PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER: CORRECTING KATHY Y. WILSON

Generals Kabaka Oba and Nikki X, Founders of The Black Fist Organization. (Circa, 2002)
Kathy Y. Wilson - Cincinnati Magazine contributing writer and author of the article: A Life in Pieces: The Shock, Awe and Invention of Kabaka Oba. (July 2006)

Kathy Y. Wilson has written a story in the July 2006 edition of Cincinnati Magazine entitled: The Last Days of Kabaka Oba. In this article Ms. Wilson attempts to chronicle the transformation from Michael Bailey -to-Omo Oba -to- what those of you have grown to know as Kabaka Oba. In late May 2006, Kathy Y. Wilson telephoned General Nikki X and informed her that she was writing a story about the death of Kabaka Oba and that the story would not be complete without the voice of General Nikki X, since she was there from the beginning. Quite a few other journalist/reporters have requested I sit down and give them an interview. I refused them all. But seeing as though Kathy and I have had a decent journalistic/activist relationship over the years, she said she respected my work and I expressed the same (at times). We have had our differences throughout the years but unlike some who called themselves activist I never took what a reporter/journalist said about The Black Fist or myself personally....Until now. Based on Kathy's repeated request for me to "balance out the story with the truth", did I then agree to do an over-the-phone interview regarding Kabaka Oba. The truth must be told regardless, the story was to be written with or without me and based on our past associations, I informed Ms. Wilson I would speak with her. I mean really, who on earth knew Kabaka Oba better than Nikki X? So the interview took place and lasted maybe an hour or so. I told Kathy Wilson in no uncertain terms I wanted her to write it just as I spoke it, that if she was seeking "the truth" that is what she would get. She informed me she didn't have the final say on what goes to print and someone would be calling me before the story went to print to "fact check" my portion. I agreed. No problem. After the interview was completed I requested of Ms. Wilson to email [me] my statements so I could look over what I said and make any necessary corrections. She did.... And I in turn made the necessary corrections and emailed them back to her. She thanked me and emailed [me] my portion of the "finished product". I read it over and was pleased that the truth would finally be told. I thought. Fast forward to the magazine hitting newsstands because that's how long I've waited to write this. You see I received an advanced copy of this particular magazine about 5 weeks ago (not from Kathy Y. Wilson) but I wanted to wait until it hit newsstands to publish this entry onto the blog. I wanted people to know exactly what I was talking about. You can pick this magazine up at any grocery store or retail outlet. I am compelled to correct Kathy Y. Wilson's story because it is too far off base, at least my portion of it. I will print here exactly what I said and what is the actual truth and you can read what Kathy wrote here: www.cincinnatimagazine.com. But first I will reprint the email I sent to Kathy after she sent me the first draft of our interview, I will only reprint what I sent her because I have not spoken to Kathy since the interview and I do not have her permission to reprint her email(s) to me. Please see this: Sis. Kathy Y. Wilson, Thank you for getting back to me. I've just read the excerpt below. I have taken the liberty to insert what I really wanted to convey to you -via- our phone interview. And I've taken out what you added that were not quite factual. I know you said you had to do some "creative thinking" (so to speak) but if you print it as I've got it now believe me you will have a story that is 100% truth as Kabaka & I lived it. Only Kabaka & I know what was said when we were alone at home on that faithful day in the spring of 2003. It's what I've said in my many blog writings on this subject & it is what I will say anywhere else. Feel free to call me (***.