Books by Amiri Baraka

Tales of the Out & the Gone  / The Essence of Reparations / Somebody Blew Up America & Other Poems  / Blues People

 Autobiography of LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka / Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones / Black Music

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Review of Amiri Baraka's The Essence of Reparations

By Deborah D. Moseley

Mr. Baraka's book on Reparations gives a thorough explanation on what Reparations is all about and a blueprint on how to best realize it.  First and foremost, Reparations is not just a mere paycheck; it is about a wronged peoples' right to Self-determination, at long last manifesting the Emancipation Proclamation, reversing the damage done by President Andrew Johnson who succeeded President Lincoln and eliminated the Freedman's Bureau and allowed the seditious South to re-enter the Union without pledging allegiance to it thereby setting a precedence for the Confederate Flag to remain atop public buildings and to impose a brutal proto-fascist regime upon Afro-Americans (which is how Mr. Baraka refers to Black people), establishing an Afro-American Central Bank to deposit the myriads of much entitled monetary compensations to be collected for the humiliating and de-humanizing wholesale free labor, murder, theft, character assassination, rape, kidnapping, and enslavement heaped upon the ancestors and descendents of said people and dispersing those funds to rebuild and repair their communities and infrastructures, making their existence whole and rendering them finally emancipated. 

His prescriptions hearken back to Malcolm X who advocated internationalizing the struggle of Afro-Americans along with other people worldwide who were and still are oppressed by American and European Capitalism, Imperialism, and Institutional Racism, e.g., Africans, Mexicans, Native Americans, and the people of India. Along with Afro-Americans, these are also people who are due reparations, and it would behoove them to unite.  He quotes Chairman Mao Zedong who proclaimed the unity of the many to defeat the few.  Like Malcolm X, he recommends allying with working class poor who have been and are still being exploited by elite Corporatists and Imperialists who have co-opted and corrupted the Labor Unions. 

And like Malcolm X, he has deduced that all oppressed people, Black and poor White, have a common enemy, that being the egregious Capitalists and Imperialists who have kept the Whites psychotically inebriated with White Supremacy in order to keep them from uniting with dark-skinned people who suffer similar ignominies.  Certainly, Reparations for Afro-Americans can not come about within a Capitalist and Imperialist system designed to keep the masses oppressed, brainwashing them into believing they are living in a democracy and the best system ever created, and Mr. Baraka has shown with admirable precision how Americans have been grossly mis-educated with regards to this concept. 

"Democracy" is a Greek word, literally meaning "People rule," and to have Mr. Baraka expound upon it so explicitly, the people definitely do not rule; the Corporate and Imperialist Oligarchy does, usurping and depleting the wealth and other earthly resources that belong to the people, draining the people emotionally, mentally, physically, and monetarily.  In other words: the masses are being robbed blind as the Oligarchists and their venal political partners in crime who we elect have convinced us to function within the parameters of that system that was never designed to liberate the masses. Mr. Baraka, quite justifiably, does not advocate maintaining the status quo.  The present Capitalist and Imperialist system must be replaced by a system that is just and is designed to benefit the populace. In Mr. Baraka's erudite estimation, such a system would enable the manifestation of Reparations.

If anyone wants to understand the full meaning of Reparations and why "Reparations Now!" is an imperative for the 21st century, this miniscule, concise exposé is the book to read.    Coming from an intellectual, the reader can acquire some exotic vocabulary, e.g., "comprador," and a novel way to use the term "dictatorship." The prose gets a bit complex at times and may require some dissection to get the meaning, but still the "essence" is not lost:  "Reparations Now!"

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Beethoven, the Black Spaniard  Sam Cooke and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart   Review of Amiri Baraka's Essence of Reparations

my past performances have included a solo concert at the college of charleston, and at the sottile theatre here in charleston i presented the piano works of the black composers r. nathaniel dett and samuel coleridge- taylor for a black history month celebration.  as a child, my parents played a variety of music genres in the home:  jazz, r&b and classical, so i appreciate all styles of music.  however, when it comes to performing it, i'm partial to classical;  it's just 'me'.  i developed and interest in writing after i read 'the autobiography of malcolm x' and when i'm inspired, i enjoy writing about music, history and politics. some of my favorite hobbies are reading and doll collecting.

posted 19 January 2007

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Blacks in Hispanic Literature: Critical Essays Edited by Miriam DeCosta-Willis  Blacks in Hispanic Literature is a collection of fourteen essays by scholars and creative writers from Africa and the Americas. Called one of two significant critical works on Afro-Hispanic literature to appear in the late 1970s, it includes the pioneering studies of Carter G. Woodson and Valaurez B. Spratlin, published in the 1930s, as well as the essays of scholars whose interpretations were shaped by the Black aesthetic. The early essays, primarily of the Black-as-subject in Spanish medieval and Golden Age literature, provide an historical context for understanding 20th-century creative works by African-descended, Hispanophone writers, such as Cuban Nicolás Guillén and Ecuadorean poet, novelist, and scholar Adalberto Ortiz, whose essay analyzes the significance of Negritude in Latin America. This collaborative text set the tone for later conferences in which writers and scholars worked together to promote, disseminate, and critique the literature of Spanish-speaking people of African descent. . . . Cited by a literary critic in 2004 as "the seminal study in the field of Afro-Hispanic Literature . . . on which most scholars in the field 'cut their teeth'."

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Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America By Melissa V. Harris-Perry According to the author, this society has historically exerted considerable pressure on black females to fit into one of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the Matriarch or the Jezebel.  The selfless Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.      Professor Perry points out how the propagation of these harmful myths have served the mainstream culture well. For instance, the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for black females to feel a maternal instinct towards Caucasian babies. As for the source of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their own bodies during slavery given that they were being auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless, it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate indiscriminately.

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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  /  The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll  /  Only a Pawn in Their Game

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery

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update 5 October 2011