Out Of The Shadows

"We're Black and Proud" Diaspora Youth tell Paris scholars - part 3

Mme Y C Diop and youth of Black and Proud /photo Mamadou Kane

It is a rare occurrence when an international seminar of prestigious Black scholars – chic, well-gowned and besuited -- is forced to consider a different dimension. But one sweltering September day in Paris, Danny, Zobaly and Julien did just that. Their plea for the cause of Black youth was a poignant reminder of last year's rebellions in the banlieues, the city's under privileged twilight zones.

The mild and abstract tone of speakers on the contemporary Black World was not for them.   The scholars had closer ties to the past than to the future. Now, it was time for Black intellectuals to descend from their ivory towers and connect with the new Blacks in France and Europe.

There are three separate stories here: the scholar's story; the urban youth story; and the social change story.

The scholar's story
It was well after ten o'clock when F Abiola Irele, professor of African and Caribbean literatures at Harvard University, introduced a panel of scholars to the seminar audience in Room II of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).   They were gathered together as one of many events celebrating the 50 th anniversary of the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris in 1956, said Irele.   This seminar addressed a major theme: "what is the current thinking about Black peoples' claims for recognition of their different forms of identity in a globalising world".

A leading linguist in Francophonic (French-speaking) Africa, Jean-Luc Aka-Evy of the University Marien Ngoubi, Republic of the Congo, began by saying the spirit of African languages and cultures is expressed in the body, mood and life force of African peoples. But they are losing ground as Africa modernised in an increasingly complex world. Black intellectuals must come together to recognise the richness of their cultures and open a more fruitful dialogue with France and western societies, he said.  

Mwena Mwanza Ntumba, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and professor of anthropology, at the University of Kinshasa, spoke of his struggle to create his Institute of the Black World. He works with teachers, faith leaders and community organisations in the local language, Bafike Dimanyayi , to awaken the "Black conscience and promote skills for development".

Black American panel members placed some of these concerns into a broader political context.   In carefully measured tones, Allison Blakely, a history professor at Boston University, Massachusetts, affirmed that marshalling the poetics of language has always been an essential part of Black resistance. There is evidence of this in the enslaved Africans subversive use of coded language, songs, rhymes and tales and, even today, in contemporary reggae, rap and hip-hop. This innovative use of language against race prejudice and for freedom is a defining characteristic of Black cultures in western societies, he suggested.    To which he added: "It remains to be seen, however, whether the age-old color stigma might still simply leave Blacks in Europe in a new special category for exclusion".  

Molefi Kete Asante delivered a sharp edged criticism of world systems of white domination. He welcomed the rise of "an Afro-centric awakening, [and] coming revolutions of attitudes and actions".   This Afrocentricity is a fundamental part of the decolonization process, said the globetrotting scholar who is based at Temple University, Pennsylvania.

Theories alone will not win the battle, Asante continued: "If an African writer is not critiquing and condemning domination and Eurocentric imperialism and triumphalism, then that African writer has not sufficiently understood the great legacies of the past."

In a conclusion that won a rousing response, Asante said: "We are not what we were in 1956 and fifty years into the future the African community will be even more conscious and more complex than now."

Youth's story
Which brings us to the youth in the audience who were called upon to speak by the seminar chairman. Their story commands that intellectuals recognise the passions, concerns and interests of young people in the new urban cultures.    

Danny, Zobaly and Julien belong to Noir et Fier (Black and Proud), a group they founded "during the walk for the honour and respect in homage with the victims of slavery in 2005".

Like most of their friends they were born (or raised) on French soil into families of African or Caribbean origins. They are French citizens, but live as phantom shadows alongside their Algerian, Moroccan and poor white neighbours in the sour housing estates a few miles north of central Paris.   

Danny's father is from Zaire and his mother, a hospital worker, is from Gabon. He's quite clear what caused the firestorm of rage on Paris streets in November 2005. "The problems are racism, police brutality; the young people need work and money to live their lives, but they don't have access to success. They don't have the feeling that the government does anything for them, and they become angry"

Julien's mother is from Guadeloupe, French West Indies, and is a hospital nurse; his father comes from French Guyana and has worked as an architect. He says:   "We need to awaken the conscience of our people. That's why our T-shirt proclaims we are "Black and Proud". I want to be my own boss, get responsibilities, take decisions, do mistakes and find a new solution. I just want to do something positive with my life, build a family".

Zobaly is of Congolese origins; his father was in the French military and his mother, a housekeeper, helps old and sick people. The riots were not surprising, he says: "People live in difficult social conditions. The school system does not match their needs and they live in ghettos of no interest to politicians -- they talk, but change nothing".

