THE JOURNAL OF BAHÁ’Í STUDIES La Revue des études bahá’íes/La Revista de estudios bahá’ís
Volume 30, number 3 Fall 2020
A Publication of the Association for Bahá’í Studies–North America THE JOURNAL OF BAHÁ’Í STUDIES LA REVUE DES ÉTUDES BAHÁ’ÍES/LA REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS BAHÁ’ÍS Volume 30 Number 3 Fall 2020 Publications Mail Registration No. 09448
EDITOR Michael Sabet EDITOR EMERITUS John S. Hatcher POETRY EDITOR Peter E. Murphy EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Nilufar Gordon EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Ann Boyles, Roshan Danesh, Nilufar Gordon, Pierre-Yves Mocquais, Bahhaj Taherzadeh
French translation: Louise Mailhot and Juliette Goudreau Spanish translation: Amelia Cardeña
The Journal of Bahá’í Studies (USPS #013-468) is published by the Association for Bahá’í Studies–North America. The views expressed in this Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Editorial Board or Executive Committee of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, or authoritative explications of Bahá’í teachings.
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Printed in Canada on recycled paper. ISSN 0838–0430
© Association for Bahá’í Studies 2020. All rights reserved. THE JOURNAL OF BAHÁ’Í STUDIES
LA REVUE DES ÉTUDES BAHÁ’ÍES/LA REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS BAHÁ’ÍS Volume 30 Number 3 Fall 2020
Contents
3 E C From the Editor’s Desk
9 M K The Constructive Imaginary
25 M L. P Why Constructive Resilience? An Autobiographical Essay
37 E S Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light
53 D S New Black Power: Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís
65 L M Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience: Some Refl ections
77 S D. S When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . .
93 C B Community Agency and Islamic Education in Contemporary Zanzibar
105 B W Faith in Action: Refl ections on Constructive Resilience from Nicaragua
115 H H Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive Social Change
123 Biographical Notes
Cover M. B W Abhá People (2008, watercolor and ink on paper, 15” x 13” Collection Washington-de Souza Family) 2 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Artwork M. B W (1937-2008)
Photos by M H All art images appear courtesy of the Bunch Washington Foundation. Special thanks to the family of Les and Violet Payne for “Sophisticated Lady.”
8 Holding the Greatest Name. Year unknown. Transparent Collage, 10” x 8”
24 The Greatest Name. Year unknown. Transparent Collage, 11” x 8”
36 Curlean. 1998. 1976. Transparent Collage, 12” x 101⁄2”
50 Pearls. 1998.Transparent Collage, 243⁄4”x 42”
52 Two Seas. Year Unknown. Transparent Collage, 16” x 12”
76 Sophisticated Lady. 1978. Transparent Collage, 121⁄2” x 18”
92 Alaina. Transparent Collage, 24” x 36”
103 Eastern Beauty. Year unknown. Transparent Collage, 16” x 111⁄2”
104 Romy and Me. 1989. Transparent Collage, 15” x 111⁄2”
114 Sojourner Truth. 1978. Transparent Collage, 121⁄2” x 18” 3
articles, prepare papers, and con- From the Editor’s sult on contemporary perspectives Desk and related Bahá’í concepts. In our understanding, this encourage- T E C ment of collaborative scholarly endeav- ors does not have a merely functional This issue of the Journal of Bahá’í or pragmatic benefi t. It is rooted in a Studies is the fruit of collaboration particular conception of knowledge, between nine authors, writing on the namely, that an elicitive and refl exive topic of constructive resilience. The mode of engaging with ideas creates development of this issue has been an insights, elucidates questions that are experiment in collaborative process- obscure, and generates understanding. es of scholarship, and it stands as one Indeed, this mode of engagement early milestone in learning about this is integral to the language of Revela- kind of collaboration. Before turning to tion itself in the Bahá’í Faith, where the rich topic of constructive resilience we often see the Voice of the Divine itself, we wish to share with you, the speaking to humanity about how hu- Journal’s readers, some of the broad- manity should communicate back to er context of collaborative work at the the Divine. How many times does Association for Bahá’í Studies in gen- Bahá’u’lláh instruct us to “Say…” eral, and invite those interested in this when speaking to our Creator, before area of learning to consider how they Himself responding in that Voice. If might contribute to it. such an ethic of reciprocity animates In its 24 July 2013 letter to the our eff orts to grapple with questions National Spiritual Assembly of the about the very purpose and truth of our Bahá’ís of Canada on the topic of the existence, how much value it must also Association for Bahá’í Studies, the have as a method of engaging together Universal House of Justice highlight- in our quest to gain knowledge about ed the possibilities for the Association the world around us. to foster a collaborative approach to It has been encouraging to see col- scholarship. It advised that, laboration in this vein burgeon in the past few years throughout the Bahá’í [f]or example, a number of small world. The Association for Bahá’í seminars could be held to assist in- Studies has striven to be a part of these dividuals from certain professions eff orts, designating a Committee for or academic disciplines to exam- Collaborative Initiatives specifi cally ine some aspect of the discourse to help support them. Working groups of their fi eld. Specifi c topics could organized within professional and ac- be selected, and a group of partic- ademic disciplines, as well as reading ipants with experience could share groups and cross-disciplinary seminars 4 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
devoted to specifi c topics, have been endeavor, including the work of schol- convened, in which participants are ars, is untouched by the Revelation of learning together. It is exciting to think Bahá’u’lláh, under whose infl uence of what these will yield in the future. humanity’s understandings of the ac- This issue of the Journal of Bahá’í tivity of scholarship will continue to Studies is another step in our journey mature and evolve. As we share these of learning about collective processes refl ections on the context and process of scholarship. Its nine essays are the through which this issue emerged, we product of a collaborative process, invite readers, and those involved in self-organized by the authors, that un- collaborative processes of scholarship, folded over a period of three years. In to refl ect on how we can continue to neither its process nor its substance is it build on these eff orts, and advance an endpoint, but, as stated at the outset, ever more eff ective, inclusive, and im- a milestone, allowing us another op- pactful practices. We welcome you to portunity to see what is being learned, send us your thoughts, including ideas and where the paths may lead next. for collaborative initiatives, at editor@ This issue also builds on recent ef- bahaistudies.ca. forts in the Journal to publish entire issues on single topics or themes, often dealing with questions of social change Another area of learning that deserves or racial justice. Examples include particular attention pertains to the Volume 26, No. 3, centering on Indige- styles of writing found in this issue. nous experiences, and Volume 29, No. Each essay in this collection is shorter 1–2, on “the most challenging issue.” than the typical Journal article, allow- Those special issues also represented ing a greater number of voices to con- eff orts to advance a more collaborative tribute. Together, the essays present a process in a range of ways, while ad- stylistic continuum, from traditionally dressing some of the challenges seen academic to personal and introspective. in contemporary scholarship. For ex- At its core, scholarship is a matter of ample, Volume 26.3, with the guidance generating and disseminating knowl- of an Indigenous guest editor, sought to edge. Scholars who seek to share the uphold a standard of cultural humility knowledge generated by refl ection on and emphasize voices and experiences their own life experience must neces- from which much must be learnt. It is sarily speak in a diff erent voice from our hope to continue that learning, in- those studying phenomena outside cluding by building on the insight that themselves, if they are to do justice to has come through the development of their story. The Journal has previously the current issue. welcomed submissions that sit at vari- Scholars’ methodologies for gen- ous places on this continuum as appro- erating insight and understanding are priate given their subject matter, and we dynamic and fl uid. No facet of human look forward to publishing more work From the Editor’s Desk 5
in the future that can enrich our vision in the face of the challenges posed by a of the forms scholarship can take. society that struggled to understand his This collection of essays opens three main strands of identity—artist, with “The Constructive Imaginary,” African American, and Bahá’í—was in which Michael Karlberg provides a able to “resolve in his art what he could fuller glimpse of the collaborative pro- not in his life.” The experience of Afri- cess that found expression in this issue can American Bahá’ís, and the insight of the Journal, and that will doubtless it can provide into the meaning of con- continue to bear fruit in the future. He structive resilience, is further explored also sketches a genealogy of the con- in Derik Smith’s “New Black Power: cept of constructive resilience, drawing Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts connections both to academic schools of African American Bahá’ís,” which of thought and to historical social ex- shows how these eff orts can help us pressions of the phenomenon, and conceive of power itself in new and emphasizes the urgency of drawing on vital ways. Layli Maparyan’s “Afri- these resources to help us “imagine and canity, Womanism, and Constructive enact new possibilities in the pursuit of Resilience: Some Refl ections” locates social change.” a rich resource for helping us think The experience of African Amer- about constructive resilience in “the icans and African-descended people cultural and cosmological wealth of more broadly is explored from a range African and African-descended peo- of vantage points in a number of the ple” and, in particular, in the every- essays in this issue. Michael Penn’s day, problem-solving experiences of “Why Constructive Resilience? An Black women, reminding us that how- Autobiographical Essay” interweaves ever loud the narratives around con- the powerful examples of constructive fl ict-based social change in our society, resilience that the author has perceived the peoples of the world have deep ex- in his own life with a psychological perience with constructive change. examination of the roots of hope and Other essays in this issue use diff er- despair, shedding light on the poignant ent lenses to consider the power and reality that “resilience does not only implications of constructive resilience. consist of the capacity to endure and Sahar Sattarzadeh’s “When We In/ survive stress; it is refl ected in the pow- visibilize Our Nobility…” invites us ers and capacities that unfold as a result to consider the lens of domestic part- of exposure to it.” Elizabeth de Souza’s ner and gender-based violence, and “Views from a Black Artist in the Cen- how roles such as “victim” and “sur- tury of Light” considers the unique, vivor” might be transcended as we and vital, role of art in constructive re- learn to view others, and ourselves, as silience through an exploration of the the noble beings Bahá’u’lláh reminds life and works of the author’s father, us we are. Caity Bolton’s “Commu- McCleary “Bunch” Washington, who, nity Agency and Islamic Education 6 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
in Contemporary Zanzibar” uses an that issue, the work of eradicating ra- ethnographic approach to illuminate cial injustice the constructive potential of religiously grounded community initiatives for rec- requires the hard work of trans- ognizing and addressing social harms. forming mindsets and behaviors. The role of faith is further explored It also necessitates that humankind in Bradley Wilson’s “Faith in Action: discover and implement methods Refl ections on Constructive Resilience for reordering detrimental social from Nicaragua,” which illustrates how and structural patterns and estab- for landless farmworkers in Nicaragua, lishing collaborative relationships even under circumstances of crushing upheld by a collective vision of jus- social and economic oppression, faith tice and fellowship at the levels of has remained a potent resource, moti- the neighborhood and community vating and empowering their movement life. But this journey toward justice for justice. Finally, with Holly Hanson’s and unity is one of learning, trial “Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive and error, sacrifi ce, love, and pain. Social Change,” we return to the ques- tion of imagination, and are reminded of As you read this collection of es- the need to learn from the examples set says, we hope you will be impressed by those who have trod, and continue to by the vital importance of all of us tread, the path of constructive resilience. learning something about constructive In the substance of the ideas it ex- resilience from those who have prac- plores, this special issue of the Journal ticed it. Indigenous peoples, in North builds on what has come before, and America and worldwide; the Iranian helps set the stage for further work Bahá’í community and many other re- to come. The concept of constructive ligious groups around the globe today resilience, though not so named, has and historically; the African American been showcased in previous Journal community, which is the focus of a articles about the lived experiences of number of contributions in this issue— individuals and groups. For example, these are a few examples of groups the accounts shared in Volume 26.3, with deep, practical knowledge of highlighted constructive responses of constructive resilience. And, of course, Indigenous people, Bahá’ís and others, there is much work to be done examin- to the ongoing impacts of colonialism ing the relationship between construc- and systemic racism—from institu- tive resilience and gender inequality in tionalized oppression to unconscious humanity’s history. It is amongst those attitudes. Some of these articles shared who have borne and continue to bear fi rst-person stories and accounts of the brunt of social injustice that the Indigenous people demonstrating con- tool of constructive resilience has been structive resilience. As highlighted in forged, honed, tested, broken, and re- the “From the Editor’s Desk” prefacing forged, again and again. From the Editor’s Desk 7
But today, all of us, to greater or committed have been blotted from lesser degrees, may have to learn about My sight. By My beauty! All your constructive resilience. The Universal doings hath My Pen graven with House of Justice re-affi rmed this reality open characters upon tablets of in its 25 November 2020 letter on the chrysolite. occasion of the Day of the Covenant: It seems worth asking what the con- Your resilience and your unwaver- nection might be between the deeds ing commitment to the well-being committed by the peoples of the world of those around you, persistent and the promised calamity. It does not through all diffi culties, have seem implausible that whatever diffi - fi lled us with tremendous hope. culties humanity will collectively face But it is no wonder that, in some in the next few decades, our own in- other quarters, hope has become justices will be at their root. And, in its a depleted resource. There is a death throes, the old world order will mounting realization on the part doubtless throw up new injustices and of the world’s people that the de- diffi culties; who can hope to be un- cades ahead are set to bring with touched by them? them challenges among the most This may well be the time for us all to daunting that the human family learn about constructive resilience. That has ever had to face. The current learning will begin by listening to the global health crisis is but one such hard-won wisdom of those for whom challenge, the ultimate severity constructive resilience is an old friend. of whose cost, both to lives and For all of these reasons, we are livelihoods, is yet unknown; your pleased to present this issue on con- eff orts to succour and support one structive resilience. We sincerely hope another as well as your sisters and that our readers will draw inspiration brothers in society at large will both from the substance of these essays certainly need to be sustained, and on constructive resilience, and from in places expanded. their illumination of the possibilities of collaborative scholarship. ABS is ea- The reader may well wonder if ger to off er support to anyone who has they hear echoes in this message of a vision for what future collaborative Bahá’u’lláh’s warning to humanity in initiatives might look like. Meanwhile, the Hidden Words: the Association plans both to support future endeavors centered on learn- O ye peoples of the world! ing about the process of collaborative Know, verily, that an unforeseen scholarship, and to pursue what we calamity is following you, and can and must learn from the practice of that grievous retribution awaiteth constructive resilience by peoples all you. Think not the deeds ye have across the globe. 8 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Holding the Greatest Name M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 9
to transcend the opposition against The Constructive you with that same constructive Imaginary resilience that characterized their response to the duplicity of their detractors. Peering beyond the MICHAEL KARLBERG distress of the diffi culties assailing them, those heroic souls attempted This special issue of the Journal marks to translate the Teachings of the a moment in a journey by a group of new Faith into actions of spiritual collaborators exploring the implica- and social development. This, too, tions of an emerging concept with is your work. Their objective was profound relevance to twenty-fi rst to build, to strengthen, to refi ne the century struggles for social justice. To tissues of society wherever they understand the nature and purpose of might fi nd themselves; and thus, this journey, it will help to know a little they set up schools, equally edu- about the process that led us here. Be- cating girls and boys; introduced fore considering this process, however, progressive principles; promoted it is important to note that the collec- the sciences; contributed signifi - tion of essays in this journal represents cantly to diverse fi elds such as ag- only a small number of voices off ering riculture, health, and industry—all contributions at only one moment in of which accrued to the benefi t of a wider ongoing conversation. Many the nation. You, too, seek to ren- important voices and perspectives are der service to your homeland and absent from this collection, but not to contribute to a renewal of civ- all things can be accomplished in any ilization. They responded to the given setting. This collection of essays inhumanity of their enemies with thus constitutes an invitation for all rel- patience, calm, resignation, and evant voices to contribute, over time, contentment, choosing to meet to this expanding conversation. deception with truthfulness and This conversation began when, on 9 cruelty with good will towards September 2007, the Universal House all. You, too, demonstrate such of Justice wrote a letter to Iranian noble qualities and, holding fast Bahá’í students deprived of access to to these same principles, you belie higher education in their country. In the slander purveyed against your that letter, the House of Justice wrote: Faith, evoking the admiration of the fair-minded. (italics added) Recent events call to mind heart-rending episodes in the histo- The phrase fi rst employed in this let- ry of the Faith, of cruel deceptions ter—constructive resilience—has since wrought against your forebears. It been employed by the Universal House is only appropriate that you strive of Justice in many other letters. Over 10 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
time, it has captured the imagination around which many Western liberal in- of growing numbers of people because stitutions and practices are constructed. it is pregnant with meaning. This spe- According to this logic, human nature cial issue of the Journal has emerged is essentially self-interested, so societ- from conversations among one group ies should be organized in competitive of friends who have been exploring the ways that harness all that selfi sh energy meaning of this phrase, its relationship for the greater good. We see this logic to other concepts in prevailing dis- expressed in partisan political systems, courses on social change, and its broad adversarial legal systems, capitalist relevance to the exigencies of the age. economies, grade-based education In the refl ections immediately be- systems, and even many contemporary low, the collaborative process that led forms of recreation and leisure. to this special issue is shared, to under- In my dissertation, I analyzed the score the value of this kind of collabo- social and ecological consequences rative inquiry. Some of the more salient of this “culture of contest.” My con- insights that emerged from this process clusion, in short, was that when most are also shared. In the latter regard, it social institutions and practices are should be noted that constructive resil- organized as contests of physical, po- ience is neither an entirely new way of litical, or economic power, they privi- thinking about social change, nor is it lege the short-term material interests of a mere reiteration of previous concep- those who enter the contests with the tions of social change. Rather, aspects most inherited power. This occurs at of constructive resilience have been the expense of less powerful segments explored by a range of previous think- of society, and at the expense of future ers, and have been embodied in a range generations. The result is widespread of previous movements. What our col- social injustice and ecological ruin. lective inquiry has attempted to do is My dissertation also examined the to bring into focus some of these prior way these unjust and ruinous outcomes conceptions and illustrations, and as- cause many people to arise in protest. semble them into a more coherent pic- This is very understandable, and I share ture that expands our social imaginary. the underlying commitments to social justice and environmental stewardship that tend to animate such responses. The initial point of departure for my Yet oppositional protests can inadver- own study of constructive resilience tently replicate and reinforce the un- traces back to my doctoral defense just derlying logic of the culture of contest. over twenty years ago. My disserta- For instance, oppositional responses to tion1 examined the competitive logic
From Adversarialism to Mutualism in an 1 This dissertation was later pub- Age of Interdependence (George Ronald, lished as Beyond the Culture of Contest: 2004). The Constructive Imaginary 11 social injustice can reinforce assump- competitive electoral processes that tions about the inherently competitive emerged in Western liberal societies or confl ictual nature of human beings, are inherently vulnerable to the cor- along with assumptions about the inev- rupting infl uence of money, because itability of interest group competition electoral competitions are expensive in the social sphere—which consti- to wage. This is a primary reason just tute suppositional foundations of the and responsible governance has proven culture of contest. Hence the paradox so elusive in Western liberal forms of of protest in a culture of contest.2 The democracy. One response to these en- culture of contest gives rise to myr- demic injustices is through protest. An- iad injustices, which in turn give rise other response is to begin constructing to oppositional dissent, which in turn new democratic electoral forms that reinforces the underlying logic of the are free from competition and parti- culture of contest that gives rise to the sanship.4 To the extent that new social injustices in the fi rst place. forms such as this can attract people The way to transcend this paradox, away from prevailing ones, growing I argued, is through a non-adversar- numbers of people can withdraw their ial approach focused on the active participation from unjust social forms, construction of radically new institu- which would eventually collapse of tions and practices organized around attrition. The culture of contest might a more just logic.3 For instance, the thus be transcended, over time, through the construction of emancipatory social 2 See Michael Karlberg, “The Para- forms that supplant oppressive ones. dox of Protest in a Culture of Contest.” In my dissertation, I off ered examples 3 A broadly similar argument was that illustrate this dynamic. advanced in the early twentieth century After I made this point, one of my by Gandhi, in his booklet titled Construc- examiners countered, “That may work tive Programme: Its Meaning and Place under some favorable conditions, but (1941). This argument was echoed by surely it’s impossible under conditions Carl Boggs’ articulation of the concept of violent repression.” As we were prefi gurative politics in his essay “Revo- speaking, on the other side of the plan- lutionary Process, Political Strategy, and the Dilemma of Power”; and this concept et, the Bahá’ís of Iran were patiently of prefi guration was later taken up to some advancing constructive processes of degree within various feminist and New Left movements. Such ideas have more the sixth chapter of my most recent book, recently been engaged by contemporary Constructing Social Reality (see pages social change theorists such as Majken Jul 180–188). Sørensen (see “Constructive Resistance: 4 For an illustration of a proven Conceptualizing and Mapping the Ter- electoral system that is entirely free from rain,”) and Karuna Mantena (see “Gandhi partisanship and competition, refer to Mi- and the Means-Ends Question in Politics”). chael Karlberg, “Western Liberal Democ- I engage this literature more directly in racy as New World Order?” 12 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
social transformation under conditions individual about the ongoing challenge of violent repression. But this story had of racism in the United States. In that never been told through the lens I ar- letter, the House of Justice expressed ticulated in my dissertation. After my its hope defense, I realized the need to do that. As I began to write about this, I re- that those friends in the United ceived a copy of the 9 September 2007 States who resolve to renew their letter from the Universal House of commitment to uprooting racism Justice alluded to above. When I read and laying the basis for a society the phrase constructive resilience, it that refl ects interracial harmony crystalized in my mind precisely what can draw insight and inspiration I was trying to articulate. This phrase from the unwavering resolve of distills what it means to exercise trans- the Bahá’ís in Iran. The messag- formative constructive agency under es written to the friends there in conditions of violent repression. So the recent years, most of which have phrase provided the organizing logic, been translated into English and and the title, for the article I was writ- are publicly available, are instruc- ing, which was subsequently published tive in this regard. For almost by the journal Peace & Change. two centuries, and particularly the last four decades of relentless oppression, the Bahá’ís in Iran Over the decade that followed, the have remained forward-looking, Universal House of Justice used the dynamic, vibrant, and committed phrase “constructive resilience” in oth- to serving Iranian society. They er letters, and the concept was becom- have refused to allow apprehen- ing the object of increasing attention. sion and anxiety to take hold or let In 2017, I invited three friends whose any calamity perturb their hearts. scholarship is relevant to this concept They have drawn on the highest to help organize a conference panel on reservoirs of solidarity and collab- the topic. Insights generated from that oration and responded to oppres- experience then informed several pre- sion with constructive resilience, sentations at other conferences. Soon eschewing despair, surrender, after, we planned an intensive weekend resentment, and hate and tran- seminar on this concept, in Washing- scending mere survival, to trans- ton, D.C., with a dozen people from as form conditions of ignorance and many disciplines. Insights generated prejudice and win the respect and from the D.C. seminar informed further collaboration of their fair-minded conference presentations and further countrymen. Those believers in conversations among the four of us. the United States who have la- On 4 February 2018, the Universal bored so persistently to promote House of Justice wrote a letter to an race unity, especially the African The Constructive Imaginary 13
American friends, should appre- nine-person panel for a plenary audi- ciate in their own eff orts over the ence at the 2019 annual conference of years the same expression of con- the Association for Bahá’í Studies in structive resilience, born of their Ottawa. It is those nine panelists who great love for Bahá’u’lláh, and see are the contributors to this special issue in the recent turmoil opportunity of the Journal. rather than obstacle. The process alluded to above was a journey of mutual learning character- In the months following the arrival ized by ongoing consultative inquiry, of this letter, the four friends alluded to the testing of ideas in diverse spaces above organized another seminar, held with diverse groups, refl ection on ex- at the Highlander Research and Educa- perience, and refi nement of language, tion Center in Appalachian Tennessee. concepts, and approaches. Of course, Of the thirty participants who attended this conversation has not yet widened this seminar, the majority were African enough to embrace all relevant voices American, and the preceding passage and perspectives. For instance, Indige- was one of the focal points of our dis- nous voices will further illuminate the cussions. How can the constructive concept of constructive resilience in resilience of African Americans be powerful ways. Nonetheless, this ini- articulated in ways that illuminate this tial conversation has already carried its powerful concept and illustrate its uni- participants to a place at which no in- versal relevance? And where can we dividual, journeying alone, could have see other expressions of constructive arrived. resilience that further illuminate our The essays collected here provide an understanding? opportunity to share a range of insights Immediately following the High- and refl ections that have arisen, so far, lander seminar, a workshop was off ered on this path. By sharing these, we hope in Atlanta at the annual conference to inspire others to contribute further of the Association for Bahá’í Stud- on this path of learning. ies, and approximately one hundred In sharing our initial insights, we’ve people attended. Some months later, adopted a less formal, less academic another weekend gathering was held style than is typical of academic jour- in Washington, D.C., with nine partic- nals. We’ve come to appreciate that it’s ipants who had attended the previous rarely possible to “persuade” people D.C. or Highlander seminars and had of the value of constructive resilience expressed an interest in further engage- through formal academic arguments. ment. That latter gathering in D.C. led Though constructive resilience is an to other academic presentations, along eminently rational concept, recognizing with the development of two univer- this requires a degree of intuition and in- sity courses. Those same nine partici- spiration. Constructive resilience speaks pants were also invited to serve on a as much to the heart as the intellect. 14 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
In keeping with this approach, I’m rights movement, or the Arab Spring. also dispensing, in this introductory es- Though the means of struggle dif- say, with the convention of summariz- fer between the fi rst and second set ing each subsequent essay. The essays of stories, the storylines are similar in speak for themselves. Instead, I was important ways. In both sets of stories, asked by my peers to share some of a population that considers itself op- my personal insights into constructive pressed in some way engages its adver- resilience, which have emerged along sary directly in a confrontation leading this path of learning. to victory or defeat. Such stories have shaped our social imaginary when it comes to how people can struggle for For me, the concept of constructive change. This does not mean the sub- resilience expands what social theo- stance of these stories is imaginary. rists call our “social imaginary”—our They refl ect the experiences of count- ability to imagine and enact new possi- less revolutionaries and activists, many bilities in the pursuit of social change. of whom deserve our respect and admi- Imagination is a way of knowing. Our ration. But these dominant narratives imaginations are informed, in part, by displace other stories we could tell the stories we hear, including stories about other ways people have strug- about who we are and how we got here. gled for social change, thereby limiting At my doctoral defense, my exam- our conception of what such struggles iner had never heard the story I later have looked like in the past and what learned to tell about the Bahá’ís in Iran. they might look like in the future. Nor, it seems, had she heard any other stories of radical constructive agency coupled with resilience under condi- To understand the implications, it helps tions of violent repression. So, those to contrast constructive forms of agen- possibilities lay outside the boundaries cy with contentious forms of agen- of her social imaginary. cy—a distinction that other theorists of Stories of social change have sel- social change have also made.5 In the dom been told in ways that bring simplest terms, constructive agency is constructive resilience into focus. focused on building a more just social Consider the many stories that tend to order. Contentious agency is focused circulate about violent insurrections. on disrupting or dismantling an unjust Think, for instance, of the American social order. Both forms of agency can and French revolutions, the Haitian be motivated by commitments to so- revolution, or the Bolshevik and Mao- cial justice and by the corresponding ist revolutions. We also hear many sto- ries of nonviolent resistance. Think, for instance, of the struggle for inde- 5 See, for instance, Sean Chabot pendence in India, or the U.S. civil and Stellan Vintagen, “Decolonizing Civil Resistance.” The Constructive Imaginary 15 pursuit of social change. But the means have entailed heroic struggle under the by which these ends are pursued diff er. most oppressive conditions, and these The distinction between constructive protagonists have contributed as much agency and contentious agency need not to the empowerment of African Amer- be laden with value judgments. “Con- icans as have contentious campaigns structive” is not a synonym for “good” of nonviolent resistance. Indeed, these in this context and “contentious” is not a constructive struggles endowed the Af- synonym for “bad.” Both forms of agen- rican American community with many cy may be needed in the broader scheme of the material, social, and organiza- of things. Yet, this distinction enables us tional resources that made campaigns to notice forms of struggle that other- of nonviolent resistance possible.6 wise go unnoticed; to see protagonists Likewise, the stories about Indige- who otherwise go unseen; to tell stories nous struggles for justice that tend to that otherwise go untold; to imagine fu- circulate most widely on this continent tures that otherwise go unpursued. tend to be stories such as the armed For instance, the story I learned in standoff of American Indian Movement school about the struggle for racial jus- activists at Wounded Knee, South Da- tice in the United States is the story of kota, in 1973; or the armed standoff of nonviolent protests and civil disobedi- Mohawk activists in Oka, Quebec, in ence that culminated in the 1960s. It’s 1990; or nonviolent protests against oil a remarkable story that needs to be told, pipeline construction through Indige- with countless heroes who deserve our nous lands in North Dakota and British admiration. More recently, the Move- Columbia in recent years. In contrast, ment for Black Lives is being told as stories rarely circulate about the many the next chapter in this story of non- ways Indigenous Nations across the violent resistance, with a new genera- continent are, at various paces, con- tion of heroes who clearly deserve our structing new systems of governance, admiration. law, education, health care, and natu- While these stories need to be told, ral resource management.7 In many so too do the stories of countless Afri- can Americans who have struggled in 6 For two excellent examples of re- other ways, for many generations, to cent scholarship on African American con- construct elements of a more just social structive agency, see Jessica Gordon Nem- order. Those elements include schools bhard, Collective Courage: A History of and colleges, churches and hospitals, African American Cooperative Economic businesses and banks, economic co- Thought and Practice; and Monica White, operatives and associations of mutual Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resis- aid, along with entirely new patterns of tance and the Black Freedom Movement. community life, new cultural forms, and 7 Refer, for example, to Jody new artistic expressions—all of which Wilson-Raybould, From Where I Stand: value Black lives. These endeavors Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada; Paul Boyer, Capturing 16 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
cases, these constructive and resilient an essential characteristic of sustained expressions of collective agency are movements for social change.8 based on spiritual principles and tra- The constructive struggle of African ditional practices that were assault- Americans has repeatedly encountered ed under colonialism, survived, and such repression, as in the 1921 destruc- are now being adapted to new social tion of the prosperous Greenwood dis- conditions. trict in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the mas- In sum, stories of constructive re- sacre of its residents; or the destruction, silience—among Indigenous peoples, two years later, of the prosperous town within the African diaspora, and among of Rosewood, Florida, and the massa- many other marginalized populations – cre of its residents. More broadly, the have been widely ignored until quite resurgence of organized racism fol- recently. Stories of this nature now lowing the brief period of postbellum need to be widely told, to enrich our Reconstruction—a resurgence that in- understand of the past and present, and cluded the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, to expand the horizon of possibility in the systematic disenfranchisement of the future. Black voters, the passing of Jim Crow segregation laws, and the spread of lynching as a form of intimidation and One insight we gain from such stories social control—is an expression of this is that radical constructive agency in same dynamic. the face of oppression, just like conten- When we examine, in this context, tious agency in the face of oppression, the constructive agency of the African is frequently met by acute acts of vio- American community, we can appreci- lent repression. This should not be sur- ate the profound resilience that com- prising. When people work to construct munity has shown over many genera- elements of a more just social order, tions. And as we do this, we can begin those who benefi t from the old order to seek out, recognize, or listen to other will notice. Among those who benefi t expressions of constructive resilience from the status quo, remarkably, some throughout history. Think, for instance, will experience a moral awakening and of the earliest Christian communities. support the cause of justice. Others will As those communities focused on the attempt to defend the status quo by re- construction of radically new, and pressing the struggle for change—even more just, patterns of community life, when that struggle is pursued through they experienced brutal repression that entirely constructive means. In the was sustained for generations. In the face of such repression, resilience is face of such repression, their radical
