Afro-Europe — Listen to rebel Black youth, scholars told

Something in my e-mail box caught my eye. International scholars were meeting in Paris to honour Aimé Césaire, the poet of Black Consciousness. 

There were high-brow topics like “Black Ontology”. But, after a quick perusal, none appeared to cover my politics – “Black French youth”.

It seems to me that academics must learn to adapt their ivory tower poetics to youth’s new Black Urbanism.   

This blog gives some pointers to how this can accomplished.

 By Thomas L Blair

It took rebellious Black youth in France to force attention to their jobs, housing and health needs. However, still simmering in their emerging Black consciousness, the cultural longings of France‟s African and Caribbean minorities have been largely neglected. Distinguished academics can redress this oversight when they meet in Paris to pay tribute to Aimé Césaire, the legendary poet activist of “negritude” or Black consciousness.

 

 Black poetics

Negritude was the driving force in Césaire‟s most widely acclaimed work, “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land” (1939). Rooted in his childhood Martinique and Paris experiences, Césaire urged Blacks to cast off the traumas of slavery, colonialism and bondage. Stand tall in unity. Refuse to give up your African and Antillean cultural heritage for dominant western cultural norms, said Césaire. Take on the robes of humanity, he thundered, and proudly affirm your place among the world‟s major cultures.  

 

Cultural longings 

Youth, his cultural inheritors, are under pressure today. Three big changes have sharpened their mood of defiance. Twenty-first century France is less welcoming to Blacks. Their numbers have swelled into the millions. Fears of immigration, inflamed in the popular press, prompted a public outbreak of xenophobia.”Go back to where you came from” is a common, menacing and unpardonable insult. The young Danny‟s, Julien’s, and Zobaly’s of urban suburbs (banlieues) say they are not compliant colonials. As one youth complained indignantly: “We are French citizens, by birth or status of their parents whether from Senegal and Mali, Congo Zaire or the French West Indies.

 

  

Black youth appreciate their “Frenchness”. Nevertheless, they also sense the power in Césaire‟s Black poetics. Many among them proclaim “We‟re Black and Proud” (“Nous sommes Noir et Fier”).

Youth confidently assert a new set of cultural aspirations from the barricades of their polyglot and poor districts. The influences are multi-cultural and transnational. The urgent, and political, Afro-beat of the Congo‟s soukous is strong. The prophetic chants of Senegal inspiring. And, the nostalgic scent of mango trees in a Guadeloupe afternoon are enchanting.

Match this with “slam”, a heady mix of French pop, rock „n‟ roll, hip-hop, rap and funk and a portion of Algerian raï. Then add the zest of pure youthful joy and re-mix in subtle and sophisticated ways.

With this richly seasoned recipe, young people say “We‟ll create our new Black Urbanism with our North African (Algerian and Moroccan), Antillean and working class white allies) in the mean streets of Paris and French cities”.

 

Why should scholars be concerned?  

Academics at the Paris meeting of June 6 and 7, must explore and expand their conference title: “France Noire – Black France: The Poetics and Politics of Blackness” and strengthen youth‟s resolve. Bearing the impeccable credentials of linguistics, arts, literature and social science, let them wrestle with the cultural issues of youth‟s advocacy. (The African American contingent should be no strangers to youth‟s yearnings for equal rights, artistic expression and Black pride).

 

Literary and history scholars must affirm youth‟s place in the making of 21st century French and francophone (French speaking) African and Caribbean culture. Abiola Irele, a Harvard professor, can chart new directions on the horizons of Black literature and intellectual history. Historian Prof Allison Blakeley of Boston University can explain what his studies on Black urban Europe mean to young people.

 

Invited government ministers have an important role, also. They should support youth‟s awakening sense of civic responsibility and political participation. This has national and foreign implications. Mme Christiane Taubira, Member of Parliament for French Guyana, can share pride she felt in 2001. Against all odds, Parliament passed her bill declaring slavery and the slave trade as crimes against humanity.

 

Professor Fred Constant, the Guyanese political analyst in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, can update Black youth about their kinfolk in the Overseas Departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe, the independent islands of Haiti and Dominica, and francophone Africa.

