‘Tell the truth and bring freedom, justice and equality to the Black man and women of America and the world’

By Jehron Muhammad | Last updated: Feb 26, 2019 - 3:39:07 PM

Min. Farrakhan and his wife, Mother Khadijah, visit with Nelson Mandela in South Africa during an international tour. Photos: Final Call archives

Displayed prominently in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., is a copy of the Nation of Islam’s weekly news organ, The Final Call. Founded in 1979 by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, the publication follows in the tradition of Muhammad Speaks, published by the Nation of Islam’s leader, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, with hard-hitting national and international news.

The Final Call, like Muhammad Speaks before it, when other publications are mainly using news services for their African coverage strives to obtain original content. It was the only Black weekly U.S. publication to get an exclusive interview, in his office, with Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, to cover the 1993 African African-American Summit in Gabon, where Min. Farrakhan addressed 19 African heads of state, and to cover Sudan’s 2010 historic regional and national elections. Those political milestones gave way to a referendum and creation of Africa’s newest African nation state, South Sudan.

When the Organization of African Unity transitioned to the African Union, The Final Call was there. It was the only publication to cover a private meeting in Zambia between Min. Farrakhan and Gadhafi at the 2001 transition of the Organization of African Unity to the African Union.

Part of the mission of The Final Call newspaper is to report on the global mission of Min. Louis Farrakhan, shown above with the late Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, in Africa and around the globe.

During the private session, Gadhafi, sounding like Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah, spoke of the importance of the Minister and Africans in the Diaspora to the growth and development of Africa. “The idea of African unity did not start in Africa,” Gadhafi said. “It started in America from the Blacks of the Western Hemisphere, mainly the Caribbean and the United States.”

In 1996, when Min. Farrakhan traveled to South Africa to meet with President Nelson Mandela, The Final Call was there. Not only did the paper cover this historic trip, but Mandela traveled to Libya, stopping first in Tunisia, and traveling over 100 miles by car because of the UN sanctions against air travel to meet with Col. Gadhafi and thank him for his support against the apartheid regime. The Final Call covered the event.

In the face of massive criticism of the South African leader’s meeting with the Libyan leader, The Final Call published remarks by former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Andy Young. Similar to Mandela’s leadership of Black-majority-rule South Africa and attempts to reconcile differences with officials of the brutal, former White-minority government, perhaps he “is challenging us (in America) to reconcile with those Arab leaders with whom we have had conflict,” said Mr. Young.

The weekly has also used its pages to highlight inaccuracies in the Western press. Outlets like CNN and ABC News claimed the “Chinese government is leveraging billions of dollars in debt to gain political leverage with developing countries.”

When in fact, as published last year in the pages of The Final Call, according to African economic and political analyst Lawrence Freeman, “It is more than ironic that the West is complaining about Africa’s debt to China. Since the 1960s, Western nations, the IMF, World Bank, Paris Club, etc., have ‘looted’ Africa of hundreds of billions of dollars in bloated debt payments and through the manipulation of currencies, and terms of trade.”

The cover of The Final Call highlights coverage of Min. Farrakhan’s work building ties between Blacks in America and in the Motherland.

The Final Call has covered many of the global companies that robbed Africa of its mineral and agricultural wealth, which includes undervaluing products taken out of Africa.

The newspaper shared a speech by Ghanaian President Akufu-Addo, where he said it was unfair that Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire who produce 65 percent of the world’s output of cocoa made less than $6 billion from an industry worth over $100 billion.

“If we simply ground and sold the cocoa in paste form, instead of selling the cocoa beans, we double our earnings. In much the same way as we would double our earning from gold, if we sold it refined than in its raw state. We are determined to process these products,” he said. “It is time African countries are responsible for processing their own resources and managing these resources well to generate wealth for the population, expected to hit two billion in the next 20 years,” he said.

The newspaper’s Africa coverage has included updating developing stories, such political races and an initiative championed by outgoing African Union chair and Rwanda President Paul Kagame. This “game changer,” reported The Final Call, “is the recently signed African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), supported by the 55-member African Union.” ACFTA “seeks to create a single (African) market in goods and services, free movement of persons and investment, and eventually a customs union with a common external tariff.” According to The Final Call report, ACFTA has the potential to transform Africa “from an exporter of commodities and raw materials to a supplier of finished manufactured goods.”

Min. Farrakhan, Final Call publisher, shared an experience when he visited South Africa and stepped from a plane. He noted “there was a man at the bottom of the stairs of the plane wrapped in chains.” He traveled to a beautiful five-star hotel in Johannesburg. When he arrived, said Min. Farrakhan, “that same man was there in chains. And when I went up to my room I said to myself, and to others, he is telling us that South African (and all of Africa) is not yet free.”

As Muhammad Speaks publisher Elijah Muhammad reportedly told John Woodford, his soon to become editor, “All we want to do is tell the truth and bring freedom, justice and equality to the Black man and women of America (and the world). The devil built his empire on lies, and we can destroy it with the truth.” Following in these footsteps is The Final Call newspaper.

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The Final Call