Afro-american studies

2012 _ This dissertation deals with the ritual and sacerdotal organisation of a Cuban mythical-ritual complex of Yoruba origin, articulated around two poles with complex and sometimes conflicting relationships: Santería, based on the personalised relationship followers tie with entities called orichas, and Ifá, a divinatory pole centred on the use of the eponymous oracle. The aim is to highlight the interdependent relationships that unite these two poles. To this end, the thesis gives descriptive and analytical primacy to the structuration of the initiatory practices that constitute the basis of these practices and to their pragmatic, formal and interactional dimensions. It highlights two elements. (1) Different forms of critical reflexivity, relayed by a multi-headed social organisation, by the nature of ritual knowledge and by the indeterminacy of certain ceremonial procedures, constitute the first element on which the coherence of the whole rests. In particular, they involve debate, exegesis, contestation and, sometimes, conflict that are intrinsic of priesthood practice as well as of the ritual execution and initiation performances. (2) Two divergent conceptions of practice, conveyed by these forms of reflexivity and stemming from profoundly distinct initiatory experiences for a santero/santera or a babalao, are at the origin of the founding tension which organises this bipolar complex and the relations between its specialists. These conceptions somehow incompatible are brought into constant confrontation due to the collegial coordination imposed by the ritual, generating continuous negotiations which endow this complex with its distinctive dynamics and unity  / Cette thèse porte sur l’organisation sacerdotale d’un complexe mythico-rituel cubain d’origine yoruba articulé autour de deux pôles aux rapports complexes et parfois conflictuels : la santería, fondée sur la mise en relation personnalisée des adeptes avec des entités orichas, et Ifá, pôle divinatoire centré sur l’usage de l’oracle éponyme. L’objectif est de mettre en évidence les relations d’interdépendance qui unissent ces deux pôles. Pour cela, la thèse accorde une primauté descriptive et analytique à la structuration des pratiques initiatiques qui constituent le socle du culte et à leurs dimensions pragmatique, formelle et interactionnelle. Elle met en valeur deux éléments. (1) Différentes formes de réflexivité critique, relayées par une organisation sociale pluricéphale, par la nature des savoirs en présence et par l’indétermination de certaines procédures cérémonielles, constituent le premier élément sur lequel repose la cohérence de l’ensemble. Elles font notamment du débat, de l’exégèse, de la contestation et, parfois, du conflit, des ressorts intrinsèques de la pratique sacerdotale ainsi que de l’exécution rituelle et des performances initiatiques. (2) Deux conceptions divergentes de la pratique, véhiculées par ces formes de réflexivité et issues d’expériences initiatiques profondément distinctes, sont à l’origine de la tension fondatrice qui organise ce complexe bipolaire et les relations entre spécialistes. A priori incompatibles, ces conceptions sont amenées à se confronter constamment du fait de la coordination collégiale imposée par le rituel et engendrent des négociations continues qui impriment sa dynamique et son unité distinctives à ce complexe sacerdotal

Tres son las corrientes que confluyeron para forjar nuestra identidad. Tal proceso fue producto del contacto directo y prolongado de diversos grupos dentro de un mismo espacio geográfico. Las corrientes a las que hacemos referencia son la indígena, la europea y la africana.

Sin embargo, sobre la presencia e influencia de la corriente africana hay versiones encontradas.  Se ha sostenido que nuestro país sólo fue un puente obligado dentro de un proceso mercantil en la trata de esclavos; que los negros en Chile fueron pocos y no contribuyeron a la formación del acervo cultural.

Poco a poco hemos descubierto antecedentes de texto y contexto para aseverar no sólo la presencia negra, sino también su fuerza y persistencia. Relatos históricos, registros demográficos de los siglos XVII y XVIII, recuerdan y dan cuenta de este rico y variado aporte. Abordar todos los tópicos que revelan el influjo negro en Chile es una labor gigantesca y ambiciosa, por eso en esta obra la labor se centra en un solo aspecto, que es determinar la influencia de esta cultura en diversas danzas y cantos de nuestra cultura tradicional.

