NYPL Blogs: Africa and the African Diaspora

Manhattan Woman and 20,000 Slaves

Christopher Paul Moore, Senior Researcher, Schomburg Center — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 06:12:35 -0500

We met at the Chambers Street IRT subway station — Lynn Jencks, descendant of an early Dutch family, and me, descendant of Lenape, Dutch and Africans. About 400 years ago, Dutch and enslaved Africans arrived into the ancient Algonquian wilderness that became New York City. Lynn, who lives in Illinois, had never been to the property owned by her ancestors and worked upon by slaves.

"Christopher guided me out of the subway and we emerged into the crisp clear December air," Lynn wrote in an email account of our walk. "We walked a short distance to Duane Park, a tiny triangle of green at the intersection of Hudson and Duane Streets."

The park is part of the Domine (Minister's) Farm, once owned by Protestant Dutch Rev. Everardus Bogardus and his wife, Anneke Jans. Rev. Bogardus is notable among colonial Christian ministers, as he opposed the relentless wars against the natives, supported education of black children and performed marriages and baptisms of free and enslaved blacks. Lynn's ancestors and a few of my own are registered in the Kinderboek, one of our city's oldest documents.

Duane Park is the city's oldest American park, founded in 1797 (Bowling Green is older but it was created during the English reign — 1733) elicited Lynn's biggest smiles of the day.

"It is the last little sliver of my ancestors' farm that remains, somehow escaping 400 years of development," Lynn explained.

From Duane Park we walked east along Chambers Street, where once stood an island-wide slave-constructed wall from the Hudson to the East River, much wider than the more famous Wall constructed by enslaved laborers at Wall Street in 1653.

At Broadway, we reached the 6.6 acre property, once owned by Lynn's 17th century great aunt, Sarah Roloff Kiersted Van Borsum, step-daughter of Rev. Bogardus.

"As an adult, Sarah (some sort of great-aunt to me) befriended the Native Americans, with whom the Dutch colonists were at frequent war and whom the Dutch eventually expelled from the territory," stated Lynn.

In 1669, Sarah received a 2260-acre land grant in New Jersey (Bogata and Teaneck) from Lenape-Hackensack Chief Oratamy. During the brief Dutch return to power (July 1673 – November 1674) Sarah received the burial ground property from Petrus Stuvesant, for her role as an Indian translator. Sometime after that grant, it became used for African burials.

"Sara gave permission to the enslaved Africans to bury their dead on her property. Within a few decades, this area was named on a map as the 'Negro Burial Ground,' eventually containing the graves of an estimated 15,000-20,000 Africans by the time it closed at the end of the 18th century," wrote Lynn.

Unearthed during construction of a 34 story federal office building at 290 Broadway in 1991, the cemetery became a NYC landmark in 1993 and a National Monument in 2007. Four hundred and nineteen burial remains were reburied in individual wooden coffins in seven mounds at the memorial site.

"Christopher brought me here, and as I stood in that place, I had an overwhelming sense of something coming full circle. I was intensely aware of the connection between my ancestors, on whose land this burial ground had begun, and of Christopher's, whose ancestors' community had buried their dead here."

The African Burial Ground National Monument Visitor Center is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and is closed on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. The African Burial Ground National Memorial is open every day from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. except Christmas Day and Thanksgiving.

Lynn Jencks is a Doctoral Candidate in Theology and Religion at Northwestern University.

Chris Moore is Senior Researcher and co-author of The Black New Yorkers: 400 Years of African American History and Standing In The Need Of Prayer: A Celebration of Black Prayer and a member of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

For additional resources, visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Clicks to the Black World

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:20:41 -0400

Digital Schomburg's online exhibitions on various aspects of the black experience have truly become a global phenomenon. They are attracting visitors from all over the world. From Argentina to Zimbabwe and Montenegro and the Maldives in between. What do they know that perhaps you don't?

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience remains the most visited curated exhibition of The New York Public Library. With a few clicks, visitors from 206 countries and territories, including Kazakhstan, Tonga, Suriname, Mongolia and Malawi, continue to explore its 16,000 pages of texts (392 books, book chapters, and articles) 8,300 illustrations, 67 maps and 100 lesson plans. In Motion offers a new interpretation of African-American history that focuses on the self-motivated activities of peoples of African descent to remake themselves and their worlds. In 13 defining movements this exhibition documents 400 years of migration to, within and out of the United States. From the move West to the Return South; from the Great Migration to the contemporary Caribbean and African immigration; from Haitians in Louisiana to African Americans in Liberia, In Motion maps out dynamic journeys of hope.