The social change story  

A conference participant listens intently /photo Chronicleworld.org

Youth are frustrated that well-paid, assimilated Black teachers and university academics did not speak up for them during the crisis of 2005. They have deep fears they are destined for the précariat , the pithole of low wage casual workers, the homeless, broken families, migrants, refugees and asylum seekers with only a precarious hold on survival.  

This leads us to the social dimension story. If there is one person who knows most about youth's problems and prospects it is Brima Conteh, Paris's best known human rights activist and director of Diaspora Afrique. Conteh, a Sierra Leonian who works from his home in a banlieue , was thrust into prominence by the events of 2005. At some personal risk, he guided BBC and CNN journalists through the stricken riot areas to make sure they got truthful stories of events and people's grievances.

Conteh told reporters from the world's media: "These troubles are nothing new. We have known how damaging life is for Black families and youth for a long time". He noted that Christiane Taubira, the Black member of the parliament for French Guyana, has spoken out against "the daily suffering, discrimination in employment and in housing that are recognised as major dangers to social cohesion". It's time for Black intellectuals to show support, he said.

What, then, should be the role of the Black intelligentsia?
Successful Black elites, including the first professors of African and Caribbean Literature in French universities of Paris, Strasbourg, and Cergy-Pontoise, among others, have a special set of qualities. They are patronised "for handling the French language better than any whites today". They are envied for their privileged access to the treasures of African, French and world civilisations.   Commendably, Black intellectuals are establishing African scholarship and writing in the French and global literary marketplace. Moreover, they hold positions that the great men of Francophonic African literature and national esteem – Alioune Diop, Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor (who became the first African elected to the "immortals" of the prestigious Academie Française) -- could hardly imagine in 1956.

Now, I think the priority of Black intellectuals must be to help secure Black youth's right to be and to know. Their hard-won knowledge and scholarship, too long sequestered in the academies, must now be redistributed to the new generations of aspiring youth of the diaspora.

In doing this, Black writers and artists must recognise the factors and sentiments that make Black youth what they are today. These influences are drawn from a range of different cultures and national identities.

I asked the young men in Black and Proud what best describes their tastes and attitudes. They all point to the influence of family, of ideas, and a desire to travel and learn about their roots. One, Furillo-Kodjo, loves to read, and his favourite American films have Black heroes. As for ideas, he says: "I like Frantz Fanon [the French Caribbean writer on race, identity and anti-colonialism] because I believe that each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it".

Another, Philippe, is keen to discover the homelands and cultures of his Togolese father and his mother from Benin. He says they have passed to me the love of those two countries. "My mother speaks our language to me, and I feel the need to return regularly to Africa and know more about my origins".

The striving and aspiring nature of modern Black youth in the diaspora must also be appreciated. Their drive to succeed comes partly from exposure to the mobile-connected society of   white youth. It also stems from their desire to change or escape the excluded, repressive spaces in which they live.

I learned about their drive to succeed from their mentor, Antoine Garnier, a writer, journalist and English teacher. He helps them "to develop their potential as community leaders, as social entrepreneurs, and as young Black men in France". They meet twice a week for English lessons and use the Internet to catch up on the latest sounds of hip-hop, rap and Afro-jazz emanating from New York and Paris.

Garnier is not sanguine about what he calls "youth's mistaken identity". When interviewed he said: "Adopting the hip-hop personae makes them look and sound American, their heroes. But they do not know themselves. They lack references or literature that speaks about them, to them. How, then, are they to develop an understanding of being Black and French? There is a danger that young Black French youth will be totally alienated."  

Black intellectuals are well-placed to make a contribution to defining youth's identity. They can unleash the power of literature and the arts in the diaspora. Wasn't it Césaire who said in 1955: "The shortest path to the future is always the one that involves looking deeper into the past"?

Where better to start than the legacy of Black heroism? Blacks in France have a powerful association with historic events. They must tell of the brave Garifunas and Caribbean Blacks who fought slave-owning Europeans for land and freedom in the 18 th century. They must dig deeply into the political and military exploits of Toussaint l'Ouverture, the self-educated man of African descent who drove Napoleon out of Haiti and paved the way for independence in 1804.

Furthermore, Black intellectuals must prick the nation's conscience with stories of the thousands of rough hewn riflemen ( tirailleurs). These valiant African and Arab soldiers fought and died in two world wars and Viet Nam for la belle France , "the beloved country" they had never seen.

If Julien had his way, "Black intellectuals would have to shout they exist, because young people don't know them". If they are to be relevant "they must encourage teachers and even the minister of education to institute a new programme including Black civilisation history for everyone and particularly for the children, little brothers, sisters, sons and daughters".