Este documento testimonia un recorrido vivencial a través de Chile, donde hemos recogido, aprendido y estudiado el legado, muchas veces implícito, que la negritud nos ha entregado. No tiene pretenciones de academia sino de sustento para la puesta en escena del Conjunto de Cantos y Danzas Tradicionales PALOMAR, montaje que complementa nuestro compromiso con esta identidad velada.

“Me niegan pero existo” es un trabajo de investigación y creación artística destinado a resaltar la importancia de nuestra herencia negra. Para entendernos y reconocernos como latinoamericanos, y más aún como chilenos, conocimiento necesarios para la comprensión de nuestros orígenes con una justa valoración.

Autores: Margot Loyola Palacios y Osvaldo Cádiz Valenzuela.
Redactores: Cyntia Maciel Canales y Carlos Liberona
Proyecto FONDART n° 405400
Registro de propiedad intelectual N° 230.094

Ever since the US Census Bureau first collected the number of immigrants of Latino or Hispanic origin residing in the country in 1970, that number has continued to grow. This demographic transformation has brought multiple changes to American society, forcing it to rethink various social aspects, such as social class, immigration or race. Thus, the conflict between the racial systems prevailing in the United States and in Latin America has plunged Latinos of color into deep silence for years. Therefore, this study aims to build, first of all, a framework for discussing the current status of Afro-Latinos in the U.S. Second, it analyzes the construction of a trifold conception of identity that emerges from the fact of residing in the U.S. by examining the work of several African-American writers living in this country. It then attempts to establish some points of contact between Afro-Latinos and the U.S. African-American community. Finally, it suggests new lines of research on the individual and collective impact of Afro-Latinos in the United States of America.

A research based on groove.

Bachelor thesis for Codarts (Rotterdam, NL) Pop Drums course, about the influence of music producer J Dilla on the way drums are played today, more specifically in modern soul, hip hop and afro american based music.

Theologically speaking, human rights emerge from God’s creative act of humanity from a single soul (Adam) and appointing
humanity as Earth’s vicegerent. Any subsequent denial of a person’s dignity and right of existence therefore implies the denial of God
and Its sovereignty over creation. Malcolm asserts that Islam, through the rites of hajj and other practices, contains convincing evidence for the possibility of spiritual reformation and is an authentic method through
which Blackamericans and all other peoples can reconstitute their dignity. In other words, Black lives matter because all lives matter,
and vice versa.

What stands in the way of this process is the repressive, idolatrous and destructive nature of White supremacy. Malcolm argues
that this attitude enables the social denigration of anyone who doesn’t fit the established profile of a worthy human being and, by extension, citizen. It both facilitates political oppression and marginalizes anyone who doesn’t conform to the system’s ideals. His analysis effectively institutes the concept of “systemic racism.”

Dies ist der erste Versuch, das Leben des aus der Karibik stammenden Offiziers William Nicolas Reed zu rekonstruieren, der 1848 der einzige schwarze Offizier einer deutschen Armee war. Reed war eine historisch bemerkenswerte Persönlichkeit, die zwischen Identitäten und Staaten wechselte, dabei in den großen revolutionären Fragen jener Zeit eine interessante Rolle spielte und dennoch fast völlig von der Geschichtsschreibung übersehen wurde. Dies ist auch ein Artikel über das Erstaunen und damit über die Kontraste zwischen Erwartung und Tatsächlichem: Ein Afroamerikaner in einer deutschen Armee im 19. Jahrhundert? Und dann auch noch ein Offizier? Ein Afrodeutscher in den Revolutionsumtrieben von 1848? Warum wussten wir davon bisher nichts? Besonders aussagekräftig ist ein im Detail dokumentierter Konflikt mit zahlreichen Originalzitaten, in der er als ehemaliger Universitätsstudent eine von der stretenden Gruppe anerkannte Achtungsstellung einnimmt. Sein Leben bietet Anlass zu weiterem Erstaunen, die uns die historischen Widersprüche der Zeit besonders deutlich machen: Er kämpft gegen die dänische Kolonialmacht, Seite an Seite ausgerechnet jener, deren Vorväter eben dieselbe Kolonialmacht mitsamt ihrer Sklaverei groß gemacht hatten. Also: ein Nachkomme afrikanischer Pflanzer-Sklaven unangefochten in den höheren Rängen der Gesellschaft! Sein Lebenslauf zeigt: Er war sich seiner Identität höchst bewusst und wusste seine Chancen maximal zu nutzen. Seine frühe deutsche Karriere als junger Offizier ermöglichte es ihm später, in den USA in höhere Offiziersränge aufzusteigen und frühere afrikanische Sklaven in den Krieg gegen die Sklavenhalter zu führen. Damit steht Reed, auch ohne dass wir Schriften von ihm kennen, für bedeutende Entwicklungen der Moderne: Er entwickelte sich konsistent vom Rebellen gegen eine europäische Kolonialmacht zum amerikanischen Anführer freigelassener Sklaven und Kämpfer gegen die Sklavenhalter.

