Cornel West: A Dialogue on Race in the Church & Society-5 of 6

Essay: Why it is Necessary that all Afro-Descendants of Latin America, the Caribbean and North American Know Each Other More

Essay: Why it is Necessary that all Afro-Descendants of Latin America, the Caribbean and North American Know Each Other More

Written by Tomás Fernández Robaina
Translated by Miguel Contreras

My main focus is the following: to exchange experiences regarding the struggle and visibility of the contributions of Africans and their descendants in the formation of Latin American nationalities and cultures, to highlight that historical legacy and its actual presence, to obtain a foundation that will allow us to reclaim our rights at all levels of society, and to attempt to eliminate the history and social omission perpetrated by the eurocentric political and cultural influences inherited from colonization.

It is very important that we recognize how this struggle began long ago, when we did not call ourselves “Negroes,” “African-Americans,” or “Afro-descendants,” as has been used more recently, but as “Cubans,” “Mexicans,” “Colombians,” “Brazilians,” identified, rather, as citizens of our respective countries, and as such, rightfully evidenced in our constitutions. Beautiful words, which, in practice, have been mostly lies not exempt from some exceptions.

We should keep in mind that what is now considered an indisputable achievement of this campaign is the result of the great struggle of black Colombians, of the Afro-Colombians for their rights to fight against obscurity and against the silenced relevance of the Afro-Colombian presence in history and society.

Similarly, we cannot overlook that Colombia’s work, rather, its struggle, has been come to fruition jointly with similar social movements of our Afro-descendant brothers present in all our American countries, with a large visibility in some more than others.

In the case of Colombia, that effort contains a profound and paradigmatic lesson because the country has the largest population of Afro-descendant men and women who speak Castilian, in addition to a beautiful, brave and lengthy social and political struggle for their rights.

The progress of Colombia’s Afro-descendants struggle, their successes, must exert a greater influence in similar endeavors taking place in other countries, and as such, their triumphs are also ours. And those that take place partially or wholly in other territories within our continent are also Colombia’s.

The particular and emergent struggle in Latin American societies must be recognized by all of us who make up the social movement of Afro-descendants in America, so that our demands and claims will gain more social and political strength of solidarity, which will particularly influence each and every one of its national movements, bringing it to the attention of and gaining more support from others, as this struggle becomes more internationally visible.

In that same vein, it is necessary that we know what is happening in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Uruguay, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and in each of the republics of Central America where are present the demands of the garífunas, black people of Caribbean origin.

However, our goals should not only be intellectual, but also practical and ideological. We must note that wherever there is an Afro-descendant population, there exists a movement demanding our rights. We must transform our modern struggle in our national trenches, through support and solidarity in actions that benefit us mutually, and making our presence more visible in order to do away with the obscurities and omissions accumulated in the official histories of our countries.

We should know where our ancestors came from, what their cultures were, their traditions, why some remained more visible in certain places more than others, their dances, their traditions, customs, songs, where the African influence is undeniable, as well as the reasons that new customs, traditions, beliefs and dances that were African coexisted with the European in a very interesting process of mutual influence, some more visible than others, just as those new things that emerged as a result of reciprocal religious, musical and cultural influences.

More often than not in our countries, “the African” was diluted and disappeared totally or partially as a consequence of the repressive politics of British, Dutch, and French colonialism exerted through successive generations of slaves who altogether lost their newfound traditions held by the first generations; but being prohibited from practicing them, they failed to maintain their pure African roots.

In general terms, there are many questions regarding the peculiarities of the different colonial powers in our lands, but there is still a need for broad and deep answers that must become socialized, such as the causes of why the cultures and religions of Africa are more prominent in some of our countries than they are in others, in some cases disappearing altogether as a result of deculturalization by the European metropolis. What is African or seemingly African in Afro-Colombian culture? What is really newly Afro-Colombian in Colombian society? We should ask these questions in all Latin American countries. Who here is able to answer so that I may know more about Columbia? Are there popular beliefs stemming from contact with Catholic practices and African and aboriginal religious beliefs? Who here can tell me which ethnic groups you are descendants of, the real Afro-Colombians?