Education: Envisioning and Building the 8 For a discussion of resilience First Tribal Colleges; and Clint Carroll, in nonviolent movements, see Kurt Roots of Our Renewal: Ethnobotany and Schock, “The Practice and Study of Civil Cherokee Environmental Governance. Resistance.” The Constructive Imaginary 17
constructive agency required powerful form of governance by which it orga- forms of resilience. nizes its aff airs through elected assem- blies at local, national, and internation- al levels. Bahá’í elections, in which The story of the Bahá’ís in Iran, allud- voters have true freedom of choice, ed to above, is another story of radi- are entirely free of competition and cal constructive agency and resilience its trappings of partisanship, money, that expands our social imaginary. It ego, and self-interest. In Iran, women also invites us to consider where this and men have served side by side on constructive resilience comes from and elected assemblies despite cultural pro- what sustains it. hibitions against such a practice, even In this regard, Bahá’ís believe that as Blacks and Whites did in the U.S. recognition of the oneness of human- South under Jim Crow segregation or ity is the primary spiritual and social in South Africa under apartheid, and challenge of this age and that justice as members of all castes do in cultures must become the central organizing that perpetuate the caste system. This principle of a new social order derived administrative order has frequently from this recognition. Toward this end, been attacked, and it has been tempo- Bahá’ís are committed to a twofold rarily dismantled by some repressive process of social change that includes governments, including the current Ira- the transformation of hearts and minds nian regime. Nonetheless, globally, the as well as the transformation of social project of constructing a more just and norms and structures. They seek coher- viable model of governance contin- ence between the means and ends of ues undeterred. And when conditions social change. They adopt a long-term change in Iran, which they eventually perspective on change which calls for will, Bahá’ís will resume this aspect of perseverance in a multi-generational their constructive work in that country. struggle. They have faith in humanity’s In the meantime, in Iran, Bahá’ís con- long-term capacity for justice. They tinue to channel their energies into oth- employ a conception of power rooted er aspects of their constructive work. in capacity building and focused on the Or consider the experience that application of spiritual principles to prompted the 2007 letter from the Uni- systematic processes of social transfor- versal House of Justice quoted near mation. They recognize that eff orts to the beginning of this essay. In recent pursue meaningful social change will decades, Bahá’ís have been denied often be met by hostility and repres- access to higher education in Iran as sion, and they accept that the pursuit part of the current regime’s policy to of change thus requires sacrifi ce and block the progress of the communi- resilience. ty. In response, Bahá’ís constructed a For instance, the Bahá’í communi- decentralized university, the Bahá’í ty has been constructing a radical new Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), 18 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
in Bahá’í homes and offi ces across will of the oppressed to advance the the country. BIHE now off ers over struggle. This is a well-understood one thousand distinct courses within principle in the theory and practice fi ve associate degree programs, eigh- of nonviolent social change, purpose- teen baccalaureate degree programs, fully applied in campaigns of civil and fi fteen graduate degree programs disobedience.9 ranging across the arts and sciences. Radical constructive struggles, on Faculty, staff , and students are occa- the other hand, don’t seek to publicly sionally arrested and imprisoned, and provoke moral dilemmas of this kind. university materials are confi scated in Yet similar outcomes can still result. raids. But the Iranian regime has been When constructive struggles are met unable to destroy BIHE because of its with repression, this too can attract the decentralized and resilient nature. The moral sympathies and support of previ- regime is also unable to marshal any ously complacent bystanders and third moral or legal argument in support of parties while galvanizing the will of its eff orts to destroy the university be- those engaged in the struggle. cause of BIHE’s purely peaceful and This principle is illustrated clearly constructive nature. This is yet another by the Bahá’í community in Iran, which expression of constructive resilience. has encountered a genocidal campaign of repression from its inception, yet has continued to grow and advance These stories are recounted not to val- in a resilient manner, giving rise to a orize the struggles of any given people global movement attracting the support relative to the struggles of others, but of an ever-expanding cross-section of to bring to light new insights in ways humanity now engaged in radical con- that expand our social imaginary. An- structive work in every country. other of these insights emerges as we Every wave of repression Bahá’ís return to a comparison of constructive have encountered in Iran has tended and contentious agency. to increase awareness of, sympathy Contentious nonviolent tactics, for, and interest in the Bahá’í Cause— such as civil disobedience in the face both within Iran and around the world. of unjust laws, are intended, in part, to For instance, in recent decades, as the set up a moral dilemma within a pop- Iranian authorities have implemented ulation. In the face of the dilemma, increasingly desperate measures to re- those who benefi t from unjust laws press Bahá’ís, the wider population of must choose to either support or re- Iran has become increasingly willing press the movement for justice. When to defend Bahá’ís and increasingly at- repression occurs, it often attracts the tracted to the Faith. Indeed, far more moral sympathies and support of pre- viously complacent bystanders and third parties, while galvanizing the 9 See, for instance, Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action. The Constructive Imaginary 19
Iranians are now identifying as Bahá’ís well understood that movements are than at any time in the history of that most eff ective when such knowledge is country, even though becoming a imparted to their participants through Bahá’í is now considered by the regime systematic forms of training, which to be a crime of apostacy punishable by mobilize people to take creative ini- death.10 As a result of these dynamics, tiatives within a shared framework of many Bahá’ís in Iran have been gal- activism. Again, a growing body of ac- vanized to new heights of consecrated ademic and activist literature has been action. examining this theme.12 All these processes could be seen, for instance, when leaders of the U.S. Another insight that emerges as we Civil Rights Movement began adapt- compare constructive and contentious ing insights from Gandhi’s nonviolent approaches to transformative change movement in India to their own strug- is the essential role that learning and gles, even as protagonists of the U.S. training play in both. Among nonvio- struggle continued generating new lent resistance scholars and activists, insights while developing correspond- it is now well understood that contem- ing systems for training movement porary movements can learn from past participants. Today, such processes are movements, even as they generate new playing out globally through myriad knowledge and insight within their movements of nonviolent resistance, own social contexts, which can in turn linked to a growing body of literature contribute back to the collective store on nonviolent praxis, promulgated of knowledge that future movements through centers of nonviolent training are able to draw on. Indeed, there is that are multiplying in formal and in- an entire academic fi eld now focused formal spaces and online settings. on “social movement learning,” along The radical constructive agency of with activist journals and websites de- the worldwide Bahá’í community is voted to this theme.11 In addition, it is advancing through a parallel dynamic that intersects with these other process- es. Drawing on a century and a half 10 For evidence of these claims, refer again to Karlberg, “Constructive Resilience.” of its own experience, as well as on 11 Refer, for instance, to Maria Is- abel Casas-Cortés, Michal Osterweil, and 12 Refer, for example, to Larry Isaac, Dana Powell, “Blurring Boundaries: Rec- Daniel Cornfi eld, Dennis Dickerson, James ognizing Knowledge-Practices in the Study Lawson, and Jonathan Coley, “‘Movement of Social Movements”; and Laurence Cox, Schools’ and Dialogical Diff usion of Non- “Movements Making Knowledge: A New violent Praxis: Nashville Workshops in the Wave of Inspiration for Sociology?” See Southern Civil Rights Movement”; and also the activist journals Refl ections on a Mark Engler and Paul Engler, This Is an Revolution, and Interface: A Journal for Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shap- and about Social Movements. ing the Twenty-First Century. 20 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
accumulated bodies of knowledge and articulated independently, shortly after experience beyond the Bahá’í commu- that gathering, by Michelle Alexander, nity, Bahá’ís have developed a network a prominent voice in the U.S. struggle of training institutes in every region for racial justice. In a New York Times of the world that prepare and mobi- opinion piece titled “We Are Not the lize people to take creative initiatives Resistance,” she acknowledges the role within a shared framework of activ- of resistance in struggles for social jus- ism. This decentralized system makes tice, but she cautions, “Resistance is a available an accumulating global body reactive state of mind. While it can be of experiential knowledge, even as its necessary for survival and to prevent local participants continually contrib- catastrophic harm, it can also tempt us ute new insights to that growing body to set our sights too low.” Elaborating of knowledge. In addition, Bahá’ís are on this theme, she explains: increasingly drawing on this body of knowledge as they participate in, and Those of us who are committed to contribute insights to, wider discourses the radical evolution of American on social change. democracy are not merely resist- ing an unwanted reality. To the contrary, the struggle for human Yet another insight worth noting is the freedom and dignity extends back way stories of constructive resilience centuries and is likely to continue imbue the concept of “resistance” with for generations to come. In the new meaning. Within the narrative of words of Vincent Harding, one of contentious agency, resistance is what the great yet lesser-known heroes movement activists engage in, in re- of the Black freedom struggle, sponse to oppressive social forces. But the long, continuous yearning and within the narrative of constructive reaching toward freedom fl ows agency, resistance is what the con- throughout history “like a river, structive movement encounters from sometimes powerful, tumultuous, those defending the status quo. In other and roiling with life; at other times words, within the latter stories, creative meandering and turgid, covered movements for a more just social order with the ice and snow of seem- are the streams and rivers of historical ingly endless winters, all too often progress. Those who try to obstruct streaked and running with blood.” such currents of progress constitute the Harding was speaking about resistance—like obstinate stones in the Black movements for liberation in path of a river. America, but the metaphor applies This insight emerged through equally well to the global struggle conversations on constructive resil- for human dignity and freedom. ience at the Highlander Center, al- (Alexander) luded to above. The same insight was The Constructive Imaginary 21
“Every leap forward for American her husband, like so many White men democracy,” she continues, “has been of his generation, was a closet member traceable to the revolutionary river, of the Ku Klux Klan. not the resistance.” “Another world is But Bina Mae was a woman of faith possible,” she concludes, “but we can’t whose reading of the Bible centered on achieve it through resistance alone.” living a virtuous life and enacting the social-justice gospel. She sent her hus- band packing. She opened her home These social dynamics alluded to by to Black residents of her town. When Michelle Alexander, above, derive she traveled south of the Mason-Dix- from basic expressions of the human on line, she rode in the back of the bus spirit. The aspiration to contribute to express solidarity with Black folk. constructively to the betterment of the These were not popular things for a world is one of those. So, too, is the White woman to do at that time. She quality of resilience in the face of ad- likely paid a price. Given her hard- versity. And we can see both manifest scrabble background and the many in myriad ways, in countless individ- challenges she faced throughout her uals past and present. In this sense, life, she was clearly a resilient woman. while constructive resilience can be a Bina Mae helped raise my moth- characteristic of entire movements, it er and imparted these values to her. is also a quality of the individuals who When my mother came of age during advance those movements. Thus, the the turbulent 1960s, she aligned her- story of constructive resilience is also self with the Civil Rights and Antiwar the story of individuals. Movements. While pregnant with me I grew up hearing a story about my in the late sixties, she began attend- great-grandmother, Bina Mae Collins, ing meetings to learn about the Bahá’í who was born and raised in Springfi eld, Faith, which she embraced and told her Illinois, in the 1890s. Her father was a grandmother about. Upon hearing this, coal miner with eleven children, so she Bina Mae remembered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s did not come from a family of means. visit to Chicago half a century before, She had little formal education. Given in 1912. Bina Mae must have read an that Illinois had only abolished slavery article at the time, in an Illinois news- in 1848, she saw the ongoing violent paper, about His visit. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s racism of her times, including a lynch- teachings about the oneness of human- ing she witnessed as a child and the ity resonated with her to the extent she 1908 massacre of Springfi eld’s Black would remember His visit so many de- residents. She married a man who cades later. turned out to be a compulsive gambler Bina Mae also helped care for me and, as a result, she struggled to raise when I was young. She passed away her own daughters in conditions of when I was six, and she fi gures in some ongoing poverty. She also learned that of my earliest memories. The stories 22 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
my mother told about her shaped my Boggs, Carl. “Revolutionary Process, social imaginary. Along with her re- Political Strategy, and the Di- silience, Bina Mae tried to contribute lemma of Power.” Theory and constructively, in the ways she could, Society, vol. 4, 1977, pp. 359– to bending the moral arc of the uni- 393. verse toward justice. Her story helped Boyer, Paul. Capturing Education: shape my early imagination about who Envisioning and Building the I was and what I could do. The stories First Tribal Colleges. Salish of nonviolent social movements I later Kootenai College P, 2015. heard, including my mother’s support Carroll, Clint. Roots of Our Renewal: for those causes, further expanded my Ethnobotany and Cherokee imagination, enabling me to envision Environmental Governance. what was possible through organized U of Minnesota P, 2015. collective struggle. The stories of rad- Casas-Cortés, Maria Isabel, Michal Os- ical constructive agency I have since terweil, and Dana Powell. “Blur- sought out have further expanded my ring Boundaries: Recognizing imagination, enabling me to envision Knowledge-Practices in the other means of organized collective Study of Social Movements.” struggle. Anthropological Quarterly, vol. If we hope, one day, to transcend 8, no. 1, 2008, pp. 17–58. the culture of contest that has been im- Chabot, Sean and Stellan Vintagen, posed by Western modernity—a cul- “Decolonizing Civil Resis- ture that has infl icted untold suff ering tance.” Mobilization: An In- on humanity and is now liquidating the ternational Quarterly, vol. 2, environmental security of future gener- no. 4, 2015, pp. 517–532. ations—it seems to me that we need to Cox, Laurence. “Movements Making fi nd, tell, and become protagonists in Knowledge: A New Wave of many more stories of radical construc- Inspiration for Sociology?” tive agency and resilience. To build a Sociology, vol. 48, no. 5, 2014, new world, we need to expand our con- pp. 954–971. structive imaginary. Engler, Mark and Paul Engler. This Is an Uprising: How Nonvi- olent Revolt Is Shaping the W C Twenty-First Century. Nation Books, 2016. Alexander, Michelle. “We Are Not the Gordon Nembhard, Jessica. Collective Resistance.” The New York Courage: A History of Afri- Times, 21 Sept. 2018. nytimes. can American Cooperative com/2018/09/21/opinion/ Economic Thought and Prac- sunday/resistance-kavana- tice. Pennsylvania State UP, ugh-trump-protest.html. 2014. The Constructive Imaginary 23
Isaac, Larry et al. “‘Movement Schools’ and Dialogical Diff usion of Nonviolent Praxis: Nashville Workshops in the Southern Civil Rights Movement.” Nonviolent Confl ict and Resistance: Research in Social Movements, Con- fl icts and Change, vol. 34, 2012, pp. 155–184. Karlberg, Michael. Beyond the Culture of Contest: From Adversarialism to Mutu- alism in an Age of Interdependence. George Ronald, 2004. ———. Constructing Social Reality: An Inquiry into the Normative Foundations of Social Reality. Association for Bahá’í Studies-North America, 2020. ———. “Constructive Resilience: The Bahá’í Response to Oppression.” Peace & Change, vol. 35, no. 2, 2010, pp. 222–257. ———. “The Paradox of Protest in a Culture of Contest.” Peace & Change, vol. 28, no. 3, 2003, pp. 319–347. ——— . “Western Liberal Democracy as New World Order?” The Bahá’í World: 2005–2006, edited by Robert Weinberg, Bahá’í World Center Publica- tions, 2007, pp. 133–156. Mantena, Karuna. “Gandhi and the Means-Ends Question in Politics,” Occasional Papers of the School of Social Science, no. 46. https://www.ias.edu/sites/ default/fi les/sss/papers/paper46.pdf Schock, Kurt. “The Practice and Study of Civil Resistance.” Journal of Peace Research, vol. 50, no. 3, 2013, pp. 277–290. Sharp, Gene. The Politics of Nonviolent Action. Porter Sargent, 1973. Sørensen, Majken Jul. “Constructive Resistance: Conceptualizing and Mapping the Terrain,” Journal of Resistance Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 49–78. The Universal House of Justice. To the Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran, letter dated 9 Sept. 2007. https://www.bahai. org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messag- es/20070909_001/1#018930558 ———. To an individual, letter dated 4 Feb. 2018. White, Monica. Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Free- dom Movement. U of North Carolina P, 2018. Wilson-Raybould, Jody. From Where I Stand: Rebuilding Indigenous Nations for a Stronger Canada. U of British Columbia P, 2019. 24 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
The Greatest Name M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 25
grandmother had prepared, and loaded Why Constructive the four of us onto a Greyhound bus Resilience? that took us to New York. In this way, were we part of the mass migration of An Autobiographical Negroes from the South. In the Bedford-Stuyvesant neigh- Essay borhood of New York, where we lived, there were no Whites. All of my MICHAEL L. PENN neighbors were either Black or Puerto Rican. We were a close neighborhood. I And although there were gangs and occasional murders on the block, we I was born in a small house that had were closer to one another than I have been built by my uncles on a rocky and ever been with any people. We were barren piece of land that my grand- bound together by racism, which kept mother acquired by saving the meager us out of other neighborhoods, and by wages that she earned cleaning White our poverty, which made us rely on one folks’ houses in North Carolina. Since another. the land was not fertile, we could not When I was in the third grade, for grow upon it anything to eat. In ad- example, two children from my school dition, because the land was not yet would show up at our door at about connected to the city, there was no run- 7:30 every morning during the week. ning water, no electricity, and no inside They would ring the bell, we would toilet. We went to the bathroom in an let them in, and they would go sit in outhouse located down the road. the living room, waiting for us to go One day, through our good fortune, to school together. My mother always a school bus crashed in a ditch on my invited them to breakfast, an off er they grandmother’s property. When the never turned down. Years later, one of city did not tow the wreckage away, these boys—by then a young man— my mother told my uncles to right the told me that the meal that he and his bus, remove the seats, and make it our brother had at my house was their only new home. We lived in that bus for a meal. He said that without us, they few years until a city offi cial came by would have had to go to school and, in and pronounced the bus “unfi t for hu- his words, “be hungry all day.” man habitation.” He said that we had At another time, a man stopped by to move, and that we had to move im- our house while we were sitting on the mediately. Since our family had grown stoop. He asked my mother if she had in number, we could not move back some food because he was hungry. At into my grandmother’s little house. that time my mother had only one can And so, my mother packed our bags, of pork and beans left for her six chil- took a few chicken sandwiches that my dren, but she felt compassion for the 26 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
man and invited him in to share that that we would attend on Sundays. The meal. When the man left, he said to my song was always led by the oldest mother, “For as long as you live, you members of the community. They were will never have to worry about feeding not good singers, but the sound of their your children again.” My mother said voices would move our tender hearts that he had been an angel, sent to us and we would begin to cry. “unawares.” What was remarkable is My grandparents told me that many that from that day forward, our family of the slaves believed that each soul has always had food. And so, we were close a destiny, that each soul is held in the in my neighborhood because we really hand of God and that each has a role needed both the Lord and one another. to play. They said that if we lived our I also suspect that we shared in the way lives with as much honor and dignity that we did because there were habits as possible, given our circumstances, that had been developed by the slaves that we would reap the harvest of this that were still in our repertoire. And al- life—that we would gather the fruit of though we did not have the words for it human existence. And so, although my at the time, we knew something about relatives were poor and uneducated, constructive resilience. they were also philosophers who un- derstood some very important things about life. They had access to some Every summer, my mother would put of the profound truths that animate us all on the bus and send us back to what I understand to be constructive the South to be with my relatives. As resilience. a curious, bothersome child, I took the chance to speak with many old Black folks who were very close to the days When I was in the eighth grade, my of slavery. I quite naturally wanted to teacher, Ms. Maria Paul, told me to ap- know how they survived those days. pear promptly at her offi ce after school. One day, I learned that the slaves used “Don’t be late,” she said, adding that I to recite what sounded to me like a should also bring my friend, Michael poem. It went: Bivens. When we arrived, she asked us if we knew what the word “detrimen- A charge to keep, I have; a God to tal” meant. We did not. She taught us glorify—who gave His love my the defi nition, and then gave us about soul to save, and fi t it for the sky. To twenty other words to learn that day. serve the present age, my calling to Our instructions were to come back the fulfi ll. O may these all my powers following day to learn another set of engage to do my Master’s will. words. Again, she emphasized that we should not be late. They would also sing this in a call-re- For a year, Ms. Paul—the only sponse style in the little Baptist Church White person with whom I had been Why Constructive Resilience? 27 closely related as a child—would teach submarine. And although our ship’s me and my friend words from a book homeport was in the north of Scotland, called Eighty Ways to Words of Wis- as we neared the end of my time in the dom. At the end of the year, she asked service, we took the submarine to a us if we would like to go to boarding port in South Carolina for renovations school in New England. We said that and repairs. One night my crewmates while we didn’t know anything about and I went dancing. This occurred in boarding school, we would go if she the late seventies or early eighties, and recommended it. I was one of only a handful of African And so, in the fall of 1973, my American submariners at the time. friend and I headed to boarding school Unmindful of the problems that in New England. In this way did Ms. might be associated with race, my Paul “make a way out of no way” and crewmates had elected to go to a dance give us both a future that we could hall that played country and western never have had otherwise. Years later, music and taught line dancing. And after I had completed my PhD and Mi- although I felt quite out of place, af- chael Bivens had become an executive ter they had been dancing for a while, for the Coca-Cola Company, we went I sheepishly joined them. Just when back to New York and found Ms. Paul I had relaxed a bit and had begun to living in Long Island with her mother. enjoy myself, a small group of White We treated her to dinner because we men surrounded me and asked what a wanted to thank her for what she had “n . . . like me” was doing in that place. done for us. When we asked her why They said that I should “get the f… she had done these things, she said out,” and their words, coming as they simply that she was “a teacher” and did after I had begun to imagine that “that is what teachers do.” Like my I had been accepted, dismantled my relatives in North Carolina, and like naïve optimism and rendered me dazed the neighbors on my block, Ms. Paul and disoriented. With my heart pound- knew something about constructive re- ing and my mind in disarray, I made it silience. She joined in the practice of it to the street and returned to the ship. by laboring, quietly behind the scenes, That experience really hurt me. I had to remedy the defi cits that she knew been living in what one early scholar in would prevent many economically im- the fi eld of racial identity development poverished children like Michael Biv- called the “pre-encounter” phase of ra- ens and me from realizing more of our cial identity consciousness.1 I had been potential. thinking that we are all the same, and that all of the diff erences between us
After high school, I joined the U.S. Navy and became a navigations pet- 1 See, William E. Cross Jr. “The Ne- ty offi cer aboard a ballistic missile gro to Black Conversion Experience: To- wards a Psychology of Black Liberation.” 28 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
are superfi cial. In this phase, the Black speaking together on the phone for American is not yet fully aware of how many hours, we were engaged. powerful, violent, and grotesque rac- After we were married, I learned that ism can be. Once its ugly face fl ashes Kathy’s family had not had much expe- before you, in much the way that mon- rience interacting with Black people. In sters might appear in dreams, the heart fact, her grandfather, Charles, told her is made angry or afraid. If it is to re- that I could not enter his house. Since cover its capacity to love in the land of my wife and her two children had been “race relations,” one will have to have having breakfast at their grandparents’ practice in constructive resilience. home every Sunday for many years, I did not want my presence in the family to disrupt their bond. This meant that When I was an undergraduate in col- each Sunday morning I would have lege, I had dreams that I was soon to to drop them at Charles’ and return to meet my wife. These dreams occurred pick them up a few hours later. Kathy, regularly for many months. In my who was very spiritual, very pure and dreams, I could never see her face be- noble minded, would say to me, with cause she was ever shrouded in light, the most tender of hearts, that I should but I knew that she was a woman of not worry, that he would change. purity and goodness. Sure enough, four years after we When I fi nally encountered Kathy were married, Charles called me on the while standing at the sink at a friend’s phone. He said that he was very sorry house, I turned to her and said, “We about the way that he had treated me, should go out sometime.” She replied, that I was a wonderful person and that “Yes, we should go out today.” Every- he hoped that I would forgive him. He one present was as surprised as I was wanted to send me a wedding present. at how our deeply intimate encounter A few days later, a table and four chairs appeared to unfold without premedi- arrived at our house. From that day on- tation. And although I did not want to ward, I would have breakfast with him have to face the trial of an interracial and the rest of the family at his home. relationship, on the very fi rst day that I Just before he died, I was living in met her, I had the sense that we would Switzerland on sabbatical. He wanted be married. to know, “Where is Michael?” My wife When I learned that she had two said, “Michael is in Switzerland.” He children who were six and seven years wanted me to know that he loved me. old, I proposed that we should all go My wife—like my relatives in North to the Science Museum; and so we did. Carolina, my neighbors in Brook- On the way home, I remembered my lyn, and my teacher Ms. Paul—knew dreams and told Kathy that I thought something about constructive resil- that we were going to marry. She re- ience. What I perceive in Kathy is the plied, “Maybe.” That same night, after intuition that the manifestation of good Why Constructive Resilience? 29 qualities in circumstances that are noted, when we seek to enter into mor- harsh and inimical to them can move ally authentic relationships with those and transform the human heart. Indeed, who either wittingly or unwittingly it was not easy for either of us to mani- oppress, degrade, and dehumanize us. fest kindness and respect as her grand- To be in proper relationship, he noted, father acted in racist ways. His change is to relate to others in such a manner of heart, coming as it did in the late as to maximize the possibility that they evening of his life, was—to each of will be able to “come forth,” that be- us—a kind of miracle. In this way did cause of their association with us, even the whole episode reveal more about our oppressors might have the chance the nature and power of constructive to become more of what they are ca- resilience. pable of becoming. And although the words for it did not exist at that time, as I think of it now, it seems that the When I was a professor living in approach to social change that Hatcher Switzerland, I met the mathematician advocated was in harmony with the no- and philosopher Professor William S. tion of constructive resilience. Hatcher, whom I called “Hatcher” and everyone else called “Bill.” Hatcher was a White American, The murder of Mr. George Floyd by a and he became my mentor and closest Minneapolis police offi cer on Memori- friend. Everyone who knew him, or al Day in 2020 made it diffi cult to think who read his work, whether in philos- of constructive resilience. The coro- ophy, religion, or mathematics, knew ner’s report said that Mr. Floyd’s death that Hatcher had a brilliant mind. He took eight or nine minutes. During was so brilliant that, sometimes, when several of those minutes he said that he I listened to him speak, the molecules could not breathe. When he could no in my body would begin to vibrate and longer speak for himself, some African I would start to sweat from the sheer Americans who were watching nearby excitement generated by his ideas. And pleaded with the offi cer on his behalf. as much as he was brilliant, Hatcher The offi cer was unmoved. He contin- was also kindhearted, thoughtful, and ued to calmly press his knee into Mr. generous. He was a philosopher who Floyd’s neck until he was dead. When lived out his profound Bahá’í beliefs. the ambulance arrived, Mr. Floyd’s In one of his seminal works, Love, lifeless body was rolled onto a gurney Power, and Justice: The Dynamics of and taken away. No one attempted Authentic Morality, Hatcher noted that CPR. the great moral challenge facing every Mr. Floyd’s death sent many of us, human person is to enter into proper both Black and White, into mourning relationship with other living beings. and deep sorrow. Others were enraged. This challenge is especially diffi cult, he In the wake of these experiences, we 30 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
wondered, again, whether the soul of and sat on the fl oor beside my bed. It was America could be saved; and if it could very powerful to have such a monumen- be saved, we wondered, again, about tal fi gure sitting on the fl oor in that way. how this might be accomplished. He asked me, three times in succession, Hatcher would always say, both whether I was “willing to sacrifi ce.” in his talks and in his written works, Each time, I replied that I was, indeed, that if the nation is to be saved it will willing to sacrifi ce. Then he declared require the coming into being of a “you cannot achieve anything great in “new race” of men and women who this life unless you are willing to sacri- can work closely together, over long fi ce.” When he had completed his brief periods of time, in order to nurture the discourse, he rose, went to the door, practice of love and justice. Because and said that he loved me. I responded, Hatcher had been born a Southern “I love you too.” On my way to China White man, and yet embodied so much some time later, my phone quivered and genuine love and respect for people of I read the message that Professor Hatch- color, it seemed to me that what he had er had died. I realize now that the sacri- been suggesting was in the realm of fi ces of which he spoke were those that possibility. are necessary in order to serve the needs A few weeks before he died, Hatcher of the world. He wanted me to exercise said that I should visit him in Canada. constructive resilience. I replied that I could not go to Canada because my passport was at the em- bassy awaiting a visa that would allow While I am not sure that I fully under- me to travel to China. He insisted that stand the nature of it, I have, in my I should go to the airport, buy a tick- life, seen many beautiful examples of et, and fl y to Canada—and so I did. At constructive resilience. The Universal the airport I was advised that without a House of Justice writes of its features passport, border security was likely to in its letter to the Bahá’í students of send me back to the States. I said that I Iran who were forced to suff er “disap- would take my chances. pointing and shameful” “offi cial acts” When I arrived at the passport check that deprived them of access to higher in Toronto, I told them that I did not education. In addressing these young have my passport but that I had been friends in a letter dated 9 September “summoned” to Canada by my mentor, 2007, the House of Justice counseled Professor William S. Hatcher. The offi - them to strive to “transcend” the oppo- cer asked me for Hatcher’s phone num- sition that they face with “constructive ber and called him. Hatcher confi rmed resilience.” They were further encour- that he had, indeed, summoned me to aged to peer “beyond the distress” Canada; and so they welcomed me in. of their diffi culties, and endeavor to After three days, on the eve of my “translate the Teachings of the new departure, Hatcher came into my room Faith into actions of spiritual and social Why Constructive Resilience? 31 development.” Reading such things, I the most absurd thing is to suff er for sometimes think that constructive re- nothing—to suff er and have no chance silience may be a way of being and of deriving any benefi t. Those who acting in the world that pursues social practice constructive resilience, like change by seeking to harvest, through Jacob and the Bahá’í students of Iran, the force of wise, persistent, and spiri- are seeking to take from their suff ering tually informed action, whatever pros- some kind of blessing, some manner of pects for development may be hidden benefi t. And while this cannot always in our exposure to oppression. be realized, constructive resilience ap- In contemplating its nature, one is pears to be grounded in the conviction reminded of the way that Jacob wres- that many forms of suff ering contain a tled with God: hidden gift, an unrealized potential, “a blessing in disguise.” That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and In graduate school, my training was in crossed the stream, he sent over clinical and experimental psychopa- all his possessions. So Jacob was thology. This is a fi eld that has taught left alone, and a man wrestled us much about suff ering. Experimental with him until daybreak. When the psychopathologists try to create in the man saw that he could not over- laboratory, often using animals, con- power him, he touched the socket ditions that mimic the development of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was of psychological disease or disability wrenched as he wrestled with the in human beings. It is a fi eld that is man. Then the man said, “Let me most interested in understanding the go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob conditions that lead to reactive disor- replied, “I will not let you go un- ders—like anxiety, hopelessness, or less you bless me.” The man asked depression—which tend to develop as him, “What is your name?” “Ja- a consequence of exposure to certain cob” he answered. Then the man kinds of stress. said, “Your name will no longer A wide range of studies has shown be Jacob, but Israel, because you that the experiences that generate the have struggled with God and with most terrible outcomes are stressful humans and have overcome.” experiences about which subjects are (Genesis 32:22–28) powerless to do anything. These expe- riences tend to produce both negative Jacob demonstrates constructive mental health outcomes and problems resilience when he refuses to end this with behavioral health that are typical- encounter without reaping a harvest. ly manifested in high levels of aggres- He insists on gathering some fruit. In- sion and violence directed against the deed, as the myth of Sisyphus suggests, self and others. 32 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
