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7 H I APRIL, 1962 Affiliated with the Soci& Africaine de Culture whose journal is Prgsesce Africaine (Paris) VOLUME IV, NUMBER 7 New Institute of African Studies Established at University of Ife; Staff Personnel Sought Congolese Premier Adoula is Guest of Honor at Party Congolese Premier was the guest of honor at a party given by Hon. Jaja Wachuku in Lagos, on January 28th, during the African Heads- of-State Meeting in Lagos. Guests included Calvin H. Raullerson, director of AMSAC' WesAfrican Cultural Center, and Mrs. Raullerson. Persons in the picture are identified as follows: Seated, left to right: Premier Cyrille Adoula of the Republic of the Congo; Mrs. Wachuku; Hon. Jaja Wachuku, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Nigeria and head of the Nigerian UN delegation; Mr. Wachuku's goddaughter. Standing, left to right: Olive L. Raullerson (Mrs. Calvin H. Raullerson); Mr. Omotayo Ogunsulire, Nigerian Charge d'Affaires in Leopoldville; Mr. Calvin H. Raullerson, Director, AMSAC West African Cultural Center; Miss Agnes Wachuku, Ambassador Wachuku's sister; Mrs. Ogunsulire; Hon. Justin Bomboko, Foreign Minister of the Republic of the Congo; Miss Ulloma Wachuku, Ambassador Wachuku's niece. Mr. and Mrs. Raullerson were guests of Mr. Wachuku at the Inaugural Session of the Heads-of-State Meeting, and attended many formal and informal social functions from January 22nd to January 31st, while the diplomats attending the meeting were in Lagos. The University of Ife in Ife, Nigeria has announced the establishment of an Institute of African Studies to conduct research on African culture and institutions and to offer courses of study at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The Institute will begin activity at the Ibidan Branch of the University in the 1962-63 academic year. At a later time it will be moved to the University Campus at Ife, where a suitable building is being planned to house the Institute. Announcing the establishment of the Institute, the University stated: "It is probably going to start as a purely research institute with facilities to attract research scholars interested in African studies from all over the world. We hope that this activity will lead to increasing re-orientation of the curricula in some of the other departments of the University by relating them more closely to our culture, history and problems." The University noted the importance of having the Institute engage in undergraduate work while pursuing its research activities: "By undertaking undergraduate work the present state of affairs whereby an undergraduate can complete a University education without knowing anything about the culture of his people will be redressed. ... The Institute will, therefore, serve the dual purpose of stimulating research in the field of African Studies and establishing African Studies as a legitimate academic discipline." The work of the Institute will initially be organized into the following divisions: anthropology and sociology; ethnohistory, art, and folk culture; languages and linguistics; Mahgreb and Arabic influences; and Africa-in-transition. A working library of Africana is being planned to serve all the divisions. At the graduate level, activities will include seminars, occasional open lectures, international scholarly conferences, exhibitions of artistic and cultural objects, archeological excavations, and the publication of a journal. At the undergraduate level, activity will at first be limited, and will grow as the Institute evolves materials and a curriculum suitable for use in the undergraduate programs of the University. A series of lectures on West African life and thought, and collaboration with present departments in the presentation of specific courses, will comprise the first steps at the undergraduate level. (Continued on page 2) AW&f

AMSAC NEWSLETTER Issued ten times a year, October through July, by American Society of African Culture, 15 East 40th St., New York 16, New York. Permission is granted to reprint any materials appearing herein except those credited to another publication. The American Society of African Culture is devoted to the dissemination of information on all phases of the society and culture of the peoples, nations, and territories of Africa. It is affiliated with the Soci~t6 Africaine de Culture, 42 Rue Descartes, Paris V, France. HORACE MANN BOND President JAMES W. IVY WILLIAM T. FONTAINE Treasurer Secretary JOHN A. DAvIs JAMES K. BAKER Executive Director Assistant Executive Director WILLIAM B. JONES Chairman, Executive Council RALPH LEE SMITIH Editor AMSAC Newsletter WEST AFRICAN CULTURAL CENTER 4/6 Oil Mill Street Lagos, Nigeria CALVIN H. RAULLERSON Director Editorial Notes If not always marked by quality of content, a not insignificant quantity of words has been written since last May establishing for perpetuity the "place" of the American Negro in Africa. As for the American Negroes who are already there, they and the Africans are sorry indeed; for others, either as agents of our government or on their own initiative, to go to Africa would be a