0:00

Doctor. Asanto Asuni Ali, Princess

0:03

Madaya Yeshreel and Aisha

0:06

t Obafemi are the daughters

0:08

of lifelong liberation movement builders,

0:11

educators, intellectuals, performing

0:13

artists and all around dope humans.

0:16

Ahmed Obafemi, Ulani

0:18

Suni Ali and Balal Suni

0:20

Ali. An Associate

0:22

professor of Africana Studies. Asantewa

0:25

Suni Ali is the author of publications

0:27

and plays exploring her research interests

0:30

black childhood, performance, identity,

0:33

and liberation.

0:34

She is the creator, producer.

0:36

And director of the documentary film series

0:39

Seeds of Revolution. Princess

0:41

Medaia Efuwata Shakura

0:43

Israel is a wife, mother of five,

0:46

daughter, sister, aunt, niece,

0:49

and cousin. She was born in

0:51

Washington, d c. Has resided

0:53

in many states and was reared in Atlanta.

0:55

Georgia.

0:57

Medaya is a shepherdess, gardner,

0:59

semi farmer by joy and necessity,

1:02

entrepreneur, colligionist, acupuncturist,

1:05

licensed medical assistant, and dolah

1:08

by choice and design. She

1:10

is currently Assistant Principle of Goshen

1:12

Hebrew Academy at Temple Keifairem.

1:16

Aisha t Obafemi is an entertainment

1:18

executive with thirty plus years of expertise

1:20

creating impactful marketing and branding solutions

1:23

for high profile clients across the sectors of

1:25

music and entertainment, beauty,

1:27

finance, venture capital and community.

1:30

Aisha is a mother, mentor, author,

1:33

producer, ted X talker CEO

1:36

and founder of the Blue Nile Group co

1:38

CEO and founder of the A and D

1:40

Agency and interagency partner

1:43

Slash CXO of the Whitley Agency.

1:45

Collectively, these sisters proudly carry

1:47

on traditions of leadership, education,

1:50

activism, organizing, land

1:52

ownership, business, entrepreneurship

1:54

and cooperative economics. This

1:57

is done in part through their groundbreaking podcast

1:59

Seeds of Revolution Daughters of

2:01

the Whirlwind. And we are fortunate

2:03

to have all three hosts as our

2:05

guests today. This

2:08

is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast

2:10

and I'm your host, Ramses job

2:13

all right, Doctor Asantia

2:16

Sunni Ali, Princess Madaya

2:18

Yeshreel and Ayisha ti

2:20

oh by Fami. It is an honor to have the three of

2:22

you on the show today. Welcome

2:26

and obviously you all are very

2:29

accomplished, very powerful individuals

2:32

and again we couldn't be more honored to have you

2:34

on as our guest today.

2:36

Thanks for having us.

2:37

Thank you, yes, of

2:39

course. So here's what we do on

2:41

the show. We start our

2:43

stories at the very beginning, and I know we touched on that

2:46

a bit in the intro, but for

2:48

the benefit of our listeners, do us a favor, give

2:51

us a little bit about your background, a

2:53

little bit more about sort of

2:55

how you grew up and what spired

2:57

you inspired you to do the work

3:00

that you're doing today. So

3:02

doctor Asanto a Suni Ali, let's start

3:04

with you first.

3:06

Sure, so

3:08

thank.

3:09

You again for having us today. It's

3:12

always interesting to think about our

3:15

stories because we

3:17

all have varied perspectives,

3:21

and so you'll hear that today. So

3:24

a little bit of my background.

3:27

I'm the youngest of a whole

3:29

lot. I don't even want to say the number

3:31

we're in the teams, and

3:34

the numbers actually continue

3:37

to increase because

3:39

we have you know, what we call, you

3:41

know, blood relatives or

3:44

folks that we share genetics with. And then

3:46

we also have extended

3:49

you know, siblings, folks

3:51

that we embrace as

3:54

family members from the

3:56

community. And so I

3:58

am one of the youngest of

4:00

that collective of

4:02

siblings. Our

4:04

parents, as you mentioned, were

4:08

members of the Black Panther

4:10

Party also

4:13

citizens of the Republic of New

4:15

Africa correction,

4:17

the provisional government of the Republic

4:19

of New Africa. And so you

4:22

know, I grew up. It's

4:24

difficult to talk in an individual

4:26

sense, so

4:29

I'm going to try to do that to answer

4:31

your question. But I grew

4:33

up within not only

4:36

an activist household,

4:38

but also an activist extended

4:40

community.

