Identity Politics: Black Nationalism - Research Paper Example

Black Nationalism Introduction The identity politics are self-interest political arguments aimed at empowering certaingroups that oppressed. This phenomenon arises when there are radical groups who recognize human rights and liberal democracy in the society. These politics may appear to exist in most of the early ethnic movements, feminists, lesbians, gays and dates back to the Marxists’ earliest sentiments of self interest groups. Black Nationalism is one of the dominant and the oldest political ideologies that emphasized the unity, self-definition, self-reliance, and solidarity of the black race. At the birth of Black Nationalism, the African people were encouraged to appreciate their own race and beauty. The most important core pillar of Black Nationalism was emphasizing independence of the race by promoting and defending the African-American interests. It is important to note that in their bid to push for the interests of the black, the black nationalists used a number of strategies. In this regard, the Black Nationalism ideas are still rooted in United States and Africa. Objectives of the Black Nationalism The objectives of Black Nationalism include removing their membership from the white society, supporting African-American political aspirants, improving businesses owned by blacks, and promote the African-centered curricula. Much history of African Americans is based on the struggle to overcome negative social forces that can be seen in both pre-slavery, and post slave society. In almost all of the American history, social mores, laws, and folkways have made the African Americans look for various alternatives that would make them achieve their full potential. They do this by looking for opportunities for political, economic, intellectual self-determination, and self-governance. The black scholars have come up with two tendencies of black Americans seeking to achieve their full potential in the society. They emphasize full participation as citizens of the United States because of the desire for integration. They called for nationalism so that blacks would be psychologically, physically, and culturally independent. They encouraged African Americans’ collective action based on common concerns and shared heritage. The desire for self-determination and black independence dates back to the eighteenth century to the formation and rise of the African Methodist Episcopal church. Richard Allen formed this church. The issue of slavery in an independent society excited the anti-slavery forces in the nineteenth century (Zerdy186). During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the black people faced very oppressive economic, political, and social live prospects. It was at this time that the Black Nationalism issues arise. the nationalism were based on a lot of people under cultural, political and social domination via outside occupation of the military and their desire to stop and break away from the foreign rule. In some other cases, it meant the need to bring together the traditionally divided people. It attempted to unite politically all the black people whether they are descendants of the disposed Africans by the slave trade or residents. Black Nationalism has its roots in colonization movement that addressed the immigration of the blacks from the United States to Latin America and Africa. It is imperative that the blacks needed this immigration in order to gain independence and political freedom. Those who were supporting the approach of integration disagreed with the black supporters of the idea of nationalism. Among the leaders who participated in the abolitionist movement, include Fredrick Douglass. Douglass was for the idea that black people played an important role in the United States, and thus, it was pertinent for them to secure their freedom. Black historians such as Alfred moss and John Hope Frankline gave the contradictory position that the pro-slavery people from the south were also supporting the emigration of the blacks (Tinson 14). This resulted in the white abolitionist and blacks being skeptical of the southerners’ opinion in emigration as a suitable solution to stopping and ending slavery. Black Nationalism was widely discussed of in the early nineteen century but not among the black people especially in their political ideologies although this came up again in the twentieth century as Marcus Garvey movement. Marcus Garvey and the UNIA Marcus Garvey Mosiah was brought up majorly in a black society. He was able to get learning which was not available to most of his people. His father loved reading, and thus, established a library for him in his home. Aspects of booker’s program of independence in economics by self-help attracted Marcus Garvey. He believed that this program would be of great importance to the majority poor black people since it was practical. Garvey as an alternative founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1918 for black people; he preferred this than other interracial organizations like National Urban League. Garvey believed that black separation would be the best to help the blacks realize their potentials than black integration among whites in the U.S that faced fierce resistance. Garvey used education in various forms to teach black people about social and economic uplifts for example, by using newspapers and sponsored programs. He expressed in the UNIA his socio-political philosophy of the Black Nationalism that emphasized on economic empowerment, cultural pride, and social separation. This emphasis proved very powerful information for African Americans in the early twentieth century. This gave a great influence to Malcolm X’s political ideology on Black Nationalism. According to his autobiography, his parents were followers of Garvey and members of UNIA. They then affected Malcolm and his brothers and sisters at their childhood stage (Mulloy 230). Malcolm X; Political Influence and Evolution Malcolm X embraced black Nationalism after he departed from the Nation of Islam (NOI) in which he had become a member in late 1940’s .He obeyed the organization’s adaptation of Garvey’s philosophy of the black Nationalism on cultural pride, social separation and economic empowerment. Although from 1953 to early 1964, he was restricted to non-engagement on Civil Rights and any other social issue affecting Africa American together with political activities in general (Shelton and Emerson 323). Later