Captured: 1978. In Prison 40 Years

On the MOVE! I’m Janine Africa, Minister of Education for the MOVE Organization. I’ve been in MOVE since 1973. I’m one of the MOVE Nine. We all were sentenced to 30-100 years for a crime we didn’t commit. This system gave us these life sentences to try to stop MOVE. Since they didn’t kill us when they attacked us August 8th, 1978, they figured they could stop MOVE by putting us in prison for the rest of our lives. But just like this system’s guns, bombs, police, tear gas, deluge guns haven’t stopped MOVE people from being committed to our belief, to JOHN AFRICA’s Teaching, neither will this system’s prisons. If I have to be in prison for the rest of my life, I will still stay committed to JOHN AFRICA’s Teaching because of all JOHN AFRICA is doing for me.

I met MOVE people when I was 17 years old. They were having a demonstration and I just happened to be passing by. I stopped to see what was going on, I listened to them speak and what really caught my attention was the strength, confidence, and assertiveness of the MOVE women. They were everything I wasn’t and all I could think about was that I wanted to be like them. After the demonstration, I approached some of the MOVE women and asked who they were. They told me they were the MOVE Organization and explained to me what the organization’s belief is. They invited me to come to their weekly study sessions they held to teach people about JOHN AFRICA’s Teaching. I started going to these study sessions regularly and listening to the information from MOVE’s Guidelines and I could hear that what JOHN AFRICA teach is the truth, is right. JOHN AFRICA’s Teaching is what I’ve been looking for because I was just like everybody else in the system, unhappy, riddled with problems, and desperately looking elsewhere for the solution to these problems. My search stopped with JOHN AFRICA.

I had a baby and got married when I was very young. I didn’t know how to be a mother or a wife and trying to be both was driving me to a nervous breakdown. I developed a condition where my throat would close up on me and I couldn’t eat. I went from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital and none of them could do anything for me. I was at the end of my rope until I met MOVE. I joined MOVE and started living JOHN AFRICA’s Teaching. JOHN AFRICA cured the condition with my throat and made me a good loving mother and wife, and made me a loyal sister to my MOVE family. JOHN AFRICA gave me strength, health, security and confidence that I’ve never had! LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA FOREVER!

I will never leave MOVE and give up all that JOHN AFRICA as given me, even if it means being in prison for 30-100 years!

LONG LIVE JOHN AFRICA’S REVOLUTION!

On the MOVE!

Janine Africa

Hear insightful audio essays by Janine Africa on Prison Radio

For more information on the MOVE 9 see http://onamove.com and http://move9parole.blogspot.com