JoeyPinkney.com Exclusive Interview
5 Minutes, 5 Questions With… (The Soul of a Man Edition)
Jihad, author of “Letters to a Caged Kings on Lockdown”
(Peace In The Storm Publishing)
My name is Jihad Uhuru. I write to educate, empower and entertain. I call my writing Socio-conscious Urban Contemporary Fiction. I write for he Kings and the Queens that don’t know who they are nor who the creator is.
Often we get judged for what we write but not often do we get judged for what we right. There are hoods and negative situations everywhere. I write what I know and about who I know, with a twist in hopes of getting our young Kings and Queens to learn how to think.
I infuse history with the present to point out issues and solutions to problems Black people have in this country through my stories. Thank you for this opportunity to express myself, King.
Joey Pinkney: Where did you get the idea and inspiration to write “Letters to Caged Kings on Lockdown”?
Jihad: I read a book back when I was in prison in the ’90s. It was entitled Soledad Brother by George Jackson. It was a book of letters the author who was incarcerated at Soledad prison, his brother Jonathon, Angela Davis and his mother.
It was so intimate and inciteful into the psychology and the psychodynamics of prison-life, society, the political and US injustice system. I wanted to share some letters to and from my nephew and other inmates who followed behind me into the prison industrial slave complex.
I wanted people to read and feel our passion in hopes of better understanding the incarcerated male psyche. My intent is to one day do a book filled with letters and responses from me and Kings on the inside.
JP: What has been your personal experience in being a part of The Soul of a Man Anthology?
Jihad: I haven’t had much of an experience. I promote the book when I travel which is very often. Most stores I go to don’t have the book. I think it’s an excellent concept, and I hope it takes off one day. Maybe other Kings will do similar projects such as this one.
JP: What is your most memorable moment of The Soul of a Man in terms of what has been expressed of you by someone who has had a chance to read this book?
Jihad: A young brother wrote to me from prison and said that finally someone has written something real. That was all he said. And I thought it was deep.
JP: As an author, what is your writing process? How long did it take for you to start and finish “Letters to Caged Kings on Lockdown”?
Jihad: “Letters to Caged Kings on Lockdown” was done. My books are very popular in prisons around the country. I have thousands of letters from Kings on lockdown, and I just used letters from my nephew and other inmates and my responses back to them. All I had to do was type their letters, so it took a couple hours.
JP: You are a very prolific and well-respected author. What is your latest novel, Preacherman Blues II, about? And what has been your journey with that book?
Jihad: My latest book will be available only on my website July 1, 2010. It will be in stores nationwide Oct. 4, 2010. It is my favorite of all seven of my fiction books. By far, Preacherman Blues II will be the most controversial.
I use real names, and President Obama dies of natural causes that are not so natural. At the same time Bishop TJ Money, the most prolific and outspoken religious leader in Georgia, is catapulted to the world stage and becomes the most popular man on the planet thanks to the real powers that be that pull the strings of government.
Bishop Money makes George Bush and anyone that came before him look like an angel. It’s going to take Bill Clinton, Hillary , Assata Shakur, the famous freedom fighter exiled in Cuba and 3 other women and a lot more to stop the powers that be and Bishop TJ Money from becoming the next President of the United States. Anyone that has read Preacherman Blues knows how intelligently corrupt Bishop Money is.
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