The presence of a female priesthood, a distinctive feature of Afro-Brazilian cults, has long been a key issue occupying the attention of researchers. In the "terreiros" that I studied, I observed that the most important founding female figures of these traditions had been eclipsed, and that today it is largely men who have taken up positions of leadership in these traditions, to the detriment of women.

Growing up an Afro-American woman in the twentieth century has been one of the hardest challenges that Black women have had to handle. Hence, this study is an attempt to analyze from both the psychoanalytic literary theory and the feminist theory the stages of Janie Crawford’s growing up as well as her quest for feminine power and assertion in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching (1937). The study attempts to investigate the relationship between Hurston’s life and her novel’s events. Therefore, the study aims on one hand at scrutinizing the protagonist's journey of giving up her role as a submissive and indecisive woman to adopt after long painful experiences the role of a strong woman who fights for her feminine voice against patriarchy and domination, and on the other hand it aims at portraying how Hurston embalms her painful memories and experiences in the novel as a tool for healing her scars. The results of the analysis prove that the novel is highly feminist, in view of that, Janie Crawford can be seen as an example like all Afro-American women who have suffered from sexism and have emerged in spite of that independent and self-liberated

This is a succinct text about the life of George Washington Carver, a man born into slavery, an orphan, and an individual who, nonetheless, achieved significant public acclaim as an academician and researcher at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

It seems clear that the global appeal of Jamaican popular music over the last several decades stems in part from the premium its makers have always placed on innovation. There are two sides to this coin: musical-stylistic innovation and technological innovation. As Jamaican music has continued to evolve, the latter has arguably come to overshadow the former, especially when viewed and interpreted from the outside; and understandably so. After all, few other countries have contributed as much as Jamaica to the technologically based reconfiguring of the global popular soundscape that started to gain momentum during the last few decades of the 20th century. From its birthing of a technologically sophisticated sound system culture that has spread to urban areas in many parts of the world to its revolutionizing of recording and remixing techniques in ways now taken for granted elsewhere, Jamaica, despite its disadvantaged economic and technological position in the world system, has consistently been at the forefront of musical modernity in recent years. What accounts for Jamaica' s cutting-edge status in the world of popular music? And do the ultramodern ways of making popular music in Jamaica in recent times have anything to do with the country' s musical past? This presentation explores the frequently broached, but seldom elaborated, question of how, if at all, Jamaica' s latest, technologically-driven sounds relate to its ancestral musical culture and the generations-old traditions that constitute it.

This paper focuses on a transatlantic ritual collaboration which brought together Nigerian and Cuban Ifá priests in Havana in 2006. For the first time in Cuba, they performed together an initiation in an « African way », an initiative they considered as a « historical » event. As recent ethno-historical research has emphasized, the constitution and expansion of Cuban religious traditions of Yorùbá origin have partially relied on the often neglected self-conscious action of local charismatic leaders. During the 20th century, agents led ritual innovations and reforms driven by sustained reflections on the foundation and the evolution of their practices, which they shaped through a discontinuous dialogue with Africa and the Yorùbá world. However, there is still a lack of data on the practical forms of recent discursive and ritual exchanges directly established between African and Cuban initiates. In an ethnographical and narrative perspective, the study documents this endeavor as an aspect of contemporary micro-history of Ifá in Cuba as well as the personal stories of the Nigerian and Cuban agents who engaged in it. In particular, it stresses the deep reflexive processes in which the latter are involved.