Africana Age: African & Diasporan Transformations in the 20th Century takes an in-depth look at the social, political, economic, and cultural transformations that occurred in the 20th century and paved the way for major positive developments in the post-colonial, post-segregation, post-apartheid first decade of the 21st century.

It has been viewed in 153 countries. Topics such as African Resistance to Colonization, African Americans and World War I, Black Power and Pan-Africanism, have found readers not only throughout the Black World but also in Myanmar, Indonesia, New Zealand, Brunei and Fiji. But it is the essay "The Colonization of Africa" that has been a surprise hit. It is the most visited single page of The New York Public Library’s online exhibitions.

African dynasties in India? 1.5 to 2 million African descendants in Iraq? Afro-Pakistani culture? There is much more to discover in The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean World. From Arabia and Iran to India and Sri Lanka, this exhibition maps out a truly unique and fascinating story of struggles and achievements across a variety of societies, cultures, religions, languages and times. It has attracted curious minds in India, Pakistan, Yemen and Oman as could be expected but moreover it has reached 87 countries as diverse as Greece, Finland, Israel, Ukraine, and Argentina.

Informative essays by renowned scholars experts in their fields; unique documents and illustrations from the rich collections of the Center; easy navigation and attractive design have made the Schomburg’s online exhibitions an international success.

What the numbers and the reach tell us is that knowledge about African and African Diasporan history and culture is in great demand the world over and Digital Schomburg's online exhibitions are at the vanguard in its dissemination.

See for yourself! Come and discover these and other exhibitions. Visit Online Exhibitions.

Digital Schomburg is more than exhibitions. It offers access to books, audio-visual resources, back issues of our newsletter, and selected links to high-quality sites, and large databases of books, articles, oral histories, images, maps, interviews, and television programs.

Reclaiming My West Indian Roots, with Poetry

Ann-Marie Nicholson, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 12:53:14 -0400

As a young girl growing up in Jamaica — and later in Brooklyn, NY — I often heard the poetry of Louise Bennett (Jamaicans affectionately call her "Miss Lou") permeate the air. One of my earliest recollections of Miss Lou’s lyricism was hearing the term mout amassi (big mouth). The term comes from the title of one of her most popular poems about a young lady, Liza, who loves to gossip and chat.

To be called a "mout amassi" was far from a compliment and the nickname could follow one around for a lifetime. Adults used it on adults and children alike. Children used it on each other, often eliciting uncontrollable laughter.

I have more fond memories of how Miss Lou’s poetry reverberated throughout my youth and the many phrases that I—as well as my fellow islanders—eagerly adapted to tease as well as to assert my identity.

Many years removed from my childhood, it would take a long time before I returned to my roots. It wasn’t until I was in grad school getting my master’s in English Literature, with a focus on postcolonial literature, that I ventured beyond the poetry of the Romantics and the Harlem Renaissance. In one of my classes, Caribbean Literature, my professor further exposed me to Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanaphone writers and poets, like: Derek Walcott, Olive Senior, Kamau Brathwaite, Aimé Césaire, and Reinaldo Arenas. The lyricism of these poets — from varied backgrounds and languages — spoke to me and my cultural identity. I realized, albeit not too late, that the reason these poets resonated with me was because I had never really forgotten my roots — they just needed to be watered and restored.

Below are a few West Indian poets whose works capture and transcend their shared cultural heritage:

Derek Walcott, born in 1930, is from Saint Lucia. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992 for his epic poem, Omeros — based on Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey. Walcott is currently a professor of poetry at the University of Essex.

Kamau Brathwaite was born in Barbados in 1930. He is currently a Professor of Comparative Literature at New York University.

Martin Carter (d. 1997) was a Guyanese poet, whose work came to symbolize post-colonial nationalism.

Grace Nichols was born in Guyana. Grace Nichols lives in England with the poet John Agard and their daughter Kalera. Watch her talk about one of her poems on bbc.co.uk.

John Agard was born in Guyana and currently resides in England.

Olive Senior was born in Jamaica. She currently resides in Toronto, Canada.

Survivors: Sand Island

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:55:45 -0500

July 31, 1761: The French ship l'Utile, illegally transporting 160 Africans from Madagascar to Ile de France (Mauritius), approaches Sand Island. Because the captain worries about a potential revolt, he orders the hatches to be nailed shut. In the night, the ship runs into a reef and capsizes.

What follows is, arguably, the most extraordinary story of survival ever documented.