4:41

And so.

4:43

Growing up was an

4:45

experience that often

4:48

felt.

4:51

Magical, right.

4:54

I actually have a poem that I

4:56

wrote that says that growing

4:58

up in New Africa, which

5:02

particularly in what

5:04

we call Atlanta, Georgia, which is a

5:06

geopolitical space. It's not necessarily,

5:09

you know, marked on anyone's map

5:12

as New Africa, but

5:14

it's land that's claimed right

5:17

that rightfully belongs to Black people

5:19

because of our years and years and

5:22

actually centuries of unpaid labor

5:25

on this land. So I talk about

5:27

growing up in the Republic of

5:29

New Africa as growing up in

5:31

a magical bubble that's bursting

5:35

with energies of kuji

5:37

china lah which means self determination

5:39

in Ujima, collective work and responsibility,

5:43

and also tethered

5:46

ties to pre colonial

5:48

African traditions. And

5:50

so growing up in

5:53

New Africa and growing up in this family

5:55

and extended community has been

5:58

an honor. It has been

6:01

a privilege to

6:03

know myself to not, you

6:05

know, have had an opportunity or an

6:08

experience in my life where I said, oh, I

6:10

don't really know who I am or I have to

6:14

you know, it didn't happen for me in college

6:16

or in a Black studies class.

6:19

My life was that from the time that

6:22

I was born. And so I'll stop right there.

6:25

I'm sure I could share more later.

6:27

No, that's that's fantastic. It sounds

6:30

like a dream come true. But but you're right,

6:32

we we got to share the stage here. So

6:35

Princess Mediah Israel,

6:38

same question, you know, give us a little bit more

6:40

about your background and what

6:43

led you to you know, the work that you're doing

6:45

today.

6:46

Okay, So,

6:50

as a son said, we

6:52

have a big family. I

6:55

am in the middle. I

6:57

have a twin brother, so we're

6:59

in a or somewhere. What

7:02

the background is, son to us said, our parents,

7:06

our biological parents, Balao

7:08

Sunni Ali and Filami Sunili

7:11

were in the Black Panther Party. My

7:13

mother was in the chapter in Boston, and

7:16

our in New York and Boston,

7:19

and then our father actually

7:21

Balau suny Aali, one of our fathers.

7:25

He started the.

7:28

Notorious Bronx and Harlem

7:31

chapter of the Black Panther Party

7:35

along with our uncles. Two

7:37

of our uncles the Mumba Shakur and Seku

7:39

Odinga maybe they both both rest

7:42

in peace. And

7:44

then our mother, her father

7:46

actually was one of the founding members

7:49

of the Provisional Government of the Republic

7:51

of New Africa. And so growing

7:53

up in that household and then along

7:56

with our other Barba Akhmedo by Fami,

7:59

it was always taught to us to be proud

8:02

of who we were, to walk

8:04

with our handheld high, to enunciate

8:07

who we were through you know, our

8:09

actions being positive and

8:11

right and righteous, and understand

8:13

that liberation for our people

8:16

is ongoing.

8:18

So as I grew

8:20

up.

8:23

As something I said too, it's like it is magical

8:25

because you believe it in this world

8:28

and you are in this world.

8:30

You know, of course we're in America, but were in this

8:33

other world where we know

8:35

no bounds of who we are.

8:37

We just we're free to be who we

8:39

are.

