Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 688
February 3, 2011
'What is the state of African writing?'
Dated, but still worth a look.
Interview with the 2010 Caine Prize finalists.
White History Month
… So much of Black History Month takes place in the passive voice. Leaders "get assassinated," patrons "are refused" service, women "are ejected" from public transport. So the objects of racism are many but the subjects few. In removing the instigators, the historians remove the agency and, in the final reckoning, the historical responsibility … There is no month when we get to talk about [James] Blake [the white busdriver challenged by Rosa Parks]; no opportunity to learn the fates of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, who murdered Emmett Till; no time set aside to keep track of Victoria Price and Ruby Bates, whose false accusations of rape against the Scottsboro Boys sent five innocent young black men to jail. Wouldn't everyone–particularly white people–benefit from becoming better acquainted with these histories? What we need, in short, is a White History Month … The very notion of black and white history is both a theoretical nonsense and a practical necessity. There is no scientific or biological basis for race. It is a construct to explain the gruesome reality that racism built. But, logic suggests, you cannot have black history without white history. Of course, the trouble is not that we do not hear enough about white history but that what masquerades as history is more akin to mythology. The contradictions of how a "free world" could be founded on genocide, or how the battle for democracy during the Second World War could coincide with Japanese internment and segregation, for example, are rarely addressed … It would offer white people options and role models and all of us inspiration while relieving the burden on African-Americans to recast the nation's entire racial history in the shortest month of the year. White people, like black people, need access to a history that is accurate, honest and inclusive. Maybe then it would be easier for them, and the rest of us, to make history that is progressive, antiracist and inclusive.
British journalist Gary Younge in a 2007 column in "The Nation"–that's still worth repeating–on Black History Month (that's every February here in the US).
February 2, 2011
"A Day in Somi's World"
Dutch website profiles Harlem-based singer Somi (of Rwandan and Ugadan descent, raised in downstate Illinois).
For background, here's a link to a review of her latest release by my man Siddhartha Mitter. And below's the video for her most recent release "Prayer to the Saint of the Brokenhearted."
–Sean Jacobs
He's a sonuvabitch, but he [was] our sonuvabitch: Ben Ali and Chomsky's propaganda model
from Jacob Mundy:
Search of Nexis UK for the terms "Tunisian dictator" and "Ben Ali" all available dates before 14 January 2011 (All News, All Languages).
Results: 4.
Same search parameters but after 14 January 2011.
Results: 158.
Music Break
Salif Keita performs his standard "Folon" live on Dutch TV in March 2010.
Film: 'The Killing Of The Imam'
I chanced upon this 10-minute short film, "The Killing of the Imam," which recounts the murder of Muslim cleric, journalist (he founded the newspaper "Muslim News" in 1960) and political activist (he was closely linked to the Pan-Africanist Congress), Iman Abdullah Haron, by Apartheid police in South Africa in 1969. The police claimed he had fallen down the stairs. Made by his grandson Khalid Shamis, the film mixes "… animation, documentary and archive."
T.I.A. @ The Liberty Bell
The Liberty Bell, a symbol of the American Revolution, is housed in a complex on Market Street in Philadelphia, reminding us of liberties gained and liberties denied. It's one of the few historical exhibits I've seen that explores and expresses the contradictions in American history clearly, including explicit references (rather than a vague skip-over) of those "freedoms denied."
Before one enters the building housing the bell, one passes through a courtyard with flatscreens playing "testimonials" of the slave labourers who built these buildings, and remained unfree, even as declarations of national emancipation were signed: here are their voices, speaking about where they were born, to whom, when they were separated from their families, and what labour was expected of them. And even more surprisingly, the conversations include details about how the Unfree were intellectually instrumental in gaining their own freedoms – not just via brute rebellions.
Inevitably, there's a huge image recording Mandela's visit, with a banner quoting him: the bell "… is a very significant symbol for the entire democratic world."