More than 70 Africans trapped in the hold died that night, while 123 French crew and passengers (18 had died) escaped. Only when the ship broke down could 88 Madagascans reach shore. Their refuge was the wind-swept, bare, treeless, and deserted Sand Island, less than a mile long and half a mile wide. Within three days, 28 Africans died, most likely because the crew refused to share the water and food salvaged from l'Utile. For the next three weeks, after having dug a well, the survivors built a raft. On September 27, all the French got on board, abandoning 60 stunned Madagascans with three months worth of food and a promise to ask for a rescue mission. Four days later, they safely reached Madagascar, but the governor — perhaps worried that the illegal slave trading operation would be exposed — categorically refused to send help.

Meanwhile, the Madagascans organized their precarious existence. They lived on a diet of turtles, birds, eggs, oysters, fish, and a few roots. They retrieved pots and other items from the ship and kept the same fire burning. To protect themselves, they built sturdy houses with blocks of coral and compacted sand. Their walls were thick — up to five feet. Several rooms, including a workshop, can still be seen. Over the years, these amazingly ingenuous survivors made, repaired, and transformed over 700 objects. The women fashioned clothes out of feathers and decorated hair pins out of pieces of metal.

But life was terribly hard on this desolate piece of arid land, and two years after the shipwreck, half the people had passed away. Determined to get out of this hell, the 31 survivors built a raft and made a sail out of feathers. The 18 men and women who boarded it in search of help never reached land.

Incredibly, another 12 years passed before a ship was sent to rescue the Madagascans. In August 1775, a dingy with two men approached but was wrecked by the wind. One sailor made it back to the ship but the other was stuck on the island. The following year, two expeditions were unable to land. So, once again, the Africans built a raft with feathered sails and the last three men, as well as three women and the sailor departed in July 1776. They too were lost at sea.

By then seven women had lived for 15 years on Sand Island (today Tromelin Island). Finally, on November 28, 1776, they were rescued along with an eight-month-old boy, whose mother, Tsimiavo, and extremely weak grandmother were still alive. Two buried skeletons, possibly of a young woman and an adolescent, will be discovered centuries later.

This shameful story of exploitation and racism is also one of unimaginable resourcefulness, adaptability, and resilience. The courageous survivors used all their skills and acquired and perfected others to organize and keep together a functioning community in these horrendous circumstances. That they endured for so long against such odds is truly astounding. They were all heroes. As we celebrate International Women's Day and Women's History Month, let's have a special thought for the seven extraordinary and creative women who for 15 long years lived, hoped, and persevered, forgotten about but nevertheless determined to survive on Sand Island.

For More About this Story

Tromelin l'ile aux esclaves oublies — an excellent book by a French archeological team that has conducted research in 2006, 2008, and 2010
Les naufrages de l'ile Tromelin — a historical novel that covers only the two months when the French were on the island and has only a few superficial pages devoted to the Africans
Website of the French archeological mission — some parts are in English
Trailer of the documentary Les esclaves oublies de Tromelin
Article from The Independent

Islam in Europe: A Resource Guide at NYPL

Raymond Pun, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, General Research Division — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 05:08:03 -0500

According to the BBC News, "Islam is widely considered Europe's fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a rapid increase in the Muslim population." There are currently over 15 million Muslims (Sunni and Shiite) living in Europe and Islam is currently the second largest religion in the world after Christianity.

This blog post will focus on NYPL’s rich collection on the history of Islam in Europe: past and present; the historical, political, cultural, and economic relationships between the states of Europe and the Middle East concerning multiculturalism, integration, segregation, gender and democracy.

The Islamic faith arrived in the European continent from the Arabian Peninsula as early as the 12th century through religious migrations and trades from the Silk Road, an ancient route that connected to Asia.

During the Middle Ages, European-Christian armies and Muslims waged a series of religious warfare against each other. Known as the "Crusades," these holy wars were fought throughout Europe and the Middle East to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim rule. Some countries such as Spain and Malta were also ruled by Muslims. From the 7th to the 13th century, this period was also known as the "Golden Age" because of the scientific advancements, cultural achievements and literary contributions that greatly shaped the history and civilization of Spain and beyond.

In 15th century Spain, some people, particularly Jewish people spoke a unique Sephardic language called "Ladino" - a mix of Hebrew, Spanish and Arabic. During this time, the Spanish Inquisition under the order of Ferdinand II and Isabella I took place; this national policy forced Muslims and Jews to leave Spain or covert to Catholicism.

During the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire slowly lost influence and power in the Middle East; it had dominated the region for five centuries. As a result of the decline, the European powers took the opportunity to access these territories. By the end of World War I, the empire dissolved (1923) and the British and French forces took over the Middle East. This caused further political strife which inevitably created and formed new (and revived old) nation states from the shackles of imperialism such as present-day Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, (north) Yemen, Qatar, and Turkey.