From what I can gather, youth are not trying to be "racial patriots" – this role is taken by an increasing number of Black-French radical militants: Kemi Seba of Trib-uka and the anti-racist Dieudonné M'bala M'bala . But they do want more than a soupcon, a little morsel from the grand menu of French culture, "liberty, fraternity and equality".  

Neither are they neo-marxistes. But they have sparked an evolution in the race-class debate: The multicultural society has now entered a new phase of development. They can proclaim in truth and pride: "Our great-grandfathers liberated France. Our grandfathers worked to reconstruct France. Our fathers and mothers cleaned France. It's time for the truth to be told."

But, there are no census facts to measure the progress of Black people, their numbers and social conditions. Obtaining the truth is impossible. The government's refusal to record what it calls "divisive racial group identities" stymies all attempts at affirmative action say minority leaders.

Nevertheless, "truth telling" is necessary to instil self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-discipline into Black communities and youth in the Diaspora. The final declarations of the 50 th anniversary conference, endorsed by several hundred delegates and participants, made it clear:   Black writers, artists and intellectuals should undertake and contribute to "the social promotion of Black communities, especially youth and women, their heritage and aspirations". In doing so, they must raise issues of the political, social and economic integration of Black communities in the nations to which they belong.

Looking back on my interviews, I can see that what youth demands all Black intellectuals should desire. James Baldwin got it right when he said: Black writers and artists must seek "to define and accept their responsibilities, to assess the riches and the promise of their cultures, and to open, in effect, a dialogue with Europe," (in his summary of the 1956 First Congress,   "Princes and Powers" in Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son) .

Anyone who witnessed the power and grace of the youth's presentation will be able to say in the next 50 years that they heard the first major awakening of Black France and Afro-Europe. Who knows, the wretched streets may produce the first crop of French-born Black writers and artists? From the heart of the banlieues , youth will sing poetic ballads of negritude to tell the Black experience. With help, says Brima Conteh, youth can transform their exuberant hopes into concrete political actions.

Listening to them, Molefi Kete Asante says: "It was like the l960s in the United States when African Americans woke up from many years of slumber to demand a transformation in the social, political, economic and cultural landscape. What is different, I think, with Noir et Fier , is the fact that these young people have grown up in a society that prides itself on a liberal spirit yet the youth have discovered the incredible bias against African culture and blackness itself."

"Their intervention was necessary, provocative, and hopeful. I predict that we will see an explosion of Afrocentric groups in the French society as young people seek to express their total acceptance of their heritage and future." 
Well-wishers from many backgrounds/Chronicleworld.org

Well-wishers from many backgrounds /photo Chronicleworld.org

As they walked out into the sunlit hall the youth were greeted by well-wishers from many backgrounds: African, French, German, Portuguese, Antillean, Australian, Asian and North and South American. Memorably, they received encouragement from Mme Yandé Christiane Diop, director of the journal Présence Africaine and a leading figure in the Community of African Culture, the co-sponsors of the anniversary celebrations. As one youth in Black and Proud recalled later:   "She was very happy to see young people like us doing what we do, and acknowledged that the aspirations of the youth of the diaspora must shine through the shadows and be heard."

Black Intellectuals, Black Europe And The African Digital Diaspora - part 2

By Dr Thomas L Blair

Dr Thomas L Blair /photo Chronicleworld.org

Speech delivered to the 50th Anniversary of the First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists 1956, at UNESCO 19th-22nd September 2006. Plenary Session B Thursday 21st September 2006

"Africans are not supposed to think or argue; they just dance". That's what many westerners thought until Black intellectuals in 1956 said "Non" and set forth their vision of renascent "men of colour and culture" in all the Black World. Crucially, as Alioune Diop said in "Niam n'goura in Présence Africaine's Raison d'être, 1947, an essential task of Black intellectuals is to provide "searching examinations of the methods of integrating the black man in (urban) western civilization". And it is to this point that I address my remarks.

First, alas, this renascent vision was bypassed by events. Migrants from a severely wounded postcolonial Africa have come to Europe. Witness the almost daily influx of Black peoples, as economic migrants, asylum seekers or refugees. And this inward migration, despite the terrible, dangerous sea journey it involves, doesn't seem likely to be reversed anytime soon. The result is  a greater number of Blacks in Europe than ever before. And in France, the numbers of Malians and Senegalese have grown successively, according to official sources, the INSEE.

