Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Riddle of National Sovreignity
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
30 Jan 2019
🖨️ Print Article
Riddle of National Sovreignity
For empire, the national sovreignity of colonized states has always been a polite fiction

Brown body writhing in orange
flames; scents of burning hair
and flesh—so, how do you say
Lynching in Spanish?
Torched clinics were hollowed
out shells without medicines and
Hoarders warehouses stay stuffed
like piñatas while shelves and bellies
stay stuck on empty—so, how do you
say sabotage in Spanish?
Vultures prancing like red,white and blue peacocks
bloody talons pounding cold coup-coup clocks
To bloodthirsty butchers like Bolton, Pompeo and Pence
the notion of national sovereignty makes no sense

The smell of sulfur, of hidden hands—
Hitmen— mired in the ‘90s—1890s…
Rogue state actors craving coltan,
bauxite, gold, gas, oil from the soil—
Flaunting the rule of law, pulling
strings of stooges, strangling aspirations,
dreams— making another economy scream!
Vultures prancing like red,white and blue peacocks
bloody talons pounding cold coup-coup clocks
To bloodthirsty butchers like Bolton, Pompeo and Pence
the notion of national sovereignty makes no sense—
Makes no sense to criminal champagne, caviar,
Cayman Island crowds— Brooks Brothers klansmen,
bedfellows of butchers confusing embassies with
slaughterhouses

© 2019. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.
Our poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist,
You can find more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com

poetry
Venezuela

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Venezuela, Memory, and the Long Arc of U.S. Imperialism
29 July 2026
Memories of a sovereign Venezuela collide with the reality that it is now a U.S. vassal state.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The White Supremacist Imperative on Violence: A Black Radical Perspective on the U.S./EU/NATO Axis of Domination
15 July 2026
The U.S.-EU-NATO axis remains intact, and its commitment to militarism represents an existential threat to the world.
Gary Wilson
Pentagon Turns Earthquake Into Occupation of Venezuela
15 July 2026
The same U.S.
Jacqueline Luqman
Disaster Capitalism In Haiti Gives A Glimpse Into the Imperialist Shock Doctrine That Could Rattle Venezuela Long After The Earthquakes
01 July 2026
The U.S.
North-South Project for People(s)-Centered Human Rights
Resisting U.S. Human Rights Barbarism: The Arrest of Alyssa Philip In Trinidad and Tobago
24 June 2026
A protest leader in Trinidad was arrested during Labour Day celebrations for the crime of demanding justice for a paralyzed shooting
2026 Casa Ben Linder Bluefields Delegation
Nicaragua and The Miseducation of the People of the United States
17 June 2026
Nicaragua is a living example of anti-imperialist resistance and people-centered development. The job of those in the U.S.
Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
Luis Britto García: I resist, therefore I am
17 June 2026
"We all know what lies behind the deafening silence that oppresses us.
Carlos Martinez
Siege Socialism or Barbarism: Why We Must Stand with Cuba
10 June 2026
Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are astounding, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it loo
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Denial is Not a River in Egypt, or in Venezuela
03 June 2026
The U.S. regime change plot against Venezuela succeeded and created a puppet state.
Elías Jaua , Federico Fuentes
Former Chávez VP: Venezuela Needs a New ‘struggle for liberation’
27 May 2026
A former vice-president who served with Hugo Chávez provides analysis on what he calls neo-colonial control and coercion the U.S.

More Stories


  • Hanna Eid
    Recognizing the Palestinian 'State': A Colonial Hauntology
    01 Oct 2025
    While Gaza burns, a collaborationist class is being handed the keys to a prison and calling it a state, all in service to western imperialism.
  • Bikrum Gill
    Orders of Sovereignty: Internal Power and External Dependency in the Recognition of the State of Palestine
    01 Oct 2025
    Western nations complicit in occupation and genocide offer a fig leaf of sovereignty by recognizing a Palestinian state that in reality would still be occupied.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio September 26, 2025
    26 Sep 2025
    In this week’s segment we discuss the need for self-defense against racist, white supremacist forces. But first we hear about efforts to Build and Fight through a solidarity economy, self-…
  • The Build and Fight Formula
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Build and Fight Formula
    26 Sep 2025
    Our guest is Kali Akuno, co-founder and director of Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi. He joins us from New York to discuss the Build and Fight Formula, its work with the Peoples Network…
  • One People’s Project
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    One People's Project and the Fight Against Racism and Fascism
    26 Sep 2025
    Our guest is Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of One People’s Project. One People’s Project seeks to combat right wing, white supremacist groups and individuals by exposing their threat to the world.…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us