Today as the political conflicts and revolutions in the Middle East emerge, scholars, journalists and politicians have been discussing these external concerns affecting the world. As many Africans and Middle Easterners are migrating to Europe, the issues of immigration and discrimination, multiculturalism, and gender and religious rights in Europe are being also discussed and analyzed. From Turkey's attempt to be part of the European Union to the Chechen communities in Eastern Europe and Russia, the NYPL has an extensive research collection to get you started.

To find basic resources at NYPL, search the Library's catalog under keyword for "Islam and Europe" or type in a specific country: "Islam and France" and this should narrow down your search results. For a more advanced search, switch keyword to subject and type in "Islam -- (Country of your Choice)." This may give you other sources not listed in the keyword search. You can also narrow down your search by format, location, language or time period. For a brief bibliography, check the list below.

In May 2009, for one week, LIVE from The NYPL hosted a series of academic and cultural discussions entitled, "Islam in Europe: Insult: Fractured States?" on the impact of Islam in Europe in the 21st century. Notable speakers included the Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan as well as prominent journalists, politicians and scholars; subjects of discussions included immigration, religion and society, religious, civil and women’s rights.

Selected Primary Sources at NYPL

al-Sharq al-Awsat: "The international daily newspaper of the Arabs" published in London in Arabic.
PressDisplay: Provides access to current newspapers from around the world in full-color, full-page format. Includes over 1,000 U.S. and international titles. Read this NYPL blog entry for details about this resourceful database. (Also available from home).
British Newspapers: 1600-1900: Offers researchers with the most comprehensive collection of national and regional newspapers of Victorian Britain. For those conducting research on the British Empire or Victorian culture, they will find this database to be useful.
Historical International Newspapers from Europe and the Middle East available in the Microform Reading Room: for a list, check this page. (Please note that most historical international newspapers must be requested in advance, see here.)
To read current international newspapers such as The Independent (U.K.), The Times (England), Le Monde (France), El Pais (Spain), Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany), Corriere Della Sera (Italy), please go to the DeWitt Wallace Periodicals Reading Room in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.
For more digital newspapers from Europe or the Middle East, check out this list. To learn more about researching historical newspapers, read this NYPL blog entry.
Le Monde des Religions is a French bimonthly periodical that focuses on religious traditions and spiritualities in the European continent.
Arab Historian Crusades / selected and translated from the Arabic sources by Francesco Gabrieli; translated from the italian by E.J. Costello - offers the perspectives and accounts of Arab historians viewing and documenting the Crusades.
Napoleon in Egypt chronicles the French invasion in Egypt through the eyes of a French officer and an Arab historian.
For maps, prints and images of Europe and the Middle East, check out NYPL's Digital Gallery and also check out the Map Division.
Learn more about the Islamic faith through NYPL's Three Faiths Online Exhibition>>

Selected Secondary Sources at NYPL

Why the French don't like Headscarves: Islam, the State, and Public Space by John Bowen examines the controversy behind the French government's banning of the veil and other religious symbols in public schools as it infringes on religious freedom.
Politics of The Veil by Joan Wallach Scott - Similar to Bowen's work, Scott explores "the long history of racism behind the law as well as the ideological barriers thrown up against Muslim assimilation in France."
What I Believe by Tariq Ramadan - Ramadan is "among the leading Islamic thinkers in the West, with a large following around world. In this work, he calls on Western Muslims to escape the mental, social, cultural, and religious ghettos they have created for themselves and become full partners in the democratic societies in which they live. At the same time, he calls for the rest to recognize our Muslim neighbors as citizens with rights and responsibilities the same as ours ..."
White Teeth by Zadie Smith - a novel that explores the issues of multiculturalism in London through the lens of two families. Smith also spoke at LIVE from the NYPL on Speaking in Tongues.
Muslims in the West: From Sojourners to Citizens edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad is a collection of essays that "studies the impact of the growing Muslim population on Western societies, and how Muslims are adapting to life in the West."
Heretic and Hero: Muhammad and the Victorians by Phillip C. Almond examines the Victorian impressions and images of the Prophet Muhammad.
For more on Islamic Spain >>
For more on the Ottoman Empire>>
For more on Medieval Europe >>
For a more in-depth list of academic titles on this subject >>
For a current index of scholarly articles on Islam in World History, consider Index Islamicus>>
For scholarly articles on the contemporary and historical research on Islam and Europe, check out the following databases: JSTOR, Project Muse, ATLA Religion and Academic Search Premier. For more databases>>

Bollywood and Africa: A Love Story

Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:30:51 -0500

Few people in the West have heard international superstar Akon's new hit. But tens of millions throughout the rest of the world have been dancing to Chammak Challo for weeks. Why? Because the catchy tune is the musical centerpiece of the latest Bollywood sci-fi blockbuster Ra. One, whose (super) hero is no other than Shahrukh Khan, the most popular actor in the (rest of) the world. That Akon, a Senegalese, sings in Hindi will come as a surprise to many, but not to Africans. They have been singing Bollywood tunes in Hindi for 60 years.

