Week 6: Internationalisms
The theme this week is internationalisms, focusing on the Non-Aligned movement among Third World countries.
The Negritude movement was an aesthetic movement that revitalized and uplifted the richness of pre-colonial African culture. It was started as a response to the West’s flattening “savage and uncivilized” of cultures in Africa, to gain an “active presence” in the cultural world. In the essay, Senghor explains the richness of the African experience of the universe. Compared to the West’s static views, that attempt to put objects into boxes, the African existence recognizes the vast connections between all beings and the diversity within a constantly changing universe.
I find it interesting that in this essay tries to translate an experience of reality into a western language / consciousness. I’m skeptical Western logocentrism can begin to express the richness of that experience, especially to someone who hasn’t felt it (through drugs or deep cultural immersion). It seems like the movement argues that the West civilizing the savage natives is a false narrative, and instead the West has a lot to learn from the ways African cultures value nature and community, and their connections between self and reality.
I think that Fanon’s nationalist views on African liberation are much more politically actionable. While Negritude uplifts the culture/values that persist in Africa, they seem to be focused on proving their validity within academia. Fanon’s nationalism explicitly acknowledges the destruction of cultural identity by decades of colonial rule and argues that the only way to build up an active culture from that is through a national liberation struggle.
The Darker Nations is a history of global impacts by Third World countries as they fought for independence and joined world politics.
The narrative of these formerly colonized countries flipped from having bountiful natural resources and strong labor just waiting to be utilized to poor, unmanaged, countries who’s primary issue is one of overpopulation and management and not the decades of imperial exploitation.
Themes:
- The narratives of the West ignore the contributions of Third World unified movements (like Non-Aligned Movement) on global politics, independence/self-determination, and a push for human rights.
Questions
- How is it possible for Senghor to summarize / group an entire continent under a single philosophy?
- What distinctions does he make between “Black” and “African”? The first seems like a political experience, while the other is a geographical or potentially cultural description.
Readings
- Négritude: A Humanism of the Twentieth Century - Léopold Sédar Senghor
- Address to the Second UNIA Convention - Marcus Garvey
- The Darker Nations - Vijay Prashad