The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Chaka Bars Discusses Displacement In The Congo, Black Future, Pan-Africanism + More

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake that ass up early in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Yep, it's the world's most dangerous morning show, The Breakfast Club. Charlamagne Tha God, Jess Hilarious. We got a good brother in here right now, man. He goes on social media as Shaka Boss. What's the full name, Shaka?

My full name is Shakasha I. Victorious I. It's a raster name. So Shaka from Shaka Zulu. Iaka zulu have you heard about shaka zulu and um then asha uh 12 tribes of israel okay um and then i victorious i wasn't was a title given to me that i will be victorious so i was set up my mom she set me up before i even started she was like do good stuff. How long have you been living up to your name? When did you say to yourself, I have to live up to this name?

I mean, I've been a warrior for a while, but kind of the wrong one because when I was younger, like when I was 16, I joined the British military. So I went to war in Iraq. I did the warrior thing. But being a warrior for Euro colonizer imperialism is not the warrior that Shaka Zulu was. I think actually living up to the name, like 10 years, I've been doing work now in Africa and the Caribbean. So 10 years. That's why I wanted to have you up here, man, because I've been watching a lot of the work

that you've been doing in the Congo. And you're like the only person I see, at least that I follow, who's like shining a light on what's happening in the Congo. So first I want to ask you, what is happening in the Congo and what sparked you to have to go out there

and want to really put boots to the ground? I think all of these devices that we see in front of us, they all have minerals in them. And those minerals are coming from the Congo. And the term smartphone was coined in 1996 at the same time Congo was being invaded because of cobalt, coltan, wolframite, various minerals that are needed in the tech industry. And I realized that we using these devices, we are tacit complicit in this supply chain of suffering, basically.

And now you've got this whole, you see the rhetoric, everybody's like, it's a green tech revolution and everybody go green but the green tech revolution has a black african human cost because since this uh this invasion of congo the the major one was in 1998 there was six million people dead between 1998 and 2003 and it started in 94 with the... Rwandan genocide. Rwandan genocide, yeah, yeah. Right.

800,000 people or something like that? 800,000. But the thing about the Rwandan genocide that not so many people are speaking about, and I sent Winston Duke some messages about it because he's now a citizen of Rwanda, and we see that Kendrick went to go perform in Rwanda is that the Rwandan genocide then led to a subsequent genocide of the Congo which has been going on and has not finished yet

and so Rwanda has been able to develop now basically being the client for their friends in Europe and the Middle East. So where people think it's fine and that's the most progressive country in Africa, right next door, there's a war and there's a genocide. And I've been in that war. So where it's almost like how you have Israel and Palestine now, right? So you have this whole all right israel's very progressive and great health care and all of these things and then right next door it's like super genocide and um that's what's going on in congo and it's been going on in congo

because the world needs tech and most countries in fact all countries in the world do not have the same amount of minerals as Congo has. It's 2.4 million kilometers squared. If you stuck Congo in California, it would reach Texas. That's our biggie, right? When they tell you how, you know, they talk about Africa like it's a small continent, just somewhere down there. Just one country in Africa is half the size of North America. And so it's so big that the different superpowers have been dividing it up for many, many years. And obviously there's going to be collaborators.

You know, we say that all king folk ain't skin folk. That's right. Or I think personally, all skin folk ain't king folk. I think personally, the genocide that we're witnessing now is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time. You said 6 million people, right? No, 6 million people between 1988 to 2003. Wow.

Subsequently, since then, there's been people dying every single day, every single month, every single week since then. So, like, I've been working in Congo now for eight years. And just in the last two years that I've been working there there's been uh hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives as well as these people losing their lives um there has been around another two million people displaced so right now the population of Congo um that is displaced is around seven and a half million. The population of displaced people in Congo is nearly the same population of New York City.

Wow. So if I put it into scale for you, it's kind of big. So you've been there eight years and you said that has happened in the last two years. What would you say is most challenging in helping the people, you know, since helping the people of Congo, like obstacles you had to overcome? The fact that because it's black people, nobody cares.

That's true. So it's like where we see what was going on in Ukraine and the whole world has to speak about it. Where we see what is going on now in Palestine the whole world has to speak about it where we see what is going on now in in Palestine and because of its relationship with Israel and because of Israel's relationship with North America everybody's speaking about it the fact that we can have nearly in the last 25 years nearly 10 people sorry nearly 10 million people dead and it's not popular news it's not taught in school is that's the most challenging thing it's people dead. And it's not popular news. It's not taught in school.

