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.

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.

Woullard Lett
Board Member

Woullard Lett has worked as a social change and justice advocate for most of his life. His work is grounded in an animist understanding of spiritual transformation and social healing as materialist manifestations of divine unity. He has a long history of study and activism within the spiritual humanist, political pan-Africanist, Black nationalist, anti-racist and economic cooperation communities.

Mama Nobantu
Board Member

“Mother of Humanity
Sleepless Until the Battle is Won”

Dr. Mama Nobantu Ankoanda was born in Oakland, California and grew up in San Francisco. Mama Nobantu is the mother of five adult children who reside in Georgia, California, Texas and Oklahoma. She is the grandmother of eight. She has mothered over 300 students from her school she ran in California and is still in contact with many of them through social media. Her oldest child is diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. He has taught her the patience and calm nature she is well known for. Mama Ankoanda holds a doctoral degree in Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of California at Berkeley.

She became an educator in 1972 as a teacher in East Palo Alto (aka “Little Nairobi”), California. She has nearly 50 years of experience as an educator, teacher, former principal and founder of Afrikan Centered Community Based institutions in Nairobi, CA. Mama Nobantu holds a doctoral degree in Education Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, a Master of Arts in Elementary Education from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the University of California at Berkeley. In 1968, while a student at UCB, Mama Nobantu became a Pan Afrikan Socialist after she was recruited to become a citizen of the Republic of New Afrika. She participated and studied the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C. as a sociology student shortly after the assassination of Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr.

After 10 years teaching in the East Palo Alto, CA ( aka “Little Nairobi, CA”) public schools, Mama Nobantu retired at the age of 34. She co-founded Shule Ya Taifa in 1981, Shule Nyansa Sua in 1982, and Shule Mandela Academy in 1983. In 1998 she transformed Shule Mandela Academy into a charter school and renamed it the School of Wisdom and Knowledge College Preparatory Academy.
She was the Northern California convener for the Council of Independent Institutions (CIBI) from 1998-2003. Mama Nobantu also co-founded the Rites of Passage for girls, a grassroots organization called Sisters of Tomorrow (SOT) in 1984. Presently, there is an Atlanta SOT chapter where she works with the organization as an elder.

Mama Nobantu has traveled throughout the African Continent. She was the youngest of 185 educators (including Betty Shabazz, C. Eric Lincoln) to travel to Accra, Ghana in 1969 upon her graduation from University of California.. It was there that she received an Afrikan history and Culture Certificate. In 1982, she returned to Ghana with her five children. She wanted to expose them at an early age to the true positive images of Africa and its people. In 2001, she attended the World Conference Against Racism, in Durban, South Africa. In 2010, she traveled to Kemet with her uncle, Professor Earl Grant, (who was one of Malcolm X’s lieutenants) where she received a different perspective on ancient Kemet due to his engineering degree. In 2018 she traveled to Ghana for the PAFM (Pan African Federalist Movement) Pre-Congress and later the same year traveled to East Nigeria with Dr. Uwa Osimiri, CEO of AWEC (African Women’s Economic Coalition) where she was the first woman to be crowned with the chieftaincy title “Nwanne Di Na Mba” in Abia State (Eastern Nigeria). In 2019, she traveled to Ghana with 14 of her family members including her children and grandchildren. In 2022, she traveled to Tanzania.

In her dissertation, “A Case Study of Afrikan Centered Schools”, she focused on the critical factors of success and failure that are associated with the academic achievement of students in African Centered Schools as measured by public high school graduation rates. An analysis of the data indicated that students’ high school graduation rate in African Centered Schools was significanly higher than students’ graduation rate in public high schools.

In 2006, Mama Nobantu moved to Decatur, GA to become closer to two of her daughters and grandchildren. She developed a new skill as a tax professional with ComproTax. It was in 2010 she brought the Collard Greens Cultural Festival to the Metro Atlanta Region that originated from East Palo Alto, CA as a fundraiser for Shule Mandela Academy in 1998.