The African Orthodox Church (AOC) is a prime example of religious globalization beyond Western missionary communication networks. This black independent church was founded in New York in 1921 and spread rapidly as far as South Africa, East Africa, and even select areas of West Africa—though not as the result of organized mission work but, rather, through reporting in African American journal publications.
Typologically, the AOC belongs to Ethiopianism. Yet this church defined itself in relation to the Eastern Orthodox tradition, although initially more in an imaginary way than in a real one. This article on the AOC illustrates several key points for the study of world Christianity: the need of a transregional perspective, the importance of non-Western agency, the role of media for transatlantic non-Western Christian networks already back in the 1920s, the role of Eastern churches in the emerging world Christianity, the dynamic formation of denominational identities, and so on.

The article is about the famous and troubled Norwegian gangster Ole Høiland (1797-1845), son of a small farmer in the south of Norway. He is at once a hero and a villain, a duality that has fascinated and provoked many people. What narratives are at play in broadside ballads, newspapers, books, and references to him which can shed light on this problem? The starting point is a broadside ballad ascribed to Ole Høiland himself. The theoretical foundation is inspired by Mikhail Bakhtin's theories of polyphony, combined with narratological perspectives in the field of African American studies. Høiland's own text is both a recapitulation of his own life and a construction of his life. Høiland can been seen as a trickster figure, his laughter and his verbal ability to manipulate his way out of tricky situations occurs as a cultural script in several variants.

Warum um alles in der Welt sollte ein zeitgenössisches Buch über die Situation afro-amerikanischer Existenz seinen Titel einem Gedicht über das Lynchen entlehnen? Richard Wright, bedeutender Protagonist der Harlem Renaissance, schrieb dieses Ge-dicht mit dem Titel Between the World and Me 1935 als gotisch dunkle Betrachtung eines Tatorts, an dem das lyrische Ich am Ende selbst gelyncht wird. Und eines Morgens unterwegs in den Wäldern stieß ich auf einmal darauf, Stieß darauf in einer grasbewachsenen Lichtung, umstellt von Ulmen und Eichen mit tiefrissiger Borke. Und die rußige Szene erstand vor mir bis ins Kleinste und schob sich zwischen mich und die Welt Between the World and Me heißt auch das rund 80 Jahre später entstandene Buch von Ta-Nehisi Coates, das heute in deutscher Übersetzung erscheint. Coates ist Redakteur und Reporter beim Atlantic, wuchs in West Baltimore auf, wovon wir uns dank The Wire ein gewisses Bild machen können, studierte in Washington, lebte in Chicago, New York und, seit einigen Jahren, immer mal wieder auch in Paris. Der intertextuelle Projektion der aktuellen Lage auf die Lynchindustrie, die im frühen 20. Jahrhundert in den US-amerikanischen Südstaaten boomte, gibt schon den Tonfall vor, mit dem hier argumentiert wird: wenig versöhnlich. Coates kodiert seine Argumen-tation in einen Brief an seinen 15-jährigen Sohn. Die Sorge und Angst um dessen Kör-per, der auf den Straßen der Vereinigten Staaten der bewaffneten Unerfahrenheit jun-ger Polizisten ausgesetzt ist, ist der narrative Motor des Buches. Coates beginnt mit einer für ihn exemplarischen Erfahrung. In einem Fernseh-Interview mit einer weißen Journalistin kommt die Sprache schließlich auf Ferguson: Am Ende zauberte die Moderatorin ein populäres Foto von einem elfjährigen schwarzen Jungen auf den Schirm, der tränenreich einen weißen Polizisten umarmt. Dann fragte sie mich, wie es denn mit der "Hoffnung" stehe. Und da

