Born in the swamps of Louisiana as Elmer Pratt, he died at the foot of Mount Kilamanjaro as Geronimo ji-Jaga. From decorated Vietnam war veteran to anti- government Black Panther, he was wrongfully imprisoned for as long as Nelson Mandela.
It was during his 27 years in California state prisons, including the notorious San Quentin, for a murder he didn't commit that Pratt embraced an African identity and changed his name to Geronimo ji-Jaga. It was OJ Simpson's lawyer, the late Johnnie Cochrane, who got the conviction overturned, and Geronimo went on to sue for false imprisonment, winning U.S $4.5-million from the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department.
Geronimo married the daughter of Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver and, true to their principles, the couple travelled to Africa. According to Seth Markle and Mejah Mbuya, former Panthers Pete and Charlotte O'Neal invited them to visit the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha, where they had been living since the early 1970s.
Geronimo and his wife wound up settling in the nearby Maji ya Chai ward, doing community work with the O'Neals' United African Alliance Community Center (UAACC). They divided their time between Africa and America and it was in Imbaseni village that Geronimo died on 2 June 2011 of natural causes at the age of 63.
Markle and Mbuya say that African-Americans have been drawn to Tanzania since the 1967 Arusha Declaration of Mwalimu Nyerere's "socialist and self-reliant" government, and that Tanzanians have been likewise captivated by African-American political movements: "Tanzanian radicals like Abdul-Rahman Mohammed Babu and University of Dar es Salaam student organizations like the TANU (Tanzanian African National Union) Youth League and University Students African Revolutionary Front lauded the work and ideological trajectory of the Black Panther Party."
Tanzanian Richard Mabala remembers several African-Americans who taught in Tanzanian secondary schools in the 1970s. "I don't know whether it was because of their influence, but the syllabus was strong in African-American political literature, in particular Malcolm X, George Jackson and Eldridge Cleaver," Mabala told allafrica. "These books were very popular with students and helped them to understand the real nature of American society, in contrast with the Blaxploitation films that were being shown at the time."
Seth Markle is an Assistant Professor of History and International Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut who is researching the impact of Tanzanian independence on the US Black Power movement during the 1960s and 70s. He is also writing about the history of Tanzanian Hip-Hop music, collaborating with community activist and graffiti artist Mejah Mbuya of the Tanzanian eco-tourism initiative, Afri Roots.
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Geronimo's link to Hip-Hop came through fellow Black Panther Afeni Shakur, who asked him to be godfather to her son - who grew up to be the legendary rapper, Tupac (2Pac) Shakur.
"To identify Geronimo's and the Panther legacy today, one only need to look and listen to Hip-Hop music in the US and Tanzania," argue Markle and Mbuya, who cite Dead Prez, Nas, Immortal Technique, Common, Black Star and especially 2Pac as US hip hop artists whose music honored Geronimo's contributions to the black freedom struggle.
"And Tanzanian Hip-Hop artists such as River Camp, Joe Makini, Nix Wapili (Watengwa), JCB, Nako 2 Nako, X-Plastas and even Bongo Flava star Nakaaya owe a great deal to the Panthers for their socially conscious music, serving as the major conduits through which the Panthers have remained relevant."
Markle told allafrica that Hip-Hop artist Nakaaya frequented the UAACC while growing up in Arusha. "She received a political education there, which is reflected in her songs," he explained. "So G's legacy, which to me, represents the Panther legacy in general, is imprinted on the Hip- Hop scene, specifically in Arusha."
Geronimo once made a public appeal to African-Americans to follow his example and head for the mother continent. "Please come to Africa, it's right across the water, " he exhorted in a 2003 interview with Chuck "Jigsaw" Creekmur, CEO of AllHipHop.com. "Come look at yourselves, Momma is waiting."