That's the most challenging thing. It's like this hidden thing. It's like this under the radar thing. And if I told you in North America or in Mexico or in Ukraine that the population of New York was displaced, and when I mean they're displaced, I mean they're living in a tent and the tent has been made from a plastic sheet and some wood sticks they don't have running water they don't have electricity they don't have basic health care they don't have hardly any food so people are starving to death every day like we see people dying every day and um if I was to if I was to drive you from um where we are right now um 55th street i think if i was to drive you from here down to where i was last night 8th street and the whole way you would just see people displaced you'd be like what is going on here and people don't go there

that's the other thing is there is many people who speak about um congo now or more people speaking about congo they don't go like as much as i love my brothers and sisters for speaking about it as well as speaking about it go there and help out or figure out a way because the thing is is that it's not necessarily that you need to go there and do something just go there and take your phone and show people what's going on because get the word out because if this if this phone if these devices are created from the minerals from there and we all have one and we're all going to have the whatever's coming out right then why is it that you know we speak about the the the holocaust um in in germany of the naz Nazis and we say never again right and

that is drilled into us into movies into narratives and rhetoric right why has more people the most people in the world since the Cold War have died in Congo and the rest of the world is not speaking about it. So in the last 50 years, Congo's deaths have equated to more than all of the world wars and conflicts combined. Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, et cetera, et cetera. And we're not speaking about it because it's black African people. If these were white people, if these were light-skinned people.

And the thing is, is we have to be the ones that speak about it because it's only black people who are going to care the most about black people. If we don't care, then nothing's going to get spoken about. And I think that the problem with capitalism is it hides its deficits, right? So yeah, there's a green tech revolution and we might be able to do some carbon offsetting right but there's seven million nearly eight million people displaced because of it so it's like do we want do we want that as a solution if we're gonna see in our time we're gonna see one of the biggest genocides and biggest displacements of people so i think that's that's the biggest problem for me.

Yeah, and that's the other component to it, right? The other component is you have all of these different countries who are benefiting from what's going on in the Congo, and people are not going to be willing to give up their technology. Sadly, in this world, we live in a capitalist society, but everything runs on capitalism. People are going to say, okay, yeah, we know those people are going through that, but you need laptops.

That's the mindset. No, but it's true no but it's true yeah yeah it's true but at the same time as as as as we always say you can get the minerals stop killing people yeah like why why is it if if you discovered gold um you're from baltimore right yeah imagine if there was there was a gold mine in baltimore why does half the population of baltimore now have to be displaced because of that gold mine is it seems like it's only africa where resources are a curse everywhere else the resources is great it's great to be used there and at the same time when we try and get these messages out um shout out to to julie uh uh meta at instagram because she's helping me out the the accounts that speak about this the most are the most censored right so like every single product within instagram i basically can't use and i've used i built a whole village in congo right we

care for around 100 orphan children um but every single product i haven't been able to go live for seven months wow right um subscriptions no can't send broadcast messages out can't um what other things can you when people share my my stories it mentions this person has repeatedly posted false information if you want to try and follow me you don't follow me but if you want to try and follow me, you don't follow me. But if you want to try and follow me, it's going to give you a warning before you follow me. And this is the same thing as, from what I can see,

this is the same thing as COINTELPRO. It's like silence black leaders, stop the rise of a black nation. And this is the third point of COINTELPRO, stop the communication of African-Americans because of how much your GDP is worth and Africans on the continent. Stop that work together because if you look at New York for instance, New York is a population of 8 million, 1.3 trillion right? If you look at, you're from

Carolina right? Yes sir South Carolina. If you look at Carolina and you look at, you're from Carolina, right? Yes, sir, South Carolina. If you look at Carolina and you look at the GDP of Carolina, I've got it written down here. You look at the GDP of Carolina and then I thought Envy was going to be here as well. I combined the three GDPs of Carolina, Baltimore, and New York State. New York State is 20 million people and it's a GDP of 2 trillion, right? And then when you look at, when you add Baltimore to that and you add Maryland to that,

it's 500 billion, right? And then if you add South Carolina to that and the GDP of Columbia, that's another 300 billion, right? The entire GDP of the entire continent of Africa, which is around 1.4 billion people, is 2.7 trillion. So three states in America have the same GDP as the entire continent of Africa. And we know that Africa is resource rich. So then what is the system that's being set up?

Because it's not just Congo. There's many countries that that is happening in. And so when we try and speak about this, we're always being censored. And I'm sure they'll work it out because if I wasn't able to use Instagram the way that I've used Instagram, then I wouldn't have been able to do the things

that I've been able to use Instagram the way that I've used Instagram then I wouldn't have been able to do the things that I've been able to do because why are you going to as as as white imperialist structures why are you gonna elect somebody who's speaking about the same things that you're benefiting from you're not gonna do that yeah but black people see me and they're like well we want to know about what's going on in Congo mm-hmm we got phones we want to know about this stuff. And so I would implore everybody. Years ago, I set up a charity called I Heart Africa because Congo is the heart chakra of Africa.

