Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases excerpts from three online articles about the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
I quote online articles and excerpts of online articles to point out those articles to this blog's readers. I encourage you to read these entire articles.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
EXCERPTS ABOUT THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT IN THE NATION OF SOUTH AFRICA
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1:
From http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/ideology-black-consciousness-movement The Ideology of the Black Consciousness Movement
"The emergence of the Black Consciousness movement that swept across the country in the 1970s can best be explained in the context of the events from 1960 onwards. After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the National Party (NP) government, which was formed in 1947, intensified its repression to curb widespread civil unrest. It did this by passing harsher laws, extending its use of torture, imprisonment and detentions without trial.
By the late 1960s, the government had jailed, banned or exiled the majority of the Liberation Movement’s leaders. In response to this, an intensified wave of tyranny, and a new set of organisations emerged. These organisations filled the vacuum created by the government’s suppression of the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. United loosely around a set of ideas described as “Black Consciousness,” these organisations helped to educate and organise Black people, particularly the youth. In fact, the eruption of the Black Consciousness Movement signalled an end to the quiescence that followed the banning of the black political movements.
The BCM urged a defiant rejection of apartheid, especially among Black workers and the youth. The South African Students Organisation (SASO) - an arm of the movement - was founded by Black students who refused to join NUSAS, another student led organization. At the same time, Black workers began to organise trade unions in defiance of anti-strike laws. In 1973, there were strikes throughout the nation, in cities like Durban. The collapse of Portuguese colonialism and the victories of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in Mozambique, and the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in Angola, stimulated further activity against apartheid. This culminated in the Soweto Uprising of 1976.
In 1976, student protests against Bantu education in Soweto, the Johannesburg informal settlement reserved for Africans, led to a two-year uprising that spread to Black townships across the country. The protests encompassed all Black grievances against the apartheid system, and in that period police reportedly killed many protesters, including schoolchildren. Workers then mobilised to protest police killings of innocent demonstrators.
In the following year, boycotts and unrest among students and teachers grew after Steve Biko, a leader of SASO, died in a Pretoria detention cell. He had been detained by the police under the Terrorism Act, and after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in the 1990s, it was revealed that he was tortured and killed by police. Within a month of Biko’s death, the government had detained scores of people and banned 18 Black Consciousness organizations, as well as two newspapers with a wide Black readership.
The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa is synonymous with its founder, Biko. From the beginning of Biko’s political life until his death, he remains one of the indisputable icons of the Black struggle against apartheid. As leader of the movement, he instilled courage among the masses to fight an unjust system under the banner of Black Consciousness. Defining Black Consciousness is no mean task. However, a broad understanding of the concept can be made from Biko’s speeches and writings, including those of his close friends and other writers."
Last updated : 12-Sep-2016
This article was produced for South African History Online on 20-Mar-2011
****
Excerpt #2
From http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/black-consciousness-movement-south-africa The Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa
"The landscape of Black political activity in the 1960s was different that of the previous decade. The apartheid government had banished the Black resistance movements, in particular the ANC and the PAC. Black leaders, who were not imprisoned by the state, fled into exile. A barrage of restrictive legislation effectively silenced Black opposition through bannings, arrests, and the imprisonment of leaders. South Africa's economy grew and benefited White South Africans. For Black South Africans, however, the suffering continued.
Ironically, the seeds of Black resistance in the 1960s could be found at the ‘bush campuses’, like those at the University of the North and Zululand University. These institutions, created under the Extension of the University Education Act, Act 45 of 1959, became the breeding ground of Black resistance that was to become a force in the 1970s. Influenced by the American Black Power movement, the likes of Malcolm X, and closer to home by Frantz Fanon, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyere and Kwame Nkrumah, a new framework of student thinking emerged. In South Africa, it was the late Anthony Lembede's Africanism that was a crucial influence in these universities.
Biko’s ideas became the major rallying point behind a pressure group that became known in South Africa as the BCM. From 17 years of age, up until his death on 12 September 1977, Biko had an illustrious political career spanning about 14 years. He came into the political limelight in 1963, the year that witnessed a rise in the Poqo-led unrest in his home area. Poqo was the armed wing of the PAC, similar to the armed wing of the ANC, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, or “Spear of the Nation”).
Biko had just entered Lovedale College when his brother was arrested and jailed on suspicion of outlawed Poqo activity. He was interrogated by the police and subsequently expelled. This marked the beginning of Biko’s resentment against white authority. In 1964, he went to Marianhill in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) and attended a private Roman Catholic school, Saint Francis College. Although he found meaning in Christian principles, Biko, who was an articulate young man, resented the influence of whites thought on determining an African’s future.
As an advocate of the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy - together with other literate Africans residing in the major urban centres - Biko developed into a highly respected intellectual in the 1960s. Biko began his search for self-identity, and hoped to build up the pride of Black culture - a culture that was scornfully viewed by the settler regime. Biko and his student colleagues had been receptive to the political ideas expressed by many Black intellectuals, and learned to use the emotional power of the message of Black Consciousness.
As a result, these ideas and slogans filtered down to a much broader group of socially underprivileged people, who were angry and impatient for meaningful action. This restructured consciousness emerged among students, beginning with those at Fort Hare and later the Durban Medical School (Natal University). These students constituted the new African petty bourgeoisie class."
Last updated : 31-Aug-2017
This article was produced for South African History Online on 10-Jun-2011
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Excerpt #3:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Consciousness_Movement#Related_groups
Note: This excerpt doesn’t include any content from these two significant sub-sections of this page: "Early years: 1960–76" and “The Soweto uprising and after: 1976–present"
“The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.[1] The BCM represented a social movement for political consciousness.
[...]
History
The Black Consciousness Movement started to develop during the late 1960s, and was led by Steve Biko, a black medical student, and Barney Pityana. During this period, which overlapped with Apartheid, the ANC had committed to an armed struggle through its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe, but this small guerrilla army was neither able to seize and hold territory in South Africa nor to win significant concessions through its efforts. The ANC had been banned by Apartheid leaders, and although the famed Freedom Charter remained in circulation in spite of attempts to censor it, for many students, the ANC had disappeared.
[...]
The term Black Consciousness stems from American educator W. E. B. Du Bois's evaluation of the double consciousness of American blacks being taught what they feel inside to be lies about the weakness and cowardice of their race. Du Bois echoed Civil War era black nationalist Martin Delany's insistence that black people take pride in their blackness as an important step in their personal liberation. This line of thought was also reflected in the Pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey, as well as Harlem Renaissance philosopher Alain Locke and in the salons of the sisters, Paulette and Jane Nardal in Paris.[3] Biko's understanding of these thinkers was further shaped through the lens of postcolonial thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Léopold Senghor, and Aimé Césaire. Biko reflects the concern for the existential struggle of the black person as a human being, dignified and proud of his blackness, in spite of the oppression of colonialism. The aim of this global movement of black thinkers was to build black consciousness and African consciousness, which they felt had been suppressed under colonialism.[4]
Part of the insight of the Black Consciousness Movement was in understanding that black liberation would not only come from imagining and fighting for structural political changes, as older movements like the ANC [African National Congress] did, but also from psychological transformation in the minds of black people themselves. This analysis suggested that to take power, black people had to believe in the value of their blackness. That is, if black people believed in democracy, but did not believe in their own value, they would not truly be committed to gaining power.[5]
[...]
...along with political action, a major component of the Black Consciousness Movement was its Black Community Programs, which included the organisation of community medical clinics, aiding entrepreneurs, and holding "consciousness" classes and adult education literacy classes.
Another important component of psychological liberation was to embrace blackness by insisting that black people lead movements of black liberation. This meant rejecting the fervent "non-racialism" of the ANC in favour of asking whites to understand and support, but not to take leadership in, the Black Consciousness Movement. A parallel can be seen in the United States, where student leaders of later phases of SNCC, and black nationalists such as Malcolm X, rejected white participation in organisations that intended to build black power. While the ANC viewed white participation in its struggle as part of enacting the non-racial future for which it was fighting, the Black Consciousness view was that even well-intentioned white people often re-enacted the paternalism of the society in which they lived. This view held that in a profoundly racialised society, black people had to first liberate themselves and gain psychological, physical and political power for themselves before "non-racial" organisations could truly be non-racial.
Biko's BCM had much in common with other left-wing African nationalist movements of the time, such as Amílcar Cabral's PAIGC and Huey Newton's Black Panther Party.
[...]
Controversies and criticism
Criticisms of the Movement sometimes mirror similar observations of the Black Consciousness Movement in the United States.[19] On one side, it was argued that the Movement would stagnate into black racialism, aggravate racial tensions and attract repression by the apartheid regime. Further, the objective of the Movement was to perpetuate a racial divide – apartheid for the Blacks, equivalent to that which existed under the National Party rule. Other detractors thought the Movement-based heavily on student idealism, but with little grassroots support among the masses, and few consistent links to the mass trade-union movement.[18]
Assessments of the movement[20] note that it failed to achieve several of its key objectives. It did not bring down the apartheid regime, nor did its appeal to other non-white groups as "people of color" gain much traction. Its focus on blackness as the major organising principle was very much downplayed by Nelson Mandela and his successors who to the contrary emphasised the multi-racial balance needed for the post-apartheid nation. The community programs fostered by the movement were very small in scope and were subordinated to the demands of protest and indoctrination. Its leadership and structure was essentially liquidated, and it failed to bridge the tribal gap in any *large-scale* way, although certainly small groups and individuals collaborated across tribes.
After much blood shed and property destroyed, critics charged that the Movement did nothing more than raise "awareness" of some issues, while accomplishing little in the way of sustained mass organisation, or of practical benefit for the masses. Some detractors also assert that Black consciousness ideas are out-dated, hindering the new multi-racial South Africa.[21]
[...]
Defenses of the Black Consciousness Movement
Defenders of the BCM by contrast held that charges of impracticality failed to grasp the universal power of an idea – the idea of freedom and liberation for blacks. This was Biko's reply to many of the Movement's critics. Indeed, Biko rejected the "practicality" charge as an example of the compromises that hindered and delayed black liberation, saying in 1977: "We have been successful to the extent that we have diminished the element of fear in the minds of black people."[18]
Defenders of the movement argued that blackness was the best, most energetic organising principle that was available at the time, in contrast to laborious legal, non-violent and petition based integrationist approach used by white dominated moderate groups.
Biko made no bones about the 'consciousness' aspect of the movement and in this limited respect he is similar to Huey P. Newton of the Black Panthers in the United States. What was important to Biko and other leaders, was not creating yet another political party or group squabbling over local spoils, but a fundamental mobilisation and change in attitude and outlook of the black oppressed and destitute. Some contemporary BCM leaders claim that its principles are currently relevant and decry what they see as evidence of 'sellout' in the new South Africa. (See AZAPO reference below).
[...]
Black Consciousness in literature
...In comparison with the Black Power movement in the United States, the Black Consciousness movement felt little need to reconstruct any sort of golden cultural heritage. African linguistic and cultural traditions were alive and well in the country. Short stories published predominantly in Drum magazine had led to the 1950s being called the Drum decade, and future Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer was beginning to become active. The fallout from the Sharpeville massacre led to many of those artists entering exile, but the political oppression of the resistance itself led to a new growth of black South African Literature. In the 1970s, Staffrider magazine became the dominant forum for the publication of BC literature, mostly in the form of poetry and short stories. Book clubs, youth associations, and clandestine street-to-street exchange became popular. Various authors explored the Soweto riots in novels, including Miriam Tlali, Mothobi Mutloatse and Mbulelo Mzamane. But the most compelling force in Black Consciousness prose was the short story, now adapted to teach political morals. Mtutuzeli Matshoba famously wrote, "Do not say to me that I am a man." An important theme of Black Consciousness literature was the rediscovery of the ordinary, which can be used to describe the work of Njabulo Ndebele.[24]
However, it was in poetry that the Black Consciousness Movement first found its voice. In a sense, this was a modern update of an old tradition, since several of South Africa's African languages had long traditions of performed poetry.
[...]
A main tenet of the Black Consciousness Movement itself was the development of black culture, and thus black literature. The cleavages in South African society were real, and the poets and writers of the BCM saw themselves as spokespersons for blacks in the country. They refused to be beholden to proper grammar and style, searching for black aesthetics and black literary values.[24] The attempt to awaken a black cultural identity was thus inextricably tied up with the development of black literature.”...
