|
Bound to
Violence
Yambo
Ouologuem
Bio-Sketch & Review
Yambo Ouologuem—Born 1940 in Bandiagary
in the Dogon country French Sudan (now Mali), the only son of a
landowner and school inspector. He learned several African
languages and became fluent in French, English, and Spanish.
After matriculating at a Lycée in Bamako (Mali), Yambo went to
France in 1960 to continue his education there at Lycée Henry
IV and from 1964 50 1966 taught at the Lycée de Clarenton in
Paris and then continued his studies for a doctorate in
sociology.
He wrote the controversial Le Devoir de
violence (1968; translated in English as
Bound to
Violence in 1971). The book initially was widely received
and well-reviewed. After winning the prestigious French literary
prize, Yambo received much media attention: appeared on NBC's
Today Show; interviewed and written about in many prominent
publications. Then the bottom dropped out with charges of
plagiarism.
An interesting and exciting novel,
Bound to
Violence
incorporated passages from Graham Greene's It's a Battlefield,
Andre Schwarz-Bart's The Last of the Just, and works by
Guy de Maupassant. In his paper, "Yambo Ouologuem's Pastiche of Authentic
Identity," Richard Serrano of Rutgers University argues,
"The work is a parody of Western notions of African
history, as embodied in anthropological discourse, the Negritude
movement and African pseudo-nationalism, and not, as most
critics would have it, an inept first novel by a hack who got
undeservedly good press because he was black."
Yambo currently lives in Mopti, Mali. In the late 1970s he
returned to his home country and worked until 1984 as a director
of a youth center near Mopti.
* * *
* *
Reviews
An African Empire from the
Middle Ages to our time comes blazingly alive in this
black epic, hailed as the first truly African novel and
awarded the Prix Renaudot.
This first novel by a brilliantly gifted young African
intellectual has been hailed by critics as the first truly
African novel. It fuses legend, oral tradition, and stunning
realism in a vision arising authentically from black roots. The
author draws on the history and culture of the great medieval
empire of Mali, Nakem, the imaginary name he gives to a country
that is real, was unified in the 13th century by the Saif
dynasty. Their ruthless rule is shown as a bloody, tragic
adventure.After a brief, violent fresco depicting Nakem's
past, the story moves into the 20th century. The Saifs continue
in power. When the French arrive as colonizers, they unwittingly
become puppets in the hands of the astute native rulers who
continue to dominate by witchcraft and crime.
Scenes of violence
and eroticism, of sorcery and black magic appear as natural
parts of human activity. from this sumptuous and frightful
background emerges the book's main protagonist, Raymond
Spartacus Kassoumi, the son of slaves, sent to France to be
educated and groomed for a political post and so to become
another puppet in the hands of the Saifs. Ouologuem,
from a vantage point uniquely his own, reveals a world in which
white colonialism is preceded by black and Arab colonialism, In
his endeavor to demystify African history, he is kin to Frantz
Fanon. In the lyrical intensity of his images -- French critics
have compared him to Rimbaud -- he is powerfully himself. he is
the voice of an Africa unknown to the West, articulate here for
the first time.—Publisher, Book Cover Perhaps
the first African novel that truly merits the name . . .
Doubtless, along with Léopold Sedar Senghor, Ouologuem is one
of the rare intellectuals of international stature to come out
of black Africa.—Le Monde A
very beautiful and powerful book . . . Violent, sensual,
dramatic, pregnant with the scents of the earth and the flesh of
Africa . . . His great scenes of eroticism and violence are
terrifying . . . despair and passion speak at every moment their
gentle or their cruel native language.—Le
Figaro Littéraire An
extraordinary book . . . The condensed history, legendary,
poetic, and realistic, of black Africa.—Le
Nouvel Observateur A
revelation . . . an epic of all African history.—Jeune
Afrique
* * *
* *
Roger P. Smith reports that Christopher Wise, editor of Yambo Ouologuem: Postcolonial Writer,
Islamic Militant (1999), has gathered updated
information from friends and acquaintances of Yambo. Smith
concluded that the author of
Bound to
Violence now
believes "the worst enemies for blacks right now are racist
Arabs." Smith continues:
"People who know him personally dismiss him as a madman who
hates the French and has washed his hands of writing in French,
and as a man who hates Jews and misguided African Americans and
who says that he often speaks with Muhammad, Jesus, and the
angel Gabriel. He remains bitter toward the French literary
establishment."
