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Obama's Mojo Ain't Working Like It Used To
An Open Letter to E. Ethelbert Miller and
Amiri Baraka
By Rudolph Lewis
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My experience at the
barbershop, however, indicates something
else entirely might be stirring. It shows
the extent to which the president—and those
advising him—may be grossly overestimating
his ability to charm Main Street into
perceiving reality according to his wishes.—
Javier E. David, “Would blacks back Bush if
he bombed Africa?”
TheGrio
This is so sad. The
question is even outdated. Is Africa still
Eden? Why do we compare Obama to previous
presidents but then always factor race into
our thinking? What's a black president? Is
it different from a president? What are
America's national interests? What oath did
Obama take when he became president? To
protect the NAACP? So if Obama decided to
bomb England or Germany would we cheer?
Would this be the Nat Turner thing to do
after many years of slavery and oppression?
What would people say if Obama gave the
green light to attack pirates off the coast
of Somalia? I find it amazing that folks
discuss world issues as if they were in a
playground (or barbershop) and believe they
have the answer(s). If things were so simple
we would all be president. No wonder Sarah
Palin writes on her hands . . .—Ethelbert |
Oh, you are so
right, my dear
Ethelbert: it all depends on where one
begins when confronted with a racial question. That is,
if one is one of those evolved individuals (like the
Black French of yesteryear), the racial question indeed
is outdated. But I suspect that most people within the
realm of blackness are not so evolved, as a
Charles Johnson, or a
Barack Obama. We
are not the
Sarah
Palin who writes on her hands because she's an
ignorant opportunist. That’s not where most of us are in
the realm of blackness. . . . But on this point we can
agree: since the mid 1970s, the black vote has become
irrelevant in its ability to change negro consciousness,
though
Pan Africanism remain the floor of black thinking.
Are you aware of
Amiri Baraka's latest poem? It is excellent, representative of a
certain insightful
Pan Africanist perspective. It should be read
several times before one addresses its content:
| The New Invasion of
Africa
By Amiri Baraka
So it wd be this way
That they wd get a negro
To bomb his own home
To join with the actual colonial
Powers, Britain, France, add Poison Hillary
With Israeli and Saudi to make certain
That revolution in Africa must have a
stopper
So call in the white people who long tasted
our blood
They would be the copper, overthrow Libya
With some bullshit humanitarian scam
With the negro yapping to make it seem right
(far right)
But that's how Africa got enslaved by the
white
A negro selling his own folk, delivering us
to slavery
In the middle of the night. When will you
learn poet
And remember it so you know it
Imperialism can look like anything
Can be quiet and intelligent and even have
A pretty wife. But in the end, it is
insatiable
And if it needs to, it will take your life.
21 March 2011 |
Baraka begins, we
should not be surprised by our present situation, “that
they would get a negro” to do their dirty work (which is
later given a more general political name). But the
particular act of bombing Libya is placed in a
Pan African realm, “To bomb his home.” Now every
conscious negro poet (or scholar) would not take such a
traditional political stance. You may recall the piece “Africa
My Motherland (Not)” by
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers that I published not so long
ago. For Ms. Jeffers, and for Mr. Obama (it’s evident as
well, America is strictly home. In confronting
the “birthers” (a third of the white American public),
many Obama sympathizers have taken up his cause with
mockery and derision of the Tea Party and their
Republican colleagues, by stating and restating that he
is the American Dream in the flesh—a point he restated
recently in Brazil (to great applause).
The poem “The New
Invasion of Africa” may suggest for some that the
“gotten negro” is altogether without agency. For his is
not a singular act by the command of the powerful,
wealthy elite, like “John kill that nigger”—and then
John kills the nigger. No, in this instance, there is
some plotting and decision-making that goes on and goes
on within a certain historical context, which is
represented by the phrasing “the actual colonial /
Powers”—Britain and France probably demarcated and
eventually controlled 75% of the land mass of Africa,
from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, from
the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.
Of course, Belgium
in the Congo and Portugal in Angola and Mozambique and
Guinea-Bissau as well played their roles in curtailing
black progress in the modern era. They too are eager
members of a new “UnHoly Eight.” The decades after 1960s
brought forth the liberation of the majority of their
colonial creations. The last forty years the new black
led African nations have been struggling to get their
feet under them. Their progress has met many setbacks by
IMF, World Bank, and “gotten negroes” educated in
Western corruption in London, Paris, and New York.
