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Vol. 80/No. 15 April 18, 2016
Celebrate life of political prisoner Mondo we Langa
BY JOE SWANSON
OMAHA, Neb. — Some 200 people celebrated the life and work of political
prisoner Mondo we Langa here March 26. He along with Ed Poindexter had
been jailed on frame-up charges for more than 45 years.
We Langa, 68, formerly known as David Rice, died in the Nebraska State
Penitentiary in Lincoln on March 11 after a long illness.
“Ed and Mondo helped organize protests against police violence that
Omaha’s Black population suffered in the 1960s, which continues
nationwide today,” said Tariq Al-Amin, president of Nebraskans for
Justice. The group has fought for many years to free the men known as
the Omaha Two. Nebraskans for Justice will “continue the work to free Ed
Poindexter,” Al-Amin said.
We Langa and Poindexter were leaders of the Black Panther Party, which
organized protests against police brutality, including the 1969 killing
of 14-year-old Vivian Strong. They were railroaded to prison in 1970 on
trumped-up charges of killing a police officer, who died after being
lured into a home where a suitcase bomb exploded. Both were sentenced to
life imprisonment.
The jury was never informed that the two were targets of the FBI’s
Cointelpro spying and disruption campaign directed against Black rights
organizations, anti-war groups, socialists and others. Witnesses placed
them elsewhere at the time of the bombing, and the prosecution’s
“physical evidence” linking them to the case was dubious at best.
The celebration of we Langa’s life, held at the Malcolm X Memorial
Foundation, included cultural performances and more than a dozen
speakers. Messages were received from Africa, Australia, United Kingdom
and from across the United States.
Freelance journalist Kietryn Zychal, who has been investigating the
frame-up of the Omaha Two, introduced a recorded message from
Poindexter. After being in separate prisons for 26 years, Poindexter
said, he returned to the Nebraska State Penitentiary and found “Mondo
was still serving the people.”
“Mondo was an inspiration and a mentor to fellow prisoners at the state
penitentiary,” said Linda Kennedy of the Harambee African Cultural
Organization, which meets weekly at the prison. “He explained, ‘I have
no time to be bitter to the government frame-up, I have a life to live.’”
Other speakers included Angela Davis, who in 1970-71 was a Communist
Party member framed up and imprisoned for her activity defending inmates
at California’s Soledad prison. Davis called for continuing to fight to
free other political prisoners, including Leonard Peltier and Mumia
Abu-Jamal.
For more information and to get involved in the fight to free Ed
Poindexter, contact Nebraskans for Justice at P.O. Box 11725, Omaha, NE
68111.
Letters can be sent to Ed Poindexter, #27767, P.O. Box 2500, Lincoln, NE
68542-2500.
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