Contributions in Black Studies

Back Matter

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:34 PST

The Pro-Japanese Utterances of W.E.B. Du Bois

Kearney, Reginald — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:33 PST

When the United States entered the first world war as a direct participant, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, in a controversial editorial that he would later regret, called upon black Americans to "close ranks" with their white fellow citizens in order to defeat the common German menace. Some years later when his country went to war against Japan, however, Du Bois lacked enthusiasm and issued no such clarion call due to his belief that Japan was a colored nation, that color was a root cause of the war, and that there was "a certain bond between the colored peoples because of world-wide prejudice."

In a letter to Andrew J. Allison, the alumni secretary at Fisk University dated February 3,1941, Du Bois said that he was glad his alma mater had not yet yielded to the war hysteria. His satisfaction, he explained, was due to the conviction that "in this war we are trying to attack Japan because of race prejudice," but he did feel that the United States might be justifiable in the event of a defensive war.

As one of the most learned men of his generation and the premier spokesman and propagandist for the higher aspirations of black Americans, Du Bois analyzed international events and tried to explain how the rise of Japan affected their ongoing struggle for justice and equality. For more than three decades, his interpretations consistently sought out the positiveness in the policies of the government of Iapan. More simply stated, W. E. B. Du Bois' remarks regarding Japan's position in East Asia were invariably favorable toward Japan.

Perfidious Albion: Britain, the USA, and Slavery in ther 1840s and 1860s

Sherwood, Marika — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:32 PST

Britain outlawed trading in slaves in 1807; subsequent legislation tightened up the law, and the Royal Navy's cruisers on the West Coast attempted to prevent the export ofany more enslaved Africans. From 1808 through the 1860s, Britain also exerted considerable pressure (accompanied by equally considerable sums of money) on the U.S.A., Brazil, and European countries in the trade to cease their slaving. Subsequently, at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, which was at least partly fought over the issue of the extension of slavery, Britain declared her neutrality. Insofar as appearances were concerned, the British government both engaged in a vigorous suppression of the Atlantic slave trade and kept a distance from Confederate rebels during the American Civil War. But is that the whole story regarding Britain, the trade in enslaved Africans, and slavery? Did the British government prosecute Britons who broke the law with the utmost rigor, for example? And to what extent did that government maintain its professed neutrality in the "war between the states"?

White Backlash and the Aftermath of Fagen's Rebellion: The Fates of Three African-American Soldiers in the Philippines, 1901-1902

Brown, Scot — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:31 PST

In the Summer of 1899, four Black regiments-the 24th and 25th Infantries and the 9th and 10th Cavalries-which had previously fought in Cuba were dispatched to the Philippines. They were part of the United States' effort to suppress Filipino Nationalist aspirations for independence. Emilio Aguinaldo had been leading a well-organized Filipino resistance to what he considered an American replacement of Spain as the oppressor. As foot soldiers for a racial imperialism, African-American soldiers in the Philippines found themselves placed in an extremely difficult situation. White Americans characterized Filipinos as they did African-Americans: as inferior and even sub-human. Consequently, when the United States military occupied the Philippine islands, it brought with it a series ofracist practices and attitudes which alienated both Filipinos and African-American soldiers.

Crispus Attucks

O'Reilly, John Boyle — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:30 PST

The Boston Massacre, March 5,1770, may be regarded as the first act in the drama of the American Revolution. "From that moment" said Daniel Webster, "we may date the severance ofthe British Empire." The presence of the British soldiers in King Street excited the patriotic indignation of the people. . . . Led by Crispus Attucks, the mulatto slave, and shouting, "The way to get rid of these soldiers is to attack the main guard; strike at the root; this is the nest," with more valor than discretion, they rushed to King Street, and were fired upon by Captain Preston's company. Crispus Attucks was the first to fall; he and Samuel Gray and Jonas Caldwell were killed on the spot. Samuel Maverick and Patrick Carr were mortally wounded. --Historical Research by George Livermore, Massachusetts Historical Society.

