Sababu K. Shabaka

Chair
Finance Committee

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Hekima Kanyama
Founding Elder, Board Advisor

Hekima Kanyama is a husband, father and grandfather. He has been married to a wonderful Sister, Tamu Sana Kanyama, for 50 years. Together, they have created a legacy of work and dedication to community. Their three daughters and extended family, continue the work.

Hekima is a product of the student sit-in movement of the early 60’s and the Black Power/Black Nationalist Movement of the 60’s and 70’s.

Hekima was born and raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1966 he received a B.S. degree from North Carolina Central University. He was later admitted to the School of Social Work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Hekima has dedicated 50+ years of his life to the liberation of African People. He began his journey in the early-sixties as a part of the student sit-in movement in the South. Even as a youth he saw a need for change. While in graduate school he was drafted to serve in the U.S. war in Vietnam. Facing imprisonment and ridicule, Hekima stood his ground, and refused to fight in a war he felt was unjust. With help from the community he was able to claim conscientious objector status and avert federal prison time.

After college, Hekima became even more involved in the struggles of our people. During the late 60’s he embraced Black Nationalism and became a Citizen and leader in the PG-RNA.

In 1971, as a target of the FBI led Cointelpro, Hekima and others were attacked and forced to defend themselves in a deadly shootout with police in Jackson, Mississippi. These brothers and sisters became known as the RNA-11. Due to a technicality, Hekima was able to obtain release from US imprisonment after nine years.

Starting in about 1974, Hekima (while still in prison) began to write on a new approach for Black Empowerment. In 1980 (after release) he started to organize based on this new thinking. He tested the plan for one year in Milwaukee. After moving to Atlanta in 1981, Hekima continued to test his plan, but met with little success until 2003 with the founding of the African Community Centers for Unity and Self-Determination, Inc. Other Brothers and Sisters joined with him, his wife and family to put in place a permanent (intergenerational) system to naturally aid us in building power to control the economic, political and cultural life of our community. This permanent system is called “Functional Unity”.

In 2011, Hekima and others formed a think-tank that gave birth to Us Lifting Us Economic Development Cooperative LLC (ULU). This global business organization seeks to build, maintain and pass to future generations, institutions and systems that give us the capacity to gain economic control of our communities and nations.

Hekima believes that with Functional Unity, Africa will be redeemed. He believes that with the growth and maturity of the system of Functional Unity and Ujamaa (Family-Centered Economics), we will have the proper tools to forever throw off the yokes of domination and exploitation by others and establish ourselves as a servant of none but ourselves and The Most High.

Nanana Gordon
Board Chairperson,
Co-Chair Executive Committee

Nanana (Evelyn) Gordon: Bey was born in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in the Black neighborhoods of the south side, and “K” Town on Chicago’s west side. She has strong ties to the Mississippi Delta since both of her parents migrated to Chicago from there and she often traveled there to spend time with grandparents and other relatives. She has two adult offspring and remains constantly active in various arenas focused on healing and forward movement of black African descended people.

Nanana’s academic background includes an undergraduate degree in Sociology, a Master’s Degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and an Associate’s degree in Project Management. Much of this training was useful to her in the 25 year career she had in the telecommunications industry spanning four different companies. She worked in operations management, management skills training and human resources. While employed at Pacific Northwest Bell she assisted in founding the Black Employees Telecommunications Association (BETA) and served as Vice President for two years and then president for a year. Additionally she filed that company’s first EEO/Affirmative Action suite and agreed to an out of court settlement.

After leaving telecommunications Nanana pursued a career in wholistic health care. She became a Certified Nutritionist, Certified Colon Therapist and Certified Iridologist. She also received training in various African healing modalities in the Kemetic and Zulu traditions. She maintained her wholistic health care practice, Source Healing and Self Help Center, for 20 years before shifting her energies to support other endeavors focused on the upliftment and progress of African descended people. Currently her active roles include membership in the Inward Journey/Underground Railroad and Commissioner Moorish Marshal/Vicegerent in United States of America Republic Moorish National Government.

Nanana accepted her position as a Board member of ULU with only the highest of intentions. Specifically, to be of service by helping to establish a global cooperative economy for African descended people. She currently serves as Board Chair, Executive Committee Co-Chair and member of the Business Research and Development Committee.

