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Sovereign Evolution Book Review

By Kam Williams

"African-Americans could benefit from a 21st Century approach to freedom and equality, using sovereign principles as its interpretive lens... Sovereignty is an inborn political desire for self-government that is as natural as the change of seasons.

This book shapes the sociopolitical substance of our historical experience into a sovereign consciousness... [A] key factor that distinguishes this work from typical political works of Africans in America, is that it does not regard 'Civil Rights' as the standard or goal by which our freedom should be measured or aspired.

I rather circumscribe 'Sovereign Rights' in a universal and historical context that effectively confers us with just as much integrity and authority as any other people on Earth to espouse and employ sovereign standards for ourselves.
Svereignty, as I exclaim, is the next state in our centuries-old political evolution to regain our true freedom."

Excerpted from the Introduction (pages xi-xiv)
The ascension of Barack Obama to the presidency has seemingly put the political agenda of black America on the back burner. Consequently, many a pundit has come to suggest that this historic moment might simultaneously signal the end of the line for those civil rights advocates whose careers have revolved around petitioning the government for inclusion. This new debate has basically been framed around the question of whether or not the U.S. has matured into a post-racial society where everyone is judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

However, Ezrah Aharone has a very different perspective of the plight of Africans in America. He argues that "the granting of civil rights and voting rights should not be viewed as a marker of a government's legitimization, since a genuinely moral government would never make its citizenry fight for civil rights in the first place."

He goes on to point out that the woeful federal, state and municipal response to Katrina proved that black people remain second-class citizens, all the supposed inroads notwithstanding. Ezrah says the problem resides in the question of sovereignty which still "belongs to Euro-Americans who have abused their sovereign powers as a political weapon of control." Mr. Aharone's answers to this dilemma, the assertion of their "Sovereign Rights" by black folks, are all meticulously delineated in Sovereign Evolution, a sequel of sorts to his first book, the equally-incendiary "Pawned Sovereignty." It takes a lot of gumption for anyone to be proposing what at first blush sounds like a black nationalist agenda in this ostensibly omni-embracive age of Obama.

If not necessarily convincing, the author at least makes a well-articulated, thought-provoking case, pointing to the new president as proof of "our own sovereign potentiality." As Ezrah puts it, "Black president or no Black president, we need our own political 'Manifest Destiny' because their version of 'Manifest Destiny' ensures that America will always politically remain majority-owned, fully controlled, and absolutely governed by Anglo-European principles, practices and policies." A controversial clarion call for separation just when America finally appears on the verge of actually becoming the melting pot it has long pretended to be. Given that you hear so many black people saying they feel fully American for the first time, pursuing brother Aharone's divisive dream of black sovereignty is probably as practical aright now as trying to unscramble a bowl of scrambled eggs.

And I wonder on which side of the color line would half-white/half-black President Obama belong anyway?
To order a copy of Sovereign Evolution, visit: www.EzrahSpeaks.com Or call (888) 280-7715
To contact the author, email: EzrahAharone@Juno.com

Sovereign Evolution: Manifest Destiny from "Civil Rights" to "Sovereign Rights"
by Ezrah Aharone
AuthorHouse
Paperback, $21.00
324 pages, illustrated
ISBN: 1438938586

Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the African-American Film Critics Association, and the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee. Contact him through NewsBlaze.