Hashim Akhenaten Nzinga

Born July 24, 1962, in Midland, Texas, and appointed the NBPP’s chief of staff in 1994, under the leadership of Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad. Throughout the 1990s he regularly accompanied Dr. Khalid as he lectured and battled the overt racism Americanized Africans consistently encountered throughout the country. He soldiered at the NBPP’s Million Youth March in Harlem, Sept. 5, 1998, and the 2005 Millions More Movement in Washington, D.C. Upon Khalid transitioning on Feb. 17, 2001, Hashim then became the national chief of staff until 2013 when there was a new chairman, Malik Zulu Shabazz, and continued combating colonialism and could still be found at various cultural events for many years. He eventually attained the chairman position.

In March 2012, Nzinga announced on CNN television that NBPP was offering a $10,000 bounty for the “capture”—“dead or alive”—of George Zimmerman, a white/Hispanic man who in February 2012 had shot and killed black teenager Trayvon Martin in an altercation that made national headlines. Nzinga added, however, that in this particular case, “we letting (sic) Attorney General Eric Holder—who clearly I know [President] Obama and Eric Holder will be on our side—this case need (sic) to be a murder case, and it need (sic) to be a murder case quickly, or we gonna do what America been doin’ for many, many years—a citizen (sic) arrest.”

Hashim participated at various racial protests, whether at Ferguson, Mo. in 2014, Baltimore in 2015, and numerous others, including George Floyd’s earlier this year. Despite the desensitized conditions often caused by posturing on the cold-hearted frontlines for prolonged periods of time, he never lost touch with his indigenous spirituality. The heading on his Facebook page reads “Freedom fighter for God that is using me for change for justice for people that has suffered enough.”

Off the frontlines, he provided security for notable artists such as Lil’ Boosie and Webbie; Pimp C and Bun B of UGK; and Erykah Badu.