Historic Speeches & Texts

Speeches reflect history in a particular way. This section intends to collect important speeches which have marked African history and the history of its diaspora. The section however also features poems and essays by writers of African descent.

Na'im Akbar

Brothers, Let Us Heal Ourselves [html]

Awareness: The Key to Black Mental Health [html]

Maya Angelou

Still I Rise [html]

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Million Man March Poem [html]

February 26, 1999.

Marimba Ani

To Be Afrikan [html]

February 26, 1999.

Yurugu [html]

An African-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior.

James Baldwin

Stagolee - Foreword to Bobby Seale's "A Lonely Rage" [html]

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Yoseph ben-Jochanan

African Origins of the Major "Western Religions" [html]

Exerpts from the book of the same title, published by Black Classic Press (1970).

The African Contribution to Technology and Science [html]

1986.

The Nile Valley Civilization and the Spread of African Culture [html]

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A Chronology of the Bible [html]

1973.

Amilcar Cabral

The Weapon of Theory [html]

1966.

Stokely Carmichael

Stokely Carmichael: Black Power [html]

1966. Berkeley, California.

Jacob A. Carruthers

African Centered Education [html]

Winter 1995.

Reflections on the Revision of The African Centered Paradigm [html]

From: Intellectual Warfare, Third World Press (June 1999).

John Henrik Clarke

Stokely Carmichael: Black Power [html]

1966. Berkeley, California.

Cheikh Anta Diop

Cheikh Anta Diop: Premières Recherches [audio - 4'13"]

CD réalisé grâce aux archives de Radio Nederland, Radio Alger, Radio Sénégal et Radio France International. Cheikh Anta Diop y présente les grandes lignes de sa pensée à travers des entretiens qu'il a accordés et des extraits de conférence qu'il a prononcées. Enregistré entre 1923-1986.

Cheikh Anta Diop: L'origine de l'humanité [audio - 4'57"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: Le peuplement de l'Egypte ancienne [audio - 13'42"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: L'apport de l'Egypte à la Grèce antique [audio - 4'23"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: La falsification de l'histoire [audio - 5'56"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: Le colloque du Caire [audio - 10'36']

Cheikh Anta Diop: Le devenir des sciences humaines en Afrique [audio - 5'46"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: Colloque d'Egyptologie au Caire, 1974 [audio: 30'14"]

Le second disque rassemble divers enregistrements, Colloque d'égyptologie du Caire (1974), conférences prononcées à Niamey et à Paris (1984 et 1985) dans lesquels Cheikh Anta Diop explicite plus longuement sa pensée.

Cheikh Anta Diop: Conférence de Niamey, 1984 [audio : 5'40"]

Cheikh Anta Diop: Conférence à Paris - Centre G. Pompidou, 1985 [audio : 20'36"]

Origins of Ancient Egyptians [html]

Frederick Douglas

Frederick Douglas: The Hypocrisy of American Slavery [html]

July 4, 1852. Rochester, New York.

Frederick Douglas: Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage [html]

January 1867.

W.E.B. Du Bois

The Souls of Black Folk [html or Microsoft E-Book]

London, 1900.

Address to the Nations of the World by the Races Congress [html]

London, 1900.

Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others [html]

A Negro Schoolmaster in the New South [html or Microsoft E-Book]

1899.

The Freedmen's Bureau [html or Microsoft E-Book]

1901.

Of the Training of Black Men [html or Microsoft E-Book]

1902.

Strivings of the Negro People [html or Microsoft E-Book]

1897.

Frantz Fanon

Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom [html]

Speech by Frantz Fanon at the Congress of Black African Writers, 1959.

The Pitfalls of National Consciousness [html]

From ' The Wretched of the Earth', Chapter 3, 1961. Source: Les damnés de la terre by François Maspéro éditeur in 1961; First published: in Great Britain by Macgibbon and Kee in 1965.

The Wretched of the Earth - Conclusion [html]

The Wretched of the Earth, Chapter 6, 1961. Source: Les damnés de la terre by François Maspéro éditeur in 1961; First published: in Great Britain by Macgibbon and Kee in 1965.

