- Ramona Africa
On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police dropped two pounds of military explosives onto a city row house occupied by MOVE, a black liberation group. The resulting fire was allowed to burn for more than an hour although firefighters were on the scene with water cannons in place. Five children and six adults were killed and 61 homes were destroyed by the six-alarm blaze, one of the largest in the city’s history. As the only surviving adult member (one child also survived) of the unimaginable set of events, Ramona Africa sets the record straight.
What happened in the days immediately after the tragic bombing on Osage Avenue?
The vibe of the community was really outrage. People did not take to the streets and riot or demonstrate walking down Market Street or anything like that, but people were outraged and in shock and could not believe what happened.
On the other hand, officials and cops were desperately trying to cover their behinds and desperately trying to justify what happened. They harassed our people that were still out on the street, that were not on Osage at the time, trying to force them to violate our beliefs and [they] tried to force them to send our children to schools and they wouldn’t do it.
What happened to you?
I suffered from burns, but I was arrested. I had to do my whole seven years. I was convicted of rioting and I was sentenced to 16 months to seven years in prison. When my 16 months minimum was up I saw the parole board and they told me they were willing to parole me, but only if I agreed to sever all ties with MOVE and [have] absolutely no contact with MOVE, and that was not going to happen. I would not agree to that so I ended up doing the whole seven years in prison.
What is MOVE doing now?
Working very hard by doing various programs, lectures. We travel all over the world, literally; Africa, Cuba, South America, all over Western Europe, all these countries informing people about what MOVE represents and what our beliefs are and the work we are doing and that our family are our priority, getting our family out of prison. That is what we are focusing on.
In hindsight, and I realize as the only surviving member of that ordeal, you can only speak for yourself, but do you think you would have done anything differently?
Absolutely not! Because to do anything other than what is right is to be wrong and we had a righteous position demanding that our family—innocent people—be released from prison. That is a righteous decision. To do anything other than that would be wrong.
What message do you hope audiences will take away seeing this powerful film?
Basically, that there is absolutely no justification for what this government did to MOVE. We were not accused of rape, murder, drug trafficking, kidnapping, anything like that. So what people should understand is that there was no justification for what they did to MOVE.
Let the Fire Burn, opens Oct. 18 and runs through Oct. 31 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street. Please check listing for times. www.siskelfilmcenter.org/let-the-fire-burn