The Nation of Islam

Sahib, Hatim A. — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:29 PST

That we have chosen to reproduce only six of the nine original thesis chapters is not primarily due to reasons of space. In the original work Sahib's empirical content is often subordinated to debates over methodological concerns-issues which may have been of compelling interest to sociologists a half century ago, but whichconsiderably distract from the subject of the NOI itself. For that reason the following sections have been omitted: an introductory chapter bearing on "The Nature of the Investigation "; a theoretical chapter on "Leadership and Emergence of the Cult," which, in our humble opinion, adds precious little to any understanding of NOI leadership; and a summary chapter setting forth the "Conclusions and Theoretical Implications" of the study. This section, too, may be safely ignored without injury to one's grasp of the material. Of course, those who wish to examine the methodical questions in their original flavor are encouraged to do so. One issue which may prove of greater concern to readers than these abridgments, however, is the fact that the shortened version of Sahib's thesis presented here has been lightly edited-mainly for grammatical reasons but occasionally for errors offact. While Dr. Sahib was undoubtedly fluent in his native language, the same cannot be said for his writing skills in English. For this reason one can only speculate as to whether the carefree syntax which often infuses the transcribed interviews of NOI members is mainly the product of the interviewer or the interviewee. Like most theses, Sahib': was hardly intended for publication in its original form) and would have required extensive revision had he submitted it) or sections thereof, to a journal or publishing house. As a general course, to have inserted brackets for the purpose of calling attention to editorial modifications would have rendered sections of the manuscript difficult to read, and for that reason we have usually opted not to do so. After briefly perusing the manuscript, some may wonder if it has been edited at all; one should note that only the more egregious passages have been allowed to fall beneath the editor's scalpel.

Our Family From the Inside: Growing Up with Malcolm X

Little, Wilfred — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:28 PST

Lecture delivered at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, April 18, 1995

Front Matter

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 13:43:27 PST

Back Matter

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:54 PST

The Hidden Cost of Industrialization: Reflections on the Emergence and Reproduction of the African Industrial Working Class in Southern Africa

Higginson, John — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:53 PST

This paper amounts to a series of discursive reflections on why industrial capitalism has assumed the shape that it did in southern Africa- and in South Africa particularly-during the two generations before the commencement of struggles for political independence in Africa. It is far from the last word on the subject. However, it tries to draw attention to an historiographical problem which has remained undeservedly submerged in recent works: the relationship between the labor process-what Marx often referred to as the "hidden abode" of industrial capitalism-and the social reproduction of the industrial workforce.

Walter White and the British: A Lost Oppurtunity

Sherwood, Marika — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:52 PST

In his article, Walter White and the American Negro Soldier in World War II,Thomas Hachey concluded that there was "no real way to determine the measure of influence, if any, that Walter White had upon the plight of colored peoples in other lands during the Second World War." While I would agree with this statement, black American soldiers were not the only "colored people" involved in WWII: as White himself wrote,"WWII has given the Negro a sense of kinship with other colored peoples of the world; he senses that the struggle of the Negro in the U.S. is part and parcel of the struggle against imperialism and exploitation in India, China, Burma, Africa, the Philippines Malaya, the West Indies and South America.Y Yet, when we examine White's correspondence with the British government regarding British racism and his visit to the U.K. in 1944, his sense of kinship with the plight of other blacks appears to be as nonexistent as was his inability or unwillingness to use the power and influence of the NAACP on their behalf. These episodes also demonstrate the duplicity, mendacity, and racism of the British as well as the ease with which they handled the NAACP's Secretary, who turned out to be a paper tiger, despite British apprehensions.

Lucy Terry Prince: "Singer of History"

Proper, David R. — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:51 PST

Much in the achievements of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island and Lucy Terry Prince of Massachusetts and Vermont offers food for comparison. The pioneer black poet and poetess share race and literary priority as well as social status as chattel property in 18th century America. Hammon has already received a measure of recognition as the first published Afro-American poet, with his broadside An Evening Thought; Salvation by Christ With Penetential Cries, in 1761. Hammon's fame, nevertheless, rests on but seven poems and four prose pieces discovered eighty-seven years ago.

Lucy Terry Prince, on the other hand, is credited with but a single poem, composed fourteen years before Hammon and published 141 years ago, although not until recently recognized as the first poetry by any black American. Both Hammon and Prince, however, have been overshadowed by Phillis Wheatley whose precocity attracted attention in her own time and won for her contemporary literary recognition here and abroad.

There are, it seems, some differences of opinion even among scholars about where the study of black written poetry begins.

Middle Matter

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:50 PST

Language and Geography: The Postcolonial Critic

Katrak, Ketu H. — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:50 PST

The map of the world has been crucially re-drawn by colonial history. In postcolonial literary studies today, the question of language relates in significant ways to a critic's geographical location. Issues of identity and belonging, crucially tied to choice and use of language, assume new configurations in the light of one's geographical locale. Where the postcolonial writer and critic live and work influences their uses of language on emotive, intellectual, and psychological levels. Words are not forged only within "the smithy of (one's) soul"; they carry echoes reverberating from our geographical locations. There are indeed many reasons for these confluences, at times happy, at othertimes painful, of language and geography, of speech and space for both postcolonial writer and critic today. Recent "flag independences" in several African countries, India, the Caribbean, continuing neo-colonial trends in most of these societies; more recently, migrations of postcolonial peoples living as expatriates and exiles in various parts of the western world, are all a part of significant and often conflictual predicaments of identity, language and belonging.

