MXCC founder, New Afrikan pioneer Iyaluua Ferguson dies at 91
The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee (MXCC) announced the passing of Iyaluua Ferguson on the morning of February 27. Ferguson was 91 years old.
An education leader and one of the initial founders of the provisional government of the Republic of New Afrika (RNA), Ferguson is remembered as a noted activist as well as the wife of Black Liberation Movement proponent Herman Ferguson.
“They became Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson because they were both revolutionary educators who brought out the best in each other,” said their longtime press officer and now lead organizer Zayid Muhammad.
Back in 1968, Iyaluua was an RNA founder alongside her husband, Herman, and with other activists like Queen Mother Moore; Dr. Imari Obadele and his brother Gaidi Obadele; Mutulu Shakur; and Robert and Mabel Williams. From March 29-31 of that year, RNA members came together to hold a national convention in Detroit, Michigan, where they drew up a Black declaration of independence. The RNA demanded $400 billion in reparations from the United States for African enslavement. The group wanted to use the funds to create a Black-led country on lands currently occupied by the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina and in Black-majority counties in Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida.
The MXCC notes that, “After facing a COINTELPRO-orchestrated conviction in 1969, Herman Ferguson defiantly opted for exile in Guyana the following year. Mama Iyaluua, as she was so affectionately called, sacrificed all of the possibilities of her professional life in New York without hesitancy and joined her husband there in 1972. In their nearly 20 years in Guyana, they both played groundbreaking roles in establishing that new nation’s educational infrastructure.”
Both returned to the United States in 1989, and though Herman was still forced to do time in prison, afterwards each continued their Black Liberation work. Iyaluua is remembered for having served as lead editor of the New Afrikan Independence Movement newspaper Nation Time!
In an interview I conducted with both Herman and Iyaluua after their return, they talked about how their Black Liberation Movement activism brought the fear that fighting for the human rights of Black people could get you killed. In the 1960s, Ferguson had created the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol club. The club was part of his wider circle of activities––which included study groups, promoting Black Nationalism, and working for the community control of area schools.
“People were concerned about self-defense,” Iyaluua said during that interview. She said that with urban riots, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the CIA’s Operation CHAOS infiltrations, and shootouts between police forces and Black Nationalists, the summer of 1967 was written up as one of this nation’s most violent. “We knew we had a right to self-defense, but I think that in the back of our minds, many felt there was now a need for self-defense.”
The MXCC statement on Iyaluua’s passing states that: “For many years… Mama Iyaluua oversaw the educational work of MXCC, including their Malcolm X In The Classroom project and the organization’s essay contest whose winners were feted at the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Educational Center, which was once the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm fell.
“She also conceptualized what became the organization’s legendary Annual Freedom Fighter’s Dinner Tribute, in support of Black political prisoners and their families, something the organization did for 25 consecutive years until the advent of the COVID pandemic. The Dinner will be renamed after her upon its resumption in future months in tribute to her vision and commitment.
“‘Do we realize that when we are looking at Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson that we are looking at atleast 120 years or more of a lifetime commitment to our struggle in its most radical expression?’ said Zayid Muhammad.
“‘She meant everything to my father,’ said her son-in-law Michael Ferguson, now the organization’s treasurer. ‘She was his partner and confidant in all of his revolutionary activities.’”Homegoing Services for Mama Iyaluua will be on Saturday, March 9 at the Steven Lyons Funeral Home, located at 1515 New Bern Avenue, Raleigh, North Carolina. Viewing will take place from 1:30 to 2 pm. Memorial Service will take place at 2 p.m. and will be streamed via their website at www.stevenlyonsfuneralhome.com.
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