The Africas VS. America

The Outlaw Ocean, according to our host Matthew Amha, “exemplifies the kind of trenchant, deeply reported, serialized journalism that we don't see enough of; and represents the form at its very highest level. Reporting which adds value and colour and context and interrogation to corners of life in desperate need of it.”

If you liked our podcast, we think you’ll appreciate the urgent, unsettling journalism led by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ian Urbina. His domain is the vast and largely lawless ocean, where forced labour and other human rights abuses are as common as investigative reporting is rare. Like us, he tells stories powerful people don’t want you to know. 

In the early hours of May 13, 1985, police direct residents of Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia to leave their homes, and not return for 24 hours. It’s Mother’s Day, and authorities have come to resolve a years-long conflict with a family of local revolutionaries — the Africas, collectively known as MOVE. There are 13 people in the Africa home that morning. Six of them are children. By the end of the day, most will be dead, and a neighbourhood will lie in ruins. Artwork by Yannick Lowery.

A quiet and reclusive young man is conscripted to war in Korea and returns having been made anew. Vincent Leaphart becomes the enigmatic John Africa, whose revolutionary vision will prove irresistible to followers seeking a new way of living. But what begins as a movement concerned with the protection of all life, will gradually turn to nonviolent direct action and large-scale civil disobedience in reaction to the state. This is the origin story of John Africa, leader of what will soon become known as MOVE.