But the present
racial reality is more complex than the hubris of the
old colonial powers. Mr. Obama (the “gotten negro” of
Baraka’s poem) has a white middle class Cabinet and a
few minority advisers.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican, warned
Congress military intervention in a third country, even
if it is just setting up a “no-fly” zone is not a small
matter, however sophisticated one’s rhetoric is. War is
always complicated and advanced technology does not
simplify on-the-ground consequences. So far we have shot
over 160 Tomakawk missiles and dropped an untold number
of bombs from jets and high-flying bombers. To save the
lives of a few we often have to take the lives of many.
Baraka refers to
Mr. Obama’s Secretary of State as “Poison Hillary.”
Image-wise one cannot fail to recall that playful scene in
Hamlet in which one brother (the adviser) pours
poison into the ear of his brother the King, the elder
Hamlet, as a means to become king, the new head of
Denmark.
Hillary Clinton is indeed Mr. Obama’s adviser and
from media reports she seems much more hawkish (and
presidential) with regard to making war on Libya, and
some on the left have suggested that she is much more in
the pocket of the Israeli right than her boss. Hillary
has many right-wing and autocratic friends since she was
first lady herself—power corrupts, as well as a certain
lifestyle.
In the Egyptian
so-called revolution, we recall that Mrs. Clinton was
much more reluctant than Mr. Obama to suggest
President Mubarak step down from the Egyptian
presidency, especially after the army decided to side
with the hundreds of thousand of Egyptians. In his
announcement, Obama believed he was speaking on the
right side of history and seemingly the president
guessed right that Mr. Mubarak, he and his family
wilting under charges of kleptocracy, could not
withstand a palace coup. And the Mubarak family, Mrs.
Clinton’s close friends, stepped off the stage of
Egyptian political history to the chagrin of Mrs.
Clinton and Israel, which felt safe under Mubarak’s
political repression of the Muslim Brotherhood and the
aspirations of Egyptian young people. Seemingly, the
democratic left was on the march in the Arab world.
But Baraka knows,
as well as all who have any sense of Middle East
geopolitics, that Israel and Saudi Arabia are the
umbrella under which the United States has placed its
lawn chair of access to oil, security, and political
stability. The needs and comfort of Israel and Saudi
Arabia are foremost in U.S. foreign policy. From Saudi
Arabia the U.S. receives 8.6% of its oils needs, third
only to Mexico and Venezuela. And then there are the
other related Arab League nations, such as Bahrain,
Yemen, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates—the latter two
with oil reserves that rival those of Saudi Arabia. But
the Arab League is fractured and primarily controlled by
monarchists. These kings, sheikhs, and emirs have always
been suspect of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi who deposed King
Idris of Libya over four decades ago.
In the Islamic
Maghreb, the most populous Egypt with the largest
military force, and since the
death of Nasser, orients itself exceedingly more
toward Pan-Arabism than Pan Africanism. Libya and
Muammar Qadaffi have been an exception; they have
been highly critical of Pan Arabism and the
Arab
League
in its dealings with Iraq and Palestine. Gaddafi has
exceedingly engaged Black Africa and has probably
boosted and sped up a movement toward African unity,
much more so than the exceedingly wealthy states of
Egypt and South Africa. As far as institutions Libya may
be one of the weakest in the traditional sense of the
Maghreb
states militarily. Its leader, however, Mr. Gaddafi
has been the most extravagant in his dress, in his
views, and in his generosity to black African nations.
And some Libyans, especially those of the monarchist
Benghazi, have found his Pan Africanist sympathies
troubling. These same anti-black Africans have also been
associated with jihadist terrorism and the
Muslim
Brotherhood.
Egypt has been on
the U.S. payroll since Anwar Sadat to the tune of $7
billion a year. With Sadat and Mubarak the safety and security of
Israel was assured. Though its confidence in the
Egyptian military is still intact, Israel is a good deal
uneasy about the politics of the next Egyptian
president, which remains uncertain. It’s almost certain
the Muslim Brotherhood will play a greater role in the
new Egypt. Coupled with the revolutionary Pan Africanist
rhetoric of Gaddafi and the fuzzy politics of Tunisian
and Egyptian youth the dynamics of Maghreb will never be
as they were. For the
Arab
League, the destruction of the dynamic Libyan center
became an optional trade off to counter both the
liberalization of Arab politics and the advancing
unification of African governments inspired by Mr.