O trabalho em questão aborda a agenda dos movimentos sociais pautados pela afrodescendência e negritude em Brasil e Colômbia. Estes países têm em comum as duas maiores populações de afro-latinos da América de Sul. Diante de um quadro de racismo estrutural em ambos os casos, movimentos sociais de reivindicação identitária se formaram em suas respectivas realidades para se contrapor aos discursos pautados na mestiçagem como formadora de uma  nação homogênea supostamente sem racismo. A III Conferência Mundial contra o Racismo, Discriminação Racial, Xenofobia e Intolerância Correlata, promovida pela Organização das Nações Unidas, na cidade de Durban, em 2001, é aqui considerada como um marco para entender as ações afirmativas reivindicadas por estes movimentos no decênio 2001-2011. O objetivo desta investigação é compreender em que medida as conquistas destes movimentos afro-latinos foram influenciadas pelas deliberações da Conferencia de Durban.  A partir de pesquisa bibliográfica e documental, constata-se, no caso brasileiro, que o apoio transnacional de Durban às demandas do movimento negro se configurou numa disseminação de políticas de ações afirmativas cujo epicentro dos debates se concentrou nas políticas de cotas nas universidades. No caso colombiano observou-se que as demandas transnacionais se juntaram ao acúmulo de forças sociais cuja demanda por dados censitários sobre a população afro-colombiana, procurava dar uma visibilidade estatística até então inexistente em relação a este contingente. O movimento afro-colombiano, diante da negligência do Estado em assegurar a execução da legislação sobre comunidades negras, tem vislumbrado no espaço transnacional um instrumento de pressão a mais nas suas reivindicações frente ao Governo Colombiano, se juntando a movimentos de outros países da América Latina que têm construído no espaço transnacional uma via de integração e mútuo fortalecimento de suas agendas.

Chappelle is the American Hamas, lobbing his homemade rockets, flying his balloons out of besieged America at the dastardly foe, which relentless steals and then colonizes our minds, forcing us to our knees to atone for our inbred antisemitism.

Throughout history, has there ever been a civilization without class division? In the light of first civilizations have formed after the hunters and gatherers, over thousand years, there have been many civilizations passing away and every period of history, class is something that has existed throughout societies. In like manner, nowadays, even though the world has modernized more than ever before and even though the importance of individual life, civil rights and social consciousness have increased, race-based social class has never disappeared. Therefore, race and class mostly have intersected throughout history due to political and social factors

Référence électronique Katerina Kerestetzi, « L'esprit du lieu : matérialités, spatialités et ressenti dans les religions afro-américaines », Journal de la société des américanistes [En ligne], 104-1 | 2018, mis en ligne le 15 juin 2018, consulté le 30 juillet 2018.

Buenas Tardes Amig@s: Aquell@s amig@s que estén interesados en mi libro titulado “Vudú en Puerto Rico” pueden obtenerlo a través de Amazon.com por medio electrónico “Kindle”, su precio es de $7.94 y si tiene “Kindle Unlimited” lo puede leer gratis… ¡Saludos!

En el año 2006 el avance de la minería ilegal en la región del Caura, Estado Bolívar de Venezuela, desencadenó una situación de crisis que afectó a la comunidad cimarrona de Aripao. La narración de aquél evento revela la complejidad del problema de la minería ilegal en aquella vasta región, considerada hasta entonces como una de las últimas fronteras “prístinas” del mundo tropical.

Dieses Buch versucht die Hintergründe, die Motivationen und die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Black Power Bewegung in den USA zu dokumentieren. Es belegt die Forderung der schwarzen Opposition, ihr Selbstverständnis und die Gründe für die Radikalisierung, mit der die politisch bewussten Afro Amerikaner auf ihre sowohl ökonomisch als auch gesellschaftlich unerträglichen Lebensbedingungen antworten. Der Band enthält Beiträge unter anderen von Huey Newton, Kathleen Cleaver, Eldrige, Cleaver, Big Man, Stokeley Carmichael, James Forman und Gerhard Amendt zur Lage der Afro-Amerikaner in den Vereinigten Staaten.

Studies of the avant-gardes have experienced a kind of "spatial turn" in the past few years, distancing themselves from the traditional dichotomy between centres and peripheries. Avant- gardes are now being understood as transnational and transcultural phenomena. Looking into the avant-garde movements from the point of view of its diasporic elements is to dive into the core of global modernity. The comparative analysis of Jamaican-born writer Claude McKay and Polish Yiddish-speaking writer Oser Warshavski strikingly reveals the same desire to create a new space in their works of fiction – a "third-space" or an "in-between space" (E. Soja, H. Bhabha) – where the racial, national, social, religious and linguistic borders could all be transgressed. During the inter- war period, facing the increase of racial and religious violence and the expansion of colonial empires, they both try to find their own global literary space and "to conquer the right to tell their story of the world" (E. Glissant).

