In Memory of Lokmar Yazid Abdul Wadood
This article was written by Balagoon about his long-time friend and comrade Lokmar, when Balagoon was informed that Lokmar had suffered from two strokes in 2019. On December 4, 2020, Lokmar passed away from Covid-19 that he contracted while in prison. Lokmar was an excellent Jailhouse Lawyer, a long-term prison rebel, and a mentor to many younger prisoners. His death in prison, as a medically vulnerable elder who spent decades in solitary confinement, is a great tragedy that will not be forgotten or forgiven!
Have you ever heard/read that statement that the people make revolutions? Well that statement is not the truth that many claim. The people are subjects in any system, whether it is for or against them. Revolution is made by revolutionary leaders, but it is the strength, numbers, consciousness, and determination of people in society who have been influenced to support revolution that determines whether or not the ideology of revolutionary leaders will become the dominant force in society. On the other end it is the imperialists who make reactionary war, but their success too depends on the strength, number, political ignorance, and blind patriotism of the people. People have always fought according to the dictates of revolutionary or reactionary leadership, whichever is most influential under certain social conditions.
If you study and understand dialectics then you will ultimately come to the realization that liberation in itself is only a qualitative state of social existence, not an end or permanent condition. Oppression is and has been a universal social problem. In short; recognize that our struggle for human rights, decolonization, self-determination, land and independence, is at a very low-tide. But eventually the tide will rise and people will be mobilized to act in their best interest and interests of our planet. As of right now they do the opposite.
These are dangerous and trying times, a kin to those my ancestors faced hundreds of years ago. Times when all but a few have been demoralized, terrorized, and forced to their knees!
In regards to my beloved brother and Comrade Lokmar, I want to thank you for taking the time out to write and inform me about his unfortunate health ordeal. You did not have to do that! The very fact you did says a lot about you as a human being.
I had written a letter to him in February or March of 2019, however, the prisoncrats sent it back to him and refused to deliver to him in his Muslim name (Lokmar Yazid Abdul Wadood).
As a result, I sent the letter back to him in his slave name (Lincoln Love) and received a response.
There is a good probability that Lokmar may not recover from these strokes, and if by some miracle he does, chances are he'll never be the same. Therefore, I thought I should take advantage of this opportunity and tell you and the world who he was and what he meant to me.
Lokmar is from East Chicago, Indiana. In 1975, he was tried and convicted for a murder and robbery of a Lake County bartender. Ultimately he was sentenced to a life sentence for the murder and robbery. In addition to his life sentence, he was serving a 30 year prison term for kidnapping of a guard at Indiana State Prison (Michigan City). Lokmar was among 9 prisoners charged in connection with the April 27, 1980 takeover at ISP, in which 7 guards and staff personnel were held hostage. They were released and unharmed after 16 hours. In July of 1982, Lokmar was convicted of kidnapping in the criminal court of LaPorte County.
I first met Lokmar in 1979, shortly after my arrival at Indiana State Prison in December of 1978. When I first arrived at ISP I had no institutional job, so I was on idle status in C-Cellhouse. Which meant I was locked in my cell most of the morning. To get out of my cell I begin attending Islamic services on Fridays. It was at these Islamic services that I met Lokmar for the first time. A year later in 1980 we got to know each other on NSB (new services building) which was a lock-up unit at ISP. There was a riot that occurred on April 27, 1980 that he and I were both participants in. The riot in which guards were held as hostages occurred as a result of a brutal beating of one of our friends and comrades (Mike Hinkle) by prison guards. The beating occurred in B-Cellhouse. Once we heard about it, we took keys from guards , came off the lock-up unit, and seized C-Cellhouse. In the aftermath, Lokmar and several others were charged, tried and convicted of kidnapping. I was initially charged but charges against me were later dropped.
On Feburary 1, 1985 while being confined at Indiana State Reformatory (now known as Pendleton Correctional Facility) Lokmar was brutally beaten by some racist and sadistic guards while he was locked-up on MRU (maximum restraint unit). At the time this beating occurred I was in general population. I was a lay advocate assigned to represent prisoners at C.A.B. for disciplinary write-ups. To make a long story short, I heard prisoners yelling out their cell windows for help and I came to their rescue. As a result, 4 guards were stabbed and 4 others were seized and held as hostages in J-Cellhouse for close to 17 hours. They were eventually released unharmed.
In the aftermath, I was charged with 4 counts of criminal confinement and rioting. I was prosecuted in Madison County, Indiana. I was tried and convicted. In July of 1987, I was sentenced to an additional 84 years.
My point is this; our relationship to each other has been forged in struggle against prisoncrats and their agents. The only reason why the prisoncrats tolerated us so long was because of the brotherhood we forged behind these walls or fences. Our relationship to each other over the past 4 decades has endured as a result of our love for each other.
In terms of his character, personality, and mental makeup; Lokmar loved people. He had a deep special love for African people. Lokmar was an extraordinary teacher, who read, studied, researched whatever he could get his hands on; he shared generously with others. He was also a good listener who showed sensitivity to both political arguments and personal problems. His eagerness to know what was happening in the real world encouraged him to inquire about everything effecting people negatively and positively. He never saw anything in isolation but in relation to one another. His breadth, depth, and scope was unbounded.
Lokmar was/is a great human being. However, he will receive no Nobel prize for peace, he will receive no freedom awards. Nevertheless, I can testify about how much blood, sweat and tears he shed in our struggle for liberation.
It takes a lot of fortitude, to endure what Lokmar has over the past 4 decades. The miserable conditions of prison life (this is to say its warped harshness, lonely isolation -that gnaws into the human psyche) could not break his spirit; despite the savagery of this system he never lost his sense of humor, had fun under the most unpleasant environmental conditions!
Once Lokmar stepped upon the revolutionary path he remained true to the struggle for the rest of his life, fighting the good fight, filing lawsuits, getting prisoners convictions overturned with his legal assistance, and helping other prisoners or comrades at a moment's notice, never stopping to count the cost.
In Solidarity,
One Love - Balagoon
