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Revolutionary Black Culture: the Cultural Arm of Revolutionary Nationalism

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Revolutionary Black Culture: the Cultural Arm of Revolutionary Nationalism Opinion REVOLUTIONARY BLACK CULTURE: THE CULTURAL ARM OF REVOLUTIONARY NATIONALISM BY ERNIE MKALIMOTO Copyright © 1969 by Ernie Mkalimoto spiritual rebirth, chanting the Word as it sows the seeds of the new Man "A revolution which dis- who has come to claim his earth cul- parages or ignores the again, to claim his right to govern tural domain will see this again, to claim his will to live again, vacuum filled from the eroded ladle of the domi- this is Black Nationalism, the po- nant culture" litical, economic, and cultural ex- pression of the black, colonized na- tion of North America. But what is Black Nationalism? In its most general terms, Black ¬G"a %4ENTLE rain of dark Nationalism may be defined as the consciousness upon feeling among African-Americans the Mother-Earth/new that their destiny is a common one, dawn singing in a bob- that "whatever affects one black xt~~3Y bing sea of cocoa- person ultimately affects all black hearts/sway of ebony breasts cra- people ." This feeling-by defini- dling the nation in spirit-fires of tion a subjective phenomenon-is black rebirth/dark warriors take rooted within the objective, histori- their place upon the soil, our soil, cal factor of a common racial op- bearing chants of the dead who are pression which black people have not dead: Chaka, Vesey, Toussaint, undergone within the United States, Garvey, Malcolm . New energies a process which began in slavery released upon eroded, stale rhythms and which has continued up to the of the planet/trembling earth/burn- present day. And it is out of the ing sky/SUNRISE! Exploding in jagged wound of racial oppression the rainbows of a new dawn, of that Black Nationalism has flowed NEGRO DIGEST December 1969 into being: strongly evident at yodeling to the African rhythm of times, such as during the era of the bells at the foot of Mt. Morris park; pre-Civil War nationalist move- but black culture is also the thun- ment in the North, the Garvey der of maroon pants, orange dashi- movement, and the present histori- kis, and green alligators splashing cal period; at other times more out of hot, swirling summer clouds covert, such as during the period of of Lenox Avenue blues people, is Reconstruction, as well as the abor- black talk and C. P.-time, is black tive integration plunge into "the life-style, is Christian heritage, is mainstream" fostered by the edu- the way in which black people cated black middle class following live/hope to live. And as culture is World War II. the expression of national con- On the other hand, what is black sciousness (Fanon), the vehicle par culture? If culture in its most gen- excellence by which the life-forces eral terms may be defined as the of the nation are canalized, it is way of life of a people, the reflec- impossible to speak of Black Na- tion in the minds and manners of tionalism without considering at men of the politics and economics the same time the question of black of their given society, black culture, culture; culture and nationalism then, is the way of life of black cannot be separated. And this is must be extremely care- people, the life-style of African- why one the use of the term, "cultural Americans who have been forced ful in nationalism," an expression which to live under the oppressive politics almost takes on the appearance of and economics (as well as culture) redundancy, and which today has domestic colonialism within of a been programmed by certain ob- And here it is the United States . fuscators of the struggle to mean essential to distinguish between cul- almost anything from "traitor" to ture in general, which is life-style, "racist" . But then, what is "cultural and the artistic and literary works nationalism?" To answer this ques- which constitute the embodiment- tion necessitates a return to our some would say refinement-of preliminary remarks. this culture (these works constitut- ing only a small portion of the CULTURAL NATIONALISM totality) ; for black culture is not only Pharoah Sanders overstep- All nationalism beeins with feel- ping the bounds of western con- ing, a common sentiment which is sciousness in his probings of Kar- anchored within certain objective ma, or the revolutionary poet, factors (a common opuression, his- Askia Muhammad Toure, rapping tory, language, territory, etc.) . from the vibrant heights of Har- From the social foundation con- lem's Black Mind ; or even Leon cretized in this unity of feeling Thomas doing some down, black arises the edifice of nationalist 12 December 1969 NEGRO DIGEST ideology (representing a step for- to dominate political necessities. ward from the relatively "primi- Manifesting itself for the most part