Sababu K. Shabaka
Chair, Finance Committee

Sababu K. Shabaka (commonly called Shabaka) was born and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Morgan State University with degrees in Mathematics and Physics. He left for New Jersey to work in the solid state physics and chemistry division of Bell Telephone Laboratories (Bell Labs), a research and development facility of AT&T. He worked at Bell Labs for six (6) years and was promoted to associated members of the technical staff (essentially, an applied science researcher). While at Bell Labs, Shabaka became active and president of the Association of Black Laboratories Employees (ABLE), an advocacy group that fought against racial discrimination at the labs. During his presidency, the group was able to bring such personalities as, Dr. Ben, Dr. Clarke, and Brother Gil Nobles to speak.

Before leaving Baltimore in 1973, Shabaka affiliated himself with members of the Nation of Islam, under the leadership of the Messenger Elijah Muhammad. Before the death of the Messenger in early 1975 he joined a study group of the Congress of African People (CAP) and two years later became a delegate to the National Black Independent Political Party. In 1977 he left CAP and NBIPP and joined the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party.

He left the Party in the early 1980s and began to travel back and forth to Africa for the next 15 years, visiting over twenty (20) African countries and islands. He joined the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC) in the mid 1980s, and helped to organize a trip of nearly 1,000 persons to Kemet (Egypt) in 1988. He became president of the Southeastern Region of ASCAC before it was divided and stayed with the organization for several years.

In 2000 he joined the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA), and currently serves as its National Treasurer. He is also currently a member of the Lasana K. Mack Think Tank (LKMTT) of APPEAL (Association of People for Pan-Africanist Economic Advancement thru Leverage), based in Washington, DC.

Shabaka is currently retired having spent decades teaching mathematics at the University of the District of Columbia, and Morgan State University. In addition to teaching Shabaka has helped to start several non-profit organizations that worked on projects in Africa, as well as, a current partner in Ujamaa, llc, an education consulting business based in Miami. He is a father of two, grandfather of four, and great grandfather of five.

Byron K.Merritt (Kimbizi)
Board Secretary, Co-Chair Membership/Training and Development Committee

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. and raised in Queens, New York, Bro. Kimbizi is a product of the New York City Public School system graduating with honors from Andrew Jackson HS in 1966. He attended the historic March on Washington with his family and faith community in August of 1963, where Dr. King’s, “I Have a Dream” speech and the experience of being among the 250,000 marchers left an indelible impression on his life. He went on to attend Syracuse University from 1966-1970 majoring in Political Science with a History minor. While at Syracuse University, he served as president of the Student Afro-American Society which successfully agitated for the creation of an Afro- American Studies Department, a Black Student Cultural Center and the Martin Luther King Memorial Library which became permanent fixtures at Syracuse University. From 1972 – 1975 he was a member of the Committee For A Unified NewArk and the Congress of Afrikan People under the dual leadership of Amiri Baraka and Dr. Maulana Karenga. Following the sudden death of his father from a heart attack in 1975, Bro. Kimbizi relocated to Atlanta, Georgia.

Beginning in 1980, he joined the 5000 member Mt. Ephraim Baptist Church under the dynamic leadership of Rev. R.L. White Jr. and became their first Director of Christian Education in 1985. To fulfill these duties bro. Kimbizi enrolled in the Interdenominational Theological Center in 1987 and earned a Master’s of Divinity degree with a focus on “Liberation Theology” and Education. In 1995, he was part of a small leadership team of metropolitan ministers who facilitated the creation of Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (A.B.L.E.) The goal of ABLE was to build affordable low-income housing, provide ‘after- school’ programming for at-risk Atlanta children and create a mechanism for community policing. From 1995-2008, Bro. Kimbizi was active with the Shrines of the Black Madonna and First African Church where he taught classes and led seminars. An avid reader of African history and student of Kamitic philosophy, bro. Kimbizi is currently researching the intersection of culture and economics.

Bro. Kimbizi has been married to Zeoria Merritt for 33 years and they are the proud parents of two daughters, Furaha, a magnet student/junior at SWD High School and Naomi, who is currently pursuing a Masters of Social Work degree at Clark University.

