tag:www.funtimesmagazine.com,2005:/categories/history?page=11History | FunTimes Magazine Page 11Celebrating Africa And Its Diaspora2023-07-14T13:27:55-04:00urn:uuid:ed74169a-012d-4bc1-a0bc-df040f1d20e72023-07-14T13:24:18-04:002023-07-14T13:27:55-04:00Noted Historian Charles L. Blockson Remembered 2023-07-15 10:00:00 -0400Karen Warrington <div>Lonnie G. Bunch III, Founding Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, former U.S. Rep. Robert L. Brady and historian Charles Blockson review Harriet Tubman artifacts donated to the Museum by Mr. Blockson<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Charles Blockson, a noted historian, author, bibliophile and collector, has died at the ageof 89. He is being remembered as the “architect of one of the most prestigious collections of African American artifacts in the US.” Located at Temple University, the <a href="https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/departments-and-programs/africology-and-african-american-studies/blockson-collection" target="_blank">Charles Blockson Afro American Collection</a> houses more than 700,000 items reflecting the breadth of the African Diaspora. The Collection, donated to Temple in 1984, has a catalog that dates back to 1581. </div><div><br>Dr. Diane Turner, curator of the Collection said, “Blockson has been a great influence on numerous scholars, students and people of all nationalities.” And, we will continue to promote his legacy through hard work and dedication. </div><div><br>Born in 1933 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, Blockson was educated in Norristown public schools. And, in the fourth-grade class, a white substitute teacher explained, in the strongest of terms, that, “Negroes have no history. They were born to serve White people!” But, after being assured by his parents that his teacher was uneducated on the subject, young Blockson began a lifelong journey to refute the teacher’s ignorance. The rest of his life was spent unearthing, collecting and preserving African and African American history and culture. <br><br></div><div>In 2010, in recognition of the 188th anniversary of the birth of African American</div><div>abolitionist <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2022/03/18/393196/how-philadelphia-is-honoring-the-legacy-of-harriet-tubman" target="_blank">Harriet Tubman</a>, U.S. Representative Robert A. Brady hosted the unveiling of historic Tubman artifacts donated by Mr. Blockson to Lonnie G. Bunch III, the Founding Director of the <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/" target="_blank">Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture </a>(NMAAHC). The artifacts included a silk and linen shawl given to Harriet Tubman by England’s Queen Victoria, historic photographs and a hymnal signed by Tubman. <br><br></div><div>On making the donation, Mr. Blockson, an authority on the Underground railroad and the Great Migration of the early 1900s, said he believed the NMAAHC would be the most suitable place for “an paralleled collection to be shared with the millions of visitors to the Museum.” <br><br><br><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013941/fill/700x0/1920px-African_American_Museum_in_Philadelphia.jpeg?timestamp=1689355595"></div><p>Image: The African American Museum of Philadelphia, cofounded by Charles Blockson. Source: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_Museum_in_Philadelphia#/media/File:African_American_Museum_in_Philadelphia.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></p><p><br></p><br>Blockson was a cofounder of the <a href="https://www.aampmuseum.org/" target="_blank">African American Museum of Philadelphia</a> and a founding member of Pennsylvania history committee of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Director of the Philadelphia African American state marker project. Mr. Blockson also excelled in sports. He was a star athlete at Norristown High School and his alma mater Penn State University. <br><br></div><div>In celebration of Mr. Blockson’s contributions and legacy, State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta says he will introduce legislation to mark his Dec.16 birthday as a state holiday. “He is a hero,” Kenyatta said. Mr. Blockson’s daughter Noelle said, ”I and countless others will carry my father’s memory in our hearts and will find comfort and strength in the profound and impactful legacy he leaves behind.”<br><br><br><a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2017/05/27/335026/charles-l-blockson" target="_blank"><i>Mr. Blockson was honored as one of FunTimes Magazine's Men of Influence in 2017</i></a><i>.<br></i><br><br>Read also:<br><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>Nina Elizabeth Ball had no idea her passion for poetry and love of the arts would take her on a fulfilling work-life journey. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/05/17/400342/respect-on-her-name-aamp-s-new-director-of-programming-has-deep-roots-in-activism-and-the-arts">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p>May is Historic Preservation Month and we want to highlight museums and memorial sites and centres which highlight the good and the bad of African American history. Visit these significa... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2021/05/08/355796/9-black-museums-to-visit-across-the-u-s">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/03/18/393196/how-philadelphia-is-honoring-the-legacy-of-harriet-tubman" target="_blank"><img alt="How Philadelphia is Honoring the Legacy of Harriet Tubman " src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/907922/fit/80x80/IMG_0561.jpeg?timestamp=1689355328" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/03/18/393196/how-philadelphia-is-honoring-the-legacy-of-harriet-tubman" target="_blank">How Philadelphia is Honoring the Legacy of Harriet Tubman </a></h4>
<p>“Freedom gives you choices, but education helps you make the right ones”. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/03/18/393196/how-philadelphia-is-honoring-the-legacy-of-harriet-tubman">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><p><br></p><p> </p><div class="image-medium image-align-left"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/848324/fill/300x0/karen_20warrington.jpg?timestamp=1689355367"></div><p> Karen Warrington has had a decades long career as a broadcast journalist, communications professional, performing artist, and documentary filmmaker. She has traveled extensively throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. She is committed to being a voice for the African Diaspora.<br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Read more from Karen Warrington:</p><p><br></p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/07/10/441024/enslaved-africans-get-no-reparations-from-king-of-netherland-just-apologies" target="_blank">Enslaved Africans get no Reparations from King of Netherland; Just Apologies </a></h4>
<p>Although slavery was officially abolished in the Netherlands in 1863, it didn’t really end until ten years later. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/07/10/441024/enslaved-africans-get-no-reparations-from-king-of-netherland-just-apologies">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p>Addressing the soon-to-be graduates Cheney President Aaron A. Walton said, “The ceremony represents and acknowledges the accomplishments you have achieved in America’s first HBCU, and leg... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/05/14/434947/cheney-university-s-inaugural-kente-ceremony">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party" target="_blank"><img alt="Philadelphia celebrates the history and contributions of the women of the Black Panther Party" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/990212/fit/80x80/comrade_20sisters.jpeg?timestamp=1689355408" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party" target="_blank">Philadelphia celebrates the history and contributions of the women of the Black Panther Party</a></h4>
<p>The book presents 110 black and white candid photos of the women of the BPP who were committed to supporting the party’s social, economic and political agenda. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><p><br></p><br><br></div><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:3355df57-1ce7-437b-9feb-88010d87d0042023-07-10T15:35:30-04:002023-07-13T11:45:42-04:00Remembering First US Black Catholic Priest, Fr. Augustus Tolton2023-07-13 10:00:00 -0400Anand Subramanian<p>Image of Fr. Augustus Tolton in 1887. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Augustus_Tolton.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></p><p><br></p><span><p>In the annals of American history, there are certain figures whose lives and legacies transcend time, challenging societal norms and leaving an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of people. Reverend Fr. Augustus Tolton, the first recognized African American Catholic priest, is one such individual. His journey from slavery to priesthood and his unwavering commitment to his faith continue to inspire generations, highlighting the resilience of the human spirit and the power of unwavering belief.</p><br><p>Augustus Tolton was born into slavery in Brush Creek, Missouri, on April 1, 1854. His parents, Peter Paul and Martha Jane Tolton, were baptized Catholics who had been granted permission to marry by the neighboring Catholic families who owned them.</p><p><br></p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013950/fill/700x0/AugustineTolton.jpeg?timestamp=1689089779">Photograph of Fr. Tolton. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AugustineTolton.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/04/18/432045/the-black-church-in-the-african-diaspora-an-examination-of-the-role-of-the-black-church-" target="_blank">The Black Church in the African Diaspora: An examination of the role of the Black church.</a></h4>
<p>The African diaspora has left an everlasting impression on communities worldwide, and the Black church is one institution that has played a significant role in these communities. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/04/18/432045/the-black-church-in-the-african-diaspora-an-examination-of-the-role-of-the-black-church-">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><p>Augustus's early life was marked by hardship. His father died fighting for the Union Army during the Civil War, and his mother was forced to flee with her three children to freedom in Illinois. They settled in Quincy, where Augustus attended St. Boniface Catholic School. Augustus was a bright and devout child, and he soon showed a calling to the priesthood. However, he faced many obstacles because of his race. At the time, there were no seminaries in the United States that would admit Black students. Undaunted, Augustus traveled to Rome to study for the priesthood. He was ordained on April 24, 1886, at the age of 31. </p></span><span><br><p>He was the first African-American priest in the United States. After his ordination, Fr. Tolton returned to the United States to minister to the Black community. He served as pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Quincy, and he also founded a school for Black children. </p><p><br></p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013951/fill/700x0/Father_John_E._Burke_and_Father_Augustus_Tolton.jpg?timestamp=1689089870">Photograph of Father John E. Burke, the first pastor of St. Benedict the Moor Church in Manhattan, and Father Augustus Tolton, before 1898. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Father_John_E._Burke_and_Father_Augustus_Tolton.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></p><p><br>Read also:<br></p><div class="media clearfix"><span class="pull-left"><a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/07/06/440565/confronting-the-history-of-black-exclusion-in-us-music-education" target="_blank"><img alt="Confronting the History of Black Exclusion in US Music Education" src="https://cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012634/fit/80x80/pexels-bave-pictures-12978178.jpg?timestamp=1689090263" class="media-object"></a></span><div class="media-body"><h4 class="media-heading"><a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/07/06/440565/confronting-the-history-of-black-exclusion-in-us-music-education" target="_blank">Confronting the History of Black Exclusion in US Music Education</a></h4><p>When it comes to achieving racial diversity, music education at the university level in the U.S. still has a long way to go. <span class="pull-right"><a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/07/06/440565/confronting-the-history-of-black-exclusion-in-us-music-education">Read More »</a></span> </p></div></div><p><br></p><p>Fr. Tolton was a tireless advocate for the rights of African Americans. He spoke out against racism and segregation, and he worked to improve the lives of Black Catholics. He was a role model for many, and he helped to pave the way for other African Americans to enter the priesthood. Fr. Tolton died on July 9, 1897, at the age of 43. He was a pioneer in the Catholic Church, and he is remembered as a man of great faith and courage. In 2019, Pope Francis declared Fr. Tolton "venerable," a step on the path to sainthood. His cause for canonization is ongoing. Fr. Tolton's legacy continues to inspire people around the world. He is a reminder that God calls us all to serve, regardless of our race or ethnicity. He is a hero to African Americans and Catholics alike, and his story is a testament to the power of faith and hope.</p><p><br></p></span><span><p>Fr. Tolton's legacy is one of courage, determination, and faith. He overcame many obstacles to become the first African-American priest in the United States. He was a role model for many, and he helped to pave the way for other African Americans to enter the priesthood.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="https://cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013952/fill/700x0/1892_Colored_Catholic_Congress.jpeg?timestamp=1689089987">Portrait of the attendees at the inaugural Colored Catholic Congress in 1889. Front and center is Fr Augustus Tolton. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1892_Colored_Catholic_Congress.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></div></span><span><br><br><p>Fr. Tolton's story is an inspiration to people of all races and backgrounds. He shows us that we can overcome any obstacle if we have faith in God and in ourselves. He is a reminder that we are all called to serve, regardless of our race or ethnicity. </p><br><p>Fr. Augustus Tolton was a remarkable man who made a significant contribution to the Catholic Church and to the African-American community. His story is an inspiration to people of all races and backgrounds. He is a model of faith, courage, and determination. We can all learn from his example.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change" target="_blank">How Black people in the 19th century used photography as a tool for social change</a></h4>
<p>To pose for a photograph became an empowering act for African Americans. It served as a way to counteract racist caricatures that distort facial features and mocked Black society. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p></span><div class="image-medium image-align-left"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/814912/fill/300x0/anand.jpg?timestamp=1689090124"></div><span><p> Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.</p><p><br></p><p>Read more from Anand Subramanian: </p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/07/11/441038/unraveling-african-american-mental-health-struggles-and-challenges" target="_blank">Unraveling African American Mental Health Struggles and Challenges</a></h4>