Der Erste Weltkrieg beseitigte nicht nur Deutschlands Status als Kolonialmacht. Er bewegte auch die deutsche Regierung dazu, mit antikolonialen Bewegungen in der ganzen Welt zu ko-operieren, um die Imperien ihrer Kriegsgegner zu destabilisieren. Es nimmt darum nicht Wun-der, dass antikoloniale Intellektuelle nach dem Krieg ihre Hoffnungen auf das scheinbar deko-lonisierte und potenziell antikoloniale Deutschland setzten. Diese Erwartung gab der Weimarer Republik die Gelegenheit, sich als antikoloniale Macht zu etablieren und gleichzeitig ihren in-direkten Einfluss auf die nicht-europäische Welt auszudehnen. Dieser Artikel fragt, warum das Deutschland der Zwischenkriegszeit das Angebot ablehnte, sich als "antikoloniales Imperium" bei den Siegern von 1919 zu revanchieren. Entgegen gängigen Interpretationen wird dabei gezeigt, dass selbst Revanchisten darauf vertrauten, weiterhin eine europäische Kolonialmacht zu bleiben. Zudem verhinderten rassistische Einbürgerungsgesetze einen praktischen Wandel Deutschlands zur "antikolonialen Metropole".

To view Best as part of the Radical Caribbean Tradition potentially misunderstands the man, his thought, and his lifework. It would amount to a serious error. We would more accurately speak of Best AGAINST the “Radical Caribbean Tradition,” about which he is very sceptical at the minimum, and directly hostile to, at the extreme.

Furthermore, if we are honest, we will acknowledge that over the years the feeling has been mutual: in Trinidad, Jamaica, and elsewhere. To more fully explain, this paper elaborates Best’s thought and lifework under the headings “orientation” and “method.” Best does not share with the Radical Tradition – in the Caribbean or elsewhere – its apocalyptic and millenarian vision – Marxist, Garveyite, or other – of working-class, racial, or nationalist triumph. Indeed, since the beginning of New World, Best has explicitly opposed these orientations and objectives. It seems to me that Best sees the crucial task in the West Indies to construct a society, not to destroy or to found it anew.

Best’s method has been Participant Observation, literally, with both parts having equal weight. Observation is crucial, and must be minute and patient. It requires years of intense work. And the accidents of living are crucial to gaining deep understanding. Indeed, I believe that Best is one of the only three people that truly understand Trinidad and Tobago. The other two are Vidia Naipaul and Eric Williams.

If the Caribbean Radicals are coming around to Best, it is perhaps because they are learning from him, or reaching similar conclusions independently. Best, however, stands against the Caribbean Radical Tradition, which has led so many of our best minds astray. As any perusal of his work from 1963 to the present will confirm, Best, though weathered by the sea, has stood as firm as a rock, above the shifting sands.

This thesis, following a textual analysis, examines the chief protagonist, Huckleberry Finn, in Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from African-American multiculturism perspectives. Although the novel is mostly about a white male figure’s childhood adventures, the thesis argues that his character is moulded by African-American cultural traditions and underneath the character there is an Afro-American who risks his own life to rescue a black slave (Jim), has many struggles and plays tricks on white people for survival. One important aspect the thesis reveals is Huck Finn’s mother and her identity as a black slave which has not been researched. It also reveals through the textual analysis that Huck Finn is a Mulatto born of an illegitimate relationship between Pap Finn (Huck’s father) and a slave woman. Finally, the thesis shows that Huck Finn as an African America trickster figure and Signifying Monkey uses silence to subvert the racially divided world in the novel and he is a ‘white’ African American.

O presente artigo buscou, a partir do episódio do levante de escravizados muçulmanos no Brasil-a Revolta dos Malês, ocorrida em 1835 na Bahia-levantar as dinâmicas religiosas como possibilidade de discursos de insurgência e de transposição dos territórios centrais e zonas periféricas. Pretendeu-se compreender, através da experiência dos malês, as narrativas que sobreviveram nos espaços intersticiais, aquém ou além dos discursos hegemônicos e de seus mecanismos de exclusão e validação. Para tanto, mobilizamos nesta análise teorias alinhadas com as chamadas epistemologias pós-coloniais, considerando-as como potentes ferramentas para o entendimento de um episódio que da história que muito tem a contribuir para a compreensão da vivência do Islã no Brasil, bem como para as diversas nuances que configuram a diáspora africana no Atlântico.