Gaddafi.
Of course, the
politics of “The New Invasion of Africa” has little to
do with revolutionary Arabism (terrorism) or
Zionism
(Gaza repression) and all that Western history that has
been raised to classify Gaddafi, in Reagan’s term, a
“mad dog.” For Baraka’s poem Gaddafi is only a shadow or
a shadowy symbol of Pan Africanism, as an African head
of state, or “That [ongoing] revolution in Africa.” The
colonialists—Britain and France—are the “white people
who long tasted our blood.” They will be the
“copper”—the vaunted continental policeman who desire to
go beyond
IMF and the
World Bank—who will oversee the
“no fly” zone—now and hereafter the self-proclaimed
determiners of the “legitimate” leaders of African
peoples. Those Western decision-making nations who will
determine the
future of Africa, we may conclude easily, do not love
African people more than African people love themselves.
African nations will insist they declared their
independence long ago from such foreign interventions,
however many Western Africoms are created
From just our
American experience, the Negro masses are somewhat
suspect of the good hearts of the Tea Party and their
sympathizers or in general the white middle classes when
it comes to the welfare and progress of black people.
Much of that white angst is symbolized in the rhetoric
of the “birthers” and the insistence on making Mr. Obama
a Muslin, i.e., the Other or the “half sign,” as
O.R.
Dathorne might say. We have seen too many instances when
American whites think they know what is best for us.
Baraka calls them out in this phrase, “some bullshit
humanitarian scam” and they have some “negro yapping to
make it seem right (far right).” The Negro is accustomed
to this game, which began Day One of the
Maafa,
“that's how Africa got enslaved by the white / A negro
selling his own folk, delivering us to slavery / In the
middle of the night.”
Memory or knowledge
of African-American history is a defense against
enslavement and brutal exploitation. The Negro has to
look around himself carefully with great scrutiny,
“Imperialism can look like anything / Can be quiet and
intelligent and even have / A pretty wife.” Baraka has
written a tough poem, one that almost any Negro on the
street can recognize its truth and its warnings of a
prescient danger. “Imperialism,” or from the visions of
Nkrumah, “neocolonialism,” “is insatiable / And if it
needs to, it will take your life.” Right now, liberal
white middle class Americans and their media heads are
speaking of “regime change” and “taking Gaddafi out,” as
if he is a pig to be led to slaughter or a nigger to the
hanging tree. Go tell
Dr.
Ken Warren,
Amiri Baraka
is not dead, and neither is African American literature.
No, E, I did not
expect Mr. Obama to do “the Nat Turner thing,” though
there may be some Turners in the making. If “world issues”
cannot be discussed on the “playground (or barbershop),”
are they worthy of the black masses still longing to be
free. These are issues, my dear brother, in which white
policymakers speak as our red brothers used to say with
forked tongues. You know the fabled snake in the Garden.
Or to use Malcolm’s bestiary, the masked wolf and fox in
our bedrooms and pockets. They will be talking about
victories when there are no victories. They are filled
with tactics for duping and bamboozling. That is where
we have arrived with Mr. Obama. No, I did not expect him
to be my Nat Turner, though we have those willing to
make that sacrifice. I did expect a greater truth
telling. I did not expect him to take us into another
war, especially a war on Africa. Regrettably, Obama’s
American Dream seems very reminiscent of
Ronald Reagan’s
“white heaven.” This down-coming—this turn-around—is
indeed sad.
posted
25 March 2011
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Amiri Baraka —Ode
to Obama
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The Great Pax
Whitie
By Nikki Giovanni
In the beginning was the word
And the word was
Death
And the word was nigger
And the word was death to all niggers
And the word was death to all life
And the word was death to all
peace be still
The genesis was life
The genesis was death
In the genesis of death
Was the genesis of war
be still peace be still
In the name of peace
They waged the wars
ain’t they got no shame
In the name of peace
Lot’s wife is now a product of the Morton
company
nah, they ain’t got no shame
Noah packing his wife and kiddies up for a
holiday
row row row your boat
But why’d you leave the unicorns, noah
Huh? why’d you leave them
While our Black Madonna stood there
Eighteen feet high holding Him in her
arms
Listening to the rumblings of peace
be still be still
CAN I GET A WITNESS? WITNESS? WITNESS?