Indian cinema arrived in West Africa in the early 1950s and people instantly related to it. Like them, Indians revered the family and the elders, dressed in long tunics, ate with their fingers, and carried loads on their heads. There were turbans and veils, cows in the streets, vibrant colors, large weddings, multi-generational households, songs, dances, tabla drumming, and romantic love — but no explicit sexuality.

More significantly, arranged marriages, caste barriers, and the importance of morality, honor, family name, and religion were all topics central to Bollywood and to African societies. Life under and the struggle against colonialism; the poor, the exploited and the oppressed as central characters; and mythology — issues European and American cinemas completely ignored — strongly resonated on the continent. Bollywood offered a model of cultural resistance and a path between tradition and modernity.

Although they were neither dubbed nor sub-titled, people flocked to Hindi films. After seeing a movie several times — and because of the recurrent themes — they understood enough Hindi to navigate the plots.

Senegal — arguably the most Indianophile West African country — counts more than 40 Indian clubs: men and women, young and old dress, sing, and dance Indian style; and the Miss Hindu competition was held there for several years. The most watched program on RDV TV is India in Senegal; and Allo Bombay follows Bollywood news. In Dakar, an Indian who owns a video store gives dance and Hindi classes several times a week.

In Northern Nigeria, the Islamic resurgence that followed the Iranian revolution in 1979 has re-framed the immense popularity of Bollywood. Islamic schools' girls choirs, as well as a male Sufi group, Society for the Lovers of India, sing Bollywood soundtracks with Hausa lyrics praising the Prophet Muhammad.

Indian films have inspired Hausa musicians, poets, and writers; and since the 1990s a local film industry on video, influenced by Bollywood, is popular among Hausa in Nigeria and Niger, whereas the southern Nigeria Nollywood films have limited success.

But as a few directors are catering to a wealthy Indian Diaspora, some wonder if the Bollywood/Africa love affair is not inching toward divorce. Still there are enough films on corruption, love, women's struggles, terrorism, and religious issues to satisfy an African audience. Some wish that African cinema could emulate Indian films, which maintain their cultural perspective and still appeal to different cultures. While Bollywood indeed remains rooted, it is also greatly influenced by the culture of the African Diaspora. After song and dance routines met funk, disco, Michael Jackson, and hip-hop, they were never the same.

Pirated Bollywood DVDs continue to sell in Africa, but Indian series are now all the rage and have replaced the Brazilian and Mexican telenovelas from Dakar to Madagascar. When Pallavi Kulkarni, the heroine of the immensely popular series Vaidehi, visited Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire last year, throngs of people lined the streets in a welcome that had not been seen in Dakar since the Senegalese soccer team returned from the quarter final of the World Cup in 2002.

Now with Akon and his perfect Hindi, there is one more reason for Africans to love Bollywood, and for India to expand its cultural and economic reach on the continent.

Articles on Bollywood and Africa

Brian Larkin, "Bollywood Comes to Nigeria"
Abdalla Uba Adamu, "Transglobal Media Flows and African Popular Culture: Revolution and Reaction in Muslim Hausa Popular Culture"
Articles accessible from NYPL locations:
- Olivier Barlet, "Bollywood/Africa: A Divorce?"
- Brian Larkin, "Bandiri Music, Globalization, and Urban Experience in Nigeria"
Selected books on Bollywood
My favorite Shahrukh Khan movies
Discover the unique story of The African Diaspora in India

Sannu Niger!

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 07:58:00 -0500

The capture last week of Saif al-Islam Qaddafi who, disguised as a Tuareg, was trying to flee to Niger — where one of his brothers and some high-ranking officials have found refuge — has turned a spotlight on a country few people have heard of.

“Niger? You mean Nigeria?” No Niger, the largest country in West Africa. “The country of the Nigerians?” No, the country of the Nigeriens.

I have visited Niger several times and always came back with wonderful memories... and exceptional crafts. It is one of the most fascinating places I know.

Sannu (hello) Niger!

With over 490,000 square miles, Niger covers more territory than Nigeria. But the latter’s 167 million inhabitants make it the seventh most populous country in the world while the former is home to just above 15 million people. Not surprising since the Sahara desert occupies more than two-thirds of Niger’s landmass. The landlocked country is surrounded by seven sometimes difficult neighbors: Algeria, Libya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Nigeria, and Chad.