It's right in the center of Africa. I set up this charity. And since then, we've cared for around 200 children for like eight years. But it's a drop in the ocean. And what I would say is African-Americans being involved in African business, African philanthropic efforts are not going to do it for nefarious reasons.

They're going to do it because they see... You see a little Congolese kid, you'd be like, that could be my kid, right? And that in and of they're going to do it because that's they see you see a little congolese kid you're like that could be my kid right and that in of itself is is going to do something um whereas when people are going there with this colonial mindset they're going there as let's go and help these poor starving africans at the same time as stealing diamonds stealing gold stealing coltan because the reality is it's not afric control this. Right now, they're out of the 19 mines that mine coltan in Congo, 15 of them are owned by Chinese. And I'm not going to come on here and talk shit about Chinese,

but I am going to say that they are going to do for their own people first. And so we should do for our own people first because the other thing is i've seen baltimore that is like poverty like crazy it's like i'm not saying the whole of baltimore but i'm saying some of them stoops i watched the wire i've seen the wire yeah yeah but but there's no reason yeah why with a port there that people should be so impoverished, right? And this is what Marcus Garvey was trying to do with his Black Star liner. There should be a shipping company.

There should be an airport that's Black-owned. There should be Black-owned commerce coming from Africa to the port in Baltimore and vice versa. Trade should be done directly. Shouldn't have to do trade with a government that's going to steal from you anyway. Because, I mean, shit. shouldn't have to do trade with a government that's going to steal from you anyway because i mean shit if we start if we get into talking about government i i um i know that you guys sometimes have uh political people on here often yeah at the same time as all of the things that

i've just said are happening is it was funded by the US government. Like they literally funded it and went in there and are protecting their interests, et cetera, et cetera. And we argue about this stuff often. Should you vote Republican? Should you vote Democrat? And it's like we say in Rasta is, in fact, indigenous people say this, but Rasta people say this as well,

is two wings of the same bird is still the same bird and when we're given these systems to vote on we're not given an opportunity to actually create change we're just given an opportunity to reinstate the same system with a blue or a red symbolism on it and Because throughout the world, nothing changes, regardless of who is in the White House. Their interests will be their interests. Right. Regardless.

America has an interest. It doesn't matter who is in that White House, Republican or Democrat at the time. But I'm speaking to black America. Because black America is powerful enough to be able to make its own decisions for what it wants to do with its own destiny. And, I mean, you see the exodus to Ghana right now.

Like right now, me and my friends, shout out to, I don't even know if I can announce it yet, but we're about to start building a city in Ghana, like a whole city for the diaspora to go home to. And we were there like a few weeks ago and living nice. Love Ghana, man. Living nice.

Love Ghana. You've been to Ghana? Yes. Love it. Right. I got property in Ghana. Right. And then imagine

you don't experience any racism the whole time that you're there. Like if the police stop you, they're asking you how your day is. If the police stop you in America, you might catch a stray. Listen. you don't

know how it's gonna go right based on what kind of day they're having right right right in ghana the police can't flex like that in ghana i think the last time i think a soldier shot somebody um uh and shouldn't have shot that person the people went out and dragged him out into the street and killed him you can't be doing that in africa the way that the way that things run in the west is very different to the way that things run in africa and even if you steal like you go to the markets and it's a word they yell out i can't remember but if you steal they yell out this word yeah and everybody will lynch you and everybody beat you up don't be don't be stealing you know yeah or if you be stealing don't get. And then we go back to the government.

They get caught stealing. Like this whole banking bailout thing that happened. It happens every eight years. Every time there's a financial crisis. I was walking through New York a few days ago. And I saw, not actually, I just came from Jamaica. But the last time I was here a few weeks ago, I was walking through New York and I saw that american people are 34 trillion in debt yeah in debt to who

who are you in debt to and and then you have to think about if you're 34 trillion in debt because africa is a cash system as you know here is a credit system you're 34 trillion trillion dollars in debt which means that you are spending money you don't have then who is doing that labor for you where is that being exported to obviously africa china india etc and the reality is that um where where there's like this this this massive amount of censorship for speaking about the things that are real. The things that are, I don't want to say that they're bullshit, but the things that I don't think

we should speak about so much are, for instance, what is going to dominate the airwaves for the next month, maybe, is Kendrick versus Drake. That's right. Who gives a shit? I just read an article on Rolling Stone

and it was talking about how it's hard to care about a rap war when it's a real war going on yeah and and and that was probably referring to palestine there's five million people displaced in sudan there's a ongoing conflict that's being financed by the west in uh somalia there are millions of people displaced in yemen um uh south sudan wars back and forth. We're looking at like, we're looking at one of the biggest humanitarian crises of our time

in Central East Africa. And we are worried about who's got better bars. And if you look at it, let's be honest, rap battles is just grown men spitting poetry to each other. Especially Kendrick.