form of folly suggesting that the American Negro may suffer at least a latent masochism. Well, AMSAC says believe not a word of it. And we do not apologize in the face of these verbose verisimilitudes for either the brevity or decretal characteristics of this rebuttal. Our naked negation inherently embraces more truth than their question-answer "documentation." Anyway, speakers at AMSAC's Fourth Annual Meeting of last June (the report of which is now published), and since then at least one other writer, have effectively rendered the polemics. Following is the chronological "bibliography" we have: "Back to Africa," Harold Isaacs, New Yorker, May 13, 1961. "Strangers in Africa," Russell Warren Howe, The Reporter, June 22, 1961. "Howe and Isaacs in the Bush: The Ram in the Thicket," Horace Mann Bond, AMSAC Meeting, June 24, 1961; The Negro History Bulletin, December, 1961 (entire text published in Bulletin). "The Relations of the American and African Negro in the Context of Pan-Africanism," St. Clair Drake, AMSAC Meeting, June 24, 1961 (entire text published). Emergent Americans: A Report on Crossroads Africa, Harold R. Isaacs, New York: The John Day Co., 1961. Feature Stories on I.I.E. Survey, New York Times and Herald Tribune, December 5, 1961. "The American Negro's Key Role in Africa," Joseph C. Kennedy, Magazine, February 4, 1962. Four More Panels on "Negro Creative Artist" to be Held AMSAC's panel series on "The Negro Creative Artist and His Roots," announced in the February NEWSLETTER, has been launched and is a substantial success. The first two panels, held at AMSAC's headquarters, have been well attended and have brought about lively discussion. The first panel, on February 28th, provided a general survey of the subject. Participants were: Ernest Crichlow and Hale Woodruff, visual arts; Leonard de Paur, music; John 0. Killens, literature; and Ellsworth Wright, theatre. Dr. John A. Davis, AMSAC executive director, was moderator. The second panel, on March 14th, explored Negro literature. Leroi Jones, Louis Lomax, and Loften Mitchell were the panelists, and John 0. Killens was moderator. Members are invited to the four remaining panels in the series, which will be equally rewarding and informative. On April 1 1th Leonard De Paur will moderate a panel on music, with Irving Burgie, Miclhael Olitunji -andi Randy Weston as panelists. The visual arts will be discussed at the May 2nd panel. Roy De Darava, Paul Keene, and Jacob Lawrence will be panelists and Ernest Crichlow will be moderator. A fifth panel, on the theater, will be held on May 23rd. Panelists will be Osceola Archer, Nichelle Nichols, Frederick O'Neal, Sidney Poitier, and Jane White, with Ellsworth Wright serving as moderator. The date and the participants for the final panel, which will summarize the discussions in the preceding panels, will be announced soon. All panels are held in AMSAC's Headquarters at 8:00 P.M. AMSAC has issued a brochure giving the background of all participants. Copies are available on request. African Studies Institute (Continued from page 1) Dr. S. 0. Biobaku, Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Ife and an internationally-known authority on African culture, will be director of the Institute. Dr. Biobaku has announced that the University is seeking persons to hold the following posts in the Institute's program: - a deputy director who will also hold a senior lectureship. - senior lecturers, lecturers, or assistant lecturers in each of the following subjects: anthropology or sociology; ethno-history; archeology; African art and music; Arabic and Islamic history; linguistics; political science; Yoruba; Ibo (Igbo) ; Hausa. a technician-craftsman, preferably a carver with a technical bent, who can repair damaged artifacts as well as do recordings and take photographs. Interested applicants should submit to the University a curriculum vitae in six copies, including date and place of birth, nationality and marital status, number and ages of children, degrees and other qualifications and distinctions, statement of experience including full details of former and present posts, a list of publications, and the names and addresses of three references. Applications should be sent promptly to the Registrar, University of Ife, Ibadan Branch, Ibadan, Nigeria. AMSAC NEWSLETTER

MEMBERS ANNOUNCEMENTS 0 Brock Peters will star with Leslie Caron in the movie The L-Shaped Room to be made in London. He has also been cast as Joe Robinson in the film version of the bestselling novel To Kill a Mockingbird, to be produced by Universal- International. 0 Dr. Elliott Skinner has been giving the "Sunrise Semester" television class this semester, on "Changing Institutions of Contemporary Africa." The course has been highly popular. When Dr. Skinner mentioned AMSAC's publication African Socialism by Leopold Sedor Senghor, AMSAC's remaining supply was promptly sold out in the rush of orders. 