A Tuareg rebellion that lasted for years; famines in 2005 and 2009 and food insecurity foreseen for 2012; the presence of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; and the reinsertion of 200,000 Nigerien emigrants who fled Libya empty-handed are some of the issues the country has been facing. Moreover, at the UN General Assembly, President Mahamadou Issoufou, a mining engineer, has warned that the circulation, in the desert, of heavy weapons following the Libyan revolution could pose serious threats not only to his country but also to the region and beyond.

But Niger is more than the sum of its problems. I love its arid environment and the desert has some extraordinary sandscapes, however it is the people I find remarkable. Nigerien pageantry is unparalleled. It is colorful yet restrained; mysterious and friendly.

I vividly remember the astonishing sight of thousands of men crossing a bridge over the River Niger, in total silence. Hausa on horseback, their boubous (kaftans) and turbans shining in the sun; Tuareg on camels, with only their eyes visible; and Bororo on foot, sporting long braids and delicately embroidered clothes. It had taken them days and for some, weeks, to reach the capital, Niamey, for a cultural festival.

An otherwise poor country whose main resource is uranium, Niger is rich in culture and diversity. The Tuareg, people of the Sahara whose men wear face veils but women do not, are incomparable silversmiths. Their delicate, abstract jewelry is too hard to resist. The Wodaabe or Bororo, Fulani nomads, are renowned for the gerewol, a distinctive yearly event. Young men, painted and dressed up, dance in front of young women in a male beauty pageant that has no parallel in the world. The Hausa, majestic horsemen whose brightly caparisoned horses are a sight to see, look like medieval knights.

One could imagine that Niger lives in a time warp with camels in the streets and people who look like they have just stepped out of a historical epic; but these same people have a cell phone in their pocket. Young entrepreneurs are opening high-tech companies; students back from universities in Morocco, Great Britain, France, or the US are creating new businesses; and the country will extract its first barrel of oil next week.

On the cultural front, Niger has emerged as a leading force in African hip-hop. Fearless rappers tackle political and social issues. High fashion may not come to mind when talking about Niamey but the city is home to celebrated designer Alphadi, called the Prince of the Desert, whose creations are shown all over the world.

If "land of contrasts" were not a cliche, I would apply it to Niger.

Books

Ousseina Alidou, Engaging Modernity
Alison Behnke, Niger in Pictures
Samuel Decalo, Historical Dictionary of Niger
Zarma Folktales of Niger

Music

Etran Finatawa - Bororo and Tuareg contemporary music

Photos

Nikky Finney Wins National Book Award in Poetry

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 07:07:09 -0500

On November 16, Nikky Finney received the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry for her book Head Off & Split. Political, sensual, historical, imaginative, Finney’s poems speak of struggle, beauty, love, and race with passion and tenderness. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where she has been teaching for several years, congratulates her on her wonderful achievement.

Finney, Provost’s Distinguished Service Chair Professor of English at the University of Kentucky, has been on the faculty of the Schomburg-Mellon Humanities Summer Institute since 2008. One of the students’ favorites, she brings passion, warmth, and inspiration to her creative writing seminars. As the director of the Institute, I’m always excited when I get her e-mail simply saying, “yes, yes, yes” to my invitation to come back.

I met Finney in New Orleans in 2007. We shared a room at Tulane University during a week-long conference. The city was still reeling from Katrina. As she read her poem Left, about a young woman who had taken refuge on a roof during the hurricane, there was palpable emotion in the room. When she stopped, everyone gave her a standing ovation. I did not. I remained on my chair in the first row, too overcome to move.

The daughter of civil rights activists (her father was a civil rights attorney,) Finney, who grew up in South Carolina, was immersed at a young age in African Americans’ fight for human rights. Asked recently if she is an activist poet, she replied, “Absolutely, absolutely — but I think that I consider myself an activist, and that makes it into my work. I also consider myself a lover of beautiful things and lyrical languages and empathy, as well. I definitely believe that the word 'activism' and the ideals of activism are at the core of what I do.”

Finney is no stranger to applause. Her beautiful book The World Is Round won the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry, and Rice was the winner of a PEN America Open Book Award in 1995. Finney is also the author of Wings Made of Gauze (1985); Heartwood, a collection of stories; and she is the editor of The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South.

And, yes, yes, yes, she will be back at the Schomburg–Mellon Humanities Summer Institute in July 2012, inspiring a new crop of fellows.

Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ann-Marie Nicholson, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 05:39:44 -0500

“The writer cannot be a mere storyteller; he cannot be a mere teacher; he cannot merely X-ray society’s weaknesses, its ills, its perils. He or she must be actively involved shaping its present and its future.”