Ce témoignage sincère, et modeste, nous est offert par un homme qui a adhéré au BPP à 16 ans 1 en 1968 où il a milité jusqu'en 1977, année où il est entré dans la clandestinité suite à une tentative d'assassinat afin d'aider Huey P. Newton à ne pas être condamné pour le meurtre d'une prostituée. D'origine ouvrière, tant du côté paternel que maternel, Forbes grandit à San Bernardino, dans un quartier qui ne correspond pas du tout aux clichés sur le «ghetto» : très peu de mères célibataires, tout le monde a un boulot, pas de délinquance, etc. Cela s'explique sans doute par le fait que la population afro-américaine locale était à l'époque employée essentiellement dans l'armée, la marine, ou dans des entreprises dépendant de ces deux institutions, et que, malgré les discriminations sévissant sur le marché du travail, il n'y avait pas de chômage. Arrêté à l'âge de 12 ans pour un vol de bicyclette qu'il n'a pas commis, tabassé par les flics à 14 ans et sauvé de justesse par un flic afro-américain qui connaît ses parents, sa révolte commence contre le racisme policier commence donc très jeune. Son père est un homme très strict et travailleur : responsable d'un groupe de boy-scouts et entraîneur bénévole de baseball, il va jusqu'à cumuler trois boulots différents en même temps quand il sort de la marine, au bout de 20 ans de service : barman dans un club, domestique d'un amiral et homme de ménage dans une usine. Sa mère travaille comme femme de ménage puis comme infirmière. La plupart des écoles sont «intégrées» et ne pratiquent pas la ségrégation à San Bernardino. A seize ans, en 1968, Forbes abandonne ses études et doit donc travailler pour avoir le droit de rester vivre avec ses parents. Son frère lui fait découvrir l'Autobiographie de Malcolm X, Les damnés de la terre et Peau noire, masques blancs de Frantz Fanon mais aussi le journal du BPP. «Pour la première fois de ma vie, écrit-il, je me passionnais pour autre chose que les filles et la fumette.» Il est fasciné par l'uniforme des Panthères noires, leur blouson et leur béret, mais ne s'imagine pas que cet engouement va devenir un engagement durable. Il se rend à des séances d'éducation politique avec son frère où le formateur du BPP leur explique que le Petit Livre Rouge est «sa bible» et où il côtoie des jeunes qui savent à peine lire, les fameux «lumpen-prolétaires» dont Huey P. Newton et Eldridge Cleaver prétendent qu'ils sont «l'avant-garde de la révolution» à venir. Forbes travaille sur la base navale de San Diego, et, après le boulot, vend le journal des Panthères noirs, participe à la campagne pour la libération de Huey Newton en 1967-1968, voit pour la première fois des dirigeants comme David et June Hilliard, John Seale, Emory Douglass et Ericka Huggins. Son père l'oblige à passer son examen de fin d'études secondaires mais, à 18 ans, en 1970, il quitte la maison paternelle et devient un militant à plein temps des Panthères noires, ce qui est pour lui le projet de sa vie. Ce livre raconte la lente ascension d'un adolescent puis d'un jeune homme qui devient finalement le plus jeune membre du Comité central et le «Sous-Chef d'Etat-major» du parti. Jeune militant, le matin, il participe au programme de distribution de petits déjeuners gratuits aux enfants ; l'après midi, il vend le journal pendant plusieurs heures et, le soir il assiste aux séances d'éducation politique. Des journées bien remplies, donc. Testé par plusieurs cadres et un commando de gorilles du parti, il est affecté à un quartier de Los Angeles, que l'on appelle la «Zone Rouge» en raison des violences, brutalités et provocations policières permanentes. Selon l'auteur, un quart des Panthères (11 sur 44) tuées lors d'affrontements avec police entre 1966 et 1977 furent tuées dans cette zone qui est aussi le fief d'Alprentice «Bunchy» Carter, ex-1 Tout comme Evans D. Hopkins (cf. Life after life. A story of rage and redemption), il a été attiré par le BPP très jeune et vient d'une famille qui n'était ni pauvre ni «dysfonctionnelle» comme disent les psy et les travailleurs sociaux. La question du racisme des institutions (policières, scolaires, administratives et judiciaires), publiques et privées (entreprises et églises comprises), mais aussi des discriminations et violences quotidiennes pratiquées par les travailleurs euro-américains ordinaires, est donc décisive pour comprendre leur engagement militant.