Sistah Q
Board Member

When a gentle breeze kisses your face think of Sistah Q. For like the wind, she is always on the move. You don’t see her coming and you don’t see her leave. You do, however, feel her presence. 

Qaraandin is clear that whatever healing is necessary within our community lies within the community, not within a ballot box, an executive order, or a referendum. She has spent most of her life working to help the community bring its healing forward.

Sistah Q sees Us Lifting Us as an important medium for our community healing.

Njeri Shomari
Board Member

Ubuntu was her sense of being before she heard the word or knew what it meant. She says, “I came here feeling connected.” Of all the places she has lived, she considers Denver the place where the journey in Afrikan understanding came together as true consciousness. Through reading and study, initiation, and Sankofa travel to countries in the African Diaspora, the adult rite of passage was completed with the support and assistance of the Priests and Elders.

With an academic graduate degree in Social Work and 40 plus years working with children and their families, she honed skills in direct service, program development, implementation, and evaluation; budget management, and is a skilled communicator in oral and written traditions. Serving on several non-profit boards as a member and an officer gave her the opportunity to “activate the principles of the Nguzo Saba” in communities where she lives. She also is a Certified Facilitator of Emotional Emancipation Circles® and Mental Health First Aid®. The common thread weaving through her work is healing. It is with that thread that she intends to contribute to the rich fabric that is already present in this community.

This great-grandmother is honored to be a member of Us Lifting Us and serve on the board of ULU.

Dr. M. Iyailu Moses (Mama Ilu)
Board Member

Dr. M. Iyailu Moses (Mama Ilu) is the president and C.E.O. of Educational Visions, a community-based educational services and consulting organization. Educational Visions offers educational programs and activities to increase the cultural competence of individuals and groups in the history and culture of people of African descent.

Mama Ilu’s background as an educator includes teaching middle school, high school, and college students as well as teacher training and curriculum development. She was the first director of North Carolina State University’s African American Cultural Center. She has served as dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Education at Saint Augustine’s University and as director of the Academic Advising and Student Success Center at SAU.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in Education from the City College of New York. She earned her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from North Carolina State University.

Her journey as a community activist began when she was a young mother in Brooklyn, NY, joining in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville and subsequent protests for community control of schools. She also participated as a unionist and officer of the Black Caucus of the American Federation of Teachers.

She is married to artist, Ras Jahaziel Tafari, and is a proud mother of two, grandmother of four, and great-grandmother of four.

Robert White, III
Board Member

Mentor, Educator, Community Advocate

Robert White, III is a proud product of Brooklyn, Illinois (America’s first Black Incorporated Town). Growing up in a small yet proud close-knit community, Robert witnessed firsthand the importance of connectedness, pride, & self-determination. Raised as the oldest of three by an educator & a factory worker, the value of leadership, education, & hard work was instilled in Robert at an early age. After graduating from high school, Robert would go on to attend college as a first-generation student. Robert received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies (Public Speaking emphasis) from Southeast Missouri State University in 2002. Upon completing college Robert started his professional career in Cape Girardeau, Missouri & was active in both the campus community & the community at large. Wanting to make a direct impact in the area that he grew up in, Robert moved back to St. Louis, Missouri after living & working in Cape Girardeau for over a decade. Robert has approximately 24 years of professional experience working in the Social Services, Education, & Youth Development fields. Robert currently works as a Social Support Coach for an Technology Workforce Development program for young adults.

Robert is involved in several local, national, & international organizations. Robert is a member of the Us Lifting Us Lifting Us Economic Development Cooperative, Leader of the New Reality Program (a new program of the Us Lifting Us Economic Development Cooperative), Chair of the Board of Directors for P.E.A.C.E. Weaving Wholeness, member of the Universal Negro Improvement Association & African Communities League, & member of the Historical Society of Brooklyn, Illinois Robert also serves as Mentor for the Zakatu Madrasa Decarceration Mentoring Program & a Youth Sex Educator. In July 2021, Robert completed an Addiction Studies, Certificate of Specialization offered through St. Louis Community College & is working towards his Masters of Education degree at Western Governors University.