<p>It is essential to recognize that mental health is not experienced uniformly across all individuals and communities. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/07/11/441038/unraveling-african-american-mental-health-struggles-and-challenges">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-" target="_blank">Who was Joseph Hayne Rainey?</a></h4>
<p>Joseph Hayne Rainey was the second African American to serve in Congress and the first to fill in the House of Representatives. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/30/439678/juneteenth-wrap-up-unveiling-the-historical-significance-community-commerce-and-lasting-importance" target="_blank">Juneteenth Wrap-Up: Unveiling the Historical Significance, Community Commerce, and Lasting Importance</a></h4>
<p>As the summer of 2023 unfolds, we reflect on Juneteenth's powerful and transformative celebration. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/30/439678/juneteenth-wrap-up-unveiling-the-historical-significance-community-commerce-and-lasting-importance">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><span><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><br></div></span><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:2ee2a64a-f755-412f-b419-a09b1fee37bd2023-07-10T12:17:32-04:002023-07-10T12:39:05-04:00Enslaved Africans get no Reparations from King of Netherland; Just Apologies 2023-07-10 12:00:00 -0400Karen Warrington <p>Image: Slave trade on Dutch and English ships. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Slavenschepen_voor_St._Eustatius.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></p><p><br></p><span><p>On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Netherland’s abolition of slavery, King Willem-Alexander apologized for the country’s “involvement” in the slave trade. <br></p><p>Although slavery was officially abolished in the Netherlands in 1863, it didn’t really end until ten years later. The King explained that many enslaved people were forced to work on Dutch colony plantations for a decade longer to limit financial losses for the plantation owners. </p><p>King Willem-Alexander, who recently commissioned independent research into his family’s involvement in the enslavement of Africans, said Dutch ships transported more that 600,000 people from Africa and across the Atlantic and at least 75,000 of them did not survive the journey. </p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013631/fill/700x0/King_Willem-Alexander_in_Hamburg.jpeg?timestamp=1689007081">Image: King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:King_Willem-Alexander_in_Hamburg.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></div></span><span><p><br></p><p>According to a study published in June, the House of Orange-Nassau - the royal house of the Netherlands - netted about $600 million in today’s money from the enslavement of Africans between 1675 and 1770. The report also indicates that the King’s family received shares from the Dutch East India Company, a trading company founded in the Dutch republic in 1602 that served as a trading body for English merchants. It was specifically designed to participate in the East Indian spice trade while also being a major trader and enslaver of Africans. </p></span><span><p>While the Dutch King recently made his apology there has been no such action from the UK. In fact, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has refused to apologize for the UK’s role in the slave trade or to commit to paying reparations. But, in April of this year, descendants of some of Britain’s wealthiest enslavers demanded that the government apologies for slavery but also institute a reparations process to recognize what they call, the “ongoing consequences of this crime against humanity.” </p><p><br></p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013626/fill/700x0/Dutch_soldiers_in_a_boat_with_slaves_from_the_Colonies__Africa__NYPL_b14896507-95335_.tiff.jpg?timestamp=1689005710">Dutch soldiers in a boat with slaves from the Colonies, Africa. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dutch_soldiers_in_a_boat_with_slaves_from_the_Colonies,_Africa_(NYPL_b14896507-95335).tiff" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></p><p><br></p><p>Slavery was abolished within the British Empire in 1833, thereby freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans. But, and this a super large BUT, as a part of the agreement the Bank of England administered a compensation package for the enslavers for what would equal approximately 25.6 million in American dollars. </p><p>And this year, following the coronation of King Charles III, there were renewed demands for a UK apology for slavery and reparations. A variety of groups released a statement urging the newly crowned monarch, “to acknowledge the horrific impacts on and legacy of genocide and colonization of the indigenous and enslaved peoples of Antigua and Barbuda, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. ”King Charles has described slavery as an “appalling atrocity and said that he is deepening his understanding of “slavery’s enduring impact.” </p><p>And, in the US, there has been no national apology for slavery and there has been no movement on H.R. 40 which would establish a commission to consider proposals for reparations for African American descendants of slavery. </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/08/15/408825/sepviva-a-slave-plantation-in-philadelphia-owned-by-a-quaker" target="_blank"><img alt="pThe City and Port of Philadelphia on the River Delaware from Kensington Source Wikimedia Commonsbrp" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/942688/fit/80x80/port_20of_20philadelphia.jpg?timestamp=1689005130" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/08/15/408825/sepviva-a-slave-plantation-in-philadelphia-owned-by-a-quaker" target="_blank">Sepviva: A slave plantation in Philadelphia owned by a Quaker</a></h4>
<p>As I picked my history-seeking self off the floor, I was shocked by the revelation of a plantation in Philadelphia. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/08/15/408825/sepviva-a-slave-plantation-in-philadelphia-owned-by-a-quaker">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/07/01/404559/haiti-us-and-jamaica-us-relations-and-a-case-for-reparations-examining-relations-between-the-us-and-formerly-enslaved-nations-part-iii" target="_blank"><img alt="Haiti-US and Jamaica-US Relations and a Case for Reparations Examining Relations Between the US and Formerly Enslaved Nations Part III" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/932624/fit/80x80/image8.png?timestamp=1689005139" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/07/01/404559/haiti-us-and-jamaica-us-relations-and-a-case-for-reparations-examining-relations-between-the-us-and-formerly-enslaved-nations-part-iii" target="_blank">Haiti-US and Jamaica-US Relations, and a Case for Reparations: Examining Relations Between the US and Formerly Enslaved Nations Part III</a></h4>
<p>We explore relations between the US and the Afro-Caribbean nations of Jamaica and Haiti, including Marcus Garvey’s Back to Africa movement, Haitian Migration to the US during and after th... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/07/01/404559/haiti-us-and-jamaica-us-relations-and-a-case-for-reparations-examining-relations-between-the-us-and-formerly-enslaved-nations-part-iii">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/01/28/388263/transatlantic-slavery-the-story-of-the-survivors-of-clotilda-america-s-last-black-slave-ship-" target="_blank"><img alt="pWreckage of slave ship Clotilda from Historic sketches of the South by Emma Langdon Roche publisher New York The Knickerbocker Press 1914 Source Wikimedia Commonsbrp" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/894732/fit/80x80/Wreck_of_the_Slave_Ship_Clotilda.jpeg?timestamp=1689005400" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/01/28/388263/transatlantic-slavery-the-story-of-the-survivors-of-clotilda-america-s-last-black-slave-ship-" target="_blank">Transatlantic Slavery: The Story of the Survivors of ‘Clotilda’, America’s Last Black Slave Ship.</a></h4>
<p>In 1860, Cudjo Lewis Kossola (Oluale Kossola), Sally Smith (Rodeshi), and Matilda McCrear (Abake) were kidnapped from Dahomey (present-day Benin Republic) and taken via a ship named 'Clot... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/01/28/388263/transatlantic-slavery-the-story-of-the-survivors-of-clotilda-america-s-last-black-slave-ship-">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><div class="image-medium image-align-left"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/848324/fill/300x0/karen_20warrington.jpg?timestamp=1689005449"></div><p> Karen Warrington has had a decades long career as a broadcast journalist, communications professional, performing artist, and documentary filmmaker. She has traveled extensively throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and Asia. She is committed to being a voice for the African Diaspora.<br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Read more from Karen Warrington:</p><p><br></p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/05/14/434947/cheney-university-s-inaugural-kente-ceremony" target="_blank"><img alt="Cheney Universitys Inaugural Kente Ceremony " src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1000422/fit/80x80/IMG_3698.jpg?timestamp=1689005768" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/05/14/434947/cheney-university-s-inaugural-kente-ceremony" target="_blank">Cheney University’s Inaugural Kente Ceremony </a></h4>
<p>Addressing the soon-to-be graduates Cheney President Aaron A. Walton said, “The ceremony represents and acknowledges the accomplishments you have achieved in America’s first HBCU, and leg... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/05/14/434947/cheney-university-s-inaugural-kente-ceremony">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party" target="_blank"><img alt="Philadelphia celebrates the history and contributions of the women of the Black Panther Party" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/990212/fit/80x80/comrade_20sisters.jpeg?timestamp=1689005778" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party" target="_blank">Philadelphia celebrates the history and contributions of the women of the Black Panther Party</a></h4>
<p>The book presents 110 black and white candid photos of the women of the BPP who were committed to supporting the party’s social, economic and political agenda. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/03/29/430130/philadelphia-celebrates-the-history-and-contributions-of-the-women-of-the-black-panther-party">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/02/17/426062/a-warning-from-black-history-month-founder-carter-g-woodson" target="_blank"><img alt="A Warning from Black History Month Founder Carter G Woodson" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/981058/fit/80x80/pexels-vlada-karpovich-4939667.jpg?timestamp=1689005801" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/02/17/426062/a-warning-from-black-history-month-founder-carter-g-woodson" target="_blank">A Warning from Black History Month Founder Carter G. Woodson</a></h4>
<p>“If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of extermination.” <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/02/17/426062/a-warning-from-black-history-month-founder-carter-g-woodson">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:7ada3346-9f54-4f23-89b8-fdae8ad941642023-07-07T15:47:56-04:002023-07-08T18:17:45-04:00Milisuthando: A Powerful Documentary Sparking Conversations on Black Identity in the African Community2023-07-09 10:00:00 -0400The Conversation via Reuters Connect<p>Still from the trailer for <i>Milisuthando. </i><a href="https://youtu.be/LerJcrU5sSc" target="_blank">Youtube | Centre for Creative Arts</a></p><p><br></p><p><em><a href="https://film.milisuthando.com/">Milisuthando</a> is a debut feature length documentary film by Milisuthando Bongela. Taking the form of a personal essay, it’s an intimate story about family and ancestors, about “inside apartheid’s experiment” and negotiating the complex world of post-apartheid South Africa.</em></p><p><em>Bongela, born in 1985, offers a version of her life story in five parts organised poetically and thematically. The film is built on her experience of being born in the former Transkei “<a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands">homeland</a>” – one of the “independent states” designated by the racist <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/history-apartheid-south-africa">apartheid</a> government to institutionalise “separate development”. It explores what it means to have grown up in this society.</em></p><p><em>The details of Bongela’s life emerge largely in conversation with others – Black school friends at previously white schools, current white friends and family, including her 90-year old grandmother. In the process the film offers images of middle-class life beyond the much more familiar images of violence and unrest in Black townships.</em></p><p><em>Milisuthando premiered to <a href="https://povmagazine.com/milisuthando-review-radical-decolonial-cinema/">critical</a> <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2023-01-22-joburg-film-milisuthando-creates-a-stir-at-sundance/">acclaim</a> at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is winning hearts on the international festival circuit.</em></p><p><em>As a lecturer and scholar who <a href="https://humanities.uct.ac.za/cfms/cfms/contacts/julia-cain">specialises</a> in documentary film, my view is that Milisuthando defies conventional documentary storytelling to expand the canon of South African cinema. Its rich and challenging subject and audiovisual language offers an opportunity for South Africans to talk to each other in a way that is transformational. I asked the film-maker about her project.</em></p><p><em><br></em></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013204/fill/700x0/milisuthando1.png?timestamp=1688758915">Still from the documentary. Milisuthando/Rob Pollock/Francis Burger. <a href="https://theconversation.com/milisuthando-a-powerful-documentary-that-will-get-south-africans-talking-about-identity-207647" target="_blank">The Conversation</a><br><br>Read also:<br><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2021/07/18/362795/5-black-directors-who-changed-the-course-of-moviemaking" target="_blank"><img alt="5 Black Directors Who Changed the Course of Moviemaking" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/837449/fit/80x80/black_20film_20directors.jpeg?timestamp=1688759120" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2021/07/18/362795/5-black-directors-who-changed-the-course-of-moviemaking" target="_blank">5 Black Directors Who Changed the Course of Moviemaking</a></h4>