Second, France and the nations of the European Union are less welcoming than in 1956. In France, there has been a withering of the promoted Black-white, working class and socialist alliances for freedom from national capitalism and imperialist oppression. Globalisation, neo-conservatism, negrophobia and islamophobia have replaced those issues.

Now, 50 years have passed. These cataclysmic facts have disrupted the longed for goal of "Black progress" and brought into question the irredeemable virtues of Black poetics. The claim of 1956 was for an "equal dialogue between (francophonic) cultures devoted to a universal civilisation that transcended racial differences" has dissipated, except for occasional commemorative events.

Were the 56ers just woolly-headed idealists? I think not. But surely some strategic choices must be made. A reading of Prof Abiola Irele's works on Black politics, poetics and colonialism suggest the time is ripe. My preference is with Frantz Fanon. Speaking to the 1959 Congress of Black African Writers and Artists in Rome he said, and I paraphrase here, the most urgent thing for Black intellectuals to do is to build up their peoples, praise their labours for collective self-development – and from this will come a new liberatory literature, enhanced with the oral traditions, stories, epics and songs of the people. To his white supporters who feared "Black nationalism and separatism" Fanon promised: our goal is not to shut ourselves off, but to guarantee our participation as equals on the world stage. Thereby, Fanon raised culture and the arts to the level of a revolutionary instrument of political liberation

So where do we join this process of Black re-engagement with the modern western world?

In my view there are three pillars that would support an impressive transformation from mere survival to citizenship and integration in a multi-cultural society.

Respect for all who labour by hand or mind
First of all we must start with more than a modicum of respect. The present status of Black immigrants, as judged by a climate of low status, esteem and income, is neither in consonance with their hearts and minds nor does it provide for their political, economic and educational aspirations. (Note: we should remember that when there were fewer Blacks in France and Europe, "integration" was not so evident;  and now with greater numbers their situation is equally in distress.)

It must be acknowledged that these are the same peoples of the Black World that produced leading civilisations, world-class institutions of learning, and renowned scholars and scientists, writers and artists and musicians, and in some cases are still doing so.

These migrant citizens are not to be the vagabonds of history, to coin a phrase by W E B Du Bois. They are tired of being grist for the mills of the media and policies of law and order; they have rights, if not yet de jure national rights then human rights.

As a Black academic, from America with forty years of teaching, study and residence in England, and research in Africa, I am convinced of the coming rise in importance of Black Europe – l'Europe Africaine. To me it is abundantly clear that Afro-Europeans must themselves endeavour to build a new system for a new future.

They are forces of economic worth and potential political clout, but without nurturing their inherent morality, their intrinsic talent and establishing a cogent présence Africaine, the status quo will prevail.

Towards Black European Studies
Challenging this chasm of neglect is a worthy endeavour. The task of Black intellectuals, writers and artists is to create a new empirical, philosophical and cultural programme of Black European Studies -- in a transnational perspective.

Black Advocates, with their special talents and intellectual skills, must play a part in inserting the Black European experience into all debates about education, culture and economy. What this entails can only be perceived in outline at this moment. But there are some steps than need to be taken.

• We must correct and reconstruct Europe's Eurocentric history with the truth about the Black Presence and experience, including the Moors' 700-year contributions in literature, the arts, architecture and urban designWe must gauge Black public opinion with empirical research in Black communities

• We must critically examine notions of Blackness, Africanness and Caribbeanness and mixed race heritage

• We must review and replace negative stereotypes and race concepts and the economic and political systems that support them.

• We must explore what "integration" means in the politics of the class-race struggle and Black Cultural Freedom.

• We must consider forming new alliances of older, "assimilated" Blacks with newcomers, and Black and inter-ethnic solidarity with North African, Arab and Islamic neighbours

• We must study the origins of Black European Consciousness, Pan-Africanism, Black Activism, and Black church Movements

• We must create, lead and own Black media, Cultural Productions, and Archives of Collective Memory

Black Advocates and intellectuals as well as equality campaigners know the burden of promoting Black creativity is a heavy one. But when that burden is removed, Black European communities will have a chance to advance and fully participate in creating their own and Europe's future, and that of Africa and the Diaspora.

African Digital Diaspora
 Reaching out to Europe's Black Communities with  our 50th anniversary themes: tributes, assessments and perspectives is crucial. And the medium for this message must be delivered, in large part, via the Internet, the dominant communications language of this century. Digitising Black excellence must be the next step. But what is there to digitise? Prime candidates for online digitisation are Présence Africaine itself and the centuries-old outpouring of Black Intelligence – in both European and African languages.

