Pre-order your copy now!
All proceeds from the book sales go to support the struggle to free our comrade Shaka!
The Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign is excited to announce that you can now pre-order Shaka A. Shakur’s first book, Manifestations of Thought: When the Dragon Comes, a selection of prison writings published by our comrades at 1804 Books.
Shaka A. Shakur was imprisoned in 2002, but has remained a staunch political activist: he grew into a leader of the New Afrikan Movement and continues to publish and share political analysis, becoming a leader of organizers, both inside and outside prison fight for across the country.
As Derek Ford writes in the introduction:
“The fact this book has made it to publication—that you’re holding these words on paper, seeing them on a screen, or hearing them read—is evidence that the state’s escalating efforts to silence Shaka A. Shakur . . . have so far failed.”
Manifestations of Thought is both an urgent call and an everlasting record of a key leader of the Black liberation struggle. Produced closely with Shaka, this collection gathers his most significant personal, theoretical, organizational, and practical writings. This book is all the more important during Black August, a reminder to fight not to honor for the political prisoners of our past, but also for the revolutionaries still fighting for liberation today.
Edited by Derek Ford of the Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign and his student Tessa Kochert in close collaboration with Shaka, the book includes a preface by Haki Kweli Shakur, an editorial introduction by Ford, and an introduction by Shaka. The book is divided into four sections that cover a range of issues, from the relationship between the personal and the political, the history and theory of the New Afrikan Independence Movement, the struggle against the Prison-Industrial Complex, and continuing the struggle today on an international level.
While Shaka has been a prolific writer for decades, writing recent booklets such as The Right to Be Free: Fighting for Liberation Behind Enemy Lines and From the Republic of New Afrika to Palestine: National Liberation in Context, this is his first official book publication.
Initial Endorsements
“This book proves what comrades of the struggle already knew: Shaka Shakur is a guerilla intellectual of the highest order. Carrying on the political tradition of New Afrikan/Black liberation through sober analysis, precise criticism, and theoretical clarity, the thoughts of the dragon manifest as armed and dangerous in this revolutionary call to action.”
– D. Musa Springer, Walter Rodney Foundation, Host of the Groundings Podcast
“Shaka Shakur is an unquestionable intellectual. Manifestations of Thought offers an incredible blend of New Afrikan revolutionary theory, abolitionist praxis, and introspective vulnerability. Shaka’s piercing words burst through the prison cell yearning to be free. Anyone who reads this book and is not moved to action needs to read it again.”
– TOO BLACK, author of Laundering Black Rage
“Every utterance from the United States regarding human rights is a fraud. The nation with more than 2 million incarcerated people, more than any other country, cannot claim to be concerned about human rights in any serious way. Shaka Shakur’s writings about his experiences as an incarcerated Black man expose this blatant hypocrisy and remind us to keep those who are locked away in the forefront of analysis about the United States.”
– Margaret Kimberley, Executive Editor and Senior Columnist of Black Agenda Report and host of the Black Agenda Radio podcast.
About 1804 Books
1804 Books takes its name from the year of the Haitian Revolution, which set the path of liberation in the Americas. We produce books from and for all those who continue the fight for a world free from oppression and exploitation.
1804 Books is also a member of the International Union of Left Publishers. Formed in 2020, the International Union of Left Publishers emerged as a platform of left publishers to promote left books through Red Books Day (21 February), to defend left authors, publishers, and bookshops, and to develop a copyleft method of sharing books across our countries and languages. We have released a number of joint titles with other member publishers, and are the North American distributor for fellow member LeftWord Books, a leftist publishing house based in India.*
* Text taken from the “About Us” section of 1804 Books.