Garvey's Ghost: Black Talk

Kuumba

Today we contemplate Kuumba: Creativity. One thing that is afforded black people is that we are creative when it comes to the arts and sports. It takes creativity to develop the multitude of music genres that we have taken world wide. We have made fashion statements that are equally world domininating. Our street slang has become the definition of cool. But in other areas our creativity has been stunted. I shall let others speak for me on this matter:

" The National middle class which takes over power at the end of the colonial regime is an underdeveloped middle class. It has practically no economic power, and in any case it is no way commensurate with the bourgeoisie of the mother country which it hopes to replace. In its narcissism, the national middle class is easily convinced that it can advantageously replace the middle class of the mother country, But the same independence which literally drives it into a corner wil give rise within its ranks to catastrophic reactions, and will oblige it to send out frenzied appeals for help to the former mother country. The university and merchant class which make up the most enlightened section of the new state are in fact characterised by the smallness of rtheir number and their being concentrated in the capital, and the tupe of activities in which they are engaged: business, agriculture, and the liberal professions, Neither financiers not industrial magnates are to be found within this national middle class. The National bourgeoisie of underdeveloped countries is not engaged in production, nor in invention, not building nor labor; it is completely canalized into activities of the intermediary type. It's innermost vocation seems to be to keep in the running and to be a part of the racket. The psychology of the national bourgeoisie is that of the businessman, not that of a captain of industry...From its point of view, which is inevitably a very limited one, a national economy is an economy based on what may be called local products. Long speeched [or award shows] will be made about the artisan class with a chauvanistic tenderness in keeping with the new awareness of national [racial] dignity, and which moreover will bring them in quite a bit of money...."

Franz Fanon

" history shows then, that as a result of these unusual forces in the education of the Negro he easily learns to follow the line of least resistance rather than battle against odds for what real history has shown to be the right course. A mind remains in the present atmosphere never undergoes sufficient development to experience what is commonly known as thinking...Even the few Negroes who are elected to office are often similarly uninformed and show a lack of vision. They have given little attention to the weighty problems of the nation; and in the legislative bodies to which they are elected, they restrict themselves as a rule to matters of special concern to the Negroes themselves, such as lynching, segregation and disenfranchisement, which they have well learned by experience.

The problem of holding the Negro down, therefore, is easily solved. When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he wil cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it neccesary."

Carter G. Woodson.

Are you thinking creatively or are you acting out a role made for you?

Peace