****) or email me any comments or concrns. I am requesting of you to write my portion as I have re-done it below. I appreciate you seeking the truth in writing your story on the man. Now you have it. Peace & Blessings, General Nikki X ***************************** This is the "below" I was referring to in that email to Kathy Y. Wilson. This is the 100% truth as Kabaka and I lived it. This is what Cincinnati Magazine didn't want you to read! I will begin with what Kathy wrote as an intro then "piece the puzzle together" infusing her intro with my exact words (my words will be in italics) Please see this: In her lengthy posting the day after Oba died, Nikki X [www.theblackfistblog.blogspot.com] blamed Joy Rolland's "terrorist rhetoric and physical actions" as the cause of Oba's death. By phone Nikki X, is calmer than any blog belies. "This has nothing to do with a scorned ex-girlfriend," Nikki X says Rolland regularly called into WDBZ to attack and criticize Oba and The Black Fist when Rolland turned her vitriolic temper on Lincoln Ware for banning her from calling the Buzz, she came to The Black Fist for helping in protesting Lincoln Ware in front of Junebug's. It'd been activism as usual until then. "What made me sort of look at this woman was when she tried to drag us into this thing she had with Lincoln Ware," Nikki X says, adding that Rolland wanted The Black Fist to join her in protesting the station and Lincoln Ware in front of Junebug's Restaurant in the spring of 2003 during one of its regular Friday remotes from Junebug's. "We're not activist for hire. Lincoln Ware banned her from the Buzz not us." Kabaka asked me and I said, "Hell No!" We don't protest black owned and operated businesses and you know that. He said to me angrily, "You don't tell me what to do and where to go, I'm going!" She said she repeatedly challenged his urge to protest Lincoln Ware based on Rolland's anger. "Why would you even want to support this woman at all?" She's never ever supported The Black Fist and this is between her and Lincoln NOT YOU." She says she asked Oba. By then, it dawned on her that maybe Oba and Rolland were involved. "I believe it was working it's way up to (an affair) if it wasn't already there," Nikki X says. "I wondered why she was even calling his house at all." By even accepting Rolland's call Nikki X says Oba violated a fundamental rule [we set up at Oba's insistance and my acceptance]. "When we were out protesting, people would often ask us to get involved with their missions," she says. "Just to keep things straight for the sake of our personal lives, he'd take the numbers of the men and I would take the numbers of the women." By the end of February 2004, Oba broke it off with Nikki X in their personal relationship, along with splitting with her in The Black Fist. At odds over the direction of The Black Fist largely because of Rolland's sudden involvement. And because of Oba's ego. "That's what Kabaka lived for - arrogance, ego and pride," she says. "I guess she put him on a bigger pedestal than the one I'd put him on. He said he could run The Black Fist without me, that he didn't need me anymore. He just stop listening to me." Nikki X puts Oba's death squarely on Rolland and Oba himself. "He'd still be alive today if it were'nt for her, even though she didn't pull the trigger," she says. "She set him up for the kill. He didn't have a problem with Lincoln Ware. He didn't have a problem with Junebug or his brother. He got away from the issues of The Black Fist. Kabaka's death had nothing to do with the Klan, nothing to do with the boycott, nothing to do with white folk. Nothing to do with police brutality." "Kabaka's death was based on Joy's battle with Lincoln Ware, The Buzz radio station and it spilled over into the Beattys. By no means am I blaming her 100 percent for his death. It's a 50/50 thing between him and her." "Kabaka stop listening to someone who loved and protected him for years and started listening to Joy Rolland who only used him and ultimately got him killed." ****************************** That is the exact interview I gave to Kathy Y. Wilson back on May 30, 2006. Re-printed here in it's entirety. Let me say this: Joy Rolland admitted on the first Media Bridges show she did after Kabaka Oba's death that she was the brainchild of that protest. That protest consisted of: Joy Rolland, Michael Reily (Min. Mikal Ali) and Yvonne Collins (Lady C). The same Michael Reily (Min. Mikal Ali) who used to talk my ear off about Kabaka's domestic violence record and beating the hell out of black women. The same Michael Reily (Min. Mikal Ali) who called me on the phone damn near every other day ( Since he likes to run his fool mouth off about what he thinks he knows about me, I could & should post my old cell phone records here to prove so) telling me how crazy, stupid, lonely and ignorant Joy Rolland is and has always been and how people need to stay away from her because she IS crazy, not to mention all the things he said about her outlandish style of dress accompanied by (in his words) her clownish make up! And this is not in the far off past I'm talking about, this was as early as the middle of last year! This 