Marcus Garvey

The Fundamentals of African Nationalism [html]

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From The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey "History and the Negro" [html]

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Africa For The Africans [html]

Aims and Objectives of UNIA [html]

Carnegie Hall, 23 February 1923.

An Appeal To The Soul Of White America [html]

Youngstown, Ohio, October 2, 1923.

Speech by Marcus Garvey [html]

New York, 28 August 1924.

Landston Hughes

NN [html]

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Zora-Neal Hurston

Black Death [html]

From The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston. Written under the pseudonym "Neale Hurs".

John G. Jackson

Ethiopia and the Origin of Civilization [html]

A Critical Review of the Evidence of Archaeology, Anthropology, History and Comparative Religion: According to the Most Reliable Sources and Authorities, 1939.

Ancient Ethiopians of the Golden Age [html]

From: African Presence in Early Asia, edited by Runoko Rashidi and Ivan Van Sertima.

Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth [html]

Originally published in 1941.

The African Origin of the Myths & Legend of the Garden of Eden [html]

A Rationalistic Review, 1933.

Was Jesus Christ a Negro? [html]

A Rationalistic Review, 1933.

Jomo Kenyatta

A Response to Imperialism [html]

1952.

Speech at the Kenya African Union Meeting at Nyeri [html]

July 26, 1952.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The Birth of a New Nation

April 7, 1957. Montgomery, Alabama.

I Have a Dream

April 23, 1963. Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

December 10, 1964.

Letter From A Birmingham Jail

1963.

Patrice Lumumba

Independence Day [html]

On June 30, 1960, Léopoldville.

Dawn in the Heart of Africa (poem) [html]

Poem by Patrice Lumumba.

Weep, Beloved Black Brother (poem) [html]

Poem by Patrice Lumumba.

Malcolm X

The Black Man's History [audio]

Speech from Mosque, 1959.

The Black Man's History [html]

December, 1962. Edited by Imam Benjamin Karim

Speaks on the Race Problem in America at the invitation of the African [html]

January 23, 1963. Students Association and the campus chapter of the NAACP, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.

The Playboy Interview [html, also as pdf-file]

Interviewed by Alex Haley. Taken from Playboy Magazine, May, 1963

The Black Revolution [html]

June, 1963. Edited by Imam Benjamin Karim

Speaks on the Black Revolution at the invitation of Adam Clayton Powell [audio]

June 1963, Abyssinian Baptist Church, New York City.

God's Judgement of White America (The Chickens Come Home to Roost) [html]

December 4 , 1963. Edited by Imam Benjamin Karim. This speech was delivered before Malcolm left the Nation of Islam so his views in this speech do not reflect his own or those he held near the end of his life.

On the African Revolution and It's Impact on the American Negro [audio]

December 16, 1964. Harvard Law School Forum.

Speaks on the Black Revolution [audio]

April 8, 1964. At Militant Labor Forum, New York City.

Letter from Mecca

April, 1964.

Letter from Lagos

After April, 1964.

Interview with Bernice Bass

Bernice Bass (from the Malcolm X Museum). Transcript of Community Corner (radio show), December 27, 1964.

Speaks at OAAU Rally on Afro-American History [audio]

January 24, 1965.

After the Bombing / Speech at Ford Auditorium [html]

February 14, 1965. Transcribed and edited by the Malcolm X Museum and Noaman Ali. Malcolm delivered this speech on the very night that his home in New York was firebombed. He was terribly tired and worried, yet he still showed up all the way in Detroit-- this shows his extreme courage and determination. This is probably his last speech outside of New York, and displays his intellect and honesty, as well as his ideas and understanding close to his death.

Youth more filled with urge to eliminate oppression

Excerpts from an interview printed in Malcolm X Talks to Young People given to Young Socialist Alliance leaders Jack Barnes and Barry Sheppard on January 18, 1965.

The Pierre Berton Interview

January 19, 1965. Interviewed by Pierre Berton.

Interview with Gordon Parks

Malcolm X, Gordon Parks (from the Malcolm X Museum). Excerpt from a conversation between Gordon Parks and Malcolm X, February 19, 1965.

The Last Interview

Al-Muslimoon Staff (from the Malcolm X Museum). Taken from Al-Muslimoon Magazine, February, 1965.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

Testimony at the Treason Trial 1956-60

A New Menace in Africa

Article written for Liberation, No.30, March 1958.