****
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Showing posts with label Black power. Show all posts
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Saturday, November 18, 2017
Excerpts From Three Online Articles About "Négritude"
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents excerpts from three online articles about the "Négritude".
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
I quote excerpts of articles to point out those articles to this blog's readers. I encourage you to read these entire articles.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
EXCERPTS ABOUT NEGRITUDE
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1:
From http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-negritude.html "Négritude"
[written by] Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum –Lehman College
"Négritude is a cultural movement launched in 1930s Paris by French-speaking black graduate students from France's colonies in Africa and the Caribbean territories. These black intellectuals converged around issues of race identity and black internationalist initiatives to combat French imperialism. They found solidarity in their common ideal of affirming pride in their shared black identity and African heritage, and reclaiming African self-determination, self–reliance, and self–respect. The Négritude movement signaled an awakening of race consciousness for blacks in Africa and the African Diaspora. This new race consciousness, rooted in a (re)discovery of the authentic self, sparked a collective condemnation of Western domination, anti-black racism, enslavement, and colonization of black people. It sought to dispel denigrating myths and stereotypes linked to black people, by acknowledging their culture, history, and achievements, as well as reclaiming their contributions to the world and restoring their rightful place within the global community.
The Roots of Négritude
The movement is deeply rooted in Pan-African congresses, exhibitions, organizations, and publications produced to challenge the theory of race hierarchy and black inferiority developed by philosophers such as Friedrich Hegel and Joseph de Gobineau. Diverse thinkers influenced this rehabilitation process, including anthropologists Leo Frobenius and Maurice Delafosse, who wrote on Africa; colonial administrator René Maran, who penned the seminal ethnographic novel Batouala: Véritable roman négre, an eyewitness account of abuses and injustices within the French colonial system; André Breton, the father of Surrealism; French romantics Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire; Haitian Jean-Price Mars, who developed the concept of Indigenism; Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin and Cuban Nicolás Guillén, who promoted Negrismo.
Of major significance are the Harlem Renaissance intellectuals who fled to France to escape racism and segregation in the United States. Prominent among them were Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, and Claude McKay. McKay, who bemoaned divisions of blacks, was acclaimed by Senegalese poet and politician Léopold Sédar Senghor as the spiritual founder of Négritude values. Senghor argued that "far from seeing in one's blackness inferiority, one accepts it; one lays claim to it with pride; one cultivates it lovingly." Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey similarly implored his peers: "Negroes, teach your children that they are direct descendants of the greatest and proudest race who ever peopled the earth."...
****
Excerpt #2:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9gritude
"Négritude is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African diaspora during the 1930s. Its initiators included Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (the first President of Senegal), and Léon Damas of French Guiana. Négritude intellectuals disavowed colonialism, and argued for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African descent worldwide.
[...]
Etymology
The term négritude is a construction which appropriates the derogatory word niger, used to refer to people (in French) as nègre, so largely used exclusively in a racist context. The movement's use of the word négritude is a way of re-imagining the word as an emic form of empowerment. The term was first used in its present sense by Césaire, in the third issue of L'Étudiant noir, a magazine which he had started in Paris with fellow students Léopold Senghor and Léon Damas, as well as Gilbert Gratiant, Leonard Sainville, Louis T. Achille, Aristide Maugée, and Paulette Nardal. L'Étudiant noir also includes Césaire's first published work, Conscience Raciale et Révolution Sociale with the heading "Les Idées" and the rubric "Négreries", which is notable for its disavowal of assimilation as a valid strategy for resistance and for its use of the word nègre as a positive term. The problem with assimilation was that one assimilated into a culture that considered African culture to be barbaric and unworthy of being seen as "civilized". The assimilation into this culture would have been seen as an implicit acceptance of this view. Nègre previously had been used mainly in a pejorative sense. Césaire deliberately incorporated this derogatory word into the name of his philosophy.
Influences
In 1885, Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin published an early work De l'Égalité des Races Humaines (On the Equality of Human Races), which was published as a rebuttal to French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau's Essai sur l'inegalite des Races Humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). Firmin influenced Jean Price-Mars, the initiator of Haitian ethnology and developer of the concept of Indigenism, and 20th-century American anthropologist Melville Herskovits.[1] Black intellectuals have historically been proud of Haiti due to its slave revolution commanded by Toussaint L'Ouverture during the 1790s. Césaire spoke, thus, of Haiti as being "where négritude stood up for the first time".
Other diverse thinkers include Charles Baudelaire, André Breton, René Maran, and Arthur Rimbaud.[2]
The Harlem Renaissance, a literary style developed in Harlem in Manhattan during the 1920s and 1930s, influenced the Negritude philosophy.[3] The Harlem Renaissance's writers, including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, addressed the themes of "noireism" and race relations.
Development during the 20th century
During the 1920s and 1930s, a group of young black students and scholars, primarily from France's colonies and territories, assembled in Paris. There they were introduced to some writers of the Harlem Renaissance by Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane. The Nardal sisters contributed to the Negritude discussions by their writings and by being the proprietors of the Clamart Salon, a tea-shop venue of the French-Black intelligentsia where Negritude philosophy was often discussed. Paulette Nardal and the Haitian Dr. Leo Sajou initiated La revue du Monde Noir (1931–32), a literary journal published in English and French, which attempted to appeal to African and Caribbean intellectuals in Paris. This Harlem association was shared by the parallel development of negrismo in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean region.
[...]
Césaire was a poet, playwright, and politician from Martinique. He studied in Paris, where he discovered the black community and "rediscovered Africa". He saw la Négritude as the fact of being black, acceptance of this fact, and appreciation of the history and culture, and of black people. It is important to note that for Césaire, this emphasis on the acceptance of the fact of "blackness" was the means by which the "decolonization of the mind" could be achieved. According to him, western imperialism was responsible for the inferiority complex of blacks. He sought to recognize the collective colonial experience of Blacks—the slave trade and plantation system. Césaire's ideology was especially important during the early years of la Négritude.”
[...]
Reception
In 1948, Jean-Paul Sartre analyzed the négritude philosophy in an essay called "Orphée Noir" ("Black Orpheus")[5] that served as the introduction to a volume of francophone poetry named Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, compiled by Léopold Senghor. In this essay, Sartre characterizes négritude as the opposite of colonial racism in a Hegelian dialectic and with it he helped to introduce Négritude issues to French intellectuals. In his opinion, négritude was an "anti-racist racism" (racisme antiracist), a strategy with a final goal of racial unity.
Négritude was criticized by some black writers during the 1960s as insufficiently militant. Keorapetse Kgositsile said that the term Négritude was based too much on blackness according to a caucasian aesthetic, and was unable to define a new kind of perception of African-ness that would free black people and black art from caucasian conceptualizations altogether.
The Nigerian dramatist, poet, and novelist Wole Soyinka opposed Négritude. He believed that by deliberately and outspokenly being proud of their ethnicity, black people were automatically on the defensive: "Un tigre ne proclame pas sa tigritude, il saute sur sa proie" (French: A tiger doesn't proclaim its tigerness; it jumps on its prey).
After a long period of silence there has been a renaissance of Negritude developed by scholars such as Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia), Donna Jones (Berkeley),[6] and Cheikh Thiam (Ohio State) who all continue the work of Abiola Irele. Cheikh Thiam's book is the only book-length study of Negritude as philosophy. It develops Diagne's reading of Negritude as a philosophy of art, and Jones' presentation of Negritude as a lebensphilosophie.
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensphilosophie
"Lebensphilosophie ("philosophy of life" or life-philosophy in German) is a philosophical school of thought which emphasises the meaning, value and purpose of life as the foremost focus of philosophy.[1]"
****
Excerpt #3:
From http://www.blackpast.org/gah/negritude-movement
Contributor:
Micklin, Anna T.
The Evergreen State College
"The literary movement, Negritude, was born out of the Paris intellectual environment of 1930s and 1940s. It is a product of black writers joining together through the French language to assert their cultural identity.
Aimé Césaire was the first to coin the word in his epic poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, declaring “my negritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamor of the day” but instead, his negritude “takes root in the ardent flesh of the soil.” Together with Césaire, Léon Damas and Léopold Sédar Senghor created poetry that would make a definition for Negritude. The best-known Negritude works from these poets were Damas’ Pigments, Senghor’s Hosties noire and Chants d’ombre, and Césaire’s Cahier. These poets were brought together in the creation of the journal, L’Etudiant noire.
L’Etudiant noire responded to similar black journals in Paris at the time. Césaire and Senghor thought the West-Indian journal, Légitime defense, was too assimilationist and they found the Nardal sisters’ journal, Revue du monde noir, too bourgeois to truly represent the French-speaking black experience. Despite being a separate tract from these journals, L’Etudiant noire would not have been possible if the Nardal sisters and Légitime défense hadn’t created an environment in Paris for black intellectualism.
[...]
Negritude responded to the alienated position of blacks in history. The movement asserted an identity for black people around the world that was their own. For Césaire and Damas, from Martinique and French Guiana, the rupture from Africa through the Atlantic Slave Trade was a great part of their cultural understanding. Their work told of the frustration and loss of their motherland. For Senegalese Senghor, his works focused more on African traditionalism. In ways the assertion of each poet diverges from each other, but the combination of different perspectives is also what fueled and fed Negritude.
From a political standpoint, Negritude was an important aspect to the rejection of colonialism. Emerging at the cusp of African independence movements, Negritude made an impact on how the colonized viewed themselves. It also sparked and fed off of subsequent literary movements that were responding to global politics....
There is no clear end date to the movement, and some literary critics say that it still continues today, in any artistic expression asserting black identity."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post presents excerpts from three online articles about the "Négritude".
The content of this post is presented for historical, socio-cultural, and educational purposes.
I quote excerpts of articles to point out those articles to this blog's readers. I encourage you to read these entire articles.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
EXCERPTS ABOUT NEGRITUDE
These excerpts are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.
Excerpt #1:
From http://exhibitions.nypl.org/africanaage/essay-negritude.html "Négritude"
[written by] Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum –Lehman College
"Négritude is a cultural movement launched in 1930s Paris by French-speaking black graduate students from France's colonies in Africa and the Caribbean territories. These black intellectuals converged around issues of race identity and black internationalist initiatives to combat French imperialism. They found solidarity in their common ideal of affirming pride in their shared black identity and African heritage, and reclaiming African self-determination, self–reliance, and self–respect. The Négritude movement signaled an awakening of race consciousness for blacks in Africa and the African Diaspora. This new race consciousness, rooted in a (re)discovery of the authentic self, sparked a collective condemnation of Western domination, anti-black racism, enslavement, and colonization of black people. It sought to dispel denigrating myths and stereotypes linked to black people, by acknowledging their culture, history, and achievements, as well as reclaiming their contributions to the world and restoring their rightful place within the global community.
The Roots of Négritude
The movement is deeply rooted in Pan-African congresses, exhibitions, organizations, and publications produced to challenge the theory of race hierarchy and black inferiority developed by philosophers such as Friedrich Hegel and Joseph de Gobineau. Diverse thinkers influenced this rehabilitation process, including anthropologists Leo Frobenius and Maurice Delafosse, who wrote on Africa; colonial administrator René Maran, who penned the seminal ethnographic novel Batouala: Véritable roman négre, an eyewitness account of abuses and injustices within the French colonial system; André Breton, the father of Surrealism; French romantics Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire; Haitian Jean-Price Mars, who developed the concept of Indigenism; Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin and Cuban Nicolás Guillén, who promoted Negrismo.
Of major significance are the Harlem Renaissance intellectuals who fled to France to escape racism and segregation in the United States. Prominent among them were Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Richard Wright, and Claude McKay. McKay, who bemoaned divisions of blacks, was acclaimed by Senegalese poet and politician Léopold Sédar Senghor as the spiritual founder of Négritude values. Senghor argued that "far from seeing in one's blackness inferiority, one accepts it; one lays claim to it with pride; one cultivates it lovingly." Pan-Africanist leader Marcus Garvey similarly implored his peers: "Negroes, teach your children that they are direct descendants of the greatest and proudest race who ever peopled the earth."...
****
Excerpt #2:
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9gritude
"Négritude is a framework of critique and literary theory, developed mainly by francophone intellectuals, writers, and politicians of the African diaspora during the 1930s. Its initiators included Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, Léopold Sédar Senghor (the first President of Senegal), and Léon Damas of French Guiana. Négritude intellectuals disavowed colonialism, and argued for the importance of a Pan-African racial identity among people of African descent worldwide.
