From Citizenship to Equality

Nelson Mandela (Photo credit: Festival Karsh Ottawa)

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X meet before a press conference. Both men had come to hear the Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was the only time the two men ever met; their meeting lasted only one minute. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Points for Discussion, April 25. 2013

 

Cultural Achievements and Connections

 

Manning argues that spectacular achievements in culture and sports from the 1910s to the 1950s helped open the way to the political gains in the 1960s and 1970s.

 

The story of Carolina María de Jesus reveals how the achievements (i.e., citizenship, education) were not enough.

 

We all have seen the feats of people like Jesse Owens and Louis Armstrong, but perhaps Franco (Luambo) best represents the dynamic exchanges within the African Diaspora—in this case in particular it was across the Atlantic. He helped develop and promote the “African rumba,” but based his style on the Cuban son.

 

Remarkable set of political theorists and practitioners

 

1- Nelson Mandela (South Africa) 1953 “No Easy Walk to Freedom” (script 2)

 

There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires.

 

2- Martin Luther King Jr. (USA) “I have a Dream” and his rendering of “We Shall Overcome” 

 

Look at the similarities with Mandela’s speech.

 

A back story of (Wiki) Bayard Rustin

 

A story of “We Shall Overcome”

 

3- Frantz Fanon (Martinique)

 

4- Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana)

 

Campaigns organized by Black Women

 

5- Rosa Park -Alabama Bus Boycott 1955

 

Johannesburg women in the Alexandra Bus Boycott- 1957

 

Against “Identity Pass” in Pretoria 1957

 

Make a list of achievements- 1950-1970

 

Discussion on Equality (page 289)

 

Assimilation?

 

How to measure it?

 

How to gain social equality and retain distinctiveness?

 

The Jews’ plight setting the stage for the term “racism” used in the fight for equality.

 

The term negro to Black.

 

Paolo Freire published Pedagogy of the Oppressed as part of the efforts for better education.

 

Gustavo Gutierrez: Theology of Liberation and the Vatican II Council (1962-1967)

 

Crises? What are the New Inequalities? 

 

 

 

Related articles

• Changing America and Bayard Rustin as we head to D.C. to rally for marriage equality (dailyqueernews.wordpress.com)


• Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, A film screening and discussion (lib.umn.edu)


• FACT 3: Americans support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants (talkimmigration.wordpress.com)


• The New Abolition: Ending Adoption in Our Time (unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com)


• frantz fanon (cmlt280.wordpress.com)


• Should there be a path to citizenship for those here illegally? (chron.com)

 

Slide Show: Our students featured on the local paper

Click to watch the slide show.

Pic chosen by Blacksburg Parks and Recreation as their main pic.

These are some of the Virginia Tech students in the Issues in World History: The African Diaspora class volunteering on Arbor Day with the Blacksburg Town.

Here is a link to more info about this activity.

 

Arbor Day(s) or Combite 2013

Today (April 20-2013) we began with 2013 Arbor Day activities. The first group of students from this year’s class (Issues in World History: African Diaspora) planted the first trees along Willard Dr. SE– about 40 of them. We ended our planting with a celebratory trip to Carole Lee Donuts!  The Blacksburg Town‘s office of recreation makes this possible.

This link for last year’s Arbor Day activities.

As with other years, I offered students a rationale for their involvement.

The objective is to give back to the community at large as an enjoyable and practical way of learning about World History and the African Diaspora.

This hands-on instruction intends to engage students’ learning with some of the industrialization’s unintended effects: its impact on the forests (why most trees around are young?), and the spark of the (romantic) movement for reforestation on industrializing nations (i.e., National Parks).

Yet, the most important goal is to get students involved in local communities as a historical lesson that highlights the ethos of many Black communities across the diaspora, and help them appreciate the differences and similarities between our present experience and the way people thought and lived in the past.

The assumption is that our present-day attitudes toward community differ substantially from that of many people in the past (and from people living in other parts of the contemporary world).  Western World’s main cultural currents emphasize individual needs rather than community cooperation. But the historical record seems to show that most people in the past view their existences in more fragile terms, and thus relied on a more collective ethos for survival (networks are more powerful than individuals). Several scholars, including Patrick Manning, have suggested that the African Diaspora have broadly shared a spirit of cooperation, collectivity, and equality. These traits are evident in the performance of Afro-Diasporans cultural events, early political organizations, and even on its commonly simple (if any) social hierarchy.