What is most interesting about this expectation that responding is futile. experimental work is that it has re- The cognitive defi cit is manifested by a vealed that it is not always the painful diffi culty in learning that responses do experience itself that generates these have an infl uence on outcomes when, bad outcomes, but rather the percep- in actuality, they do. And the depressed tion that the suff ering is essentially emotion characteristic of learned help- meaningless and that the organism is lessness derives from the feelings as- powerless to do anything that would sociated with an awareness of one’s be eff ective to escape, avoid, or benefi t powerlessness. Most importantly, the from it in any way. learned helplessness hypothesis holds The typical learned helplessness ex- that mere exposure to uncontrollable periment employs the “triadic design” events is not suffi cient to produce the in which one group of subjects receives helplessness defi cits. Rather, subjects controllable painful experiences, a sec- must come to expect that future out- ond group, yoked to the fi rst, receives comes are also uncontrollable in order uncontrollable painful experiences of to exhibit helplessness. equal intensity and duration as the fi rst Furthermore, subsequent research group, and a third group is exposed to revealed that the perception of power- neither controllable nor uncontrollable lessness generated in one study tends events. In Hiroto’s classic human help- to be carried into other situations that lessness study, for instance, college stu- have nothing at all to do with the previ- dents were exposed to either loud con- ous conditions. Thus, subjects exposed trollable noises or loud uncontrollable to uncontrollable aversive events de- noises. A third group was not exposed velop a mindset that prevents them from to any noises. Subjects were then tested perceiving control even when they are on a simple task in which noise termi- in stressful situations where control of nation was controllable by all subjects. outcomes is possible. In this way does Hiroto’s fi ndings are typical in that exposure to uncontrollability lead to groups receiving controllable noises a way of thinking, feeling, and acting and no noises quickly learned to ter- under stress that, ironically, fuels stress minate the undesirable noises, whereas and maintains a sense of impotence. subjects previously exposed to uncon- Thus, it would be no exaggeration to trollable noises failed to terminate aver- affi rm that through this research, ex- sive noises during the procedure. perimental psychopathologists have According to the learned helpless- developed a simple, laboratory-based ness hypothesis, learning that events model of injustice that reveals its es- are uncontrollable results in moti- sential nature, articulates one of its vational, cognitive, and emotional proximal causes, and describes several defi cits. The motivational defi cit is of its psychological and social eff ects. characterized by a kind of paralysis of My experiences lead me to be- will and is believed to arise from the lieve that the practice of constructive Why Constructive Resilience? 33
resilience may help to protect those things. Consider an example from the who suff er injustice from succumbing plant kingdom. to some of these pernicious outcomes. Some years ago, scientists devel- My great-grandmother’s generation oped a self-contained ecosystem that was practicing it when they sang, “A they named Biosphere II. All was well charge to keep I have…” while doing in Biosphere II except for one prob- the best that they could with the meager lem that puzzled the scientists for resources at their disposal. My teacher quite a while: the trees in Biosphere Ms. Maria Paul was practicing it as II, though growing tall, could not she prepared two African American stand upright. After much refl ection, children to learn what they might need one of the researchers was struck by to know in order to survive at board- the realization that in this totally en- ing schools that had been populated, closed ecosystem, there was no wind. sometimes for hundreds of years, sole- He reasoned that saplings must ac- ly by Whites; and my neighbors drew quire the strength to stand by resisting on it to survive when there was simply the wind; thus the lack of exposure to not enough food available at home. wind during their early development, Hatcher taught me about constructive he suspected, rendered these saplings resilience when he explained what is incapable of supporting their own required if we wish to love others and weight as adult trees. Stress and hard- reminded me that every great accom- ship are thus paradoxical—like strong plishment requires eff ort and self-sacri- winds, they may threaten a living sys- fi ce; and my wife, Kathy, demonstrated tem’s health, survival, or wellbeing, it when she encouraged me to respond and yet, at the same time, they may be to the prejudice of her grandfather with critical to calling unrealized capabili- a quality of noble patience, as through ties into existence. the transformative infl uence of quali- We recall that when the trial of Soc- ties of character, there was the possi- rates drew to a close and the sentence bility that he would change. of death was pronounced against him, he did not lament. Rather, he suggest- ed that a cock be sacrifi ced in grati- But resilience does not only consist tude to Asclepius—the Egyptian god of the capacity to endure and survive of healing. Why did Socrates act in stress; it is refl ected in the powers and this way? One interpretation is that capacities that unfold as a result of through this act, Socrates was seeking exposure to it. In point of fact, evolu- to declare that he had been enriched tionary theory, developmental psychol- by his encounter with injustice, and ogy, and the world’s wisdom traditions that he had gathered an appropriate converge on the view that even serious harvest from his life of earnest strug- encounters with stress appear to be gle. He thus demonstrates construc- critical to the development of living tive resilience and reveals, through 34 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
this act, that he had come to appre- you is being shaken; be joyous ciate a profound truth that would be while the ugly face of despair declared by Bahá’u’lláh more than grins at you; speak aloud while twenty-fi ve centuries later: “Nothing the malevolent forces of the nether save that which profi teth them can be- world try to crush your mind; be fall my loved ones. To this testifi eth valiant and courageous while men the Pen of God, the Most Powerful, all around you are cringing with the All-Glorious, the Best Beloved” fear and cowardice. Do not yield (qtd. in Shoghi Eff endi, Advent 82). to the overwhelming power of tyranny and despotism. Serve the cause of democracy and freedom. It may be that constructive resilience Continue your journey to the end. nurtures hope by encouraging us to The bright day is coming. The nu- view social change as an historical cleus of the new race is forming. process that must, necessarily, ex- The harbinger of the new ideals tend across the reaches of time. And of international justice is appear- while we are empowered to contrib- ing. The trees of hope will become ute our share, however modestly, verdant; the copper of scorn and to “an ever-advancing civilization” derision will be transmuted into (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings CIX), we the gold of honor and praise; the are somewhat protected from many arid desert of ignorance will be sources of frustration, anxiety, doubt, transformed into the luxuriant gar- and depression if we view the events den of knowledge, the threatening of our lives as fl eeting moments, preg- clouds shall be dispelled and the nant with possibilities, within a vast stars of faith and charity will again historical process that will be carried twinkle in the clear heaven of hu- forward by many others when we are man consciousness. (141). gone. I close with this poignant as- sertion, made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, who patiently served the world, as an ex- ile and prisoner, for more than forty years:
The darkness of this gloomy night shall pass away. Again the Sun of Reality will dawn from the hori- zon of the hearts. Have patience— wait, but do not sit idle; work while you are waiting; smile while you are wearied with monotony; be fi rm while everything around Why Constructive Resilience? 35
W C
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “Extract from Letter to Mr. Alfred E. Lunt.” Star of the West, vol. 9, no. 13, 4 Nov. 1918, p. 141. Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. Translated by Shoghi Eff endi. Bahá’í Reference Library, bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/ bahaullah/gleanings-writings-bahaullah. The Bible. King James Version. www.kingjamesbibleonline.org. Cross Jr., William E. “The Negro to Black Conversion Experience: Towards a Psychology of Black Liberation.” Black World, vol. 20, no. 9, 1971, pp. 13–27. Hatcher, W. Love, Power and Justice: The Dynamics of Authentic Morality. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2004. Hiroto, D. “Locus of Control and Learned Helplessness.” Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 102, no. 2, 1974, pp. 187–193. Shoghi Eff endi. The Advent of Divine Justice. 25 Dec. 1938. Bahá’í Reference Library, bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/shoghi-eff endi/advent-di- vine-justice/. Universal House of Justice. Letter dated 9 September 2007 addressed “To the Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran.” Bahá’í Reference Library, bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal- house-of-justice/messages/20070909_001/1#018930558. 36 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Curlean M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 37
surviving notebooks preserve in ele- Views from a gant calligraphy the candid thoughts Black Artist in the of an erudite, deeply sensitive soul, keenly attuned to the tumultuous chal- Century of Light lenges of his era, ever willing to raise the call of the Beloved, and hoping the ELIZABETH DE SOUZA art he created would help bring forth gems of understanding that had been All artists, writers among them, buried beneath centuries of bloodshed have several stories—one might and ignorance. call them creation myths—that He was a child of that bloodshed. haunt and obsess them. This is one But he escaped the home where dig- of mine. I don’t even remember nity, humor, and spotless cleanliness when I fi rst heard about it. I feel I lived alongside hidden abuse and hu- have always known it . . . miliation. His fi rst taste of freedom Edwidge Danticat, Create Dan- came early through the poetry he com- gerously 5 posed. Then he added color and canvas. By the time he arrived at Penn Station Twelve years ago, while planning the on a Greyhound bus with fi fty dollars funeral service for my father, an art- in the pocket of what he laughingly ist and author born in Philadelphia in called his “civil rights jeans,” he had 1937, I found within the pages of one studied at two prestigious art schools, of his journals a phrase that caught agitated in the South as a member of 1 my eye: The Sorrow Songs. Beneath SNCC, embraced a new Faith, opened it were the words Steal Away, which and closed a small art gallery, and be- he’d underlined three times. I knew, gun introducing himself by his unusual of course, of the Negro Spirituals, and family nickname, Bunch, instead of his that this particular song was about the unusual fi rst name, McCleary. It wasn’t soul’s fl ight to freedom, either with a total reinvention, but it was a start. or without the body. Since that day, Bunch was a storyteller of the high- my mind often migrates back to those est caliber. His embellishments were handwritten words, and sometimes masterfully delivered with great co- I turn on Mahalia Jackson’s peerless medic eff ect. The tricky part was that, interpretation, and as her voice seeks since he was a certifi ed trouble magnet, heaven, I ponder the path bequeathed some of the stories that sounded like to me by my father. lies were entirely factual. It was the From his earliest years, McCleary “Bunch” Washington, the great-grand- 1 The Student Nonviolent Coor- dinating Committee (SNCC, often pro- son of a woman born into chattel slav- nounced “snick”) was the primary avenue ery in South Carolina, kept a series of of civil rights activism for young Black journals. He wrote in them daily. The people during the 1960s. 38 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020 ones that felt true that you had to look project that he called “more than just out for. He was one of those people who a book” was immense, and for good don’t try to be unique—they just are. reason. It was the fi rst major study of a In his work as a visual artist, he in- Black artist in book form, and bringing vented a polyester resin-based medium it to fruition was about as easy as con- he called the “Transparent Collage.” vincing water to fl ow upstream. Like stained glass, the art relies on Since it was released when I was two natural sunlight to illumine the colors years old, and the ripple eff ects gener- and scenes that dance within. Resin is ated by its critical acclaim dominated famously toxic and diffi cult to work my childhood and beyond, I cannot with. Inhaling it can cause brain dam- remember a time I didn’t have at least age and worse. After masking himself some understanding of why the fair- and ensuring a ventilated space, Bunch skinned, soft-spoken man I called “Un- mixed the poisonous liquid with a cata- cle Romy” (Row-me) was an important lyst, then poured it into molds to which fi gure, not just for us Black folk, but for he dropped colored dye, objects, and everyone, including those whose ances- drawings. After several days, the liq- tors were on the other side of the whips uid solidifi ed into a panel of art that he and chains that are so inexplicably mounted on a wooden base and placed bound to America’s mirage-like idea on a windowsill. Before discovering of a freedom. Today, nearly half a cen- resin, Bunch’s usual mediums were tury after Bunch’s book was released, oil, collage, pen and ink, watercolor, his mentor’s work is widely celebrat- sculpture, and bas-relief. His most ed. Scholars have combed through the consistent themes were family life, the details of his life looking for any unex- arts, and the transcendent nature of the amined stone. Romy’s own words—the human soul. The Transparent Collage books he wrote, the hundreds of inter- harmonizes these variated elements views he granted—are abundant. And into a single genre that invariably ex- yet, in all of this, there are many stories pressed the same theme: unity. that remain untold. Anyone who knew the tall, slender, Here is just one: Romy had ties to dark-skinned, enigmatic painter knew the Bahá’í Faith that, to my knowl- he was a protégé of Romare Bearden, edge, have never been publicly re- one of the greatest artists of the twen- vealed or explored. It wasn’t for lack of tieth century, best known for his rich, trying. I dare anyone who knew Bunch complex, collaged scenes portraying in life to ever suggest such a thing. It archetypal aspects of African Ameri- was because the person who was in the can culture. Most of them knew about best position to illumine these ties also the luxurious eight-pound coff ee table personifi ed all that America has sacri- volume, The Art of Romare Bearden: fi ced to the “culture of contest” spoken The Prevalence of Ritual, created by of in Dr. Michael Karlberg’s opening Bunch in 1972. His passion about this essay. It was because the person who Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 39 tried for more than forty years to ex- Not only that, but he was six-foot- plain to his co-religionists of European fi ve and darker than Africa and wore a descent why, why, why they should beret on his nappy head and smoked a pay attention to a book that placed the corncob pipe and it seemed to many of work of the most impactful Black artist these White and Persian Bahá’ís that of the day alongside the mystic poet- he was sometimes angry. Most of them ry of Bahá’u’lláh, and told the truth hadn’t yet had the experiences that about the plague of racism while also would have allowed them to under- praising Bearden’s choice to “calm and stand why they felt so uncomfortable educate” with his art—it was because in his presence, especially when he the person saying all these things (and I raised matters involving race and the heard him say them from the day I was American Bahá’í community. To them, born until the day he died) was himself it didn’t feel like they were privileging a Black artist. their own inherited socio-political pow- er over any gains that might come from making more of an eff ort to understand the message Bunch so urgently wished to deliver. Instead, they thought per- haps this quietly intense man needed to review Shoghi Eff endi’s words about achieving racial harmony: “Let the Ne- groes, through a corresponding eff ort on their part . . .” (Advent 40). Many Bahá’ís know this passage well. My mother is White; I have never not known it. I was born in 1970 and came of age during a time when inter- racial families, even within the Bahá’í Faith, and even within large U.S. cit- ies, were rare. The Advent of Divine Justice, written by Shoghi Eff endi, is an important and authoritative text for Bunch Washington, his wife Judith, and Bahá’ís. Among other things, it speaks their son Jesse attend “Souvenir” at the explicitly about the “corrosion” of ra- Wilhelm Bahá’í properties in Teaneck, cial prejudice and calls upon all people New Jersey, circa 1972. to take full responsibility for its eradi- The annual gathering commemorates cation (32). In part, it instructs White ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s “Unity Feast” held in Bahá’ís to recognize their “usually in- 1912 at the same location. herent and at times subconscious sense of superiority” (40) and challenges Photo credit: Al Burley. Black Bahá’ís to respond with warmth 40 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
while manifesting “their ability to wipe This is what Bunch’s book on Romy out every trace of suspicion that may was about. Rather than yelling across still linger” within (40). This missive oceans, he looked within, prayerfully. was originally released in 1938 as a let- His book is as much about him as it is ter to the Bahá’ís in the United States about his mentor. He looked within as and Canada. It uses words like “Negro” an artist. He looked within as a Black and “colored” that have fallen out of man. He looked within as a follower of use. The pointed analysis and directives Bahá’u’lláh. In these three intertwin- it gives, however, are anything but dat- ing identities we see the convergence ed. The words are true as the North Star, of many complexities, many patterns. a light for those who seek guidance. At the simplest level, we have three Yet and still, in some Bahá’í commu- main strands: Artist. African Ameri- nities in the States, there is a proclivity can. Bahá’í. to overcome points of disagreement Artists are famously misunderstood by engaging in what Lloyd Lawrence, and Black people are persistently and also a Black artist and a Bahá’í, calls even murderously misunderstood. The “the quote wars.” That is, using the sa- Bahá’í Faith has been attacked by its cred texts to shut down what could oth- enemies with deadly intent from its erwise be a fruitful consultation. This I inception until today. And why? It fi nd depressingly hilarious. It reminds has something to do with a distorted me of when my two young children ar- perception of what power is, and how gue over who gets to say their prayers to get it. The most evolved artists are fi rst. those whose work helps bring clarity, In Dawn Over Mount Hira, the pro- allowing us to reconnect with our inner lifi c and poetic Marzieh Gail puts forth truths. Black people in America know this observation: something about that mysterious pow- er that comes from within—how else The desire to be understood is could we have continued to rise, de- common to us all. And yet no one spite wave after sickening wave of vi- understands us. We do not under- olent repression? The immortal words stand ourselves . . . human beings of Maya Angelou raise our eyes ever are each on individual islands, upwards: shouting to each other across seas of misunderstandings. But prayer You may shoot me with your is the great simplifying factor and words, a dispeller of confusion. Through You may cut me with your eyes, our communion with God we be- You may kill me with your come explained to ourselves and hatefulness, enabled to express our best and But still, like air, I’ll rise. truest selves to others. (28) Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 41
These are words the Bahá’ís still un- renowned poet Nikki Giovanni con- dergoing persecution in Iran could jured up an old Black woman. Despite have written. These are words that ap- her age, she was captured and tethered ply to every person on earth. to other people in the putrid underbelly of a slave ship. Her companions had diff erent languages and customs, but On the great plantations of the South, all were miserable in the knowledge of and in the shanties of mud and wood their defeat. Says Giovanni: that lay on their perimeter, and in the smoky outdoor kitchens found behind She had to fi nd a way to lift them the plantation house, and in the cot- together. The only thing she had ton-dotted fi elds, a glorious and pecu- was a moan. And she moaned. liar sound could be heard—the music That moan would become a Spir- of an oppressed people worshipping itual; that Spiritual would become God as they toiled. With a lifetime Jazz; which would become Blues of unpaid labor stretching before and then Rhythm and Blues then Rap. behind them, and amidst the cruelties That moan would defi ne not only and humiliations heaped upon them, a people but the nation to which there rose in their chests an expression they were sailing. That moan of their inner reality: one that knew would make those people decide freedom. Bridging centuries and king- that they should, that they could, doms, the cadences and cross-rhythms live. (xi) fi rst formed in disparate places across Africa were overlaid in and through a With notes that now ring out from ev- European language. At the dawn of the ery part of the globe, these songs are twentieth century, the great sociologist, constructive resilience in action. Never activist, and author W. E. B. Du Bois static, they respond fl uidly to meet any wrote about these songs in his seminal environment. The same song is never book The Souls of Black Folk, pub- the same, and why should it be? It is in- lished in 1903. He wanted to debunk tuitive and improvisational; it asks and the myth, prevalent in fi lm and the- answers, affi rms and refutes. Like life ater as well as school textbooks, that after death, a song’s fi nale is sometimes the captives sang because they were transformed into a fresh beginning happy. These songs, he said, were this when the chorus is born again with a country’s fi rst authentic folk music. new, celebratory tempo. Pieces of one Now, more than a century later, we song jump into another; freshly com- understand that much of the music that posed verses are added and subtracted uplifts and inspires us all originally like mathematical poetry. Authorship sprang from those who were unimag- is not singular, but plural—this is the inably downtrodden. African way. Joined in song, there is In 2016 the literary imagination of a state of unity in which things work 42 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
together on their own. We are synced, Romy famously likened his art to you speak what I think. Perhaps this is jazz. He co-wrote a popular tune, what it means to “walk with the same “Seabreeze,” recorded by jazz legend feet” and “eat with the same mouth,” as Dizzy Gillespie and the well-known Bahá’u’lláh has spoken of in the Hid- vocalist and band leader Billy Eckstine. den Words (Arabic no. 68). Part of what made Romy exceptional is With this power, we become more that he found a potent visual language than mere humans stuck within our to express his love and admiration for oppressive conditions. We are active the ordinary, oppressed Black people agents in our own liberation, making a of the Americas. Because he saw their way where once there was none. Steal beauty, he was able to show it to other away, the enslaved people sang to people, and most crucially, to Black mourn a lost one, or to signal that the people themselves. time had come to physically steal their This kind of work takes great sensi- own selves far, far away from those tivity. If you’re wondering if sensitivi- who claimed to own them. My Lord, ty is important, think about the human He calls me, He calls me by the eye. We don’t complain about protect- thunder / The trumpet sounds with- ing our eyes or giving them special in my soul, I ain’t got long to stay consideration, we just do it. I’ve often here . . . This is the sound of a people wondered how this might relate to who have learned to locate their tru- the “pupil of the eye” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, est selves on that invisible map of the Selections ch.78) designation in the heart which Bahá’u’lláh has likened Bahá’í Writings that is explored by to a city: “Open, O people, the city of some of my colleagues in this issue. I the human heart with the key of your wonder, in particular, how this relates utterance” (Gleanings 139:5). Soon I to our Black artists. What do we stand will be done with the troubles of this to lose by not deliberately protecting world . . . Mahalia Jackson’s voice them? rises and falls like the hopes of those Romy knew that the creative well she descended from, reminding us how from which all artists draw is sensitive temporary this all is, all we can touch to impurities, and that his dark-skinned with our human hands. Ms. Jackson, protégé attracted micro-aggressions whose father was born into slavery, is like black wool picks up lint. He told widely reported as having said that she Bunch that the answer to these trou- sings “God’s music because it makes bles could be found in his work. In one me feel free. It gives me hope.” I can’t letter, we hear Romy counseling the help wondering—how did these songs younger artist about a part of Bunch’s that began as a symphony of tears life that seemed irresolvable: evolve into a messenger of hope and freedom? When I spoke with you on the phone several months ago you Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 43
were a bit upset with some of your years turning a poisonous substance Bha’i [sic] colleagues. That’s all into a new form of beauty. Though right, most of the very good artists he’d seen more ugliness in his life than had to keep on working, like Pi- most, his work radiates tranquility. casso and Matisse and Munch, to He’d enrolled in the Faith as a young resolve in their art what they could man in Philadelphia. His belief was a not do in their lives . . . I don’t fl ame that spread across cultural lines, mean that as an escape from life eventually enkindling his Jewish-born except that “art” is another world wife and her mother, and also Bunch’s that alludes to life. younger brother. Even his grandmother, a devout Baptist, signed a Bahá’í dec- It is both disappointing and illumi- laration card, citing Biblical prophesies nating that the astute pen of Romare about “twin lights” as her confi rma- Bearden, whose images chronicle tion. For Bunch, exiling himself from Black tradition, also recorded evidence the circle of believers plunged him into of Bunch’s friction within his faith an ancient well of spiritual anguish that community. My father struggled with touched everything he did thereafter. interpersonal relationships throughout And yet he continued to create. his life. Generational racial trauma, Romy’s advice allows us to see that a face and body that evoked fear, an Bunch did, in fact, resolve in his art uncompromising attitude towards his what he could not in his life. In his work, all of these contributed. Yet none Transparent Collage, the same sensi- of these other confl icts are mentioned tivity that caused him so much anguish in Romy’s letters, only Bunch’s trouble is the very feature that makes his me- with some Bahá’ís. dium captivating. The swirling colors Eventually, after a particularly dis- in these works shift and change with turbing dispute, Bunch offi cially with- every fl uctuation of the sunlight that il- drew his Bahá’í membership. I was ten lumines them. Like the Sorrow Songs, years old at the time. The impact this they are never static. In fact, when the had on my family cannot be overstated. light is low, the artwork takes on a spe- McCleary Washington was born cial glow, seemingly lit from within, in the month of Beauty.2 He most of- reminding us of how even the smallest ten referred to Bahá’u’lláh by the title degree of light can be transformative. “The Blessed Beauty.”3 He spent forty In these works, Bunch has fi nally har- monized the three main elements in his 2 Bahá’ís follow a solar calendar life: Artist, African American, Bahá’í. divided into nineteen months. Each month What is left of his struggle is not a cat- is named after an attribute of God, such as alogue of pain, but mesmerizing por- Glory, Power, Loftiness, etc. Washington’s traits of light. Part poetry, part prayer, birthday falls in the month of Jamál, an Ar- abic word for beauty. 3 One of His many titles widely known among Bahá’ís. 44 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
they are constructive resilience made it appears in Bunch’s art. Few will un- tangible. derstand the role that racism played Another hidden gem that Bunch’s in hiding these words from sight, just work brings forth can be found in a as Bunch eventually hid himself from small brochure for an even smaller those he most wished to be amongst. exhibition of his Transparent Collage A handful of people do understand. held on Long Island in 1975. In it, One of them is Dr. William Roberts, Romy writes: who knew Bunch for close to thir- ty years. Like Bunch, “Billy,” as his Some of the symbols that Wash- friends call him, is African American ington uses relate to his study of and stands well over six feet tall. He is Persian Arts and his dedication to also a clinical psychologist who served the Bahá’í Faith, a religious system for more than a decade on the Nation- founded in Persia by Bahá’u’lláh, al Spiritual Assembly of the United that teaches the unity of all reli- States.5 In 1987, Dr. Roberts launched gions and the over-riding duty of an independent initiative that provided the Bahá’ís to serve the needs of a space for Black men to empower and mankind. The word “symbol” is uplift each other while seeking a more stressed because the Bahá’ís are active role within the Bahá’í framework carefully enjoined not to use cer- for action. Sanctioned by the Univer- tain likenesses of their Founders, sal House of Justice, the Black Men’s nor too literal interpretations of Gathering continued for twenty-fi ve their concepts. It is interesting, years, profoundly impacting lives and therefore, that this artist, who uses enriching the devotional character of some of the most modern methods, Bahá’í communities worldwide (see should at the same time concern Landry, McMurray, and Thomas). himself with such ancient values; In an interview that took place six however, Washington’s concepts years after Bunch’s death, Billy com- are seldom superimposed upon his mented on how racial stereotyping material, rather he actually creates prevented many people from seeing in with them. (Bearden, Transparent Bunch what was obvious to him: Collages) Simply being Black and male in People interested in art, history, and the America . . . his intensity was often Bahá’í Faith might wonder why they never came across this refl ection from “Bahá,” or “Glory,” is the greatest name Bearden about the Greatest Name4 as of God, alluded to by past religions, but not revealed until the advent of the Bahá’í 4 The Greatest Name is an Arabic Faith. calligraphic symbol for the invocation “Yá 5 An elected council of nine peo- Baháʼu’l-Abhá,” or in English, “O Glory ple that guides the aff airs of the American of the All Glorious.” Bahá’ís believe that Bahá’í community. Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 45
misunderstood for aggression and the Father of the Harlem Renaissance,6 hostility . . . He was a person was a Bahá’í. But something about this who walked the path of a vision- “Persian lady” who ran a maternity ary. He always saw the beauty in clinic in majority-Black Trinidad was others, even those with whom he diff erent. Romy wrote to Bunch: disagreed. He was a humble indi- vidual and he was also a promoter After [reading Paris Talks], I felt of justice. . . . And then of course that this Faith is one that can only there’s his championing of Romare be truly understood by service— Bearden, and other artists . . . It’s by devotion to “good works.” As a good example of somebody who I could see all the fervor and ded- people want to call angry, but you ication, and love of what she was know, angry people don’t cham- doing, on the Persian woman’s pion other people. If you’re really face. She has a quality—a pres- angry, there’s no space in you to ence . . . The Persian lady said that honor others, to love others, to ap- one day I would become a B’haist preciate others, to value others, to [sic] as she saw it in my face but I pay tribute to others. Bunch was told her I doubted that, at least not all about that. offi cially.
Dr. Roberts also remarked upon If you knew Romy, “not offi cially” was Bunch’s intense and “very deter- jaw-dropping. Among other things, mined” nature. Indeed, relinquishing it highlights what Hand of the Cause7 his Bahá’í membership never stopped Rúhíyyih Khánum once explained: my father’s eff orts to share the Faith. Here is just one example: Romy and his wife Nanette kept a home on the 6 The Harlem Renaissance (1918– Caribbean island of Martinique. For 1937) was a cultural outpouring from Af- years, Bunch urged Romy to connect rican American artists, musicians, writers, and scholars, also called the New Negro with a White Bahá’í named Barbara Movement, concentrated in but not con- Joyce, also a painter who lived on the fi ned to the Harlem district of New York island. After many reminders from City. Bunch, the busy, famous, elderly art- 7 Hand of the Cause of God was ist fi nally sought her out. She in turn a lifetime appointed position bestowed introduced Romy to a Bahá’í named upon a small, select group of Bahá’ís Shamsi Sedaghat. by either Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, or To be clear, Romy knew quite a bit Shoghi Eff endi. This institution has since about the Faith already. He was the one been replaced with the Continental Board who’d fi rst told Bunch that writer and of Counsellors (established in 1968). The critic Alain LeRoy Locke, often called purpose of the Hands of the Cause was to propagate and protect the Bahá’í Faith on an international level. 46 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
even people who agree with Bahá’ís quality as the origin of Romy’s strength on racial unity won’t be moved un- and power. til they see us all lovingly working Before her travels to Africa, Rúhíyy- together (Rabbani 2). Among the ih Khánum had never considered that Bearden-Washington letters, this one this same quality might be common as a alone is written on colorful, distinctive copper penny among Black and Indig- stationery by German artist Peter Max, enous people worldwide. Finally, she investing it with another layer of singu- understood why Shoghi Eff endi con- larity. After Romy’s death in 1988, the stantly mentioned “the ‘pure-hearted’ letter became even more precious to African” (Rabbani 2). She also warned the man who himself was “not offi cial- that “[w]e must guard ourselves against ly” a member of the Faith he cherished. the dry and dead intellectualism of the world in which we live!” Even on the printed page, her fervor and conviction In 1961, Rúhíyyih Khánum wrote to are palpable: the National Spiritual Assemblies of Canada and the United States about The people of the world are tired her recent journey through East Afri- of words, words, words. They ca. She spoke of how her experiences don’t really pay any attention to there had changed her perspective what we say about “oneness, uni- so completely that, in her words, she ty, world brotherhood” although “[felt] as if [she] was living in a diff er- many of them agree with this. ent mental world from before” (Rab- What they need is to see deeds, to bani 1). This trip took place after the see Bahá’í communities, local and death of her beloved husband, Shoghi national, full of people of diff erent Eff endi. After spending weeks on end races working together, in love, in close contact with hundreds of Af- for their common belief. Then the ricans, she refl ected upon the qualities spiritual force such a reality will they had in common with their African release (as opposed to words) will American brethren. What struck her bring an inwardly hungry, sad and most, she said, was “the spiritual qual- disillusioned white race into the ity defi ned as ‘heart’ in our teachings” Faith in larger numbers. It is all (2). She called attention to how this there in the writings of Shoghi Ef- word appears in the Writings, for ex- fendi; we just don’t think about it ample, “‘Thy heart is My habitation,’ enough. (2–3) and ‘My fi rst council is this: Possess a pure, kindly, and radiant heart’” (2). I once shared this letter with a Bahá’í Reading this, I thought of how my of African descent who is a gifted vo- father referenced the Hidden Words in calist. Earlier that day, she had spoken his book, saying that Romy had a heart to me about her immense love for such as it described. He identifi ed this Bahá’u’lláh and His Revelation, and Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 47 also about the believers in her com- munity, whom she considered family. Later, when she opened up about some While on pilgrimage in 2011, I found of the troubles she’d had with them, I myself sitting on a charter bus next to found the letter, printed it, and watched an elegant, slender, sprightly White her read it. My ears have still not re- woman of my father’s generation. As covered from both the volume and our bus approached ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s the emotion in her voice as Rúhíyyih house in ‘Akka, she questioned me Khánum’s words permeated her spirit. about my life the way friendly people At one point, she threw back her head often do, except she listened, really lis- and hollered with relief and validation. tened, to my responses. I was moved Tears sprang into her eyes and she by her interest. It said more about her dropped her head into her hands and than it did about me. Who was she? wept. Where was she from? She answered She loved her community, she’d thoughtfully, always managing to steer told me earlier, and they loved her, too. the conversation back to me. When she But she could no longer endure how learned I was in graduate school writ- their unconscious anti-Blackness af- ing a book about my late father, who’d fected her mental wellbeing. Too often, contributed much to the world in spite she returned home from Feast feeling of a mental health crisis and drug ad- misunderstood and disrespected. When diction that rendered him homeless in she fi nally confessed her feelings to the last few years of his life, she pulled her Bahá’í family, what she received in out a notebook and asked me how to response was an email containing the spell his name. As I did, her eyes wid- words of Shoghi Eff endi: “Let the Ne- ened in shock and her pen became still. groes, through a corresponding eff ort “McCleary? McCleary from Phila- on their part . . .” (Advent). It was hurt- delphia is your father?” Her eyes fi lled ful beyond words. What this woman with tears. She looked at me searching- needed at this moment was not a quote ly. “I knew McCleary, years and years about how she could be a better Bahá’í. ago. Such a remarkable person, so full What she needed, at a minimum, was of life and joy, such a powerful and in- to be heard. spiring presence.” She blotted her eyes This is the sorrow song of the Af- and told me she’d thought of him over rican American believer, and it has the years, wondering what became been sung since the days of Hand of of the magnetic young man with the the Cause Louis Gregory—a contem- “strong spirit.” Then she said some- porary of W. E. B. Du Bois—of whom thing even more surprising. “I had no ‘Abdu’l-Bahá once said, “That pure idea he was an artist. I knew him as a soul has a heart like unto transparent poet.” water. He is like unto pure gold” (qtd. In the days we spent together, her in Morrison 314). modesty and humility came into fuller 48 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
view. I was surprised and not surprised After returning home, my mother to discover that in her youth, she had squealed when I asked if she remem- spent time with Rúhíyyih Khánum for bered the name Ellen Parmalee. “Do I a project at the Bahá’í World Centre. remember? She taught your father the When I told her that as a child in New Faith!” And then I recalled Dad laugh- York City, I’d presented Rúhíyyih ing about a young lady he’d initially Khánum with a bouquet of roses, her hoped to date, except she was “far too smile was sunlight itself. Was my fa- pure” to be interested in him that way. ther there? Yes, I told her, along with Mom and I marveled that out of some my whole family. She nodded once, three hundred pilgrims, Mrs. Parmalee then twice, as if I’d confi rmed some and I landed in the same group, on the great truth. same bus, sitting together on that fi rst
The author presents Hand of the Cause of God Rúhíyyih Khánum with roses at the New York City Bahá’í Center, circa 1977, after a screening of the fi lm Green Light Expedition.