[...]
Etymology
The term négritude is a construction which appropriates the derogatory word niger, used to refer to people (in French) as nègre, so largely used exclusively in a racist context. The movement's use of the word négritude is a way of re-imagining the word as an emic form of empowerment. The term was first used in its present sense by Césaire, in the third issue of L'Étudiant noir, a magazine which he had started in Paris with fellow students Léopold Senghor and Léon Damas, as well as Gilbert Gratiant, Leonard Sainville, Louis T. Achille, Aristide Maugée, and Paulette Nardal. L'Étudiant noir also includes Césaire's first published work, Conscience Raciale et Révolution Sociale with the heading "Les Idées" and the rubric "Négreries", which is notable for its disavowal of assimilation as a valid strategy for resistance and for its use of the word nègre as a positive term. The problem with assimilation was that one assimilated into a culture that considered African culture to be barbaric and unworthy of being seen as "civilized". The assimilation into this culture would have been seen as an implicit acceptance of this view. Nègre previously had been used mainly in a pejorative sense. Césaire deliberately incorporated this derogatory word into the name of his philosophy.
Influences
In 1885, Haitian anthropologist Anténor Firmin published an early work De l'Égalité des Races Humaines (On the Equality of Human Races), which was published as a rebuttal to French writer Count Arthur de Gobineau's Essai sur l'inegalite des Races Humaines (An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races). Firmin influenced Jean Price-Mars, the initiator of Haitian ethnology and developer of the concept of Indigenism, and 20th-century American anthropologist Melville Herskovits.[1] Black intellectuals have historically been proud of Haiti due to its slave revolution commanded by Toussaint L'Ouverture during the 1790s. Césaire spoke, thus, of Haiti as being "where négritude stood up for the first time".
Other diverse thinkers include Charles Baudelaire, André Breton, René Maran, and Arthur Rimbaud.[2]
The Harlem Renaissance, a literary style developed in Harlem in Manhattan during the 1920s and 1930s, influenced the Negritude philosophy.[3] The Harlem Renaissance's writers, including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright, addressed the themes of "noireism" and race relations.
Development during the 20th century
During the 1920s and 1930s, a group of young black students and scholars, primarily from France's colonies and territories, assembled in Paris. There they were introduced to some writers of the Harlem Renaissance by Paulette Nardal and her sister Jane. The Nardal sisters contributed to the Negritude discussions by their writings and by being the proprietors of the Clamart Salon, a tea-shop venue of the French-Black intelligentsia where Negritude philosophy was often discussed. Paulette Nardal and the Haitian Dr. Leo Sajou initiated La revue du Monde Noir (1931–32), a literary journal published in English and French, which attempted to appeal to African and Caribbean intellectuals in Paris. This Harlem association was shared by the parallel development of negrismo in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean region.
[...]
Césaire was a poet, playwright, and politician from Martinique. He studied in Paris, where he discovered the black community and "rediscovered Africa". He saw la Négritude as the fact of being black, acceptance of this fact, and appreciation of the history and culture, and of black people. It is important to note that for Césaire, this emphasis on the acceptance of the fact of "blackness" was the means by which the "decolonization of the mind" could be achieved. According to him, western imperialism was responsible for the inferiority complex of blacks. He sought to recognize the collective colonial experience of Blacks—the slave trade and plantation system. Césaire's ideology was especially important during the early years of la Négritude.”
[...]
Reception
In 1948, Jean-Paul Sartre analyzed the négritude philosophy in an essay called "Orphée Noir" ("Black Orpheus")[5] that served as the introduction to a volume of francophone poetry named Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache, compiled by Léopold Senghor. In this essay, Sartre characterizes négritude as the opposite of colonial racism in a Hegelian dialectic and with it he helped to introduce Négritude issues to French intellectuals. In his opinion, négritude was an "anti-racist racism" (racisme antiracist), a strategy with a final goal of racial unity.
Négritude was criticized by some black writers during the 1960s as insufficiently militant. Keorapetse Kgositsile said that the term Négritude was based too much on blackness according to a caucasian aesthetic, and was unable to define a new kind of perception of African-ness that would free black people and black art from caucasian conceptualizations altogether.
The Nigerian dramatist, poet, and novelist Wole Soyinka opposed Négritude. He believed that by deliberately and outspokenly being proud of their ethnicity, black people were automatically on the defensive: "Un tigre ne proclame pas sa tigritude, il saute sur sa proie" (French: A tiger doesn't proclaim its tigerness; it jumps on its prey).
After a long period of silence there has been a renaissance of Negritude developed by scholars such as Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia), Donna Jones (Berkeley),[6] and Cheikh Thiam (Ohio State) who all continue the work of Abiola Irele. Cheikh Thiam's book is the only book-length study of Negritude as philosophy. It develops Diagne's reading of Negritude as a philosophy of art, and Jones' presentation of Negritude as a lebensphilosophie.
-snip-
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebensphilosophie
"Lebensphilosophie ("philosophy of life" or life-philosophy in German) is a philosophical school of thought which emphasises the meaning, value and purpose of life as the foremost focus of philosophy.[1]"
****
Excerpt #3:
From http://www.blackpast.org/gah/negritude-movement
Contributor:
Micklin, Anna T.
The Evergreen State College
"The literary movement, Negritude, was born out of the Paris intellectual environment of 1930s and 1940s. It is a product of black writers joining together through the French language to assert their cultural identity.
Aimé Césaire was the first to coin the word in his epic poem, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, declaring “my negritude is not a stone, its deafness hurled against the clamor of the day” but instead, his negritude “takes root in the ardent flesh of the soil.” Together with Césaire, Léon Damas and Léopold Sédar Senghor created poetry that would make a definition for Negritude. The best-known Negritude works from these poets were Damas’ Pigments, Senghor’s Hosties noire and Chants d’ombre, and Césaire’s Cahier. These poets were brought together in the creation of the journal, L’Etudiant noire.
L’Etudiant noire responded to similar black journals in Paris at the time. Césaire and Senghor thought the West-Indian journal, Légitime defense, was too assimilationist and they found the Nardal sisters’ journal, Revue du monde noir, too bourgeois to truly represent the French-speaking black experience. Despite being a separate tract from these journals, L’Etudiant noire would not have been possible if the Nardal sisters and Légitime défense hadn’t created an environment in Paris for black intellectualism.
[...]
Negritude responded to the alienated position of blacks in history. The movement asserted an identity for black people around the world that was their own. For Césaire and Damas, from Martinique and French Guiana, the rupture from Africa through the Atlantic Slave Trade was a great part of their cultural understanding. Their work told of the frustration and loss of their motherland. For Senegalese Senghor, his works focused more on African traditionalism. In ways the assertion of each poet diverges from each other, but the combination of different perspectives is also what fueled and fed Negritude.
From a political standpoint, Negritude was an important aspect to the rejection of colonialism. Emerging at the cusp of African independence movements, Negritude made an impact on how the colonized viewed themselves. It also sparked and fed off of subsequent literary movements that were responding to global politics....
There is no clear end date to the movement, and some literary critics say that it still continues today, in any artistic expression asserting black identity."
****
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Visitor comments are welcome.
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Black Power Themes In Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc, Probate (VSU's Evil Eta Chapter - Spring 2014)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases a video of the Black power themes in Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc, Probate (VSU's Evil Eta Chapter - Spring 2014). Included in this video are vintage clips of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, and others.
Selected comments from video's discussion thread are also included in this post. I've also added brief explanatory notes for some of these comments.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks and congratulations to all those who are featured in this video and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: Iota Phi Theta - Evil Eta Chapter - Spring 2k14 Probate
TrojanNation1882 Published on Mar 25, 2014
The Evil Eta Chapter Presents...
The Freedom Riders aka The Refugees
The Evil Eta Chapter Presents...
The Freedom Riders aka The Refugees
1. Denzel Davis/Line Name - The Ghost Rider Alias - Geo-Dude
2. Maleik Pride/Line Name - The Activist Alias - Gravey -ite
3. Wanya Wilson/Line Name - Black Owt Alias - The Peacemaker
4. Darien Pope/Line Name - Colossus Alias - Thor
5. Bradford Bearden/Line Name - RhymeFest Alias - The Outcast
6. Devin Harrington/Line Name - Rhythm & Blues Alias - The Composer
7. Omega/Line Name - NoTAURius B.I.G Alias- The Longest Yard
Created by: The Trojan Introduction Program
Chief Videographer: Deon Tillman & Dominique Robinson
Chief Editor: Deon Tillman & Nigel France
***DISCLAIMER ***
THIS VIDEO AS WELL AS OTHERS ON THE TROJANNATION1882 CHANNEL ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY. THE VIEWS AND IDEAS EXPRESSED COME FROM VSU STUDENTS AS A REFLECTION OF STUDENT LIFE AT VSU. PLEASE VISIT THE VSUOfficialChannel FOR NEWS & INFORMATION REGARDING VSU!
-snip-
VSU = Virginia State University
****
SELECTED COMMENTS
These comments are numbered for referencing purposes only. All of these comments are from 2014.
My notes after some of these comments may include definitions from this online page: https://www.montclair.edu/student-development-campus-life/greek-life/glossary/ "Montclair State [New Jersey] Greek Life Glossary (hereafter given as "Montclair State Greek Glossary"
Here's a statement from that page:
"(Please note this is not an exhaustive list and is compiled from multiple sources. Not all terms are used by all groups/campuses.)"
-snip-
Here's the definition of "Probate" from that glossary:
"Probate/Coming Out Show" – A performance by newly inducted or soon to be inducted members. A way for
organizations to showcase the newest members of the organization"
****
1. ABDUL SHARIF
"Inspiration. ...Thank you Eta Chapter. .OW OW "It Takes A Man""
-snip-
"Ow Ow" is the signature call for members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
**
2. Gerald E Anderson Jr
"Once again my Evil Eta brothers make me proud to be an Iota and to be from Evil Eta. Ow Ow!!!!!"
**
3. rontavius allen
"I see you Sandz
ACE Spr 2k14
Beta Theta Chapter
JCSU"
-snip-
Sandz" = Sands
from Montclair State Greek Glossary - "Sands - An NPHC term for members of your new member class or Greeks who became members the same semester. Comes from the phrase "cross the burning sands" which means to cross over (Become initiated) into full membership.
from Montclair State Greek Glossary- "NPHC - The National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body of the 9 historically African American fraternities and sororities, also known as the Divine Nine."
-snip-
Note that there are other African American Greek letter (and non-Greek letter) university based fraternities and sororities besides the Divine Nine.
**
4. newjeruz08
"Great job Fellas! Keep Building a Tradition and Not Resting Upon One" Dean Big Brother OwtSpoken! 6HFA11"
**
5. bama7boy
"Ow Ow to my neos!! Continue to uphold what it takes to be a Tru Theta Man.. 2HFa12 Decatholon"
from Montclair State Greek Glossary - "Neophyte - New member of Greek Letter organization; also called a ‘Neo’. This term is generally used by NPHC, NALFO, and NMGC organizations.
NALFO - "The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO) is an umbrella council for 16 Latino Greek Letter Organizations established in 1998." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Latino_Fraternal_Organizations
NMGC= "The National Multicultural Greek Council (NMGC) is an umbrella council for eleven multicultural fraternities and sororities (Greek Letter organizations) in universities in the United States. It was established in 1998." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Multicultural_Greek_Council
**
6. Jennifer Odom
"Woooork!!! I miss my VSU! Shout out to the Tr3!!! EEE-OW!"
-snip-
"EE-OW" - a call that a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. uses to address members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. The call combines the beginning of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. call ("EEE-Yip") with the end of the Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. call ("Ow Ow").
"EEE-Ow" is a combined sorority/fraternity call. This type of combination call are respectful greetings that acknowledge the family ties that exists across Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs). From what I've read online, it appears that combined calls are most often given by members of historically Black Greek lettered sororities to members of other historically Black Greek lettered fraternities. I don't know if members of historically Black Greek lettered fraternities follow the same custom for members of historically Black Greek letter sororities, or if this custom is done for between two sororities, or two fraternities, or between BGLOs and other fraternal organizations.
**
7. Court Lyn F.
"This Iota Chapter been popping for years! Congrats EEE-OW!!"
