Kuwasi Balagoon

Kuwasi Balagoon (December 22, 1946 – December 13, 1986), born Donald Weems, was an American political activist, anarchist and member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army.

Balagoon was born Donald Weems in the majority Black community of Lakeland in Prince George's County, Maryland on December 22, 1946.

Radicalised by race riots in his home state of Maryland growing up, as well as by his experiences while serving in the US Army, Weems became the black nationalist known as Kuwasi Balagoon in New York City in the late 1960s.

First becoming involved in local Afrocentric organisations in Harlem, Balagoon would move on to become involved in the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party, which quickly saw him charged and arrested for criminal behaviour.

Balagoon was initially part of the Panther 21 case, in which 21 panthers were accused of planning to bomb several locations in New York City, but although the Panther 21 were later acquitted, Balagoon's case was separated off and he was convicted of a New Jersey bank robbery.

While serving his sentence, Balagoon became disillusioned with the Black Panther Party and drifted into the more radical Black Liberation Army while also ideologically embracing Black anarchism.

In the early 1960s the teenage Weems was influenced by Gloria Richardson and the Cambridge movement occurring in Maryland seeking civil rights for African-Americans.

The Cambridge movement was noted for breaking away from "passive resistance" and becoming more militant, with Gloria Richardson defending active self-defence as a tactic.

As the 1960s progressed, Balagoon became more and more involved in the Black Power Movement as well as more ideologically inclined towards Black Nationalism.

In his own words, Balagoon said "[I] became a revolutionary and accepted the doctrine of nationalism as a response to the genocide practised by the United States government".

Balagoon began to read literature such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Robert F. Williams’ book Negroes with Guns as well as Williams' newsletter The Crusader.

Balagoon also became influenced by H. Rap Brown, who at the time was acting as a spokesperson for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Amalgamating all these influences, Balagoon came to believe that the only means to achieve "Black Liberation" was through "protracted guerilla warfare".

It was at this point that Balagoon joined the Black Panther Party (BPP).

The Cambridge movement eventually led to the Cambridge riot of 1963, and the National Guard was sent into Maryland for a year as a result.

After graduating high school, Weems joined the US Army and was deployed to Germany, where he experienced racism and physical attacks from white officers and enlisted men.

In response, Weems and other Black soldiers formed a secret group with the Army called "Da Legislators" which carried out revenge attacks.

It was during this period in Europe that Weems visited London, England where he met African immigrants, Black immigrants from the Caribbean and other Black British people.

Weems found the experience of meeting Black people of other nationalities stimulating and began embracing a more Afrocentric lifestyle.

Having served 3 years in the army, mostly in Germany, Weems was honourably discharged in 1967.

He returned home to the United States and settled in New York City where his sister Dianne now lived.

After settling in New York City, Weems became an activist, and at first, was particularly active in rent strikes as part of the Community Council on Housing, a tenant's rights group.

It was on behalf of the CCOH that in 1967, Weems, his sister Dianne, CCOH leader Jesse Gray and two other tenant activists were arrested for disorderly conduct in Washington, D.C. after they interrupted a session of Congress and brought a cage of rats to the assembly to highlight urban housing conditions.

The action cost the CCOH what funding it had and Gray could no longer pay its mainstay activists.

Balagoon had first become aware of the BPP following the arrest of Huey Newton following a shoot out with local police in Oakland, California in October 1967.

Around the same time, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Revolutionary Action Movement were involved in setting up a chapter of the Black Panthers in Harlem, New York City.

Balagoon quickly joined the chapter, citing the Panthers' adoption of Maoism as a motivating factor.

Following this, Weems moved on from the CCOH and joined the Central Harlem Committee for Self-Defense, a group involved with providing food and water to students who occupied buildings as part of the Columbia University protests of 1968.

It was around this same time period that Weems became interested and involved with the Yoruba Temple in Harlem run by Adefunmi, which promoted a form of West African traditional religion.

Adefunmi promoted Black Nationalism and encouraged followers to "Africanise" everything about themselves.

It was under this influence that Weems Africanized his name to Kuwasi Balagoon.

“Kuwasi” is a Ghanaian name for a male born on Sunday, while the Yoruba name “Balagoon” translates as “Warlord".

Balagoon was arrested in New Jersey in February 1969 and charged with bank robbery.

He was indicted on 2 April 1969, along with 20 other Panther leaders and organizers, on conspiracy charges; the 21 defendants became known as the Panther 21.

Amongst the charges were conspiracy to bomb the New York Botanical Gardens and local police stations as well as to assassinate police officers.

During the 1970s Balagoon would escape prison twice, and during his second period on the run, would be involved in breaking Assata Shakur out of prison in 1979.

In 1981 Balagoon was amongst the several BLA, May 19 Communist Organization and Weather Underground members involved in the 1981 Brink's robbery, which resulted in the deaths of two police officers and one security guard.

Following his capture in 1982, Balagoon would be tried and sentenced to life for his involvement.

While in prison, Balagoon died of pneumocystis pneumonia brought about by AIDS on 13 December 1986.

He was 39 years old.