Black Orpheus and the critique of Satre’s introduction to Negritude, on Kindle

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Black Orpheus is a systematization of black aesthetics, in that very sense of excellence that Negritude sought; the problem is not that it is wrong —a perspective cannot be wrong— but the function it fulfills in that exact sense.  As this, it is understood that a perspective is always correct, because it is functional and responds to an object of its own; It therefore has no absolute or objective value, insofar as it is an understanding of its object, not its own value.

The problem with Black Orpheus is that it does not obey the interests of the blacks, whom it seems to represent; but subordinates it, just like the tradition against which it stands, although in intelligence and not economics. After all, it is the culture that has evolved, already from the economic apotheosis of modern capitalism; focusing now on that of the idealistic transcendentalism of its intelligence, as the new capital in its political determination.

The Negro must maintain his same position in  this transcendentalism, together with the worker with whom he is identified; all under the aegis of the intellectual elites, who emulate in its conventionalism the  bureaucracy of the palace eunuchs. That is the importance of this book, whose critique will then establish the new existential reference for the black thought; just as Platonic transcendentalism was critically adjusted with realism, at the base of the West culture we are looking at.

This is also then the importance of this critique of the Orpheus, as an introduction to the introduction of blackness; providing the parameters for a more systematic and total correction of the ontological tradition of the West.  In short, the errors  of Sartre's critique of the claims of Negritude were not ideological; as a perspective too, it is exempt from that objectivity that would confer absolute and dogmatic value. Sartre's errors are of the ontology on which it is based, and therefore do not allow him to understand Senghor's proposal; which is the alternative ontology of the realist tradition, opposed to the idealist (Kantian-Hegelian), in its aesthetic reflection.

In short, that was the tradition resolved as mythological, in its representation of the determinations of reality; always in function of the concrete entity, in a cosmology as the hermeneutical spectrum of reference for its existential reflection. That is what art resolves, just in the face of the crisis of modern transcendentalism, in moral opposition to its immanentism; all as a false contradiction, by the (Christian)  Manichaeism to which dialectics has been reduced,  with the moral pressure of politics.

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In this sense, Sartre compares —in the Orpheus— the  black problem to this of the Jewish problem, in the Marxist approach; it is wrong in both cases, because the problem is not political —Senghor's mistake—nor can Marx comprehend it, within the limitations of his ontology.  That is what this critique of Sartre's critique introduction of the Senghor’s anthology of the black and Malagasy poetry is about; a clarification with which to reinaugurate the New Black Thought, in a total rethinking  of Negritude.

Forging Diaspora: Afro-Cubans and Arican-Americans in a world of Empire and Jim Crow

This book is capital to understand the historical linkage between two distinct phenomena as race relations in Cuba and Unite States; the best part is its ability to illustrate and organize the historical development of this relationship, with all its complexity. It's not less important the effort of the author to put aside his ideological or political identity, so any person from any background can work with this book; because this, it’s specially recommendable a Spanish translation, for Cuban people understanding its own situation, besides their political background.

At this special moment, Cubans needs to reconstruct their own history and culture, and specially blacks among them; just because black Cubans have lost all their own references, under the weight of the foundational mythology of the revolution. Because this tragedy, black Cubans have lost their own and separate history, on the sense that black Americans haven’t; when that history contains essential points of interests, like Morúa Delgado, the Black Associations, and —more important— the impact on their development of phenomena like Tuskegee University and the Garveyism.

Little we know about the special relationship between Juan Gualberto Gómez and Booker T. Washington; and thus, what that means for the shape black development was having in the republican, besides the grip of the Communist Party. Of course, any history needs a lot of references, and very few times is enough with a sole book to cover its needs; but this is one of those cases when a book may not suffice but gives a lot of what is needed to understand history.

Elements and function of Neo-Africanism in Gullah Geechee Culture

Diana Fletcher

An important element of the north American blackness, due  to its uniqueness,   is its lack of ethnic purity; not in the sense of miscegenation with the white race, less pronounced than in Cuba, but with the indigenous ones. It is this relationship with the Indians that operates their historical integration, even as opposition to the British colonies; affecting the cultural configuration of the Gullah Geechee belt, with the gradual return from forced migration to the Midwest.