Mama Nobantu’s activism includes co-chair of the Metro-Atlanta Council of African Elders; member of CIBI (Council of Black Independent Institutions), a LifeTime member of N’COBRA (National Coalition of Reparations in America) and member of the Atlanta N’COBRA chapter, Board member of Kilombo Academic and Cultural Institute, member of the Seasoned Women of First Afrikan Church, Ifa/Lakumi practitioner. She is the Secretary General for the North America Region of PAFM (Pan African Federalist Movement). Mama Nobantu is the co-founder of Black Sustainability Summit and presently sits on the Black Sustainability Network Board. In 1984,Mama Nobantu co-founded SOT (Sisters of Tomorrow), a Rites of Passage for girls. She is presently an elder with the SOT Atlanta Chapter. She is the co-chair of the reparations committee with the Beacon Hill Black Alliance for Human Rights in the City of Decatur. She is currently the co-chair of the Kwanzaa Metro Atlanta Regional Association, she is a Member of Georgia Black Women Farmers and Finally, she sits on the ULU (Us Lifting Us) Board.

Mama Nobantu has received numerous awards and proclamations for her work in California and Georgia.

She believes it is the responsibility of teachers, parents, preachers, and leaders to bring out the genius of African/Black Children.

Khadija Yvonne Stafford 
Board Member

Khadija Yvonne Stafford is a visionary leader, entrepreneur, and advocate for economic justice, with a lifelong commitment to building sustainable communities. She is the founder and Managing Partner of Nation Equities Fund LLC, a private equity real estate impact investment fund focused on developing a national network of Wholistic Wellness and Education Centers for African-descended communities in the U.S. She also owns Stafford Realty Group Inc., a commercial real estate brokerage based in Harlem, and is co-founder of BlackRealEstateAgents.com, a national referral network.

Ms. Stafford has over three decades of experience in real estate development, business strategy, community leadership, and education. She served on the boards of the Harlem Business Alliance, the NY Urban League, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, the 125th Street BID, and others. She is the founder of The Cooperative Business Association (TCB) and co-founder of The Entrepreneurial Development Group (EDG).

She is the author of From Fast Foods to Slow Foods: How to Wake up Laughing, a Living Foods Lifestyle® Total Well-Being Educator, and a Certified Laughter Leader. Her initiative: The Blueprint, a national plan built from 15+ years of research, travel, and grassroots dialogue, designed to revolutionize entrepreneurship, generational wealth, wellness, and conscious education in Black communities across the U.S.

Ms. Stafford holds a master’s degree from New York University. She is a former Adjunct Professor in Communications at Hunter College CUNY and counselor in the SEEK Program. at Hunter College, She taught real estate licensing courses at Brooklyn College and City College.

Tẹjú Rice
Board Member

Tẹjú Rice is a healer and organizer dedicated to the sacred work of liberation and repair. As a mother of adult twins, her journey in organizing began with personal experiences related to the school-to-prison pipeline. This has developed into a lifelong commitment to self-determination, liberation, and cooperative living.

Drawing from African spiritual traditions, restorative justice practices, and a deep love for her community, Tẹjú has worked on the front lines supporting incarcerated individuals. She challenged long-term solitary confinement during California’s historic 2011 and 2013 hunger strikes and advocated for justice on both personal and systemic levels. Her activism is guided by a spiritual foundation, sustained by solidarity, and rooted in ancestral wisdom. Currently, she is employed with a re-entry organization.

Outside of her work, Tẹjú finds restoration in yoga, the creative art of floral design, and the nurturing practices of horticulture. These activities offer her a space to breathe, thrive, and envision liberation.

A native Californian, she resides in Greenville, South Carolina, where she continues to build, grow, and anchor her work in healing.

Demetri Marshall
Board Member

Born into exceptional family in 1951, San Francisco Bay Area “Eastside”
After visiting Asia became involved in New Afrikan Power Movement as undergraduate through the Black Student Union.

Worked with many coalitions of the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM) and became mostly involved with the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PGRNA) in the early 1970’s.

Minister of Finance PGRNA 1994
President PGRNA 1998 – 2001
Worker in New Afrikan Investment Cooperatives (NAIAI) 1999 –Present
Representative and Worker in Alliance of New Afrikan Economic

Development Cooperatives (ANAEDA) 2019 – Present
Graduated from Univ of California in 1978
Graduated medical school 1983
Masters in Public Health 1984
Residency in Family Medicine with emphasis in Obstetrics (OB) 1986
Primary care and OB practice, Claiborne County, Lumumba Territory,
MS beginning in 1987

Reside Claiborne County, Lumumba Territory, MS.
Married to Felicie Marshall MD
10 children (5 girls & 5 boys) 13 grandchildren (so far)

We will Free the Land!!!