80 year old senior citizen Michael Reily knows I have never done anything against him, never spoken ill of him, protested along side him, spoke out on his behalf and supported him when he ran for mayor in 2001. But as with anything or anyone who comes into contact with crazy bipolar Joy Rolland they end up fighting her battles and forgetting everything that even resembles common sense, decency, integrity, honesty, friendship and loyality. Kabaka Oba fatally found that out on April 12, 2006. One More Thing On The Cincinnati Magazine Piece: Kathy Y. Wilson took it upon herself to write what I would only assume to be "cute and witty observations" regarding the relationship Kabaka and myself had and threw Rolland in there for whatever reason. Kathy writes: Oba loves black people in a way reminiscent of the 1960s black radicals like Stokely Carmichael, Eldridge Cleaver, and H. Rap Brown. And like them, Oba attracted a specific type of woman--women like Nikki X and Joy Rolland who were "down with the struggle" by street decree, but who were also attracted to his virility, his brand of power, and his apparent fearlessness. Call it revolution as aphrodisiac. I am ashamed of Kathy Y. Wilson for even writing something like that. First things first: "What the hell street decree does or did Rolland ever have?" She latched onto Oba and used him to fight her own personal battles then stepped back and watched as he terrorized and threatened folks until one man took matters into his own hands. "What reputation does General Nikki X have of ever being a troublemaker, an instigator or a flat-out cowardly liar who ever caused disunity or dissention within the black community?" Answer: NONE! For Kathy Wilson to even put cowardly Joy Rolland in ANY catagory with General Nikki X is a personal insult to the highest degree! Rolland is not nor has she ever been "an activist". PERIOD! Kabaka Oba and General Nikki X built The Black Fist together. We were on the same level within the organization. Rolland brought her wickedness and infiltration into the mix and Kabaka decided to join her in terrorizing black people. General Nikki X decided to hold the line and continue to fight for the black nation. It's just that simple. "Call it revolution as aphrodisiac"....Kathy Y. once again I am ashamed of you. Don't ever try to minimize the personal relationship Kabaka and I had as something other than what I expressed to you it WAS. You asked for the truth and that's what you got. It just wasn't printed. That's all I will say on that. I would highly encourage everyone to read the July 2006 edition of Cincinnati Magazine. Other than the points of clarification I was forced to make, it is a decent story and it gives some (not all) but some insight into the last days of a man who allowed a crazed woman (with a very publicly known history of causing trouble, Kabaka knew this for he pointed it out to folks in 2001, myself included) to somehow lead him away from the path of fighting for justice and equality for black people to his transformation into a terrorist monster who threatened black people with loaded weapons, threatened and terrorized black people on radio, internet and public access television and who threatened and terrorized the Beattys at their very own place of business, their employees included. CLARIFICATION: Oba was never "cleared" of any charges against him regarding the January 3, 2006., witness intimadation case. The judge was forced to dismiss the case due to the alleged witness not showing up to court. It was never proven in court that Oba was at a political event as Kathy Y. Wilson writes in her article. Once more Kathy got it wrong. ************************ PERSONAL UPDATE: I've had this article on draft for quite some time. Since the publication of the Cincinnati Magazine piece and before the publishing of this blog entry, I gave testimony before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge, Norbert Nadel in the trial of Howard Beatty. I told the judge basically the same thing I've shared with you today. General Nikki X told the TRUTH! Some of you can't handle the truth but that doesn't make it less of the truth nonetheless. General Nikki X is NOT in denial about the events of her life with Kabaka Oba or her life after him. He not only terrorized Howard Beatty, he terrorized many many others including myself. I'm sorry so many people out there would rather hold on to the illusion of Kabaka as some sort of "hero" than to accept the truth about Kabaka as he was...a community terrorist who had a long history of domestic violence. I was only one of many. THANK YOU FOR READING THE BLACK FIST BLOG!