Right, but it is it's like you make it sound so romantic i mean i mean if you're taking the time to to go back and forth and research somebody and write poetry about them i mean i don't know maybe i don't know i didn't listen all y'all popping ass with sexy ray that's what what he just said. Damn. All I'm saying is there's real wars going on in the world. And I've been doing this work for nearly 10 years now. I started, when I left the military, I started doing boxing. Well, I was boxing in the military, but I was doing boxing to raise money to do these things. And I've been in war zones in somalia in congo real gunshots

going off real bombs we had to evacuate kids and all kinds of stuff right seeing bodies full of uh seeing trucks full of bodies right my phone's not ringing my phone's not ringing so people are seeing if i start rapping if i start rapping about all of a sudden everybody's going to be like, you know about Congo, you know what's going on in Congo. And for me, I'm like, are we the black bourgeoisie and are we the raccoons that our slave masters wanted us to be? Are we the house Negroes? What is the black bourgeoisie?

So the black bourgeoisie so the black bourgeoisie is a class that's been created basically to run um errands for white people the black bourgeoisie class essentially are the black elites um they work for the powers that be to maintain the status quo to maintain the order of what is going on. And if you look at the black bourgeoisie, they usually have everything to say and nothing changes. They're the most opinionated because they have the phones, they have the platforms, et cetera, et cetera.

And I've been an activist for a long time. And so when I look at that class of people, I'm like, well, say, talk your shit, say whatever you want to say but put some little money towards moving some of these things forward what are you doing what are you doing i say that all the time and it's not a party thing it don't matter it's not conservative all liberals just like these people talk talk talk talk so much about what needs to be done but what are they actually doing? I think personally that when a revolution happens, because I've been for a long time now a Pan-African revolutionary,

and I've been trying to make change, and I've been making change. I've been refurbishing the Haile Selassie High School in Kingston, Jamaica. I just came from Jamaica. I've been refurbishing this high school, trying to get everybody within Rasta to unite under this banner of we need to do better for the kids. I built a school in Ghana. I created an agricultural development program in Somalia

that was feeding 300,000 people. At the same time, we're doing this project in Congo. We built a village with 24 houses and we now look after around 200 people, right? This is one me, one little me, just a one man. If you start thinking about collectively what all of these people can do if they put their heads together,

but it's egos. Everybody wants to be Moses. Oh, I've got to have my to be moses oh i've got to have my own foundation oh i've got to have my own thing and it's like if if somebody says to you now all right jess you gotta build a school and you're gonna be like okay all right how am i gonna do this if somebody says jess there's a hundred people building the school do you want to put in it's like yeah put it in easier right because the other thing is is if you spend you need to do the action as well if you spend all of your time talking when are you going to get the action done and that's

what i say to my brothers and sisters who do a lot of talking i don't mean journalists and radio show hosts i mean the black bourgeoisie who have this idea that they are the they are the voice for the people they're the voice for the oppressed people i'm like you're the voice for the oppressed people but what about the resources like what are you turning that voice into actual action or are you just saying that you're going to go inspire people i've actually i've lost a lot of friends along the way because they want me to speak speak speak speak and i want to do do do do do so that's why i do maybe i know i'm gonna come back on here and i'll do more interviews to give you guys updates but i will do four years of work and then come and talk about it most people go and do four years of talking and do some little work so it's like okay so so where where where is the factory that

you promised or where is the business that you promised it's not going to be there and then so many regardless of whether you like me or not or whatever i say these things are happening so i try and put shed a light on it um there's a sister amanda amanda seals she blocked me a lot of people blocked me across the course of time. She blocked me because during the, and the only reason I'm speaking about her is because people have told me that she talks about me on her Patreon

and I don't even talk about her, right? But the reason why she blocked me is because in 2020, during the election, the same year that my Instagram got shut down, right? Because for whatever reason, they didn't want me to speak to black people during that time she was like you need to tell everybody to vote for biden i was like i ain't gonna go and tell no black folk to vote for no white person i'm gonna go and do it you can't say that you're an agent you're a this you're not a brother x y and z

i'm like why am i get why why are we black folk fighting over which white man is going to rule us i agree why are we doing that i don't know why why are we still doing that i don't know why we're so beholden to any party black conservative black liberals i don't get it right exactly black nationalism that's what malcolm x was preaching put blackness first blocked me and then turns around and starts calling Joe Biden genocide Joe. And I'm like, well, I didn't tell nobody, no black folk to vote for no white folk in the first place. Have your own representation. And you're not even telling people not to vote.

You're just saying I'm not going to endorse. Right, right, right. Because at the same time, not all white folk are bad but white systems wherever they meet black people are terrible yeah right so we need our own systems not all um not all uh arab people are bad but arab systems where they meet africans is terrible no chinese people are bad but chinese systems you see what they're doing in Africa, buying up everything. You see the people, in the Caribbean,

it's the same thing. So it's like, I don't think that, I don't think integration was the best idea. It might have been a good idea on paper, but you see what

Martin Luther King said before he transitioned. Before he was assassinated by the government, by this government. He said, I've integrated my people into a burning building.