<p>Despite financial and systemic obstacles, Black filmmakers have created tales that are bold, creative, impactful, and necessary for our quickly changing culture. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2021/07/18/362795/5-black-directors-who-changed-the-course-of-moviemaking">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><br></div><p><b>Julia Cain: </b>How would you describe your film for South African audiences?</p><p><b>Milisuthando Bongela: </b>This is who we made the film for. It’s extremely South African and very intentionally sewn together over many years in conversation with who we are as a people and who we’ve become as a result of our history. It’s a meditative exploration of love and what it means to be human.</p><p></p><div></div><p></p><p>I found that there wasn’t enough of a reference point for my homeland existence in the public discourse. When we talk about Blackness and apartheid, I was always finding that, wait a minute, I didn’t grow up in the township – I grew up in another expression of racial division.</p><p><b>Julia Cain: </b>Your film strikes me as a collage. What’s behind your formal choices?</p><p><b>Milisuthando Bongela:</b> I had to drop the prose and pick up the poetry. We were like, let us rely on cinema, which uses images, light and sound. The approach was to do associative editing – put one image next to another and see what the viewers pick up. We want the audiences to go inside themselves. We knew we had to break with traditional form and invent our own.</p><p>Visually, we had such incredible material. I’m an aesthete. I believe in beauty as a way to enter into the world. A lot of times documentaries rest on the laurel of their messages. I’ve worked in fashion and art, and I do believe that aesthetics – whether it’s sound, whether it’s visual – helps to hold people and deliver what one wants to say. Because, we are talking about ugly things; we’re really engaging with painful histories. And not to gloss over that pain, but to help people enter and go quietly, deeply, because usually we look away.</p><p>The film is also commenting on what cinema has been to Black people in Africa – how we’ve been used as subjects and not necessarily as people with the power to take this technology and do with it what we wish.</p><p></p><div><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532708/original/file-20230619-3182-z2zu2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"></a></div><p></p><p><strong>Julia Cain:</strong> You’ve been very conscious of collaboration. Can you share how you worked with your old school friends, for example?</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013206/fill/700x0/milisuthando2.png?timestamp=1688758893">Still from the documentary, <i>Milisuthando</i>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/milisuthando-a-powerful-documentary-that-will-get-south-africans-talking-about-identity-207647" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> <br><br>Read also:<br><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/01/436995/winnie-and-nelson-new-book-paints-a-deeply-human-portrait-of-the-mandela-marriage-and-south-africa-s-struggle" target="_blank"><img alt="Winnie and Nelson new book paints a deeply human portrait of the Mandela marriage and South Africas struggle" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1004338/fit/80x80/Madiba_and_Winnie_W1400_Mcrop_upscale1_CZ1_I1_Q80_P50-50_ratiofalse_WQ70.jpeg?timestamp=1688759138" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/01/436995/winnie-and-nelson-new-book-paints-a-deeply-human-portrait-of-the-mandela-marriage-and-south-africa-s-struggle" target="_blank">Winnie and Nelson: new book paints a deeply human portrait of the Mandela marriage and South Africa’s struggle</a></h4>
<p>Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage is at once a double biography of South Africa’s two famous liberation leaders and a historical love story about their personal lives <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/01/436995/winnie-and-nelson-new-book-paints-a-deeply-human-portrait-of-the-mandela-marriage-and-south-africa-s-struggle">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><br></div><p><b>Milisuthando Bongela:</b> We all had a collective experience of being the first generation of Black kids to go to these white schools and I was trying to validate my own experience, which I’ve never really seen reflected in popular culture and discourse. There were all these tiny cuts that were made every day on our personhood.</p><p>It was a process that began in 2016 – I decided to sit down and do these interviews with about 10 of my friends. I touched on every subject I could think of, from very small things … I would show them a space case (pencil case), for instance, and say, what comes to mind? And then the question of class and of our parents struggling to afford the stationery – and what it meant to have, like, the crappy Faber Castell crayons versus the Colleens crayons – and about your academic ability and your intelligence, and all the stuff that’s laden inside. All these stories about bodies, about the ability of black people to engage water, about hair, about the ashiness of our skin, about Vaseline. About all these things that suddenly come up: taxis, transport, the school bell, Afrikaans, kissing! I interviewed them two by two, so that each person would have somebody that’s listening to them and co-conspiring.</p><p>The only way out of making sure that my grandkids are not dealing with this in the same way that I’m dealing with it is: we have to figure out how to talk to each other. This is not going to be solved by white people sitting alone together or by black people sitting alone together.</p><p>It goes down to the true meaning of (the African philosophy of) <a href="https://www.afnconference.org.au/ubuntu-i-am-because-you-are/">ubuntu</a> – which is that we fathom ourselves through each other.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1013210/fill/700x0/milisuthando3.png?timestamp=1688758872">Still from the documentary, <i>Milisuthando</i>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/milisuthando-a-powerful-documentary-that-will-get-south-africans-talking-about-identity-207647" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> <br><br>Read also:<br><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/14/438196/celebrating-diversity-top-movies-by-african-american-filmmakers-in-the-criterion-collection" target="_blank"><img alt="Celebrating Diversity Top Movies by African American Filmmakers in the Criterion Collection" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1007308/fit/80x80/Mbissine_The_CC_81re_CC_80se_Diop_as_Diouana.jpeg?timestamp=1688759154" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/14/438196/celebrating-diversity-top-movies-by-african-american-filmmakers-in-the-criterion-collection" target="_blank">Celebrating Diversity: Top Movies by African American Filmmakers in the Criterion Collection</a></h4>
<p>These filmmakers have crafted exceptional movies and left an indelible mark on the world of cinema. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/14/438196/celebrating-diversity-top-movies-by-african-american-filmmakers-in-the-criterion-collection">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><br></div><p><b>Julia Cain: </b>What would you like to leave with your audiences?</p><p><b>Milisuthando Bongela: </b>The thing I want to leave the audience with is the thing that I’m constantly left with, which is thank God I exist and that I’m born at this time. The world right now … it does feel like we are in free fall, because we are. I have to engage in white supremacy and capitalism and patriarchy. I can’t take it down without understanding it. The way that the world has been, all those ideas have to die. It’s no longer serving humanity. It’s not even serving the people who created it.</p><p>We are in the next phase, where what’s required is people who understand the feminine modalities of doing things, and the feminine in men and women, and the multiple expressions of gender that exist. Queer people, trans people, Black people, people of colour all over the world, indigenous peoples – our wisdom, our knowledge, our ways of seeing the world, our sciences – this energy has been suppressed for a long time, and it’s ready to rise and to reconstruct the world.</p><p>For me, I’ve learned in the last couple of years that the antidote to fascism is intimacy.</p><p><em>Milisuthando opens the <a href="https://encounters.co.za/">Encounters</a> South African International Documentary Festival on 22 June.</em></p><p><em><br></em></p><p><i></i>Read also:<br></p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/03/437127/national-anthems-how-composers-in-south-africa-and-india-are-reimagining-them" target="_blank"><img alt="National anthems how composers in South Africa and India are reimagining them" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1004577/fit/80x80/head_20and_20load.jpeg?timestamp=1688759197" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/03/437127/national-anthems-how-composers-in-south-africa-and-india-are-reimagining-them" target="_blank">National anthems: how composers in South Africa and India are reimagining them</a></h4>
<p>In recent work, two prominent contemporary composers, Philip Miller in South Africa and Amit Chaudhuri in India, have explored fresh ways of interpreting national anthems. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/03/437127/national-anthems-how-composers-in-south-africa-and-india-are-reimagining-them">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/04/21/432187/noni-jabavu-was-a-pioneering-south-african-writer-a-new-book-shows-how-relevant-she-still-is" target="_blank"><img alt="Noni Jabavu was a pioneering South African writer - a new book shows how relevant she still is" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/995029/fit/80x80/noni_20jabavu.jpeg?timestamp=1688759219" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/04/21/432187/noni-jabavu-was-a-pioneering-south-african-writer-a-new-book-shows-how-relevant-she-still-is" target="_blank">Noni Jabavu was a pioneering South African writer - a new book shows how relevant she still is</a></h4>
<p>Noni Jabavu was the first Black South African woman to publish memoirs and one of the first African women to pursue a literary career abroad. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/04/21/432187/noni-jabavu-was-a-pioneering-south-african-writer-a-new-book-shows-how-relevant-she-still-is">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/11/437730/up-and-coming-african-american-photographers" target="_blank"><img alt="Up-and-coming African American photographers" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1006336/fit/80x80/african_20american_20photographers.jpg?timestamp=1688759228" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/11/437730/up-and-coming-african-american-photographers" target="_blank">Up-and-coming African American photographers</a></h4>
<p>These extraordinary artists are transforming the visual environment by presenting fresh viewpoints, celebrating diversity, defying stereotypes, and capturing the essence of the African Am... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/11/437730/up-and-coming-african-american-photographers">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:52773d67-5d94-4a82-9f57-f0d3a1a1a53f2023-07-05T15:53:55-04:002023-07-05T16:09:41-04:00Confronting the History of Black Exclusion in US Music Education2023-07-06 10:00:00 -0400The Conversation via Reuters Connect<p>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-yellow-dress-playing-violin-12978178/" target="_blank">Bave Pictures</a><br></p><span><p>When it comes to achieving racial diversity, music education at the university level in the U.S. still has a long way to go.</p><br><p>One of the leading professional organizations, the Society for Music Theory, <a href="https://societymusictheory.org/announcement/executive-board-response-journal-schenkerian-studies-vol-12-2020-07" target="_blank">put it bluntly</a> in 2020: “We humbly acknowledge that we have much work to do to dismantle the whiteness and systemic racism that deeply shape our discipline,” the group wrote.</p><br><p>The focus on White, male Europeans in textbooks and music selected for study has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/music-education-has-a-race-problem-and-universities-must-address-it-143719" target="_blank">called into question</a> by countless scholars and practitioners because of <a href="https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/03/can-music-theory-education-overcome-its-whiteness-problem" target="_blank">music education’s deep roots</a> in anti-Blackness.</p><br><p>In recent years, the simplest solution for music professors has been to find nonwhite classical composers and use their work on a program or concert to demonstrate the school’s commitment to diversity. One person whose work some professors have used in such a way is <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/02/05/the-rediscovery-of-florence-price" target="_blank">Florence Price</a>. A composer and music teacher who died in 1953, Price is considered to be one of the first Black female musicians with mainstream appeal.</p><br><p>But in <a href="http://philipewell.com/" target="_blank">my view</a> as one of only a few Black scholars in the field of music theory, such diversity efforts often serve only to reinforce the whiteness and maleness of the system.</p><br><p>Ethnomusicologist Dylan Robinson <a href="https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/is/2019-v39-n1-is05836/1075347ar.pdf" target="_blank">calls these efforts</a> “additive inclusion” in that they give the impression of making positive change but serve only to maintain an overemphasis on the work of White male Europeans.</p><p><br></p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012635/fill/700x0/florence_20price.png?timestamp=1688586276">Black female composer, Florence Price. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Florence_Beatrice_Price_(1887-1953)_portrait.webp" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/06/22/403649/c-elebrate-and-support-our-classical-music-artists-as-we-re-define-classical" target="_blank"><img alt="Re-Collective Orchestra Image Source Official Facebook page" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/930568/fit/80x80/re-collective.jpeg?timestamp=1688585896" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/06/22/403649/c-elebrate-and-support-our-classical-music-artists-as-we-re-define-classical" target="_blank">Celebrate and support our classical music artists as we re-define classical</a></h4>
