Pete O'Neal's Place

The evening of Mon 8/20 we visited UAACC, United African Alliance Community Center, also known as Pete O'Neal's place. Pete O'Neal is a former Black Panther from Kansas City, MO and was the chairman of the Black Panther Party in that city. After being arrested for transporting a gun across state lines under a law implemented two weeks prior to his arrest, he fled to Algeria and then Tanzania, where he has been living in exile with his wife Charlotte for 37 years. He claims he had the gun but did not take it across state lines and that the charges were trumped up and politically motivated. Charlotte was 19 years old at the time and had never left Kansas City. When they first stepped off the plane in TZ, Charlotte immediately felt like she had come home. Pete, however, says that he had a foreboding feeling. They have made their lives in Tanzania and are dedicated to serving the community in which they live, which is in the village of Imbaseni near Arusha. Charlotte and Pete co-founded UAACC, which offers free art, music, film and other classes to anyone in the community.

Another former Panther and friend of Pete's, Geronimo ji Jaga, was released in 1997 after spending 27 years in prison, the first 8 in solitary confinement, for a murder he did not commit. He received $4.5 million in restitution and has donated money to help Pete and Charlotte ensure that there is an ample water supply at UAACC.

Pete is very funny and entertaining and has a special ability to command a crowd, and we were all somewhat enraptured as he spoke, even Zik. He expresses regret for aspects of his former self. He once declared he wanted to shoot his way in the House of Representatives and take the head of one of the members. He also spent a period of time before becoming a Panther striving to be a pimp. This, in particular, seems to be the most regrettable period of time for him. He harbors intense guilt over the way he treated girls who he says he knows were someone's daughters, sisters, and friends.

UAACC has sort of a hippy commune type feel to it. Their dog, Blackie, even has dreadlocks in his tail to match the ones on Pete's head, but Pete swears they formed naturally. All of the outside walls and the buildings, hut-type structures, are colorfully painted with art and various messages like "Freedom is never given, it is won." The center has been visited by celebrities, such as Sean and Robin Wright Penn, American politicians, students, documentary film makers, and artists. We watched part of a documentary entitled "A Panther in Africa" by an American film student that tells Pete and Charlotte's story. Kesuma even makes a cameo appearance and is shown conducting a Maasai Cultural Safari for a couple of young African American men. Later in the film the American guys try teaching Kesuma how to shoot a basketball, of course in traditional Maasai clothing, as always. My friend Katie, a fellow CCS volunteer with whom I traveled to Zanzibar along with our friend Melissa, is staying on in Arusha and has made plans to stay and work at UAACC teaching some computer classes. I can't wait to hear all about it.