0 A passage from Samuel Allen's article in the AMSAC publication The American Negro Writer and His Roots will be reprinted in Black Nationalism: The Search for an Identity in America, by E. U. Essien-Udom, soon to be published by the University of Chicago Press. N A series of lectures on Afro-American Literature, sponsored by the Market Place Gallery, is being held at St. Andrew's Church, 5th Ave. at 127th St., New York City. On April, 13th Arna Bontemps will discuss "The Negro Renaissance;" on May 18th Lawrence Reddick will discuss "Afro-American Writers and the Mainstream;" and the June 15th session will be devoted to a tribute to Langston Hughes. A flyer giving full details on the series is available from Market Place Gallery, 2305 Seventh Ave., New York 30. N.Y. E Dr. Harold Applewhite has invited AMSAC members to attend the Sixth Anniversary Dinner of the African Research Society, to be held at 6:30 p.m., April 14, 1962 at the Hotel Beekman Tower in New York City. Reservations are $10 each. Proceeds from the dinner will go to the Howard University African Scholarship Fund. Reservations can be made through Yvonne Walker at AMSAC Headquarters. Members of the Advisory Committee of AMSAC's West African Cultural Center meet in the Center's offices in Lagos, Nigeria, on February 16th. Seated, left to right: Dr. S. 0. Biobaku, Pro Vice Principal, University of Ife; Chinua Achebe, director of external broadcasting, NBC; Felix Idubor, sculptor; Oba Samuel Akinsanya, the Odemo of Ishara; Dr. 0. Adeniyi-Jones; Steve Rhodes, WNBS, Ibidan; Lady Ademola. April, 1962

Newsletter Supplement Number 24 Beyond the Blues: Modern Trends in Afro-American Poetry by ROSEY E. POOL Rosey E. Pool is a distinguished poet, anthologist, and interpreter of African and American Negro poetry. The following paper was read by Miss Pool at a panel discussion on Negro poetry at the AMSAC-sponsored Cultural Festival in Lagos, Nigeria, December 18-19, 1961. You must forgive me for starting with a quotation according to which I ought not to be speaking here at all. The lines I want to quote are from a poem called The Negro's Tragedy. Jamaica-born Claude McKay wrote it about 1920, and its fourteen lines contain at least half a dozen subjects for discussions about the changing minds and attitudes of Afro-Americans and with these, the birth of new poetry. However, here is my quotation: "Only a thorn-crowned Negro and no white Can penetrate into the Negro's ken, ... I need your forgiveness once more for taking these lines out of their controversial context. But let me at least give you another two lines to complete the picture of The Negro's Tragedy according to Claude McKay: "Only a thorn-crowned Negro and no white Can penetrate into the Negro's ken, Or feel the thickness of the shroud of night Which hides and buries him from other men." This is a typical example of a kind of protest poetry as blue as a midnight sky, the kind of protest through self-pity, and which is worse self-accusation which is the inescapable result of mis-identification. Slavery and in fact all kinds of oppression, produce particularly ugly and sticky stigmas. Tell a person the same things over and over again, even if they are deliberate lies about that person himself, and he'll believe them in the end. This simple truth is also responsible for certain trends in American Negro Poetry up to the Renaissance of the years after World War I and even after that time. It is a striking phenomenon that Negroes of the United States have contributed to English language poetry for almost two hundred years without being aware of the roots of their talents or rather in spite of the fact that the awareness of their roots was systematically numbed in them. No one will want to blame a girl from Senegal, in 1760 kidnapped at the age of eight, and after a nightmare journey sold into the hands of people who were kind to her, gave her an education, and included her in their family life.., of course up to a point . . . no one will blame that girl for having completely fallen under the cultural, moral, religious influence of her masters. We know the girl as the poet Phyllis Wheatley who lived for only twenty-four years. When she was about twenty, and suffered from tuberculosis, she was given her freedom. It was then that she wrote a poem which contains the most outspoken form of protest of her poetic career, dedicated to the Earl of Dartmouth, then British Charg6 d'Affaires for North America: "Should you, my Lord, while you pursue my song, wonder from whence my love for Freedom sprung, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate was snatched from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray others may never feel tyrannic sway?" Did yoi notice how Phyllis'Wheatley said: "Afric's fancy'd happy seat" . . . that was obviously the result of an education that taught her how much happier she was as a slave in America than she would have been as a "savage" in her own country. The Harlem Renaissance of the nineteen-twenties brought only partial awakening. I got acquainted with the Negro Poets of America in 1925, when as a young student at the University of Amsterdam in Holland, where I have my roots, I found Countee Cullen's first book of poetry Color which had then just been published. I remember most vividly how puzzled I was by his magnificent poem Heritage which is in fact a discussion within the poet himself on the question: "What is Africa to me . . ." "One three centuries removed From the scenes his fathers loved, Spicy groves, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me?" AMSAC NEWSLETTER