<p> I was super impressed to view and find out about the all-African American Re-Collective Orchestra that served as the musical backdrop to CNN’s Juneteenth TV production. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/06/22/403649/c-elebrate-and-support-our-classical-music-artists-as-we-re-define-classical">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><br><p>In 2020, music theorist <a href="https://www.furman.edu/people/megan-lyons/#" target="_blank">Megan Lyons</a> and I did <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.ewell.html" target="_blank">an analysis</a> of the seven most common undergraduate music theory textbooks in the U.S.</p><br><p>We wanted to establish a baseline of the racial and gender makeup of the composers represented in the books to see what teachers were offering to our students as the most important music to consider in the undergraduate music major.</p><br><p>Music theory courses, usually spread over four or five semesters, are often considered the most crucial aspect of the major, and theory textbooks are presented as authoritative sources that outline the essentials of the discipline.</p><br><p>Representative titles include “Harmony and Voice Leading,” “Harmony in Context,” “Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music” and “Concise Introduction to Tonal Harmony.”</p><br><p>Looming large in these textbooks is the word “harmony,” the sound that is heard when two or more instruments or voices sound together, though in a global context the term has other meanings as well. What is considered harmony in the U.S. is based on European notions of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tonality" target="_blank">tonality</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/pitch-music" target="_blank">pitch</a>, <a href="https://www.simplifyingtheory.com/music-scales/" target="_blank">scale</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mode-music" target="_blank">mode</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" target="_blank">key</a> and <a href="https://online.berklee.edu/takenote/conjunct-disjunct-melody-basic-definitions/" target="_blank">melody</a>.</p><br><p>The three composers the books most commonly represented were Germans <a href="https://www.biography.com/musicians/johann-sebastian-bach" target="_blank">Johann Sebastian Bach</a> and <a href="https://www.bl.uk/people/ludwig-van-beethoven" target="_blank">Ludwig van Beethoven</a> and Austrian <a href="https://www.operaphila.org/whats-on/on-stage-2016-2017/figaro/composer/" target="_blank">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart</a>.</p><br><p>We found that of the nearly 3,000 musical examples cited in the textbooks, only 49 were written by composers who were not White and only 68 were written by composers who were not men.</p><br><p>On rare occasions those two subgroups overlapped, as with <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/03/13/428755/the-brief-but-shining-life-of-paul-laurence-dunbar-a-poet-who-gave-dignity-to-the-black-experience" target="_blank">Florence Price</a>. Only two examples were written by Asian composers.</p></span><span><br><p>All told, almost 98% of the musical examples were written by White men who mostly spoke German, and these seven textbooks represented about 96% of the market share.</p><br><p>Left out of textbooks are the many African American musicians who contributed significantly to American music, such as classical composers <a href="https://songofamerica.net/composer/dett-robert-nathaniel/" target="_blank">Nathaniel Dett</a>, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038842/" target="_blank">James Reese Europe</a>, <a href="https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/julia-perry-american-neoclassicist" target="_blank">Julia Perry</a> and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200038858/" target="_blank">Clarence Cameron White</a>.</p><br><p>Also generally excluded were nonclassical genres like jazz, blues or bluegrass, or contemporary popular music such as hip-hop, soul or punk.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012639/fill/700x0/Robert_Nathaniel_Dett_2.jpeg?timestamp=1688587403">Composer Nathaniel Dett, 1910s. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Nathaniel_Dett_2.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></div></span><span><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/04/05/431142/black-artists-dont-just-make-hip-hop-why-recognition-of-metal-punk-rock-and-emo-by-mobo-is-long-overdue" target="_blank"><img alt="Black artists dont just make hip hop why recognition of metal punk rock and emo by MOBO is long overdue" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/992157/fit/80x80/nova_20twins.jpeg?timestamp=1688585930" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/04/05/431142/black-artists-dont-just-make-hip-hop-why-recognition-of-metal-punk-rock-and-emo-by-mobo-is-long-overdue" target="_blank">Black artists don't just make hip hop – why recognition of metal, punk, rock and emo by MOBO is long overdue</a></h4>
<p>Black alternative music is undoubtedly part of Black history, but the genre continues to be associated with whiteness. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/04/05/431142/black-artists-dont-just-make-hip-hop-why-recognition-of-metal-punk-rock-and-emo-by-mobo-is-long-overdue">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><p>American music academies generally reflect the social norms of the day. Anti-Blackness was commonly accepted in all music institutions until well into the 20th century through the <a href="https://www.press.umich.edu/11865737/destined_to_fail" target="_blank">eugenics of music pedagogue Carl Seashore</a>, the <a href="https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/am/article/38/4/395/261756" target="_blank">White supremacy of the composer-pianist John Powell</a> and the <a href="https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.ewell.html" target="_blank">racism of music theorist Heinrich Schenker</a>.</p><br><p>In her 2019 master’s thesis “A Message of Inclusion, A History of Exclusion: Racial Injustice at the Peabody Institute,” violinist Sarah Thomas details a <a href="https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/handle/1774.2/62108" target="_blank">common American story of racial angst in higher education</a>.</p><p><br></p></span><span><p>Thomas focused on the Peabody Institute, founded in 1857 in Baltimore, Maryland and the oldest U.S. music institution, and its board members’ letters about the possible admission of Black pianist Paul Brent.</p><br><p>In July 1949, Peabody President William Marbury <a href="https://exhibits.library.jhu.edu/exhibits/show/a-message-of-inclusion/policy-change-at-peabody/acceptance-of-brent" target="_blank">wrote the school’s board of directors</a> and reminded board members of the school’s unofficial policy at the time:</p><br><p>“We are brought face to face with the issue whether to modify our long-standing rule against the admission of negro students,” Marbury wrote.</p><br><p>Once the issue was put to a vote, only one board member, Douglas Gordon, openly opposed admitting Brent and cast the lone dissenting vote.</p><br><p>“It seems to me that it would be a great mistake to change the present policy,” <a href="https://exhibits.library.jhu.edu/exhibits/show/a-message-of-inclusion/policy-change-at-peabody/acceptance-of-brent" target="_blank">Gordon wrote</a>. “In our climate the presence of negroes can to some be extremely offensive.”</p><br><p>Though Brent was admitted and became the first Black student to enroll at Peabody, the abhorrent views of Gordon still remain present today in more subtle forms.</p><p><br></p><p></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="https://cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012638/fill/700x0/Peabody_Institute_-_interior_stairway.jpeg?timestamp=1688586777">Interior stairway of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, Maryland. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peabody_Institute_-_interior_stairway.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></div><div><br></div><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/05/25/436049/the-empire-sings-back-the-deep-history-behind-south-african-soprano-pretty-yendes-triumph" target="_blank"><img alt="The empire sings back the deep history behind South African soprano Pretty Yendes triumph" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1002572/fit/80x80/pretty_20yende_202.jpeg?timestamp=1688585981" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/05/25/436049/the-empire-sings-back-the-deep-history-behind-south-african-soprano-pretty-yendes-triumph" target="_blank">The empire sings back: the deep history behind South African soprano Pretty Yende's triumph</a></h4>
<p>Among the invited artists at the coronation of Britain’s King Charles III was the South African soprano, Pretty Yende. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/05/25/436049/the-empire-sings-back-the-deep-history-behind-south-african-soprano-pretty-yendes-triumph">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><br><p>The study of jazz is one such example of racial exclusion.</p><br><p>Generally considered a Black musical genre, jazz is now part of most music educational institutions, but is virtually always separate from the mainstream music major.</p><br><p>In a few cases, students are able to major in jazz. But in most cases, if a student wants to major in jazz, there are very alternatives to majoring in classical music while playing jazz on the side.</p><br><p>Citing declining enrollments for music majors across the country, the College Music Society in 2014 published a <a href="https://www.music.org/pdf/pubs/tfumm/TFUMM.pdf" target="_blank">manifesto for change</a> to the undergraduate music major.</p><br><p>It deemphasized music and methods of the Western canon while emphasizing the need for students to engage with music from different cultures and with new technologies.</p><br><p>This change has taken many forms.</p><br><p>Musicians are rethinking their curricula to treat all music of the world on equal footing as the European standards.</p><br><p>Piano proficiency and European language requirements are being reconsidered – in some cases cast aside – by music institutions. Other schools are creating new music majors for those working with digital sound and sound design, or for those studying popular genres such as blues, rock, metal and country.</p><br><p>Academic work in music is changing as well, and students can now at times get credit for work <a href="https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-professor-looks-to-open-doors-with-worlds-first-peer-reviewed-rap-album-153761" target="_blank">outside of traditional paper writing</a>.</p><br><p>It’s my belief that the sooner we musicians, irrespective of our own identities, can face up to our racial segregationist past, the sooner we can all reap the benefits of our nation’s unique musical diversity.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><p><br></p></span><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2021/04/30/354973/celebrating-international-jazz-day-check-out-these-5-south-african-jazz-musicians" target="_blank"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/819355/fit/80x80/jazz_20south_20african.png?timestamp=1688586923" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2021/04/30/354973/celebrating-international-jazz-day-check-out-these-5-south-african-jazz-musicians" target="_blank">Celebrating International Jazz Day: Check Out These 5 South African Jazz Musicians</a></h4>
<p>On this International Jazz Day, we celebrate some South African jazz musicians whose work has brought joy and soul to thousands across the continent. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2021/04/30/354973/celebrating-international-jazz-day-check-out-these-5-south-african-jazz-musicians">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/10/30/416243/pafa-exhibition-in-the-era-of-dei" target="_blank"><img alt="PAFA Exhibition in the Era of DEI " src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/959427/fit/80x80/making_20american_20artist.jpg?timestamp=1688586956" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/10/30/416243/pafa-exhibition-in-the-era-of-dei" target="_blank">PAFA Exhibition in the Era of DEI </a></h4>
<p>In Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA) founded in 1805, has unveiled a 103-piece exhibition entitled, Making American Artists. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/10/30/416243/pafa-exhibition-in-the-era-of-dei">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/24/438999/after-rapper-s-delight-black-hip-hop-went-global-its-impact-has-been-massive-so-too-efforts-to-keep-it-real" target="_blank"><img alt="After Rappers Delight Black hip-hop went global its impact has been massive so too efforts to keep it real" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1008943/fit/80x80/sugarhill_20gang.jpeg?timestamp=1688587768" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/24/438999/after-rapper-s-delight-black-hip-hop-went-global-its-impact-has-been-massive-so-too-efforts-to-keep-it-real" target="_blank">After ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ Black hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real</a></h4>
<p>The rapid spread of “Rapper’s Delight” is an important milestone in hip-hop’s first 50 years. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/24/438999/after-rapper-s-delight-black-hip-hop-went-global-its-impact-has-been-massive-so-too-efforts-to-keep-it-real">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p></div><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:5aa50873-fec4-4772-82dc-afce305f94d42023-07-05T11:30:21-04:002023-07-05T11:33:38-04:00Juneteenth vs. July 42023-07-05 12:00:00 -0400Anand Subramanian<p>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/couple-holding-sparklers-4669677/" target="_blank">cottonbro studio</a><br></p><p><br></p><span><h2>Introduction: </h2><p>In the United States, two dates hold immense historical and cultural significance—Juneteenth and July 4. Both observances commemorate freedom, but they represent distinct milestones in the journey of African Americans. Understanding the contrasting narratives and exploring their respective historical contexts is crucial to grasp these dates' profound impact on the Black community. This blog will delve into the differences between Juneteenth and July 4, unravel their historical roots, and emphasize their importance to African Americans.<br></p><br><h2>Juneteenth: A Celebration of Emancipation </h2><p>Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is celebrated on June 19 each year. It marks the <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/06/30/439646/juneteenth-celebrates-just-one-of-the-united-states-20-emancipation-days-and-the-history-of-how-emancipated-people-were-kept-unfree-needs-to-be-remembered-too" target="_blank">emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States</a>. The historical significance of Juneteenth can be traced back to June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, and announced the end of slavery, over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.</p><br><p>The announcement in Galveston marked a turning point, bringing news of liberation to the last enslaved people in the country. Juneteenth represents the long-awaited realization of freedom for millions of African Americans who had been <a href="http://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2022/01/28/388263/transatlantic-slavery-the-story-of-the-survivors-of-clotilda-america-s-last-black-slave-ship-" target="_blank">forcibly brought to American shores</a> and endured generations of bondage. The day symbolizes the triumph over the horrors of slavery and serves as a reminder of Black communities' resilience, strength, and perseverance.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012516/fill/700x0/NASA_HQ_Juneteenth_Flag_Raising_Ceremony__NHQ202306150012_.jpeg?timestamp=1688570065">Image: Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony at NASA in 2023. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_HQ_Juneteenth_Flag_Raising_Ceremony_(NHQ202306150012).jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br><br></div></span><span><br><h2>July 4: Independence Day and Its Complexities </h2><p>July 4, commonly known as Independence Day, is celebrated across the United States to commemorate the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This historic document declared the thirteen American colonies' separation from British rule and the establishment of a new nation founded on principles of liberty and equality.</p><br><p>While July 4 is celebrated as a symbol of American freedom, it is essential to recognize its complexities and acknowledge that the full realization of freedom did not extend to African Americans at that time. <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2022/08/15/408825/sepviva-a-slave-plantation-in-philadelphia-owned-by-a-quaker" target="_blank">Slavery continued to persist</a> for almost a century after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, depriving millions of Black people of their fundamental human rights and denying them the promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness outlined in the founding documents.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="https://cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012517/fill/700x0/Declaration_of_Independence__1819___by_John_Trumbull.jpeg?timestamp=1688570199"></div><p>Signing of the Declaration of Independence, John Trumbull, 1819. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Declaration_of_Independence_(1819),_by_John_Trumbull.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a><br></p><br><h2>Contrasting Narratives and Historical Significance: </h2><p>The differences between Juneteenth and July 4th lie in their narratives and historical contexts. Juneteenth represents the moment when the news of freedom reached the last enslaved people, becoming a symbol of liberation from slavery. In contrast, July 4 signifies the birth of a nation founded on ideals of freedom and equality but fails to encompass the experiences of African Americans who were excluded from these promises.</p><p>The historical importance of Juneteenth is grounded in recognizing the long and arduous journey toward freedom endured by African Americans. It acknowledges the generations of struggle and resilience while highlighting the ongoing fight for civil rights and equality. Juneteenth offers an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of slavery and to continue working toward a more just and inclusive society.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1012522/fill/700x0/Reading_the_Emancipation_Proclamation_-_H.W._Herrick__del.__J.W._Watts__sc._LCCN2003678043.jpg?timestamp=1688570599">Reading the Emancipation Proclamation / steel engraving, H.W. Herrick, del., J.W. Watts 1864. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reading_the_Emancipation_Proclamation_-_H.W._Herrick,_del.,_J.W._Watts,_sc._LCCN2003678043.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></div></span><div class="image-main"><br></div><span><br><h2>Importance for African Americans: </h2><p>For African Americans, Juneteenth holds deep cultural significance and serves as an occasion for remembrance, celebration, and reflection. It provides an opportunity to honor ancestors who endured slavery and fought for freedom, recognizing their sacrifices and contributions to the nation's progress. Juneteenth celebrations often feature parades, music, food, and community gatherings, fostering a sense of unity, pride, and shared heritage among African Americans.</p><p><br></p><p>While Americans of all backgrounds celebrate July 4, the recognition and observance of Juneteenth have gained prominence in recent years, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and learning from the diverse narratives that shape the American experience. Juneteenth offers a chance for education and empathy, fostering dialogue and understanding between different communities. </p><br><p>Its increasing recognition and status as a federal holiday in the United States signify a growing commitment to inclusivity and a step toward a more equitable society.</p><br><h2>Conclusion:</h2><p><b></b>Juneteenth and July 4 represent two significant dates in American history, each with a distinct narrative and historical importance. Juneteenth stands as a reminder of the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, celebrating their resilience and struggle for freedom. In contrast, July 4 commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence but requires acknowledgment of the complexities surrounding the exclusion of African Americans from the promises of freedom and equality.</p><p>Recognizing the differences between Juneteenth and July 4 is essential to understanding the African American experience and fostering inclusivity. </p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/30/439678/juneteenth-wrap-up-unveiling-the-historical-significance-community-commerce-and-lasting-importance" target="_blank"><img alt="Juneteenth Wrap-Up Unveiling the Historical Significance Community Commerce and Lasting Importance" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010704/fit/80x80/AbsoluteEqualityJuneteenthMural8.jpeg?timestamp=1688569879" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/30/439678/juneteenth-wrap-up-unveiling-the-historical-significance-community-commerce-and-lasting-importance" target="_blank">Juneteenth Wrap-Up: Unveiling the Historical Significance, Community Commerce, and Lasting Importance</a></h4>
<p>As the summer of 2023 unfolds, we reflect on Juneteenth's powerful and transformative celebration. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/30/439678/juneteenth-wrap-up-unveiling-the-historical-significance-community-commerce-and-lasting-importance">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/30/439646/juneteenth-celebrates-just-one-of-the-united-states-20-emancipation-days-and-the-history-of-how-emancipated-people-were-kept-unfree-needs-to-be-remembered-too" target="_blank">Juneteenth celebrates just one of the United States’ 20 emancipation days – and the history of how emancipated people were kept unfree needs to be remembered, too</a></h4>
<p>The actual day was June 19, 1865, and it was the Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, who first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/30/439646/juneteenth-celebrates-just-one-of-the-united-states-20-emancipation-days-and-the-history-of-how-emancipated-people-were-kept-unfree-needs-to-be-remembered-too">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth" target="_blank">6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth</a></h4>
<p>Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday i... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><span><p><br></p><div><p><br></p><div class="image-medium image-align-left"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/814912/fill/300x0/anand.jpg?timestamp=1688570960"></div><p> Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.</p><p><br></p><p>Read more from Anand Subramanian: </p><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>This transformative trend challenges societal perceptions of incarcerated individuals and highlights the power of education in breaking the cycle of incarceration. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/23/439004/breaking-barriers-african-americans-pursue-phds-and-college-degrees-behind-bars">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p></div></span><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:024e1c79-0805-4d29-a79f-b06ced336b5a2023-07-02T13:54:59-04:002023-07-05T11:32:03-04:00Unicorns in southern Africa: the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art2023-07-05 10:00:00 -0400The Conversation via Reuters Connect<p>Rock painting of one-horned rain-animal from a site near Indwe in the Eastern Cape province. Image courtesy of the writer, David M. Witelson<br></p><p><br></p><p>One-horned creatures are found in myths <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythic-creatures/land/unicorns-west-and-east">around the world</a>. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European thought.</p><p>For example, the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder <a href="https://mythicalcreatures.edwardworthlibrary.ie/unicorns/">wrote about unicorns</a> in the first century AD. The unicorn features in both <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/467642">medieval Christian</a> and <a href="https://www.theclanbuchanan.com/folklore">Celtic</a> beliefs, and is <a href="https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-unicorn-scotlands-national-animal#:%7E:text=With%20its%20white%20horse%2Dlike,strength%20of%20their%20healing%20power">Scotland’s national animal</a>. The unicorn’s prominence in European culture spread across the globe with colonisation.</p><p>In southern Africa, colonial European ideas encountered older indigenous beliefs about one-horned creatures. I’ve highlighted this in a recent research <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/revisiting-the-south-african-unicorn-rock-art-natural-history-and-colonial-misunderstandings-of-indigenous-realities/5875B2016D8EB1C598C95B21D720F862">article</a> about some of the region’s rock art.</p><p><br></p><h2>Unicorns in Africa?</h2><br><p>In the age of natural science, unicorns were gradually dismissed as mythical rather than biological creatures. But some thought that real animals with single horns might yet exist in the “unexplored wilds” of Africa.</p><p>A famous search for such evidence was carried out by the English traveller, writer and politician <a href="https://ulverstoncouncil.org.uk/education/sir-john-barrow-1764-1848/">Sir John Barrow (1764-1848)</a>. He’d heard rumours about “unicorns” from the colonists and local people he encountered on his southern African travels.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1011787/fill/700x0/barrow_20unicorn.png?timestamp=1688319777"></div><p> Figure 1. Barrow’s unicorn. After the image published by Barrow</p><p><br></p><p>One of those rumours was that unicorns were depicted in the rock paintings made by the indigenous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/San">San (Bushman)</a> inhabitants of the region. Barrow searched unsuccessfully for them. Then, in mountains in what’s now the Eastern Cape province, he found and copied an image of a unicorn (Figure 1).</p><p>But many were sceptical of his claims. His published copy resembles a European engraving rather than a San rock painting. More generally, critics have argued that rock paintings of unicorns were probably inspired by side-on views of <a href="https://www.krugerpark.co.za/africa_oryx.html">gemsbok or South African oryxes</a> – antelope with long, straight horns – or by <a href="https://www.helpingrhinos.org/5-species-of-rhino/">rhinos</a> (which might have one horn in India, but have two in southern Africa).</p><p>My research concludes that these criticisms don’t take into account several factors that have since come to light. My paper provides further support for the <a href="https://www.magzter.com/stories/Animals-and-Pets/Farmers-Weekly/The-Search-For-The-South-African-Unicorn">claims</a> that some San rock paintings do indeed depict one-horned creatures.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>The ongoing Samburu rock art tradition presents a unique chance to know where, when and why rock art was created. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/07/437719/kenya-s-samburu-warriors-still-practice-a-rock-art-african-tradition-that-tells-their-stories">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><p><br></p><h2>Multiple rock art depictions</h2><br><p>Early documented rock paintings of one-horned creatures are known from <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/stow/images/IZI-GWS-01-25D">19th</a> and <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/tongue/images/IZI-HT-01-71HC">20th</a> century copies by British geologist <a href="https://www.s2a3.org.za/bio/Biograph_final.php?serial=2746">George Stow</a> and South African teacher <a href="https://www.aluka.org/heritage/partner/XSTTONGUE">M. Helen Tongue</a>.</p><p>I draw attention to additional examples of rock paintings of one-horned creatures (Figures 2 and 3).</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1011788/fill/700x0/figure_202.png?timestamp=1688319990">Figure 2. A pair of spotted one-horned animals surrounded by fish. David M. Witelson</div><p><br></p><p>Collectively, these show that rock paintings of one-horned creatures can’t be dismissed as naturalistic profile views of two-horned creatures, one horn covering the other.</p><p><br></p><h2>Rain-animals</h2><br><p>The second way in which my research engages with early criticisms is to draw attention to previously overlooked indigenous beliefs concerning one-horned beings.</p><p>The evidence suggests that the “unicorns” in indigenous mythical beliefs and rock art are actually animal-like forms of rain, known as rain-animals.</p><p>Tongue’s colleague and co-worker, <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/researchers.html">Dorothea Bleek</a>, compared Stow’s and Tongue’s copies and <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books/about/Bushman_Paintings_Copied_by_M_Helen_Tong.html?id=9HPVxAEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">suggested</a> in 1909 that rock paintings of one-horned antelope were probably kinds of rain-animals, which she knew from <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/">|Xam San (Bushman) myths</a>.</p><p></p><div><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532954/original/file-20230620-25-yb22k8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"></a></div><p></p><p>Rain-animals feature prominently in <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/492703532">San ritual, myth and art</a>. They take many forms, ranging from <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/rain/images/RARI-RSA-FLO3-1R">four-legged creatures</a> to <a href="http://www.sarada.co.za/#/library/serpent/images/RARI-RSA-WAD1-2R">serpents</a>. They were ritually captured and slaughtered by San rainmakers to cause rain to fall in specific places. <a href="https://archive.org/details/cu31924029904830">Many |Xam myths</a> tell of the dangerous male rain, sometimes personified as the “Rain”, who turned pubescent girls and their families into frogs when the girls did not correctly observe their initiation taboos.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1011789/fill/700x0/figure_203.png?timestamp=1688320083"></div><p> Figure 3. Digital drawing of original rock painting near the town of Dordrecht. David M. Witelson</p><p><br></p><p>Among other details, my paper highlights a fascinating and previously missed reference to a one-horned water creature. In one of the variants of a <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/stories/748/index.html">story</a> told by <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/xam.html">|Han≠kass’o or Klein Jantje</a> – a |Xam man who was an expert storyteller – a “water child” or juvenile rain-animal is said to have a single horn. The story was written down in phonetic script (to record the sounds of the San langauge) by <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/researchers.html">Lucy Lloyd</a> (Bleek’s aunt) and translated into English.</p><p>The girl in |Han≠kass’o’s story breaks the rules of her ritual puberty seclusion by going to a pond and catching (like fish) the children of the rain, which she cooks and eats. After a few times she struggles to catch another one: unlike the others, this last creature is <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/books/BC_151_A2_1_092/A2_1_92_07513.html">“a grown-up water”</a>.