In Swahili, Damu means blood, as in “the blood that I am willing to shed for the liberation of my people.” Amiri means leadership, as in “the leadership I must provide in the service of my people.” Imara means strength, as in “the strength and stamina I have to maintain the struggle.” Thus, Damu Amiri Imara Smith explained his adapted name in a 2003 interview with the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
Now the grass-roots struggle for liberation for which Damu Smith, born Leroy Wesley Smith, must gather the strength is not one that’s strictly for “my people,” but a blood-shedding battle to save himself.
“My life is at stake here, and I can’t play around,” Mr. Smith said this past weekend. “I’m dipping into every tool in the wellness box, everything that can help me heal. … I have to be here for my daughter, my family and my work.” The 53-year-old familiar face of black liberation, peace and international human rights activism, who “was never seriously ill or hospitalized,” is now “the face of cancer health disparities in the United States as he fights colon cancer,” his friends say.
True to type, Mr. Smith is taking his trademark passion to “speak truth to power” and is applying his tenacious skills not only to surmount his personal health crisis but also to fight for better health care for black and poor people, many of whom lack adequate access and services.
On Saturday, his friends, colleagues and well-wishers — whom he has dubbed his “army of angels” — will hold a free health and wellness fair and a fundraising tribute at Howard University’s Crampton Auditorium in Mr. Smith’s honor.
The “Speak Truth to Power” fundraiser will feature Bernice Reagon of Sweet Honey in the Rock, actor Danny Glover, poets Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez, activist Dick Gregory, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and a host of reggae, neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop and spoken-word artists.
Mr. Smith lives in Columbia Heights and has worked to eradicate gun violence and police brutality. For all that he has contributed to the local, national and world community, organizers of the Spirit of Hope “Speak Truth to Power” event are asking members of the community to give a little something back to a man whose medical bills, he said, have reached $300,000.
The tax-exempt, District-based Praxis Project, “whose mission is health justice and closing the health gap facing communities of color,” is acting as the fiscal agent for the activities of the nonprofit Spirit of Hope coalition, which includes representatives of the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Museum and Center for African American History and Culture.
Blacks comprise less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they have the highest incidence and death rates for certain cancers, including colon cancer, of any ethnic or population group, the National Cancer Institute reports. The American Cancer Society states that colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in black men and women.
Although friends got him admitted into a Johns Hopkins treatment program, he has been unable to work for months, so he hasn’t had a $5,000 screening test his doctors tell him is mandatory because the provider won’t schedule it, insisting on the money upfront because he is uninsured.
“People who don’t have money suffer more, get sicker and can’t interact with the health care system,” he said.
Grateful for the excellent treatment he has received, Mr. Smith said he is stabilized and the weakness and nausea are gone. He is able to travel again and attended weekend meetings of his organizations in New Orleans. He is spending as much time as he can with his 12-year-old daughter, Asha, “the light of my life.” “She is motivating me to live as long as I can,” he said.
Even though his illness forced him to focus on himself, Mr. Smith is hoping that his illness will serve a greater purpose.
It has been 10 years since Mr. Smith had health insurance as the national associate director for Greenpeace USA. Four years ago, the former executive director of the Washington Office on Africa and associate director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Washington Bureau founded the National Black Environmental Justice Campaign. It has led the fight against contaminated water and toxic waste dumps in poor and black communities.
However, he may be remembered most recently for taking center stage as founder of Black Voices for Peace. The host of WPFW-FM’s “Spirit in Action,” Mr. Smith has spoken against the Bush administration for spending billions of dollars on the Iraq war, money he said could be used for basic services, such as health care for millions, here at home.
It was during a Middle East peace mission in March that he collapsed. He was rushed back to the District, where a doctor at Providence Hospital delivered the sobering news. Mr. Smith, a vegetarian who was the lean but robust picture of health until the illness, said he ignored the warning symptoms he experienced and ignored his family history before the cancer diagnosis.
His father, Sylvester Smith, was 53 when he died of colon cancer in 1989.
“The Spirit of Hope is not only about my personal situation and needs but to use my situation as a launching point to highlight the lack of equal access to health care,” he said.
“Everything I’ve done in dealing with social justice has been enhanced by my current situation.”
For information on Saturday’s health fair and fundraiser, call 202/265-4919 or log on to www.thepraxisproject.org or www.damusmith.org. Tickets can be purchased through TicketMaster. Donations also can be sent to the Spirit of Hope Campaign, c/o the Praxis Project, 1750 Columbia Road NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.
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