Right? And I say that two men or two women in a burning building should not stop to argue. So what are we arguing about? We need to just keep moving forward. Like I learned Kiswahili so I can be able to speak to people in Congo because they don't speak English. That's how diligent I am.

That's how much work I'm trying to do. And then you have people who are more concerned about rap battles, who's sleeping with who, and the culture, it seems, is just being dragged down into nothingness. Hip-hop used to mean something, right? And I've seen Umar Johnson speaking about this before. Hip-hop used to mean something, and at the same time, it's been 50 years of hip hop now

Where is the hip hop university Where is the hip hop factory Where is the hip hop school Where is the hip hop of Where is the hip hop offices For the elevation of young black and brown People in Baltimore In New York etc

It doesn't exist But these men are so opinionated and now women are so opinionated about arguing amongst each other and intellectually jousting with each other and like almost masturbating their ego all over the internet all of the time and showing they're so involved

in seeking white validation. They're so involved in, and it's not just the hip hop, it's's the athletes as well it's the actors as well and when i'm around them right so like a few years ago i was around yay um he invited me to the drake and him thing in uh yeah yeah yeah and i was there and i like, why are all these white folk running around? Because he's like, I'm black, I'm black, I'm black, I'm black. And I get it, you're black, but... That was a phase.

It was a phase, of course. Right. You see his girl, but then you see Drake's girl as well. I think Drake's was... She was a porn star, no? Right. And she's white. Very much.

Right. So why are we saying nigger all the time She was a porn star, no? Right. And she's white. Very much. Right. So why are we saying nigger all the time and talking about blackness all of the time and speaking on blackness when you don't live that life? Well, to your point about what hip hop can be, that's what Kendrick is saying about Drake. And not only that, Kendrick is also saying, where's the substance? What are you teaching your son? You're not teaching your son about any morals substance what are you teaching your son you're not teaching your son about any morals any values any integrity you're not teaching your son about what God is considered

I don't know if you heard the record but I heard it I don't think that Drake should make I don't think he should that's it I think it should be done by now I don't think he should come back Kendrick put out another one this morning and Drake's not even writing it back to back well yeah Drake's not even writing it. A back to back.

Well, yeah. Drake's not even writing it. But the fact of the matter is, is that if these two men or some of the other people who are beefing Future and Ye and Metro and all these people put their money together, they could easily build

a whole hip hop institution in Nigeria. And some of the best music in the world would come out of there. What do you say to people? Because, you know know there are brothers like the Rick Rosses of the world who are you know... He blocked me as well. Really? Why? But Ross does so much entrepreneurship. Ross hires so many black people he creates a lot of he creates a lot of things for black people

as far as finances financial is concerned. I think it needs to this is what i honestly think brother i think it needs to move abroad it needs to to move abroad to where we where we are found all over the earth yeah you can't just be going to jamaica and be like yo jamaica was nice jamaica was nice oh you know the food was good and then i left jamaica where's your hip hop school in Jamaica? Where is your, make some shoes, make a shoe, a sneaker company, do something. Like I've been saying to people for years, and this is the difference between hard power and soft power. A lot of these people only have soft power.

They don't really have, they don't have it like that. They don't really have bank like that. They don't have money in the bank that is real money. They have credit. They have their name, right? And the way that most other groups are able to create wealth and generate value is they put their money together. They do group economics.

Where we are now owned by white corporate media, we are now owned by contracts with different peoples. We don't actually have the power. It's like, oh, all right, I'll sit with you and I'll talk with you for two hours about what we black folk need to do. But at the end of the day, my business manager's white. Not me, but I'm speaking for them, right?

At the end of the day, I need to get a loan from Chase. At the end of the day, I need to get a loan from chase at the end of the day i need to get a loan from jp morgan like i i can't just i can't just say do you know what guys i've got 200 million and uh where's yours and where's yours and where's yours and we're gonna buy this block so you're saying you can't build black systems with if you gotta go get the money from white system well look at community redlining here in america right if you got to go get the money from white system? Well, look at community redlining here in America, right? If you come from a certain zip code, then you ain't going to get the job.

You ain't going to get the loan. Why, if you are white imperialistic structural violence, why are you now going to give money to the people that you're oppressing? And look at this whole thing that's been going on for a few years now since social media came about with this whole ADOS, FBA, and then the African kind of wars that's going on. It's a back and forth wars. And at the same time, the wars that have been happening here between the Crips and the Bloods and the gangs and the different things, it's like you're fighting over a block that you don't own it's called the black neighborhood but black people

just live there we don't own it right and where you look at um these all of these different groups fighting whether it's you know uh the the black americans and the black africans you will see that white folk now will pick, often will pick black Africans over black African-Americans or black Americans because they want to continue to create that conflict. Or black British, especially in Hollywood for roles and things like that. Right, exactly. And I'm not saying that black British aren't amazing actors. They are amazing actors.