</p><p>We know what made it recognisably grown-up: unlike the others, it had a single horn that <a href="http://lloydbleekcollection.cs.uct.ac.za/books/BC_151_A2_1_092/A2_1_92_07513.html">poked out of the water</a>. We have, therefore, the actual |Xam San words (which translate as “horned rain-child”) used to describe this kind of rain-animal, which we find in the rock paintings in and around the Eastern Cape.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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</p><p> </p><p><br></p><h2>An intersection of beliefs</h2><br><p>In the colonial period, indigenous people were exposed to European images of unicorns on crests, badges and buttons and through tales. In one of the <a href="https://archive.org/details/southafricacentu00barnuoft/page/76/mode/2up?q=unicorn">recorded instances</a>, indigenous people at the Cape saw the British royal coat of arms and commented on the unicorn in it. They recognised it as their “god”, but this description, translated into English from an unknown indigenous idiom, probably refers to the creature’s mythical nature rather than a genuine god-like status.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1011790/fill/700x0/figure_204.png?timestamp=1688320234">Figure 4. Rain-animals with horns that point up or curve forward at a site near Indwe. David M. Witelson</div><p><br></p><p>Foreign unicorn images may have gradually influenced local ones. Some rock paintings of one-horned creatures – dated by associated human figures in European dress to the colonial period – show horns pointing upward or forward (Figure 4) like the European unicorn, rather than backwards like antelopes, such as the eland (Figure 5), on which many rock paintings of one-horned rain-animals are modelled.<br></p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1011791/fill/700x0/figure_205.png?timestamp=1688320309">Figure 5. The horns of the common eland. Pxfuel, <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></div><p><br></p><p>One-horned animals depicted in rock art are not mere rhinos nor antelope, nor are they the creatures of European myth.</p><p>Indigenous beliefs help us to explain that the uncanny resemblance between European unicorns and South African “unicorns” was pure chance. The mixing of foreign beliefs with local ones in colonial South Africa has hidden the independent, indigenous creature.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<p> </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:a3c62713-7e25-440f-8f42-2699244beb092023-06-29T10:56:07-04:002023-06-29T11:13:30-04:00Juneteenth Wrap-Up: Unveiling the Historical Significance, Community Commerce, and Lasting Importance2023-06-30 12:00:00 -0400 Anand Subramanian<p>Image: "Absolute Equality" Juneteenth mural in Galveston, TX. Source:<i> </i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juneteenth#/media/File:AbsoluteEqualityJuneteenthMural8.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></p><p><br></p><p>As the summer of 2023 unfolds, we reflect on Juneteenth's powerful and transformative celebration. Originating as a commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States, Juneteenth has emerged as a unifying force that highlights historical significance, fosters economic growth, and amplifies the importance of cultural diversity.<br></p><br><h2>Historical Significance: Honoring Resilience and Progress</h2><br><p>The early observances of Juneteenth can be traced back to 1866, initially taking place in Texas as community gatherings focusing on the church. These celebrations gradually spread throughout the Southern states and gained more commercial aspects in the 1920s and 1930s, often centering around a food festival. As the Great Migration occurred, participants brought the tradition to other parts of the country. However, during the <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/03/29/430181/the-women-who-stood-with-martin-luther-king-jr-and-sustained-a-movement-for-social-change" target="_blank">Civil Rights Movement </a>of the 1960s, Juneteenth celebrations were overshadowed by the nonviolent struggle for civil rights. Nevertheless, they regained popularity in the 1970s, emphasizing African American freedom and the arts.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010729/fill/700x0/juneteenth_20in_20the_2060s.jpg?timestamp=1688050957">Image: Demonstrators on the National Mall during Solidarity Day on Juneteenth, 1968. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juneteenth_1968#/media/File:Demonstrations._Demonstrators_on_the_National_Mall_during_Solidarity_Day_on_Juneteenth._(61cd4a0086e04f899a0d7d9f128af3a8).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a><br><br><br></div>Juneteenth's recognition as a holiday started in Texas with a proclamation in 1938 and later through legislation in 1979. Since then, every U.S. state and the District of Columbia have officially acknowledged the holiday. Additionally, the Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles who escaped from slavery in 1852 and settled in Coahuila, Mexico, celebrate Juneteenth.<br><br><p>Typical Juneteenth traditions involve:</p><p><br></p><ul><li>Public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation.<br><br></li><li>Singing traditional songs like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "<a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2020/12/12/338880/-lift-every-voice-and-sing-understanding-the-black-national-anthem" target="_blank">Lift Every Voice and Sing</a>."<br><br></li><li>Sharing works by notable African American writers such as <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth" target="_blank">Ralph Ellison</a> and <a href="https://www.funtimesmagazine.com/2023/05/08/434149/the-reading-quilt-letter-to-my-daughter" target="_blank">Maya Angelou</a>.</li></ul><br><br><p>Juneteenth celebrations may also feature rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, parties, historical reenactments, and Miss Juneteenth contests. In 2021, Juneteenth gained significant recognition as the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established in 1983.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/30/439646/juneteenth-celebrates-just-one-of-the-united-states-20-emancipation-days-and-the-history-of-how-emancipated-people-were-kept-unfree-needs-to-be-remembered-too" target="_blank">Juneteenth celebrates just one of the United States’ 20 emancipation days – and the history of how emancipated people were kept unfree needs to be remembered, too</a></h4>
<p>The actual day was June 19, 1865, and it was the Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, who first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/30/439646/juneteenth-celebrates-just-one-of-the-united-states-20-emancipation-days-and-the-history-of-how-emancipated-people-were-kept-unfree-needs-to-be-remembered-too">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><h2>Community Commerce: Empowering Businesses and Fostering Unity</h2><br><p>Beyond its historical roots, Juneteenth has evolved into a vibrant celebration that breathes life into the entrepreneurial spirit within our communities. This celebration has paved the way for a robust commercial aspect that bolsters local businesses and promotes economic growth.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010726/fill/700x0/juneteenth_202017.jpeg?timestamp=1688050631">Image: Juneteenth festival in Marietta, GA featuring local businesses and vendors. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juneteenth_2017#/media/File:2017_Juneteenth_Celebration_on_the_Square20170617_0002_(35277254151).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>. Photo courtesy of the city of Marietta.</div><p><br></p><p><b>1. Festivals and Events: </b>Juneteenth festivities come alive with vibrant parades, soul-stirring music performances, captivating art exhibitions, and cultural showcases. These events serve as a testament to the rich tapestry of African American heritage and provide a platform for local businesses to flourish. From food vendors offering delectable traditional cuisines to artisans showcasing their remarkable creations, entrepreneurs find an eager audience ready to embrace and support their endeavors.</p><br><p><b>2. Entrepreneurship and Small Businesses: </b>Juneteenth offers a significant opportunity to uplift and amplify Black-owned businesses within the community. By intentionally supporting these enterprises, we empower marginalized entrepreneurs and contribute to sustainable job creation and community development. Investing in these businesses strengthens the local economy and helps bridge economic disparities that have persisted for too long.</p><br><p><b>3. Cultural Exchange: </b>Juneteenth events create a powerful atmosphere of cultural exchange, fostering mutual understanding and unity. These celebrations bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds, allowing them to embrace and appreciate different traditions, languages, and customs. In this mingling of cultures, opportunities for collaboration, cross-cultural learning, and the cultivation of meaningful relationships abound, benefiting the local community and our broader society.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn2.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010728/fill/700x0/juneteenth_202017_202.jpeg?timestamp=1688050682">Image: Juneteenth festival in Marietta, GA featuring local businesses and vendors. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juneteenth_2017#/media/File:2017_Juneteenth_Celebration_on_the_Square20170617_0018_(34564489594).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a>. Photo courtesy of the city of Marietta.<br><br>Read also:<br><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>"How can we circulate the Black dollar and help to narrow the racial wealth gap?" <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/09/12/411614/black-dollar-its-importance-and-influence">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p></div><h2>Importance of Juneteenth</h2><br><p>Juneteenth is a vital holiday for various reasons, extending beyond its historical roots. Here are a few key reasons why this celebration holds immense importance:</p><div><br><ul><li><b> Commemorating History: </b>Juneteenth provides an opportunity to acknowledge and learn from the painful history of slavery in the United States. Understanding past struggles allows us to work towards a future free from discrimination and inequality.<br><br></li><li><b>Promoting Unity and Understanding: </b>Juneteenth encourages individuals from diverse backgrounds to unite and celebrate the triumphs achieved in pursuing freedom and equality. We can build stronger communities by fostering a sense of unity and understanding.</li></ul></div><ul><li><b>Cultivating Cultural Appreciation: </b>This holiday offers a chance to appreciate and celebrate African American culture, heritage, and contributions. It allows for exploring music, art, food, and other aspects of the African American experience, promoting cultural diversity and inclusivity.<br><br></li><li><b>Empowering Communities: </b>Juneteenth has emerged as a catalyst for economic empowerment within African American communities. We can help create a more equitable and prosperous society by supporting Black-owned businesses and investing in local initiatives.<br><br></li><li><b>Inspiring Activism and Change:</b> Juneteenth serves as a reminder that progress is possible, even in adversity. It inspires individuals to stand up against injustice, encourages activism, and promotes meaningful change.</li></ul><br><br><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010733/fill/700x0/juneteenth_20usda.jpeg?timestamp=1688051237">Image: Travis Watkins leads the flag detail during the Juneteenth ceremony on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Photo by Tom Witham. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Juneteenth_2023#/media/File:20230614-OSEC-TEW-0301_(52973563177).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></div><br><br><p>As we bid farewell to the transformative Juneteenth celebration of 2023, we are reminded of its resounding impact and enduring importance. Juneteenth encapsulates the struggles, triumphs, and resilient spirit of African Americans throughout history. It intertwines historical remembrance, community commerce, and a relentless pursuit of equality. By recognizing its historical significance, supporting local businesses, and embracing its lasting importance, we contribute to a society that values diversity, promotes economic growth, and embodies empathy and compassion. Let us carry the spirit of Juneteenth throughout the year, uplifting marginalized communities and working collectively towards a world free from prejudice and discrimination.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth" target="_blank">6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth</a></h4>
<p>Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday i... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education" target="_blank">Juneteenth matters for thinking about race relations in Canada and Canadian education</a></h4>