I ask these questions not for immediate answers, but to motivate reflection and appreciation of belonging to a population historically marginalized from culture and from a eurocentric history promoted by economic and political powers of Colombia’s dominant classes. In Colombia, as in most countries with black or aboriginal populations, only a portion of its members has been accepted and has had more opportunities for social advancement, insofar as they have been bearers of the same cultural, economic, social and religious codes of those classes that exert political power in each of our republics.

Therefore, let us debate some of the ideas presented, let us convert this embattled encounter not only to reclaim the forgotten and ignored places of the Afro-descendants in the history of Colombia, but rather, similarly for all our places in our national histories. The struggle is not unique to the Afro-Colombians, but it belongs to us all, Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Cubans, Afro-Ecuadorians, Afro-Latin Americans as a whole.

About Tomás Fernández Robaina
Tomás Fernández Robaina is a researcher and professor of the National Library of Cuba, and holds a degree in Technical Information and Library Science. He has worked at the institution since 1962. His bibliographic inquiries regarding Afro-Cubans and Afro-Latin Americans include a bibliography of Afro-American studies (1969).

His bibliography of Afro-Cuban subjects led him to write The Negro in Cuba: 1902-1958 (1990); Speak Paleros and Santeros (1994); Cuba: Personalities in the Racial Debate (2007); Afro-Cuban Identity: Culture and Nationality (2009). He has also published Secret Memories of Two Public Women (1982); Histories of Public Women (1998); Notes for a History of the National Library (2001); Mass for an Angel (2010).

He has lectured at conferences, given seminars, and taught courses on the history of Africans and their descendants in his country, as well as in Germany, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Spain, the United States, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mexico, Nigeria, Senegal, and Venezuela. He has been professor of Cuban Bibliography and in other disciplines in the department of Communications, as well as in the school of Arts and Letters of the University of Havana.

His current projects include An Anthology of Anti-racist Cuban Thought; A Historical, Cultural and Bibliographical Chronology of Afro-descendant in Cuba; and The Cuban Afro-descendants: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.

Tags: essay, Latin America, race

Essay: Why it is Necessary that all Afro-Descendants of Latin America, the Caribbean and North American Know Each Other More

Common - My Way Home

Gil Scott heron + common @ Summerstage

Gil Scott Heron "Home Is Where The Hatred Is" (1971)

Gil Scott-Heron - The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (Full Band Version)

Gil Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)

Gil Scott-Heron (April 1, 1949 – May 27, 2011)^[2] was an American poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and 80s, and for his collaborative soul works with musician Brian Jackson. His collaborative efforts with Jackson featured a musical fusion of jazz, blues and soul music, as well as lyrical content concerning social and political issues of the time, delivered in both rapping and melismatic vocal styles by Scott-Heron. The music of these albums, most notably Pieces of a Man and Winter in America in the early 1970s, influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. Scott-Heron's recording work is often associated with black militant activism and has received much critical acclaim for one of his most well-known compositions "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised". His poetic style has been influential upon every generation of hip hop since his popularity began.^[3] In addition to being widely considered an influence in today's music, Scott-Heron remained active until his death, and in 2010 released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here.

Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois, but spent his early childhood in Jackson, Tennessee, the home of his maternal grandmother Lillie Scott. Gil's mother, Bobbie Scott-Heron, sang with the New York Oratorio Society. Scott-Heron's Jamaican father, Gilbert "Gil" Heron, nicknamed "The Black Arrow", was a football player who, in the 1950s, became the first black athlete to play for Glasgow's Celtic Football Club. Gil's parents divorced when he was young and Gil was sent to live with his grandmother Lillie Scott.^[4] When Scott-Heron was 13 years old, his grandmother died and he moved with his mother to The Bronx in New York City, where he enrolled in DeWitt Clinton High School. He later transferred to The Fieldston School after one of his teachers, a Fieldston graduate, showed one of his writings to the head of the English department at Fieldston and he was granted a full scholarship.