 

The crippling effects of political and popular prejudices on young people should be revealed by Peter Lozes, head of CRAN, the Association of Black Representative Councils, France‟s first umbrella organisation of Black advocacy groups.

 

 Action and ideas are needed now
Youth‟s cultural demands are not yet a full-blown storm but they are more than a squall of little significance. What should be done to equip them to face the uncertain future?Let the scholars invite youth‟s advocates to speak. Schedule a Youth Advocacy session. Offer them some tips on cultural advocacy. Bring the results back to the closing assembly. Video-cast the whole proceedings for worldwide Internet distribution.

 

 Major forces for cultural action

Celebrating youth‟s legacy from their ancestors is equally important as nourishing the modern trends that affect their lives. However, this takes time – and money.

Let the conference organisers and their sponsors, among them Harvard, Vanderbilt, Minnesota and Columbia universities and the Ford Foundation, commit to investing in an action plan.

 

They should generously fund heritage centres for education and research on Black life and history. These will attract local, as well as national and foreign visitors.

Cultural action like this requires direction by knowledgeable and experienced cultural guardians.

In this regard, the heirs of Black French scholarship, Mme Y C Diop, subject of a recent documentary film, and her colleague Wole Soyinka of the Community of African Culture, are particularly capable and deserving.

 

Their Paris offices at Éditions Présence Africaine, publishers of Césaire‟s most important works, are close to the Sorbonne. They are a storehouse of literature for informative seminars, exhibitions, talks and readings. Moreover, they are a rich vein of resources of significance to French speaking Africa, the Caribbean and world regions.

 

Powerful aids to youth‟s cultural and linguistic development are needed.

Let specialists and students in Caribbean culture and Francophone literature take on a new mantle. Youth need to know that Creole is a significant extension of French standard language. They also need to appreciate that the inadequacies of negritude as been explored the writers of the Creolite literary movement of the 1980s. Prominent among them are the Martinican‟s Patrick Chamoiseau, Jean Bernabé and Raphaël Confiant.

 

Youth can also benefit from fresh interpretations of the social and political influences on the writers of today. It is essential they appreciate how to use these treasures to enhance the rich fabric and lively colours of their modern urban styles.

 

The action potential

The Paris meeting can reignite scholarly efforts to construct a platform of ideas and action to address youth’s cultural longings. My own work, Pillars of Change, offers some clues. Let me explain.

 

Pillars of Change offers a trio of responses. Creating linkages of scholars, grassroots organisations and youth groups is a prime requirement. Confronting social and cultural ignorance with Afro-European Studies educational programmes is another. In addition, there must be collective action to change deprived terrestrial reality and mobilise the African Digital Diaspora in cyberspace. These three pillars provide a platform for launching Black achievement in European societies.

 

What better way to redress the neglect of youth‟s cultural longings and pay tribute to revered “Pa” Césaire, poet of negritude, scholar and political activist.

Who knows where the 1st great laureates of the new Black Urbanism will come from. I am convinced they will not come from a cadre of the cognoscenti. No. They will emerge as  the youth of the banlieues creatively distill their feelings. 

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Resources for action

 

Pillars of Change by Thomas L Blair.  “Provocative, intelligent and impassioned, Pillars of Change is a survival guide for Black scholars as alienated youth force the pace of urban change. Based on the Black experience in Afro-Europe, the analysis and solutions will be welcomed in all parts of the Black World.” London, 2007, pamphlet 40pp. Version français par Valerie Kanza

Présence d’esprits un film de Valérie Kanza “Au coeur du quartier latin à Paris, voyage dans une petite librairie où l‟esprit d‟Alioune Diop, premier éditeur noir, et de ses illustres compagnons de Présence Africaine inspire une nouvelle génération….” Paris, avril 2008, DVD ou DV CAM, Durée : 35 min, français

 

Notes on the author (copyright 2008) Thomas L Blair is a sociologist writing on creative renewal in Black Britain and Afro-Europe, see Chronicleworld web site http://www.chronicleworld.org; and the Chronicleworld’s Weblog http://chronicleworld.wordpress.com. He welcomes contributions to a resource list for Black scholarly web sites on Afro-European culture, history and action for social change.

 

Contact details are: Tel/fax 44+ (0)1992-581207; e-mail: tb@thechronicle.demon.co.uk