Address to the Conference of the Pan-African Freedom Movement

Addis Ababa, January 1962.

'Black man in a white court'

First Court Statement - 1962.

"I am Prepared to Die"

Statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April 1964.

Release from Prison

Cape Town, 11 February 1990.

Announcing the Election Victory

Carlton Hotel, Johannesburg, 2 May 1994.

Address to the People of Cape Town

Grand Parade, on the Occasion of his Inauguration as President, Cape Town, 9 May 1994.

Inauguration as President of Democratic Republic of South Africa

Pretoria, 10 May 1994.

OAU Meeting of Heads of State and Government

Tunis, 13-15 June 1994.

"Renewal and Renaissance - Towards a New World Order"

Lecture at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Oxford, 11 July 1997.

Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Steve Biko’s Death

East London, 12 September 1997.

Report to the 50th National Conference of the ANC

Mafikeng, 16 December 1997.

On Receiving the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report

29 October 1998.

African Renaissance Festival

27 March 1999.

Final Sitting of the 1st Democratically Elected Parliament

26 March 1999.

World Economic Forum Davos

29 January 1999.

Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki

'I am an African'

Cape Town, May 1996.

Adoption by the Constitutional Assembly of ‘The Republic of South Africa Constitutional Bill 1996’

Statement on behalf of the African National Congress, National Assembly, 8 May 1996.

The African Renaissance, South Africa and the World

United Nations University, 9 April 1998.

The African Renaissance Statement

Gallagher Estate, 13 August 1998.

Statement at the African Renaissance Conference

Johannesburg, 28 September 1998.

Speech at the Launch of the African Renaissance Institute

Pretoria, 11 October 1999.

Statement at the Africa-European Union Summit

Cairo, 3-4 April 2000.

Oliver Tambo Lecture at Georgetown University

23 May 2000.

Ebenezer Baptist Church

Atlanta, USA, 26 May 2000. >>>

United N ations Millenium Summit

7 September 2000.

Democracy and Renaissance in Africa: In Search of an Enduring Pax Africana

Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Abuja, October 3 2000.

The African Renaissance: The Challenge of Our Time

Address to Ghana-South Africa Friendship Association, Accra, October 5 2000.

Briefing on Millenium African Renaissance Program at the World Economic Forum

Davos, 28 January 2001.

Third African Renaissance Festival

Durban, 31 March 2001.

Kwame Nkrumah

I Speak of Freedom [html]

A Statement of African Ideology (London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1961), pp. xi-xiv.

Continental Government for Africa [html]

Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization [html]

Monthly Review Press (June 1, 1970).

Africanism and Culture [html]

Excerpt of speech given at the Congress of Africanists, Accra, Ghana-December 1962.

African Socialism Revisited [html]

Paper read at the Africa Seminar held in Cairo at the invitation of the two organs At-Talia and Problems of Peace and Socialism.

Speech at the Opening Session of the First Meeting of the Editorial Board of the Encyclopaedia Africana [html]

On September 24, 1964 At the University of Ghana.

George Padmore

Colonial and... Coloured Unity - History of the Pan-African Congress [html]

The Hammersmith Bookshop Ltd. E-Book.

The Life and Struggles of Negro Toilers [html]

Published by the R.I.L.U. Magazine for the International Trade Union Committee of Negro Workers. London, 1931. E-Book.

Runoko Rashidi

Great African Land of Antiquity - A Brief Synopsis of Dynastic KMT [html]

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The Destruction Of The Tasmanian Aborigines [html]

1998, Revised: July 01, 2001.

Jean-Paul Sartre

Preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth” [html]

1961.

Arthur A. Schomburg

The Negro Digs Up His Past [html]

The Survey Graphic Harlem Number (March 1925).

Haile Selassie

Address To The United Nations [html]

October 1963.

Unity [html]

Broadcast On African Liberation Day [html]

Self Help [html]

Henry-David Thoreau

Slavery in Massachusetts [html]

Delivered at an Anti-Slavery Celebration, at Framingham, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1854, after the conviction in Boston of fugitive slave Anthony Burns.

Civil Disobedience [html]

1849.

David Walker

Appeal [html]

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