They are, exactly. And I'm not saying that black British aren't amazing actors. They are amazing actors. But the fact of the matter is that your oppressor will always find devious ways to continue to keep you oppressed while trying to elevate other groups. So like, for instance, Koreans, Jewish people, Chinese people will be all up in the hood, owning own hood owning our own areas and and they are the the pretext or they're the pre-movement for the gentrification of these areas right and at the same time we're sitting there saying oh well you know it's these black caribbeans that are you know causing this conflict with with african-americans or it's these black africans and they're coming and they're taking our jobs it's the same rhetoric as the racists use

when they say about black people are coming and taking our jobs, et cetera, et cetera. But the reality is that there's very, very few oppressors and there's a lot of oppressed people. And if the oppressed people start coming together, like my phone should be ringing off the hook. Yo, how are we making money? My friend's got a gold mine in in zambia so why don't we invest in that and why don't we be we be making millions of dollars each month in money from natural resources but people are more

inclined to invest in in shares in apple but yet the ceo of apple is saying that there's no conflict minerals in his in in their products i've got an apple product here but i've seen the mines where the products come from and there's children working in those mines so if we're against child labor here why are we not against child labor there yeah but but black folk would rather be like hey i'm going to put some investments in nike i'm going to put some investments in apple i'm going to put some investments in Nike. I'm going to put some investments in Apple. I'm going to put some investments in Tesla. I'm going to get my money back. Nike's child labor too, though.

I mean, most all of those companies. Right, right. But if you now, Charlemagne and Jess, have shares in a mine in Zimbabwe or in Zambia, a gold mine, and you're going to be going there to and from, you'll be checking up and seeing that everything is above board and uh there's no kids working in that mine and and people are able to earn a living wage you're not just going to be like yeah well because that's black folk whereas when you like all right let me get shares in tessa you know it's not your business it's just you just hope you get a return on it but at the same time and this is what I always explain to people about primary, secondary and tertiary economy, not so many black folk own primary economy. Primary economy is resources. It is agriculture. It is land, right? Secondary economy is turning those resources into something that's manufacturing. It's making products and then the tertiary economy is where we're so focused where this whole rap battle exists is goods and services and entertainment how is it we don't own the entertainment industry because we don't own enough agriculture we don't own enough factories to be

able to then have a a flourishing entertainment industry that we own. You need to own the steps to being able to get to the top of this world domination. And we don't own it. Like, where's the black military? Look at how many people here have been in the military, served in Iraq, served in Afghanistan, left the military and are homeless on the street. But security company or security industry

is the biggest industry in Somalia. I don't know no black folk that are involved in that. Wow. I don't know no black folk that are involved in that. I was in the military and my training and the people that I know, if somebody came to me, we have plans and came to me and said, hey, can you create as a security company in an African country? We'd be like, yeah, all right, cool, we'll do it.

But the thing is, and this is the other thing about the black bourgeoisie and their gatekeepers. A lot of their gatekeepers are people who have interests in their own communities that are not our communities, right? So a lot of most black folk that get to a certain level of wealth, they don't live in the hood.

They don't go to the hood. They ain't going back there. They ain't doing anything there. And then when you see people like me, you see people like RZA Islam, you see people like Uma Johnson, you see people like 19 Keys, you see groups of men who are like,

hey, we're doing this. We're trying to do this. Everybody's just like, yeah, let's try and watch this nigga fail and they're just waiting and then when they do because nobody supports them they're like ha i told you so i told you not to trust black folk and then you got rick ross rick ross blocked me the reason why he blocked me don't kill a bike at the eye out there too those brothers those brothers cool cool cool cool cool brothers i really respect them but he blocked me because i was like yeah but you was a probation officer and you were you were appropriating the story of ricky freeway ricky freeway ross like who was the the freeway rick ross who was the the the the real coke dealer and i was trolling him so he

has every right to block me like i'm not you shouldn't have been trolling ah this was like 10 years ago or something and i was just like oh nisn't he was fat too oh my god yeah no but you should reach out to somebody like that and build like you like i like the energy you're putting out ross let me show you some other things to put into you could be invested in but but the other thing is this is over the years i've reached out to many people and most of the people when i ring them or when i message them they leave that message But the other thing is this, is over the years, I've reached out to many people. And most of the people, when I ring them or when I message them, they leave that message on scene. They ain't bothered with that because they're trying to work out who's going to go to the Met.

