A great deal of this piece is in reference to the second episode of “Murder at Ryan’s Run.” If you haven’t listened to it yet please do that first. It’s a very important episode.
I just finished listening to the second episode of the “Murder at Ryan’s Run” podcast, “A is for Anarchism,” and many things jump out immediately. The first is how different Andino Ward is from how he was described to me within MOVE. Andino is the father of the child who in MOVE came to be known as Birdie Africa. Birdie was born as Oyewolffe to Andino and his wife Rhonda. Soon after Oyewolffe was born Rhonda encountered MOVE and was pulled in deeply very quickly. Andino struggled to find his son for a decade and was prevented from having any contact with his son by MOVE. The next time that Andino saw his son was in the hospital on May 13th, 1985. His son was the only child to make it out of the fires of the MOVE house on Osage Ave. alive.
The image of Andino Ward presented within MOVE is a far cry from the man I heard speaking on the podcast. According to MOVE leadership Andino just “loves the system,” “loves cops,” and didn’t love his son at all. They claimed that the only reason Andino wanted custody of his son was that he “hates MOVE” and not because he loved his son. MOVE leadership talked about Oyewolffe, the person they called Birdie, as if he was MOVE's child that Andino, his father, had stolen. They talked about Andino this way when Birdie was mentioned, especially around May 13th, and with most frequency right after Birdie passed away in 2013. The lies told about Andino mirror the lies that were told about John Gilbride as the rhetoric that was used against John was nearly identical and just as far from the truth.
Hearing from Andino in this episode it’s easy to understand why MOVE would want to poison people against him. According to Andino, when his wife, Rhonda, joined MOVE and took their son with her, John Africa forbade Andino from ever seeing his son again. In the mid-70s Andino was told by MOVE “just because you’re the biological father doesn’t make you the father.” According to them, MOVE was now his son’s father. The first time he approached MOVE headquarters and shouted at the gates that he needed to see his son he was chased down the street by MOVE men with hatchets. The second time he approached he was shot at. He asked the authorities for help many times and has stated “No one wanted to do anything on my behalf”.
In 1980, five years after his son went missing, he finally tracked down Rhonda in Holmesburg prison. When he asked his estranged wife where their son was she told him “If you continue to look for him they will kill him rather than give him to you.” All of this is shocking and difficult to believe, especially in contrast with the family-oriented image that MOVE presents of itself. However, this pattern closely mirrors the experience John Gilbride had when trying to fight MOVE leader, Alberta Africa for custody of their son Zack. And it’s not just John Gilbride, there are many fathers who have had similar experiences with MOVE. As we proceed you will be hearing from more of them.
If you look back at old newspaper articles from MOVE’s history in the 70s and 80s it’s clear that these patterns have always existed. The cult control that's being documented on this blog and in the podcast is not a result of the leadership of Alberta Africa but has existed since MOVE’s inception. However, for all of MOVE’s history, one person left at a time, and most were afraid or ashamed to talk about their experiences. Most fathers who were driven away from their children were not able to see all of those who had come before them. This is the first time in the nearly fifty-year history of MOVE that a group of people is leaving publicly and telling their stories. When looked at from this perspective, extreme stories like those of Andino Ward or John Gilbride are seen not as anomalies but as part of a pattern.
Within MOVE, children become the property of MOVE. Couples are often set against one another by MOVE leadership and the children are groomed by those leaders. I know the first part of that equation firsthand because I split from MOVE intellectually in 2007 but stayed in to preserve my marriage. Once I showed my hand that I was no longer a true believer, Ria and Bert worked hard to try to turn my wife and me against one another so that I would leave and she would stay. I was fortunate that we didn’t have a child at the time, otherwise, I would have found myself in a similar position to Andino Ward, John Gilbride, and many others. When women with children try to leave MOVE they’re told that they can leave but their kids have to stay. This is what Alberta told June (Pixie) when she tried to escape without the protection of going public. Looking back at MOVE’s history now it’s clear that these stories have always been hiding in plain sight. It’s my hope that as the patterns become clearer the children born in MOVE will be protected and supported, and that the Gilbride family will finally get justice.
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