Ten years after the disaster, self-described "MOVE kids" disputed
Birdie Africa's account of the group.
By Linda Loyd, Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer (Sunday May 14,
1995)
They grew up with Birdie Africa and although they were not
in the burning Osage Avenue house with him on May 13, 1985,
today's MOVE children say they grew up in the house and know
Birdie.
Yesterday - the 10th anniversary of the MOVE bombing and
fire that killed six adults and five children a half-dozen or so
MOVE teenager spoke about life with MOVE. The said it was not as
bad as Birdie Africa says. The current MOVE teenagers' remarks
were a highlight of more than six hours of speeches made by MOVE
supporters in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the
disaster.
Gathering at a Center City Union Hall, supporters of the
group that preaches natural living and opposition to authority
wore T-shirts with a picture of the police helicopter that
dropped the bomb, and the words "Welcome to Philadelphia".
In smaller print below was another message: "This was not an
accident. This was deliberate murder".
The walls were dotted with pictures of MOVE members in jail
and pleas to release the "political prisoners". Nine MOVE members
were convicted of murder and remain in, prison for a 1978
Philadelphia gun battle that killed a police officer and wounded
seven police officers and firefighters.
No one was charged with the 1985 MOVE deaths.
Among the speakers yesterday was Karen Pomer, a former
Temple University student now working as a film producer in Los
Angeles, who compared the MOVE disaster with later events such as
the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' storming of
the Branch Davidian compounded in Waco, Texas, in 1993.
"I think the government learned that they could kill a
family, kill people and their children, and that they could get
away with it", said Pomer, who said she was producing a feature
film about MOVE, starring Whoopi Goldberg as Ramona Africa, the
lone adult survivor of the MOVE bombing. But much of yesterday's
session was spent trying to rebut Birdie, now known as Michael
Moses Ward, who was the only MOVE child to escape the fire that
destroyed 61 homes on Osage Avenue. He was 13.
Now 23, Ward has said in recent interviews that the MOVE
children were terrified of MOVE's adults, whom they called "The
Big People". He said the MOVE children were deprived and forced
to live on a diet of raw vegetables and fruit, while the adults
ate hearty cooked meals. He said children were denied schooling,
neighborhood playmates, and toys, except for ones they stole and
buried in the MOVE compound.
Ward said that his mother, Rhonda, who died in the fire,
wanted to break away from MOVE, and that he and the other
children lived in fear. They feared the police, the neighborhood,
and "The Big People", especially MOVE founder and leader John
Africa, and Frank Africa, who Ward said once punched him in the
face in a rage and knocked him unconscious.
But the current MOVE children said yesterday that they
thought Ward was scared and had been "manipulated", by the
"system" and by his father, with whom be lived for the last 10
years.
"Some of his accusations, about people being scared to leave
MOVE because we would go after them, it's so ridiculous", said
Ramona Africa. "It's not MOVE that threatens or intimidates
anybody; the government does that", she said.
Ramona Africa and the six to eight MOVE members in
attendance told the crowd of about 200 that life with MOVE was
all love and happiness.
"When I was in MOVE, I was always happy, healthy, strong and
safe", said Jack Africa, 16. "I just want to say something about
the [news] articles, about how the kids were made to eat raw food
and raw vegetables and how the adults ate hot cooked meals", he
said.
"There's nothing wrong with eating raw food. MOVE kids have
eaten raw food all their lives, and no one has been to a hospital
because of sickness. The adults were addicted to cooked food, so
they had to eat certain cooked food. But the kids weren't
addicted to cooked food, which is as addictive to people as drugs
is". Edward Africa, 17, told the audience he was "raised" in MOVE
and had "no intentions of leaving".
As for his family not sending him to school, or permitting
him to have playmates outside of MOVE, Edward Africa said: "We
understood why we didn't go to school. Because sending us to
school is like sending your children to a perfect stranger - a
person you don't know at all!!"
Ramona Africa called Ward's remarks about having been
deprived of toys 'insignificant'. "There is no child alive that
doesn't see things that they don't have that they are curious
about. If you tell a child 'no' they get curious about it. It is
really insignificant".
Alberta Africa, now an adult, was the final speaker and
called Birdie Africa - Ward - "traumatized".
"They took him away from us, and literally tortured this boy
into submission", she added. "Put yourself in his position. What
would you do if you saw the devastating murder of your mothers,
and your brothers and sisters? Then to be snatched away from your
family and put in the house of a literal stranger... This is the
life he had to live from 13 years old until now".
She told the crowd that 'we want him to know that we still
love him, and we know why he's doing what he's doing, and we know
who the real enemy is".
(The Associated Press contributed to this article)
