GYE NYAME(Thanksgiving Alternative)

[Shombay]

THE NEW BLACK PANTHER PARTY
THE NATIONAL MINISTRY OF CULTURE
PO BOX 25332
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 07101
201-602-0780

November 15, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GYE NYAME, THE ALTERNATIVE TO THANKSGIVING, OBSERVED
JERSEY’S JENA? THE CASE OF OMAR PILGRIM

On Thursday, November 22nd, the New Black Panther Party’s national ministry of culture will host an observation of Gye Nyame, (pronounced gee-nyah-may), at Waset Kommuniversity.
Gye Nyame, the powerful and moving New Afrikan alternative to Thanksgiving, was developed by the immortal Khallid Abdul Muhammad, the party’s late Black Power General, in the early 90s to give “our people a conscious choice.�
Since 2001, Zayid Muhammad, the Party’s national minister of culture, has hosted and demonstrated Gye Nyame ceremonies throughout the East Region. This year marks the first time that the observation will actually be held on its prescribed day, the fourth Thursday of November.
Doors will open at 12 noon. The ceremony will begin at 1pm sharp.
Waset Kommuniversity is located at 271 So. 9th Street, Newark. Free Admission…
On Sunday, November 18th, Muhammad will also demonstrate a ceremony for the Heritage Ministry at the Afrikan Poetry Theatre in Jamaica Queens at 1pm.
The Afrikan Poetry Theatre is located at 176-03 Jamaica Ave., Jamaica Queens. For more information, please call 718-523-3312…
On Tuesday, November 13th, Muhammad was in Morristown in court, along with members of the Peoples Organization for Progress and Episcopal Baptist Church in support of the incredible and outrageous case of Omar Pilgrim of East Orange.
In January 2004, Pilgrim was in an incident that ultimately had him sent to jail for attempted armed robbery. He went to a Union gas station to get $15 worth of gas only to realize that he only had $3 in cash on him. He offered to leave his driver’s license with the attendant and come back with the difference. The attendant instead declared that he did not understand English and proceeded to call Pilgrim, at the time a student at Essex College, a “nigger.�
Frustrated and upset, Pilgrim left the gas station after attempting to call a family member to help him with the difference. The attendant subsequently called the police and said Pilgrim pulled a gun on him. Pilgrim was arrested in East Orange and found to have had no gun. He was then detained over 24 hours by the police without access to counsel or a phone call and who then told him that he would be let go if he signed a paper they put in front of him. Distressed, Pilgrim signed the paper without it reading, and it would turn out to be a confession of the alleged robbery attempt. This was used against him at trial when he refused to plea to a lesser charge. Even though he had no record, and the prosecutor really had no hard evidence, Pilgrim was convicted and sentenced to 8 years in prison!
Tuesday’s proceeding was an appellate hearing on Pilgrim’s case in which one appellate even conceded that the trial judge and the prosecutors used a “sledgehammer in this case when a scalpel was all that was needed.�
“If this young man is not released and his conviction is not overturned, all hell should break loose,� exclaimed an angry Zayid Muhammad.
“This was an obscene example of a racist miscarriage of justice,� he finished.