if I don’t run, I will always lose. So I am running.” I attended his countless rallies where he gave tremendous speeches.
I followed him from city to city. I was usually with Dick Griffey or Virgil Roberts and I had this fascination with Jesse. The way he spoke, the way he communicated and the way his brain worked. He was very, very, very intelligent. Very sharp.
Critic of military rule in Nigeria:
Now, in 1984, in San Francisco, he came fourth. He was outstanding in his campaign and speech delivery. No black man had done that before. He gave a speech in San Francisco. One of the best speeches I have heard in my life although he lost to Walter Mondale, In that speech he criticised Nigeria and military regimes, advocating for democratically elected governments.
This is where I am ashamed. I have got to be honest. I am ashamed of what I did. I went to Dick and said: we are trying to do business with Nigeria but did you listen to Jesse? if you listened to that speech he was critical of Nigeria’s Head of State Muhammadu Buhari and we want to do business with Nigeria. Can you get a copy of that speech. He came criticizing Buhari in the speech? I said, Dick, if you are criticising Buhari in this speech, and you want to do business in Nigeria, it is going to be difficult. Please, could you edit Jesse Jackson’s speech at the Democratic Convention and take care of that line?
In those days, Dick, apart from having Solar Records, had a record company called Constellation Records. Constellation Records was a different arm, more intellectual. And in those days, don’t forget, in those days, Nigeria had only one radio station, and one TV station.
America had three radio stations. America had ABC, CBS, NBC, and a couple of other smaller stations. I mean, America was not as developed as it is today. The country did not have that many channels and for people to listen to his speech, they needed a record of his speech which Constellation had access to as an album. Jackson was such an outstanding orator that for five years running he was named World Orator of the Year
My intervention made Jesse edit his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1984 and he took out the part where he criticised General Buhari. Now I am ashamed I did that. In any case, it was Nigerians who convinced Jesse to put that in his speech.
I mean, Jesse agreed to edit that aspect that criticised military rulers who overthrew democratically elected governments. He took it out. I got him to take it out. It was wrong. I am a Democrat. I should not have encouraged him to change a speech that had won him the Orator of the Year Award. He took out that part of the speech where he criticised the military government overthrowing the civilian government in Nigeria because of me. To the Nigerian public, reading this, I apologise. Anyway, we remained friends.
Front Line States
In 1986, I got a call from Jesse. He said he would like to visit the front-line states. A couple of weeks earlier, South African forces had bombed the front-line states. They bombed Angola. They bombed Congo-Brazzaville. They bombed Lusaka, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Botswana. They were always bombing and attacking these countries that were fighting apartheid with the African National Congress (ANC).
They were chasing the ANC in these areas. They were chasing them because the ANC had become a militant group and they had a military organisation all over the place.
Do not forget, in Angola, where I was, Cuban forces were supporting the ANC. Cuban forces were supporting the ANC. They were being trained in Cuba. The major liberation forces were the Movement for the Total Liberation of Angola (MPLA) founded and led by the Marxist Antonio Agostinho Neto and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi a disciple of Chairman Mao backed at home by the Ovimbundu and Chokwe ethnic nationalities and with foreign support from the US and South Africa, fighting for independence from Portugal and working against the MPLA.
The narrative was that MPLA led by Marxist trained Neto, a medical doctor and poet who was elected President in 1975 until his death in 1979, was going to spread communism in Southern Africa.
We met the Cuban forces and their commanders fighting with the MPLA. We met all the presidents of the countries that constituted the SADC. Jesse also wanted to meet Winnie Mandela at the border between Botswana’s Gaborone and Johannesburg, I went to see Professor Bolaji Akinyemi. He convinced Babangida to give us the 737 in the Presidential fleet. The Democratic Party,members of the Jesse Jackson delegation, ABC News and I think Time Magazine all came to Lagos. We met and we took off. We visited all the countries one by one. We went to refugee camps. We met the leaders in Lusaka. We met the leaders of the ANC, Tambo Mbeki and all those guys. Each of them made a speech.