in the late 1950,’s NOI focused more on religion teachings and left Black Nationalism ideology in order to address social problems. Malcolm began to question NOI’s role in helping African Americans improve their life, he believed that NOI’s resources could be used to address the problems of African Americans not only Black Muslims. His views became a great influence on the foundation of Civil Rights Movement in late 1950’s and mid 1960’s such that by 1963 he changed his public rhetoric and focused more on black Nationalism philosophy and therefore sought cooperation with active political organization of the Civil Rights Movement. As a National Representative and minister of New York Mosque Malcolm was a great influence on Islam in African American community. he could examine their condition in U.S. this went on to an extend that he changed his political ideas in his later life to a subject of discussion and debate that he was fighting racism and black oppression in the U.S. and also colonial oppression of blacks on the African continent. He made to Africa in 1964 in an effort to get support from its leaders. A closer examination of Malcolm X shows that he adapted a philosophy of Black Nationalism (Leonard 620). Thus, he laid a ground for Cultural Nationalism Movement and the Black Power. As a result, he got international exposure to enlarge his struggle against black oppression. In his political life, he tried to relieve poverty and suffering among African-American communities. Pan-Africanism The Black Nationalism is a distinct and intellectual political tradition where the markers are Africans in Diaspora and Africans themselves. It was based on their elaborations of culture, ideas, cultural and religious formations, literacy forms, as well as a political philosophy. The path taken by the radical Black Nationalism goes past affirmation and response. Its activities discourse and sources poses challenge to the west. This gives a new way for looking out on some of the important political ideas, which it was claimed to be universal by the western intellectuals. It is not only the black radical tradition, but also movements and religious figures, which have come up with interior shortcomings of their oppression (Rossiter 211). It is also composed of black writers, thinkers, artists, and cultural leaders. This black radical tradition is trying to come up with radical cultural, intellectual, and political positions from inside its own understandings and sources. This has become complicated instead of being straightforward because of the wrong conceptions due to intellectual traditions, which still dominate, consign and teach Africa and descendants of Africa as different beings who have experience only and they do not have a history of thought. All this are explained by the concept of pan-africanism. The major part in the wide and complex black political idea, dealing with both the most conservative nuance of black political thought, black radical tradition, believes, and principles is the Pan-Africanism. However, the ideas of martin Delany, Prince Hall, James Horton and Edward Blyden, they work within distinctive tradition. W.E.B Du Bois and Sylvester William in England held the political ideas and demands in the 20th century about PAN-Africanism at the Pan-African congress. It is noteworthy that this congress was different from those of Patmore and Kwame Nkrumah in 1945, and was different from those of the 1974 call in the sixth Pan-African congress but all this made sense. Complex Tradition Pan-Africanism is an international nationalism as well as a rooted nationalism in which its phenomenon cuts across all the boundaries making Africa united as one. The main part in nationalism easily moves from political to cultural nationalism. Politically, it is claimed to be the existence of an already formed Sovereign State, or a State in formation, and the cultural and political identity of the State. According to the diasporic quality of the Pan-Africanism, traditional claims are reopened by political nationalism. It argues that it must be studied as an ideology, and as consciousness with complex political issues. These are attempts by African people to contract political program and identities for ending domination of whites in its various fields across international boundaries (Cardon 163). According to the thoughts of politics, the evaluation of pan-Africanism has a broad and complex formation of ideas with a set of inside changes. It hints richer lodes of explanation about domination .how the concept of human value, dignity, political ideas, and practices. It is evident that it is difficult to point at a specific Diaspora site as the point of political organization and movement of Pan-Africanism. This may be overcome with different interpretations of ideas knowing the elaboration of traditions. Pan-Africanism in African continent as part of its nationalism means a form of unity in Africa without respecting the colonial boundaries. Given its internationalism, Pan-Africanism shifted locations with political ideas and intellectual resources (Ling 52). The critical part of Pan-Africanism was a great movement of political discourse in Africa and Diaspora in the 20th century. For example, the freedom ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr., spread to Kingston, Jamaica, and on the African continent. The ideas of Garvey were re-interpreted, and taken up in Cape Town, New York, and the Caribbean among other nations in the world. The black power slogan across Atlantic became a political call for riot in Trinidad, South Africa and Jamaica. The motion of notion, which was the movement of ideas, became one of the foundations for black radical tradition. The study of Pan-Africanism should be on all political ideas its relationship and connection to other political ideas and internal specification. At one point, Marxism influenced the black radical traditions. James a Pan-Africanist saw the conjunction between Marxism and Pan-Africanism. James formed the International Friends of Abyssinia (IFA) in 1935 in which members of the organization included: Jomo Kenyatta, George Padmore, Amy Garvey, and other members who attended the Pan-African congress in 192. The major political objective of the organization was to propagandize the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and act as a London welcome of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. When the nature of its activity changed IFA into International