Photo credit: Al Burley Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light 49 approach to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s house. goes. Certainly not when the adversari- Even more astonishing: my original al forces came from the world, but also pilgrimage date, months earlier, had from within. Years later, I would under- been a failure. On the big day, I lost stand that while Bunch was unique, his my passport at the airport somewhere struggle as a Black Bahá’í in America between the TSA checkpoint and the was not. But neither was the imperish- departing gate. It was one of my most able bond of genuine love and friend- miserable moments on planet Earth. ship, unsullied by racial prejudice, that And yet, had I been spared that agony, many of his Bahá’í brethren and sistren I wouldn’t have felt the sweetness of of all races shared with him over the walking in the footsteps of the Holy years. This is the love that shines in- Ones with my spiritual grandmother. discriminately upon all who turn their faces towards its warmth. Now, each time I pick up Century of Light, I hear About seven years before his Lord the songs of our ancestors, never static, called him home, my father urged me rising and swelling, their truth and sim- to read the newly released Century of plicity carrying us forward as we work Light, wherein the House of Justice together for our promised liberation. turns its infallible pen to world events of the past century and their relation- W C ship to the emergence of the Faith. I knew the title held signifi cance for ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Selections from the him. Many times, I’d heard him say, Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. “The Master has said we are living in Bahá’í World Centre, 1982. the ‘century of light,’ and therefore, I Angelou, Maya. And Still I Rise: A wish to paint with light . . .” Book of Poems. Random I don’t know exactly what section House, 1978. of this book provided him with the Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings from the Writ- explanation he so needed about his ings of Bahá’u’lláh. U.S. Bahá’í estrangement from the Bahá’í com- Publishing Trust, 1990. munity, and also about his relationship ———. The Hidden Words. U.S. Bahá’í to the institutions of the Faith that had Publishing Trust, 2001. failed to swoop into his interpersonal Bearden, Romare. Transparent Col- confl icts and deliver immediate and lages: Views from a New unquestionable justice in all the ways World Order, or Light. The Off he wished. However, after reading this Broadway Gallery, 1975. book, Bunch re-enrolled himself in ———. Letter to McCleary Bunch the Faith after an absence of twenty Washington, circa 1985-87, long years. Come what may, he was a McCleary Bunch Washington Bahá’í, and he wasn’t going to let “no- papers, National Bahá’í Ar- body turn him ’round,” as the old song chives, United States. 50 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Danticat, Edwidge. Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. Princeton UP, 2010. Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903. Gail, Marzieh. Dawn Over Mount Hira and Other Essays. George Ronald, 1976. Giovanni, Nikki. Foreword. Jubilee, by Margaret Walker Alexander, Houghton Miffl in Harcourt, 2016. pp. x–xi. Landry, Frederick, Harvey McMurray, and Richard W. Thomas. The Story of the Bahá’í Black Men’s Gathering: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years, 1987— 2011. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2011. Morrison, Gayle. To Move the World: Louis G. Gregory and the Advancement of Racial Unity in America. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1995. Rabbani, Rúhíyyih Khánum. “Ruhiyyih Khanum Shares Teaching Observations.” Bahá’í News: U.S. Supplement, no. 40, June 1961, pp. 1–4. Roberts, William. Interview with Brianna Robinson. 2014. Sleeping in the Fire, bunchwashington.com/memories-of-bunch.html. Shoghi Eff endi. The Advent of Divine Justice. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1938. Washington, M. Bunch. The Art of Romare Bearden: The Prevalence of Ritual. Abrams, 1973.
Pearls M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 51
the layers are dry, the artist takes great Transparent care in the sanding and polishing of the Collages: outermost section. The work is then mounted, sometimes on old specially Views from a New selected and well-seasoned pieces of wood or metal. World Order or Light Mr. Washington said that one of his next projects will be to make creations ROMARE BEARDEN1 to fi t into windows and skylights. “I want to make a room glow,” he said, “not only with colors shining in the Figures and objects fl oat in the lumi- window, but also with colored light as nous depths of Bunch Washington’s it falls across the fl oors and tables. Transparent Collages, creations that Some of the symbols that Washing- are fascinating assemblages of textures ton uses relate to his study of Persian and colors changing and expanding as Arts and his dedication to the Bahá’í the light caresses them at varying an- Faith, a religious system founded in gles and at varying degrees of intensity. Persia by Bahá’u’lláh, that teaches the In his Transparent Collages, Wash- unity of all religions and the over-rid- ington follows a long tradition of art- ing duty of the Bahá’ís to serve the ists and craftsmen who stem from the needs of mankind. The word “symbol” creators of the great stained glass win- is stressed because the Bahá’ís are dows of the Gothic age. That is, artists carefully enjoined not to use certain who depend upon the sun or some oth- likenesses of their Founders, nor too er light source as a defi nitive part of literal interpretations of their concepts. their work. It is interesting, therefore, that this art- Washington explains that in his par- ist, who uses some of the most modern ticular method of working he pours thin methods, should at the same time con- layers of plastic resin into a mold; may- cern himself with such ancient values; be fi ve or six layers of varying colors. however, Washington’s concepts are Usually he begins with lighter colors seldom superimposed upon his materi- and builds up to darker hues, a meth- al, rather he actually creates with them. od somewhat similar to the way some old masters use colored glazes where- by painters like Titian and Tintoretto would often paint ten or more transpar- ent washes of oil color to achieve an 1 From the brochure for M. Bunch iridescent fi nal eff ect. Into any one of Washington’s solo exhibit at the Off Broad- these plastic layers Washington might way Gallery, April 13, 1975. A copy of the place some object, an African gold original document, signed by Mr. Bearden, weight, a semi-precious stone, even is available at journal.bahaistudies.ca. a small painting or drawing. After all 52 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Two Seas M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 53
conceptions of power—Black Power New Black Power: included. We may need to develop Constructive new images of power and Black Power especially, as we learn about how in- Resilience and the dividuals, institutions, and communi- ties can use constructive resilience to Eff orts of African transform society and respond to social American Bahá’ís oppression—especially oppression that emerges from racism, “a profound deviation from the standard of true mo- DERIK SMITH rality” (Universal House of Justice, 22 July 2020). In 1966, the leader of the Student The House of Justice has directed Nonviolent Coordinating Committee our gaze toward a number of exam- stood in Mississippi and raised a call, ples of constructive resilience. In spite “What do we want?” A resounding re- of “relentless oppression,” the Bahá’í sponse poured from hundreds of voic- community of Iran provides a potent es, “Black Power!” (Jeff ries 171). This model of constructive resilience. It was the fi rst time that the two words has been “forward-looking, dynamic, came together as a public rallying cry, vibrant,” never submitting to “despair, a punctuating symbol in political strug- surrender, resentment, and hate,” while gles in the United States. In the decades seeking to transform Iranian society (2 after Stokely Carmichael (later known Mar. 2013). The House of Justice also as Kwame Ture) led that chant in Mis- indicates that “the same expression of sissippi, the slogan “Black Power” be- constructive resilience” has animated came an activist mantra throughout the eff orts of American Bahá’ís, espe- Black Diaspora. While the assertion cially African American Bahá’ís who that “Black Lives Matter” has moved have labored for more than a century to the forefront of the activist lexicon to transform American society by pro- in recent years, the idea of Black Pow- moting race unity (4 Feb. 2018). er remains potent. Yet our conceptions To sustain these eff orts in con- of Black Power are often limited. This structive resilience, African American is because our conceptions of power it- Bahá’ís have summoned a special self are limited. As the Universal House Black Power—crafted of determined of Justice suggests, we frequently think fortitude, patience in the face of hard- of power as a “fi nite entity which is to ship, and hard-bitten yet loving com- be ‘seized’ and ‘jealously guarded’” mitment. This power is the stuff of (2 Mar. 2013). But power can be con- Black life that glints through clouds ceived of in diff erent ways; indeed, of injustice and oppression. The glim- the Bahá’í approach to social trans- mering of this radical power doesn’t formation compels us to expand our look like the confl ictual power that 54 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
smothers our social order, locking R competing groups in endless contests, locking away resources, and locking Robert Turner stands out in the photo- up human potential. In their eff orts graph that is the earliest documenta- to promote race unity in an American tion of African American constructive context corroded by racial prejudice, resilience in the Bahá’í Faith. His eyes Black Bahá’ís have eschewed confl ict- are calm and vigilant, concentrating on ual power to call upon “the powers of the camera focused on the fi rst group the human spirit” (2 Mar. 2013). Often, of Western pilgrims to the Bahá’í Holy these are subtle, visually quiet powers Land. It seems he stands in the photo’s that can be hard to see, but are deep- fl ank, upsetting the symmetry of the ly transformative. The untrained eye other seven pilgrims—six women, per- might misperceive this power and its fectly arranged around Ibrahim Khei- meaning, but in the history of construc- ralla, the central fi gure in the scene. tive resilience among African Ameri- The picture feels charged with an am- can Bahá’ís, we may see images of this bient tension—an energy strange, fa- new Black Power. To help us perceive miliar, pushing Turner away from the the power of the spirit, the House of group. But in the midst of this ambient Justice has off ered some direction. It energy, Turner exerts a quiet Black writes, “Associated with power in this Power, standing resilient, beginning sense are words such as ‘release,’ ‘en- to construct the “door through which a courage,’ ‘channel,’ ‘guide’ and ‘en- whole race would enter the Kingdom” able’” (2 Mar. 2013). (qtd. in Gregory, “Robert Turner” 28).
Hearst Pilgrimage, 1898–89 Source: National Bahá’í Archives, United States Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís 55
Sources say this is what ʻAbdu’l-Bahá ʻAbdu’l-Bahá. He was employed as the told Turner—that if he remained faith- butler of one of the other pilgrims, and ful, he would become a portal of entry, thought it best to wait outside the gath- channeling, guiding a people toward ering place. But sensing his absence, Bahá’u’lláh. ʻAbdu’l-Bahá stepped to the doorway Not long after the photograph was and invited him in. Uttering, “My Lord! taken, the man at its center would aban- My Lord! I am not worthy to be here,” don the Bahá’í Faith. But Turner, the Turner fell to his knees, only to be drawn fi rst African American Bahá’í, holding up into the embrace of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá, space in the margins of the photograph, the Center of the Covenant (Gregory, would go to his grave holding fast to “Robert Turner” 28). the faith of Bahá’u’lláh. What thoughts What power was released in that and emotions coursed through Turner encouraging embrace that drew Turner in that moment fi xed in history by the from the margin to the center? Perhaps photo? Perhaps his steady eyes reveal Turner remembered that moment as the summoning of resilience that would he readied himself for another photo- bear him up as a Black man soldiering graph—one that would later be sent through the late-nineteenth century to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In it, Turner stands world. But, perhaps, in Turner’s gaze alone, his body angled, looking off into we also see his spiritual connection to our future, perhaps. He smiles with a the strength in the gaze of Lua Getsing- beauty quiet and irrepressible. Turner, er. It was Getsinger (seated second born enslaved, somewhere in Virginia, from the right), the tireless promulga- sometime in the 1850s, channels in his tor of the Bahá’í Faith, the “Mother of pose a tradition of African American the Believers,” who had constructed a resilience—a tradition born of innu- spiritual bond with Turner, introducing merable acts, gestures, and glances of him to the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. encouragement, shared between Black It is likely that she was the fi rst to tell people bearing up in the midst of vio- Turner of the Man they would meet in lently oppressive power. the Holy Land. Turner lived in a world that under- rated the beauty and power of the tradi- E tion that sustained him. Maybe he be- lieved that ʻAbdu’l-Bahá—appearing Both Turner and Getsinger were sus- to live in that world—could have for- tained by ʻAbdu’l-Bahá’s perfect gotten the grace that he brought to the embodiment of encouragement. His Holy Land in 1898. When his beaming legendary love had drawn the pilgrims photograph was sent to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, to the Mediterranean coasts of Pales- we can imagine that Turner was tine in 1898. Knowing only of His gripped by a double-emotion: he surely exalted station, Turner was abashed brimmed with the excited thought that as he anticipated his fi rst meeting with the Mystery of God Himself would 56 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
soon hold his photo; but he must have eye which is dark in colour, yet it also been anxious, thinking the pho- is the fount of light and the reveal- tograph might be ignored, and that er of the contingent world. I have ‘Abdu’l-Bahá might have somehow not forgotten nor will I forget thee. forgotten him. (Selections 114)
Turner, himself, would never forget his faith. On his deathbed, he contin- uously repeated “an expression strange and unknown”; in fact, he was going to his God with the words “Yá Bahá’u’l- Abhá” upon his lips (Gregory, “Robert Turner” 29). Shoghi Eff endi designat- ed him a Disciple of ʻAbdu’l-Bahá posthumously. Out of slavery, Turner had built him- self into the living portal through which a race “will enter the Kingdom.” In Turner’s grace-fi lled portrait we see, for the fi rst time in history, the living confl uence of two streams of power— one welling from the deep reservoir Robert Turner of African American resilience, and Source: National Bahá’í Archives, the other gushing from the infi nitely United States creative Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. As Imagine, then, the power that must these streams merged in Robert Turner, have surged within Robert Turner he became a fountain of light through when he encountered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s which a new Black Power fl owed into response to his photograph. A universe the world. of encouragement was condensed into the tablet: C O thou who art pure in heart, sanctifi ed in spirit, peerless in Sadie Oglesby sits calmly in the photo, character, beauteous in face! Thy her gaze inescapable. The transparent photograph hath been received lenses of her wire-rimmed glasses am- revealing thy physical frame in plify the sense of unwavering determi- the utmost grace and the best ap- nation in her eyes. Like Turner, she had pearance. Thou art dark in coun- visited the Holy Land, and was em- tenance and bright in character. powered, transformed. Oglesby was a Thou art like unto the pupil of the trained nurse, a champion of the Bahá’í Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís 57
Faith, and the fi rst African American Guardian. This was the “vital” thing woman to undertake a pilgrimage to (281). the Holy Land. In 1927, after spend- In her photograph, perhaps we can ing twenty days in Haifa and ‘Akká, see the sense of responsibility that she returned to the United States and Oglesby took on after those transfor- asserted, “We are not the same people mative conversations—the strength of we were before we went away” (qtd. in will necessary for channeling Shoghi Etter-Lewis 79). The photograph cap- Eff endi’s guidance for the American tures her years after her battery of con- Bahá’ís. In 1938 Shoghi Eff endi would versations with Shoghi Eff endi. Ogles- concretize this guidance in The Advent by’s historic pilgrimage was marked by of Divine Justice, calling upon the repeated exchanges with the Guardian American Bahá’í community to recog- of the Bahá’í Faith. They followed a nize that racial prejudice was its “most pattern: he wanted to know about race vital and challenging issue.” And he and the American Bahá’í community; would emphasize that this problem she would respond earnestly; and he was invested “with an urgency and im- would then emphasize the urgency of portance that cannot be overestimated” (Advent 34). Surely, few felt the gravity of these words more viscerally than Ogles- by. Shoghi Eff endi had personally ex- pressed to her the self-same message that was enshrined in his 1938 letter to the North American Bahá’í com- munity. We imagine that Oglesby had looked into his searching, powerful eyes and resolved to be the channel through which the work of race uni- ty would fl ow. In Boston newspapers of the 1930s and 1940s we can trace Oglesby’s channelling labour. Notes Sadie Oglesby about her talks pepper the historical Source: National Bahá’í Archives, records of that era—“race amity” is United States the recurring theme. An attractive the need for race unity and the infusion force fl owed from her. Drawing peo- of Blackness into the community. ple—Black people, especially—to “If we wish The Cause to grow in the Bahá’í Cause, she constructed a America, that which is the cause of foundation. so few colored believers must be re- In 1935, Hand of the Cause of God moved.” This was the substance of the Louis Gregory wrote a report about message that Oglesby heard from the her work: “Many new faces are found 58 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
among the Boston friends, a large pro- Crow America, developing powers that portion of whom are colored. These she would soon exercise in service of were reported attracted largely through her Faith. The photograph freezes Ha- the spiritual fi nesse of Mrs. Ogles- ley just after her fi rst solo fl ight. It had by” (“Race Amity” 11). The wonder- been diffi cult. Blown off course, and ful description of Oglesby’s work as running low on fuel, she landed in an “spiritual fi nesse” suggests the grace oat fi eld and spent the night in a small of her eff orts to channel the unifying farm town (Ankrom). But beneath the message. But it also conceals the sheer wing of the single-engine plane, Haley labor of her constructive work, help- looks undisturbed by whatever diffi cul- ing to build the foundations of a uni- ties she had encountered in the air. One fi ed interracial community within an foot forward, she seems ready for what American social structure vitiated by is next. what Shoghi Eff endi called the “cor- rosion” of racial prejudice. It is likely that Oglesby endlessly called upon great reservoirs of African American resilience as she labored among those struggling to relinquish “once and for all the fallacious doctrine of racial su- periority, with all its attendant evils, confusion, and miseries” (Advent 39). In this welter of miserable, confused evil, Sadie Oglesby—like millions of African American women—sacrifi - cially constructed a foundation upon which others now stand. Constructive, resilient power channels through the gaze that fl ows from her photo.
G Creadell Haley Creadell Haley stands in the photo- Photo courtesy of The Quincy Herald-Whig graph, tall beside her airplane. It is The spirit dwelling in the tall fi gure 1946, and the Illinois banks of the Mis- in the photograph must have already sissippi River are nearby. Haley had not known the secrets of Black women’s yet encountered the Word that Oglesby resilience. She was raised by an aunt channeled on the East Coast. But mo- and uncle in the white-bread Mid- ments before posing for her commem- west. During World War II, she was orative portrait, she was guiding an a military mechanic, earning the rank aircraft through the skies above Jim of sergeant in the Women’s Army Air Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís 59
Corps. Among African Americans remarkable. But in pioneering—“the of that era, folk wisdom taught that prince of all goodly deeds”—fearless “the army ain’t no place for a Black independence is only an apprentice’s man.” What then was the army like power; perhaps the lofty station of for a Black woman? We can only the pioneer is truly achieved when the imagine the powers that Haley sum- power of independence blends into the moned as she navigated her time in power of deep connection with others, the service. In the photograph we see and the capacity to guide and nurture an American military veteran who had (Bahá’u’lláh 157:1). been stationed throughout the country, Before leaving the United States, studying its people and the arts of resil- Haley had also demonstrated these ience as she studied engines. Sometime connection-forming capacities by bind- after she posed next to the airplane, Ha- ing together the thousands who learned ley would head west, to California, to the words and melodies that she com- study music. Here she would encounter posed. As the 1960s roiled through the Bahá’í Faith and study again, inter- America, twisting its culture into new nalizing its verities, learning to chan- shapes and shifting the tones of its nel the powers of the human spirit that discourse, Haley conceived a body of would allow her to pilot others toward music that was deceptively simple and strength. direct, always returning to the ideas By 1968, Creadell Haley’s name captured in the refrains of two of her was among several dozen published most well-known songs, “Bahá’u’lláh” in The National Bahá’í Review. That and “Love, Love, Love.” That was year she was one of a small group that all. These songs were small temples left America to help construct nascent within which groups would harmoni- Bahá’í communities all over the planet. ously gather; they became staples in the Haley would off er three decades of ser- musical repertoire of Bahá’í communi- vice as a pioneer in Venezuela. There ties throughout the world. Hearts were was no hyperbole in the note that pref- led toward spiritual perception while aced the list of pioneers that included sheltered within the melodic architec- Haley: “The entire American Com- ture that Haley constructed around her munity should be eternally grateful themes. When she took up her South to these 47 courageous and dedicated American pioneering post, Haley left fellow-believers” (“Time-Clocking” behind her these song-gifts that helped 4). She was among a precious hand- guide the devotional culture of Bahá’í ful sacrifi cially advancing a global communities. plan directed by the Universal House Haley’s musical gifts sound as of Justice. When we look yet again at though they fl oat from a transcen- Haley beside her airplane, and think of dently pure heart. In the airy simplic- her departure for South America, her ity of her song “What Mankind Has fearless independence seems still more to Learn,” the earnest wish for racial 60 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020 union is delivered with the lightest of had been sequestered and virtually touch: “There is only one race of man abandoned by their countrymen. Many upon the earth. / But man did divide it decades earlier, but probably not long and so / there’s a black race, a white after He had embraced and encouraged race. / What mankind has to learn is Robert Turner, ʻAbdu’l-Bahá warned that there’s only one race to know.” The that only “a revolutionary change in lilting melody that clothes her lyrics the concept and attitude of the average makes it possible to forget that these white American toward his Negro fel- words address corrosive racial prej- low citizen” could avert a fate in which udice and the immorality of “the fal- “the streets of American cities [would] lacious doctrine of racial superiority” run with blood” (qtd. in Shoghi Ef- (Shoghi Eff endi, Advent 39). Indeed, fendi, Citadel 126). By the 1980s the it seems that Haley had somehow tran- change had not come, and in American scended the strife and the struggle of cities streets were absorbing the blood racism even as her lyrics evoke it. But of young Black men. Tens of thousands if Haley somehow fl ew just above the of us were dying violently each year. rancor of race, guiding others by her This bloodshed provoked a range of example of transcendence, we cannot responses: the state built prison-cages forget that transcendence is the after- at an unprecedented clip; the national light of resilience. The young Black imagination fortifi ed narratives that woman photographed beside her air- vilifi ed Blackness; and the hip-hop plane, moments after descending from generation raised up a defensive count- skies above, surely knew all about er-culture that tried to “improve society resilience. by fi ghting its evils” (Universal House of Justice, 10 Aug. 2018)—indeed, E Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” was one of our anthems. But in the midst The group is made up of mostly of all this, one Bahá’í engaged the younger men. Each one channels into moment with an alternative. He began the camera his own spirit and pow- constructing a network of relationships er. The 2009 photograph captures one between Black men that would foster small cadre of the hundreds of men the power of resilience and help ad- who contributed to the Bahá’í Black vance the Cause of God. Men’s Gathering (BMG) during its Each of the souls in the photograph twenty-fi ve-year history. In 1987, the had, at some time or another, been year of the fi rst BMG, America was embraced and encouraged by William descending into its misbegotten “war “Billy” Roberts, the founder of the on drugs”; rates of incarceration for BMG. His spirit seemed to channel Black men were in precipitous ascent; both the seriousness of Black Power and violence raged in neighborhoods anthems by Public Enemy and the spir- where millions of African Americans itual substance of songs by Creadell Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís 61
Haley. He was the father of the Gath- needed to dissolve the hardness, the ering. He understood that Black men aloofness, the furrowed brows that possessed individual resilient power, were the protective shields we brought but that the traumas of American life in from battles with a perverse world. It intertwined with “fallacious” racial was primarily the moistening power of doctrines rendered that power unrecog- prayer that dissolved the clay. Rousing, nizable to most Americans, to many collectivist prayers channeled together Bahá’í communities, and even to those the Divine Word and the Black expe- who possessed it. Described by the rience of modernity. Voices golden Universal House of Justice as a “capa- and gravel contributed to praise-songs ble facilitator” (28 Aug. 2011), Roberts communally and spontaneously de- also knew that the fusion of individuals vised in sessions that could stretch for into a loving, service-oriented collec- hours. The call-and-response structures tive would release an unknown pow- of Black worship bound hearts; the er. He knew that a gathering could be drums talked beneath tablets that were much more than the sum of its parts. recited in numerous languages; power
The Black Men’s Gathering Photo courtesy of the author But creating the conditions that was released within and between the would enable Black men to collectively gathered men. In the photograph of amplify their powers of resilience and the brothers, we feel the steady energy service required spiritual fi nesse. The that fl ows between them. The image, slow-healing wounds of history and slightly unfocused, captures us after the encircling dangers of living while long days of prayer. Black layered many BMG brothers in In the early years of the Gather- the defensive clay of suspicion and ing, perhaps there was perplexity posturing. A touch of moisture was among Bahá’ís who felt excluded by 62 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
the exceptional assemblage of Black are also leaning into service. The photo men. Was this arrangement admis- fi nds us on the last day of the Gather- sible in a Faith that pivoted on belief ing in 2009—with our hearts open, and in the oneness of humanity? What our wills steeled, we’re preparing for were these men doing in their gath- a return to the fi eld, preparing to make ering? What grievances were they good on the personal vows we’d made sharing? These questions were qui- to carry out the plans of House of Jus- eted in two ways, the one connected tice, which we pored over, hour after to the other. Most signifi cantly, the hour. As one of the brothers once said, House of Justice, “acknowledging “There’s a pledge, there’s a promise— the uncommon circumstances” facing not something you broadcast to every- Black men in America, “lent its body—you have this desire to serve support” to the Gathering, deeming it and not to squander the unique oppor- a necessary “bulwark” for healing and tunity you’ve had to be in that place at empowerment (28 Aug. 2011). And in that time, and to receive those kinds of a reciprocal response to the sanction- blessings, and to go back home and not ing protection off ered by the Supreme get into the fi eld of service . . . well that Body of the Bahá’í Faith, the Gath- would just be a mockery of the Gather- ering demonstrated itself a generator ing” (Done Made). During those days of constructive agency. In the diverse of fellowship and study, we sought collection of fi gures in the photograph, to internalize the marching orders we we see a few of the agents who contrib- received in the Plans. In 2011, when uted to the long record of service that the Gathering was addressed by the unfurled from the Gathering. The style House of Justice for the last time, we of spiritual communion that grew there knew that the true upliftment of Black was transplanted in dozens of locali- people, and the justice and unity which ties, invigorating the devotional culture we longed to experience, remained far of the Bahá’í world; travel teachers off . But we also knew that we had the undertook journeys throughout the Af- means to bring on the social and spir- rican diaspora and elsewhere; pioneers itual change we prayed for. Bidding set off to posts on the home front and us to “advance” into the fi eld, and abroad; and scores of BMG partici- “to conquer the hearts,” the House of pants began serving on administrative Justice—“source of all good and freed institutions. Grievance had no role in from all error” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Will and the Gathering; service was the watch- Testament 14)—left us with a simple word—especially service along those but profound statement about enabling paths illuminated by the encouraging Black Power: “The institute process is Universal House of Justice. the primary vehicle by which you can Many of the fi gures in the photo- transform and empower your people, graph are just slightly off balance. They indeed all the peoples of your nation” lean on one another, but perhaps they (28 Aug. 2011). Constructive Resilience and the Eff orts of African American Bahá’ís 63
A fi nal scan of the photograph notes power is infi nite; it can never be accu- that one of us holds a white rose—an mulated, corralled, or stored up; it can off ering to be left at the gravesite of only be released. As it is released and a champion of service, a Black man channeled, it unifi es and bonds. Per- who was the embodiment of power, haps most importantly, when this pow- whose very life was the expression of er fi lters through the Divine Word, it is constructive resilience, born of love for transformative. Bahá’u’lláh. Just behind the assembled The terrible facts of modern histo- brothers is the resting place of Hand of ry have compelled people of African the Cause of God Louis Gregory and descent to develop cultures that are his wife Louisa. Led by Roberts, we ingeniously constructive, necessarily would process to that holy site on the resilient, and fi lled with power that is fi nal day of our gatherings at the Green associated with words like “release,” Acre Bahá’í School. In the early twen- “encourage,” “channel,” “guide,” and tieth century, Gregory and his wife, “enable.” In the context of the United and their comrade Sadie Oglesby, led States, we should continually appreci- numerous race amity conventions at ate the constructive and resilient eff orts Green Acre. Our annual BMGs at the of the African American friends as we school, and our culminating proces- learn about systematically developing sions to Gregory’s gravesite, were affi r- the knowledge and practices that will mations of our connection to a history help transform society and build up a and tradition of constructive resilience divine civilization defi ned by universal animated by Black Power. love, unity, equity, and justice.