A Sociological Interpretation of Aminata Sow Fall's The Beggars Strike

Beeman, Mark — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:49 PST

Aminata Sow Fall's Novel, The Beggars' Strike, is an account of a fictional strike in a West African Society. In this story state bureaucrats, who think beggars discourage tourism from the West, decide to rid the city of begging. The policy is implemented through police tactics of harassment, physical abuse, and imprisonment of beggars. This unbearable situation prompts the beggars to organize a strike in which they refuse to return to the city streets to receive donations. The novel portrays the beggars as an integral part of the society's social structure, and their removal creates profound disruptions in people's everyday lives. Fall's novel constructs a paradigmatic framework to help the reader understand how begging fits into West African society. This view is particularly informative for Western readers who may believe that begging is marginal or dysfunctional.

In this paper I outline the two major macrosociological views of society: conflict theory and structural functionalism. I argue that Aminata Sow Fall presents the institution of begging from a point of view consistent with the structural-functionalist sociological approach.

Epistemic and Deontic Modalities in Aminata Sow Fall's L'Ex-Pere de la Nation

Onyeoriri, Gloria Nne — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:48 PST

According to John Lyons' account of modality (the general principles of which we will outline in the first part of this essay), "the sincerity conditions that are asserted or questioned in the performance of indirect illocutionary acts all have to do with the knowledge, beliefs, will and abilities of the participants; and these ... are the factors which are involved in epistemic and deontic modality" (Lyons 1977, 786). For example, in English, as well as in French, thereare fixed idioms such as "Will you ..., "Can you ...," "Is it possible for you to ...," "I'd like you to ...," that accompany orders or wishes. This can be explained by the intuitive link between, on the one hand, notions of necessity and obligation that are relevant to the semantic analysis of sentences that contain the verbal auxiliary "should" and, on the other hand, notions of possibility and of permission relevant to the semantic analysis of sentences containing the auxiliary "may" (Lyons 1977,791). We can say, following Lyons (1977, 787), that the epistemic and deontic modalities are two forms of "traditional modal logic" (that is to say of necessity and possibility). When analyzing epistemic modality for example, we must remember the needs, the expectations and the hopes of the speaker as well as the process of deduction itself (see Lyons 1977, 792).

Hard Times in an African Eden: Aminata Sow Fall's L'Appel des Arenes

Henderson, Heather — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:47 PST

Like Charles Dickens' Hard Times, L' appel des arenes depicts a modern wasteland: just as factories and industrial cities blight the landscape of the English midlands in Dickens' novel, so Aminata Sow Fall depicts a land laid waste by "the winds of the West" (88). The harmattan blows throughout the book: the countryside is ravaged by drought and villages are emptied by the exodus of young people to the cities. In both novels, traditional agrarian ways of life are devastated by the arrival of technology and foreign values. Personal relationships, particularly the close kinship network of family ard community, are shattered by the alienating, isolating tendencies of the modern world.

Aminata Sow Fall's "Demon" Women: An Anti-Feminist Social Vision

Ellington, Athleen — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:46 PST

Aminata Sow Fall, one of the earliest women writers from Senegal, has been acknowledged as an analyst of contemporary social mores, exposing aspects of moderm African society where social, political and economic changes have resulted in the debasement of public and private customs and behavior. There has been a curious silence, however, from feminist critics, who have largely side-stepped her work, which now numbers four novels: Le Revenant (1976), La Greve des Battu (The Beggars' Strike) (1979), L'Appel des Arenes (1982) and L'Ex-Pere de la Nation (1987).

Critical Approaches to Aminata Sow Fall's Novels

Gadjigo, Samba — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:45 PST

However limited in scope it may be, this brief, collective work on Aminata Sow Fall's literary creation represents for us a milestone in African Studies here in the Pioneer Valley. In a broader sense, it affords a modest contribution to the criticism and canonization of francophone African literature in general and of that produced by women in particular.

Semantic Mediations Between Wolof and French in Two Novels of Aminata Sow Fall

Niang, Sada — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:41:45 PST

Within the Sengalese literary context, Aminata Sow Fall's legacies are ambiguous. On the one hand, as was the case for all the writers of her generation, Senghor's French-determined modes of language use remained the only recognized and acclaimed model readily available to her. On the other hand, even though shunned by the local establishment, the ideology and modes of linguistic contextualization of an Ousmane Sembene were always in the background. The clash between these two creative and political poles never surfaced in literary terms. But one has a vivid memory of the vigorous, sometimes vitriolic debate that ensued the banning of Sembene's Ceddo on grounds that it contravened the presidential decree on the spelling of local Senegalese languages. Whether at some point in her career as a teacher or a cultural worker, Aminata Sow Fall was torn between these two pillars of Senegalese literature in French, may never be ascertained. Ideologically as well as stylistically, however, her practice stands as a direct and uneven bridge between these two literary antagonists.