-snip-
"poppin" = African American Vernacular English term meaning "excelling"; "rising up", "exceeding expectations", [being] "hot"
**
8. keith oliver
"Way to set the standard. OW-OW Eta Chapter.
GCR-Alabama
Tuskegee University
3SPR12"
**
9. Allester Taylor
"OW-OW that was OWsome Brothers!!!! Congrats
#1 Spring 01
Delta Zeta Indiana State University"
**
10. mrtooauthentic24
"OW OW SANDZ.
1 DO 14."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
This pancocojams post showcases a video of the Black power themes in Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc, Probate (VSU's Evil Eta Chapter - Spring 2014). Included in this video are vintage clips of Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, the Black Panthers, and others.
Selected comments from video's discussion thread are also included in this post. I've also added brief explanatory notes for some of these comments.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks and congratulations to all those who are featured in this video and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO: Iota Phi Theta - Evil Eta Chapter - Spring 2k14 Probate
TrojanNation1882 Published on Mar 25, 2014
The Evil Eta Chapter Presents...
The Freedom Riders aka The Refugees
The Evil Eta Chapter Presents...
The Freedom Riders aka The Refugees
1. Denzel Davis/Line Name - The Ghost Rider Alias - Geo-Dude
2. Maleik Pride/Line Name - The Activist Alias - Gravey -ite
3. Wanya Wilson/Line Name - Black Owt Alias - The Peacemaker
4. Darien Pope/Line Name - Colossus Alias - Thor
5. Bradford Bearden/Line Name - RhymeFest Alias - The Outcast
6. Devin Harrington/Line Name - Rhythm & Blues Alias - The Composer
7. Omega/Line Name - NoTAURius B.I.G Alias- The Longest Yard
Created by: The Trojan Introduction Program
Chief Videographer: Deon Tillman & Dominique Robinson
Chief Editor: Deon Tillman & Nigel France
***DISCLAIMER ***
THIS VIDEO AS WELL AS OTHERS ON THE TROJANNATION1882 CHANNEL ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY. THE VIEWS AND IDEAS EXPRESSED COME FROM VSU STUDENTS AS A REFLECTION OF STUDENT LIFE AT VSU. PLEASE VISIT THE VSUOfficialChannel FOR NEWS & INFORMATION REGARDING VSU!
-snip-
VSU = Virginia State University
****
SELECTED COMMENTS
These comments are numbered for referencing purposes only. All of these comments are from 2014.
My notes after some of these comments may include definitions from this online page: https://www.montclair.edu/student-development-campus-life/greek-life/glossary/ "Montclair State [New Jersey] Greek Life Glossary (hereafter given as "Montclair State Greek Glossary"
Here's a statement from that page:
"(Please note this is not an exhaustive list and is compiled from multiple sources. Not all terms are used by all groups/campuses.)"
-snip-
Here's the definition of "Probate" from that glossary:
"Probate/Coming Out Show" – A performance by newly inducted or soon to be inducted members. A way for
organizations to showcase the newest members of the organization"
****
1. ABDUL SHARIF
"Inspiration. ...Thank you Eta Chapter. .OW OW "It Takes A Man""
-snip-
"Ow Ow" is the signature call for members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc.
**
2. Gerald E Anderson Jr
"Once again my Evil Eta brothers make me proud to be an Iota and to be from Evil Eta. Ow Ow!!!!!"
**
3. rontavius allen
"I see you Sandz
ACE Spr 2k14
Beta Theta Chapter
JCSU"
-snip-
Sandz" = Sands
from Montclair State Greek Glossary - "Sands - An NPHC term for members of your new member class or Greeks who became members the same semester. Comes from the phrase "cross the burning sands" which means to cross over (Become initiated) into full membership.
from Montclair State Greek Glossary- "NPHC - The National Pan-Hellenic Council, the governing body of the 9 historically African American fraternities and sororities, also known as the Divine Nine."
-snip-
Note that there are other African American Greek letter (and non-Greek letter) university based fraternities and sororities besides the Divine Nine.
**
4. newjeruz08
"Great job Fellas! Keep Building a Tradition and Not Resting Upon One" Dean Big Brother OwtSpoken! 6HFA11"
**
5. bama7boy
"Ow Ow to my neos!! Continue to uphold what it takes to be a Tru Theta Man.. 2HFa12 Decatholon"
from Montclair State Greek Glossary - "Neophyte - New member of Greek Letter organization; also called a ‘Neo’. This term is generally used by NPHC, NALFO, and NMGC organizations.
NALFO - "The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations (NALFO) is an umbrella council for 16 Latino Greek Letter Organizations established in 1998." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Association_of_Latino_Fraternal_Organizations
NMGC= "The National Multicultural Greek Council (NMGC) is an umbrella council for eleven multicultural fraternities and sororities (Greek Letter organizations) in universities in the United States. It was established in 1998." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Multicultural_Greek_Council
**
6. Jennifer Odom
"Woooork!!! I miss my VSU! Shout out to the Tr3!!! EEE-OW!"
-snip-
"EE-OW" - a call that a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. uses to address members of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. The call combines the beginning of the Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. call ("EEE-Yip") with the end of the Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. call ("Ow Ow").
"EEE-Ow" is a combined sorority/fraternity call. This type of combination call are respectful greetings that acknowledge the family ties that exists across Black Greek Lettered Organizations (BGLOs). From what I've read online, it appears that combined calls are most often given by members of historically Black Greek lettered sororities to members of other historically Black Greek lettered fraternities. I don't know if members of historically Black Greek lettered fraternities follow the same custom for members of historically Black Greek letter sororities, or if this custom is done for between two sororities, or two fraternities, or between BGLOs and other fraternal organizations.
**
7. Court Lyn F.
"This Iota Chapter been popping for years! Congrats EEE-OW!!"
-snip-
"poppin" = African American Vernacular English term meaning "excelling"; "rising up", "exceeding expectations", [being] "hot"
**
8. keith oliver
"Way to set the standard. OW-OW Eta Chapter.
GCR-Alabama
Tuskegee University
3SPR12"
**
9. Allester Taylor
"OW-OW that was OWsome Brothers!!!! Congrats
#1 Spring 01
Delta Zeta Indiana State University"
**
10. mrtooauthentic24
"OW OW SANDZ.
1 DO 14."
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
From "Freedom Now" To "No Justice No Peace": Changes In African American Protest Terminology & Strategies
Edited by Azizi Powell
Latest Update: December 15, 2018: additional video
This title was revised on December 15, 2018. The former title was "From Freedom To Justice: Changes In African American Protest Terminology & Strategies".
This post explores the changes that have occurred from the 1960s and thereafter in the terminology and strategies that have been used by African American protestors and their allies.
Also included in this post are two videos of 1960s civil rights marches, one video of the Jena 6 protests (2007) and five videos of 2013-2014 Black justice demonstrations.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on protest chants. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/chanting-at-trayvon-martin-march-rally.html, http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/examples-of-black-civil-rights-chants.html, and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-protest-chants-from-north.html for three other posts in this series.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
Thanks to all those who have worked and those who are now working for equality and justice for all.
****
1960s - "FREEDOM" AND "CIVIL RIGHTS"
"Freedom" meant being able to be an equal part of all aspects of American life.
"Civil Rights" meant full and equal access to all American public institutions and services.
The 1960s African American protest movement is called the "Civil Rights movement". The word "protestors" wasn't commonly used to refer to that movement's participants. The general public referred to the protest movements as "demonstrations" and called their participants "demonstrators". The movement's participants called themselves "freedom fighters", and "freedom riders". "Freedom riders" were Black people and White people who challenged racial laws in the American South in the 1960s by refusing to abide by the laws designating that seating in buses be segregated by race.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Riders)In addition to "freedom rides", the main tactics that freedom fighters used were boycotts of services, marches, rallies, and sit-ins. "Sit-ins" are any organized protest in which a group of people peacefully occupy and refuse to leave a premises. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sit-in) This tactic was first used in the Civil Rights movement to force the desegregation of public restaurants in the South.
Numerous songs and chants used by that movement included the word "freedom". An example of a "freedom song" is:
"0h freedom!
Oh freedom!
Oh freedom over me.
And before I be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord
And be free."
An example of a civil rights call & response chant from the 1960s is:
"What do we want?
(Freedom!)
When do we want it?
(Now!)"
An example of a civil rights unison chant from the 1960s is "Freedom now!"
****
The late 1960s/1970s - THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT
The Black power movement* "emphasiz[ed] racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power)
The participants in this movement were referred to and referred to themselves as "Black power activists". The rallying cries for "freedom" and "civil rights" weren't used by Black power activists. Instead, the rallying calls were for "Black power!" and "Power to the People". Also, the
"Black power salute" was used as a widespread symbol of that movement. The Black power salute is usually made by holding the left arm above your head and sometimes extended slightly forward with the right hand in a fist. The facial expression is serious to indicate determination.
Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the black power movement whose link was previously given
"Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, the psychological and cultural messages of the Black Power movement, though less tangible, have had perhaps a longer lasting impact on American society than concrete political changes...
The impact of the Black Power movement in generating valuable discussion about ethnic identity and black consciousness manifests itself in the relatively recent proliferation of academic fields such as American studies, Black Studies, and Africana studies in both national and international institutions. The respect and attention accorded to African Americans’ history and culture in both formal and informal settings today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s."
-snip-
Wearing natural hairstyles such as the "afro" and "locks" ("dreadlocks") and adopting afro-centric
clothing fashions is also attributed to the late 1960s/1970s Black power movement.
It's significant to note that while singing protest songs was an integral part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, singing (not including a person or people singing in front of an audience) isn't a part of Black protest movements since that decade.
*When used as a referent for Black people, it's appropriate for the letter "b" to either be capitalized or written in lower case.
****
1980s
Some online references extend the Black power movement to the 1980s.
I've not been able to find any information about Black (African American) protest movements or chants in the 1980s
****
BLACK JUSTICE PROTESTS - 1990s to date [strategies]
Since the 1990s, African American led demonstrations have been called "protests" and the participants in these demonstrations are called "protestors" and "demonstrators".
Instead of "freedom", "civil rights", or "black power", the rallying cry for these protests has been "justice". The word "justice" refers to "social justice", meaning "equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities" http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/peace.asp). In particular, since the 1990s, Black protests movement in the United States focus on the lack of justice for Black and Brown people in the criminal justice system and
the police's unequal treatment of Black and Brown people. Special focus of these protests has been the deaths of unarmed Black and Brown males by police officers and the lack of indictment of those police officers. Note that in the United States "Brown people" is usually a referent for Latinos/Latinas.
Note that a very significant aspect of the Black justice protest movements is the participation of persons across all racial, gender, age, and religious categories.
Among the tactics that justice protesters utilize are:
rallies
**
marches
Marches include planned organized marches to a specific location or locations and roving marches in which crowds move perhaps randomly throughout a large city.
**
sit-ins
**
die-ins
This tactic, which involves laying on the ground in imitation of a death, may have begun with Trayvon Martin protests in 2012. However, "die-ins" are most often associated with the death of
Eric Garner, New York City, July 17, 2014, Michael Brown, Jr. (Ferguson, Missouri, August 9, 2014, and a number of other Black males in 2014. In particular the practice of timing these die-ins for four and a half minutes is done to symbolize the four and one half hours that Michael Brown Jr. was left on the ground after he was killed by police officer Darren Wilson.
UPDATE: Read the correction in the comment section that si sent in that dates die ins to the 1980s if not earlier. "ACT UP and other gay-rights/AIDS activist organizations held die ins to call attention to the ignored AIDS plague in the 1980s."
-end of quote-
Thanks, si!
**
walk-outs
This tactic involves leaving (walking out of) a school or other place to as a form of protest and/or as an expression of support for protest or an issue or issues.
**
blockading (shutting down) streets, highways, and bridges
Protesters marching on streets, highways, and bridges and blocking access to those places in order
to draw attention to their demands.
**
Special mention can be made of the "Moral Mondays" protests that began in North Carolina in 2013.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Mondays
"The protests are characterized by engaging in civil disobedience by entering the state legislature building and then being peacefully arrested. The movement protests many wide ranging issues under the blanket of unfair treatment, discrimination, and adverse effects of government legislation on the citizens of North Carolina. The protests in North Carolina launched a grassroots social justice movement that, in 2014, spread to Georgia and South Carolina,[1] and then to other U.S. states."
**
Unlike the Occupy protests in the United States and elsewhere that began in September 2011, with
the exceptions of certain sit-ins, Black justice protestors don't occupy locations for long periods of time.