This writer recommends that one reads the book and settle the
matter for oneself. (RL)
Bound to
Violence by Yambo Ouolohuem; translated by
Ralph Manhein. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc. New York, 1971
* * *
* *
* * *
* *
Guarding the Flame of Life
/
Strange Fruit Lynching Report
Contemporary African Immigrants to The United States /
African immigration to the United States
African Renaissance
/
Kwame
Nkrumah, Kenyatta, and the Old Order /
God Save His Majesty
For Kwame Nkrumah
/
Night of the Giants /
The Legend of the Saifs /
Interview with Yambo Ouologuem
Yambo
Bio & Review
African
Renaissance (Journal)
* * *
* *
|
Our African
Journey
We stood in El Mina slave dungeon, on the
Cape Coast of Ghana on a recent trip to West
Africa, overwhelmed by despair, grief, and
rage. Without needing to verbalize it, we
were both imagining what reaching this spot
must have felt like for some long-ago,
un-remembered African ancestor as she stood
trembling on the precipice of an unknown and
terrifyingly uncertain future.
It was hard to process the fact that for
over three hundred years, millions of women,
men and children, mothers, fathers,
grandmothers, aunts, sisters, brothers,
potters, weavers, had begun their long and
brutal journey of being captured, kidnapped,
sold, and enslaved from the very spot where
we now stood the portal now infamously known
as the door of no return.
Growing a Global Heart
Belvie and Dedan at the Door
of No Return |
 |
* * *
* *
|
Bob Marley— Exodus
Bob
Marley was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and
musician. He was the lead singer, songwriter
and guitarist for the ska, rocksteady and
reggae bands The Wailers (19641974) and Bob
Marley & the Wailers (19741981). Marley
remains the most widely known and revered
performer of reggae music, and is credited
for helping spread both Jamaican music and
the Rastafari movement (of which he was a
committed member), to a worldwide audience.
* *
* * *
Exodus
By Bob Marley
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh-oh-oh,
yea-eah!
Well uh, oh. let me tell you this:
Men and people will fight ya
down (tell me why!)
When ya see Jah light.
(ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)
Let me tell you if you're not wrong; (then,
why? )
Everything is all right.
So we gonna walk—All
right!—through
de roads of creation:
We the generation (tell me why!)
Trod through great tribulation—trod
through great tribulation.
Exodus! All right! Movement of Jah people!
Oh, yeah! o-oo, yeah! All right!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Yeah-yeah-yeah, well!
Open your eyes and look within.
Are you satisfied with the life you're
living? uh!
We know where we're going, uh!
We know where we're from.
We're leaving Babylon,
We're going to our father's land.
One, Two, Three, Four
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Movement of Jah people!—send
us another Brother Moses!
Movement of Jah people!—from
across the Red Sea!
Movement of Jah people!—send
us another Brother Moses!
Movement of Jah people!—from
across the Red Sea!
Movement of Jah people!
Exodus! All right! oo-oo-ooh! oo-ooh!
Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! now, now, now, now!
Exodus!
Exodus! oh, yea-ea-ea-ea-ea-ea-eah!
Exodus!
Exodus! All right!
Exodus! uh-uh-uh-uh!
One, Two, Three, Four
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
Open your eyes and look within.
Are you satisfied with the life you're
living?
We know where we're going;
We know where we're from.
We're leaving Babylon, yall!
We're going to our father's land.
Exodus! All right! Movement of Jah people!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
Jah come to break downpression,
Rule equality.
Wipe away transgression.
Set the captives free!
Exodus! All right, all right!
Movement of Jah people! oh, yeah!
Exodus! Movement of Jah people! oh, now,
now, now, now!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Move! Move! Move! Move! Move! Move!
uh-uh-uh-uh!
Movement of Jah people!
Move!
Movement of Jah people!
Move!
Movement of Jah people)!
Move!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people)!
Movement of Jah people)!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people!
Movement of Jah people! |
* * *
* *
The Slave Ship
By Marcus Rediker
Strange Fruit Lynching Report
/
Anniversary of a Lynching
Willie
McGhee Lynching /
My Grandfather's Execution
Dr. Robert Lee Interview /
African American Dentist in Ghana
African Aid breeds African dependency
Speaking Truth to Power: Selected Pan-African Postcards
By Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (Author)
Salim Ahmed Salim
(Preface), Horace Campbell (Foreword)
Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem (1961-2009)
was a Rhodes scholar and obtained his D. Phil in Politics from Oxford
University. In 1990 he became Coordinator of the Africa Research and Information
Bureau and the founding editor of
Africa World
Review. He co-founded and led Justice Africa's work, becoming its
Executive Director in 2004, and combined this with his role as General Secretary
of the Pan-African Movement. He was chair of the Centre for Democracy and
Development and of the Pan-African Development Education and Advocacy Programme
in Uganda and became the UN Millennium Development Campaign's Deputy Director in
2006.
* * *
* *
|
Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
 |
* *
* * *
 |
Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
* *
* * *
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)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
* * * * *
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 /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
* * *
The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
* *
* * *
update 4 February
2012
|