<p>While this is not an official holiday in Canada, it is significant for thinking about the history of race, racial relations and education. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><p><br></p><div class="image-medium image-align-left"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/814912/fill/300x0/anand.jpg?timestamp=1688051408"></div><p> Anand Subramanian is a freelance photographer and content writer based out of Tamil Nadu, India. Having a background in Engineering always made him curious about life on the other side of the spectrum. He leapt forward towards the Photography life and never looked back. Specializing in Documentary and Portrait photography gave him an up-close and personal view into the complexities of human beings and those experiences helped him branch out from visual to words. Today he is mentoring passionate photographers and writing about the different dimensions of the art world.</p><p><br></p><p>Read more from Anand Subramanian: </p><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>These African American innovators have left an indelible mark on the healthcare industry through their pioneering work, visionary thinking, and relentless pursuit of better healthcare out... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/22/438934/unveiling-the-top-african-american-innovators-in-healthcare-revolutionizing-the-field">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p>This transformative trend challenges societal perceptions of incarcerated individuals and highlights the power of education in breaking the cycle of incarceration. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/23/439004/breaking-barriers-african-americans-pursue-phds-and-college-degrees-behind-bars">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><br><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:11a8e9e2-ae5e-4b62-96f3-aa9d7389da742023-06-28T15:24:18-04:002023-06-28T15:45:46-04:00Juneteenth celebrates just one of the United States’ 20 emancipation days – and the history of how emancipated people were kept unfree needs to be remembered, too2023-06-30 10:00:00 -0400The Conversation via Reuters Connect<p><br><span>Image: Juneteenth Flag Raising Ceremony at NASA in 2023. Source: </span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_HQ_Juneteenth_Flag_Raising_Ceremony_(NHQ202306150012).jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain </a></p><p><br></p><p>The actual day was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html" title="Link: https://www.nytimes.com/article/juneteenth-day-celebration.html">June 19, 1865</a>, and it was the Black dockworkers in Galveston, Texas, who first heard the word that freedom for the enslaved had come. There were speeches, sermons and shared meals, mostly held at Black churches, the safest places to have such celebrations.</p><p>The perils of unjust laws and racist social customs were still great in Texas for the 250,000 enslaved Black people there, but the <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth" title="Link: https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth">celebrations known as Juneteenth</a> were said to have gone on for seven straight days.</p><p>The spontaneous jubilation was partly over Gen. Gordon Granger’s <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/general-order-no-3">General Order No. 3</a>. It <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/general-order-no-3">read in part</a>, “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”</p><p>But the emancipation that took place in Texas that day in 1865 was just the latest in a series of emancipations that had been unfolding since the 1770s, most notably the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/emancipation-proclamation">Emancipation Proclamation</a> signed by <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-emancipation-proclamation-came-to-be-signed-165533991/">President Abraham Lincoln</a> two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.<br><br></p><p>As I explore in <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Black-Ghost-of-Empire/Kris-Manjapra/9781982123475">my book</a> “Black Ghost of Empire,” between the 1780s and 1930s, during the era of liberal empire and the rise of modern humanitarianism, over 80 emancipations from slavery occurred, from <a href="http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1776-1865/abolition-slavery.html">Pennsylvania in 1780</a> to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-world-history-of-slavery/slavery-in-africa-18041936/F01667F6DC2CDF8A51D6F9E0D5505E6E">Sierra Leone in 1936</a>.</p><p>There were, in fact, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_Day">20 separate emancipations</a> in the United States alone, from 1780 to 1865, across the U.S. North and South.</p><p>In my view as <a href="https://as.tufts.edu/history/people/faculty/kris-manjapra">a scholar of race and colonialism</a>, Emancipation Days – Juneteenth in Texas – are not what many people think, because emancipation did not do what most of us think it did.</p><p>As <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23256427M/There_is_a_river">historians have long documented</a>, emancipations did not remove all the shackles that prevented Black people from obtaining full citizenship rights. Nor did emancipations prevent states from enacting their own laws that prohibited Black people from voting or living in white neighborhoods.</p><p>In fact, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Kris-Manjapra/157794425">based on my research</a>, emancipations were actually designed to force Blacks and the federal government to pay reparations to slave owners – not to the enslaved – thus ensuring <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1341787?seq=1">white people maintained advantages in accruing and passing down wealth across generations.</a></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010586/fill/700x0/EmancipationPhoto.jpeg?timestamp=1687981022" title="Image: //cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010586/fill/700x0/EmancipationPhoto.jpeg?timestamp=1687981022">Image: Celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation in Massachusetts. A crowd and a Union band pose. According to an old, since forgotten tradition, the honored person, a Black man, is seated comfortably in a wheelbarrow. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Emancipation_Proclamation#/media/File:EmancipationPhoto.jpg" target="_blank">Public Domain</a></div><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth" target="_blank">6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth</a></h4>
<p>Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of news of emancipation and freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – became a federal holiday i... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/26/439010/6-books-that-explain-the-history-and-meaning-of-juneteenth">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><h2>Reparations to slave owners</h2><br><p>The emancipations shared three common features that, when added together, merely freed the enslaved in one sense, but reenslaved them in another sense.</p><p>The first, arguably the most important, was the <a href="https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/gradualism-republican-party">ideology of gradualism</a>, which said that atrocities against Black people would be ended slowly, over a long and open-ended period.</p><p>The second feature was state legislators who held fast to the racist principle that emancipated people were units of slave owner property – not captives who had been subjected to crimes against humanity.</p><p>The third was the insistence that Black people had to take on <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2117142">various forms of debt</a> in order to exit slavery. This included economic debt, exacted by the ongoing forced and underpaid work that freed people had to pay to slave owners.</p><p>In essence, freed people had to pay for their freedom, while enslavers had to be paid to allow them to be free.</p><p><br></p><h2>Emancipation myths and realities</h2><br><p>On March 1, 1780, for instance, Pennsylvania’s state Legislature set a global precedent for how emancipations would pay reparations to slave owners and buttress the system of white property rule.</p><p>The Pennsylvania <a href="http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/portal/communities/documents/1776-1865/abolition-slavery.html">Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery</a> stipulated “that all persons, as well negroes, and mulattos, as others, who shall be born within this State, from and after the Passing of this Act, shall not be deemed and considered as Servants for Life or Slaves.”</p><p>At the same time, the legislation prescribed “that every negroe and mulatto child born within this State” could be held in servitude “unto the age of twenty eight Years” and “liable to like correction and punishment” as enslaved people.</p><p>After that first <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/gradual-abolition-act-of-1780/#:%7E:text=The%20Gradual%20Abolition%20Act%20of,without%20making%20slavery%20immediately%20illegal.">Emancipation Day in Pennsylvania</a>, enslaved people still remained in bondage for the rest of their lives, unless voluntarily freed by slave owners.</p><p>Only the newborn children of enslaved women were nominally free after Emancipation Day. Even then, these children were forced to serve as bonded laborers from childhood until their 28th birthday.</p><p>All future emancipations shared the Pennsylvania DNA.</p><p>Emancipation Day came to <a href="https://connecticuthistory.org/from-the-state-historian-connecticuts-slow-steps-toward-emancipation/" title="Link: https://connecticuthistory.org/from-the-state-historian-connecticuts-slow-steps-toward-emancipation/">Connecticut</a> and <a href="https://newporthistory.org/history-bytes-abolition-of-slavery-in-ri/">Rhode Island</a> on March 1, 1784. On July 4, 1799, it dawned in <a href="https://history.nycourts.gov/when-did-slavery-end-in-new-york/">New York</a>, and on July 4, 1804, in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24486906">New Jersey</a>. After 1838, West Indian people in the United States began commemorating the <a href="https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/emancipation.htm">British Empire’s Emancipation Day</a> of Aug. 1.</p><p></p><div></div><p></p><p><a href="https://emancipation.dc.gov/page/historical-overview-dc-emancipation">The District of Columbia’s day</a> came on April 16, 1862.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010589/fill/700x0/2016.04.16_Emancipation_Day_-_African_American_Civil_War_Memorial_04__26548095316_.jpg?timestamp=1687981254" title="Image: //cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010589/fill/700x0/2016.04.16_Emancipation_Day_-_African_American_Civil_War_Memorial_04__26548095316_.jpg?timestamp=1687981254">Image: Emancipation Day at the African American Civil War Memorial, April 16, 2016. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2016.04.16_Emancipation_Day_-_African_American_Civil_War_Memorial_04_(26548095316).jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a><br><br></div><p>Eight months later, on Jan. 1, 1863, President Lincoln <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/featured-documents/emancipation-proclamation/transcript.html">signed the Emancipation Proclamation</a> that freed the enslaved only in Confederate states – not in the states loyal to the Union, such as New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri.</p><p><a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-emancipation-150-20141101-story.html" title="Link: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-emancipation-150-20141101-story.html">Emancipation Day dawned in Maryland</a> on Nov. 1, 1864. In the following year, emancipation was granted on April 3 in <a href="https://www.virginiamemory.com/online-exhibitions/exhibits/show/remaking-virginia/end-of-slavery/celebrations">Virginia</a>, on May 8 in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/05/emancipation-day-commemoration-from-columbus-mississippi/361971/">Mississippi</a>, on May 20 in <a href="https://dos.myflorida.com/library-archives/research/explore-our-resources/emancipation/">Florida</a>, on May 29 in <a href="https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/emancipation-day-and-juneteenth-celebrations-aren-new-georgia/AnJRzXlY4l2mVl25NI0VzM/">Georgia</a>, on June 19 in <a href="https://www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/juneteenth">Texas</a> and on Aug. 8 in <a href="https://www.nps.gov/anjo/learn/historyculture/johnson-and-tn-emancipation.htm" title="Link: https://www.nps.gov/anjo/learn/historyculture/johnson-and-tn-emancipation.htm">Tennessee</a> and <a href="https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/08/07/emancipation-day-marks-slaverys-end-kentucky/31277799/" title="Link: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/08/07/emancipation-day-marks-slaverys-end-kentucky/31277799/">Kentucky</a>.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2021/06/22/360236/the-reading-quilt-juneteenth" target="_blank">The Reading Quilt: Juneteenth</a></h4>
<p>Each month “The Reading Quilt” provides a short review of a book that a parent may use to spark conversations about culture and race, along with a learning activity that may help students... <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2021/06/22/360236/the-reading-quilt-juneteenth">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><p><br></p><h2>Slavery by another name</h2><br><p>After the Civil War, the <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/learn/educational-resources/historical-documents/the-reconstruction-amendments">three Reconstruction Amendments</a> to the U.S. Constitution each contained loopholes that aided the ongoing oppression of Black communities.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/13th-amendment">Thirteenth Amendment of 1865</a> allowed for the enslavement of incarcerated people <a href="https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-convict-leasing/">through convict leasing</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/14th-amendment">Fourteenth Amendment of 1868</a> permitted incarcerated people to be denied the right to vote.</p><p>And the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/15th-amendment">Fifteenth Amendment of 1870</a> failed to explicitly ban forms of <a href="https://time.com/6165147/fifteenth-amendment-racial-equality-today/">voter suppression</a> that targeted Black voters and would intensify during the coming Jim Crow era.</p><p>In fact, <a href="https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/general-order-no-3">Granger’s Order No. 3</a>, on June 19, 1865, spelled it out.</p><p>Freeing the slaves, the order read, “involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property, between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, become that between employer and hired labor.”</p><p>Yet, the order further states: “The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.”</p><p><br></p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010583/fill/700x0/Abolition_de_l_esclavage_aux_USA.png?timestamp=1687980411" title="Image: https://cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010583/fill/700x0/Abolition_de_l_esclavage_aux_USA.png?timestamp=1687980411">Image: An illustration depicting Emancipation, by Thomas Nast (1840-1902). Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abolition_de_l%27esclavage_aux_USA.png" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a><br></p><h2><br></h2><h2>The meaning of Juneteenth</h2><br><p>Since the moment emancipation celebrations started on March 1, 1780, all the way up to June 19, 1865, Black crowds gathered to seek redress for slavery.</p><p>On that first Juneteenth in Texas, and increasingly so during the ones that followed, free people celebrated their resilience amid the failure of emancipation to bring full freedom.</p><p>They stood for the end of debt bondage, racial policing and discriminatory laws that unjustly harmed Black communities. They elevated their collective imagination from out of the spiritual sinkhole of white property rule.</p><p>Over the decades, the traditions of Juneteenth ripened into larger gatherings in public parks, with barbecue picnics and firecrackers and street parades with brass bands.</p><p>At the end of his 1999 posthumously published novel, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46133/juneteenth-by-ralph-ellison/" title="Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46133/juneteenth-by-ralph-ellison/">Juneteenth</a>,” noted Black author <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/05/30/317056807/ralph-ellison-no-longer-the-invisible-man-100-years-after-his-birth">Ralph Ellison</a> called for a poignant question to be asked on Emancipation Day: “How the hell do we get love into politics or compassion into history?”</p><p>The question calls for a pause as much today as ever before.</p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education" target="_blank" title="Link: /2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education"><img src="//cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1008591/fit/80x80/Black_Lives_Matter__Anti-racism_rally_at_Canada_Place__49976256622_.jpeg?timestamp=1687981380" alt="Juneteenth matters for thinking about race relations in Canada and Canadian education" class="media-object" title="Image: //cdn3.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1008591/fit/80x80/Black_Lives_Matter__Anti-racism_rally_at_Canada_Place__49976256622_.jpeg?timestamp=1687981380"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education" target="_blank" title="Link: /2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education">Juneteenth matters for thinking about race relations in Canada and Canadian education</a></h4>