****
BLACK JUSTICE PROTESTS - 1990s to date [chants]
Among the rallying calls (chants) that are used by justice protestors are:
"No Justice, No Peace" (If we don't have justice, there will be no peace.)
It appears that "no justice/no peace" was also first used in protests against the murder of Malice Green by a Detroit, Michigan police officer in November 1992. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Green)That unison chant is often heard in 2014 protests against the killing of unarmed Black and Brown people by the police and the lack of indictment of those police officers.
"No justice/no peace/no racist police" is an expansion of "no justice/no peace" that was also reported as being used in the Malice Green protest marches. That chant is also used in 2014.
**
"I can't breathe" (These were the last words that Eric Garner repeatedly said while he was being placed in a chokehold by police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Some die-ins last for eleven minutes to symbolize the number of times Eric Garner said "I can't breathe."
An expansion of "I can't breathe" is the unison chant "If we can't breathe/you can't breathe". That chant refers to the non-violent acts of civil disobedience that are done to draw attention to the issue of the lack of justice in the criminal justice system and the actions of bad police officers which go unpunished in that system.
**
"Shut it down!
(Read the comment about "blocking [shutting down] streets etc.)
**
"Hands up!/ Don't shoot".
"Hands up. Don't shoot" is a call and response chant with accompanying body gesture of both hands held overhead in the universal symbol of surrender. This chant and its accompanying body gesture dates from Michael Brown Jr.'s death. That chant and its gesture symbolize witnesses report of Michael Brown Jr.'s hands being raised in surrender when he was killed.
**
Black lives matter.
**
Forward together. Not one step back. [Moral Monday movement]
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Martin Luther King Jr marches with people demonstrating for voting rights and oth...HD Stock Footage
CriticalPast, Published on Jun 29, 2014
****
Example #2: MLK; March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom 1963/08/28
Universal Newsreels, Uploaded on Feb 21, 2009
Just one hundred years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves, 200,000 march in Washington to rally for civil rights and to urge Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. speaks and meets President Kennedy.
****
Example #3: Thousands Block Times Square for Trayvon Martin Protest
Gabbee, Published on Jul 15, 2013
Reaction continues across the country following Saturday night's verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.
Zimmerman is a free man after being found not guilty on all counts in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
The protests have been peaceful, for the most part.
Protests went on Sunday throughout the New York City. The largest was a march from Union Square to Times Square.
"This whole situation with Trayvon Martin is definitely ... has hit home for everybody. "This could be my brother, our sister, whether you're Black, White, whatever," said Melanie Torrence a demonstrator.
Crowds began gathering in Union Square earlier in the day and by 6:30 p.m. had nearly doubled and began spilling into the streets.
"We have to do this to show support because it's absolute essential for everyone to know that we do not feel happy with the decision," said Kate Dolan a demonstrator.
Dolan, from the Upper West Side, said while Zimmerman may be free, she hopes the frustration and disappointment felt by so many can be channeled into changing policy and legislation like Florida's Stand Your Ground law that does not require people to retreat before using force.
"Well, I think we have to recognize the justice system doesn't always provide justice and that we have got to find ways to counter legislative movements that have created laws that are now fair," Dolan said.
At the side, a lone demonstrator showed support of Zimmerman and his acquittal.
"I feel like the media and all the people made it about racism when it was really just a matter of self-defense," the unidentified woman said.
She left after clashing with Trayvon Martin supporters. By 8:00 p.m., those demonstrators had taken over Times Square, many sitting in the street, on top of cars, blocking traffic and refusing to move.
The NYPD says the demonstration were peaceful and there were no arrests.
****
Example #4: NBC News - Jena 6 - 9-20-07
musclegms, Uploaded on Sep 20, 2007
NBC finally airs real details about the Jena 6 that many media outlets won't.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six:
"The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room. While the case was pending, it was often cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States, due to a belief that the defendants had initially been charged with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly."
-snip-
Read more information about the Jena 6 in that and other online articles.
One of the chants aired in this clip was "What do we want? (Justice!) When do we want it? (Now!). That call & response chant is modeled after the 1960s chant "What do we want? (Freedom). When do we want it? (Now!).
****
Example #5: Why Moral Mondays Are Returning in 2014 | Forward Together
NC Forward Together Moral Movement Channel, Published on May 14, 2014
On May 19th, 2014, the Forward Together Movement will return to the North Carolina General Assembly for it's first Moral Monday of the 2014 Legislative
****
Example #6: Eric Garner protesters flood New York after grand jury clears NYPD officer in chokehold death case
Cnn News Rt, Published on Dec 3, 2014
Protests have started in several New York City locations after a US Grand Jury cleared an NYPD policeman of killing a black man last July. Eric Garner choked to death while being wrestled to the ground by the officer.
-snip-
A number of "Black lives matter" protests have been held throughout the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
****
Example #7: Marching for justice in the nation's capital
Reuters, Published on Dec 13, 2014, Thousands gather in Washington, D.C. for the "Justice for All" march - one of many protests across the country - to protest the killings of unarmed black men by law enforcement officers in the U.S. Nathan Frandino reports.
****
UPDATE: December 16, 2014
Browns' Andrew Hawkins explains why he wore a 'Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford' T-shirt at
cleveland.com, Published on Dec 15, 2014
-sbip-
Here's an excerpt of Andrew Hawkins' response:
From http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/browns-andrew-hawkins-tamir-rice-john-crawford-shirt
..."Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins gives a statement on why wore a “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford” T-shirt during warm-ups and introductions before the game Sunday against the Bengals.
Hawkins stood by his decision to wear the T-shirt despite the president of Cleveland’s police union calling the gesture “pathetic” and demanding an apology.
“I was taught that justice is a right that every American should have. Also that justice should be the goal of every American. That’s what I think makes this country special,” Hawkins said Monday. “To me, justice means that the innocent should be found innocent. It means that those who do wrong should get their due punishment. Ultimately, it means fair treatment. So a call for justice shouldn’t offend or disrespect anybody. A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.”
Hawkins insisted the T-shirt was not meant to be a blanket criticism of police officers, noting that he has close friends and family who are in law enforcement. But there are some “not-so-good” officers, and they need to be held accountable if they make poor decisions."...
****
UPDATE: December 15, 2018
No Justice, No Peace: The Sounds Of Ferguson | TIME
TIME, Published on Aug 19, 2014
A look at the protests happening in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Michael Brown.
Subscribe to TIME ►► http://po.st/SubscribeTIME
Click https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11242108/Ferguson-timeline-of-events-since-Michael-Browns-death.html for a timeline of Michael Brown's shooting and its resulting protests.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Latest Update: December 15, 2018: additional video
This title was revised on December 15, 2018. The former title was "From Freedom To Justice: Changes In African American Protest Terminology & Strategies".
This post explores the changes that have occurred from the 1960s and thereafter in the terminology and strategies that have been used by African American protestors and their allies.
Also included in this post are two videos of 1960s civil rights marches, one video of the Jena 6 protests (2007) and five videos of 2013-2014 Black justice demonstrations.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on protest chants. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/chanting-at-trayvon-martin-march-rally.html, http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/07/examples-of-black-civil-rights-chants.html, and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-protest-chants-from-north.html for three other posts in this series.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
Thanks to all those who have worked and those who are now working for equality and justice for all.
****
1960s - "FREEDOM" AND "CIVIL RIGHTS"
"Freedom" meant being able to be an equal part of all aspects of American life.
"Civil Rights" meant full and equal access to all American public institutions and services.
The 1960s African American protest movement is called the "Civil Rights movement". The word "protestors" wasn't commonly used to refer to that movement's participants. The general public referred to the protest movements as "demonstrations" and called their participants "demonstrators". The movement's participants called themselves "freedom fighters", and "freedom riders". "Freedom riders" were Black people and White people who challenged racial laws in the American South in the 1960s by refusing to abide by the laws designating that seating in buses be segregated by race.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Riders)In addition to "freedom rides", the main tactics that freedom fighters used were boycotts of services, marches, rallies, and sit-ins. "Sit-ins" are any organized protest in which a group of people peacefully occupy and refuse to leave a premises. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sit-in) This tactic was first used in the Civil Rights movement to force the desegregation of public restaurants in the South.
Numerous songs and chants used by that movement included the word "freedom". An example of a "freedom song" is:
"0h freedom!
Oh freedom!
Oh freedom over me.
And before I be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord
And be free."
An example of a civil rights call & response chant from the 1960s is:
"What do we want?
(Freedom!)
When do we want it?
(Now!)"
An example of a civil rights unison chant from the 1960s is "Freedom now!"
****
The late 1960s/1970s - THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT
The Black power movement* "emphasiz[ed] racial pride and the creation of black political and cultural institutions to nurture and promote black collective interests and advance black values (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power)
The participants in this movement were referred to and referred to themselves as "Black power activists". The rallying cries for "freedom" and "civil rights" weren't used by Black power activists. Instead, the rallying calls were for "Black power!" and "Power to the People". Also, the
"Black power salute" was used as a widespread symbol of that movement. The Black power salute is usually made by holding the left arm above your head and sometimes extended slightly forward with the right hand in a fist. The facial expression is serious to indicate determination.
Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the black power movement whose link was previously given
"Though Black Power at the most basic level refers to a political movement, the psychological and cultural messages of the Black Power movement, though less tangible, have had perhaps a longer lasting impact on American society than concrete political changes...
The impact of the Black Power movement in generating valuable discussion about ethnic identity and black consciousness manifests itself in the relatively recent proliferation of academic fields such as American studies, Black Studies, and Africana studies in both national and international institutions. The respect and attention accorded to African Americans’ history and culture in both formal and informal settings today is largely a product of the movement for Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s."
-snip-
Wearing natural hairstyles such as the "afro" and "locks" ("dreadlocks") and adopting afro-centric
clothing fashions is also attributed to the late 1960s/1970s Black power movement.
It's significant to note that while singing protest songs was an integral part of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, singing (not including a person or people singing in front of an audience) isn't a part of Black protest movements since that decade.
*When used as a referent for Black people, it's appropriate for the letter "b" to either be capitalized or written in lower case.
****
1980s
Some online references extend the Black power movement to the 1980s.
I've not been able to find any information about Black (African American) protest movements or chants in the 1980s
****
BLACK JUSTICE PROTESTS - 1990s to date [strategies]
Since the 1990s, African American led demonstrations have been called "protests" and the participants in these demonstrations are called "protestors" and "demonstrators".
Instead of "freedom", "civil rights", or "black power", the rallying cry for these protests has been "justice". The word "justice" refers to "social justice", meaning "equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities" http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/peace.asp). In particular, since the 1990s, Black protests movement in the United States focus on the lack of justice for Black and Brown people in the criminal justice system and
the police's unequal treatment of Black and Brown people. Special focus of these protests has been the deaths of unarmed Black and Brown males by police officers and the lack of indictment of those police officers. Note that in the United States "Brown people" is usually a referent for Latinos/Latinas.
Note that a very significant aspect of the Black justice protest movements is the participation of persons across all racial, gender, age, and religious categories.
Among the tactics that justice protesters utilize are:
rallies
**
marches
Marches include planned organized marches to a specific location or locations and roving marches in which crowds move perhaps randomly throughout a large city.
**
sit-ins
**
die-ins
This tactic, which involves laying on the ground in imitation of a death, may have begun with Trayvon Martin protests in 2012. However, "die-ins" are most often associated with the death of
Eric Garner, New York City, July 17, 2014, Michael Brown, Jr. (Ferguson, Missouri, August 9, 2014, and a number of other Black males in 2014. In particular the practice of timing these die-ins for four and a half minutes is done to symbolize the four and one half hours that Michael Brown Jr. was left on the ground after he was killed by police officer Darren Wilson.
UPDATE: Read the correction in the comment section that si sent in that dates die ins to the 1980s if not earlier. "ACT UP and other gay-rights/AIDS activist organizations held die ins to call attention to the ignored AIDS plague in the 1980s."
-end of quote-
Thanks, si!
**
walk-outs
This tactic involves leaving (walking out of) a school or other place to as a form of protest and/or as an expression of support for protest or an issue or issues.
**
blockading (shutting down) streets, highways, and bridges
Protesters marching on streets, highways, and bridges and blocking access to those places in order
to draw attention to their demands.