8:40

We're free to be beautiful, We're

8:42

free to be strong, We're free to

8:44

be a resilient, be resilient, and

8:48

then we're just free to be expressive of

8:50

our mind, you know, to ask the

8:52

questions and to in so many

8:54

ways the man answers for understanding,

8:57

so that when we do when because all of

8:59

us do have now, but when we did

9:01

become mothers and wives and go

9:03

out into this world, that we're able to

9:06

stand on who we are in

9:08

that belief.

9:09

So with that in the mind, when.

9:11

I walked

9:13

into the path of becoming a Hebrew Israelite

9:16

sixteen years ago, I

9:19

you know, went before the Creator and I asked him

9:22

about, you know, what I needed to do and

9:24

how does this fit into my life? And

9:26

as I gradually lived

9:28

this life, I realized that being

9:32

disciplined the way that our parents raised

9:34

us was part of the path that I'm

9:36

on now like presently, because

9:39

our parents we had a slogan all our

9:41

life is free to land. And freeing

9:43

the land doesn't mean going and taking land

9:46

from someone else. Friend of land means going in

9:48

and buying land, living on that land,

9:50

becoming sovereign, growing your own

9:52

food, you know, all the different things

9:55

that so many people are trying

9:57

to or attempting to do now. So

9:59

I got married to my present,

10:01

to my husband and he bought

10:04

one hundred and ten acres of land. So

10:06

now I am presently building

10:08

that land with him and a few others

10:10

in rural Georgia. And

10:14

right now, like we said, we have a school that

10:16

we established three years ago. We

10:18

have a medical institute, a holistic

10:21

medical institute that we're working on. So

10:23

growing up is one of the reasons why.

10:25

One of growing up the way I did is one of the reasons

10:28

why I'm so I

10:31

guess embedded

10:33

and being on the land and

10:36

understanding that freeing the land is beyond

10:38

just me. It's for our whole nations, for

10:40

our people. So our community

10:42

is open for our people, for all black people,

10:45

because we understand that in.

10:46

Order for us to grow, we have to have somewhere.

10:49

For us to you know, get information

10:51

from, to get food from, to be

10:53

able to have somewhere to go in case there's

10:55

an emergency, things like that.

10:57

So I'll leave it then,

11:00

No.

11:00

This is amazing. You know, we have plenty of conversations

11:03

here about folks who deal

11:05

with different facets

11:08

of the

11:10

black experience different challenges, food

11:13

and security being one of them. And

11:16

to see that there's kind of a holistic

11:18

approach in

11:20

your story. That feels very

11:23

special. So I can't wait to

11:25

get back to that and continue that conversation.

11:28

But I've been waiting to

11:30

talk to

11:34

maybe because I listened to

11:37

a few episodes, but I remember

11:39

some of the profound responses

11:42

coming from the woman

11:45

who's sitting to my right. I'm

11:47

sure she's on your left over there, But

11:51

you know, same question to you, give us a little bit more

11:53

about your background and

11:55

what inspired you to walk

11:58

the path that you're on.

12:02

The inspiration, you know, as my sister

12:04

said, is our parents, in

12:06

our community, our elders, our uncles,

12:08

aunts, you know, just

12:12

other seeds of revolution like

12:14

ourselves. Me

12:16

being the oldest girl, I'm fifty six,

12:18

almost fifty seven,

12:22

and having seen so

12:25

many things and experienced a lot of things

12:28

in my life and being

12:30

surrounded by some amazing

12:33

teachers and all of these

12:36

people who poured into me always

12:39

ensure that I knew that I was loved,

12:43

that I was protected, and to always

12:45

be proud of who I am and never shy away

12:47

from that. So although

12:50

I have, you know, been in

12:52

the entertainment industry professionally

12:55

since nineteen ninety, but we grew up in it because

12:57

of who our parents are and were. You

13:01

know, our mothers sang with me and Micayba and Nina

13:03

Simone, so I traveled

13:05

the world with her for a

13:08

toddler, you know, the

13:10

first five years of my life. While

13:14

Zenz we called Miriam Zenzy because that's her

13:16

name, Zenziley Mary Maccayba was

13:18

married to our uncle, Kwame Toure, also

13:20

known as Stokey Carmichael. When

13:23

you have these people and these are the people who

13:25

are your eldest, who are your family, and you look at people like,

13:27

wait, that's oh you oh,

13:30

it's you know, to us, it's that's just the uncle,

13:32

you know. But I

13:35

do overstand who he is in

13:37

the world and how people look at him,

13:39

you know. And my Baba Blau is an original

13:41

member of Gil Scott Heron's Midnight Band,

13:44

So that aspect

13:48

and being around that our whole life.

