Opinion

REVOLUTIONARY BLACK : THE CULTURAL ARM OF REVOLUTIONARY

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 , 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 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 , 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 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 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. And perhaps most important purpose of supporting national of all, revolutionary black culture revolutionary politics is no longer must reveal to African-Americans the strictured enigma of "cultural the way in which their oppression nationalism," but the assertion of must be brought to an end. Other- revolutionary culture, the cultural wise the question would no longer arm of Revolutionary Nationalism remain one of culture, but of pure in which politics assumes the lead- and simple mystification. ing role. This is the point where All have had re-

14 December 1969 NEGRO DIGEST course to the development of a deal with the present (instead of national history, to an unearthing vice-versa), to redevelop the sense of treasured historic facts buried of collective self, and to avoid the deep within the nation's past, for it dangers of known pitfalls charac- is only through the projection and teristic to struggles of national lib- study of this history that a soli- eration. And in contrast to certain darity in time (Cesaire) is provided forms of "cultural nationalism" for the nation, that those bobbing which wallow in the insanity of fan- leaves reflected in the gropings of tastically concocted mythologies, the present can ultimately be in the exchange of black irration- joined to the stable roots of the ality for white irrationality, Revo- past, lending anchor to the national lutionary Nationalism holds that in base. For the African on the moth- the further development of our na- er continent as well as abroad this tional history-though in part a development (or rather, redevelop- reaction to the sterile myth perpe- ment) of national histories is of trated by the technological barbar- crucial necessity in light of the his- ians of the west that the black man toric discontinuities which were never invented anything, never savagely introduced within our life- created any great , nev- styles by the colonizing west. And er possessed a written language, the historic discontinuity present indeed, never had a history-we within our culture today is not only have no need of producing a coun- that which separates the experi- ter-myth which only ends in the ences of the present generation of further confusion of our people . black militants from those of the Our history stands on its own "twenties" and "thirties" (Cruse), merits, and has no need of es- but in a much more general sense capist fantasies which warp black that which separates the entire cap- psyches . . . tive black nation from its history here on this continent, as well as the MISGUIDED CRITICISMS OF knowledge of the leading role BLACK CULTURE which our ancestors played in Af- rica as molders and shapers of hu- There exists a justifiable basis man upon the planet. upon which "cultural nationalism" Black history must continue to can be criticized, then, once one is be resurrected on these two fronts brought to a face-to-face under- and taken to the people . But in standing of the only really valid doing so, Revolutionary Black Na- meaning of the term. But the re- tionalism submits that knowledge cent assaults upon this singularly ofthe;past can in no way change the popular scapegoat from the "psy- material conditions of the present ; chotic fringe" of the struggle are only that this knowledge can enable . only harbingers of more ominous black people to more effectively forces which see in nationalism the

NEGRO DIGEST December 1969 Is fundamental threat to black people militants aspire will revolve around determining their own destiny on a white, western-oriented cultural the American continent; like the matrix . . . case of the blind men examining What is the significance? It is a the elephant, the extremities of na- phenomenon which reveals in no tionalism are taken for the entire uncertain terms that the concept of phenomenon, and consequently revolution in the minds of our "new these attacks can be given either breed" of leaders does not mean a one of two interpretations: either return to the best of the ancient the negro "revolutionary" posses- values and practices left to us by ses a total ignorance of the role of our ancestors, but is instead re- the cultural within the revolution- duced to nothing more than a syn- ary process, or he understands too onym for turning white-integra- well, and in either case these at- tion, if you will, but this time with tacks can mean nothing other than "guns and force" in lieu of picket a deliberate, systematic attempt to signs and pray-ins. Thus, what destroy the cultural dynamic of began originally as a desire to black nationalism, and, since there whiten the struggle (and thereby can be no question of separating become white) has today evolved culture from nationalism, they con- into the form (and only form) of stitute an attempt to destroy black an intense "ideological" debate in nationalism per se, all in the sacro- which the question of coalitions sanct and therefore apparently un- with whites-already resolved in challengeable name of "the revolu- practice during the 1930's and tion." again within the brief period of Unfortunately, the present trend Civil Rights struggle during the in this direction dictates that one early 1960's-are rehashed and will see in the coming months an chewed again like stale vomit for attempt by sandal-lickers of the the benefit of none and the confu- `negro revolution' to associate more sion of all. For behind the veil of and more the question of black na- revolutionary rhetoric, of hysteri- tionalism with that of "black ra- cal cries of "class struggle," and of cism", an obvious parroting of the united fronts against a ideology of the white power struc- which does not yet exist lies-and ture (take note) . And when these this must be said-a basic hate of attacks upon "cultural national- self and kind, with "politics" used ism" heave from the ramparts of merely as the legitimizing factor. slick, white-controlled "leftist" White; therefore non-black; magazines (of ambiguous financial therefore alienation, that is to say, backing), then the circle is fully alien to our nation ; therefore a drawn, and one begins to under- revolution plagued with abortion stand clearly the implications: the even before its inception. For if "revolution" to which our confused revolution means struggle on the

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politico/military front, it means no use of that culture (which only in- less a struggle on the ideological/ creases and perpetuates the psy- cultural front. And if a given chology of escapism inherent in the revolution finds itself bathed in the life-styles of Black Americans), light of brilliant military successes, not against those of our artists and it is nonetheless true that this very cultural leaders who are attempting same revolution can discover its to revolutionize within the domain political gains reversed if proper at- of the cultural universe, but against tention is not paid to work in the those ever-present armies of pari- ideological/cultural areas.' sites upon the struggle who would For a revolution which dispar- have us play political "ostrich" in ages or ignores the cultural domain a world where the dodo bird has will see this vacuum which it has already become quite extinct. For neglected filled from the eroded though the gun is without a doubt ladle of the , that a primary weapon in any revolu- is to say the culture of the domi- tionary struggle, we should con- nant class or nation (in this case, stantly remind ourselves that it is white America), and if it is in the not the only form of struggle, nor is it by any means the only necessary name of a new way of life that are form. Black poets, actors, writers, willing to shed the last of our blood and artists, as well as political and and expel our last, wavering breath, military cadres, must all join hands our neglect of the cultural aspects with the masses of our people in of our revolution would lead to the one common effort-"different early demise of our newborn na- strokes for different folks," certain- tion-state and a return to the ly, but all swimming in the same system of the old. general direction: black people Our cause, then, is not to strug- governing themselves again. Planet gle against black culture, but power to the peoples of color. We against the mystification and mis- will win!

'Witness the intensity of struggle along these lines within the Chinese Cultural Revolution : the struggle waged by the Chinese in order to keep their revolution from straying along the path of bourgeoisification, or in terms used by the Chinese, of the "restoration of capitalism."

Ernie Mkalimoto, author of the article, "Revolutionary Black Cul- ture: The Cultural Arm of Revolutionary Nationalism," is a poet and former member of the editorial board of Soulbook. He currently is co-director of education and culture for the Black Mind in Harlem. A contributor to black journals, Mr. Mkalimoto is completing work on a book entitled Revolutionary Black Nationalism: A New Ideology for a New Age, which is scheduled for publication in 1970.

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