They told us what was happening. We went to Angola. A South African mercenary, by name Captain Point, had been captured by Angolan forces. They brought him as a prisoner of war to meet us. When he met us, he said: “Jesse, please, can you get the Angolans to forgive us and send me back to South Africa?” For Jesse this was the irony of life.
Jesse replied: “I am here to protect the black man. I am here to free Mandela. I am here to fight for justice for the black man and white South Africans who have been captured by Angolan forces are now begging me to have him released and sent back to South Africa.” He was amazed at the request as he listened to the guy. We went to Lusaka and met President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.
We met Dr. Kaunda, and you know, I liked him because when we met with him, he made tea or coffee for everybody. We met with him and the foreign ministers of the Front Line States..We met with the President of Congo Brazzaville Dennis Sassou-Nguesso. I understand he is still the president till today.
We went to Zimbabwe and met Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo. We had a conference, but Nkomo was not even allowed to attend the meeting. He was kept outside. It was so embarrassing. I saw Harare for the first time. It was my first time in Southern Africa and I exclaimed wow, Harare was so beautiful. I said, man, is this Africa? Harare was so beautiful. I said, Southern Africa was beautiful. I went to Tanzania. Tanzania, we saw President Julius Nyerere. Botswana was equally beautiful. Anyway, we went to all these countries.
We went to all the bomb sites. We saw the devastation. We went to the orphanages. We saw the destruction of war. We went to Gaborone, where we were supposed to meet Winnie Mandela. We went to the border of Botswana and South Africa. We went to the border, waiting for Winnie Mandela, who was supposed to meet us at about 1 o’clock in the afternoon. As unbelievable as it seemed, the next thing, we saw were South African tanks turned around with their guns heading towards us.
Everybody ran for their lives. I guess Jackson was a heck of a sprinter. We all ran for our dear lives. We ran. South African forces pointed their guns at us, and we ran without looking back. Anyway, we did not see Winnie Mandela. We lef and returned to Nigeria.
1988 Presidential Candidate:
Two years later,Jess ran for president again. One more time, I accompanied him to a lot of his campaigns and rallies. He was a better politician then. He was hotter then. White Americans were not as scared of him as they were in 1984. He was not seen as a black nationalist fighting to enslave white people. With his rainbow coalition, he was seen as a peacemaker and less as a black man out to seek revenge for all the evil meted to the black race in America.
They just misunderstood what he was like. He was very aggressive as he spoke in 1984. In 1988, he was even incredible but not combative He was just amazing. He was a better politician then and he came second endorsing Michael Dukakis who was beaten by Vice President H W Bush.
Congressman 1995-2012
I kept in touch with him over the years. One time, I saw him in Abuja.
He came here for an event hosted by my governor. He came and gave a great speech. I saw him in Los Angeles a couple of times. I once hosted his son, Jesse Jr, in Lagos. Jesse was a congressman between 1995 and 2012 representing Illinois’ Second Congressional District.
Author of the phrase African-Americans.
He was jailed for a while. I kept in touch with him, but not as much in the last few years of his life. He was a great man. A great orator, brilliant, intelligent. He was one of the most intelligent black men I have ever met in my life. I have never met one of the Kng’s family members. But I tell you, Jesse was one of the smartest black men I have ever met in my life and on this planet. I admire him. I think he was a great guy. If he had not played his role as a politician and civil rights leader, the world would have been in trouble. He was a genius. I am glad I was his friend. I am glad I met him. Don’t forget. I was in that room. Don’t forget. that I was there in 1984. Don’t forget the black race was tagged negroes. They were called niggers and negroes. What else were they called? Niggers, negroes, then blacks. Go through all the names they went through before they became African Americans. Jesse insisted black was not a country. Ireland is a country. You are Irish Americans. You are Brazilian Americans. You are Chinese Americans. You are Russian Americans. We are African Americans. We come from Africa. We should be proud of who we are. I am telling you right here, right now, I was in that room when that decision was made.
And, you know, Jesse, my friend, you are in heaven now, may your soul rest in perfect peace. We are going to miss you until the end of time.