13:50

And then my biological father

13:52

I've met Oba Fami was

13:55

a singer on Showtime at the Apollo,

13:58

and you know, all of these things. So we

14:00

come from we come from musical revolutionaries,

14:02

that's what we like to say.

14:04

So it was revolution. But it's always music.

14:07

We all you know, we all sing, all children

14:10

sing, I mean, it's it continues,

14:12

it goes on and it goes on, so,

14:16

you know, and like my sister said, you

14:18

know, we do have a lot of siblings, so I

14:20

like to say, we don't have and we don't step.

14:22

Ain't no half stepping over.

14:24

Here, you know.

14:25

So my baba's are my baba's

14:27

and and and that's what it is, and that's how it's

14:30

always been. Our children are the same all

14:32

the grandparents. They're all their

14:34

grandparents. So we don't do

14:37

any of that. And

14:39

you know, it's an honor to be the

14:42

oldest sister, especially now

14:44

since our mom is no longer here with us

14:46

in the physical.

14:48

So I'm the mama. I've always been

14:50

the mama though.

14:54

And you know I and I

14:56

you know, I don't take it lightly. I'm

14:59

honored that that they, you know, trust my

15:01

counsel that I'm here

15:04

for my nieces, my nephews as well as my own

15:06

daughters, and you know, just

15:08

to be that person. And I have a lot of history

15:11

up here because I've been around so many

15:14

things, so I have answers to a lot of questions

15:17

about things that have happened, you know, years ago

15:21

when they were too young or not born, you know,

15:23

things that I know and privy

15:25

to, so I take all

15:27

of that responsibility very seriously

15:31

and know that it is our job to continue

15:34

to share where we

15:36

come from, who we are, what

15:39

it is that we need to do here, and

15:41

it is to educate, It is to share

15:43

stories. It is to expand upon

15:46

a lot of the stories that people think they know

15:49

about certain people that they don't

15:51

fully understand or overstand,

15:53

because it's more than that. It doesn't

15:55

just start with one It started

15:57

somewhere else. And then you see these

16:00

people who are brought to the forefront, but

16:02

you have to know from whence they came, So

16:04

that is very important and I'm a historian,

16:07

our family historian, so very clear

16:09

on that. And then sharing those those

16:11

parts of who we are and making

16:13

sure that that gets out.

16:14

Into the world.

16:16

The Black Information Network, I think

16:18

it's caused us really to focus on the equity

16:20

and inclusion piece and not just the diversity

16:22

piece celebrating black history. Then

16:25

the day is class.

16:26

As I said, we're not asking, we're saying, this is the way it's

16:28

gonna be.

16:29

And now making sure that yeah,

16:31

that was a first, but it won't be the only

16:33

time that that's happened.

16:34

We want to make sure that we can continue to do new.

16:36

Things because our story continues.

16:48

We are here today with doctor Asanto

16:50

A Suni Ali, Princess Medaiah

16:53

Yeshraem and Dayesha ti

16:55

oh by Fami, hosts of the Seeds

16:57

of Revolution, Daughters of the Whirlwind Pots

17:00

Cast. Listen,

17:06

Listen, you came to

17:08

the right place today, because

17:11

if you want somebody who is going

17:13

to

17:16

celebrate your

17:19

love for

17:23

names like no Stokely

17:25

Carmichael and Gil Scott Heron and Ni

17:28

Simone, if you came

17:30

to a place, if you wanted to come to a place

17:32

where you know someone could

17:35

truly thoroughly appreciate the no half

17:37

step in because

17:39

you know I have twenty four

17:41

siblings and myself.

17:44

Yeah yeah, must be yea but

17:47

yeah yeah.

