Wednesday, 22 February 2012
black consciousness movement
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
negritude poetry
Birago Diop, “Spirits”
Listen to
Things
More often
than Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the sighs
of the bush;
This is the
ancestors breathing.
Those who are
dead are not ever gone;
They are in
the darkness that grows lighter
And in the
darkness that grows darker.
The dead are
not down in the earth;
They are in
the trembling of the trees
In the
groaning of the woods,
In the water
that runs,
In the water
that sleeps,
They are in
the hut, they are in the crowd:
The dead are
not dead.
Listen to
things
More often
than beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the bush
that is sighing:
This is the
breathing of ancestors,
Who have not
gone away
Who are not
under earth
Who are not
really dead.
Those who are
dead are not ever gone;
They are in a
woman’s breast,
In the
wailing of a child,
And the
burning of a log,
In the
moaning rock,
In the
weeping grasses,
In the forest
and the home.
The dead are
not dead.
Listen more
often
To Things
than to Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind to
The bush that
is sobbing:
This is the
ancestors breathing.
Each day they
renew ancient bonds,
Ancient bonds
that hold fast
Binding our
lot to their law,
To the will
of the spirits stronger than we
To the spell
of our dead who are not really dead,
Whose
covenant binds us to life,
Whose
authority binds to their will,
The will of
the spirits that stir
In the bed of
the river, on the banks of the river,
The breathing
of spirits
Who moan in
the rocks and weep in the grasses.
Spirits
inhabit
The darkness
that lightens, the darkness that darkens,
The quivering
tree, the murmuring wood,
The water
that runs and the water that sleeps:
Spirits much
stronger than we,
The breathing
of the dead who are not really
dead,
Of the dead
who are not really gone,
Of the dead
now no more in the earth.
Listen to
Things
More often
than Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the bush
that is sobbing:
This is the
ancestors, breathing.
Source:
The Negritude
Poets, ed. Ellen
Conroy Kennedy. New York:
Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.
Listen to
Things
More often
than Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the sighs
of the bush;
This is the
ancestors breathing.
Those who are
dead are not ever gone;
They are in
the darkness that grows lighter
And in the
darkness that grows darker.
The dead are
not down in the earth;
They are in
the trembling of the trees
In the
groaning of the woods,
In the water
that runs,
In the water
that sleeps,
They are in
the hut, they are in the crowd:
The dead are
not dead.
Listen to
things
More often
than beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the bush
that is sighing:
This is the
breathing of ancestors,
Who have not
gone away
Who are not
under earth
Who are not
really dead.
Those who are
dead are not ever gone;
They are in a
woman’s breast,
In the
wailing of a child,
And the
burning of a log,
In the
moaning rock,
In the
weeping grasses,
In the forest
and the home.
The dead are
not dead.
Listen more
often
To Things
than to Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind to
The bush that
is sobbing:
This is the
ancestors breathing.
Each day they
renew ancient bonds,
Ancient bonds
that hold fast
Binding our
lot to their law,
To the will
of the spirits stronger than we
To the spell
of our dead who are not really dead,
Whose
covenant binds us to life,
Whose
authority binds to their will,
The will of
the spirits that stir
In the bed of
the river, on the banks of the river,
The breathing
of spirits
Who moan in
the rocks and weep in the grasses.
Spirits
inhabit
The darkness
that lightens, the darkness that darkens,
The quivering
tree, the murmuring wood,
The water
that runs and the water that sleeps:
Spirits much
stronger than we,
The breathing
of the dead who are not really
dead,
Of the dead
who are not really gone,
Of the dead
now no more in the earth.
Listen to
Things
More often
than Beings,
Hear the
voice of fire,
Hear the
voice of water.
Listen in the
wind,
To the bush
that is sobbing:
This is the
ancestors, breathing.
Source:
The Negritude
Poets, ed. Ellen
Conroy Kennedy. New York:
Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.
negritude: a definition
An aesthetic and ideological concept affirming the independent nature, quality, and validity of Black culture.
black consciousness thought
We have defined blacks as those who are by law or tradition politically,
economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African
society and identifying themselves as a unit in the struggle towards the
realization of their aspirations.
This definition illustrates to us a number of things:
1. Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection
of a mental attitude.
2. Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards
emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek
to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.
From the above observations therefore, we can see that the term black is not
necessarily all-inclusive, i.e. the fact that we are all not white does not
necessarily mean that we are all black
economically and socially discriminated against as a group in the South African
society and identifying themselves as a unit in the struggle towards the
realization of their aspirations.
This definition illustrates to us a number of things:
1. Being black is not a matter of pigmentation - being black is a reflection
of a mental attitude.
2. Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards
emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek
to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.
From the above observations therefore, we can see that the term black is not
necessarily all-inclusive, i.e. the fact that we are all not white does not
necessarily mean that we are all black
black feminist thought
Black feminism argues that sexism, class oppression, and racism are inextricably bound together.[1] Forms of feminism that strive to overcome sexism and class oppression. The Combahee River Collective argued in 1974 that the liberation of black women entails freedom for all people, since it would require the end of racism, sexism, and class oppression.[2] One of the theories that evolved out of this movement was Alice Walker's Womanism.Alice Walker and other womanists pointed out that black women experienced a different and more intense kind of oppression from that of white women. They point to the emergence black feminism after earlier movements led by white middle-class women which they regard as having largely ignored oppression based on race and class
negritude thought
Négritude is a literary and ideological movement, developed by francophone black intellectuals, writers, and politicians in France in the 1930s by a group that included the future Senegalese President Léopold Sédar Senghor, Martinican poet Aimé Césaire, and the Guianan Léon Damas.The Négritude writers found solidarity in a common black identity as a rejection of perceived French colonial racism. They believed that the shared black heritage of members of the African diaspora was the best tool in fighting against French political and intellectual hegemony and domination. They formed a realistic literary style and formulated their Marxist ideas as part of this movement.
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