He wanted to know
And peter only asked who is that dude?
Who is that Black dude?
Looks like a troublemaker to me
And the foundations of the mighty
mighty
Ro Man Cat holic church were laid
hallelujah Jesus
nah, they ain’t got no shame
Cause they killed the Carthaginians
in the great appian way
And they killed the Moors
“to civilize a nation”
And they just killed the earth
And blew out the sun
In the name of a god
Whose genesis was white
And war wooed god
And america was born
Where war became peace
And genocide patriotism
And honor is a happy slave
cause all god’s chillun need rhythm
And glory hallelujah why can’t peace
be still
The great emancipator was a bigot
ain’t they got no shame
And making the world safe for democracy
Were twenty millon slaves
nah, they ain’t got no shame
And they barbecued six million
To raise the price of beef
And crossed the 38th parallel
To control the price of rice
ain’t we never gonna see the light
And champagne was shipped out of the East
While kosher pork was introduced
To Africa
Only the torch can show the way
In the beginning was the deed
And the deed was death
And the honkies are getting confused
peace be still
So the great white prince
Was shot like a nigger in texas
And our Black shining prince was murdered
like that thug in his cathedral
While our nigger in memphis
was shot like their prince in dallas
And my lord
ain’t we never gonna see the light
The rumblings of this peace must be
stilled
be stilled be still
ahh Black people
ain’t we got no pride?
Nikki Giovanni, “The Great Pax Whitie”
from
Black Feeling, Black Talk/Black
Judgment. Copyright © 1968, 1970
by Nikki Giovanni. Used with the
permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
Source:
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998
PEACE BE STILL/ Great Pax Whitey 9video) |
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Africans
Beware the Saviors of Libya /
US Senate discusses sending troops to Libya
Bob Marley
War
/
Get Up, Stand Up
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|
Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007
By Matthew Wasniewski
Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007—
beautifully prepared volume—is a
comprehensive history of the more than
120 African Americans who have served in
the United States Congress. Written for
a general audience, this book contains a
profile of each African-American Member,
including notables such as Hiram Revels,
Joseph Rainey, Oscar De Priest, Adam
Clayton Powell, Shirley Chisholm, Gus
Hawkins, and Barbara Jordan. Individual
profiles are introduced by contextual
essays that explain major events in
congressional and U.S. history.
Part I provides four chronologically
organized chapters under the heading
"Former Black Members of Congress." Each
chapter provides a lengthy biographical
sketch of the members who served during
the period addressed, along with a
narrative historical account of the era
and tables of information about the
Congress during that time. Part II
provides similar information about
current African-American members. There
are 10 appendixes providing tabular
information of a variety of sorts about
the service of Black members, including
such things as a summary list, service
on committees and in party leadership
posts, familial connections, and so
forth. The entire volume is 803 large
folio pages in length and there are many
illustrations. The book should be part
of every library and research
collection, and congressional scholars
may well wish to obtain it for their
personal libraries.—Pictures—including
rarely seen historical images—of each
African American who has served in
Congress—Bibliographies and references
to manuscript collections for each
Member—Statistical graphs and charts |
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* * * * *
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Faces At The Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
By Derrick Bell
In nine grim metaphorical sketches, Bell, the black former Harvard law professor who made headlines recently for his one-man protest against the school's hiring policies, hammers home his controversial theme that white racism is a permanent, indestructible component of our society. Bell's fantasies are often dire and apocalyptic: a new Atlantis rises from the ocean depths, sparking a mass emigration of blacks; white resistance to affirmative action softens following an explosion that kills Harvard's president and all of the school's black professors; intergalactic space invaders promise the U.S. President that they will clean up the environment and deliver tons of gold, but in exchange, the bartering aliens take all African Americans back to their planet. Other pieces deal with black-white romance, a taxi ride through Harlem and job discrimination. Civil rights lawyer Geneva Crenshaw, the heroine of Bell's And We Are Not Saved (1987), is back in some of these ominous allegories, which speak from the depths of anger and despair. Bell now teaches at New York University Law School.—Publishers Weekly /
Derrick Bell Law Rights Advocate Dies at 80 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
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Hurricane Carter
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