African Service Bureau (IASB), Padmore became the chairperson of the organization making it take a new direction. This is because James’ contact was limited to people he met in London only, and the circle of West Indians while Padmore as a leading black official had several contacts in the black world. His experience in revolution in Europe and United States and the contacts he had were critical for political evolution in the organization. As the editor of International African Opinion paper, James very quickly begun to hit out a programme for independence of Caribbean and Africa. The AISB agitated for Caribbean and African political independence on various occasion in political conference in London, they also published radical series of pamphlets and books which criticized the normal political thinking about the possibility of political freedom in Africa and Caribbean (Calihman 147). The activities of the group as black radicals brought together African Americans, West Indians, and Africans together and developed as a black struggle. James’ political thoughts and intellectual were shaped. In 1939, he wrote an essay in United States entitled ‘Revolution and the Negro’ whose aims were to establish a certain kind of historical narrative in which he argued that people of African descent had made a great contribution to western civilization and to locate the activities of the African people internationally within the global political circle. He explored his issues using Marxism. When the black and white radicals began working together, another philosophy was aired derived partly from problems experienced then like the war in Vietnam that required equal participation from all sides and from Marxist outlook. Black radicals who interacted with white radicals drew a long tradition of black Marxism and labor oriented thoughts reflecting on the common bonds of struggle. Black Radicalism James in his written epilogue on the new dimensions in his political thoughts focused on few fundamentals, his analysis of the Pan-Africanism period from 1939-1969, he argued that what happened in Africa in over duration of 30 year represented the most essential political scenario in the 20th century. Another important issue that arises is the initial failure of state building and African nationalism. At this point, he proposes that one of the key problems of Africa’s political independence was the state of colonial continuities in the independent countries. The recognition that the western intellectual was inclined to one political idea by James was another epilogue. He says that it the international behavior to treat African discoveries, creations and achievements as if the western white civilization was the normal and that the people of Africa spent a lot of time imitating, attempting to reach , or go through the primitive initials stages of western civilization (Block 33). The relationship between James and the members of the centre for back education led to his increased participation in a number of conferences concerned with the international effects and dimensions power of the blacks. The idea of the sixth pan-African congress was born in one of such conferences. By 1960s, the major discussion topic was the issue of pan-Africanism. African leaders were brought together for the first time to meet in the African soil by the sixth pan-African congress. The diasporic blacks put many efforts to free themselves FROM THE RACIAL domination. They wanted to return to Africa and embrace their culture. The petition by sambo freeman, Chester joie, Felix Holbrook, and peter Bestes shows these efforts. They wrote to the lawmaker of Massachusetts in 1973 outlining their need for freedom and that they wanted to go back to some parts of African cost. By the time of the sixth pan-African congress, some of the objectives had been realized. This was an implicit historic achievement. Conclusion Black Nationalism goes back to one hundred years plus ago. As an alternative to integration, the black leaders searched for alternative ways to address their social and political ideology on racial discrimination against Africans in Diaspora especially the African Americans in United States. Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey were dominant figures in the 20th century emphasizing on Black Nationalism influencing a great generation of people and many organizations to adopt their ideology. The NOI led by Malcolm X in 1960s called for black power. Many organizations used the Nationalist philosophy by Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey that advocated for reduction in poverty, policy, brutality, and inadequate housing. From the sixth Pan-African congress, many African countries for example Angola and Mozambique were free from colonial rule. Although the political freedom was still from the apartheid in South Africa, many of the congress individuals were hopeful though. Racial domination was persistent in the United States thus a new context in which the Pan-Africanist had to face. Works Cited Block, Ray. What About Disillusionment? Exploring the Pathways to Black Nationalism. Political Behavior. 33.1 (2011): p27-51. Calihman, Matthew. Black Power beyond Black Nationalism: John A. Williams, Cultural Pluralism, and the Popular Front. MELUS. 34.1 (2009): p139-162. 24p. Cardon, Lauren S. From Black Nationalism to the Ethnic Revival: "Meridians" Lynne Rabinowitz. MELUS. 36.3 (2011): p159-185 Leonard, Keith D. Love In The Black Arts Movement: The Other American Exceptionalism. Callaloo. 36.3 (2013): p618-624. Ling, Peter. The Media Made Malcolm. History Today. 62.1 (2012): p49-55. Mulloy, D. J. New Panthers, old Panthers and the politics of black nationalism in the United States. Patterns of Prejudice. 44.3 (2010): p217-238. Rossiter, Brian. “They Dont Care About Us”: Michael Jacksons Black Nationalism. Popular Music & Society. 35.2 (2012): p203-222. Shelton, Jason E., and Emerson, Michael O. Extending the Debate over Nationalism Versus Integration: How Cultural Commitments and Assimilation Trajectories Influence Beliefs About Black Power. Journal of African American Studies. 14.3 (2010): p312-336. Tinson, Christopher M. "Harlem, New York! Harlem, Detroit! Harlem, Birmingham!" Liberator Magazine and the Chronicling of Translocal Activism. Black Scholar. 41.3 (2011): p9-16. Zerdy, Joanne. Fashioning a Scottish Operative: Black Watch and Banal Theatrical Nationalism on Tour in the US. 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