Nigerian environmentalist, author, and television producer Ken Saro-Wiwa lived and died by the words above. Born on October 10, 1941, Kenule “Ken” Beeson Saro Wiwa was an Ogoni (an ethnic minority in Nigeria). Ogoniland, located in the Niger Delta, is rich in oil that has been looted by the petroleum industry — with the explicit consent of the Nigerian government — for decades. As a result, the Niger Delta is listed as one of the most polluted places in the world; its population is poor and powerless.

Saro-Wiwa spent a great deal of his life and resources trying to fight against the environmental destruction of the land and waters of Ogoniland. He founded the non-violent organization Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) as a way to bring international attention to the plight of his people. An outspoken critic of the Nigerian government and the multi-national oil companies, Saro-Wiwa was arrested and detained numerous times on bogus charges. A prolific writer, he authored many books about his imprisonment, such as Before I am Hanged and A Month and a Day.

In 1994, the Nigerian government under General Sani Abacha charged Saro-Wiwa and eight others with inciting the murders of four conservative Ogoni chiefs. Despite numerous evidence of witness tampering, the nine men were convicted and sentenced to death by a military tribunal. In his closing statement, Saro-Wiwa called out both his government and the Royal Dutch Shell Company:

I have devoted my intellectual and material resources, my very life, to a cause in which I have total belief and from which I cannot be blackmailed or intimidated… I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is on trial… On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and those who assist them. Any nation which can do to the weak and disadvantaged what the Nigerian nation has done to the Ogoni, loses a claim to independence and to freedom from outside influence.

Despite international outcry and numerous threats of international sanctions, on November 10, 1995, Nigeria summarily executed Saro-Wiwa and his eight co-defendants.

Saro-Wiwa’s son, Ken Wiwa, along with international human rights groups, sued Shell for human rights violation inthe Niger Delta and a host of other crimes in connection with Saro-Wiwa’s and other civilian deaths. In 2009, Shell settled the case for $15.5 million USD days before the trial was set to begin in New York City.

Although Shell ceased its operations in Ogoniland in 1993, the environmental damage has not been undone and other oil companies continue to exploit the region.

Today, Saro-Wiwa is remembered as an international symbol of environmental causes.

Resources: Books

A list of materials available at NYPL

Websites

Gold, Freedom, Faith, and Baroque in Brazil

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:26:47 -0400

I had not slept for 34 hours. After a bad flight and two long bus trips, I was hiking, ecstatic, in a muddy mine. I touched the walls from top to bottom. Perhaps “he” had put his hands there too. I was walking in the steps of Galanga, renamed Francisco, and known as Chico Rei (King Chico).

Story -or legend-has it that 270 years ago, Chico Rei, believed to have been a ruler in Congo, his family, and others were forced aboard a slave ship. The Middle Passage took his wife and children, but he and one son survived. They landed in Brazil and were sent to Vila Rica (Rich Town, founded in 1711) in the region of Minas Gerais, the center of the gold rush. For a few years, half of the extracted gold in the world came from its hills — the city is at 4,000 feet elevation — and rivers.

Like another 21,000 enslaved people (97 percent of them African-born) Chico Rei, it is said, labored in the mines. Working every Sunday for himself, he bought his son’s freedom, then his own, and later purchased the Encardadeira mine — where he used to work. With its benefits, he freed a large number of Africans who in turn bought the freedom of others. They built a church dedicated to the Nubian princess St. Iphigenia. The church is located on the highest hill so that it could be seen from everywhere. Inside are representations of two other black saints: Benedict and Antônio de Noto. Fact or fiction — and there is a lot of the latter, as Chico Rei has gained mythical status and his very existence is in dispute for lack of evidence— it is said that Africans went to mass with gold powder in their hair and washed it away in the baptismal fonts.

Chico Rei is credited by the brotherhood with being the founder of the Congado — a religious and cultural dance and procession that culminates in the coronation of the king and queen of Congo — in Minas Gerais. Congados continue to be held every year at the end of October, on January 1, and on May 13, which marks the abolition of slavery in 1888.

Getting to St. Iphigenia is not easy; I kept on sliding downhill, and though I am fit, I was out of breath. As I sat down on the steps, I reflected on the horrible toll that the gold “adorning” so many Baroque churches in Brazil and Portugal took on Africans and their descendants. Perhaps this is why there is so little gold in their church.

I visited another black house of worship. In the low part of town, the black brotherhood Our Lady of the Rosary — active since 1715 — erected a quaint, rounded edifice called Our Lady of the Rosary for the Blacks. Started in 1753, it was finished in 1785. Its altars display images of the black saints Iphigenia, Elesbao (Ethiopia), Benedict, and Antônio de Noto.