The link between Negro America and Africa was so obvious to me that I was asking myself in my ignorance whether Countee Cullen wasn't just arguing for the sake of argument when he ended his poem Heritage like this: "All day long and all night through, One thing only must I do: Quench my pride and cool my blood, Lest I perish in the flood. Lest a hidden ember set Timber that I thought was wet Burning like the dryest flax, Melting like the merest wax, Lest the grave restore its dead. Not yet has my heart or head In the least way realized They and I are civilized." What indeed was Africa to all of us? What did we, Negroes in America as well as non-Negroes in Europe, what did we actually know about the Continent whose hospitality I am so gratefully enjoying? The answer is: we knew that which those who were in power wanted us to know. Obviously this is a situation similar to the plight of Negroes in America. In both cases the world got highly colored, frighteningly distorted images. Africa was presented as the Dark Continent populated by semi-savages, or at its best grinning people with the minds of children. Negro Americans were the black sheep of the American family of nations, descendants of slaves who were in their turn, descendants of the wild bogeymen of Africa .... So it all links up. So it all tallied. And so it now tallies that, since Africa has revealed herself to the world, since her pride, her strength, her determination are there for everyone to see, Negroes in America have recognized her face in the new light. Poets find new songs to sing, new strength rises up right from the ancient roots. During World War II, I was a member of the Dutch Underground Resistance against Fascism and eventually a prisoner of the Nazis, and believe me, the freedom struggle of Holland against Spain, a struggle that took place three hundred years ago, inspired us to fight oppression in the years 1940 - 1945. Three centuries can indeed help to strengthen roots, if one only knows where they are. This realization has penetrated into much of the poetry of Negro Americans of our days. Attitudes have changed but there is still, alas, plenty of reason for protest in those strangely un-united states! In the old days only artists like Langston Hughes and a few other exceptional individuals could look into the mirror and see their true identity undistorted and say: "My old mule, He's got a grin on his face. He's been a mule so long He's forgot about his race. I'm like that old mule Black- and don't give a damn! You got to take me Like I am." I have just completed an anthology of new poetry by Afro Americans under the title of Beyond the Blues. These words symbolize for me the absence of outcries of self-pity, freedom April, 1962 of self-torture; they mean: the expression of a whole, proud personality, eyes open to the future. During the last few months I have again stood face to face with what James Weldon Johnson, in 1922, called: "The Negro's Creative Genius." Some of the work I read might as well have been written by white American poets, other poems showed unmistakable Nigritude. I read sheafs of verse in fashionable beat idiom, work from unruly experimentals, from difficult esoterics, and forthright voices of protest in all keys. I read expressions of unconditional forgiveness, and of exploding hatred, and I read of less turbulent emotions, songs from the hearts of lovers, the hearts of parents. I read and listened to the voices of many true poets, just poets by any standard. I should like to challenge the other ninety per cent of the United States to show their separate equality in presenting us nine times as many similarly interesting, genuine poets as Americans of African descent have produced. "I know I'm not sufficiently obscure to please the critics. Nor devious enough. Imagery escapes me. Blood is blood, And murder is murder. .." That's the voice of Ray Durem. "What I need is a dark woman With a vicious American past And a red future." That's by Californian fruitworker Chuck Anderson. "Here at last, I looked back on my Dream; I heard the Voice that loosed The long-locked dungeons of my soul I sensed that Africa had come Not up from Hell, but from the sum of Heaven's glory." And that is by the youngest of them all: Dr. W. E. B. DuBois who wrote it in the ninety-third year of his life. It is the advantage of the poet over the lecturer that: he needs less words to make his point. Therefore I am giving the last of the seconds allocated to me to Mar Evans of Indianapolis to tell us about: THE EMANCIPATION OF GEORGE-HECTOR (a colored turtle) George-Hector *.. is spoiled. formerly he stayed well up in his shell ... but now he hangs arms and legs sprawlingly in a most langorous fashion ... head rared back to be admired. he didn't use to talk ... but he does now." I think you will agree, Ladies and Gentlemen, that he talks indeed, most eloquently.