17:48

And and again no halfs, no

17:51

steps, right and

17:53

that in my case though, it would only be halfs,

17:55

no halves because there would not be steps anyway.

17:57

But

18:00

but yeah, this is I

18:02

feel energized already. And I know we

18:04

haven't even really gotten to the question. But one of

18:06

the things that jumps out at me, especially after talking

18:09

to is

18:13

I'm really saying this for the benefit of one person,

18:15

because I know he'll listen to this. But I

18:17

have a radio show I do in addition

18:19

to this show. It's called Civic Cipher. And

18:22

on this show and on that radio show, my

18:25

co host his name is q Ward.

18:28

He and I often will say to

18:30

our listeners and in person events

18:32

as we travel around the country and talk to folks,

18:35

we will say that, you

18:37

know, people ask for advice, what should they do? How

18:40

can they be better allies? And that sort

18:42

of thing, and we always tell

18:44

them to listen to black

18:46

women. And then we add to that

18:50

that our belief is

18:52

that you will never be closer

18:54

to God on this planet

18:57

then you will be standing next to a black woman.

18:59

I think that really the three of you

19:02

embody that. And this is

19:04

why I say, so far, I feel energized

19:07

just listening to your stories and seeing your faces.

19:09

And we haven't even gotten to the questions

19:11

yet. So uh, this, this truly

19:13

is an honor. I can't wait to get into it. But I

19:15

know that our our listeners have

19:17

clicked and tuned in to check

19:20

out, you know, to to understand

19:22

really what's going on with you know, your

19:24

show, your podcast, The Seeds of Revolution, Daughters

19:27

of the Whirlwind. So let's talk about

19:29

that. A little bit. What made

19:31

you want to start that podcast?

19:33

Give me the inspiration story. Let's

19:36

let's continue with you, Aysha.

19:40

So it's

19:42

interesting.

19:43

Initially I think it

19:45

might have been four or five years ago. Well

19:48

I meant my sisters because we talked like, these

19:50

are my best friends.

19:51

These are not only my sisters.

19:53

You know, it's a blessing to

19:56

to be able to have that, like we are true

19:58

sisters in every sense of the world.

20:00

So I talked to them about I

20:02

was like, I think I'm ready to do a podcast.

20:05

And a lot of that came

20:07

from we share, you know,

20:10

on social media, and I'll share, you

20:12

know, I know everybody's birthdays and I'll

20:14

you know, recall their birthday. You know,

20:17

Quamee Tory, I'll post his birthday and you

20:19

know things about him and I'll give

20:21

us a history or a

20:23

story, you know, share different things, things

20:26

that people don't know about people, Like did you know

20:28

that quame Toure was very funny?

20:31

Now got all the videos I see of him, he's

20:33

very.

20:34

Like he's very but

20:37

he's also a cancer like me.

20:39

It's a very funny. So with us,

20:42

he's a joker, you know, like he wouldn't let make

20:44

us laugh, so

20:47

and knowing the real true person,

20:49

like I do understand who people think he

20:51

is because he is that. But we just

20:54

saw Quame, you know, just being silly,

20:56

you know, and that's who we saw.

20:58

So I'll share these things. And my friends are,

21:00

oh my god.

21:01

Whenever you share like your history

21:03

facts and about your family and you just go

21:06

and you used to do the most amazing things. You need to talk

21:08

more about these things. So I was like, Okay,

21:11

maybe I should talk more about them. Maybe I'll

21:13

do a podcast. So I actually I designed

21:16

had a logo design and everything. As

21:19

I'm talking to my sisters and you know, we're

21:22

all telling our stories

21:24

in different ways, and so

21:26

I think it might have been as I came and just

21:28

said, why don't we.

21:30

Just do this together. We should

21:32

just say, yeah, we could be

21:34

a podcast.

21:35

And so yeah, we decided

21:37

to do that, and you will get our individual

21:41

accounts of things stories

21:43

as well as our shared experiences.

21:46

So it just made sense to just bring it

21:48

all.

21:48

Together and become who

21:51

we are who you see sitting here, the daughters

21:53

of the world.