Scott-Heron attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, as it was the college chosen by his biggest influence Langston Hughes. It was here that Scott-Heron met Brian Jackson with whom he formed the band Black & Blues. After about two years at Lincoln, Scott-Heron took a year off to write the novels The Vulture andThe Nigger Factory.^[5] He returned to New York City, settling in Chelsea, Manhattan. The Vulture was published in 1970 and well received. Although Scott-Heron never received hisundergraduate degree, he had a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University.

Scott-Heron began his recording career in 1970 with the LP Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Bob Thiele of Flying Dutchman Records produced the album, and Scott-Heron was accompanied by Eddie Knowles and Charlie Saunders on conga and David Barnes on percussion and vocals. The album's 15 tracks dealt with themes such as the superficiality of television and mass consumerism, the hypocrisy of some would-be Black revolutionaries, white middle-class ignorance of the difficulties faced by inner-city residents, and homophobia. In the liner notes, Scott-Heron acknowledged as influences Richie Havens, John Coltrane,Otis Redding, Jose Feliciano, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Huey Newton, Nina Simone, and the pianist who would become his long-time collaborator, Brian Jackson.

Scott-Heron's 1971 album Pieces of a Man used more conventional song structures than the loose, spoken-word feel of Small Talk. He was joined by Johnny Pate (conductor), Brian Jackson on keyboards, piano, Ron Carter on bass and bass guitar,drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Burt Jones playing electric guitar, and Hubert Laws on flute and saxophone, with Thiele producing again. Scott-Heron's third album, Free Will, was released in 1972. Jackson, Purdie, Laws, Knowles, and Saunders all returned to play on Free Will and were joined by Jerry Jemmott playing bass, David Spinozza on guitar, and Horace Ott (arranger and conductor).

1974 saw another LP collaboration with Brian Jackson, the critically acclaimed opus Winter in America, with Bob Adams on drums and Danny Bowens on bass. The album contained Scott-Heron's most cohesive material and featured more of Jackson's creative input than his previous albums had. Winter in America has been regarded by many critics as the two musicians most artistic effort.^[6][7] The following year, Scott-Heron and Jackson also released Midnight Band: The First Minute of a New Day. A live album, It's Your World, followed in 1976 and a recording of spoken poetry, The Mind of Gil Scott-Heron, was released in 1979. In the July 1976 Bicentennial issue of Playboy Scott-Heron was profiled; the accompanying artwork shows Scott-Heron singing or speaking into a microphone as it melts from the heat of his words.^{[citation needed]} Another hit success followed with the hit single "Angel Dust", which he recorded as a single with producer Malcolm Cecil. "Angel Dust" peaked at #15 on the R&B charts in 1978.

In 1979, Scott-Heron played at the No Nukes concerts at Madison Square Garden. The concerts were organized by Musicians United for Safe Energy to protest the use of nuclear energy following the Three Mile Island accident. Scott-Heron's song "We Almost Lost Detroit", written about a previous accident at a nuclear power plant, was included in the No Nukesalbum of concert highlights. (We Almost Lost Detroit is the title of a book about the accident by John G. Fuller.) Scott-Heron was a frequent critic of President Ronald Reagan and his conservative policies.

Scott-Heron recorded and released only four albums during the 1980s; 1980 and Real Eyes in 1980, Reflections in 1981 and Moving Target in 1982. Ron Holloway on tenor saxophonewas added to Gil's ensemble in February 1982. He toured extensively with Scott-Heron and contributed to his next album, Moving Target that same year. His tenor is prominently featured on the songs "Fast Lane" and "Black History/The World". Holloway continued with Scott-Heron until the summer of 1989, when he left to join Dizzy Gillespie. Several years later, Scott-Heron would make cameo appearances on two of Ron Holloway's CD's; Scorcher (1996) and Groove Update (1998), both on the Fantasy/Milestone label.^[8]