tive" stage of folklore and stereo- within the confines of small sects types: the first stirrings of national or cults having no tangible relation consciousness) ; like any other to the masses of the black nation, ideology it may be passed through this form of nationalism may per- the political spectrometer where it haps pretend to its reflecting the separates into its three fundamen- totality of black culture, but in re- tal components : politics, econom- ality that would be false, for it ap- ics, and culture. The cultural com- parently does not consider the ponent of nationalism rests upon revolutionary struggle of African- two pillars : Americans as being worthy of in- 1 . the development of a system clusion within the black cultural of national values and mores dynamic. Not that "cultural na- 2. the development of a national tionalism" in every case closes its history. eyes to the realities of the present, Through emphasis upon the par- but when it finally does address ticular life-style and historic itself to the question of white op- achievements of the nation's peo- pression, it does so many times un- ple (and, by projection, of the der the guise of a terminological achievements to come) a sense of confusion out of which it can jus- national pride, of patriotism, is in- tify, at least on the surface, its stilled in the hearts of the people, unwillingness to meet imperialism resulting in a fusion of human en- on a toe-to-toe, no-holds-barred, ergy forces which, depending upon revolutionary, political terrain. which national class is leading the Here the oppression of African- struggle (or heading the govern- Americans is defined as "cultural" : ment, whatever the case), may take the imposition of an alien way of on a variety of political directions ; life upon black people . From a cul- in the case where culture is allowed tural problem must emerge a cul- to prevail over politics (bourgeois- tural solution, the creation of a new oriented leadership) this phenome- way of life in contradistinction to non is known as "cultural national- the old. But divorced from politics ism." this stance is rendered absolutely "Cultural nationalism," then, is meaningless, for the suppression of the expression of the struggle to the original black cultures in North promote/sustain a particular way America was not carried out pri- of life, a devotion to that way of life marily through either the verbal or within the national community, but written negation of its existence by a struggle either divorced from the colonizer-that would come politics, or one in which so-called later. The suppression of black lan- cultural imperatives are allowed guage, black religion, black names, NEGRO DIGEST . December 1969 1 3 black vestment, and the black culture links itself with the day-to- family-in short, black life-style- day aspirations of the people, guid- was enacted by political means, by ing these collective energies to the the pale fist of white state power crystallizing point of revolution wielded against the black collec- and laying a new basis of values for tivity by the slavemaster. And so the emerging society. In this sense, today, even though it is the arm of the struggle along cultural lines a cultural imperialism which con- cannot be considered simply as a stantly attempts to distort and de- catalyst for Revolutionary Nation- stroy the foundations of an inde- alism, and then once having ful- pendent black life-style within this filled this role losing its raison alien land, this encroachment is d'etre and falling to the wayside of only possible because of the politi- history; for revolutionary black cal power of the white state which culture, the new system of black lends teeth to the cultural jaws of values and mores reflected in the our political oppression here on politics and economics of the black this continent. Our collective prob- communal society to be born in lem is, at base, no more a "cul- the flames of revolutionary strug- tural than a "moral" one. gle, not only primes the struggle for national liberation, but is the aim of this struggle as well : a way of life which will restore the har- monious relationship of Man to himself and to other men, of Man to the changing forces of Nature. REVOLUTIONARY To this end, revolutionary black NATIONALISM culture, the cultural arm of Revo- On the other hand, in the case lutionary Black Nationalism, must where politics evolves into a revo- unite black people, must arouse the lutionary struggle for control of the collective consciousness of the state (the seizure of state power), black nation and pose an alterna- when the leadership is one which tive to the moribund, decadent cul- represents the broad masses of the ture of the oppressor, challenging nation, then the parallel struggle every move it makes on black ter- waged on the cultural front for the rain.
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