Black nationalism

Black nationalism is a political and social movement arising in the 1960s and early '70s mostly among African Americans in the United States. It is a variety of racial nationalism. While the origins of the movement are most commonly associated with Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association of the 1920s, Garvey was preceded and influenced by Martin Delany, Henry Sylvestre-Williams, Dr. Robert Love and Edward Wilmot Blyden. The UNIA seeks to apply economic power as a means of infusing a sense of community and group feeling among "Africans, those at home and those abroad". Even though the future of Africa is seen as being central to their ambitions, some adherents to Black nationalism are intent on the eventual creation of a separate black nation by African Americans.

As an alternative to being dominated by the American nation, Black nationalists maintain and promote their identity as a people of African ancestry. With slogans similar to "Up you mighty race...you can accomplish what you will!", "Black power" and "black is beautiful," they also inculcate a sense of pride among people of African ancestry. Black nationalism is a complex set of beliefs emphasizing cultural, political, and economic independence for African Americans. On the other hand, nationalist assumptions inform the daily actions and choices of many diaspora Africans.

Background

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey urged Africans "at home and abroad" to be proud of their race, practice a doctrine of "race first" and preached the importance of "African Redemption". To this end he founded the Negro World newspaper to disseminate the UNIA's program, the Black Star Line in 1919 to provide steamship transportation, and the Negro Factories Corporation to encourage black economic independence. Garvey attracted millions of supporters and claimed eleven million members for the UNIA. Garvey set the precedent for subsequent Black nationalist thought including that of Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta, Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X.

Malcolm X

During the decade between 1955 and 1965, while most black leaders worked in the civil rights movement to integrate blacks into mainstream American life, Malcolm X preached independence. He maintained that Western culture, and the Judeo-Christian religious traditions on which it is based, was inherently racist. Constantly ridiculing mainstream civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X declared that nonviolence was the "philosophy of the fool." In response to Reverend King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Malcolm X quipped, "While King was having a dream, the rest of us Negroes are having a nightmare." Malcolm X believed that Black people must develop their own society and ethical values, including the self-help, community-based enterprises that the Black Muslims supported. He also thought that African Americans should reject integration or cooperation with Whites. Malcolm was increasingly moving towards a political response to racism, he called for a "black revolution," which he declared would be "bloody" and would renounce any sort of "compromise" with Whites. After taking part in a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), he recanted such extremist opinions in favor of mainstream Sunni Islam and socialism, and was soon after murdered.

Frantz Fanon

While in France Frantz Fanon wrote his first book, Black Skin, White Mask, an analysis of the impact of colonial subjugation on the black psyche. This book was a very personal account of Fanon's experience being black: as a man, an intellectual, and a party to a French education. Although Fanon wrote the book while still in France, most of his other work was written while in North Africa (in particular Algeria). It was during this time that he produced his greatest works, A Dying Colonialism and perhaps the most important work on decolonization yet written, The Wretched of the Earth. In it, Fanon lucidly analyses the role of class, race, national culture and violence in the struggle for national liberation. In this seminal work Fanon expounded his views on the liberating role of violence for the colonized; as well as the general necessity of violence in the anti-colonial struggle. Both books firmly established Fanon in the eyes of much of the Third World as the leading anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century. In 1959 he compiled his essays on Algeria in a book called L'An Cinq: De la Révolution Algérienne.

Black Power

Black Power was a political movement expressing a new racial consciousness among blacks in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Black Power represented both a conclusion to the decade's civil rights movement and an alternative means of combatting the racism that persisted despite the efforts of black activists during the early 1960s. The meaning of Black Power was debated vigorously while the movement was in progress. To some it represented African-Americans' insistence on racial dignity and self-reliance, which was usually interpreted as economic and political independence, as well as freedom from White authority. These themes had been advanced most forcefully in the early 1960s by Malcolm X. He argued that Blacks should focus on improving their own communities, rather than striving for complete integration, and that Blacks had a duty to retaliate against violent assaults. The publication of The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965) created further support for the idea of African-American self-determination and had a strong influence on the emerging leaders of the Black Power movement. Other interpreters of Black Power emphasized the cultural heritage of Blacks, especially the African roots of their identity. This view encouraged study and celebration of Black history and culture. In the late 1960s Black college students requested curricula in African-American studies that explored their distinctive culture and history. Still another view of Black Power called for a revolutionary political struggle to reject racism and economic exploitation in the United States and abroad, as well as colonialism. This interpretation encouraged the alliance of non-whites, including Latina/os & Chicana/os and Asians, to improve the quality of their lives.

Black Panther Party

The Black Panther Party or Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) was a militant black political organization. It was founded in Oakland, California by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in October 1966. The BPP combined elements of Maoism and Black Nationalism, insisting that if businesses and the government did not provide for full employment, the community should take over the means of production. It promoted the development of strong Black-controlled institutions, calling for Blacks to work together to protect their rights and to improve their economic and social conditions.

The Black Panther Party supported the racial dignity and self-reliance aspects of the Black Power movement, though they rejected cultural nationalism as "black racism" and preferred the slogan "All Power To The People" over the "Black Power" chant. The BPP affirmed the right of blacks to use violence to defend themselves and thus became an alternative to more moderate civil rights groups. The BPP also emphasized racial unity, criticizing the Black middle class for acting against the interests of other, less fortunate Blacks. The BPP advocated Black self-defense and restructuring American society to make it more politically, economically, and socially equal. The BPP was influenced by the charismatic Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad and his disciple Malcolm X, who called on black people to defend themselves against racist attacks by "the white power structure".

Uhuru Movement

The Uhuru Movement is the largest contemporary movement advocating Black nationalism. It was founded in the 1980's in St. Petersburg, Florida. Composed mainly of the African People's Socialist Party, the Uhuru Movement also includes other organizations based in both Africa and the United States. These organizations are in the process of establishing a broader organization called the African Socialist International.

The concept of race

The term "race", though held by many geneticists to be of little scientific value, still holds social value for many who (in part or in whole, actively or passively) gain group privileges by accepting genetic or appearance criteria for group identity or inclusion. In all parts of the world, identity reflects personal and societal perceptions of an individual's group membership and the group's relationships to cultures thereby defined as foreign. Thus "race issues" tend to be seen as related to tribalism, xenophobia, ethnocentrism, and other See also: Identity politics.

A critical view

Critics charge that Black nationalism is simply Black supremacism in disguise. Some critcs may think that Black supremacist groups such as the New Black Panthers call themselves Black nationalists.

Also, many argue that the implication of inherent cultures or unity based on race (a central idea of Black nationalism) is itself racist.

Compare

* White pride and Black pride
* White Power and Black Power
* White supremacy and Black supremacy

Black nationalism: Encyclopedia BETA

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