Vila Rica was a haut-lieu of art, music, poetry, and architecture, as well as the birthplace of the most famous Brazilian Baroque sculptor, Antônio Francisco Lisboa (ca.1730-1814). The son of a Portuguese sculptor and an enslaved African, he became known as Aleijadinho (little cripple), as leprosy ravaged his body and took away his fingers. He worked with his tools strapped to his wrists. Aleijadinho’s masterpiece, as an architect and sculptor, is the church São Francisco de Assis, designed in 1766. He died poor and forgotten, but there is an Aleijadinho Museum in his hometown.

In 1823, after Independence, Vila Rica became Ouro Preto (Black Gold) an apt, if involuntary, description of who made the city so fabulously rich (actually the gold ore, mixed with silver turned black when exposed to the air). It is an extraordinary 18th-century town of red tiled roofs and green hills that looks very much today as it did in Chico Rei and Aleijadinho’s time. Walking up and own its vertiginously steep and slippery cobblestoned streets is demanding but rewarding. Every house, fountain, bridge, and church (there are 23 of them), is a piece of art and will remain so: the city has been on Unesco’s World Heritage List since 1980.

To Find Out More

To learn how many people were deported from West Central Africa to the Americas by the transatlantic slave trade, and how many Africans arrived in Brazil, see The Abolition of the Slave Trade: The Forgotten Story.

Books and CDs

NYPL holds several dozen books in Portuguese about Vila Rica/Ouro Preto, slavery in Minas Gerais, Chico Rei, and Aleijadinho. Here are a few titles in English:

Laird W. Bergad, Slavery and the Demographic and Economic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720-1888
Elizabeth W. Kiddy, Blacks of the Rosary: Memory and History in Minas Gerais, Brazil
Graciela Mann, Twelve Prophets of Aleijadinho
Arthur Ramos, The Negro in Brazil
In 1933, Brazilian classical composer Francisco Mignone created Maracatu de Chico Rei, a ballet for choir and orchestra inspired by Congados.
Videos

2011 Congado in Ouro Preto
Another Congado
Sweet homage to Chico Rei from the children of Ouro Preto, in front of Our Lady of the Rosary for the Blacks

The Autobiography in Arabic of a Senegalese Enslaved in North Carolina

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:02:36 -0400

In 1831, Omar ibn Said, a Senegalese trader and Qur'anic teacher enslaved in North Carolina, wrote his autobiography in Arabic. It is the only known surviving slave narrative written in that language in the Americas. On October 13, at 6pm at the Schomburg Center, Yale Professor Ala Alryyes will present A Muslim American Slave: The Life of Omar Ibn Said, which features a new translation of the document, a commentary, and contextual essays by five scholars. Omar's original manuscript will be on display.

Like another 92,000 Senegambian victims of the transatlantic slave trade, Omar ibn Said—born in 1770 in a wealthy and erudite family—was transported to the United States. He landed in Charleston in the last months of 1807, just before the official (if not effective) end of the trade. He ran away and was captured in North Carolina where he spent the rest of his life.

Omar produced several documents in Arabic, and some have been preserved. His earliest and latest known manuscripts are dated 1819 and 1857. Omar was photographed and articles were written about him. Still, he died enslaved in 1863.

I feel a special connection to Omar. I have an essay in Alryyes’ book, “'God Does not Allow Kings to Enslave Their People': Islamic Reformists and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” But there is something else, more personal.

Omar was made a prisoner during a war to depose Abdul Kader Kane, the Almamy (Muslim leader) of the northern region of Futa Toro. Like other rulers, scholars—a number of whom were later enslaved in the Americas—and 19th century combatants against French colonization, Kane had studied at Pir.

The first and most reputed school of Islamic higher learning in Senegambia, Pir was founded by Khaly Amar Fall (1555-1638), a prince and scholar who had studied in Futa Toro—Omar's birthplace and the cradle of Islam in Senegambia—and in Mauritania. The school Fall (pronounced Faal) established in 1611 played a major role in the religious, cultural, and political life of the region; so much so that the French burnt it down in 1869.

I am a descendant of Khaly Amar Fall, and I am thus particularly delighted that this year marks not only the publication of A Muslim American Slave, but also the 180th anniversary of Omar’s autobiography, and the fourth centennial of Pir, which was widely commemorated in Senegal where the rebuilt school is still thriving and Fall’s 1611 mosque and simple grave are National Historic Landmarks.

For more on African Muslims in the Americas:

Austin, Allan D. African Muslims in Antebellum America (New York: Routledge 1997)
Diouf, Sylviane A. Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas (New York: New York University Press, 1998)
Reis, Joao Jose. Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993)

To see portraits of African Muslims enslaved in the United States, visit In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience.

To read biographies of African Muslims, visit The Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: The Forgotten Story.