An appreciation of the images curated here is amplifi ed by several ideas about W C the power that animates constructive resilience. This power is not specifi - ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Selections from the cally Black, of course. At the heart of Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. constructive resilience is the power of U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, the human spirit, which “has no gen- 1978. der, race, ethnicity or class” (Universal ———. Will and Testament of ‘Ab- House of Justice, 2 Mar. 2013). If we du’l-Bahá. U.S. Bahá’í Pub- visualize this power as a substance, it lishing Trust, 1990. is translucent like water, taking on mo- Ankrom, Reg. “Pioneering Pilot’s mentarily the color and the shape of the Missions Carried Her Sky- vessel through which it is channeled. It ward.” Herald-Whig, 8 Apr. is essential to recognize that this power 2018. hsqac.org/pioneer- does not contend or compete with any ing-pilot-s-missions-car- other power, Black or otherwise. This ried-her-skyward 64 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Bahá’u’lláh. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990. Done Made My Vow to the Lord: The Bahá’í Black Men’s Gathering 1987–2011. Produced by Nwandi Lawson and Craig Rothman, 2013. Etter-Lewis, Gwendolyn. “Race, Gender, and Diff erence: African-American Women and the Struggle for Equality.” Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá’ís in North America, edited by Gwen Etter-Lewis and Richard Thomas, U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2006, pp. 69–94. Gregory, Louis G. “Race Amity.” The Bahá’í News, no. 91, Apr. 1935, pp. 10–11. ———. “Robert Turner, First Black Believer of the United States.” World Order, vol. 12, Apr. 1946, pp. 28–29. Jeff ries, Hasan Kwame. “SNCC, Black Power, and Independent Political Party Organizing in Alabama, 1964–1966.” The Journal of African American History, vol. 91, no. 2, Spring 2006, pp. 171–93. Oglesby, Sadie. “Arrival in Haifa, March 11, 1927.” Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Bahá’ís in North America, edited by Gwen Etter-Lewis and Richard Thomas, U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2006, pp. 277–82. Shoghi Eff endi. The Advent of Divine Justice. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1990. ———. Citadel of Faith. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1980. “Time-Clocking Our Foreign Goals.” The National Bahá’í Review, no. 4, Apr. 1968, p. 4. The Universal House of Justice. Letter to the participants of the Black Men’s Gath- ering, 28 Aug. 2011. ———. Letter to the Bahá’ís of Iran, 2 Mar. 2013. universalhouseofjustice.bahai. org/involvement-life-society/20130302_001 ———. Letter to an individual in the United States, 4 Feb. 2018. ———. Letter to an individual in the United States, 10 Aug. 2018. ———. Letter to the Bahá’ís of the United States, 22 July 2020. bahai.org/ library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messag- es/20200722_001/1#870410252 65
in countenance,” yet “bright in Africanity, character,” potentially the “fount of Womanism, light and the revealer of the contingent world” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections and Constructive 78:1). According to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, “the blackness of the pupil of the eye Resilience: is due to its absorbing the rays of the Some Refl ections sun” (Some Answered Questions 49:5). Shoghi Eff endi, quoting ‘Abdu’l- Bahá, recalls that, “Bahá’u’lláh once LAYLI MAPARYAN compared the colored [Black] people to the black pupil of the eye surrounded O thou who hast an illumined by the white,” and “[i]n this black pupil heart! is seen the refl ection of that which is Thou art even as the pupil of before it and, through it, the light of the the eye, the very wellspring of the spirit shineth forth” (Advent 37). light, for God’s love hath cast its The use of this metaphor by the rays upon thine inmost being and Central Figures of the Bahá’í Faith, as thou hast turned thy face toward well as by its Guardian, is noteworthy the Kingdom of thy Lord. in its singularity. In fact, in 1996, the Intense is the hatred, in Ameri- Universal House of Justice affi rmed ca, between black and white, but this in its Ridván letter to the follow- my hope is that the power of the ers of Bahá’u’lláh in Africa by writing, Kingdom will bind these two in “Bahá’u’lláh favored the black peoples friendship, and serve them as a by making a specifi c reference to them healing balm. when, as the Master testifi ed, He com- Let them look not upon a man’s pared them to the ‘black pupil of the color but upon his heart. If the eye’ through which ‘the light of the heart be fi lled with light, that man spirit shineth forth’” (21 Apr. 1996). is nigh unto the threshold of his This same letter stated that “[t]he Lord; but if not, that man is care- spiritual endowments of Africa derive less of his Lord, be he white or be naturally from the creative forces uni- he black. versally released by the Revelation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Letter to Louis G. Bahá’u’lláh” when the African conti- Gregory (Selections 76:1–3) nent was graced in turn by Bahá’u’lláh (Whose ship docked in Egypt during According to the Bahá’í Writings, His exile), ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (Who visited the Black people of the world can Egypt before heading to the West), and be compared to the pupil of the Shoghi Eff endi (who twice traversed eye, through which “the light of the the continent north to south and back, spirit shineth forth.” We are “dark mostly by car). 66 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Throughout my life as a Bahá’í, par- into the cultural wealth of Africanity ticularly as the child of a Black-White and the African worldview. interracial Bahá’í marriage, and as a scholar of race and identity, I have won- T C W dered about and refl ected deeply upon A what gives Blackness its special station in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. I have Often, the assumption is that the cultur- also thought about what new insights al wealth of Black people is simply the we gain when the Faith is viewed fruit of their long suff ering under the through lenses of Blackness and Afri- racist regime of modernity—a sort of canity, and when Blackness and Afri- constructive resilience that Black peo- canity are viewed through the lenses of ple in America often refer to with the the Faith. Deeply aware of the ways in folk expression “making a way out of which race is too often confl ated with no way.” And, yet, another view is that physiognomic Blackness—a confl ation this cultural wealth is the product of which, paradoxically, tends to make an African cultural and cosmological Africanity—that is, the cultural and coherence that was cemented “before cosmological wealth of African and contact,” that is, before the colonizers African-descended people—invisible, and slavers showed up. A third view— I have dedicated at least part of my aca- and the one that I embrace—is that demic career to illuminating Africanity both of these mighty rivers of cultural and inviting others to view the world wealth have merged in contemporary through its lens. In the Bahá’í world, times into an ocean of light, power, and which prizes racial amity, racial unity, perceptivity in the “pupil of the eye” and racial justice so highly, indeed, for the benefi t of all humanity along its elevating all three to the level of man- journey towards conscious recognition dates, my working hypothesis has long of its unity. been that a deep engagement with Afri- Rúhíyyih Khanum, Hand of the canity catalyzes the attainment of these Cause and wife of Shoghi Eff endi, aspirations. Yet, as the National Spir- made an interesting remark in 1961 itual Assembly wrote in a letter dated when she wrote for Bahá’í News, 19 June 2020, “deeply entrenched “When Bahá’u’lláh likens the Negro notions of anti-blackness . . . pervade race to the faculty of sight in the hu- our society,” and “[w]e must build the man body—the act of perception with capacity to truly hear and acknowledge all it implies—it is a pretty terrifi c the voices of those who have directly statement. He never said this of anyone suff ered from the eff ects of racism.” In else.” She continued, “I thought the the case of Black people, being able to American Negro’s humility, his kind- “truly hear and acknowledge” requires ness, friendliness, courtesy and hospi- being able to step outside the dominant tableness were something to do with Western mind frame about race and his oppression and the background of Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience 67 slavery. But after spending weeks, day consequential, distinguishing feature after day in the villages of Africa, see- of the transformative social and spir- ing literally thousands of Bahá’ís and itual system laid out in Bahá’u’lláh’s non-Bahá’ís, I have awakened to the Revelation” (7) because this metaphor fact that the American Negro has these “eff ectively positions Blackness at beautiful qualities not because he was the epicenter of a ‘bold and univer- enslaved but because he has the char- sal’ world-transformative project” (9). acteristics of his race” (Thomas 183). Smith goes on to conjecture reasons This quote is important because it illus- for this centrality in Bahá’u’lláh’s trates a seeing of Africanity on its own “wondrous System” by noting “the terms, beyond the bounds of Western material reality that Black people anti-Blackness—that is, seeing humil- were among the principal builders ity, kindness, friendliness, courtesy, of global modernity” (9) and the fact and hospitableness as endemic cultural that Bahá’u’lláh’s favoring of Black attributes and aspects of the African people through the use of this meta- ethos, rather than as products of racial phor eff ectively ruptured the dominant oppression. racial (racist) ideology of the mid-to- The racial hierarchy—Whites on top, late nineteenth century, distinguishing Blacks at the bottom—used to justify “the world-transformative project of slavery, colonialism, and capitalism, His Revelation from social reformist has historically been and continues to movements of the era” (10). Thus, we be a central structural pillar of the cur- witness in Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation a rent world system. That simple, dichot- signal towards something that people omous hierarchy has been an engine of of African descent in the modern era centuries of racial violence at once phys- have longed for: liberation. ical, psychological, social, economic, Surviving the long epoch of an- environmental, and epistemological. ti-Blackness—at least four hundred Thus, it is the seed form, the blueprint, years in the Americas (Hannah-Jones the central organizing principle of to- et al.) and even longer elsewhere day’s systemic racial injustice—the around the world—has required sur- very thing we are trying to undo when vival genius on the part of African and we are trying to undo racism. It is one African-descended people. It has re- of the fundamental schisms in the world quired suff ering and sacrifi ce, sorrow order—and one which Bahá’u’lláh’s and sublimation. It has required the Revelation upends. ability to not become dehumanized in Literary scholar Derik Smith, in an the face of dehumanizing conditions, essay exploring the “pupil of the eye” to not become hateful in the face of metaphor, particularly as it illumi- hate. It has evoked creative genius in nates the relationship between Black the form of music and song, art and people and modernity, notes that “the dance, literature and drama, fashion ‘pupil of the eye’ metaphor is a deeply and sports; it has generated scholarly 68 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
innovation, scientifi c invention, and and hate. Drawing from immense spir- spiritual expression. Arguably, the en- itual reserves, they are able to maintain gine of this survival genius has been focus on a more visionary horizon. Africanity itself, which, far from being These attributes bear great similarity to erased or eradicated by slavery, coloni- the type of African-American survival zation, and their sequelae, has gestated genius described earlier. quietly and protectively inside the bod- Other letters from the House, most ies, souls, and communities of Black directed to the Bahá’ís in Iran, further people, continually being transmitted, enrich our understanding of construc- generation after generation. Another, tive resilience. In a letter dated 9 Sep- more contemporary way of speaking tember 2007 to the Bahá’í students de- about this survival genius might be in prived of education in Iran, for example, terms of constructive resilience. the House describes several attributes associated with constructive resilience, C R noting (of those who were the targets of discrimination) that “[t]hey respond- In a letter dated 28 February 2018 to ed to the inhumanity of their enemies an individual believer, the Univer- with patience, calm, resignation, and sal House of Justice compared the contentment, choosing to meet decep- constructive resilience of the African tion with truthfulness and cruelty with American Bahá’ís, particularly those good will towards all.” Moreover, these who had been engaged in race unity Bahá’ís “attempted to translate the endeavors, to that of the persecuted Teachings of the new Faith into actions Bahá’ís of Iran. A close reading of that of spiritual and social development” letter reveals that those exhibiting con- and “[t]o build, to strengthen, to refi ne structive resilience also demonstrate the tissues of society wherever they the attributes of being forward-looking, might fi nd themselves.” In a letter dated dynamic, vibrant, and committed to 23 June 2009 to the Bahá’ís of Iran, the serving the larger society. Furthermore, House states that those experiencing they exhibit solidarity and collabo- oppression are neither to “succumb in ration in the face of oppression, tran- resignation” nor to “take on the char- scending “mere survival” to transform acteristics of the oppressor.” In a letter conditions of ignorance and prejudice dated 27 August 2013 to the Bahá’ís all around them and win the respect in the Cradle of the Faith (Iran), the and collaboration of people in the wid- House lauds the Iranian Bahá’í com- er community. Among those demon- munity for their “calm and constructive strating constructive resilience, expres- resilience” and remaining “patient and sions of apprehension and anxiety are composed under diffi culties.” African minimal, and their hearts are not easily American history—even beyond the perturbed by calamity; they are able to history of African American Bahá’ís— avoid despair, surrender, resentment, is replete with examples of individuals Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience 69 and communities manifesting these takes place through many vehicles: attributes and embodying constructive schooling, the imposition of a foreign resilience, and the same can be said of language over local languages and African peoples worldwide. criminalization of native tongues, reli- gious proselytization, mass media and C R advertising, the denigration of local O ways of life (for example, foodways, C N marriage and family norms, childrear- ing practices, etc.), and the importation One manifestation of constructive resil- of alien value systems (such as gender ience that is well known to African-de- inequality, colorism, individual land scended Black people worldwide is ownership, capitalism). The result of enduring and surviving cosmological cosmological negation has been to sub- negation while simultaneously cling- vert indigenous worldviews and life- ing fast to the oneness of humanity. ways all around the world, disorienting Cosmological negation, also known as well-functioning societies and individ- epistemicide, occurs when indigenous uals, and depriving the larger humanity (including African) cultural belief sys- of valuable accumulated knowledge tems, cosmologies, and worldviews are and wisdom from these diverse peo- overwritten by the belief systems, cos- ples. Thus, cosmological negation is a mologies, and worldviews of coloniz- profound vector of oppression. Despite ers.1 This psychically violent process these eff orts at cosmological negation, however, indigenous knowledge sys- 1 In this paper, the term “indige- tems, including African knowledge nous” both affi rms and departs from gen- systems, have, like deeply buried erally established working defi nitions of seeds, survived. indigeneity, such as those implied within In Prayers and Meditations—a sor- the United Nations Declaration on the rowful yet hopeful accounting of trib- Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The ques- ulations and overcoming, fi lled with tion of whether people of African descent, plaintive cries to God as well as wor- especially members of the global African shipful litanies of God’s superlative diaspora and, most pointedly, African Americans today are to be considered “in- names—Bahá’u’lláh wrote these words: digenous” has been deliberated (DESA, 2009). This paper invites readers to con- These are Thy servants whom the sider the ways in which African descended ascendancy of the oppressor hath peoples worldwide retain indigeneity, de- failed to deter from fi xing their spite having been forcibly removed gen- eyes on the Tabernacle of Thy erations ago by enslavers from the lands majesty, and whom the hosts of they originally occupied and despite the tyranny have been powerless to vehement attempts, past and present, to erase African consciousness and culture through processes of mental and economic colonization and acts of physical violence. 70 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
aff right and divert their gaze from This poem spoke to me as a Black the Dayspring of Thy signs and Bahá’í who has fought to reconcile the Dawning-Place of Thy testi- competing impulses about how best to monies. (176:4) participate in the movement for racial justice. The pain and rage associated The fi rst time I read this passage, it leapt with the unrelenting epidemic of police out from the page for me, piercing my killings of unarmed Black people and heart with Bahá’u’lláh’s profound love, the indefensible disproportionality of expressed as empathy for those, like Black and Brown deaths to Covid-19 members of my own group, who have sparked fi re in my heart and soul, but suff ered relentless oppression, includ- the love of God and Bahá’u’lláh, the ing cosmological negation, yet who example of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the infi nite- have maintained an ardent, unquestion- ly loving service of Bahíyyih Khánum, ing love of God. In this passage, I felt the resolute equanimity and planning very seen, and I felt that all populations genius of Shoghi Eff endi, and the in- suff ering under the yoke of oppression spiring guidance from the Universal were deeply and compassionately seen House of Justice cooled the fl ames and by Bahá’u’lláh. The passage was deep channeled the heat into the enduring encouragement for all of us. warmth of love, service, and obedience More recently, I encountered Nayy- to the Covenant, reorienting my focus irah Waheed’s powerful poem in her towards the unity of humankind—a book salt: unity that fully embraces Black peo- ple, acknowledges Black equality and if we dignity, eradicates anti-Blackness, and wanted integrates Africanity into world cul- to. ture. It is a universal consciousness people of color of unity that has arrived only after hu- could manity has looked through the “black burn the world down. pupil” and “seen the refl ection of that for what which is before it,” allowing “the light we of the spirit [to shine] forth.” In other have experienced. words, it is a conscious unity that has but decisively abandoned the practice of we don’t. cosmological negation. In the illustrations above, both the — how stunningly beautiful that Prophet and the poet acknowledge our sacred that oppression is a fi ercely disruptive respect for the earth. for life. is force, capable of destabilizing people, deeper than of evoking paralyzing fear or incendi- our rage. (197) ary rage, and, yet, both acknowledge that there is a higher power greater Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience 71 than this force—a power (or Power) dimension) is by far the most vast and capable of evincing a liberatory tran- infl uential, and it interpenetrates the scendence. It is towards this power/ other domains. In African cosmology, Power that many Africana individuals everything is spiritual, infused with and cultures orient themselves and spirit, or of spiritual signifi cance; spirit their discourse, taking refuge in the in- is inescapable. Spirit is also dynam- domitable pervasiveness of Spirit. ic and replete with “aliveness”; it is a While constructive resilience has vitalizing force, but also a force with not been the only response of Afri- destructive potential. The spirit world can Americans to oppression, without is fi lled with beings, from the unitary it, the African American community God Who is “All That Is” and takes would never have survived the deci- many forms, to divinities both grand mating, racially valenced (that is White and minor who are spiritually superior on top, Black at the bottom) conditions to humans, to Ancestors and the spirits of modernity—and the same might be of deceased persons, who are relatively said of other African and African-de- equal to humans, but invisible in a ma- scended peoples around the world. The terial sense. In some accounts, the spir- quest for nobility in the face of deni- itual realm contains both benefi cent gration and the pursuit of dignity in and malefi cent beings who constantly the face of assaults on Black humanity compete for the “heads” of human have defi ned the Black social move- beings (in other words, the ability to ment across the centuries, refl ecting control human thoughts and actions for the spiritually resolute demeanor and their own ends), yet, even in these ac- hopeful disposition associated with counts, the benefi cent beings outnum- constructive resilience. This spirituali- ber the malefi cent ones signifi cantly. ty is inherent in the African worldview, While a full accounting of the nature described by upholders of the “cultural of relationships between humans and unity of Africa” thesis, as a consistent beings in the spiritual realm within Af- and coherent ethos binding Africa’s di- rican cosmology is beyond the scope of verse and far-fl ung people. This ethos this essay, a major takeaway is that, for is encapsulated in the African world- many people of African descent, the view and cosmology (Mbiti). invisible spiritual realm is real, pres- ent, and always interacting with hu- A W man life, in both its social and material C aspects. Thus, engaging with spirit is an “everyday” thing, not a thing apart In the African worldview, as in many from everyday life. other indigenous worldviews, reality is Additionally, the spiritual realm per- understood this way: humans, nature, vades the realm of nature, inspiriting and the spirit world are three interre- animals and plants and other natural lated domains. The spirit world (or phenomena (from mineral formations, 72 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
to the weather, to the celestial bodies), family to community to humanity to the to the point where virtually any natural cosmos. Humans, in turn, form a com- being or phenomenon can be consid- munity with all other beings, from ani- ered a messenger of spirit or spiritual mals, plants, and minerals, to forces of actor, both in its own right and with nature, the cosmos, and the spirit world. respect to humans. This has several im- Kinship is the governing principle of plications. First, nature is considered one grand divine ecology. Within this sacred, often with its own conscious- kinship system, there are rules of right ness, but, at the very least, worthy of relation, based on factors such as age or reverence and awe. Second, humans seniority, gender, lateral versus vertical must respect and not abuse nature, as relationship, and the like. People tend natural “beings” are not objects to be to know (or seek to know) their degree exploited for human ends. Humans and of kinship with every other person they nature must work together, and each encounter, and this degree of kinship can put the other in check. Third, na- determines right relations. These rules ture is a source of life, whether in terms of relation are designed to maintain of food or medicine or shelter or simply both connectedness and social order inherent life-force. Fourth, nature is a against the backdrop of competing indi- source of signs, that is, communication vidual needs, agendas, and aspirations, or information from the spiritual world and to ensure both justice and cohesive- for humans to discern—information ness within the larger collective. Impor- that can guide or constrain human ac- tantly, these rules of right relation can tion, providing valuable information encompass elements of nature as well about whether human life is in align- as spiritual entities, keeping all three ment with the divine order. Thus, hu- domains—human society, the natural man communities benefi t when people world, and the spirit world—aligned become skilled sign-readers, as well and in harmony. Such harmony is, of as when people become knowledge- course, dynamic and not static. able about the physical and spiritual In African cosmology, community is attributes of plants, animals, and nat- often thought of as an ever-expanding ural phenomena of all kinds. With this circle of inclusion. At the heart of it is knowledge, humans so specialized can the dyad, whether husband and wife or become healers, diviners, intermedi- mother and child. Encircling (or grow- aries, and teachers, to the benefi t of ing out of) this dyad is family, followed whole communities. by clan, tribe, and then nation, and cul- The organizing principle for hu- minating in all humanity or the cosmos. man beings and human communities Thus, Bahá’í principles such as “uni- within African cosmology is kinship. ty” and “the oneness of humankind” Everyone is related. Everyone is fam- are highly consonant with the African ily. Family is vast. In fact, kinship is worldview and easy to embrace. This is the organizing principle of life, from one reason that womanism struck such Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience 73
a chord with me when I fi rst encoun- culture and is rooted in African cos- tered it as a young Bahá’í college stu- mology and worldview. This approach dent studying at the historically Black is infl ected by the cultural and histori- Spelman College in 1984. cal experiences of Black women, who have built up a body of knowledge and W : A G a praxis around problem-solving that E A has its center of gravity in “everyday life” rather than “institutions,” per se. Womanism, a social change perspec- Its protagonists are “everyday wom- tive rooted in the African worldview en” rather than “powerful people” or and further elaborated through Black “elites,” per se—although womanism women’s culturally and historical- very much considers “everyday Black ly based perspectives and practices, women” to be powerful people, agents provides another angle on construc- of change, and, in fact, geniuses. tive resilience as well as another lay- What’s more, Black women, Africana er of possibility with regard to how women, do not cling to womanism Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation advances as strictly “their own thing”; rather, justice and unity for all humanity by womanism is viewed as a life-saving, centering the “pupil of the eye.” As I life-giving gift to all humanity from wrote in 2006 in the introduction to Black women, and anyone of any race, The Womanist Reader, ethnicity, religion, or gender can be a womanist or enact womanist social Womanism is a social change per- change praxis. Its values, including the spective rooted in Black women’s value placed on ever-widening circles and other women of color’s ev- of inclusivity, ultimately welcome all eryday experiences and everyday human beings into its ken. methods of problem-solving in Inherent within womanism is a set everyday spaces, extended to the of social change methodologies, as problem of ending all forms of well as a social movement logic. At oppression for all people, restor- the center of this logic is an empha- ing the balance between people sis on changing hearts and minds, the and the environment/nature, and energetic foundation of all material reconciling human life with the and social life, and healing the world. spiritual dimension. (Phillips xx) Womanists understand the brokenness of the world because of their cultur- Unpacking this, womanism is an un- al-historical experiences of slavery and derstanding about how to solve prob- colonization, which attempted to dis- lems—social problems, environmen- orient, debase, and annihilate African tal problems, indeed, not just Black cultures and cosmologies at the same people’s problems, but all humanity’s time as they succeeded at economical- problems—that comes from Black ly exploiting and exacting an immense 74 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
toll of violence on Black bodies. This assault. The world is out of whack, and violence included gender-specifi c acts womanists continue to believe that it such as the wanton rape of enslaved can be righted. women, the separation of enslaved mothers and children, and medical ex- C perimentation on enslaved women and women in colonized countries. Smith’s We cannot realize the oneness of hu- point, mentioned earlier in this essay, manity while simultaneously negating about Black people—Black bodies and the manifold cultures and cosmologies labor—being at the core of modernity of the earth’s diverse and ancient peo- and all its travails is resonant with wom- ples, particularly those “populations anist understandings about the devasta- of special signifi cance”—defi ned by tion that slavery, colonialism, and all the National Spiritual Assembly of the their horrifi c sequelae have wrought on Bahá’ís of the United States as Amer- Black individuals, communities, and ican Indians, African Americans, and cultures. Many African Americans refer various immigrant groups—who have to this experience, especially the Middle endured the ravages of slavery, colo- Passage in which so many Africans died nialism, genocide, and negation (31 Jan. as captives on their way to America, as 2018). By opening up new ways of see- the Ma’afa, which means “terrible oc- ing Black people, Black culture, and the currence” or “great disaster” in Swahili. African worldview—ways that defy and Despite these past horrors and their dissolve anti-Blackness—we advance current-day sequelae, from police the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and accelerate brutality and the killings by police of the just and loving world order it her- unarmed Black civilians to the out- alds. The gravest problems that we are size numbers of Black deaths from trying to solve now are byproducts of Covid-19, womanists maintain that the exploitation of Black people, of the unrelenting eff orts at epistemicide and racist organizing principle at the blue- other forms of Black annihilation have print level of modernity—a principle failed to rob African-descended peoples that codifi ed “race” as a way to negate of their Africanity, that is, their cultural the humanity and brilliance of Black, wealth, or their innate nobility. Woman- African people. Bahá’u’lláh redeemed ists also maintain that “race,” as a con- Black people’s humanity and brilliance struct synonymous with defi cit, lack, against the backdrop of that hegemon- evil, and sin, is incapable of containing ic racist system when He designated the cultural wealth that is Africanity. Black people as “the pupil of the eye” Womanists, because of this cultural through which “the light of the spirit wealth, maintain optimism and strength shineth forth.” By refl ecting deeply on in the face of tremendous trauma and Blackness as Africanity and its cultural unrelenting physical, psychic, cultural, wealth, we are opening the portal wider economic, environmental, and spiritual for this light. 75
W C
‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. 1978. Bahá’í Refer- ence Library, bahai.org/r/324741256. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Some Answered Questions. Bahá’í Reference Library, bahai.org/r/10#847237100. Bahá’u’lláh. Prayers and Meditations. U.S. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 2013. Department of Economic and Social Aff airs [DESA]. The State of the World’s In- digenous Peoples. United Nations, 2009. www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfi i/ documents/SOWIP/en/SOWIP_web.pdf Hannah-Jones, Nikole, et al. “The 1619 Project.” New York Times Magazine, 14 Aug. 2019. Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. Heinemann, 1969. National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. “On Teaching and the Quest for Justice.” Letter dated 31 Jan. 2018. app.box.com/s/vmd6rgniscz3zyq8lj4rk4np9n70ow7h ———. “Statement on Current Conditions and the Path Towards Racial Justice.” Letter dated 19 June 2020. bahai.us/path-to-racial-justice Phillips, Layli. The Womanist Reader. Routledge, 2006. Shoghi Eff endi. The Advent of Divine Justice. 1938. Bahá’í Reference Library, bahai.org/r/862028771. Smith, Derik. “Centering the ‘Pupil of the Eye’: Blackness, Modernity, and the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, vol. 29, no. 1–2, Spring–Summer 2019, pp. 7–28. doi.org/10.31581/jbs-29.1-2.2(2019) Thomas, Richard. “‘The Pupil of the Eye’: African Americans and the Making of the American Community, 1898–2003.” The Black Urban Community from Dusk till Dawn, edited by Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, pp. 167–92. The Universal House of Justice. “Letter to the Followers of Bahá’u’lláh in Africa.” Ridván 153 (April 1996). Bahá’í Reference Library, www.bahai.org/r/303502776. ———. Letter dated 9 Sept. 2007 to the Bahá’í Students Deprived of Education in Iran. dl.bahai.org/bwns/assets/documentlibrary/577/LetterFromUni- versalHouseOfJusticeToIranianStudents_en.pdf ———. Letter dated 23 June 2009 to the Bahá’ís of Iran. Bahá’í Reference Li- brary, www.bahai.org/r/320811290 ———. Letter dated 27 Aug. 2013 to the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in Iran. Bahá’í Reference Library, www.bahai.org/r/769112095 ———. Letter dated 28 Feb. 2018 to an Individual Believer. Waheed, Nayyirah. salt. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. 76 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Sophisticated Lady M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 77 When We VAWA have provided federal grant funding In/visibilize to support relevant community-based ini- tiatives; they have also resulted in a num- Our Nobility . . . ber of advancements, including, but not limited to: stronger criminal laws, housing SAHAR D. SATTARZADEH protections for victims, extending partial accountability for domestic violence to tribal lands, and inclusion of protections Dost thou deem thyself a small for the LGBTQ+ community. Reauthori- and puny form, zation of the bill expired in 2019, and at When thou foldest within thyself the time of writing this, the U.S. House the greater world? of Representatives approved reauthoriza- Hadith (qtd. in Bahá’u’lláh, The tion, H.R.1620 - Violence Against Women Call of the Divine Beloved) Act Reauthorization Act of 2021 (www. congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house- U / V bill/1620/text) with enhancements, partic- ularly for Black, Indigenous, underrepre- In October 2011, an international faith- sented ethnic/racial groups, two-spirit and based women’s rights non-governmen- LGBTQ+ communities, which is currently tal organization (NGO) convened a facing obstacles in the Senate. Responding press briefi ng for invited members of to the long absence, avoidance, and silence of governmental action regarding Miss- the United States Congress and their ing and Murdered Indigenous Women, staff in the U.S. Capitol Building in Girls, Transgender, and Two-Spirit People Washington, D.C. The briefi ng was an (MMIWGT2S), the fi rst-ever Indigenous advocacy initiative to address the Vi- person and woman of color to hold a U.S. 1 olence Against Women Act (VAWA) Cabinet position, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo), has also 1 Introduced by the U.S. Congress established a new Missing and Murdered and signed by President Bill Clinton in Unit (MMU) within the Bureau of Indian 1994, VAWA became the fi rst form of U.S. Aff airs Offi ce of Justice Services “to pro- legislation representing a multidimensional vide leadership and direction for cross-de- approach to strengthening local, state, trib- partmental and interagency work involving al, and federal responses to gender-based missing and murdered American Indians violence and violence against women and and Alaska Natives . . . [and] help put the LGBTQ+ communities, specifi cally relat- full weight of the federal government into ing to crimes associated with dating vio- investigating these cases and marshal law lence, domestic violence or intimate part- enforcement resources across federal agen- ner violence, sexual assault, and stalking. cies and throughout Indian country” (DOI The dual purpose of the bill is to “ensur[e] News). On May 4, 2021, President Joe victim safety and off ender accountabili- Biden proclaimed May 5 as the National ty” (Offi ce of Violence Against Women). Day of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Throughout the years, reauthorizations of Peoples Awareness Day, including his 78 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
since its reauthorization had expired this point. It was my turn to approach that year, and therefore, was again up the microphone and share my story. for reauthorization for the 2012 fi scal “Thank you for inviting me to speak year. Along with three other women about this very important issue,” I be- from diverse faith backgrounds, repre- gan. “I want to clarify, however, that I senting religious or interfaith domestic do not self-identify as a ‘victim’ . . .” violence organizations and programs, I The consistent frequency and weight was invited by the NGO to partici- of this gender-based “justice” vernac- pate on an Interfaith Domestic Violence ular was already too familiar. Even Coalition panel for the press brief- when considering the purpose of our ing. When I was introduced to speak, gathering and the title of the federal however, the last words of the introduc- law, the Violence Against Women Act, tion caught me off -guard: “. . . and she for example, the emphasis clearly falls is a victim of domestic violence.” on the victimized body of women, dis- Despite having jotted down talking regarding the accountability of the per- points in advance, suddenly, I felt petrators of that violence. Having ex- ill-prepared and out of place. An intense perienced all the predetermined stages sensation of heat overpowered my be- of “Battered Woman Syndrome,” while ing. There was no intention to present simultaneously self-diagnosing it on myself as the victim on display for the occasion, is another reminder of how event; to be honest, I had never actu- such branding creates new, problematic ally shared my abusive relationship opportunities for those of us who have history with the conveners. The emcee endured abusive relationships to be sys- of the event, a white Christian clergy- tematically beaten up and diminished woman introduced as a “survivor” of by ourselves and others—even if only domestic violence, shared the obstacles symbolically—over and over again. It she had faced due to a defi cient, broken becomes a gendered burden to bear. In system. It was a story she chose to tell. attempting to identify the “disease,” we While there was likely no malintent still become “diseased,” pathologizing on the part of the sponsoring NGO, I our experiences of abuse. Despite the still could not help but feel exploited shared anecdotes of victimization and and tokenized as the poster “victim” trauma that may (or may not) have for the briefi ng. I never consented to been expected of me at the congressio- such a representation. My nobility nal hearing, I refused to go there. That was instantly invisibilized, fl anking in refusal was a resistance to how I was the shadows of my “trauma.” Never- introduced, to how I was scripted to theless, there was no running away at perform. Ironically, being introduced as a victim took me completely “off - script” of my own pre-drafted words; commitment to protecting Native commu- yet, it also challenged me to create a nities through the reauthorization of VAWA new narrative for myself. (The White House). When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 79
Simultaneously, I had been volun- intend to serve. While I shared my per- teering as a “Court Companion and spectives during the training sessions, I Victim Advocate” at the “Abused am not sure whether anyone was recep- Persons Program” (titles that remain), tive to them. One thing was for certain: an initiative of the county health de- the program and the court system only partment where I lived at the time. viewed us as “victims.” Volunteering for the program was a In such systems, we are inherently self-prescribed attempt to heal from victims—before we even arrive, grant- leaving an abusive relationship (which ing us the latitude to perform victim- many, I recognize, are not privileged to hood; and then, there are those unwrit- do, due to varying circumstances) by ten codes deciphering who deserves hoping to support others who had also protection, who deserves the abuse, experienced domestic or intimate part- who deserves or should be “rescued” or ner violence. Among the program staff “saved,” and who should be doing the and our cohort of volunteers, I was the rescuing or saving; this savior complex only one who had openly verbalized extends across many interesting di- experiencing an abusive relationship, mensions and planes (Cole). Becoming revealing a close-up understanding a “battered woman” not only emerges of how “justice” falls short. While I from a historical, patriarchal norma- sensed a genuine collective desire to tive script. Its imprint deepens when help those victimized by abuse, the it becomes economized, ethnicized, program lacked suffi cient, relevant geographized, Indigenized, and/or ra- educational and economic resources, cialized, and so on, particularly when and most importantly, it lacked any examined through the lens of colonial epistemic experience—or what Deer histories—justifying, normalizing, and refers to as “the kind of knowledge reproducing diverse forms of violence we gain from experiencing something; against Indigenous, Black, ethnic/ a visceral knowledge that can invoke racial, and gendered bodies (for ex- the physical senses and the genius of ample, see Deer; Hammad; Hartman; memory” (14)—from its targeted pop- Ritchie; Sharpe). This victimhood is ulation, thus neglecting the insightful, oftentimes internalized, especially for vital contributions that could be shared already marginalized and underrepre- with the program. The dichotomies sented communities. Ultimately, if the of “victim” and “off ender” used in oppression persists “long enough and the space are dehumanizing and di- eff ectively enough, you [may] begin to minish the possibility of any inherent do it to yourself . . . becom[ing] a col- nobility. Therefore, despite their good laborator” (Baldwin and Giovanni 17). intentions, the program staff ’s eff orts For fi ve years, I was in a relationship seemed paternalistic and surface-level with a man who was economically, at most, disregarding the diverse so- emotionally, physically, psychological- ciocultural contexts of the people they ly, and spiritually abusive towards me. 80 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