Scott-Heron was dropped by Arista Records in 1985 and quit recording, though he continued to tour. Also that year, Scott-Heron helped compose and sing the song "Let Me See Your I.D." on the Artists United Against Apartheid album Sun City, containing the famous line, "The first time I heard there was trouble in the Middle East, I thought they were talking about Pittsburgh." The song compares racial tensions in the US with those in apartheid-era South Africa, implying that the US was not too far ahead in race relations. In 1993, he signed toTVT Records and released Spirits, an album that included the seminal track "'Message to the Messengers". The first track on the album criticized the rap artists of the day. Scott-Heron is known in many circles as "the Godfather of rap"^[9][10] and is widely considered to be one of the genre's founding fathers. Given the political consciousness that lies at the foundation of his work, he can also be called a founder of political rap. Message to the Messengers was a plea for the new generation of rappers to speak for change rather than perpetuate the current social situation, and to be more articulate and artistic. On hip hop music in the 1990s, Scott-Heron later said in an interview:

They need to study music. I played in several bands before I began my career as a poet. There’s a big difference between putting words over some music, and blending those same words into the music. There’s not a lot of humor. They use a lot of slang and colloquialisms, and you don’t really see inside the person. Instead, you just get a lot of posturing.^[11]

—Gil Scott-Heron

In 2001, Gil Scott-Heron was sentenced to one to three years' imprisonment in New York State for possession of cocaine. While out of jail in 2002, he appeared on the Blazing Arrow album byBlackalicious. He was released on parole in 2003. On July 5, 2006, Scott-Heron was sentenced to two to four years in a New York State prison for violating a plea deal on a drug-possession charge by leaving a drug rehabilitation center. Scott-Heron's sentence was to run until July 13, 2009. He was paroled on May 23, 2007.^[13] The reason given for the violation of his plea deal was that the clinic refused to supply Scott-Heron with HIV medication. This story led to the presumption that the artist was HIV positive.^[14][15]

After his release, Scott-Heron began performing live again, starting with a show at SOB's in New York on September 13, 2007. On stage, he stated that he and his musicians were working on a new album and that he had resumed writing a book titled The Last Holiday, previously on long-term hiatus, about Stevie Wonder and his successful attempt to have the birthday ofMartin Luther King Jr. declared a federally recognized holiday in the United States.

On October 10, 2007, the day before a scheduled (but ultimately cancelled) second SOBs performance, he was arrested on felony possession of cocaine charges. However, he has continued to make live appearances at various US venues during the course of 2008 and 2009, including further appearances at SOBs in New York. He has also stated in interviews that work is continuing on his new album, which will consist mainly of new versions of some of his classic songs plus some cover versions of other artists' work.

Having originally planned to publish The Last Holiday in 2003, before it was put on hold, Canongate Books now tentatively intend to issue it in January, 2011. The book was due to be previewed via a website set to be launched on April 1, 2009, but this did not appear.

Mark T. Watson, a student of Scott-Heron's work, dedicated a collection of poetry to Gil titled Ordinary Guy that contained a foreword by Jalal Mansur Nuriddin of The Last Poets. The book was published in the UK in 2004 by Fore-Word Press Ltd. Scott-Heron recorded one of the poems in Watson's book Black & Blue due for release in 2008 as part of the albumRhythms of the Diaspora by Malik & the OG's on the record label CPR Recordings.

In April 2009 on BBC Radio Four, poet Lemn Sissay presented a half-hour documentary on Gil Scott-Heron entitled Pieces of a Man.^[16] Having interviewed Gil Scott-Heron in New York a month earlier, Pieces of a Man was the first UK announcement from Gil of his forthcoming album and return to form. In November 2009, the BBC's Newsnight interviewed Gil Scott-Heron for a feature titled The Legendary Godfather of Rap Returns.^[17] In 2009, a new Gil Scott-Heron website, gilscottheron.net, was launched with a brand new track "Where Did The Night Go" made available as a free download from the site.

Gil Scott-Heron released his new album I'm New Here on independent label XL Recordings on February 9, 2010. Produced by XL label owner Richard Russell, I'm New Here is Scott-Heron's first studio album in sixteen years. The pair started recording the album in 2007, with the majority of the record being recorded over the last twelve months with engineer Lawson White at Clinton Studios in New York.