Even the Chinese tourists (above) made nice and posed with Mandela's neighbor, His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.–Neelika Jayawardane
'Evil Boy'
February 1, 2011
'Against the Government'
Egyptian rapper Ramy Donjewan's song "Against the Government" is an appropriate music break today as Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, his allies in the West, and Egyptian state TV–in the face of mass protest–still pretend Egypt is a stable country.
Here's the lyrics, graciously translated by Sophie Azeb:
Against the government, against the thugs and injustice
Against the government, against the government's rule
Against the government and the long rope of injustice
Against the government, and I have a thousand guides…
Your blood is being spilled
Killing you is encouraged
Your home is a mess
Your religion is targeted
Your voice they render silent
And your property is consumed
They just killed your brother
And the rest of the people are tortured
If I live I will be insignificant
Were we to die, we are worthless
When you speak you become a victim
You are dealt with brutally
By policy thugs
Little thugs
A hostile government
Wants to ravage you and me
The oppressor and the oppressed
The ruled and the sentenced
For whom? I will complain but who will I blame?
I will blame the people who are beaten with the dirtiest boots and remain silent
Otherwise, a government whose hearts have died…
Down down with the government and the system
Down down with the ruler's law
Down down with the cowards and the cheaters
Down with the "good" (?governance?)
Against the government, against the thugs and injustice
Against the government, against the government's rule
Against the government and the cheaters and cowards
Against the government and against accepting insults
(?All moments you are workers who are humiliated?)
You have no value, no price, your leaders already sold you
They make you a fool, and take you from the back … (??)
In the embrace of enemies they simply throw you
They are catching you with the hands that hurt you
Around you there are 1000 snakes that keep biting you
No matter if you feel the pain there is no one who intends on hearing you
So help yourself out and tell me, what stops you?
He tells you if someone pushed you, keep waiting
He catches you and hits you and it's been 30 years of hitting
He keeps cleaning his teeth and you're silent, your mouth is sewn shut
And with his sword he splits you, you're not dead, but your mind is
Enough sleeping and dying and silence
If you have blood plumping, cheer hard and loud
I am against the government because I have these values
Against the government: I will not accept being defeated.
Music Break
Egyptian rapper Ramy Donjewan's song "Against the Government" is an appropriate music break today as Hosni Mubarak bunkers down.
Here's the lyrics, translated by Sophie Azeb:
Against the government, against the thugs and injustice
Against the government, against the government's rule
Against the government and the long rope of injustice
Against the government, and I have a thousand guides…
Your blood is being spilled
Killing you is encouraged
Your home is a mess
Your religion is targeted
Your voice they render silent
And your property is consumed
They just killed your brother
And the rest of the people are tortured
If I live I will be insignificant
Were we to die, we are worthless
When you speak you become a victim
You are dealt with brutally
By policy thugs
Little thugs
A hostile government
Wants to ravage you and me
The oppressor and the oppressed
The ruled and the sentenced
For whom? I will complain but who will I blame?
I will blame the people who are beaten with the dirtiest boots and remain silent
Otherwise, a government whose hearts have died…
Down down with the government and the system
Down down with the ruler's law
Down down with the cowards and the cheaters
Down with the "good" (?governance?)
Against the government, against the thugs and injustice
Against the government, against the government's rule
Against the government and the cheaters and cowards
Against the government and against accepting insults
(?All moments you are workers who are humiliated?)
You have no value, no price, your leaders already sold you
They make you a fool, and take you from the back … (??)
In the embrace of enemies they simply throw you
They are catching you with the hands that hurt you
Around you there are 1000 snakes that keep biting you
No matter if you feel the pain there is no one who intends on hearing you
So help yourself out and tell me, what stops you?
He tells you if someone pushed you, keep waiting
He catches you and hits you and it's been 30 years of hitting
He keeps cleaning his teeth and you're silent, your mouth is sewn shut
And with his sword he splits you, you're not dead, but your mind is
Enough sleeping and dying and silence
If you have blood plumping, cheer hard and loud
I am against the government because I have these values
Against the government: I will not accept being defeated.
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