To add brilliance to this task, African cyberorganisers must lift the veil of ignorance surrounding the work of hundreds of distinguished scholars and experts in the sciences and arts in Africa and the Diaspora. Spreading the news about Africa's intellectual treasures and innovators is a formidable task. But it is rewarding and turns cyberorganisers into extraordinary Internet content creators. Their function is to digitize and disseminate this wealth of knowledge both locally and on a global digital network to communities of African heritage around the world. Truly, an African Digital Diaspora.    

In conclusion, I respectfully urge this meeting to review the historical changes affecting the role of Black intellectuals in society and, in doing so, lay new foundations for securing a rightful place for Blacks in Europe's future.

References
The key resources for my remarks are:

Blair, Prof. Thomas L, Chronicleworld.org the Internet news magazine on changing Black Britain.

September 2006 issue, Advocacy For Black Advancement And Cultural Freedom

From the Archive 01
2.305 Mother Africa in Europe: Mme. Diop of Présence Africaine – v. English

2.306 Mère Afrique en Europe: Mme Diop de Présence Africaine - v. Francais 

Further Resources
Diop, Alioune, "Niam n'goura or Présence Africaine's Raison d'être, Présence Africaine, Novembre – Décembre 1947, Paris-Dakar

 Fanon, Frantz (1959), Wretched of the Earth, London, Pelican.

INSEEInstitut National de la Statistique et des Etudes economiques, No. 1098-Aout 2006

Jules-Rosette, Benneta (2000), Black Paris: The African Writers' Landscape, University of Illinois Press.

July, Robert W (1987), The African Voice, Duke University Center for International Studies Public, Durham, NC, Duke University Press

Présence Africaine, Special issues of the 1956 congress:

Présence Africaine, 2md ser. 8-9-10, June-November 1965, contains a summary of the congress, papers and debates.

Présence Africaine, 2nd ser. 14-15, June-September 1957

See also Présence Africaine, Novembre – Décembre 1947, Paris-Dakar. La réimpression en fac-similé de cette revue, à la occasion du cinquantenaire de sa création, est faite grâce au concours du Centre national du Livre.

Webliography
Alkalimat, Abdul (2004) Cyberorganizing: Information Technology and the Fight for Black Liberation. 2004b eBook http://www.eblackstudies.org/grbk/

Nelson, Alondra and Kali Tal eds. (2006)  www.afrofuturism.net

Nmehielle, Vincent O (2006) Indigeneity in Africa June 15, 2006, Cultural Survival Quarterly, Issue 30.2

Notes On The Author
Thomas L Blair PhD and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts FRSA, is a sociologist and editor and publisher of the Chronicleworld http://www.chronicleworld.org the Internet magazine on the Black experience in Britain. His forthcoming book "Race for Cyberspace" describes how Black communities in America and Britain, and Language Groups in sub-Saharan Africa are Taming the New Technologies.

Black Advancement and Cultural Freedom - part 1

Head by Picasso

The call has gone out. We share and celebrate a common legacy. Presence Africaine with its unique mandate to promote African culture has summoned Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Americans, Black Europeans, and Pan-Africanists "to honour, reflect and look forward to the future".

The occasion marks the 50th anniversary of the 1st International Congress of Black Writers and Artists held at the Paris Sorbonne in 1956.

The 2006 observance, again Paris, is under the patronage of notable personalities: Nelson Mandela, humanist and first president of South Africa, Aimé Césaire, writer and honorary Mayor of Fort de France Martinique, Abou Diouf, Secretary general of the International Francophonic African Organisation. The co-sponsors are: Wole Soyinka, writer, Goodwill Ambassador to UNESCO, and President of the African Community of Culture, Prof Louis Henry Gates of the

WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research, Harvard University, and UNESCO and Presence Africaine.

The Chronicleworld is convinced that amidst the backdrop of a problematic post-colonial, globalising world of information and communications technology two issues stand out and must be addressed.

One is the implications of South-North migration and the emerging study of the Black Diaspora in Europe, as well as America; the other, is the revolutionary prospect of linking up the African Digital Diaspora through the new global medium of information and communications technology.

I have been asked to speak at the conference, and in preparing for the session on the contemporary Black World I would like to share my preliminary thoughts.

This current edition focuses on Advocacy for Black Europe, and we have included a tribute to Mother Africa: Mme. Diop of Presence Africaine in English and French, from our Archive 01, 2.305.

The next edition will be Advocacy for the Digital Diaspora -- Informatics and the Collective Black memory. It will highlight the work of cyberorganisers creating digital links between Black communities in the US, Britain and Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

Graphic: Head by Picasso for 1st International Congress of Black Writers and Artists 1956

Your comments are welcome.
E-mail: editor@thechronicle.demon.co.uk