What is happening with the Grammys? What is happening with the Oscars? What white validation is going to come? I got a BET award like four years ago, five years ago. I'm due another one BET if you're watching this. I got a BET award, but the only reason why I wanted the award was to speak to black folk in a mass audience. What did you win for?

Global Good Award for doing the work that I've been doing. And the same year, Nipsey posthum got the a humanitarian award okay and um and these these were the the two awards for like doing good and whatever but i was sitting in this room and everybody was in this room and i was like there must be a billion in this room alone this is like 2019 i was like there must be a billion in this room alone that money could be invested in something collective a cooperative for people and then we could use it to actually fix up hoods here and i wanted to go and speak on the stage they moved my shit to the side stage i'd even air on

the main thing wow and that's the first year that they did that wow the reason being as as i said about these same gatekeepers is they don't want people like me who are not just uh mobilizers but organizers as well they don't want us around us because they know that we can do for self yeah and and i'm waiting for this tipping point where this genocide that's been going on in congo for 25 years it becomes like how it was in the 70s and in the 80s with south africa where everybody was like we need to stop this shit we need to stop it because we can't have these systems emerging where so many people are being subjugated by so few people in congo so many people are being subjugated by so few people because there's no weapons factories in congo so how are they getting

all these weapons how are there so many people being murdered when there's no weapons factories in Congo. So how are they getting all these weapons? How are there so many people being murdered when there's no weapons factory? Well, the Bush administration and the Clinton administration was funding that. Sounds like the same thing that happened in the hoods of America here. The same thing that happens in the hoods in Jamaica. It's like, we don't have no weapons factories. Why is it full of weapons?

We don't make no drugs. We don't have no cocaine. Ain't no full of weapons we don't make no drugs we don't have no cocaine no gun manufacturers made in harlem right exactly you know brown said but but but then and then white folks speak speak about black people like oh they're just so violent it's like bro look at your armies what do you mean we're so violent yeah we're gonna be violent where you remove all ways like look at when here in america when they remove all resources they removed all the blue collar jobs they filled the hoods with crack and then they and then they killed all of our leaders and then they said go on then go and go and go and go and go and work it out and and where are we now today are we in a better

situation i know that you and you right now gets elected, you ain't got no hope for the hood being fixed. Any of the hoods. Not past what I'm doing. Right. Not past what we're attempting to do in our own communities. Right. But what I'm saying is,

these things should be done in a way that there is. So for instance, it's a very basic thing. So I have a fruit company and I've been sending fruit to every celebrity that you can think of and many people

for years now because you haven't seen no fruit up here I mean same bitch Shaka yeah oh you bought some yeah you bought it

thank you thank you just two pieces of fruit I love it but one for me and my baby what is that smell the fruit this is from Jamaica it's a pear no oh it came from Jamaica Yeah, you better. Thank you. Thank you. Just two pieces of fruit. I love it. But one for me and my baby. What is that? Smell the fruit.

This is from Jamaica. It's a pear? No. Oh, it came from Jamaica. Oh, it's sweet. Oh, it smells great. What is it? I know what this is.

This is East Indian mango. Mango. Oh. Yeah. Well, thank you. Because I was like, okay. Then you came in smelling like cocoa butter and opportunity. I'm glad you got into that about the fruit because I want to ask you,

what can people do if they want to get involved? If they want to get involved with the work that you're doing in the Congo, if they just want to get involved in what you got going on. That's for you. He's got a history of indigenous slavery in Ghana from the 15th to the 19th century. Because once you read that book, that's going to dispel all of the conversation. Well, Africans sold Africans first. It's like, yeah, yeah they did but not into chattel slavery okay they weren't trying to sell africans into what europeans have done with africans or what arabs have done with africans it's just like how you have people some people in society is like

have you got your blue check or you haven't got your blue check you're not as high as me in society there was a classism that existed in Africa where if you have, you know, if your family is not of noble blood or whatever, then you might just be a laborer all of your life. It was indentured servitude. There was indentured laborer. There was indentured labor, but it wasn't, you can't,

we're going to breed your children. We're going to rape you. We're going to, you know, steal your babies. And we're going to, it wasn't that. It was just like, you're a lower class. So you're going to do we're gonna you know steal your babies and we're gonna it wasn't that it was just like you're a lower class so you're gonna do that job you know so how can people get involved with what you're doing shock um i think somebody needs to fix my instagram because i need to be able to speak to more people right um because like last month i posted a video and it got 40 million views and now i'm posting a video and it's getting 5,000 views.

So that's being done. They can go to iHeartAfrica.org, which is our website for the charity. When we launch this city, because we're going to launch this city very soon. In Ghana. In Ghana. People, and we'll have mortgages so people can actually,

because I know that a lot of Americans don't just have a spare $200,000, $300,000 there. Buy a house in Ghana. Come and move home. Be part of this movement because everybody's going to, have you been to Ghana yet? No, not yet. You need to go. Okay.