21:53

I'll take it. I'll take it fantastic now,

21:56

doctor Souni Ali, Yes, this

22:01

is the Black Information network. Of course, I

22:05

want to ask you a question though that

22:08

on its face may seem like

22:10

a simple one to answer, but I

22:14

suspect that there's probably more to it.

22:16

Who is this

22:19

program created for? Who's

22:21

your target listener? Where are they in their mind

22:24

on their journey? You know,

22:26

give us who you're making this show for. Who are you talking

22:28

to when you crack the mics?

22:30

Yes, I love that question, and

22:33

I loved your caveat too, because

22:36

we do think very critically, you

22:39

know, about everything that we do, even

22:42

when we curate our episodes.

22:44

We're curating our.

22:46

Next season right now, and

22:48

we're thinking about not only

22:52

the audience, but what is

22:54

the temperature right, what is the

22:56

climate? What are

22:58

we collective facing

23:02

as a people? And

23:04

sometimes that might extend beyond you

23:06

know, black people, It could be marginalized

23:09

people, or what are we all facing collectively

23:11

as human beings. Often,

23:14

because I am a professor of Africana studies,

23:18

when we go in to curate a particular

23:20

episode or even think about a guest

23:23

that we want to have on, we're thinking

23:25

about how to

23:28

be not only appealing

23:32

but accessible to

23:36

your average young person.

23:38

I would say average college

23:40

student may be young twenties and

23:43

so I think we're speaking to I mean,

23:45

it really is no

23:49

kind of limitation on age

23:52

or background in terms of who we

23:55

are targeting. However,

23:58

we want to intentionally

24:01

speak to younger generations.

24:03

Okay, we want to speak to.

24:05

Our own you know, comrades,

24:07

our own peers, and

24:09

we're also speaking to elders. And

24:11

so I think we're recognizing that while

24:15

our target is younger generations,

24:17

because we want to carry on the tradition

24:20

chat on education.

24:23

We want to you know.

24:24

As my sisters have said, expand narratives

24:26

that you might think you know or that you might

24:29

know a version of which

24:31

is kind of extension of what I do in

24:33

the classroom. Right, I'm talking about

24:36

You mentioned the turned Black experience earlier,

24:39

and there are varied black

24:41

experiences, right, and we can talk

24:44

about black experience.

24:48

For years and.

24:49

Years, depending on the particular

24:51

topic and depending on who's

24:53

teaching it, the perspective from which they're teaching

24:55

or sharing. And so, yes,

24:57

we want to speak to younger generation,

25:00

but we are honoring our elders,

25:03

right. We are intentional about being

25:05

a voice that honors our elders. We've

25:08

had parents that have passed away, we

25:10

have one you know parent that is

25:13

still here and other extended

25:15

parents as well, but we

25:17

want to be intentional about calling those

25:19

names. If you listen to the episodes, we

25:21

call the names of our ancestors, and

25:24

not only the names, but we share the stories.

25:27

We share why they are important. We share

25:29

why folks should go, you

25:31

know, to Google or whatever

25:34

search engine, or go to the library

25:36

and continue their research on a particular

25:38

person. And then we also understand

25:41

that our peers might see us

25:43

or they might revere us for particular

25:45

reasons based.

25:46

On you know, who we are and what

25:48

we do in the world. But we also

25:51

know that we can.

25:52

Inspire them and share these nuances

25:55

and multiple players of not

25:57

only who we are as individuals,

25:59

as sisters, but who we are as black

26:01

people, who we are as black women

26:03

in the world.

26:06

This concludes Part one of our two part conversation

26:09

with doctor Asanti was Suni Ali, Princess

26:12

Medaya Yeshraeo, and Ayisha ti

26:14

Obafemi, hosts of the Seeds of the

26:16

Revolution Daughters of the Whirlwind podcast.

26:18

Check back in with us for part two as we discuss

26:20

the current media landscape, their ties

26:23

to TUPAC, and their hope for the future

26:25

Right here on the Black Information Network Daily

26:28

podcast