A good example of this collective ethos is the combite (convite in Spanish), dokpwe or fagina. These terms refer to communal and reciprocal forms of labor. The first term is still common in Haiti (in the D.R. It has taken a more festive meaning); the second in West Africa; and the third among Central American Mayans. These traditions have often brought all able-persons to work on a job that would eventually benefit the entire community. Workers would often perform their work, not in isolation but in groups or gangs. The Haitian combite has a reputation for its feast-like nature marked by upbeat singing as men would work the land for cultivation and women would prepare food for many. At the conclusion of a day’s work in a combite people would join in a party of celebration. As with the dokpwe and fagina, Haitians in these communities would derive a powerful sense of belonging through this type of collaboration.

Maureen Warner Lewis tells us about the combite:

Maureen Warner-Lewis, Central Africa in the Caribbean: Transcending Time, Transforming Cultures (Kingston: Univ. of the West Indies Press, 2003), 65.

Walter Goldschmidt provides this explanation about the Dahomey society and the dokpwe:

Walter Goldschmidt, Exploring the Ways of Mankind (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 197), 313.

So, by planting trees for the Blacksburg community without expecting a direct compensation, I aim for students to appreciate these traditional practices in the African Diaspora. Understanding the ethos of cooperation underlying these practices also helps to perceive the historically persistent call for Pan-Africanism, or cooperation among Afro-Diasporans across national boundaries (i.e., W.E.B Du Bois, Marcus Garvey).

This concept of society is perhaps similar to the way we understand the ecosystem in the natural world–of a society built on broad dynamic cooperation and reciprocity rather than on defining limits of freedom. Our Arbor Day activity, then, endeavors to bring students closer to appreciating the historical and cultural gap that separates us from the people we are studying, and perhaps, fit them with the necessary critical-thinking tools to become independent thinkers in the society in which they now lives.

Arbor Day(s) or Combite 2013

Today (April 20-2013) we began with 2013 Arbor Day activities. The first group of students from this year’s class (Issues in World History: African Diaspora) planted the first trees– about 40 of them. We ended our planting with a trip to Carole Lee Donuts! This link for last year’s Arbor Day activities. As with other years, … Continue reading →

REVIEWS: Modernity Challenged, or how I learned to love others

Geoffrey Fox <gf@geoffreyfox.com> and Lorrin Thomas <lthomas2@camden.rutgers.edu> have indulged us with two fine reviews: 1- Fox: “Frustrated Bourbons vs. Urban Reality in Old Mexico“ http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31423 2- Thomas: “Against A U.S.-Dominated Modernity“ http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=31919 The theme of modernity, be it in Mexico, Cuba, or the United States, ties Fox and Thomas’ reviews together. Though one more than the other, … Continue reading →

Black History: is this Raul Julia?

You may be surprised– This was Henry Jay Lewis a U.S. Black musician and conductor. A talented musician, Henry was the first Black to serve as a conductor and musical director of a major American orchestra (the New Jersey Symphony) in 1968, and the first Black to conduct the Metropolitan Opera, in 1972. Raul Julia was a powerful … Continue reading →

Latinos as a political classification

The post below is part of the H-LatAm conversation about Latino versus Hispanic identity. The original post is found here: Redistas y Neteros (thanks for the reminder, Tom [Holloway]), What a surprising reception to Nelly‘s question! It is not simply the rapid-firing of messages which tells when a topic has touched a nerve, but the … Continue reading →

First Work on the shipping toward Hayti

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

One of the first things I need to do is to look at the U.S. National Archives to verify the info about the ships leaving for Haiti in 1824-1826. I have checked the newspapers, and though they have lots of info, we cannot yet put a hard number on the people who migrated to Hayti during this time.

The British seamen shipping archives are now online: http://bit.ly/wiPmuk

Also interesting, is the British archives’ new researchers’ personal page. It has the potential of becoming a new form of social media. http://bit.ly/wsDOZp

The U.S.A. National Archives still have a way to go. http://1.usa.gov/xpR3vP

http://1.usa.gov/w7sGiY

Research now happens 75% online, and the rest flipping through papers, dusty document, and waiting at the desk to receive the documents.

Image via Wikipedia

Related articles

• Past, present. . . future? (nixonara.wordpress.com)


• Hayti School District Awarded School Improvement Grant to Implement Program from STIAchievement Services (prweb.com)


• Experiance 1 & 3 Group : Haiti (kiva.org)


• Rare reprieve for Haiti’s disabled slated to end (sacbee.com)


• The Pan American Development Foundation Launches New Program in Haiti (repeatingislands.com)


• Study: Violent crime has spiked in Haiti’s cities (sacbee.com)

Filed under: Archives, Haiti, Historical Research Tagged: Archive, Archives, Education, emigration, Haiti, Hayti, immigration. African Diaspora, migration, National Archives and Records Administration, Research, Ships, U.S. National Archives, United States