If you've ever been to Ghana and you've partied there at christmas it is fire but people are leaving afterwards because they gotta go back to a job that they don't like and live in a country in a house that they don't want to be in and they're paying stupid rent like look at the cost of living here and then you're living in some like you're living in in in a phone booth you're living in a in a desk cubicle but it's this is this is a studio apartment you're paying two thousand three thousand dollars for it and then um i am going to restart the fruit company because i had to put it on hold while i built this village in congo um the i'm trying to make the village in congo completely self-sustainable so that um the people

there are able to produce soap to produce furniture produce things that can look after all the kids because um when you're brought a child and both their parents have been killed that's your child now so you have to figure out a way to look after that kid so that's what we've been doing there in congo but um what i want to do and this is maybe something that you could be involved in and you could be involved in. I want to restart the Black Panthers People's Free Food Program and the Breakfast Club. I want to restart that. I want to restart that with, because one of my friends, Colin Kaepernick, and there's a lot of good brothers out there as well and good sisters who've helped me along the way. Colin Kaepernick is one of them.

Lenny Kravitz is another one of them. Kyrie Irving, big support. Like he gave us 100K to the village. He didn't put it on Instagram. He didn't say anything, but we use that to build 10 houses for people, right? Is he, Kaepernick started the Your Rights Camp, Know Your Rights Camp,

and they've been teaching kids their rights. But I think that we should be going further than that and every single inner city school in north america should be able to get natural fruits and natural foods to kids before they get on that on that school problem program where they're about to eat some eggs and ham and some bread and some pizza and that's their food and then we wonder why the kids are running around and being crazy yeah well we can definitely do that i just started uh an initiative with the food bank uh nyc for the same reason like i wanted to do the same thing i mean you know we're the breakfast club i wanted to start like a breakfast program but you know they feed

hundreds of thousands of people you know a month at the foodbanknyc.org so i mean they would love to take donations of fresh fruits and vegetables. We can definitely do that. That's one thing. See, people are like, yo, I got my Rolls Royce. That's a flex. They take these videos of them walking out of their cars, and they'd be like, oh, I got this outfit from so-and-so.

That's a flex. A flex is feeding the kids. Especially if you can say, yo, I was responsible for 100,000 people eating. Right. Things like that. You know what I mean? A flex is feeding the kids especially if you can say i was responsible for 100 000 people eating right like that you know what i mean a flex is feeding the kids there's a lot of kids that grew up in that black panthers free people's free food program who are adults right now who have done amazing things but you ain't gonna pay attention or do what you're supposed to do if you're starving yeah and especially not just starving we have to be eating foods that are compatible with our genotype if we've got melanin right and we this is it's been become a buzzword we're carbonated beans right we need the sun and we need natural fruits we're like a plant right and if you are feeding this melanin with high fructose corn syrup you're're feeding this melanin with salt and you're feeding this melanin with hydrogenated oils,

you're not feeding the melanin, you're starving it. That's why people be looking cracky and not be looking healthy. Jesus. She's looking cracky. But it's true. It's like people be out here, what did I see the other day, yesterday?

I saw Sukihana broke her tooth on a crab boil. Crab leg. It wasn't a real tooth. It was a veneer. It was a veneer. The fact that we even get in veneers, the fact that we are even. But why she ain't got no real tooth? Right.

You need teeth in your head. God gave you that, right? We be out here praying every Sunday for salvation and giving our tithe to the pastor and doing all of these things right and we disrespect what god gave us yeah like god gave us teeth god gave us eyes god gave us our own black people hair god gave us our own intelligence and what do we do we we pray for a day that white jesus is going to come and save us we pray for that day at the same time as if you want to look at Christianity,

like Orthodox Christianity is in Ethiopia. How many black Americans who call themselves Christians are trying to go to Ethiopia and learn about it? Dang. It's a colonization thing. Shaka, you're giving out too much right now. It's not the last time you're going to be up here. Okay.

iHeartAfrica. iHeartAfrica.org. Okay. And people can come and uh follow my instagram but when people give us money with instagram shaka bars right shaka bars but you're gonna have to type in the full thing and then you're gonna have to search for a post that has my name on it and then follow me and then there's gonna be a warning because he's been shadow banned for a long time support what is doing. He will be back here. Okay.

iHeart. Better be. Africa.org. Shaka, thank you for coming, my brother. Thank you. Enjoy the mangoes. Thank you for my fruit. Yes.

Enjoy this today. And we should try to feed as many kids as possible. Let's do it. Because that is our duty. If we want to speak about God, then we need to do God's work. I'm already in bed with Food Bank NYC, so let's do it. All right.

Shaka bars, y'all. Breakfast Club. Wake that ass up. Early in the morning. The Breakfast Club.