My former partner’s abuse was fueled a silent corner, hidden from view . . . by evident preexisting insecurities that until dear, beloved souls gave me “per- swiftly avalanched from the “intel” he mission” to share it. The companionate collected during his frequent violations words of Saidiya Hartman on being of my privacy, including reading my infl uenced by DuBois’s use of memoir journal entries about my interrogations in The Souls of Black Folk and Dusk of uninvited advances from men and the of Dawn—inspired by Chandler and details of a gang rape I had endured just Spivak’s terminology—confi rmed that a year prior to meeting him. His mother this “autobiographical example . . . had tragically passed away from ad- is not a personal story that folds onto vanced ovarian cancer during the early itself; it’s not about navel gazing, it’s weeks of our courtship. Coincidentally, really about trying to look at histori- I was diagnosed with an early stage of cal and social process and one’s own ovarian cancer two weeks following formation as a window onto social and her earthly departure. Oddly enough, historical processes, as an example of I assumed my cancer diagnosis would them” (Saunders 5). Lorde’s reference serve as a form of protection or shield to her personal story in The Cancer from the abuse, perhaps an unyielding Journals as “not academic,” but rather bond between us; but instead, it swiftly as “a piece of life-saving equipment” became irrelevant, invisible. Our rela- that “kept [her] alive during the time tionship ended in 2009, and two years that [she] wrote it” (Lorde et al. 11), later—two months after that congres- likewise encouraged me to reconcile sional press briefi ng—I was formally and feel at ease to open up and share diagnosed with having post-traumatic this story; the urge to share this now is stress disorder (PTSD). Two years lat- simply because it fi nally manifested as er, we attempted to give the relationship a rupture I needed to address. And in another try, but it had already failed the the words of Lorde, “now it’s out there, fi rst time. The relationship was an ac- the umbilical cord is cut, it has a life of celerant to a lingering disbelief in my its own” (2). It is no longer “mine,” nor own nobility. All of my relationships— does it belong to me. regardless of shape or form—were Silence formerly functioned as a mirrors of a distorted reality, refl ecting protective armor—for my own guilt the neglect of my spiritual self. and shame and for my former partner, To be truthful, it has taken me well from the backbiting, verbal abuse, over a decade to share this personal and judgments projected from others experience openly and publicly. Obvi- in their attempts to slander his char- ously, I am not the fi rst to share such acter. In addition to unlearning unjust an account; nor will I be the last, un- sociocultural norms and other forms fortunately. Initially resistant to being of socialization (we do not often free- the center of attention, to be centered ly speak about “these kinds of issues” at all, this story was safeguarded in in Azeri/Iranian/Persian households), When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 81
gossip and backbiting, unfortunately, for justice and healing they evoke. had already emerged among a number Even those secret well-intentioned of those privy to this particular slice of “intervention” plans among a few clus- my life. Even in the deafening secrets ters of friends deeply rooted in social and silence, I heard people talking. justice activism, which I learned of Aside from the desire to avoid being years later, backfi red in unhealthy, tox- “exposed” to and judged by the world, I ic modes, even dissolving friendships. had no interest in presenting the self-in- All I desired was to avoid being (mis) fl icted image of damaged “victim” or represented or replicating the “danger recovering “survivor.” Both “victim” in damage-centered [narratives] . . . [as and “survivor” still give way/weight to a] pathologizing approach in which the the experience of trauma, albeit diff er- oppression singularly defi nes a com- ently.2 The thought of others projecting munity” (Tuck 413), such as women such a negative status upon me felt in violent relationships. Tuck suggests disempowering. In the same instance, considering desire-based frameworks there was no desire on my part to triv- instead. ialize or delegitimize the injustice or My desire to seek liberation from diminish the urgency of domestic/in- the entanglements and fetters of dam- timate partner/gender-based violence. age and victimhood is neither unique Similarly, I did not wish to undermine nor limited to my personal experiences the genuine empathy and aspirations with intimate partner, domestic, gen- der-based, and sexual violence. There 2 For me, “survivor” has been asso- are extensive systems and structures in ciated with “surviving”: cancer, rape, and our societies where a duality of visibi- domestic violence. Like “victim,” there- lized trauma and invisibilized nobility fore, I believe “survivor,” as a construct, is reproduced and normalized, particu- still anchors an individual’s trauma or pain larly in the realm of justice. Many have and centers the damage or scars there- created—through comedy and humor, from, limiting it to the human body—not writing, research, the arts, and social the capacities of the soul—therefore, em- action—humanizing narratives that phasizing the scars that remain from such push back against one-sided or domi- experiences, not the healing, growth, and progress. Thus, instead of transcending our nant narratives of victimhood (for ex- pain and suff ering—accepting it happened, ample, see @regcharging (Charging); grieving it, and so on—we become stuck Bida; Dougher; Madden; Noah; Rodri- in limbo within a projected and/or internal- guez). Like Tuck, “I invite you to join ized, one-dimensional posture of survivor me in re-visioning [representations] in of our own individual and collective mak- our communities not only to recognize ing. There is no desire on my part to deny the need to document the eff ects of op- the name “survivor” for those who wish to pression on our communities but also claim it; it is solely a personal preference to consider the long-term repercussions not to be perceived as a survivor or surviv- of thinking of ourselves as broken” ing. Living is also an option. 82 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
(409)—moving beyond satisfaction it? What examples in the world could with representations of desire—mov- I learn and draw from? How can we ing along to recognition of and belief authentically and humbly engage in in our inherent spiritual reality—visi- social action and the relevant discours- bilizing nobility for ourselves and our es of society to “assail” the injustices communities, especially in numerous and inequities of this world, while discourses about (in)justice and (in)eq- concurrently amplifying the spiritual uity. Most importantly, in this journey reality—the nobility (and therefore, of renewal and reimagination, this vis- constructive resiliency) of the soul? ibilizing of nobility demands that we These questions have since evolved look at members of our human family into two broader questions that I am who endure injustices and inequities— still aiming to “perfect.” First, how can in varying degrees—with new eyes. we reconceptualize and participate in They are not merely damaged bodies a body politic where we visibilize and or spiritually disembodied beings, as center nobility in public discourses and too frequently depicted, but so much social actions on the various entangled more. They are souls, embodiments of dimensions of injustice and inequity, nobility or noble-embodied beings. including academic and activist spaces (and their convergences)? Second, how R R , do exemplary narratives of constructive V J /N resilience help us honor and recognize the nobility of peoples and communi- My soul simultaneously aches and ties without delegitimizing and deny- smiles whenever I ponder the Bahá’í ing the social forces of oppression that perspective on the relationship be- exist and persist in the world? These tween our inherent nobility and justice: questions, I imagine, are only a few of “Justice is a noble quality and injus- those I will live with all the days of my tice an iniquity” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris life, on this earthly plane, attempting to Talks 79), particularly due to the hor- humbly explore and learn from. rifi c accumulation of dehumanization It is my belief that visibilizing the we are currently enduring. Learning inherent nobility of human souls is this, however, has also forced me to a key ingredient in the possibility of question how, for decades, I could con- reimagining resistance as constructive ceive of the inherent spiritual nobility resilience. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes: of others and their justice while deny- ing my own. But if “[j]ustice is a no- In the world of existence there ble quality,” what is true nobility, and is nothing so important as spirit, what role(s) does it play in response to nothing so essential as the spirit of oppression, (in)justice, and (in)equity? man. The spirit of man is the most What does nobility look like in the face noble of phenomena . . . the col- of oppression, and would I recognize lective center of all human virtues When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 83
. . . the cause of the illumination and hypervisibility of injustice and of this world. (Promulgation inequity on a number of intersecting 239–40) levels. The global COVID-19 pandem- ic, combined with a rampant, height- Imagine if we all saw one another ened response to worldly injustices of through this lens: as spirits, as nuclei anti-Blackness, anti-Indigeneity, an- of human virtues, as radiant lights— ti-Asian violence, extremes of poverty even amidst pain and suff ering. When and wealth, vaccine apartheid, xeno- refl ecting on this imagery, I cannot phobia, racism, and patriarchy, and the help but refl ect on the analogies de- list goes on—despite their persistence scribed by the Central Figures of the for centuries—have been characterized Bahá’í Faith regarding the entangled by varying calls for public action. Most relationship between the most globally of these movements have been moti- oppressed communities—as the “pupil vated by the necessities of collective of the eye,”—a metaphor distinctly in- justice, while others have been fueled troduced by Bahá’u’lláh for people of by demands for individual liberties. African descent—as portals of light, Mass public outcry is usually synon- and Indigenous peoples as beacons of ymous with or derived from—but not light who will become “so illumined as limited to—terms and concepts such as to enlighten the whole world” (Tablets activism, boycott, demonstration, pro- of the Divine Plan 32). This spiritual test, resistance, and social movements, reality cannot be reduced to coinci- for example. The most prolifi c scholars dence. What if narratives of injustice of “social movement studies,” par- and inequity faced by communities ticularly those educated and residing were paralleled by these noble quali- within a factory-like white, patriarchal ties they possess? How might a nobil- Euro-American system of formal high- ity framework yield new opportunities er education, limit their defi nitions of for reimagining noble souls and their collective action to criteria character- capacities of constructive thought and istic of contention and oppositionality. action in the face of injustice? While These conditions are clearly the most I fully advocate the necessity of un- mediatized and popularized, but there earthing and studying all facets of are also more humanizing elements of oppression, stopping at the paralysis social change that are almost always of damage or victimhood from such hidden from view. While the study of oppression seems incomplete, falling social movements is important, these short, and even a missed opportunity. criteria limit the possibilities of social Why not, rather, prepare and seek out change and the inherent capacities and pathways of transcendence through contributions of humankind, especially that oppression? the persistent eff orts of those catego- Today, more than ever, we are im- rized and segmented as “marginalized” mersed in a cumulative amplifi cation “oppressed,” “underserved,” and so on. 84 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Such criteria visibilize negative imag- disadvantage, dysfunction, and diff er- ery of collective action, while invisibi- ence (80). lizing the inherent nobility of individ- In a message to Bahá’í students uals and communities engaged in such denied access to higher education in action and their pursuit of justice and Iran, the Universal House of Justice equity. The intensity of discourses and addressed the historical oppression of actions revolving around racial injus- their Bábí and Bahá’í spiritual ances- tice, anti-Indigeneity, and anti-Black- tors, as well as their complementary ness in the United States and globally inheritance of a constructively resil- reveals that this trend in visibilizing ient spiritual capacity to advance be- suff ering while invisibilizing nobility yond that same oppression: “You, too, is nothing new. However, the case for demonstrate such noble qualities and, naming and centering inherent nobility holding fast to these same principles, is a novel, Bahá’í-inspired perspective. you belie the slander purveyed against In the process of spiritually excavat- your Faith” (9 Sept. 2007). ing my inherent nobility, I was pulled The Universal House of Justice also by the arts and scholarship that would notes the centuries-long lives of Afri- help me on this journey. In my re- can Americans in the United States as search, I encountered many artistic and evidence of constructive resilience and scholarly critiques of the hypervisibili- calls upon the African American com- ty of communities and peoples’ trauma munity to continue “to see in the recent and victimhood, as well as arguments turmoil opportunity rather than obsta- justifying the necessity to underscore cle” (4 Feb. 2018). Constructive resil- and center their suff ering. There were ience, therefore, requires utilization of also works that visibilize the nobility the spiritually inherent noble qualities of communities that endure injustice of souls to “transcend” oppression, and how they constructively respond perceive what is possible “beyond the to systematic oppression. Represen- distress of diffi culties [and obstacles] tations that piqued my attention were assailing them,” and transform them- those uniquely captured moments that selves and their communities through humanize and celebrate individual and deeds that advance “spiritual and so- collective joy, self-care, and preserva- cial development.” The beauty of con- tion in the midst of suff ering just as structive resilience is its reliance upon much as they shed light on anger, grief, an internal power of the spirit of peo- and pain. They highlight the construc- ples and their communities. It also sur- tive resilience of communities popu- passes the quantitative frontiers of “re- larly portrayed on a default setting of silience” that have been amplifi ed by “broken,” disrobed of our nobility and social actions and discourses emerging costumed in descriptors of defi ciency across social media spaces, implying or what Walter (2016) calls the “fi ve that #StillHere is commonly (mis) ‘Ds’ of data”: disparity, deprivation, interpreted and limited to a physical When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 85 resilience. Furthermore, constructive of Lakota women, men, and children at resilience is by no means restricted to Wounded Knee in 1890 (Brings Plen- the Bahá’í community; nor is there a ty). Sørensen maps constructive resis- singular method or understanding in tance, referring to “initiatives in which which constructive resilience can be people start to build the society they achieved (Karlberg). desire independently of the dominant -an Arabic concept structures already in place” (49) and re ,(دومص) Sumud meaning steadfastness and “resilient lies on Vinthagen’s defi nition, where- resistance,” can be traced back to the by constructive resistance is understood tenth century. Palestinian women use to “transcend the whole phenomenon sumud as an explanation of their daily of being-against-something, turning existence and collective empowerment, into the proactive form of constructing particularly through a reaffi rmation of ‘alternative’ or ‘prefi gurative’ social their identity, a “preservation” of Pal- institutions which facilitate resistance” estinian culture, and a “nurturance” (7). These are only but a few concep- of the Palestinian community (Ryan). tual and theoretical frameworks that, holt explains how Rezilience (a com- like constructive resilience, visibilize bination of the slang term for reserva- nobility, the highest aspirations of in- tion, “rez,” and resilience), an Indige- dividuals and communities facing op- nous worldview, is an active teaching pression in its various forms. and learning practice for Indigenous The Universal House of Justice, in communities to “reclaim, relearn, and another message, praises the Iranian reconnect with their ancestral ways of Bahá’í community’s establishment of being” (72). Rezilience is an example the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education of Vizenor’s reference to Indigenous (BIHE) in response to the government’s survivance (Vizenor, Fugitive Poses; systematic denial of higher education to Vizenor, Survivance; Vizenor and Lee), all its Bahá’í citizenry as representative a “moving beyond [Indigenous] basic of “actions [that] are not confi ned to ef- survival in the face of overwhelming forts to seek justice” (1 Oct. 2014). Fur- cultural genocide to create spaces of thermore, the establishment of the BIHE synthesis and renewal” (Vizenor, Man- as an “unrelenting pursuit of knowledge ifest Manners 53). Survivance echoes is perhaps one of the most outstanding the sacredness of the Lakota word tak- examples of constructive resilience in ini, which is often simply translated to the modern age.” Alternative peaceful survivor, but it means “to come back to measures to sustain teaching and learn- life.” Takini, is about restoring Indige- ing within formal higher education have nous communities and moving beyond similarly been implemented through survival, recalling stories of the ances- “street academies” in Turkey (Aktas et tors and the historical trauma inherited, al.), underground universities in Kosovo most associated with the U.S. Army’s (Sommers and Buckland) and Poland Seventh Calvary massacre of hundreds (Garlinski), and educational programs 86 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
held in private homes, religious institu- computer screens, my therapist assigned tions, and offi ces for students in Pales- me homework: “Recite a prayer every tine (Zelkovitz). morning to recognize your own nobili- ty.” Mind. Blown. Her instructions were V N so simple, yet profoundly humbling. M Pray for my own nobility?!? Is that actually a thing? Prayers for the ances- While understanding the constructive tors, detachment, tests and diffi culties, capacity of the soul outside of my- healing, steadfastness, (in)justice, love, self, the struggle to see it within me praise of the Creator, my mother and was still very real. After completing father, my brother, my profession . . . a remote session with my psychother- were among the primary motivations apist, the fog gradually began to clear for prostration and devotion. Never had for me. Several years had passed since praying for my own nobility (let alone my PTSD diagnosis, while trudging recognizing it) been on my mind up to along an evolving journey of disen- that point. Ever since that moment, I tanglement from its fetters. All this recite the following from The Hidden time, justice and equity had served Words of Bahá’u’lláh daily as part of as dual interlocking aspirations driv- my morning meditation routine: ing my activism, teaching, research, and writing, but my attempted eff orts O Son of Spirit! were constantly falling short. Even my I created thee rich, why dost thou determination to highlight narratives bring thyself down to poverty? about the constructive, transformative Noble I made thee, wherewith capacities of “marginalized” and “op- dost thou abase thyself? Out of the pressed” peoples and communities essence of knowledge I gave thee seemed rather oxymoronic. Externally, being, why seekest thou enlight- I was wholeheartedly committed to enment from anyone beside Me? exposing (in)justice and the nobility Out of the clay of love I molded among the hearts, minds, and souls of thee, how dost thou busy thyself “the oppressed” (and the oppressors), with another? Turn thy sight unto but it was in competition with the inter- thyself, that thou mayest fi nd Me nal invisibilization of my own nobility, standing within thee, mighty, pow- as well as a forgetfulness in the pursuit erful and self-subsisting. (#13, of justice for myself. From the Arabic) Clearly, this sudden pull to visibilize nobility was new and uncomfortable, O Son of Spirit! especially when related to my own Noble have I created thee, yet thou being. Just before our fi rst session had hast abased thyself. Rise then unto concluded, and with more than thir- that for which thou wast created. teen thousand kilometers between our (#22, From the Arabic) When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 87
Reciting these sacred words and ab- with a tradition of African American sorbing their meaning is equivalent to thought that was signifi cantly advanced looking into a new, undistorted mirror by Du Bois and that attempted to al- that still requires daily meditation and chemize a history of oppression into a application of my interpretation of source of pride and inspiration” (13). those words into action in every phase If the material or physical frame of of my life. In other words, I am still our bodies and the damage, harm, and working on truly seeing the nobility trauma infl icted upon them become and justice of my soul. our primary point of focus, then we Challenging the historically situated reproduce the same gaze that justifi es Northwestern Hemispheric concept oppression—a perception that humans and identity of nobility (Leonhard are reduced to soulless bodies. We then and Wieland), this spiritual dimension lose sight of the core reality of the of nobility—not unique to the Bahá’í identity of our souls and their capac- teachings alone, not only reveals the ities of inherent nobility to withstand power of our spiritual ancestral lin- oppression and to do so constructively. eage, but also foreshadows the future of humankind and its inherent capac- O N S A ities to heal, transcend oppression, F and advance intergenerationally. “A striking aspect of Bahá’í belief,” Arb- It is my sincerest hope that calling for ab purports, “is the extraordinary op- the visibility of nobility (and its inher- timism it displays about humanity’s ent relationship to the soul) is not mis- future. Such hopefulness would be un- taken for a desire to avoid, dehumanize, tenable were it not for a profound con- erase, invisibilize, silence, minimize, viction, which arises from the Faith’s or disconnect the social realities of teachings, that the human being was bodies or trauma, injustice, and inequi- created noble” (175–76). Constructive ty in this world—nor to essentialize or resilience, therefore, is a sustainable, homogenize those social realities. Nor futuristic, intergenerational response to am I advocating for a partial visibility, oppression that is associated with our but rather, inviting you—all of us—to spiritual afterlives. consider one that is whole—one that Similarly, Smith’s argument for captures both the corporeal and spiritu- “centering the ‘pupil of the eye’” also al reality of humankind. For instance, exemplifi es a noble spiritual station in “[i]dentify[ing] the achievement and defi ance of an unceasing racial oppres- exhilaration in [B]lack life is not to sion endured for well over fi ve centu- mute or minimize racism . . . there is ries. According to Smith, “interpreta- a spiritual majesty of joy in suff ering” tions of the ‘pupil of the eye’ metaphor and an invitation to not only possibly that fi x upon the spiritual perceptive- feel Black “pain but also the beauty ness of [B]lack people are in keeping of being human” (Perry). In a relevant 88 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
letter addressed to the U.S. Bahá’í me along the way. One of my favorite community regarding intensifying ra- guided meditations of Audre Lorde— cial injustices, the National Spiritual “[T]hat visibility which makes us most Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United vulnerable is that which also is the States wrote: “The language we use source of our greatest strength” (60)— and the attitudes we take, while not ig- comforts and assures me of the spiritu- noring the harsh realities that exist in al implications of being clothed in “no- the world, should appeal to the nobler bility,” even when feeling naked. We aspirations of our fellow-citizens” (25 are, after all, spiritually destined to be Feb. 2017). Accordingly, this is not an “dressed in royal robes, to walk in glory attempt to deny or delegitimize trauma, for ever and ever” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Se- injustice, and inequity and their multi- lections 317). We all are created noble, tudinous eff ects on peoples and groups, and nobility looks divine on us, would but to celebrate and center fellow souls you not agree? From the point of our that are created to endure and move conception—before our physical birth, through and break free of the cages of and beyond—through our spiritual af- such suff ering. terlives/futures, our inherent nobility May this be an invitation to all of continues to insist, persist, and trans- us—especially to all the souls whose form into a new garment: bodies have been and continue to feel or be treated as branded, broken, O Thou Provider, O Thou Forgiv- damaged, erased, inferior, invisible, er! A noble soul hath ascended and/or—as non-human, as well as unto the Kingdom of reality, and those souls who, through their words, hastened from the mortal world thoughts, or deeds, choose to read, see, of dust to the realm of everlasting and engage with souls as damaged, glory. Exalt the station of this re- non-human, and ignoble—to visibi- cently arrived guest, and attire this lize nobility. Please join me in this long-standing servant with a new ever-evolving journey to consider why and wondrous robe. and how visibilizing nobility helps us O Thou Peerless Lord! Grant reimagine resistance as constructive Thy forgiveness and tender care resilience, to realize and celebrate so that this soul may be admitted our individual and collective inherent into the retreats of Thy mysteries nobility, and to actualize our spiritual and may become an intimate com- reality in our afterlives and our futures. panion in the assemblage of splen- It is my hope that these closing dours. Thou art the Giver, the Be- words and this invitation do not at all stower, the Ever-Loving. Thou art suggest that I have forgotten my vul- the Pardoner, the Tender, the Most nerability in feeling exposed. Beloved Powerful. (#11, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, revolutionary spiritual ancestors have Prayers of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá) been holding my hand, accompanying When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 89
Although far from completing the work of visibilizing nobility, what keeps me going is knowing we were created noble, and our nobility never dies . . .
W C
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Hammad, Suheir. “Not Your Erotic, Not Your Exotic.” YouTube, 29 Aug. 2010, www.youtu.be/xarc5PFknfw Hartman, Saidiya. Lose Your Mother: A Journey along the Atlantic Slave Route. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. holt, renée. “Rezilience.” Education in Movement Spaces: Standing Rock to Chi- cago Freedom Square, edited by Alayna Eagle Shield, Django Paris, Rae Paris, and Timothy San Pedro, Routledge, 2020, pp. 67–76. Karlberg, Michael. “Constructive Resilience: The Bahá’í Response to Oppres- sion.” Peace & Change, vol. 35, no. 2, 2010, pp. 222–57. Leonhard, Jörn, and Christian Wieland. What Makes the Nobility Noble?: Compar- ative Perspectives from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century. Vanden- hoeck & Ruprecht, 2011. Lorde, Audre, Marge Piercy, Fran Moira, and Lorraine Sorrel. “Interview: Audre Lorde: Lit from Within.” Off Our Backs, vol. 12, no. 4, 1982, pp. 2–3, 11. ———. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 1984. Madden, Tamara Natalie. Tamara Natalie Madden, www.tamaranataliemadden. org National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Letter to the American Bahá’í Community dated 25 Feb. 2017, www.bahai.us/static/ assets/20170225-NSA-on-America-and-the-Five-Year-Plan.pdf Noah, Trevor. “Trevor Noah: You Laugh But It’s True – UNICEF Fly.” YouTube, 25 Mar. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNqfFafXGLA. Offi ce on Violence Against Women. “Archives.” U.S. Department of Justice, 19 Feb. 2020, www.justice.gov/archives/ovw/blog/violence-against-wom- en-act-ongoing-fi xture-nation-s-response-domestic-violence-dating. Perry, Imani. “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not.” The Atlantic, 15 June 2020, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/racism-terrible-black- ness-not/613039/. Ritchie, Andrea. Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color. Beacon Press, 2017. Rodriguez, Favianna. Favianna Rodriguez, www.favianna.com Ryan, Caitlin. “Everyday Resilience as Resistance: Palestinian Women Practicing Sumud.” International Political Sociology, vol. 9, no. 4, 2015, pp. 299– 315. Saunders, Patricia J. “Fugitive Dreams of Diaspora: Conversations with Saidiya Hartman.” Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal, vol. 6, no. 1, 2008, p. 7. Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke UP, 2016. Smith, Derik. “Centering the ‘Pupil of the Eye’: Blackness, Modernity, and the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.” Journal of Bahá’í Studies, vol. 29, no. 1–2, 2019, pp. 7–28. When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . 91
Sommers, Marc, and Peter Buckland. Rebuilding the Education System in Kosovo. International Institute for Educational Planning, 2004. Sørensen, Majken Jul. “Constructive Resistance: Conceptualizing and Mapping the Terrain.” Journal of Resistance Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016, pp. 49– 78. Tuck, Eve. “Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities.” Harvard Education- al Review, vol. 79, no. 3, 2009, pp. 409–28. The Universal House of Justice. To the Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran, 9 Sept. 2007, www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/ the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/20070909_001/1#018930558 ———. To the Bahá’ís of Iran, 1 Oct. 2014. ———. Letter to an individual, 4 Feb. 2018. Vinthagen, Stellan. “Political Undergrounds: Can Raging Riots and Everyday Theft Become Politics of Normality?” Unpublished paper, 2006. www. academia.edu/658457/Political_Undergrounds_Can_Raging_Riots_and_ Everyday_Theft_Become_Politics_of_Normality Vizenor, Gerald. Manifest Manners: Narratives on Postindian Survivance. U of Nebraska P, 1994. ———. Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Pres- ence. U of Nebraska P, 1998. ———. Survivance: Narratives of Native Presence. U of Nebraska P, 2008. Vizenor, Gerald, and A. Robert Lee. Postindian Conversations. U of Nebraska P, 1999. Walter, Maggie. “Data Politics and Indigenous Representation in Australian Sta- tistics.” Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an Agenda, edited by Tahu Kukutai and John Taylor, Australian National UP, 2016, pp. 79–97. The White House. “A Proclamation on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Per- sons Awareness Day, 2021,” Presidential Actions, www.whitehouse.gov/ briefi ng-room/presidential-actions/2021/05/04/a-proclamation-on-miss- ing-and-murdered-indigenous-persons-awareness-day-2021/ Zelkovitz, Ido. “Education, Revolution and Evolution: The Palestinian Universi- ties as Initiators of National Struggle 1972–1995.” History of Education, vol. 43, no. 3, 2014, pp. 387–407. 92 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Alaina M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 93
to something other than the nation it- Community self (Mahmood, Religious Diff erence Agency and 51–53). Further, “harm” in this context Islamic Education means that which the state can redress through its judiciary, making it diffi cult in Contemporary to conceive of and address collective Zanzibar forms of oppression (Schwartzman), as they permeate daily life in micro- aggressions and regular expressions of CAITLYN BOLTON prejudice, only some of which qualify for legal punishment. “Action” within Western liberal political philosophy, this theoretical framework—the only which undergirds the conception of the recourse to individuals who have been modern nation-state as theorized by harmed—means demanding that the European philosophers of liberalism state act, either through legislative from centuries past, is primarily con- change or judicial punishment. Yet cerned with the dynamics of rights and while institutional and legal change af- responsibilities between the individual fords important protections, injustice is and state institutions. In defi ning these incredibly resilient in the face of legal dynamics, some philosophers held an change. It adapts to and mutates within assumption of human nature as inher- new structural limitations, fi nding legal ently inclined toward selfi sh ends, and loopholes and new euphemisms within as such they thoroughly questioned to which to operate.1 what extent the state could intervene in Examining communal social action the life of individuals in order to curb within a part of the world not fully destructive and antisocial behavior. steeped within such ideologies off ers Others idealized the “state of nature” insights into other forms of agency, as peaceful, but, writing in the era of forms that function within diff erent absolutist monarchs, they were primar- paradigms of social life. Such exam- ily concerned with limiting the reach of ples of communal agency are “con- sovereign power. Yet with whichever structive” in that they focus on building approach, “community” is not a viable new communal structures, structures actor in such theories, concerned as they are with arbitrating between the 1 Paul Lample describes this with “freedom” of the individual and the regards to race in the United States, with coercive power of state institutions. the offi cial legal abolishment of slavery Indeed, the very concept of commu- followed by Jim Crow laws and sharecrop- nity, especially communities of “mi- ping, and with civil rights accompanied by other forms of institutionalized racism, norities,” is antithetical to the modern such as mass incarceration (9). See also nation-state, as it implies allegiance Alexander. 94 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
that attend to the immediate concerns resulting rise in individualism and class of local reality while striving to inspire stratifi cation. In his classes, he empha- others at a broader level. The examples sizes prosocial behavior and spiritual that follow, as with those from oth- virtues central to community life, com- er Islamic societies, do not conform menting directly on capitalist thought to normative liberal conceptions that and its eff ects. More broadly, he con- understand agency “as a synonym for tests the wider development ideology resistance to relations of domination,” that posits Zanzibar as always behind, rather than simply “a capacity for ac- always the recipient of development tion” (Mahmood, Politics of Piety 18). knowledge but never the generator, by This normative liberal conception of emphasizing to his students the ways agency frames much of both popular in which they and Zanzibar are more and scholarly thought that seeks out “advanced” than the “advanced” na- examples of and romanticizes “resis- tions—particularly in community co- tance” (Abu-Lughod 41). While the operation and trust in God. kinds of agency described here operate I also share from Rehema, a domes- within contexts of oppression that they tic worker who helped start a women’s seek to change, such agency is not prin- Islamic study circle in order to collec- cipally about “resisting” authoritative tively advance the participants’ own structures and institutions, but instead spiritual and material progress within creating new structures and patterns of the context of what Rehema describes community life that mirror the values as mfumo dume, literally the “male sys- they wish to see enacted, in this case tem” or patriarchy. Like Madrasat Al- values rooted within Islam. Núr, the women’s Islamic study circle Here I share, from my doctoral seeks to engender community bonds fi eldwork on the East African islands among its participants, countering pre- of Zanzibar, the experiences of two vailing forces of individualism. This friends and the communities within can be seen not only in the name of which they work as they seek to change their group, Madrasat Jihád Al-Nafs— their own and others’ lives within the School for Battling the Self—but also context of various forms of oppression. the ways in which it serves as a vec- I share from Ustadh Juma,2 a senior tor for social, spiritual, and material teacher at the largest Islamic school support, particularly during times of in Zanzibar, Madrasat Al-Núr, as he hardship. It is also an opportunity for employs an Islamic education directed Rehema—who only completed a few at countering the eff ects of Zanzibar’s years of formal education—and others increased embeddedness in global cap- to advance their education, as well as a italism since the end of Tanzania’s so- space for women to occupy positions cialist project in 1985, particularly the of Islamic leadership. While off ering examples of com- munal forms of agency, Ustadh Juma’s 2 All names are pseudonyms. Community Agency and Islamic Education 95 and Rehema’s experiences underscore can aff ord to eat, while a virtuous sell- a key challenge inherent to communal er would lower the price for the poor. action, namely achieving a collective Ustadh Juma regularly speaks about vision or conceptual framework. Here, capitalism in his classes, in between action is undertaken within the frame- reading from the Arabic textbooks work of Islam, what they often refer to imported from Saudi Arabia. When I as a “framework/system of life” (mfu- asked him why he speaks about capi- mo wa maisha)—but whose Islam? In talism so much in class, he responded: the absence of a universally agreed-up- “Because in capitalism, your mind is on Islamic authoritative body to guide only focused on economic benefi t . . . interpretation, tensions arise as to the yet economic benefi t [alone] does not correct understanding of Islam and take care of people or anything else. . how that manifests in community life. . This is not a good thing in Islam or For Ustadh Juma and his Madrasat any society because what is its result? Al-Núr, this plays out in the increased It divides people into classes. . . There infl uence of Saudi Salafi sm, as a few are times when you must put people teachers deride communal practices before profi t.” such as the school’s celebration of the Ustadh Juma and other Islamic ed- Prophet’s birthday and engage in Salafi ucators in Zanzibar see their work as call-out culture that publicly shames a vital corrective to the rising individ- others for what they deem illegitimate ualism and class stratifi cation associ- Islamic practice. For Rehema and her ated with increased embeddedness in study circle, such tensions play out as, capitalist processes, especially since while carving new spaces for female the end of Tanzanian socialism in 1985 Islamic leadership and advanced learn- and the country’s opening to global ing, they struggle to achieve consensus capitalist development, investment, on other issues such as the permissi- and structural adjustment loans. The bility of women attending communal 1980s and ’90s saw a rapid expan- prayers at the mosque. sion of development in infrastructure and new economic sectors, including U J : I E the extension of electricity and paved S P roads throughout the island, the growth of tourism, and the introduction of “A seller who prices his rice three times seaweed farming for women as an ex- higher during scarcity is following the port commodity. Economic and social ideas of capitalism (fi kra za kibepari), life has shifted drastically, prompt- where each market increases in order to ing what many articulate through the bring a profi t,” explained Ustadh Juma language of “moral decline.” Youth in his virtues class in the largest Islamic exposure to the wealthier lifestyles of school (madrasa) in Zanzibar. In such tourists, as well as access to cash, in- a case, he continued, only the wealthy vites new consumer patterns including 96 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020 conspicuous consumption of clothing, “and the poor will not have any helper.” cell phones, and other expensive items. Islamic education is seen as a vital Conspicuous consumption is read as corrective to these trends because it highly individualistic and antisocial in has the power to quiet the self, to less- a society whose social institutions such en greed in preference for community as weddings and funerals are charac- welfare, and to inculcate spiritual qual- terized by high reciprocity, and where ities in children and youth that result any economic windfall is expected to in the wellbeing of all. Secular studies, be shared among one’s networks— Ustadh Juma’s colleague Salmin ex- Zanzibaris often purchase items like plained, are primarily for the individ- fl our and kerosene in small amounts ual to advance personally and econom- daily rather than in bulk, as stockpiling ically by ensuring a good income. But brings the obligation to share (Winther Islamic education primarily benefi ts 151). That capitalist acquisition is in- society, Salmin continued, because it imical to this expectation can be seen “builds a person individually, his val- in the fact that the word for “capital- ues so that he is truthful, trustworthy, ism” in Swahili (ubepari) is linked to and loves to do work” that then trans- the word for “hoarder” (bepari). lates into broader society so that “we Ustadh Juma narrated this decline help each other, respect each other, through the language of unity: “Unity and sit well together as a community.” has decreased a lot . . . and people are Many Zanzibaris see this centrality of not visiting each other as much.” It community, as enhanced by Islamic used to be that everyone had nearly the piety, as one of the most laudable fea- same income, he continued, but now tures of their society. Given that dom- there are signifi cant diff erences and inant development approaches assume people are living behind fences and a linear movement of knowledge from gates—and if he wants to visit with the Global North to the South, valuing them, he must make an appointment. “local knowledge” largely in isolated Ustadh Juma regularly commented on techniques rather than broader ways of the opening of the fi rst gated commu- knowing that might also be relevant to nity in Zanzibar, called Fumba Town, the North, I asked Ustadh Juma how which would have its own commu- he felt Zanzibar was more “advanced” nity institutions including a school, and what “developed countries” can mosque, and shopping center. This learn from it. “Community coopera- would vacate the wealthy from sites tion,” he replied. where they would otherwise interact Further, while highlighting the with the poor, lessening opportunities advances of Europe and the United for generosity and redistribution of States that he hoped Zanzibaris will wealth during community events such emulate, such as a spirit of volunteer- as weddings and funerals. “All of those ism, he often would encourage his stu- with means will leave,” he explained, dents to value their own strengths. For Community Agency and Islamic Education 97 example, in one class he paused to ask serving food to the children and other me how to say a word in English, and attendees. then used it only in English through- Yet not all of the teachers at the out his lecture: “stress.” In the United school hold the same vision, causing States and Europe, he explained, they tension in the breakroom. This was have more wealth but they also have principally a result of the increased in- so much stress that they have to go to fl uence of Saudi Salafi sm and its den- psychologists. In Zanzibar and other igration of popular Islamic communal Islamic countries, he explained, people practices and values—whether in pub- are poor but they rely upon God and licly denouncing communal spaces of therefore become calm as reliance on Sufi worship, or in the lack of respect God removes stress. aff orded to elders and their knowledge Ustadh Juma used Islamic educa- or authority. Public shaming of elders, tion not only as a tool to counter rising alongside regular Salafi denigration individualism and class stratifi cation, of popular communal practices, runs but also to bolster his students’ sense counter to the kinds of prosocial virtues of self-worth within a global structure taught in Ustadh Juma’s classes—for that, as they are well aware, casts them example, when he tells his students not as “third world” or “developing” and to admonish others for incorrect prac- therefore not a source of globally rel- tice as the “method of the Prophet was evant knowledge. Ustadh Juma eff ec- that of conversation,” not accusation. tively fl ipped that formulation by in- troducing a spiritual measure alongside R : B S the dominant material measure—the C W B United States and Europe may be more successful materially, alongside those Packed tightly in the dala dala mini- Zanzibaris who have benefi tted from bus careening around the traffi c circle, capitalist development, but that is not I protested that Rehema had paid my the sole index of inherent worth. Zan- fare before I even had the chance to pull zibaris, despite largely being materially out my own change. She smiled and poor, have much that the “developed” said not to worry, that she would get world can learn from: their reliance thawabu, or extra blessings, for it. To on and trust in God, and the centrality return the favor, I learned to be quicker of community as built through spiri- about having coins in hand during our tual education. This manifested in the subsequent trips to her women’s ma- communal activities surrounding the drasa. Rehema was a domestic worker school, including the mawlid celebra- from mainland Tanzania who has lived tions of the Prophet’s birthday or the and worked in Zanzibar most of her iftar dinners served after fasting during adult life, and we attended the madra- Ramadan, where some of the wealthi- sa with another friend who lived in the est Zanzibari businessmen can be seen guesthouse where Rehema worked. 98 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
