The passing of a great man: DeWayne ‘Dewey’ Boyd Sr.

His one great passion was to change the world

The family, friends, and many acquaintances of DeWayne “Dewey” Boyd Sr., some coming from half-way around the world, joined together in Detroit Sunday, October 27, 2024, in tribute to his life’s work. Boyd, who transitioned on October 16, had asked that there should be no funeral services. He was 68.

Cause of death is yet to be determined, according to his brother, Toby Boyd of Detroit. 

Sunday’s gathering was civil and congenial and appropriate for the occasion, said Zetty Walker, DeWayne’s first cousin. “It was crowded, with friends from Ghana, Congo, with family from different areas, and many business and social activists like himself,” she said. 

Born August 18, 1956, in Detroit, in the decade before the Motor City’s decline as one of the nation’s greatest urban and industrialized meccas was apparent, DeWayne Boyd learned early in life that agriculture – food production – was the fundamental industry in sustaining human life and a viable society. 

Boyd said that in his youth, he was puzzled over why there were no Black-owned food markets in his community. He felt insulted and was devastated one day in a neighborhood market when he overheard the immigrant storeowner say, “Black people are like cattle, you have to feed them.”

That memory remained fresh in his mind for the rest of his life. People who can’t feed themselves, Boyd often said, are not a free people. And he became convinced that control of agricultural production was the fundamental economic necessity for African Americans and Africans in the Motherland. He was rewarded for his dedication to this cause in 2019 in being named the Minister of Agriculture for the State of the African Diaspora, Sixth Region, an official position under the auspices of the African Union.

Boyd said many times that Black people must develop farms and agribusiness enough to feed themselves and play a major role in the international agricultural trade.

Maurice Carney, director of the Friends of the Congo organization, said that Boyd was a thread that tied many of the NGO’s and African activist groups together. “Dewey got up this group, the DRC Crisis Group, that connected us all. And I just want to make sure that everyone knows that though he is no longer with us in the flesh, he is in the spirit. It’s a great loss for us all.”

EARLY EXPLORATIONS

“Dewey was a great guy, very intelligent,” said Cousin Zetty. “He was a people person, and he didn’t have anything but love in his heart. We used to laugh and talk and joke. He was my debate partner. He was smarter than a lot of his teachers. He was the type of person who tried to help and make things better for everybody.

“In high school, he almost didn’t march with his class because he climbed the pole and took the United States flag down and put an African American flag in its place,” she said.

DeWayne’s brother, Ernest Tobias (Toby) Boyd, the recently retired President of the California Teachers Association, said he was very discerning in his relationships. 

“When my brother walked into the room, he knew who to talk to, and the people respected him. I was fortunate to be with him in Atlanta in August.”

MOVE TO MISSISSIPPI

In 1990, DeWayne held the lease on his grandmother’s farm in Starkville while she was living in Detroit.

His daughter Bree, who was on the farm with DeWayne, recalled this two-year period as one of her most cherished times with her father. 

“I remember getting up in the morning, feeding the chickens, and gathering the eggs. I was there from age five to seven.”

Wendell Paris, who was affiliated with the Federation of Southern Cooperatives in the 1990’s and was NAACP Field Secretary later in the decade, said that Boyd had contacted the Federation’s central office asking for help in his legal battles with some white farmers and hunters who had falsely claimed to have leased Boyd’s grandmother’s property. 

“The whites were claiming they had leases on his grandmother’s land,” Paris said. “DeWayne asked me to help him because of the claims they were making on his property.” One of the claimants had been receiving large government subsidies on the land and resented Boyd’s moves against them. 

At the same time, Boyd had been accepted as the first Black meat inspector for the State Department of Agriculture under Commissioner of Agriculture Jim Buck Ross after State Representative Tyrone Ellis of Starkville filed a request to hire a Black inspector.

The white men accused of false property claims at the same time were accusing Boyd of stealing their crops and committing arson. The men were also putting pressure on Ross to fire Boyd, who was still within the 90-day probation period on the meat inspector’s job.

Boyd hired Attorney Chokwe Lumumba, a native of Detroit, to take his case, which he won, according to Paris. He also proved that Boyd’s employee files had been corrupted by Jim Buck Ross or his staff. He filed discrimination charges against Ross, who opted to settle this case and pay Boyd.

Boyd also found an ally in Charles Tisdale who not only gave him free rein to promote his mission work in the Jackson Advocate but also advocated on his behalf in time of need.

WITH CONYERS

DeWayne returned to Detroit and was hired by Congressman John Conyers as a staff member for special projects. Conyers, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee and a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, was seeking better trade agreements between African farmers and the USA. Boyd traveled with him to Africa, and shortly afterwards was given the chance to set up an African agriculture conference.

Wendell Paris said the first African and African American conference organized by Boyd under Conyers was a success. Boyd was planning to follow that up with an international conference in New Orleans, but that failed because of the timing, said Paris. It was set for May, but nearly all Black farmers were busy with their crops at that time of year and very few attended. Most of the money the USDA had granted for the conference was lost, Paris said. He even now alleges that the FBI had informers working in Conyers’ office who allegedly falsely testified that DeWayne had embezzled the money.

As the charges were pursued, Conyers terminated DeWayne, who maintained that he harbored no animosity towards Conyers, although he insisted that the money was lost due to actions carried out by the FBI informers and was not stolen.

MANY TIES

Although he remained keenly focused on agriculture and international trade as the keys to a future Black prosperity, Boyd was closely involved with a large number of other important economic, scientific and cultural activities. 

DeWayne was a great advocate of the current pursuit of a new Black Wall Street investment community. He was a member and booster of the Annual National Black Business League Conferences and had close ties to the World Conference of Mayors, the Sister Cities Program, student exchanges between HBCU’s and African institutions, especially the link between the University and City of Tuskegee with the Congolese City of Mbuji-Mayi, the center of industrial diamond mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

DeWayne was vice-president and co-founder, with his wife, Leontine Mafuta Boyd, of COOPAGEL, the largest women’s agricultural cooperative in the DRC. 

DeWayne was also heavily involved with the annual Florida International Trade and Cultural Expo, where he played an important role in coordinating African, especially Congolese, participation in this foreign trade network of over 70 nations in the Caribbean, South America, Africa, Asia, and the USA. Boyd was the chief facilitator for having the spotlight shone on at the DRC and FITCE-Expo 2021, the first time that an African nation had been so honored at the Expo. 

DeWayne Boyd PROUDLY took on a secondary role to his wife in the founding and operation of COOPAGEL. Leontine’s intimate knowledge of the life and people of her native land was an assurance that DeWayne would never be at a loss to understand the day-to-day life of the people of the DRC.

Former Broward County Mayor and Commissioner Dale V. C. Holness, the founding father of the FITCE-Expo, found a comrade in DeWayne, who passionately promoted the event in Africa and among African American agricultural institutions like Tuskegee, Alcorn State, and Prairie View. He was also an avid supporter of the National Black Business League, the World Conference of Mayors, and the DRC Mining Group.