**
Special mention can be made of the "Moral Mondays" protests that began in North Carolina in 2013.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_Mondays
"The protests are characterized by engaging in civil disobedience by entering the state legislature building and then being peacefully arrested. The movement protests many wide ranging issues under the blanket of unfair treatment, discrimination, and adverse effects of government legislation on the citizens of North Carolina. The protests in North Carolina launched a grassroots social justice movement that, in 2014, spread to Georgia and South Carolina,[1] and then to other U.S. states."
**
Unlike the Occupy protests in the United States and elsewhere that began in September 2011, with
the exceptions of certain sit-ins, Black justice protestors don't occupy locations for long periods of time.
****
BLACK JUSTICE PROTESTS - 1990s to date [chants]
Among the rallying calls (chants) that are used by justice protestors are:
"No Justice, No Peace" (If we don't have justice, there will be no peace.)
It appears that "no justice/no peace" was also first used in protests against the murder of Malice Green by a Detroit, Michigan police officer in November 1992. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Green)That unison chant is often heard in 2014 protests against the killing of unarmed Black and Brown people by the police and the lack of indictment of those police officers.
"No justice/no peace/no racist police" is an expansion of "no justice/no peace" that was also reported as being used in the Malice Green protest marches. That chant is also used in 2014.
**
"I can't breathe" (These were the last words that Eric Garner repeatedly said while he was being placed in a chokehold by police officer Daniel Pantaleo. Some die-ins last for eleven minutes to symbolize the number of times Eric Garner said "I can't breathe."
An expansion of "I can't breathe" is the unison chant "If we can't breathe/you can't breathe". That chant refers to the non-violent acts of civil disobedience that are done to draw attention to the issue of the lack of justice in the criminal justice system and the actions of bad police officers which go unpunished in that system.
**
"Shut it down!
(Read the comment about "blocking [shutting down] streets etc.)
**
"Hands up!/ Don't shoot".
"Hands up. Don't shoot" is a call and response chant with accompanying body gesture of both hands held overhead in the universal symbol of surrender. This chant and its accompanying body gesture dates from Michael Brown Jr.'s death. That chant and its gesture symbolize witnesses report of Michael Brown Jr.'s hands being raised in surrender when he was killed.
**
Black lives matter.
**
Forward together. Not one step back. [Moral Monday movement]
****
FEATURED VIDEOS
Example #1: Martin Luther King Jr marches with people demonstrating for voting rights and oth...HD Stock Footage
CriticalPast, Published on Jun 29, 2014
****
Example #2: MLK; March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom 1963/08/28
Universal Newsreels, Uploaded on Feb 21, 2009
Just one hundred years after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves, 200,000 march in Washington to rally for civil rights and to urge Congress to pass the Civil Rights Bill. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. speaks and meets President Kennedy.
****
Example #3: Thousands Block Times Square for Trayvon Martin Protest
Gabbee, Published on Jul 15, 2013
Reaction continues across the country following Saturday night's verdict in the George Zimmerman trial.
Zimmerman is a free man after being found not guilty on all counts in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
The protests have been peaceful, for the most part.
Protests went on Sunday throughout the New York City. The largest was a march from Union Square to Times Square.
"This whole situation with Trayvon Martin is definitely ... has hit home for everybody. "This could be my brother, our sister, whether you're Black, White, whatever," said Melanie Torrence a demonstrator.
Crowds began gathering in Union Square earlier in the day and by 6:30 p.m. had nearly doubled and began spilling into the streets.
"We have to do this to show support because it's absolute essential for everyone to know that we do not feel happy with the decision," said Kate Dolan a demonstrator.
Dolan, from the Upper West Side, said while Zimmerman may be free, she hopes the frustration and disappointment felt by so many can be channeled into changing policy and legislation like Florida's Stand Your Ground law that does not require people to retreat before using force.
"Well, I think we have to recognize the justice system doesn't always provide justice and that we have got to find ways to counter legislative movements that have created laws that are now fair," Dolan said.
At the side, a lone demonstrator showed support of Zimmerman and his acquittal.
"I feel like the media and all the people made it about racism when it was really just a matter of self-defense," the unidentified woman said.
She left after clashing with Trayvon Martin supporters. By 8:00 p.m., those demonstrators had taken over Times Square, many sitting in the street, on top of cars, blocking traffic and refusing to move.
The NYPD says the demonstration were peaceful and there were no arrests.
****
Example #4: NBC News - Jena 6 - 9-20-07
musclegms, Uploaded on Sep 20, 2007
NBC finally airs real details about the Jena 6 that many media outlets won't.
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six:
"The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room. While the case was pending, it was often cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States, due to a belief that the defendants had initially been charged with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly."
-snip-
Read more information about the Jena 6 in that and other online articles.
One of the chants aired in this clip was "What do we want? (Justice!) When do we want it? (Now!). That call & response chant is modeled after the 1960s chant "What do we want? (Freedom). When do we want it? (Now!).
****
Example #5: Why Moral Mondays Are Returning in 2014 | Forward Together
NC Forward Together Moral Movement Channel, Published on May 14, 2014
On May 19th, 2014, the Forward Together Movement will return to the North Carolina General Assembly for it's first Moral Monday of the 2014 Legislative
****
Example #6: Eric Garner protesters flood New York after grand jury clears NYPD officer in chokehold death case
Cnn News Rt, Published on Dec 3, 2014
Protests have started in several New York City locations after a US Grand Jury cleared an NYPD policeman of killing a black man last July. Eric Garner choked to death while being wrestled to the ground by the officer.
-snip-
A number of "Black lives matter" protests have been held throughout the United States, in Europe, and elsewhere in the world.
****
Example #7: Marching for justice in the nation's capital
Reuters, Published on Dec 13, 2014, Thousands gather in Washington, D.C. for the "Justice for All" march - one of many protests across the country - to protest the killings of unarmed black men by law enforcement officers in the U.S. Nathan Frandino reports.
****
UPDATE: December 16, 2014
Browns' Andrew Hawkins explains why he wore a 'Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford' T-shirt at
cleveland.com, Published on Dec 15, 2014
-sbip-
Here's an excerpt of Andrew Hawkins' response:
From http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/12/browns-andrew-hawkins-tamir-rice-john-crawford-shirt
..."Cleveland Browns wide receiver Andrew Hawkins gives a statement on why wore a “Justice for Tamir Rice and John Crawford” T-shirt during warm-ups and introductions before the game Sunday against the Bengals.
Hawkins stood by his decision to wear the T-shirt despite the president of Cleveland’s police union calling the gesture “pathetic” and demanding an apology.
“I was taught that justice is a right that every American should have. Also that justice should be the goal of every American. That’s what I think makes this country special,” Hawkins said Monday. “To me, justice means that the innocent should be found innocent. It means that those who do wrong should get their due punishment. Ultimately, it means fair treatment. So a call for justice shouldn’t offend or disrespect anybody. A call for justice shouldn’t warrant an apology.”
Hawkins insisted the T-shirt was not meant to be a blanket criticism of police officers, noting that he has close friends and family who are in law enforcement. But there are some “not-so-good” officers, and they need to be held accountable if they make poor decisions."...
****
UPDATE: December 15, 2018
No Justice, No Peace: The Sounds Of Ferguson | TIME
TIME, Published on Aug 19, 2014
A look at the protests happening in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Michael Brown.
Subscribe to TIME ►► http://po.st/SubscribeTIME
Click https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11242108/Ferguson-timeline-of-events-since-Michael-Browns-death.html for a timeline of Michael Brown's shooting and its resulting protests.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Examples Of Black Civil Rights Chants, Black Power Chants, & Black Protest Chants
Edited by Azizi Powell
[Latest Update: December 15, 2018. I've changed the title for this post- The previous title was "Examples of Black Civil Rights Chants and Black Power Chants". I also added more content under the 1990s sub-section.]
This pancocojams post provides examples of Black (African American) civil rights chants and Black (African American) nationalist chants for the 1960s.
Some Black protest chants from the 1990s and 2000s are also included in this post.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on protest chants. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/chanting-at-trayvon-martin-march-rally.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-protest-chants-from-north.html for two other posts in this series.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
Thanks to all those who have worked and those who are now working for equality and justice for all.
****
LIST OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CHANTS
I compiled this list for this Mudcat discussion thread that I started in September 2007: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=104999 "African American Protest Slogans & Songs".
Read that discussion thread for my explanations of most of these chants. That Mudcat thread also includes comments about African American civil rights/protest songs and chants, including my thoughts and others' thoughts about why group singing is no longer a part of African American protest marches any more.
These chants are presented by decades.
Mid 1960s
"Freedom Now!"
**
Caller- "What do we want?"
Group Response- "Freedom!"
Caller- "When do we want it?"
Group Response- "Now!"
**
Late 1960s/ 1970s
"Black Power!
**
Caller-"Say it loud!"
Group Response- "I'm Black And I'm Proud"
**
Caller-"Ungawa"
Response- "Black Powa"
-snip-
"Ungawa" ("umgawa") is a word that was created for Tarzan movies as a way for Tarzan to communicate with animals and with Black "natives". The word could mean anything the screen writers wanted it to.*
Source:
Transcript from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRtsJtWVEU
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/sources-of-movie-bigs-rap-shimmy-shimmy.html to read that my transcription of that video.
In the late 1960s & early 1970s, afro-centric African Americans took hold of that word and included it in a rhyme that both celebrated Black power and dared White people to challenge them for that pride. A common verse in those rhymes was "Ungawa!"/"Black power!" or "Ungawa/"We got the power" (with "power" in both examples pronounced like "po-wah").
"*This is a correction of what I wrote in the Mudcat discussion thread whose link is given above.
**
"Free The Panthers!
**
Caller- "What time is it?"
Group response- ["It's] "Nation Time"
-snip-
This was a Black cultural nationalist chant. This chant and many of the other Black power chants that I've listed here from my memory were chanted at cultural programs and not protests. They were chanted by members of the Newark, New Jersey Black cultural nationalist group that was led by Amiri Baraka (Le Roi Jones). The "nation" refers to furthering African American Black community ties, institutions, and businesses, and not to creating a separate Black nation within the territory of the United States or elsewhere. However, some Black nationalist did have that goal.
1970s
"Power To The People!"
1980s
I'm not sure what Black power or Black civil rights slogans were chanted during the 1980s.
The saying "Don't believe The hype" comes to mind. That saying comes from a late 1980s? recording by the rap group Public Enemy. Maybe this counts as a protest chant. I'm not sure.
1990s
"No justice, No peace"
-snip-
The first use of this slogan that I've been able to identify was in late 1992/ early 1993 in demonstrations regarding the death of Malice Green.
From http://www.larrynevers.com/nojustice.htm
quoting an editorial written by Jimmy Smith on the LETP (Law Enforcement Trainer's Page) www.lawenforcement-trainer.com
"The demonstrations in Detroit [Michigan] after the [Malice] Green incident, and the chants of "No Justice No Peace," rang out on every T.V. network in the nation. Anytime any human being dies, it is indeed a sad event. When that death occurs under circumstances such as was the case here, then of course it should be investigated to the fullest extent. That investigation should not be influenced by or for political considerations. Impartiality must by present, to protect all involved. The officers, the victim and indeed, the community."
-snip-
Quoting from the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Green
"Malice Green was a resident of Detroit, Michigan who died while in police custody after being arrested by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992 during a traffic stop. Both officers were later convicted for Green's death...The incident occurred only months after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which protested the acquittal of police officers in the video-taped beating of Rodney King."
****
[Added Decembe 15, 2018]
"Whose streets? Our streets!"*
-snip-
*hat tip to Me Me (December 15, 2018) for reminding me about this chant.
Here's an excerpt from an article about this chant:
From https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/us/whose-streets-our-streets-chant-trnd/index.html How the iconic 'Whose streets? Our streets!' chant has been co-opted"
By AJ Willingham, CNN; Updated 9:26 AM ET, Wed September 20, 2017
"As peaceful protests gave way to violence in St. Louis over the weekend, a group of police officers were heard repeating a familiar chant.
Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets!
[...]
The phrase has been used by LGBTQ activists, immigration activists, and most pertinently, black activists at intense junctions of racial tension.
While its history stretches back decades, the chant has experienced a groundswell in the last few years as more and more people took to protesting police violence, racial inequality and other injustices.