She tapped the metal roof with coins This communal focus can be seen to indicate our stop to the driver, and in both the behavioral patterns and we squeezed out of the minibus onto content of the madrasa space. For ex- the side of the road. Passing through a ample, on days that they do not study, local market selling house and kitchen they gather simply to read the Qur’an wares, we emerged into a residential together. When I asked why they come area crisscrossed by dirt paths between together only to read individually, their concrete walls topped by corrugated teacher Zahra explained that if they metal roofs. As we entered the meeting were at home, they would not be able room, Rehema drew her black niqáb to read given their domestic responsi- face veil over the top of her head to bilities; further, “If we sit together, we reveal her smiling face, and we were can help each other understand.” The greeted by similarly dressed and smil- content of the classes bolstered this ing women as we found places on the communal focus by regularly empha- carpeted fl oor to sit and talk while sizing that personal piety is demon- waiting for class to begin. strated through good works to others, Like Madrasat Al-Núr, this adult as praying and fasting alone are not women’s madrasa is focused on coun- suffi cient—all must greet their neigh- tering the forces of individualism bors and solve their problems together, through the creation of a community as one cannot say, “I myself am fi ne.” space within which Islamic education In one class, a teacher enumerated the can inspire individual and collective “rights” (haki) that Muslims have from pious behavior. This can be seen in the one another: to be greeted with “peace name that they chose for their group— be upon you,” to be told “God bless Madrasat Jihád An-Nafs, meaning you” if one sneezes, to be taken care of School for Battling the Self. “Jihad is if sick, and to have the funeral attended what trains us, it is fi ghting with the if one dies. “Rights” in this context are self . . . it makes me progress devel- explained not as individual rights pro- opmentally for the afterlife,” Rehema tected by state institutions, but as the explained. Jihad is not something for responsibilities of care that Muslims terrorists (magaidi), she continued, are obligated to aff ord to one another. because “we cannot fi ght because of This kind of social and moral com- Islam, people are mistaken. Now we munal imbrication is evidence of what do not fi ght wars, we fi ght to study. We Haj describes in Islam as “a view of the study so that we understand, we must relationship between the individual, the explain that now we are fi ghting to community, and the state that diff ers become self-liberated.” Jihád an-nafs from the European liberal humanist tra- means to “remove a person from a state dition” (28), where individual worship of ignorance,” she said, to battle with (‘ibáda) and practice “assumes an in- the self until “we are sated with the real dividual belonging within the commu- food, this book.” nity” (29) and indeed that a “Muslim Community Agency and Islamic Education 99 cannot attain these virtues except as a by others on their speech, religious member of a community” (42). One practice, and other behavior. Yet in cannot operate as “an independent, this context, “rights” (haki) entailed rationally detached individual” given the right to receive care from other that all are “held accountable for each community members, care which also other’s moral state of being” (41). I manifested as moral correction. felt this tension between an American Rehema saw this space as especial- understanding of individual rights and ly vital given what she describes as an Islamic communal moral obligation “mfumo dume,” the male system or one day when I arrived at the madrasa patriarchy. The kind of care that the and was eagerly called over by Awatif, women give each other is not only a woman with whom I had had friendly spiritual, but also social, including vis- conversations during previous weeks. iting each other when ill and consulting As usual when entering Islamic spac- together on problems, and material, as es, I had wrapped a scarf around my they pool together money when some- head—yet that day I tied it such that one is in need, and Rehema herself part of one ear could be seen, the fi nal has found domestic work for tens of fl ap pinned above my ear rather than women who could not have found it tucked under my chin. As I sat down otherwise. They can therefore achieve next to her, Awatif promptly tucked my a “self-reliance” where the “self” is in scarf under my chin. At fi rst I resented the collective, referring to the women what felt like an intrusion on personal of the group as a whole (Ott). With her space and a violation of religious free- madrasa, she has found an avenue to dom given that, not being a Muslim, advance her own education. This kind I wore it only out of respect. Imme- of advanced Islamic education for diately to my mind came a Qur’anic women provides them room in Islamic verse—“let there be no compulsion in leadership, which is a male-dominated religion” (2:256)—that was frequently fi eld. And this space allows for women invoked in my previous workplace, to gain their own understanding of Is- a U.S. Islamic organization, to show lam and the Qur’an that allows them to that Islam promotes an American-style question their husbands’ Islamic justi- freedom of religion. Yet whenever I fi cations for demands such as, Rehema mentioned this verse to Zanzibari Mus- describes, that their wives should not lims, I did not get the knowing nods leave the home. that I got in the United States, as it was At the same time, the kinds of so- not as commonly cited and referred to. cial action demonstrated in Rehema’s In the United States, rights and free- group are constrained by tensions at doms are often articulated in the neg- the level of conceptual framework, ative (as freedom from), implying that especially as related to correct Islam- the individual should be able to pursue ic interpretation. This manifests in what they like without encroachment moments of disagreement in class, for 100 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
example, in one study class when the then become spaces within which so- women read from their textbook that cial change occurs, including the pious only men must attend Friday prayers redistribution of wealth. Ustadh Juma at the mosque. Some agreed, saying also seeks to inculcate in his students a that women’s main role on Friday is to sense of individual and collective self- close their shops to encourage neigh- worth, emphasizing that Zanzibar has borhood men to attend mosque. Re- many strengths that other global com- hema interjected that she sometimes munities can learn from. While he nev- attends Friday prayers at the mosque. er explicitly mentioned race, we could Another replied that it is not forbidden, see his work as operating within con- but that “the man is the leader even if texts of racism: a global development he is a child” and so she should fi rst ideology that sees valuable knowledge send the men in her home. This chal- as primarily fl owing from North to lenge also manifested in their eff orts South, and Saudi Salafi proselytism to expand their circle; for example, that paints Islam in Africa as mud- when they traveled to a rural village to died by polytheism, whether through open another women’s madrasa, they the predominance of Sufi practices or were rebuff ed by many in the village popular recourse to magic. For Rehe- as “terrorists” (magaidi) because their ma and the women in her madrasa, long black over-dresses and niqáb face they also see their communal space as coverings were not common outside countering the forces of individualism, of town and signaled a new conserva- as they “battle the self” to collectively tism. Lastly, while providing spaces for work for their spiritual, social, and ma- women’s Islamic leadership, the head terial wellbeing. This helps them each teacher Zahra was clear that women to weather life’s hardships as vectored have limits and cannot be leaders more through class and gender inequalities, broadly. while opening up Islamic education- al opportunities and knowledge that C A would otherwise be unavailable to S C them. Such communal forms of agen- cy are constructive in that they create Ustadh Juma, Rehema, and the groups new structures and patterns of behav- within which they work see themselves ior within pockets of Zanzibari society, as operating within contexts defi ned by seeking to address forms of oppression powerful oppressive forces. Ustadh through the creation of new spaces Juma and colleagues see their teaching modeled on alternative foundations. as countering the forces of rising indi- When Ustadh Juma said that “de- vidualism and class stratifi cation. They veloped” or “advanced” nations aim to cultivate spiritual virtues that could learn community cooperation result in prosocial behavior, strength- from Zanzibar, he was responding ening the bonds of community that to the ideologies predominant in the Community Agency and Islamic Education 101
United States and Europe, which he rights, making it diffi cult for groups to experienced through globalized eco- use it to address collective injustice. nomic and political forces acting upon For example, after the Declaration was his tiny island perched on the edges of issued in 1948, the National Associa- Africa and the Indian Ocean. (He could tion for the Advancement of Colored not see the long traditions of commu- People tried to make a case for racial nal agency among oppressed groups equality on its basis, but Eleanor Roo- in those regions, some of which are sevelt rebuff ed it, declaring that the described in this collection.) Examin- “minority question [does] not exist on ing the features of communal forms of the American continent” (Anderson). agency in Zanzibar remains relevant This lack of protection for communi- more broadly given that the dominant ty rights prompted the United Nations globalized economic and political forc- to pass a Declaration on the Rights of es acting upon Zanzibar also act upon Indigenous Peoples in 2007, which as- those of us in the regions in which they serts indigenous groups’ rights to their were fi rst articulated. It gives a glimpse own governance and to protect their of a part of the world where communi- cultures and religions. Yet its force is ty is a central protagonist in social life, limited in being not legally binding, despite the globalized forces that in- limiting redress to be pursued through creasingly undermine it. Community’s national legal frameworks. When primary role can be seen in patterns of rights are legally understood as an at- interdependence and the moral respon- tribute of individuals, collective forms sibility to redistribute one’s wealth, of oppression are rendered invisible to including the belief that if one does not liberal state institutions. share an economic windfall, then they The examples of Madrasat Al-Núr will become physically sick as a result and Madrasat Jihád Al-Nafs show of others’ jealousy. responses to collective forms of op- This centrality of community can pression that are vectored through the also be seen in how the language of agency of communities as guided by “rights” (haki) was marshalled in Re- Islamic commitments. The impulse to hema’s madrasa to mean communal label or glorify such activities as “re- rights of care—that one has the right to sistance” to oppressive forces, such be told “God bless you” when having as capitalism or patriarchy, is rooted sneezed and the right to be cared for within a Western liberal conception of when sick. This defi nition is signifi cant agency. Scholars of Islamic revival- given the highly individualistic frame- ism have regularly questioned the ap- work for understanding rights in the plicability of the resistance paradigm Global North and international insti- for analyzing such movements, where tutions. The Universal Declaration of agency is not enacted against a struc- Human Rights, for example, does not ture or institution but rather channeled address community or minority group by it (Mahmood, Politics of Piety 18). 102 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Yet, what such scholarship does not ad- W C dress in these contexts is the centrality of community as a protagonist of social Abu-Lughod, Lila. “The Romance of action between the individual and the Resistance: Tracing Trans- state—an actor which is at best ignored formations of Power through or at worst undermined by liberal po- Bedouin Women.” American litical philosophies. Centering commu- Ethnologist, vol. 17, no. 1, nal action introduces a form of agency 1990, pp. 41–55. hitherto illegible in such perspectives, Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim a form of agency in response to oppres- Crow: Mass Incarceration sion that is not centered on the individ- in the Age of Colorblindness. ual demanding that institutions act, but New Press, 2010. that constructs new patterns of behav- Anderson, Carol. Eyes off the Prize: ior on alternative foundations. The United Nations and the Yet, as demonstrated above, a key African American Struggle challenge facing communal social for Human Rights, 1944–1955. action is that of constructing a shared Cambridge UP, 2003. conceptual framework for that action, Haj, Samira. Reconfi guring Islamic a challenge that manifests in Zanzibar Tradition: Reform, Rational- in tensions regarding correct Islamic ity, and Modernity. Stanford interpretation. In the absence of a uni- UP, 2009. versally agreed-upon Islamic interpre- Lample, Paul. Revelation & Social Re- tive authority, multiple authorities vie ality: Learning to Translate for prominence—whether locally at What Is Written into Reality. the level of preachers and teachers, or Palabra Publications, 2009. internationally, as with the Saudi Ara- Mahmood, Saba. Politics of Piety: The bian religious elite’s attempt to defi ne Islamic Revival and the Fem- Islamic orthodoxy through educational inist Subject. Princeton UP, scholarships and missionary ventures. 2011. Should knowledge generation be a col- ———. Religious Diff erence in a Sec- lective process, or one centered on a hi- ular Age: A Minority Report. erarchical exchange from an individual Princeton UP, 2016. knower to the group? Are communal Ott, Jessica. Women’s Rights in Repe- Sufi devotional practices permissible, tition: Nation Building, Soli- or condemned as polytheistic innova- darity, and Islam in Zanzibar. tions that muddy the purity of original 2020. Michigan State U, PhD Islamic practice? Communal action is dissertation. constrained insofar as such questions The Qur’an: Text, Translation and remain unanswered. Commentary by Abdullah Yu- suf Ali. Tahrike Tarsile Qur’an, Inc. 2001. Community Agency and Islamic Education 103
Schwartzman, Lisa H. Challenging Liberalism: Feminism as Political Critique. Penn State UP, 2006. Winther, Tanja. The Impact of Electricity: Development, Desires, and Dilemmas. Berghahn, 2011.
Eastern Beauty M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 104 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Romy and me M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 105
The March of the Hungry, as the Faith in Action: farmworkers said, drew needed atten- Refl ections on tion to their suff ering and called for the government to fulfi ll its modest prom- Constructive ise to provide suitable land for culti- vation on the now idle estates where Resilience from many had lived and worked their entire Nicaragua lives. The march, and the movement which spawned it, was distinctive. Composed entirely of homeless and BRADLEY WILSON landless farmworkers, led by women, and inclusive of children, both march On 29 July 2003, thousands of unem- and movement were intentionally ployed farmworkers and their families non-violent. Just a decade earlier Nica- who had been evicted from coff ee ragua had emerged from a devastating estates in the province of Matagalpa, civil war which had ripped the country Nicaragua, joined a peaceful march. apart. The very region from which the “The March of the Hungry,” as they marchers were requesting land was one named their public demonstration, of the primary arenas of the war. This was not hyperbole. In 2001, global history shaped perceptions of the peo- coff ee prices had plummeted to re- ple of the region. While national and cord lows, leaving millions of rural international newspapers off ered sym- people without suffi cient income or pathetic stories, in national opinion and resources to survive. In Nicaragua, this gossip circles commentators off ered crisis impacted some 100,000 people, deeply prejudiced and racist views most intensely, landless farmworkers. toward the marchers, calling them op- Unable to remain on plantations fore- portunists, criminal, lazy, ignorant, and closed upon by banks and unwilling to undeserving of special concern. Many illegally squat, evicted farmworkers in passed judgment on their morality and Matagalpa built makeshift economic motives. Indeed, in many ways their refugee camps which housed an esti- long suff ering and the limited options mated seven thousand people by 2003. before them to express their grievanc- These encampments, coordinated by es—necessitating that they take to the homeless families themselves, lined road to make their plight visible—were the roads heading north. For three years intimately tied to the prejudice against these encampments were a constant them and other poor people of indige- reminder of the economic devastation nous descent in Central Nicaragua.1 and mass unemployment precipitated by the coff ee crisis and the inability or 1 As noted in this special issue of the Journal of Bahá’í Studies, the dis- unwillingness of the government to re- course of constructive resilience has led spond to their most basic needs. in some cases to consultation about what 106 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
On July 30, I rode by bus to marchers were in mourning and visibly Matagalpa to learn more about the exhausted. All were concerned about marchers. I encountered them as they the poor and deteriorating weather were setting up camp for the night on a conditions. Throngs of people, unpre- hillside pass called Cerro Largo (Long pared for the rain, stretched from the Hill), located to the south of the city foreground to the horizon in the scene of Matagalpa. Coordinators had made before me. Crowds of people stood, the thoughtful decision to end the day’s sat, or slept on the side of the road, march at noon, following the death of still many kilometers away from their an infant from a fever and of an elderly intended destination. man from dehydration and exhaustion As I walked among the marchers, that morning. It was a grim scene. I I noticed a group of families who ap- arrived at lunchtime when groups had peared to need more shelter. There gathered to eat around communal pots I met Soledad, the mother of three of donated rice. Entire families had teenage boys. I asked her why she had been brought along, children in tow. joined the march. At that time, I knew The heavy rain was unrelenting. The little of what was transpiring, the his- tory that preceded it, or the goals that constitutes constructive forms of social ac- had inspired the march. Soledad’s tion in the face of oppression. While this voice was soft but earnest: “Because is certainly worthwhile from the stand- we exist,” she said. I squatted down point of individual and collective moral to hear her more clearly. The cold rain decision-making, it is not the intention of began to pound harder against the tarp this paper to evaluate or judge the form of above our heads, nearly drowning out action taken, nor to evaluate the effi cacy of her voice: particular tactics or strategies. Indeed, it is my observation that such judgements tend We have been abandoned, but we to off er an analysis of an isolated episode of still exist. The workers, the cam- action in the lives of protagonists, present pesinas, the people of the coun- reductionist accounts of movements that tryside. Where we live, it is just narrow them down to their dominant dis- a little place, but there are many courses, and limit our ability to understand the nuanced attitudes, beliefs and inten- hungry people there. There are tions of people to overcome oppression. In many communities just like ours other words, as a writer, I do not intend to where the children are malnour- present my account here as a judgement on ished, without homes and sick. We specifi c tactics or strategies employed by have been forgotten but we exist. oppressed groups. I have learned, however, We will continue on with God by that there is much to gain about the role of our side. faith in social action by direct observation and deepening analysis with protagonists Fifteen years after I met Soledad at of what might be characterized as social Cerro Largo, I joined a collective of movements. Faith in Action 107
Bahá’í scholars engaging, from our workers movement has off ered me a varied fi elds, in a discourse on con- means of refl ection on how, as schol- structive resilience which was initiat- ars, we might extend our learning ed by the Universal House of Justice about the spiritual qualities embodied in a series of letters to the Bahá’ís of in the notion of constructive resilience. Iran. The concept was introduced as a Soledad was not a Bahá’í, and to my way to describe the spiritual qualities, knowledge, none of the members of community agency, and creative ac- the March of the Hungry or their com- tion of Iranian Bahá’ís who were fac- munities were members of the Bahá’í ing relentless persecution (Universal Faith. I met Soledad just a few years House of Justice, 9 Sept. 2007). More after becoming acquainted with the recently, constructive resilience was Bahá’í Faith myself. Our encounter at also invoked by the Universal House the march, therefore, mingled with my of Justice to describe African Amer- own deepening understanding of the ican Bahá’ís laboring for unity in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. Like many context of long histories of racial op- who encounter the Sacred Writings, I pression in the United States (4 Feb. was learning to walk a newfound spiri- 2018). Some of the questions we ex- tual path and to see the world with new plored together included: What might eyes. What I learned from Soledad, it mean to do scholarship in light of what I witnessed in her community, had spiritual qualities associated with con- a profound eff ect on my understanding structive resilience? What might the of the life of the spirit and the nature of concept of constructive resilience ask spiritually informed scholarship. of us as scholars concerned with social, In this brief essay I draw upon my economic, or environmental justice? long-term research with the landless How might attention to constructive workers movement in Nicaragua to resilience transform our practice of make several observations on the dis- inquiry and contribute to knowledge course of constructive resilience. While production? constructive resilience has largely been During my refl ection on the dis- applied to understanding how Bahá’í course around constructive resilience, communities negotiate life under op- my thoughts have often returned to pression, I fi rst consider how it also in- Soledad and the story of landless vites a posture of learning on research workers in Nicaragua. As Paul Lample about other social movements seeking writes in Revelation and Social Reality, to overcome oppression. As evidenced “a Bahá’í life is not lived in isolation. in this issue, constructive resilience is It is forged in active engagement with a deeply personal expression of faith the world, working with others and and a form of constructive action that contributing to the advancement of so- shapes individual lives and communi- ciety” (3). My experience and engage- ties. As such, I posit that the practices ment with Soledad and the landless of accompaniment—an approach to 108 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
research which calls for immersive on a metaphysical dimension as con- participation and observation over a scious faith in God and the practice long period—can provide a means of that faith through action. Yet, this through which to study diff erent man- translation of metaphysical faith into ifestations of constructive resilience, action might also be observed social- at various scales, in a diverse range of ly. In other words, through the faithful social movements. actions of people, good deeds might enact practical worlds that draw the F S A attention of others who might witness and become inspired in their own faith, The role of faith in social action has in humanity or in God. This kind of been central to our exploration of con- faith in action might also inspire more structive resilience over the past few faithful action. Faith therefore is not a years. Faith often plays a critical role passive, individual spiritual and moral in motivating, sustaining, and giving feeling that is only rooted in conscious- moral direction to individuals and ness; faith as it is translated into good communities seeking to overcome op- deeds might also be understood as pro- pression. Some movements come into ductive and can take on active social being precisely because some spirit of dimensions that aff ect a wider moral faith in creating a diff erent future has fi eld that can reach the scale of entire been enkindled, a moral charge has communities. been felt and acted upon, or an injus- Yet, people can also lose faith in tice has been experienced and inspired God, themselves, others, religion, or- social action. Yet, faith is not one of the ganization or the moral charge of a primary concerns of scholarship on so- movement. Faith can wax and wane, cial action. Faith is often narrowly de- thereby aff ecting social action or lead- scribed in literature on social action in ing to a deviation from principle. The terms of simple group identifi cation in loss of faith may be caused by a variety relation to a particular religious sect or of factors. In some cases, it might be spiritual ideology. In other cases, faith by the immoral actions of leaders or might be described as optimism or hope organizations, or the failure of one or for a brighter future, or an enduring another tactic or strategy to achieve a belief that “we shall overcome.” Faith promised goal. Yet, in many other cas- plays an animating role in how people es, losing faith can come from the un- envision themselves and their spiritual relenting persecution by more power- and material reality. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of- ful groups against those who attempt to fers a distinctive perspective on faith. change their situation. Over time peo- He states: “By faith is meant, fi rst, ple lose hope and the lights of faith are conscious knowledge, and second, the smothered. Commitments to principles practice of good deeds” (Tablets 549). slip. Division and discord disrupt ex- Here faith might be observed as taking isting solidarities. Hopelessness grows Faith in Action 109
from an individual experience into a of those aff ected lose confi dence collective social feeling that change is in their own perception of them- impossible or that non-violent or oth- selves. Inexorably, they become er forms of constructive action are not drained of that spirit of initiative enough. that is integral to human nature Not long after I met Soledad, the and are reduced to the level of ob- Universal House of Justice penned a jects to be dealt with as their rulers letter to the Bahá’ís of Iran admiring decide. Indeed, some who are ex- their “confi dent mastery” of “moral posed to sustained oppression can purpose” and their love, sacrifi ce, and become so conditioned to a culture service to the people of their homeland of brutalization that they, in their in the face of decades of deliberate turn, are ready to commit violence oppression. Their words of admiration against others, should the oppor- were complemented by a conceptual- tunity off er itself. (26 Nov. 2003) ization of oppression which drew at- tention to both its material and spiritual In this passage, the Universal House dimensions: of Justice describes the widespread experience of oppression around the The victims of injustice today world, the material harm it infl icts, number in countless millions. the dehumanization it eff ects, and the Each year, the agendas of the hu- marginalization it causes by prevent- man rights organizations are over- ing full participation in society with whelmed by appeals from spokes- “rights and consideration.” Addition- persons for oppressed minorities ally, the Universal House of Justice of every type—religious, ethnic, calls specifi c and distinctive attention social and national. In the words of to oppression’s spiritual dimensions, Bahá’u’lláh, “Justice is in this day which quash individual and collective bewailing its plight, and Equity initiative, objectify and brutalize hu- groaneth beneath the yoke of op- man beings, and incubate the cultures pression.” What has more alarmed of violence that can result from long perceptive observers of such situ- histories of exposure to such objectifi - ations than even the physical and cation and brutalization. material anguish caused is the After off ering these insights on the spiritual damage done to the vic- nature of oppression, the Universal tims. Deliberate oppression aims House of Justice then continues by at dehumanizing those whom it posing a series of questions to the Ira- subjugates and at de-legitimizing nian Bahá’ís who have experienced them as members of society, enti- such oppression: tled to neither rights nor consider- ation. Where such conditions per- What is it then . . . that has pre- sist over any length of time, many served you from spiritual corrosion 110 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
of this nature? Where have you Figures and institutions—including the found the resources to free your Universal House of Justice—enables hearts from resentment and to act individual Bahá’ís to express confi - with magnanimity toward those dence, strengthens their resolve to be who have taken part in your mis- magnanimous, and helps fortify them treatment? How is it that, after a in the face of oppressive forces that century and more of unremitting might otherwise cause them to “lose persecution—and the calculated confi dence in their own perceptions of attempt at genocide of these past themselves” or become “drained” of 25 years—you still retain both a the “spirit of initiative.” Yet, beyond confi dent mastery of your moral the individual, this faith is also visible purpose and an abiding love for in practice at the scale of the wider col- the land in which you have suf- lective or community. There is a com- fered so greatly? (26 Nov. 2003) munal sense of faith that is nourished by witnessing the sacrifi ces and com- These questions invited consideration mitments—faith in action—performed of how the Iranian Bahá’ís overcome by groups of individuals. the brutalizing eff ects of oppression Starting with our fi rst encounter in without responding in equal measure 2003, Soledad introduced me to some and of the role that spiritual resources, of these very same expressions of con- a sense of moral purpose, love, and sol- structive resilience and gave it mean- idarity play in their persistent eff orts to ingful expression. As I conversed with contribute to the advancement of initia- her, I often asked these questions: Why tives serving their communities, such had the movement pursued a non-vi- as expanding educational opportunities olent path when armed struggle over for women and girls, supporting access land had been the previous path? What to higher education, and fostering eco- shielded them from bitterness? How nomic cooperation. Rather than losing could she “free her heart from resent- faith in the potential for social trans- ment” and maintain “abiding love” formation, they have kept their faith for the people in her country when her alive and channeled it into constructive past experience had been so treacher- action. ous? Counter to the prejudice heaped Faith, as the Universal House of against them, the earnest determination Justice’s messages suggest, plays a through which marchers like Soledad clear and signifi cant role in shaping pursued their goals was impressive to both the consciousness and action of those who visited the camps. Soledad the Iranian Bahá’ís and, in later letters, said to me years later that she often the Bahá’ís in the United States ad- prayed that “God would touch the vancing race unity. Faith in the Cause hearts” of those who held prejudice of Bahá’u’lláh, in their moral purpose, against them, including the political and in the guidance of the Central and landed elites, who were not only Faith in Action 111
an impediment to their modest goals composed of individuals, institutions, but were also responsible for the sys- and communities in all of their com- temic oppression they experienced. plexity. While a movement may appear Her faith, fortitude, and perseverance, to be a coherent whole, there may be viewed from the standpoint of a wit- considerable diff erences within it that ness to her oppression, bespoke a kind shape its discourses, approaches, and of spiritual power that was diffi cult outcomes. For this reason, it is critical to dismiss. Indeed, perhaps the only to use care in making sense of move- way for the elites to deny her and her ments based solely on the dominant kindred was—as she bore witness—to public discourses that defi ne them. abandon her, to try and erase her from The practice of accompaniment, I memory, to marginalize her from view, urge, can enable scholars to prioritize to deny her existence. The ruling elites inquiry over judgment, and illumi- tried this strategy, yet they could not nation over reductionist accounts of snuff out the light of her spirit. social action. As my colleague and friend Daniel Renfrew writes, ethnog- A raphy as a form of accompaniment can lead to “the deceptively simple act of My relationship with Soledad taught forging empathetic understandings of me that connecting deeply with people the complexity of local social worlds” participating in social action to over- (167). Rather than a snapshot or snap come oppression matters. I say this not judgment, a longer exposure through a only from the standpoint of scholarly relationship of accompaniment guided interpretation but also from the stand- by empathy can yield critical insights point of spiritual insight. Spiritual into the elements of context that illu- qualities are expressed by people liv- mine why and how protagonists of ing and negotiating social realities in movements engage in social action. diff erent material contexts. Since con- Such a humble posture of inquiry is structive resilience concerns faith and particularly important when we are not is principally expressed in the spiritual members of that particular oppressed qualities and actions of individuals and group pursuing a path of social action communities experiencing oppression, to address injustice. As bystanders or it is important therefore to get below outside observers, we may be swayed the surface text of a particular move- by discourse, imagery, and ideas that ment and accompany people strug- aim to represent movements as a total- gling to overcome oppression. While ity or to reduce people to pawns or ob- movement leaders, organizations, and jects within an elaborate chess match discourses are important in under- with a clear endgame. standing the dominant frames of social For the next fi ve years after our en- action and movement formation in any counter at Cerro Largo, I would visit given instance, movements are also Soledad in her home to meet her family 112 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
and to listen to her stories of struggle agricultural cooperative and to lift up and survival. Unwilling to see her the economic capacity of other mem- as simply a pawn swept up in a mass bers of their community. In other words, movement, I wanted to understand I did not learn about that vision she had what motivated her, the challenges she on the road at Cerro Largo. To gain faced, her life story, and what kind of that understanding of Soledad’s faith future she wanted for herself, her fam- in social transformation would require ily, and her community. During this a deeper commitment to listening and period, the state ultimately responded learning. These visits not only deep- to their petitions and provided land ened my relationship with Soledad, her to the evicted and unemployed farm- family, and community; her spiritual worker communities. This was the fi rst qualities also inspired me and taught time Soledad and her family had expe- me a great deal about responsibility as rienced economic autonomy, and for a person and humility as a scholar. I many of the people it was the fi rst in learned how she came to live as a work- their lives that they were truly working er on the estate property in Matagalpa for themselves. The warm welcome she and the sense of powerlessness she off ered when I visited her led me to re- felt to the whims of the landowner, the turn again and again. As my visits con- state, and the political parties, which tinued and my conversations extended had each made claims to the land she with Soledad, her family, community, and her family worked for their live- and many other neighboring communi- lihood. I learned about the devastation ties, a more nuanced picture emerged of the civil war and the violence that of the landless workers movement, the left deep wounds of trauma in families crises that prefi gured it, and the long and the community. I learned about struggle ahead for its protagonists as her sense of economic vulnerability they tried to forge a life of dignity and as a woman in a household, commu- overcome oppression. I learned about nity, and movement where men often the trail of injustice experienced by control resources and decision-making other landless and poor rural people processes. I learned about the central who are treated either instrumental- role of women in guiding the non-vi- ly or as an afterthought in economic olent approach of the landless workers decision-making. movement. Yet, I also learned from In those years, as I observed the her about the internal challenges in her communities attempt to work through family and in the community where these challenging questions, I would she lived. I learned about the continued learn about Soledad’s commitment to pressures from land grabbers coveting social transformation, her contribu- their land, the diffi culties of economic tions to provisioning meals for chil- cooperation in an environment beset dren across several communities, and by competition, and the real fear she her work with her husband to form an and her family felt about losing those Faith in Action 113 small resources which they had gained. communities around the world, who Faith in God, through all of these con- aspire to build societies founded on versations, shaped the contours of her justice, equity, and unity. commentaries and maintained, always Bahá’ís understand that, in their on the horizon, a sense of meaning in own eff orts, both urgent action and her struggle and hope for the future. long-term commitments are necessary to overcome oppression, and they re- C alize that the ends of these constant eff orts will not materialize quickly. Constructive resilience is a deeply per- Many movements to end oppression sonal expression of faith and a form around the world realize these same of social action that shapes individual truths. People of faith press on with the lives and communities. People who are realization that they may never witness engaged in diverse movements, spiri- the just world that they are struggling tual traditions, and material contexts to birth. There is recognition that prin- off er unique insights into the fortitude, ciples are paramount, mistakes will hope, and perseverance necessary to be made along the way, and action keep the faith and continue to believe and refl ection will be necessary for in and work for a future free from op- the process of learning and growing. pression. Soledad provides one exam- To this end, it is notable that the Uni- ple of how faith plays a central role in versal House of Justice frames all its one’s life and struggle. In these years messages referencing constructive re- of working alongside people like her, silience in encouraging and empathetic I have learned that the practice of ac- tones, and that it writes words which companiment can provide a means remind those who are struggling that through which to study diff erent man- their labor is not in vain, that there is a ifestations of constructive resilience in deeper moral reason for persisting that a diverse range of social movements. exceeds the short-term gains of any Accompaniment, as a methodological particular material strategic goal. Its commitment, invites a humble posture praise is not directed to victories that of learning about people and move- have been “won” nor to some task that ments as they seek to overcome op- has been achieved or completed. Rath- pression. Through accompaniment we er, in its letters, the Universal House can come to understand and empathize of Justice recognizes the admirable with the nuanced lived experiences of spiritual qualities of its readers, and people who take up social action, their they uplift the aspirations, goals, and motivations, their struggles, and their constructive forms of action performed achievements. Long-term accompa- by individuals and communities that niment also challenges what it means seek to serve society and build a better to study a movement whose work is world amidst oppression. As schol- still in progress, much like the Bahá’í ars, these expressions of faith in our 114 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
readers, recognition of constructive projects, and accompaniment in the path of social action are also lessons to learn from and live by.