In this essay, I defend against misinterpretations of King's social and political philosophy. King is first and foremost a personalist. The interpretation of King as a personalist rests on four evidential sources: (1) King’s own words, (2) family background, (3) influence of personalist ideas on his writings, and (4) the tradition of King’s reception by other Boston personalists.

En décembre 1927, alors qu’il séjourne en Haïti en compagnie de son épouse, Paul Morand se lie d’amitié avec quelques‐uns des membres de la toute jeune Revue indigène. À ses directeurs qui lui demandent de bien vouloir rédiger une contribution pour l’insérer dans leur livraison à venir, Morand signe un texte intitulé « Ce que je pense de La Revue indigène », dans lequel, après avoir souligné les qualités et lacunes de la revue, il évoque l’oeuvre pour laquelle il a effectué tout exprès ce second voyage aux Antilles et écrit : « Depuis un an, j’étudie votre race. Je publierai sous le titre de Magie Noire une série de petits tableaux qui seront comme des projections lumineuses, sous différents angles, d’un problème central. Certains de ces tableaux vous amuseront, d’autres vous déplairont. Avant de juger, attendez d’avoir lu tout le livre : je crois que ma grande sympathie pour les noirs s’y verra avec évidence ;avant la plupart des Blancs, j’aurai cherché à dégager le génie de la race noire et à l’expliquer en France avec impartialité. » « Sympathie », « génie de la race noire »… Ce Paul Morand‐là est‐il bien celui que l’on connaît ? L’auteur de « De l’air ! De l’air ! », de France‐la‐Doulce et du Journal inutile ? Cette monographie vise à revenir sur la période nègre de Morand, à appréhender les sources de sa puissante fascination pour les Noirs avant que la magie ne cesse d’opérer et que ne restent plus de cette époque des textes célébrant une envoûtante beauté et témoignant d’une volonté de percer d’insondables mystères.

Building on the suggestion by the editors of the Routledge Companion to World Literature (2011) to re-frame the fi eld of literary studies from a global and transnational perspective, this article suggests a new approach to the concept of ‘contact literature’. Reading American literature as ‘contact literature’ assumes that even if an American literary text is written in English, the other languages of the ‘contact zone’ in which the text originated and/or to which it alludes also impacted the writing process and therefore need to be included in the analysis. This new approach to the analysis of American literature is applied here to Sojourner Truth’s famous slave narrative, published in 1850. Since Truth spent the first 30 years of her life as a slave in a
predominantly Dutch-speaking environment in the Hudson Valley, analyzing her narrative as ‘contact literature’ implies a focus on Dutch cultural traces. This is done in two chapters — one dealing with Dutch language and literature, the other with Dutch Pietism and the slave narrative of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw — that present new perspectives on the impact of Dutch culture on Truth’s Narrative.

Com a inflexão do multiculturalismo, a imaginação
política e teórica na Colômbia articulou uma noção
de negridade no seio de um grupo étnico. Foi
dessa maneira que se foi consolidando a ideia de
“comunidades negras” com práticas tradicionais
de produção, em uma relação harmônica com
a natureza e com a propriedade coletiva de
seus territórios e com uma identidade cultural
característica. Na última década, no entanto, tem
emergido uma nova articulação da negridade a
partir das políticas de ações afirmativas, impulsadas
por uma crescente problematização em torno do
“afrodescendente”. Esse artigo examina as políticas
da diferença que articulam a negridade na inflexão
do multiculturalismo e das ações afirmativas, em
busca de evidenciar não somente suas diferenças,
mas também, seus ganhos e limitações.