"From the time I was photographing demonstrations in the early '90s, that was a chant that was pretty much ongoing," said Meg Handler, a photographer who also was a co-curator of the "Whose Streets?" exhibition. It was used in labor demonstrations and at rallies for reproductive rights and advocacy for AIDS victims, she said.
To say it is a "Black Lives Matter" chant isn't wrong. The group is definitely associated with the phrase and it's central to many of their messages.
It was heard in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, and was so crystallized during those protests that it inspired the title of a documentary about the community's reaction to Brown's death.
It appeared again that year in New York City after the killing of Eric Garner. It was heard in Washington on President Trump's Inauguration Day and the day after at women's marches around the world.
[...]
But lately the chant has made its way to groups on the other side of the sociopolitical spectrum. It was barked by white nationalists as they marched, tiki torches in hand and Nazi regalia on display, down the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, last month. A Vice documentary on the Charlottesville protests features ample footage of the chant.
"It's never, to my knowledge, been tied to a single social movement," said Carroll, the historian. "That's why it makes it possible to be appropriated by a counter movement."
It's unclear whether the St. Louis officers who chanted it were doing so to mock protesters or appropriating it for their own message.
CNN has reached out to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for comment but hasn't heard back.
Sunday night's unrest was prompted by the acquittal of a former St. Louis police officer who was charged with first-degree murder after shooting and killing Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man, in 2011."...
****
JENA SIX CHANTS (2007)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six
"The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room. While the case was pending, it was often cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States, due to a belief that the defendants had initially been charged with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly...
The Jena Six case sparked protests by those viewing the arrests and subsequent charges, initially attempted second-degree murder (though later reduced), as excessive and racially discriminatory. The protesters asserted that white Jena youths involved in other incidents were treated leniently. On September 20, 2007, between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena in what was described as the "largest civil rights demonstration in years".[2][3] Related protests were held in other US cities on the same day.[4] Subsequent reactions included songs alluding to the Jena Six, a considerable number of editorials and opinion columns, and Congressional hearings."
-snip-
These are the slogans that reporters indicated the Jena 6 marchers chanted or that I noticed on photographs and videos were written on signs carried by the marchers or were written on their tee shirts from the Jena Six marches {In Louisiana and elsewhere} on September 21, 2007:
"Free Jena 6" or "Free The Jena 6" [These were by far the most widely used slogans.]
**
"No Justice. No Peace" [This slogan was next in prominence to "Free Jena Six"]
**
"No justice no peace no racist police"
**
"Blacks Protests N'Justice"
-snip-
"N'Justice = injustice
**
"They stood for us now we stand for them.
Free Jena 6"
**
"non-violence or non-existence"
****
ADDITIONAL CHANTS
From African American Protest Slogans & Songs
From: Neil D
Date: 11 Oct 07 - 12:03 AM
...I spent some time at work today reading through the interesting thread that you started regarding African American slogan and songs. I thought about posting a chant we used to do at May 4th memorials at Kent State in the '70's: Two, Four, Six, Eight, Remember Kent and Jackson State. The May 4th coalition always made a point of including a contingent from Jackson State to memorialize the much less publicized, but just as tragic, killing of African American students at Jackson State when police fired indescriminantly into a dormitory. This event happened just a few weeks after the Kent State shootings, but never drew the attention of the media like the white students at Kent State. Thus, the chant...."
****
From African American Protest Slogans & Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Mar 12 - 07:50 AM
[summarized] A documented chant from the Million Hoodies march (as per Internet articles) was - "Whose street?/ Our streets."
-snip-
From http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/million-hoodie-march-takes-union-square-protest-trayvon-martin-murder-article-1.1048522
'Million Hoodie' march takes Union Square in protest of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting
The demonstrators burst into a chant of “Justice for Trayvon!” as slain Florida teen's parents joined protest
BY Edgar Sandoval , Helen Kennedy / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ; Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 8:41 PM
-snip-
A link to one of three pancocojams posts about chants that were used in Trayvon Martin marches is given above.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
[Latest Update: December 15, 2018. I've changed the title for this post- The previous title was "Examples of Black Civil Rights Chants and Black Power Chants". I also added more content under the 1990s sub-section.]
This pancocojams post provides examples of Black (African American) civil rights chants and Black (African American) nationalist chants for the 1960s.
Some Black protest chants from the 1990s and 2000s are also included in this post.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series on protest chants. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/03/chanting-at-trayvon-martin-march-rally.html and http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/01/more-protest-chants-from-north.html for two other posts in this series.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural purposes.
Thanks to all those who have worked and those who are now working for equality and justice for all.
****
LIST OF AFRICAN AMERICAN CHANTS
I compiled this list for this Mudcat discussion thread that I started in September 2007: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=104999 "African American Protest Slogans & Songs".
Read that discussion thread for my explanations of most of these chants. That Mudcat thread also includes comments about African American civil rights/protest songs and chants, including my thoughts and others' thoughts about why group singing is no longer a part of African American protest marches any more.
These chants are presented by decades.
Mid 1960s
"Freedom Now!"
**
Caller- "What do we want?"
Group Response- "Freedom!"
Caller- "When do we want it?"
Group Response- "Now!"
**
Late 1960s/ 1970s
"Black Power!
**
Caller-"Say it loud!"
Group Response- "I'm Black And I'm Proud"
**
Caller-"Ungawa"
Response- "Black Powa"
-snip-
"Ungawa" ("umgawa") is a word that was created for Tarzan movies as a way for Tarzan to communicate with animals and with Black "natives". The word could mean anything the screen writers wanted it to.*
Source:
Transcript from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkRtsJtWVEU
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/12/sources-of-movie-bigs-rap-shimmy-shimmy.html to read that my transcription of that video.
In the late 1960s & early 1970s, afro-centric African Americans took hold of that word and included it in a rhyme that both celebrated Black power and dared White people to challenge them for that pride. A common verse in those rhymes was "Ungawa!"/"Black power!" or "Ungawa/"We got the power" (with "power" in both examples pronounced like "po-wah").
"*This is a correction of what I wrote in the Mudcat discussion thread whose link is given above.
**
"Free The Panthers!
**
Caller- "What time is it?"
Group response- ["It's] "Nation Time"
-snip-
This was a Black cultural nationalist chant. This chant and many of the other Black power chants that I've listed here from my memory were chanted at cultural programs and not protests. They were chanted by members of the Newark, New Jersey Black cultural nationalist group that was led by Amiri Baraka (Le Roi Jones). The "nation" refers to furthering African American Black community ties, institutions, and businesses, and not to creating a separate Black nation within the territory of the United States or elsewhere. However, some Black nationalist did have that goal.
1970s
"Power To The People!"
1980s
I'm not sure what Black power or Black civil rights slogans were chanted during the 1980s.
The saying "Don't believe The hype" comes to mind. That saying comes from a late 1980s? recording by the rap group Public Enemy. Maybe this counts as a protest chant. I'm not sure.
1990s
"No justice, No peace"
-snip-
The first use of this slogan that I've been able to identify was in late 1992/ early 1993 in demonstrations regarding the death of Malice Green.
From http://www.larrynevers.com/nojustice.htm
quoting an editorial written by Jimmy Smith on the LETP (Law Enforcement Trainer's Page) www.lawenforcement-trainer.com
"The demonstrations in Detroit [Michigan] after the [Malice] Green incident, and the chants of "No Justice No Peace," rang out on every T.V. network in the nation. Anytime any human being dies, it is indeed a sad event. When that death occurs under circumstances such as was the case here, then of course it should be investigated to the fullest extent. That investigation should not be influenced by or for political considerations. Impartiality must by present, to protect all involved. The officers, the victim and indeed, the community."
-snip-
Quoting from the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malice_Green
"Malice Green was a resident of Detroit, Michigan who died while in police custody after being arrested by Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers on November 5, 1992 during a traffic stop. Both officers were later convicted for Green's death...The incident occurred only months after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which protested the acquittal of police officers in the video-taped beating of Rodney King."
****
[Added Decembe 15, 2018]
"Whose streets? Our streets!"*
-snip-
*hat tip to Me Me (December 15, 2018) for reminding me about this chant.
Here's an excerpt from an article about this chant:
From https://www.cnn.com/2017/09/19/us/whose-streets-our-streets-chant-trnd/index.html How the iconic 'Whose streets? Our streets!' chant has been co-opted"
By AJ Willingham, CNN; Updated 9:26 AM ET, Wed September 20, 2017
"As peaceful protests gave way to violence in St. Louis over the weekend, a group of police officers were heard repeating a familiar chant.
Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets!
[...]
The phrase has been used by LGBTQ activists, immigration activists, and most pertinently, black activists at intense junctions of racial tension.
While its history stretches back decades, the chant has experienced a groundswell in the last few years as more and more people took to protesting police violence, racial inequality and other injustices.
"From the time I was photographing demonstrations in the early '90s, that was a chant that was pretty much ongoing," said Meg Handler, a photographer who also was a co-curator of the "Whose Streets?" exhibition. It was used in labor demonstrations and at rallies for reproductive rights and advocacy for AIDS victims, she said.
To say it is a "Black Lives Matter" chant isn't wrong. The group is definitely associated with the phrase and it's central to many of their messages.
It was heard in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014 after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, and was so crystallized during those protests that it inspired the title of a documentary about the community's reaction to Brown's death.
It appeared again that year in New York City after the killing of Eric Garner. It was heard in Washington on President Trump's Inauguration Day and the day after at women's marches around the world.
[...]
But lately the chant has made its way to groups on the other side of the sociopolitical spectrum. It was barked by white nationalists as they marched, tiki torches in hand and Nazi regalia on display, down the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia, last month. A Vice documentary on the Charlottesville protests features ample footage of the chant.
"It's never, to my knowledge, been tied to a single social movement," said Carroll, the historian. "That's why it makes it possible to be appropriated by a counter movement."
It's unclear whether the St. Louis officers who chanted it were doing so to mock protesters or appropriating it for their own message.
CNN has reached out to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for comment but hasn't heard back.
Sunday night's unrest was prompted by the acquittal of a former St. Louis police officer who was charged with first-degree murder after shooting and killing Anthony Lamar Smith, a black man, in 2011."...
****
JENA SIX CHANTS (2007)
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_Six
"The Jena Six were six black teenagers convicted in the beating of Justin Barker, a white student at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, on December 4, 2006. Barker was injured in the assault by the members of the Jena Six, and received treatment for his injuries at an emergency room. While the case was pending, it was often cited by some media commentators as an example of racial injustice in the United States, due to a belief that the defendants had initially been charged with too-serious offenses and had been treated unfairly...
The Jena Six case sparked protests by those viewing the arrests and subsequent charges, initially attempted second-degree murder (though later reduced), as excessive and racially discriminatory. The protesters asserted that white Jena youths involved in other incidents were treated leniently. On September 20, 2007, between 15,000 and 20,000 protesters marched on Jena in what was described as the "largest civil rights demonstration in years".[2][3] Related protests were held in other US cities on the same day.[4] Subsequent reactions included songs alluding to the Jena Six, a considerable number of editorials and opinion columns, and Congressional hearings."
-snip-
These are the slogans that reporters indicated the Jena 6 marchers chanted or that I noticed on photographs and videos were written on signs carried by the marchers or were written on their tee shirts from the Jena Six marches {In Louisiana and elsewhere} on September 21, 2007:
"Free Jena 6" or "Free The Jena 6" [These were by far the most widely used slogans.]
**
"No Justice. No Peace" [This slogan was next in prominence to "Free Jena Six"]
**
"No justice no peace no racist police"
**
"Blacks Protests N'Justice"
-snip-
"N'Justice = injustice
**
"They stood for us now we stand for them.
Free Jena 6"
**
"non-violence or non-existence"
****
ADDITIONAL CHANTS
From African American Protest Slogans & Songs
From: Neil D
Date: 11 Oct 07 - 12:03 AM
...I spent some time at work today reading through the interesting thread that you started regarding African American slogan and songs. I thought about posting a chant we used to do at May 4th memorials at Kent State in the '70's: Two, Four, Six, Eight, Remember Kent and Jackson State. The May 4th coalition always made a point of including a contingent from Jackson State to memorialize the much less publicized, but just as tragic, killing of African American students at Jackson State when police fired indescriminantly into a dormitory. This event happened just a few weeks after the Kent State shootings, but never drew the attention of the media like the white students at Kent State. Thus, the chant...."
****
From African American Protest Slogans & Songs
From: Azizi
Date: 25 Mar 12 - 07:50 AM
[summarized] A documented chant from the Million Hoodies march (as per Internet articles) was - "Whose street?/ Our streets."