New Books and Records Added to Library'at AMSAC Headquarters AMSAC is continuing to build its library on American and African Negro literature and society. The library is available for use by members, scholars, and the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. The following items were added to the library during the past month. New Books American Negro Culture Ahmann, Mathew H., ed. The New Negro. 1961. Aptheker, Herbert. The Negro in the Abolitionist Movement. 1941. Brooks, Gwendolyn. Maud Martha. 1953. Brown, Sterling. Southern Road. 1932. Cullen, Countee. The Black Christ. 1929. 1'Joiglass, "FrederiCk. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. Ed. by Philip S. Foner. 1950-1955. 4 vols. Dunbar, Paul Lawrence. Folks from Dixie. 1898. . The Strength of Gideon. 1900. Hearne, John. The Faces of Love. 1952. Killens, John 0. Youngblood. 1956. (gift of the author) Mitchell, Glenford E. and William H. Peace, eds. The Angry Black South. 1962. Motley, Willard. Let No Man Write My Epitaph. 1958. Walker, James R., Sr. Be Firm My Hope. 1955. African Culture Aboud, H.E. Dr. El-Mehdi, et al. Symposium on Africa. 1960. Abrahams, Peter. Wild Conquest. 1950. Achebe, Chinua. No Longer at Ease. 1960. Ajisafe, A. K. The Laws and Customs of the Yoruba People. 1924. Bolombo, G. Kavwanga. n.d. British Colonial Office. Nigeria: Report of the Commission Appointed to Enquire into the Fears of Minorities and the Means of Allaying Them. 1958. Chome, Jules. Le Drame de Luluabourg. 1960. De Andrade, Mario. Antologia da Poesia Negra de Expressao Portuguesa. 1958. Dib, Mohammed. Un Ete Africain. 1959. Diop, Cheikh Anta. Les Fondements Culturels Techniques et Industriels d'Un Futur Etat Federal d'Afrique Noire. 1960. Epelle, Sam. The Promise of Nigeria. 1960. Ekwensi, Cyprian. People of the City. 1954. Observer. Quarterly journal published in London by Sylvia and Richard Pankhurst. Gbadamosi, Bakare and Ulli Beier, trs. Yoruba Poetry. 1959. Hansard Society. What Are the Problems of Parliamentary Government in West Africa? 1958. Ikeotunye, V. C. Zik of New Africa. 1961. -Juniner, Bertene. I es Batards. 1961. Landis, Elizabeth. South African . 1962. Lomax, Louis. The Reluctant African. 1960. Merriam, Alan P. A Prologue to the Study of the African Arts. 1961. Mwewa, Parkinson B. The African Railway Workers Union. Ndola, Northern Rhodesia. 1958. Newbury, C. W. The Western Slave Coast and Its Rulers. 1961. Ogunsheye, Ayo et al. Afro-Asian Attitudes. 1961. Rivkin, Arnold. Africa and the West. 1962. Samat, Jean-Toussaint. Razava. 1929. Wallerstein, Immanuel. Africa, The Politics of Independence. 1961. Yondo, Elolongue Epanya. Kamerun! Kamerun! 1960. New Records Randy Weston. Piano a-la-mode. Jubilee 1060. Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes Read selections from their poetry. Folkways FL9790. Brock Peters. Sing'a Man. United Artists UAL 3041. American Society of African Culture 15 East 40th Street New York 16, N. Y. NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID New York, N.Y. Permit No. 149 Mr. Allard Lowenstein 25 West 81st Street New York 24, New York PRINTED MATTER , 347