Washington DC — THE quality of an oppressed people's resistance can best be measured by their level of unity and organisation.

On Saturday February 9, while US Senator Barack Obama was announcing his candidacy for the 2008 presidential elections in Springfield, Illinois, where the 16th president of the United States - Abraham Lincoln - served in the state legislature, media personality and political activist, Tavis Smiley, was hosting the State of Black America forum in Hampton, Virginia, on the 400th anniversary of the first permanent English settlement in Jamestown, Virginia, which is where the first slaves landed.

The gathering attracted over 10 000 people and is connected to an initiative called the Covenant with Black America, that produced a book with that same title which emerged to become the New York Times' best seller, a sequel called the Covenant in Action has recently been released.

Mr Smiley, along with fellow media personality Tom Joyner, have organised the event since 2000, the issues they have prioritised are health care and well being, education, criminal justice, police accountability, voting, rural development, and the digital divide.

The forum each year is aired on C-Span.

This year it attracted the likes the President of NAACP and CEO Bruce Gordon, President of the Children's Defence Fund Dr Marian Wright Edelman, Ebony magazine Editor Emeritus Dr Lerone Bennett, Hip Hop Artiste/Activist Chuck D of Public Enemy, and Historian/Author Dr Cornel West to mention just a few.

Mr Smiley, to the delight of the audience, announced he would be hosting forums with presidential candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties later on this year - the Democratic hopefuls' forum will take place on June 28, 2007 and the Republicans will take place on September 27, 2007.

The venues will be two HBCUS (Historical Black Colleges and Universities): Howard University and Morgan State University.

While the forum each year, both in title and content for the most part, focuses exclusively on the plight of Africans who live inside the borders of the United States, the urgency of linking the experiences of slavery and colonialism remains a challenge we have yet to embrace.

We must collectively arrive at the conclusion that merging our experiences fully strengthens our organisations and communities worldwide.

The Government of Zimbabwe under the leadership of President Mugabe would benefit immensely from this type of bond, especially since the two governments most determined to impose an illegal and fascist regime change in their country are none other than the Blair and Bush administrations, building an unbreakable wall of defense around Zimbabwe demonstrates that in the 21st century we no longer look at political developments in Africa as an afterthought.

Because the war on Iraq will be the main foreign policy issue used by Democrats in their bid to defeat the Republicans in next year's Presidential election, it will be interesting to see how members of the Democratic machine, especially in the African community, respond to the issue of Zimbabwe, the hypocrisy and contradictions in relationship to this matter could cause major embarrassment for the Congressional Black Caucus members, civil rights and church leaders who have given the Bush administration unconditional support.

Instead of discussing how Barack Obama relates to Abraham Lincoln, let's see if he shares Senator Hillary Clinton's view that the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 should be maintained.

Is it not accurate to consider this a crucial issue, especially if Obama loses to Clinton in the Democratic primary and runs as her Vice Presidential candidate?

The spokespeople in our community in the national spotlight must understand Zimbabwe's historical significance is too important to ignore, it would be hard to convince our people that they are sincerely committed to the issues of reparations and gentrification if they don't defend the courage President Mugabe and Zanu-PF demonstrated when they reclaimed 12 million acres of land from 4 500 white commercial farmers in 2000.

The issue of Zimbabwe also brings attention to the HIV/Aids pandemic for Africans worldwide, how long can we overlook that this is the first nation on the planet to come up with a National Aids Levy which developed a National Aids Trust fund which has resulted in a 15 percent drop in prevalence, the most significant decline since the beginning of this century in Southern Africa, the region of Africa most ravaged by the deadly scourge?

Since hip hop artistes and their extended networks usually are in demand when Presidential elections are approaching, we have an obligation to ensure they are just as concerned about what happens in Zimbabwe and the rest of the Sadc region as they are about South Africa.

We must admit that at the expense of magnifying the struggle against Apartheid, we swept the significant gains of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Mozambique and Angola completely under the rug.

Every national organisation which has had the opportunity to visit Cuba since 1959, in order to pay respect to Commandante Fidel Castro and show solidarity with the revolutionary people of Cuba, has strongly condemned the blockade first imposed by John F. Kennedy in 1962. Shouldn't we extend the same courtesy to President Mugabe and the people of Zimbabwe?

While the sanctions against Zimbabwe enter their sixth year, we only hope they don't wait as long as some of them did in the case of Cuba, since nearly two million people have died in Iraq courtesy of US-imposed sanctions (500 000 of them children) one can only hope they are politically sophisticated enough to make the connection.

Because Zimbabwe has Africa's highest literacy rate, it is in the best interest of all those in our community who believe education is a right not a privilege to develop and maintain outreach programmes with Zimbabwe at all levels.

All those who admire Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Harriet Tubman and Assata Shakur must openly identify with the first woman Vice President Amai Joice Mujuru and celebrate that Zimbabwe has the highest level of female representation in an African parliament.

When Africans in the US talk about their morals and values, this is when our religious and spiritual beliefs are discussed passionately, those in the national spotlight must remember Zimbabwe is predominantly Christian.

We only hope you don't hold this against them the political heresy continues whether it's the suspension from the Commonwealth, Britain and the U.S. openly and unapologetically financing the opposition on the ground.

In conclusion, the Pan African Liberation Organisation calls on the Covenant of Black America to do the following:

l Demand that sanctions in the form of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act of 2001 be lifted immediately.

l Demand that the U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell stops meeting with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, for this is a violation of diplomatic protocol.

l Demand that the Global Fund stops denying Zimbabwe humanitarian aid to fight HIV and Aids on political grounds.

l Demand that the Bush Administration, along with the National Endowment for Democracy, stops financing the political opposition to the Zimbabwe Government.

Africans in the U.S. must understand embracing Nelson Mandela and demonising President Mugabe is the equivalent of loving Dr King and hating Malcolm X without realising the same people killed them both.

We appreciate history too much not to admit and correct our most crucial mistakes.

We cannot let George Bush or Hillary Clinton have the last word on Zimbabwe.