The album attracted substantial critical acclaim with The Guardian newspaper's Jude Rogers declaring it one of the next decade's best records.^[18] The first single from the album was "Me And The Devil", which was released on February 22, 2010. It was debuted by BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe as his "Hottest Record In The World", along with other specialist DJs such as Gilles Peterson and Benji B. The album's remix, We're New Here, was released in 2011, featuring reworking by English music producer Jamie xx of material from the original album.^[19] It was also very well-received by music critics.^[20]

In 2010 he was due to play a gig in Tel Aviv, this attracted criticism from Palestinian groups who stated "Your performance in Israel would be the equivalent to having performed in Sun City during South Africa’s apartheid era... We hope that you will not play apartheid Israel." - in response he cancelled the gig.

The music of Scott-Heron's work during the 1970s influenced and helped engender later African-American music genres such as hip hop and neo soul. He has been described by music writers as "the godfather of rap" and "the black Bob Dylan".^[28] On his influence, a music writer later noted that "Scott-Heron's unique proto-rap style influenced a generation of hip-hop artists".^[3] The Washington Post wrote that "Scott-Heron's work presaged not only conscious rap and poetry slams, but also acid jazz, particularly during his rewarding collaboration with composer-keyboardist-flutist Brian Jackson in the mid- and late '70s."^[29] The Observer's Sean O'Hagan discussed the significance of Scott-Heron's music with Brian Jackson, stating:

Together throughout the 1970s, Scott-Heron and Jackson made music that reflected the turbulence, uncertainty and increasing pessimism of the times, merging the soul and jazz traditions and drawing on an oral poetry tradition that reached back to the blues and forward to hip-hop. The music sounded by turns angry, defiant and regretful while Scott-Heron's lyrics possessed a satirical edge that set them apart from the militant soul of contemporaries such as Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield.^[28]

— Sean O'Hagan

Scott-Heron's influence over hip-hop is primarily exemplified by his definitive single "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," sentiments from which have been explored by various rappers, including Aesop Rock, Talib Kweli and Common. In addition to his vocal style, Scott-Heron's indirect contributions to rap music extend to his and co-producer Brian Jackson's compositions, which have been sampled by various hip-hop artists; among the most notable is rapper/producer Kanye West, who has sampled Scott-Heron and Jackson's "Home is Where the Hatred Is" and "We Almost Lost Detroit" for his song "My Way Home" and the single "The People," respectively, both of which are collaborative efforts between West and Common.^[30] Scott-Heron, in turn, has acknowledged West's contributions, sampling the latter's 2007 single "Flashing Lights" on his latest album, 2010's I'm New Here.^[31] West has gone on to name Gil Scott-Heron, among others, as a major influence on his own latest offering, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, where portions of his work "Comment #1" appear on the album. "We Almost Lost Detroit" has also been sampled by Brand Nubian member Grand Puba ("Keep On"), Native Tongues duo Black Star ("Brown Skin Lady"), and underground notable MF DOOM ("Camphor").^[32] Furthermore, Black Star MC Mos Def has sampled Scott-Heron's "A Legend in His Own Mind" on the Q-Tip-featuring song "Mr. Nigga," and producerDr. Dre (some of whose early G-Funk compositions mirror Scott-Heron's musical style in both texture and sentiment, specifically "Lil' Ghetto Boy," which in fact samples Scott-Heron contemporary Donny Hathaway) recorded the song "Blunt Time," on which former Death Row Records rapper RBX interpolates the opening lyrics from Scott-Heron's recording "Angel Dust." In 2000, CeCe Peniston as well used a sample of a Heron's song ("The Bottle") while recording her single "My Boo".

Scott-Heron died on the afternoon of May 27, 2011 at St. Luke's Hospital, New York City, after becoming sick upon returning from a European trip.^[1][22] In response Public Enemy'sChuck D stated "RIP GSH..and we do what we do and how we do because of you." on his Twitter account.^[23] His UK publisher, Jamie Byng, called him "one of the most inspiring people I've ever met".^[22] On hearing of the death R&B singer Usher stated "I just learned of the loss of a very important poet...R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron. The revolution will be live!!".^[24]Richard Russel, who produced Scott-Heron's final studio album called him a ""father figure of sorts to me".^[25] Eminem stated that "He influenced all of hip-hop,"^[26]

He is survived by his wife, Brenda Sykes and daughter, Gia.