-snip-
From http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/million-hoodie-march-takes-union-square-protest-trayvon-martin-murder-article-1.1048522
'Million Hoodie' march takes Union Square in protest of Trayvon Martin's fatal shooting
The demonstrators burst into a chant of “Justice for Trayvon!” as slain Florida teen's parents joined protest
BY Edgar Sandoval , Helen Kennedy / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS ; Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 8:41 PM
-snip-
A link to one of three pancocojams posts about chants that were used in Trayvon Martin marches is given above.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Five Songs By Saida Karoli (Tanzania, East Africa)
Edited by Azizi Powell
This post showcases five songs by Tanzanian singer Saida Karoli. Information about the Haya ethnic group from which Saida Karoli comes, selected comments from these videos' YouTube comment threads, and a few editorial comments are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with the owners.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: Tanzania Haya Traditional dance and Swahili Saida Karoli Mapenzi Kizunguzungu
Kemmi Kamugisha, Uploaded on Mar 2, 2011
A Tanzanian Traditional dance by a singer called Saida Karoli from Bukoba Tanzania.. :) check out the different costumes, face paintings, traditional music instruments and dance!
-snip-
Instead of the word "costumes", I'd use "clothing" or "attire" or "traditional clothing" (traditonal attire) since "customes" refer to clothing that is worn for a theatrical program or for special occasions such as the "Halloween" holiday.
-snip-
Selected Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qQ0MCFttFc
sudanesgal, 2012
"what language is she speakinf? cs i know is not luganda or swahili"
**
kanewnew, 2012
it's kihaya, from the haya tribe, which is VERY similiar to luganda
I’d use the word “clothing” or "attire" or the phrases “traditional clothes” or "traditional attire" rather than "costumes", since costumes refers to clothes that are worn for a theatrical program or a special occasion such as Halloween.
****
Video #2: Saida Karoli - Ndombolo Ya Solo
jumz82,Uploaded on Feb 3, 2011
The Legendary Haya Goddess Saida Karoli & her dance group, what a wonderful voice this sister has.
-snip-
"Sister" here means a female of Black African descent.
****
Video #3: Tanzania - Swahili Bongo Flava - Saida Karoli (Maria Salome)
Seka Moke, Uploaded on Sep 17, 2007
FUN
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongo_Flava
"Bongo flava is the nickname for Tanzanian hip hop music...
Today, bongo flava is the most popular musical style amongst the Tanzanian youth,[4] something that is also reflected in the vast number of TV and radio programs dedicated to this genre as well as the sales figures of bongo flava albums.[5] Outside of its historical home of Tanzania, Bongo Flava has become a resoundingly popular sound in neighboring, culturally related countries such as Kenya[6] and Uganda.Bongo flava has even found a home outside of the African continent; the most popular artists in the genre have recently begin to address Western markets[1] and the self-proclaimed "best internet station for Bongo Flava,"[7] Bongo Radio, happens to be based out of Chicago, Illinois...
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fGtdnml4k4
pauliyai, 2007
"this piece is the one that made her famous in Africa, real music authentically African. Thanks for posting it"
**
kokwi, 2008
"Yes, Kihaya is similar to other dialects spoken in Uganda. The sond [song] is about Salome who gets killed by thugs in a taxi on her way from BK to Mwanza. The crime for het Kenyan kangas. It laments her passing and tells how the events have affected the story teller."
****
Video #4: Tanzania - Swahili Bongo Flava - Saida Karoli (Ntua Mayenje)
Seka Moke, Uploaded on Sep 17, 2007
FUN
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McPJPoAs67U
chezanami, 2007
but she's one of the most selling musicians in eastern and central Africa doug. Saida keep it going homegirl, loveya.
**
twentyeighter, 2008
"Once in a while a rare thing happens, a person so well expresses and engages the kernel of brilliance and wisdom of a whole peoples. So many of us Tanzanians living abroad can only be proud and extremely home sick when we consider how painful it is to have a body in one land buy your heart in another.
Mungu ibariki Tanzania :)"
**
sucrosed, 2008
"you don't have 2 understand the words of the song 2 love it..the rhythm also matters.i don't understand a word she's sayin but iloooove ths song!"
**
kemetian09, 2009
"I agree with Sucrosed. It is not necessary to understand the words to enjoy the music. I get into the spirit and soul of the music. This is beautiful."
**
Azizip17, 2010
"Thanks for posting this video! I also like the song & wish I knew what it was about. What language is this, & what does the title mean? Also, I'm REALLY fascinated by the dancing. These dance movements look A LOT like the mid 1960s American R&B dance "The Twist".
Are these dancers doing traditional Tanzanian dances? If so, from what ethnic group? Or are these dancers copying off of The Twist or did Chubby Checker or whoever invented that dance copy off of traditional African dancers???"
**
ShabazzAllah1, 2011
"The twist probably came from Tanzania or this tribe because during the late 50's and 60's a lot of Black Americans traveled to Tanzania and lived their during the Black Power movements and learned Swahili."
-snip-
The African American dance known as "the twist" was first created by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters in 1958. I think that it's likely that this dance was ultimately based on a traditional African dance movement. That said, a number of traditional African dances include a hip twisting motion, and a number of dances from non-African cultures also include a hip twisting motion. Therefore, I'm not convinced that the Haya ethnic group of Tanzania was the source or even was one of the sources of "the twist." But if the dances shown in these videos are of Haya traditional dance movements, there's no denying that those movements are the same as what African Americans call "the twist".
Also, while the term "Black Power" was first used in the USA in 1954 by author Richard Wright, that term didn't become popular until Stokely Carmichael used it in 1966. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power
Click http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/qt/Twist.htm for information about the history of "the twist".
****
Video #5: Saida Karoli Wakati Ndio Huu
Emmanuel John, Uploaded on Nov 23, 2011
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lor6IShWKas
saida801, 2012
...she saying not left behind with days. that how i see the song so it was how u seen it as everyone has own understanding. peace
**
kokwi, 2013
"Saida plese go back to traditional dress including yr dancers. That was yr brand which oes with yr music and distinguishes you from the others"
****
RELATED LINKS
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/01/tanzanian-singer-saida-karoli-nkyali.html to find another pancocojams post that features Saida Karoli.
**
Click http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101115204107AAUw7jz for information about the Haya ethnic group.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Saida Karoli and all the other performers on this video.
Thanks also to the composer of this song, the author of the Wikipedia page, and the commenters who are quoted here.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitors' comments are welcome
This post showcases five songs by Tanzanian singer Saida Karoli. Information about the Haya ethnic group from which Saida Karoli comes, selected comments from these videos' YouTube comment threads, and a few editorial comments are also included in this post.
The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with the owners.
FEATURED VIDEOS
Video #1: Tanzania Haya Traditional dance and Swahili Saida Karoli Mapenzi Kizunguzungu
Kemmi Kamugisha, Uploaded on Mar 2, 2011
A Tanzanian Traditional dance by a singer called Saida Karoli from Bukoba Tanzania.. :) check out the different costumes, face paintings, traditional music instruments and dance!
-snip-
Instead of the word "costumes", I'd use "clothing" or "attire" or "traditional clothing" (traditonal attire) since "customes" refer to clothing that is worn for a theatrical program or for special occasions such as the "Halloween" holiday.
-snip-
Selected Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qQ0MCFttFc
sudanesgal, 2012
"what language is she speakinf? cs i know is not luganda or swahili"
**
kanewnew, 2012
it's kihaya, from the haya tribe, which is VERY similiar to luganda
I’d use the word “clothing” or "attire" or the phrases “traditional clothes” or "traditional attire" rather than "costumes", since costumes refers to clothes that are worn for a theatrical program or a special occasion such as Halloween.
****
Video #2: Saida Karoli - Ndombolo Ya Solo
jumz82,Uploaded on Feb 3, 2011
The Legendary Haya Goddess Saida Karoli & her dance group, what a wonderful voice this sister has.
-snip-
"Sister" here means a female of Black African descent.
****
Video #3: Tanzania - Swahili Bongo Flava - Saida Karoli (Maria Salome)
Seka Moke, Uploaded on Sep 17, 2007
FUN
-snip-
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bongo_Flava
"Bongo flava is the nickname for Tanzanian hip hop music...
Today, bongo flava is the most popular musical style amongst the Tanzanian youth,[4] something that is also reflected in the vast number of TV and radio programs dedicated to this genre as well as the sales figures of bongo flava albums.[5] Outside of its historical home of Tanzania, Bongo Flava has become a resoundingly popular sound in neighboring, culturally related countries such as Kenya[6] and Uganda.Bongo flava has even found a home outside of the African continent; the most popular artists in the genre have recently begin to address Western markets[1] and the self-proclaimed "best internet station for Bongo Flava,"[7] Bongo Radio, happens to be based out of Chicago, Illinois...
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fGtdnml4k4
pauliyai, 2007
"this piece is the one that made her famous in Africa, real music authentically African. Thanks for posting it"
**
kokwi, 2008
"Yes, Kihaya is similar to other dialects spoken in Uganda. The sond [song] is about Salome who gets killed by thugs in a taxi on her way from BK to Mwanza. The crime for het Kenyan kangas. It laments her passing and tells how the events have affected the story teller."
****
Video #4: Tanzania - Swahili Bongo Flava - Saida Karoli (Ntua Mayenje)
Seka Moke, Uploaded on Sep 17, 2007
FUN
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McPJPoAs67U
chezanami, 2007
but she's one of the most selling musicians in eastern and central Africa doug. Saida keep it going homegirl, loveya.
**
twentyeighter, 2008
"Once in a while a rare thing happens, a person so well expresses and engages the kernel of brilliance and wisdom of a whole peoples. So many of us Tanzanians living abroad can only be proud and extremely home sick when we consider how painful it is to have a body in one land buy your heart in another.
Mungu ibariki Tanzania :)"
**
sucrosed, 2008
"you don't have 2 understand the words of the song 2 love it..the rhythm also matters.i don't understand a word she's sayin but iloooove ths song!"
**
kemetian09, 2009
"I agree with Sucrosed. It is not necessary to understand the words to enjoy the music. I get into the spirit and soul of the music. This is beautiful."
**
Azizip17, 2010
"Thanks for posting this video! I also like the song & wish I knew what it was about. What language is this, & what does the title mean? Also, I'm REALLY fascinated by the dancing. These dance movements look A LOT like the mid 1960s American R&B dance "The Twist".
Are these dancers doing traditional Tanzanian dances? If so, from what ethnic group? Or are these dancers copying off of The Twist or did Chubby Checker or whoever invented that dance copy off of traditional African dancers???"
**
ShabazzAllah1, 2011
"The twist probably came from Tanzania or this tribe because during the late 50's and 60's a lot of Black Americans traveled to Tanzania and lived their during the Black Power movements and learned Swahili."
-snip-
The African American dance known as "the twist" was first created by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters in 1958. I think that it's likely that this dance was ultimately based on a traditional African dance movement. That said, a number of traditional African dances include a hip twisting motion, and a number of dances from non-African cultures also include a hip twisting motion. Therefore, I'm not convinced that the Haya ethnic group of Tanzania was the source or even was one of the sources of "the twist." But if the dances shown in these videos are of Haya traditional dance movements, there's no denying that those movements are the same as what African Americans call "the twist".
Also, while the term "Black Power" was first used in the USA in 1954 by author Richard Wright, that term didn't become popular until Stokely Carmichael used it in 1966. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Power
Click http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/qt/Twist.htm for information about the history of "the twist".
****
Video #5: Saida Karoli Wakati Ndio Huu
Emmanuel John, Uploaded on Nov 23, 2011
-snip-
Comments from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lor6IShWKas
saida801, 2012
...she saying not left behind with days. that how i see the song so it was how u seen it as everyone has own understanding. peace
**
kokwi, 2013
"Saida plese go back to traditional dress including yr dancers. That was yr brand which oes with yr music and distinguishes you from the others"
****
RELATED LINKS
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/01/tanzanian-singer-saida-karoli-nkyali.html to find another pancocojams post that features Saida Karoli.
**
Click http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101115204107AAUw7jz for information about the Haya ethnic group.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Saida Karoli and all the other performers on this video.
Thanks also to the composer of this song, the author of the Wikipedia page, and the commenters who are quoted here.
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitors' comments are welcome
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