Black Alliance for Peace seminar: advocating for Nicaraguan solidarity
Erica Cainesa(right) and Netfa Freeman(left) talking to a student after the seminar (Razak Diallo/ The Black Explosion)
Members of the Black Alliance for Peace and DMV natives delivered a seminar challenging perspectives on the relationship between the United States and Nicaragua while arguing for solidarity with Nicaragua on Sept. 25.
Founded in 2017, the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) “seeks to recapture and redevelop the historic anti-war, anti-imperialist, and pro-peace positions of the radical black movement.” The organization focuses on domestic and global issues.
“What’s happening in Nicaragua is not much different from what’s happening in Baltimore,” said Erica Caines, journalist and the co-coordinator of BAP’s Haiti-America team. “As African descendants or people who understand themselves as Africans, we are all deeply connected under the primary contradiction of imperialism, and in order for us to live our full lives and self-determination, it has to be smashed.”
The seminar’s subject, Nicaragua, has had a centuries-long relationship with the United States, tracing back to the US occupation of the nation from 1903 to 1933. Following the Nicaraguan Revolution in the late ‘70s and early ’80s led by the Sandinistas, America began antagonizing the country.
The Reagan administration labeled Nicaragua as a communist country and decided to “eliminate this communist menace at its source.” They then began funding Contras against the newly formed Nicaraguan government and came under scrutiny for alleged ties to the sale of crack in inner-city neighborhoods. To this day, US-Nicaraguan relationships have been poor, with the U.S. placing sanctions on Nicaragua as recently as 2021 and consistently preventing Nicaragua from attending summits.
Erica Caines(right) and Netfa Freeman(left) listening to a student as they ask a question (Razak Diallo/ The Black Explosion)
This popular framing of Nicaragua from Reagan’s perspective is what Caines and Netfa Freeman, journalist and coordinator of the BAP’s Africa team, attempted to combat in their seminar. They detailed their experiences and what they saw when they visited Nicaragua.
Freeman opened the seminar with a video filled with interviews with Nicaraguans about the 2021 elections. He visited Nicaragua on the anniversary of the Sandinista revolution.
“You get to see people celebrating that and supporting the Sandinista revolution, and that dispels the myth of the popular media that this is an unpopular government,” Freeman said.
He hopes the seminar “inspired them [students] to travel and make connections of their own with countries and not be dissuaded from going there.”
Sophomore animal science and pre-vet major, Nika Svenson, enjoyed the lecture.
“I loved hearing their perspectives and hearing about how successful Nicaragua is being. It was really insightful.”
Richard Kohn, professor of animal and avian science at UMD and director of the “Nicaragua: Sustainable Agriculture and Environment” study abroad program is the seminar’s organizer. He hopes students take away the importance of delving into narratives in media.
“One of the things is just to be critical; think about things that they’re told,” Kohn said, “how to figure out what’s correct and what the truth is.” Kohn suggests that the best way to understand the truth is with experience: "You have to visit Nicaragua to really understand what’s happening there.”
The seminar schedule can be found here, and meets Mondays from 3:30 to 5:15.