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‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Abbas. Vol. 3. Bahá’í Publishing Society, 1915. Lample, Paul. Revelation and Social Reality: Learning to Translate What Is Writ- ten into Reality. Palabra Publications, 2009. Renfrew, Daniel. Life without Lead: Contamination, Crisis, and Hope in Uruguay. U of California P, 2018. The Universal House of Justice. Letter to the Bahá’ís of Iran, 26 Nov. 2003. ———. Letter to the Bahá’í students deprived of access to higher education in Iran, 9 Sept. 2007. ———. Letter to an Individual in the United States, 4 Feb. 2018.
Sojourner Truth M. BUNCH WASHINGTON 115
constructive social change? How do we Vision and even recognize the direction that path the Pursuit of would take? The question of seeing, of perceiving what is possible, is not sim- Constructive ple, and part of our story as Americans and citizens of the world is that we Social Change have often made mistakes in the vision part of social change. To think about HOLLY HANSON this, I will start with an analogy, make some observations about the elements of building new social structures, and At this moment in history, when we then use examples from moments in are confronting the reality of systemic African American history in the Unit- racism and when a global pandemic is ed States to explore how constructive revealing in deadly detail the conse- social change involves a systematic quences of extreme inequality, we need cultivation of vision. to pay attention to the process of social Social transformation is a process change.1 The intolerable reality of Afri- of clearing away the old and building can American men killed by police has the new, and both have to happen. It drawn thousands of people around the is easy to see this reality if we use an world into public rejections of racist analogy. A sturdy house cannot be built structures, symbols, and thought. The on top of a house that already exists. coronavirus lockdown has been a mas- If a family wants more space in their sive and powerful exposure of what is home, they will have to live with the not working about the social structures mess of taking the old walls down. The we have. We have seen the inherent room is not going to get bigger until weakness in organizing our production they knock down the old walls. It is of goods and food in gigantic facto- going to be dusty, and there is going to ries far removed from the consumers be a mess, and a lot of old construction of those products. We have seen the material will pile up outside before it fundamental injustice of paying people gets carried off to a landfi ll, but the less than a living wage and not giving family accepts the eff ort and the ex- them health care. The move away from pense and the discomfort because they normal life has illuminated what really cannot have the better house, with the does not work, and has motivated a de- bigger windows and the larger space sire for structures that are more condu- for children, unless they take down the cive to human dignity. old one. If some family members insist But how do we pursue a path of on a remodel that keeps the old house intact, without disturbing anything and 1 This paper is based on a talk given on without making a mess, not much is June 19, 2020, to an audience in the United going to change. States. 116 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
It is the same thing with society: if of organizing society diff erent from we want more room, more justice, and what they had before; too often, even a better fl ow of resources, we cannot well-intentioned eff orts end up recreat- create new structures with social struc- ing it. That is what happened with the tures that hold injustice fi rmly in place. French Revolution—people set out on Perhaps they will fall apart on their a process of fi guring out how to have own, perhaps they will collapse in a a society without the institutions they fi ght about their utility, but the struc- knew were oppressive, but they cleared tures that are not working will have away an old social structure and then to go. It is like the house, we cannot built the same one over again. The put new, more just and equitable social French Revolution overthrew the king, structures in a space occupied by oth- but France had Napoleon Bonaparte er social structures. They need space. as dictator ten years later. The Russian Taking down and building up are both Revolution did away with the Czar and essential processes for social change. the nobility that controlled voice and Strategies of constructive resilience wealth, but Russians’ eff ort at learning enable people to overcome a funda- how to put society together in a way mental challenge of trying to build so- that was more fair got derailed, and cial structures characterized by justice, eventually they arrived back at a small which is that we cannot know where elite that controlled voice and wealth. we are going as we begin. When peo- Seeing injustice, and working to be rid ple are building or remodeling a house, of it, was not enough. they have a plan. When the family Injustice distorts our perception of starts to take down the old walls to reality: our understanding of our own make the children’s bedroom bigger, capacity as well as our ability to imag- they know what the next step will be. ine a society with qualities our own The old wall comes down, the founda- does not have. Barbara Fields and Kar- tion gets extended or whatever needs to en Fields describe this phenomenon in be done, and then the family follows a relation to the perception of the reality plan to put up new walls in a new place. of race in the United States: “The de- They know where they are going. It is structive imagination that infl ates the harder to have a plan for social trans- racecraft balloon sucks away oxygen formation. We cannot have plans like from the constructive imagining that architectural drawings because if we we urgently need, and does so to the live in a society characterized by in- disadvantage of all working Amer- justice, we do not really know how icans, not just black or white ones” to make social institutions that work (Fields and Fields 289). The Universal diff erently. A failure of imagination is House of Justice observes that dimin- one reason eff orts to create a more just ishing people’s self-understanding is society have often failed. It is naturally an intended consequence of a system diffi cult for people to imagine any way of injustice, “deliberate oppression Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive Social Change 117 aims at dehumanizing those whom and nature, between members of the it subjugates and at de-legitimizing family, between individuals, institu- them as members of society” (26 Nov. tions, and communities, and between 2003). Therefore, those who are at- parts of the world. (2 Mar. 2013). We tempting to respond to oppression have have been making the structures that to fi nd a way to preserve their sense of now characterize the world over half themselves as noble beings capable a millennium, in a set of long-term, of acting on and changing the world. world-embracing patterns of change Constructive resilience is a way of de- that includes the European conquest of scribing eff orts at social transformation other parts of the world, the colonial which sustain a movement towards exploitation of Asians, Africans, and fundamental change in the face of op- the Indigenous peoples of the Ameri- pression that seeks to dehumanize. cas, the enslavement of Africans, and Systematic learning is one of the the design of industrial factories on strategies that characterizes construc- the pattern of plantation slave labor. tive resilience. We cannot know what We are organized in relationships, but just social structures would actually they do not work, they are unjust, they be like, because we have never expe- are dehumanizing. We are stuck inside rienced them. But groups of people these structures. We live inside a house thinking together, asking questions, of social institutions that was built with making eff orts, and revising their un- violence. It is unbearable, but not sur- derstanding based on experience can prising, that violence, self-interest, and move their thought and action away white supremacy are the frames of our from injustice and toward justice. It house. takes decades, it takes a cultivation of Another fundamental part of the collective will, and it takes the power structure is that power rests someplace of faith, but it is possible. We can set else in society—it does not rest with out on a process of social learning with us. In the United States and many other a framework as a way to keep ourselves societies, many overt and subtle forces on track as we are learning. state that to be a good citizen is to make So how do we set ourselves on a a salary, buy things with the money path of learning so we can create a one earns, and vote. Society is shaped system of community support and pro- somewhere else; problems are solved tection that keeps everyone safe, and somewhere else. If there are problems, an economy that works for everyone? it is our job to point them out, and to How do we create the justice which is make sure the right people are elected the foundation of unity? We need, in to fi x them. This withdrawal of respon- the words of the Universal House of sibility for society is another part of the Justice “a complete reconceptualiza- house of our ideas that has failed us, tion of the relationships that sustain so- and we have to remove that pillar, too. ciety”—those between human beings The Universal House of Justice drew 118 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
attention to this when it wrote: “every will make the change. That this change nation and group—indeed, every in- seems too hard results from our being dividual—will, to a greater or lesser oppressed by materialism, racism, and degree, contribute to the emergence of other negative forces, but the victims the world civilization towards which of oppression, and that is all of us, can humanity is irresistibly moving” (2 transcend it through an inner strength Mar. 2013). This makes sense, because that shields the soul from bitterness and if what has become disturbed is the hatred and which sustains consistent, way we have relationships with others, principled action. That is constructive a fundamental step will be learning resilience. to have diff erent kinds of relation- Recognizing that social transfor- ships. We might think that having the mation requires both clearing away responsibility to create relationships what doesn’t work and systematically which enable a restructuring of society learning about what could be better is beyond our capacity. It might seem helps us see the possibilities of this to be a frightening and overwhelming moment in the United States. It is not responsibility. Thinking we are power- enough to know that social conditions less is part of our oppression. are intolerable: to engage in profound, Therefore, an essential part of the meaningful, permanent social building, process of reconstructing the house of there has to be a space for something our society, is to take back our sense of new to develop, and we have to have a responsibility for the wellbeing of the vision and a plan for how we are going social whole. That is what communi- to learn to implement it. Although they ties engaged in constructive resilience are perhaps not part of our conscious are doing. To summarize, fundamental self-awareness, eff orts to create a just, social progress requires the abandon- diverse, reciprocal community are part ment of social structures that are unjust of our history from the earliest interac- and a systematic eff ort in which we all tions of Indigenous communities with learn how to organize ourselves in a newly arrived strangers. This essay fo- way that works better, and that takes cusses on another powerful, inspiring a long time. Since the institutions of history—also almost entirely neglected society that we have were built out of and forgotten: constructive, far-seeing oppression, we have a major remodel- society building among African Amer- ing project on our hands. We have to icans over the past two centuries can learn new ways of thinking about, and help us orient ourselves to the task we new ways of organizing, all our rela- face. tionships. Since oppression and injus- tice are embodied in relationships, and we are all constantly holding in place At the moment that enslavement many kinds of relationships, every hu- ended, African Americans were care- man being on earth is part of how we fully and deliberately opening up Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive Social Change 119 space for a diff erent set of relationships responded to the person who had tak- among people than those they had been en the value of his labor for thirty-two experiencing. In a brilliant book on Af- years with an invitation to justice. His rican American ethics, Lynda Morgan courteous letter asserted their mutu- tells the story of Mr. Jourdan Ander- al humanity and suggested the means son. He had moved to Ohio from Ten- to establishing reciprocity. He envi- nessee, where he had been enslaved. sioned, and through his words created, Four months after the Emancipation a diff erent kind of relationship. Proclamation, he received a letter from The origins of the Juneteenth celebra- his former owner, Mr. P. M. Anderson, tion carry the same kind of society-con- asking him and his wife to come back structing purpose. June 19, 1865 was to the farm where he had been enslaved the day that enslaved people in Texas to work for wages. Jourdan Anderson fi nally learned that they were free, two wrote back that his family was doing years after the Emancipation Proclama- well. They were attending church, he tion. When the Confederate Army had had a job, and his children were in broken up, warlords were controlling school. He asked Mr. P.M. Anderson, Texas, it was lawless, and slave owners “can you match these amenities?” He were trying to push back the clock, until also asked for back wages for the time a Union army regiment landed in Gal- he had worked for Anderson. He wrote veston and read a proclamation: “The “This will make us forgive and forget people of Texas are informed that, in old scores and rely on your justice and accordance with a proclamation from friendship in the future.” He had been the Executive of the United States, all enslaved for 32 years, and his wife slaves are free. This involves an ab- had been enslaved for 20 years. Cal- solute equality of personal rights and culating the value of his labor at twen- rights of property between former mas- ty-fi ve dollars a week, and his wife’s ters and slaves” (“Juneteenth”) at two dollars a week, but subtracting In the lawless circumstances in the value of clothing and one doctor’s which the people who had held them and dentist’s visit each year, he in- enslaved continued to try to hold them formed Anderson that by his reckon- down, the free Black people of Texas ing, the total he was owed was $11,680 began to celebrate the nineteenth of ($233,600 in current dollars) He wrote, June as a holiday. People dressed up, “This balance will show what we are they gathered on property of Black in justice entitled to. If you fail to pay landowners, they prayed, they listened us for faithful labors in the past we can to speeches by older people who had have little faith in your promises in the memories of enslavement, and they future. Surely there will be a day of had celebratory meals. They were say- reckoning for those that defraud the la- ing, We know we are free, we know we borer of their hire” (Anderson, quoted have always deserved to be free, we in Morgan, 13–14). Jourdan Anderson know this is a cause for celebration. 120 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
What we see, in the original Juneteenth wealth. African American communi- celebration, is people responding to ties in those decades were a dense web oppression with an expression of their of spaces for learning, such as debating profound conviction of the dignity and societies and literary societies with a capacity of human beings, informed variety of social purposes. by a belief in God. We see formerly African American and White crafts- enslaved Texans acting in a way that men were also trying to learn how to acknowledged the humanity of oppres- harness industrial technology to collec- sors and invited oppressors to behave tive generation of wealth. The 1860s, in a way that expressed their human po- 1870s, and 1880s witnessed very de- tential for goodness, and we see them liberate eff orts to create cooperative making practical, concrete eff orts to manufacturing: at least fi ve hundred put into practice a vision of a more just cooperatives opened in the twenty-fi ve society on every level—economically, years after the Civil War. There were socially, intellectually, and spiritually. mines, foundries, mills, and factories A profound, deliberate re-imagin- making barrels, clothes, shoes, soap, ing of what the United States could and furniture. There were cooperative be happened in the decades after the laundries, cooperative printers, and Civil War, a period labeled “Recon- cooperative lumberjacks. The Knights struction.” People were asking, What of Labor, an organization which had kinds of social institutions can re- fundamental problems but also admi- place the ones built on slavery? Their rable goals, at its peak had 800,000 eff orts actually focused on building members, was racially integrated, and new forms of political voice and new included women as workers, members, forms of economic organization. Peo- and leaders. The Knights of Labor ple were experimenting; they were actually had Black elected leaders, trying to learn. The fi rst free schools but they did not put those people on in the southern United States were or- their posters of their leaders, because ganized by and for freedmen. These the organization did not want to cause were not just the fi rst free schools for their African American leaders to be African Americans but the fi rst system lynched. The people involved thought of public education for anyone in that that a widespread economic democra- area. Formerly enslaved people built cy and a cooperative commonwealth neighborhoods in which their owner- would emerge through their eff orts to ship of homes and businesses asserted learn how to work together in a new a plan for prosperity. Because the most way, and intense eff orts of communi- highly skilled laborers in the United ties to learn together characterized this States had been enslaved people whose period of time (Gordon Nembhard, masters had hired them out and taken 48–52). their wages, these workers moved di- That eff ort to learn how to build a rectly into accumulating property and new kind of society was deliberately Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive Social Change 121 ended, and the turning back was so suc- where we and our whole community cessful we have forgotten that it even could be rich together?” (qtd. in Gor- happened. The so-called “Redemp- don Nembhard 260). tion,” which stopped the innovation We can see a focus on learning in and sought to put African Americans how African American communities back into a space of absolute oppres- established cooperatives. They usually sion, was fueled not only by racism, began in churches, and in order to start but also by the wealthiest and most them, people had to have a study circle, powerful element of American society, and they had to study for a year togeth- which feared the power of Black and er to develop the skills they needed. White laborers joining together. It was Many, once they were started, did not absolutely a war on Black people, but succeed, but they still had an eff ect be- it was also a war on working people, cause their participants had built skills. and it very deliberately sought to cre- They existed until the risk of being ate racial animosity in the White work- labelled communists in the McCarthy ing class. This was the moment that era made cooperation dangerous. statues honoring Confederate heroes were built. It was also a time of war on cooperatives. John Curl, a histori- We all need to know the history an of cooperation in the United States, which demonstrates we have social writes that, “railroads refused to haul structures that need to be removed, and their products, manufacturers refused we need to know and value the eff orts to sell them needed machinery; whole- people have made to take down those salers refused them raw materials and structures. In the United States, we supplies; banks wouldn’t lend” (106). need to be aware of the nineteenth-cen- In the early twentieth century, Afri- tury violence of “Redemption” after can American leaders focused on how Reconstruction and the twentieth-cen- to build prosperity through cooperation tury violence of lynchings and massa- within the confi nes of Jim Crow segre- cres, such as the one in Tulsa, in order gation laws. W.E.B. Du Bois initiated to truly grasp the enormity of what has an annual Negro Businesses and Co- to be remade. It is important to be in- operatives Conference because he saw spired by the history of the Civil Rights cooperation as a way of responding to Movement, but that is not enough. oppression. He framed a vision of so- We also need to learn from the ef- cial transformation to those gathered forts people have made to build a dif- at the 1907 conference in Atlanta: “We ferent kind of social house. We need to unwittingly stand at the crossroads— see what people did because their faith should we go the way of capitalism and in God gave them faith in themselves, try to become individually rich as cap- because we can learn from them how italists, or should we go the way of co- to do it in the present. Their songs can operatives and economic cooperation protect us, their sacrifi ces can inspire 122 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020 us, their experiments can inform ours. Pennsylvania State University When we look, we will see Indigenous Press, 2014. peoples, landless Nicaraguan farm- “Juneteenth.” Texas State Archives workers, Zanzibari women, Iranians and Library Commission, 19 denied education, African Americans June 2020, tsl.texas.gov/ref/ across the generations, and so many abouttx/juneteenth.html. others whose connection to God gave Morgan, Lynda J. Known for My them an alternative understanding of Work: African American Eth- power. We will fi nd well-developed ics from Slavery to Freedom. and deliberate forms of community ed- U of Florida P, 2016. ucation, initiated by groups who have The Universal House of Justice. Letter had a vision of a direction they wanted to the Followers of Bahá’u’lláh to move. We will see forms of commu- in the Cradle of the Faith, 26 nity economy that have harnessed the Nov. 2003. power of reciprocity and cooperation ———. Letter to Believers in Iran, 2 to combine collective goals with indi- Mar. 2013. vidual need and eff ort. We see carefully built, dense webs of social connection on the local level, which have served as a locus for agency and self-expression for people determined to make nobility visible. This is the source of the vision we need to build the social structures we want.
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Curl, John. For All the People: Un- covering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communal- ism in America. PM Press, 2009. Fields, Karen E., and Barbara J. Fields. Racecraft: The Soul of In- equality in American Life. Verso, 2012. Gordon Nembhard, Jessica. Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Eco- nomic Thought and Practice. 123
HOLLY HANSON is Coordinator Biographical Notes of the Research Department of the Bahá’í World Centre and Professor Emeritus of History at Mount Holyoke College. Her publications include: To CAITLYN BOLTON is a PhD can- Speak and Be Heard: Seeking Good didate in Cultural Anthropology at the Government in Uganda, ca. 1500 Graduate Center of the City University to 2015 (Ohio UP, 2021), A Path of of New York and an American Council Justice: Building Communities with of Learned Societies Dissertation Com- the Power to Shape the World (Grace pletion Fellow. Based on ethnographic Publications, 2010, bahaiebooks.org/ and archival research in East Africa publications/apathofjustice/), Landed and the Arabian Peninsula, her disser- Obligation: the Practice of Power in tation examines transnational Islamic Buganda (Heinemann, 2003), Social organizations working in development and Economic Development: A Bahá’í and education in Zanzibar, and the role Approach (George Ronald, 1989), and of religion and religious knowledge in many essays. their approaches to progress and social change. She speaks Arabic and Swahi- MICHAEL KARLBERG is a pro- li, has a BA in Anthropology and Afri- fessor of Communication Studies at cana Studies from Bard College, and a Western Washington University. His MA in Near Eastern Studies from New scholarship examines prevailing con- York University. ceptions of human nature, power, so- cial organization, and social change— ELIZABETH DE SOUZA writes and their implications for the pursuit about the arts emerging from the Af- of peace and justice. He authored the rican diaspora. In 2020 she was the books Beyond the Culture of Contest Rona-Jaff e Fellow at Hedgebrook and and Constructing Social Reality. He is the Barbara Smith Fellow at Twelve currently working on a book on the re- Literary Arts. She is a MacDowell lationship between the means and ends Fellow and a Creative Capital Award of social change in movements for so- Finalist. Elizabeth holds an MFA in cial justice. Creative Writing form George Mason University and a BA in English Litera- LAYLI MAPARYAN, PHD, is the Ex- ture from Hofstra University. Her fi rst ecutive Director of the Wellesley Cen- book, Sleeping in the Fire: A Black ters for Women and Professor of Afri- Artist in America, is forthcoming, and cana Studies at Wellesley College. Her her essays have appeared in various books include The Womanist Reader literary journals. She lives with her (Routledge, 2006), The Womanist Idea husband and two small children in the (Routledge, 2012), and Womanism Ris- Pittsburgh area. ing (forthcoming). She has served as a 124 The Journal of Bahá’í Studies 30.3 2020
Fulbright Specialist in Liberia as well researches, and teaches about critical as a Contemplative Practice Fellow of comparative global (in)justices and the Center for Contemplative Mind in (in)equities of Indigenous, ethnic, Society. She sits on the boards of direc- and racial communities, particularly tors of the Global Fund for Women, the within the context of higher education, Tahirih Justice Center, and the Univer- knowledge systems, activism, and sity Consortium for Liberia. Her most human rights. recent scholarship brings womanism, African worldview, and the Bahá’í DERIK SMITH is a professor in the Faith into conversation. Department of Literature at Claremont McKenna College and chair of the In- MICHAEL PENN is Department tercollegiate Department of Africana Chair and Professor of Psychology Studies at the Claremont Colleges. at Franklin & Marshall College. His His work is anchored in the analysis publications explore the application of American culture and, particularly, of psychological research and theory African American literary culture. He to human rights, the interpenetration is the author of many articles, and the of psychology and philosophy, and the book, Robert Hayden in Verse: New relationship between culture and men- Histories of African American Poetry tal health. Professor Penn is the author, and the Black Arts Era. co-author, or co-editor of four books, including: Our Common Humanity: BRADLEY WILSON is associate Refl ections on the Reclamation of the professor of geography at West Virgin- Human Spirit, currently in press; Mor- ia University and founding director of al Trauma: An Analysis of Akrasia and its Center for Resilient Communities. Mental Health (2016); Interdisciplin- His research explores community re- ary Perspectives on Human Rights and sponses to economic crisis, food in- Human Dignity (2020); and Overcom- security and environmental injustice ing Violence against Women and Girls: in Central America and Central Ap- The International Campaign to Eradi- palachia. In recent years he has been cate a Worldwide Problem (2003). engaged in action research in West Vir- ginia with community organizations A daughter of Bahá’í refugee settlers to build grassroots capacity for food of Azeri, Kurdish, and Persian roots, system change and to advance the right SAHAR D. SATTARZADEH is to food. an assistant professor of Education Studies at DePauw University and a research associate at the Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) at Nelson Mandela University. She writes, Many articles published in The Journal of Bahá’í Studies allude to the institutions and central figures of the Bahá’í Faith; as an aid for those unfamiliar with the Bahá’í Faith, we include here a succinct summary excerpted from http://www.bahai.org/beliefs/ bahaullah-covenant/. The reader may also find it helpful to visit the official web site for the worldwide Bahá’í community (www.bahai.org) available in several languages. For article submission guidelines, please visit bahaistudies.ca/publications/submission-guidelines/.
ABOUT THE BAHÁ’Í FAITH
The Bahá’í Faith, its followers believe, is “divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, broad in its outlook, scientific in its method, humanitarian in its principles and dynamic in the influence it exerts on the hearts and minds of men.” The mission of the Bahá’í Faith is “to proclaim that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is continuous and progressive, that the Founders of all past religions, though different in the non-essential aspects of their teachings, “abide in the same Tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech and proclaim the same Faith” (Shoghi Effendi).
The Bahá’í Faith began with the mission entrusted by God to two Divine Messengers— the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. Today, the distinctive unity of the Faith They founded stems from explicit instructions given by Bahá’u’lláh that have assured the continuity of guidance following His passing. This line of succession, referred to as the Covenant, went from Bahá’u’lláh to His Son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and then from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, and the Universal House of Justice, ordained by Bahá’u’lláh. A Bahá’í accepts the divine authority of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and of these appointed successors.
The Báb (1819-1850) is the Herald of the Bahá’í Faith. In the middle of the 19th century, He announced that He was the bearer of a message destined to transform humanity’s spiritual life. His mission was to prepare the way for the coming of a second Messenger from God, greater than Himself, who would usher in an age of peace and justice.
Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892)—the “Glory of God”—is the Promised One foretold by the Báb and all of the Divine Messengers of the past. Bahá’u’lláh delivered a new Revelation from God to humanity. Thousands of verses, letters and books flowed from His pen. In His Writings, He outlined a framework for the development of a global civilization which takes into account both the spiritual and material dimensions of human life. For this, He endured 40 years of imprisonment, torture and exile.
In His will, Bahá’u’lláh appointed His oldest son, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921), as the authorized interpreter of His teachings and Head of the Faith. Throughout the East and West, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá became known as an ambassador of peace, an exemplary human being, and the leading exponent of a new Faith.
Appointed Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, His eldest grandson, Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957), spent 36 years systematically nurturing the development, deepening the understanding, and strengthening the unity of the Bahá’í community, as it increasingly grew to reflect the diversity of the entire human race.
The development of the Bahá’í Faith worldwide is today guided by the Universal House of Justice (established in 1963). In His book of laws, Bahá’u’lláh instructed the Universal House of Justice to exert a positive influence on the welfare of humankind, promote education, peace and global prosperity, and safeguard human honor and the position of religion. The Journal of Bahá’í Studies
From the Editor’s Desk Editorial Committee
The Constructive Imaginary Michael Karlberg
Why Constructive Resilience? An Autobiographical Essay Michael L. Penn
Views from a Black Artist in the Century of Light Elizabeth de Souza
New Black Power: Constructive Resilience and the Efforts of African American Bahá’ís Derik Smith
Africanity, Womanism, and Constructive Resilience: Some Reflections Layli Maparyan
When We In/visibilize Our Nobility . . . Sahar D. Sattarzadeh
Community Agency and Islamic Education in Contemporary Zanzibar Caitlyn Bolton
Faith in Action: Reflections on Constructive Resilience from Nicaragua Bradley Wilson
Vision and the Pursuit of Constructive Social Change Holly Hanson
COVER Abhá People M. Bunch Washington