<p>While this is not an official holiday in Canada, it is significant for thinking about the history of race, racial relations and education. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/22/438878/juneteenth-matters-for-thinking-about-race-relations-in-canada-and-canadian-education">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-" target="_blank" title="Link: /2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-"><img src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/972265/fit/80x80/Joseph_Rainey.jpg?timestamp=1687981489" alt="Who was Joseph Hayne Rainey?" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-" target="_blank">Who was Joseph Hayne Rainey?</a></h4>
<p>Joseph Hayne Rainey was the second African American to serve in Congress and the first to fill in the House of Representatives. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/12/27/422150/who-was-joseph-hayne-rainey-">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change" target="_blank"><img src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/998748/fit/80x80/Young_African_American_woman__three-quarter_length_portrait__facing_slightly_right__with_hands_folded_on_her_lap_LCCN98517067.jpeg?timestamp=1687981504" alt="How Black people in the 19th century used photography as a tool for social change" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change" target="_blank" title="Link: /2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change">How Black people in the 19th century used photography as a tool for social change</a></h4>
<p>To pose for a photograph became an empowering act for African Americans. It served as a way to counteract racist caricatures that distort facial features and mocked Black society. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/05/05/434145/how-black-people-in-the-19th-century-used-photography-as-a-tool-for-social-change">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><div><div><div><div><div></div></div></div></div></div><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>urn:uuid:24e0ded2-8f62-4ad2-8721-d81bf2af5c312023-06-27T14:52:57-04:002023-06-28T14:16:16-04:00Aztec and Maya civilizations are household names, especially in Black communities – but it’s the Olmecs who are the ‘mother culture’ of ancient Mesoamerica2023-06-29 14:00:00 -0400The Conversation via Reuters ConnectImage: An Olmec structure at the archaeological site in Chalcatzingo. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zona_arqueol%C3%B3gica_de_Chalcatzingo,_Morelos.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a><br><br><br>An extremely important 1-ton sculpture, sometimes referred to by archaeologists as an “Earth Monster” or Monument 9, was <a href="https://www.gob.mx/sre/prensa/chalcatzingo-monument-9-to-be-repatriated-to-mexico">repatriated to Mexico</a> from a private collection in Colorado in May 2023, according to an announcement from Mexico’s Consul General in New York. The monument features the head of a front-facing creature with a gaping mouth: a supernatural being that represented the <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/307636#:%7E:text=Many%20ancient%20American%20peoples%20conceived,monster%20floating%20on%20the%20sea.">living, animate earth</a><span> to an ancient culture in Central America and Mexico.<br><br></span><p>This sculpture was reportedly found at the base of a hill at Chalcatzingo, an archaeological site some 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Mexico City, and dates to roughly 600 B.C. Chalcatzingo is closely related to Olmec culture, <a href="https://www.doaks.org/resources/olmec-art/introduction">one of the earliest in ancient Mesoamerica</a>.</p><p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DIaCkfEAAAAJ">I am an archaeologist</a> specializing in Mesoamerica: an area that encompassed present-day southern Mexico, parts of Costa Rica and all of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. I have visited Chalcatzingo many times while researching the development of this rich cultural region.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010536/fill/700x0/olmec_20earth_20monster.jpeg?timestamp=1687973348">"Earth Monster" sculpture known as Monument 9 (cropped). Source: <a href="https://twitter.com/m_ebrard/status/1641876096189620246?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1641876096189620246%7Ctwgr%5E117a9ce7f1b57cae7e51288e9389d15957077790%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconversation.com%2Faztec-and-maya-civilizations-are-household-names-but-its-the-olmecs-who-are-the-mother-culture-of-ancient-mesoamerica-206380" target="_blank">Twitter | @m_ebrard</a></div><p><br></p><p>Many scholars regard the Olmec as the “mother culture” of ancient Mesoamerica, a civilization where particular types of monumental architecture, sculpture and gods originated. Among the later Maya, for example, the gods of wind, rain <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/RESvn1ms20166943">and corn</a> – or more precisely, maize – are clearly derived from the earlier Olmec culture.<br></p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
<span class="pull-left"><a href="/2022/08/28/409483/the-benin-bronze-head-secrets-of-a-classic-piece" target="_blank"><img alt="pHead of an Oba of Benin Source - Flickr brp" src="//cdn0.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/944659/fit/80x80/image1.jpg?timestamp=1687976074" class="media-object"></a></span>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/08/28/409483/the-benin-bronze-head-secrets-of-a-classic-piece" target="_blank">The Benin Bronze Head: Secrets of a Classic Piece </a></h4>
<p>For centuries, this head has been shrouded in mystery, with historians and art experts unable to determine its true origin. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2022/08/28/409483/the-benin-bronze-head-secrets-of-a-classic-piece">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><h2>Elaborate art</h2><p><br></p><p>The Olmec heartland was in what are now the Mexican states of Tabasco and southern Veracruz, along the southern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Much of their influence was based on economic wealth from corn.</p><p>Of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/olmc/hd_olmc.htm">Olmec art that has survived the centuries</a>, their carved heads are particularly striking and well known. By 1000 B.C., Olmec sculptors at San Lorenzo, Mexico, had fashioned no fewer than 10 colossal heads, all over 6 feet high. Archaeologists believe these are individualized portraits of rulers, each with their own specific headdress: depictions of specific people, which is quite rare in New World art.</p><p>The Olmecs were also <a href="https://www.doaks.org/resources/olmec-art/olmec-art-at-dumbarton-oaks">masters in the carving of jade</a>. I was involved in locating the original Olmec and Maya <a href="http://www.famsi.org/reports/03023/03023Taube01.pdf">jadeite sources</a> in highland eastern Guatemala, found in stone outcrops often located about 6,000 feet above sea level.</p><p>Artisans beginning around 900 B.C. carved <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/722138">life-size jade masks</a> that almost look like molded plastic, but which must have been the result of a laborious process to grind and polish this extremely hard, dense stone.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010534/fill/700x0/olmec_20jade.jpeg?timestamp=1687972973">Image: Olmec jade votive axe. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Museum_Olmec_jade_votive_axe.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></div><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/06/01/436994/nigeria-s-city-of-il-if-has-survived-and-thrived-for-1-000-years-here-s-how" target="_blank">Nigeria’s city of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ has survived and thrived for 1,000 years: here’s how</a></h4>
<p>Ilé-Ifẹ̀ occupies a central place in Yorùbá history and identity. It is claimed to be the harbinger of Yorùbá civilisation. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/01/436994/nigeria-s-city-of-il-if-has-survived-and-thrived-for-1-000-years-here-s-how">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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</p><p> </p><h2>Sacred system</h2><br><p>All Olmec sculpture was created for a purpose, whether it be religious or political. In the case of Monument 9, it clearly pertains to the Earth, which in Mesoamerica was considered <a href="https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292725966/">a sacred, living being</a>.</p><p>The Olmecs existed at a time <a href="https://www.fsu.edu/news/2007/04/10/maize.farming/">when maize agriculture had first developed</a>, which stabilized and increased their economy – a transformative shift in the development of Mesoamerican civilization.</p><p>During this period, they developed an elaborate religious system that emphasized the sacredness of corn and rain, including a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/RESvn1ms20166943">maize god</a>. Quite frequently, this deity is depicted with an ear of corn emerging out of the center of his cleft head. In other cases, the head is sharply turned back, invoking growing corn. This form appears in Teopantecuantitlán, an archaeological site in highland Mexico, where there is <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780884023647">a masonry court</a> with four images of the Olmec maize god.</p><p>As a tall grass, corn needs a great deal of water to survive the summer, making rain all-important. Trying to please <a href="https://mexiconewsdaily.com/mexicolife/ancient-god-tlaloc-is-alive-and-well/">the rain god</a> in return for rain was a vital part of Olmec religion.</p><p>The Olmec <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42622279">spread similar practices and beliefs</a> across ancient Mexico and Guatemala, probably in part to engage other peoples more directly with their economic trade network. Rather than an empire of domination, the Olmec were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/RESvn1ms20166943">a culture focused on agricultural abundance and wealth</a>.</p><p>Sacred mountains were of extreme importance as well, as can be seen at Chalcatzingo and at a hill called Cerro El Manatí, located very close to the site at San Lorenzo. At this hill, there is a perennial spring with sweet freshwater that fills a pool below at the base. In this pool, the Olmec offered a huge amount of valued material, including rubber balls for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316534663.017">ritual sport</a>, as well as many jadeite axes. According to two scholars of Mesoamerica, Ponciano Ortiz and María del Carmen Rodríguez, this is the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42622268">first clear example</a> of a sacred mountain of abundance, which persists in Mesoamerican belief and ritual to this day.</p><p><br></p><div class="image-main"><img alt="" src="//cdn1.locable.com/uploads/resource/file/1010541/fill/700x0/Chalcatzingo_ballcourt.jpeg?timestamp=1687974641">Image: Ballcourt in Chalcatzingo, Morelos, with Mt. Popocatepetl in the background. Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chalcatzingo_ballcourt.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></div><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2022/08/03/407848/african-nok-culture-a-wealth-of-notable-artefacts-and-inspirational-symbolism" target="_blank">African Nok Culture: A Wealth of Notable Artefacts and Inspirational Symbolism </a></h4>
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</p><p> </p><h2>Earth Monster’s home</h2><br><p>Far to the west of the Olmec heartland, in the Mexican state of Morelos, is Cerro Chalcatzingo, the site where the Earth Monster monument originated. Here, the Olmec focus on the mountain as a provider of wealth and sustenance, portrayed in several sculptures as a cave.</p><p>Even before Olmec times, the idea of fertile caves was shown as <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/RESvn1ms25769973?journalCode=res">a four-lobed motif</a> resembling a flower – an important symbol that continued even into the 16th century with the Aztec.</p><p>The most famous Olmec bedrock carving at Chalcatzingo is called Monument 1 and <a href="https://www.academia.edu/423403/The_Breath_of_Life_Symbolism_of_Wind_In_Mesoamerica_and_the_American_Southwest">features a woman in profile</a> – probably a goddess – seated within the cave. This carving is directly above where rainwater pours down from the top of the mountain. Below are what archaeologists call “cupules”: cuplike holes carved in bedrock directly below to receive this water, and collected by priests and pilgrims. On the opposite side of the hill is another rock carving featuring the same cave in profile, facing Monument 1.</p><p>Sadly, Monument 9, which was recently returned to Mexico, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/278598">was looted from the site</a>, so its original context is unknown. In archaeology, it is important to understand not only when an object was made and who created it, but where it was placed. Nonetheless, Monument 9 portrays the same cave as two other sculptures at the site, which are carved directly into the rock surface of the mountain.</p><p>Monument 9 is significant, as it denotes the central Earth Monster cave, and unlike the other two Olmec carvings, it is face-on rather than rendered in profile. It probably was placed against a mound with its open mouth leading to a chamber inside, symbolizing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/RESvn1ms25769973">a portal to the underworld</a>.</p><p>That this highly sacred object is back in Mexico is of utmost importance for Indigenous Mexicans. To its creators, Monument 9 likely represented the source of life and abundance, as well as sacred rituals associated with them – ideas and practices that pervaded subsequent Mesoamerican civilizations.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>Read also:</p><div class="media clearfix">
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<p>The ongoing Samburu rock art tradition presents a unique chance to know where, when and why rock art was created. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/06/07/437719/kenya-s-samburu-warriors-still-practice-a-rock-art-african-tradition-that-tells-their-stories">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<h4 class="media-heading"><a href="/2023/02/06/425833/nigeria-s-ancient-ancestral-rock-where-history-meets-tourism" target="_blank">Nigeria’s Ancient Ancestral Rock: Where History meets Tourism</a></h4>
<p>The stone is a substantial monument created by nature, using local resources, and Its patron spirit is revered in the Yoruba religion as an Orisha. <span class="pull-right"><a href="/2023/02/06/425833/nigeria-s-ancient-ancestral-rock-where-history-meets-tourism">Read More »</a></span> </p>
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<p> </p><hr /><p><small>Original article published at <a href="www.funtimesmagazine.com">FunTimes Magazine</a></small></p>