In March, the Grassroots Animal Rights Conference announced that “world famous” MOVE activist Ramona Africa would give the closing address at that conference. Africa was scheduled to talk about “Animal Rights and Total Revolution.”
It is interesting that animal rights activists would want to so publicly embrace Africa, but not surprising that they would try to whitewash Africa and MOVE. According to the GARC press conference,
Africa is a member of MOVE, which has a thirty-year history of animal and other activism. In the 1970s, MOVE staged peaceful demonstrations at zoos in the Philadelphia and the Bronx, and at the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The press release goes on to mention the infamous 1985 confrontation between MOVE and Philadelphia police in which eleven MOVE members were killed — though it conveniently leaves out the one police officer murdered and three police officers and four firefighters wounded by gunshots from MOVE members.
GARC, not surprisingly, doesn’t want people to know just how nutty MOVE and Ramona Africa are. MOVE was founded in 1972 by John Africa (Vincent Leaphart) as a primitivist back-to-nature movement.
In their Philadelphia headquarters, they lived without heat, running water or electricity on principle. Things like bathing with soap were forbidden as “unnatural.” MOVE ate primarily a raw foods diet, but supplemented that with raw meat.
Although members ate raw meat on occasion, they view animals, insects and humans as equal. At their Philadelphia headquarters, stray animals were welcome and the group refused to control insects, which created a lot of conflict with neighbors.
MOVE was also a traditionally sexist organization, with John Africa teaching that the primary role of women in society was to bear children. All forms of contraception and abortion were forbidden, as were visits to gynecologists or obstetricians.
Children were allowed to wear little clothing in the winter and were usually kept naked during the summer. Children were not allowed to attend public schools and many were illiterate; reading and writing being “unnatural” technologies that would corrupt the children.
Sounds like the perfect person to address an animal rights convention.
Sources:
World-famous activist Ramona Africa to give closing address at GARC! Hillary Rettig, Press Release, March 28, 2005.