This does not happen directly, since  communities removed to the Midwest do not return to the Southeast; but they do mix with the mass migrated to the North with emancipation, and whose descendants do return to the South. This return to the south is disorganized and lacks notable events that give it relevance an historical order; but it occurs punctually, in the general movement of families, in search of individual development. Even so, it have sufficient demographic density for  this reconfiguration of their communities; incorporating not only the political conflict of their complex origin, but also the indigenous cultural elements collected in its history.

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This would be the link of that Gullah Geechee belt with American culture, as its general framework; relativizing the ethnic pressure  it exerts on it, in a complex and dynamic relationship with this framework. There is no doubt  of  the direct ethnic pressure from the Gullah Geechee belt, characterized by its extreme singularity; but this singularity (exceptional) is not functionally distinct from those of the Indian reservations, within that North American spectrum.

Now, precisely because of its lower isolation as an emergent structure, this singularity would be more active than the indigenous ones; allowing in this greater link a more effective pressure than the purely indigenousones, in their concrete practices.  As an aside, this would be what allows a greater incidence of black culture in the renewal of the West culture in general; by infusing it with its own vitality, in the  face of the slow decline of purely indigenous, perfectly isolated with its reservation’s system.

With the precariousness of its equilibrium, it is also this margin  what neutralizes the political pressure of separatism;  since, as we would have seen,  the (neo-African) singularity  is not absolute, like that of the indigenous reserves. This cultural structure does not admit therefore the political alternative that requires a separatist emergency; since  their determinations are those of this American structure, which is what provides them in their functional relativity.

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Note that this impossibility of a total political fracture is characteristic exclusively of the Gullah Geechee singularity; it does not refer to the parallel —and diachronic— process of that other general structure, in  which decays the whole West. In this case, the political trauma would only highlight that singularity of a neo-African culture, making it more conflictive; but it’ll still remains like the transcendent link that hinders this fracture, because of the complex density of its immanence.

As a principle, this contradiction would result in the weakening of the political capacity of this singularity; subordinating it, even tangentially, to the neo-conservative surveillance of the new ideological liberalism. Curiously, however, it also allows the reconciliation of the internal contradictions of this singularity; so it can eventually mature into its own emergence, reverting to that general structure, with its renewal.

Remember that it is a thesis, by which religion is what organizes the hermeneutical spectrum in culture; providing in their cosmogonies the (cosmological) referents for existential reflection, in the praxis of this culture. The religious substructure can no longer provide this supra-structural function, having loss its capacity for political determination; a process matured with Modernity, but brought to its apotheosis as decadence, with postmodernity.

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Alluding to the very precariousness of all equilibrium, this would be a process  that can be accelerated or delayed; always depending on the specific events in which it takes place, but which also make it inevitable as a process.  In any case, it is precisely because of this singularity, which does not contradict but conditions and adjusts its actuality; reaching with this the maturity that achieves the hermeneutic renewal of the West, when religion can no longer fulfill that function.

Elementos de neo africanía en la cultura Gullah Geechee

Diana Fletcher

Un elemento importante de la negritud norteamericana, por su singularidad,  es su falta de pureza étnica; no ya en el sentido de mestizaje con la raza blanca, menos pronunciado que en Cuba, pero sí con las indígenas. Es esta relación con los indígenas la que opera su integración histórica, en oposición a las colonias británicas; afectando la configuración cultural del cinturón Gullah Geechee, con el retorno gradual desde la migración forzada al medio oeste.

Esto no ocurre directamente, ya que esas comunidades removidas hacia el medio oeste no regresan al sureste; pero sí se mezclan con la masa emigrada al norte con la emancipación, y cuyos descendientes sí regresan al sur. Este regreso al sur es desorganizado, y carece de eventos notables, que le otorgue relevancia un orden histórico; sino que ocurre puntualmente, en el movimiento general de las familias, en busca de desarrollo individual. No obstante, aun así tiene suficiente densidad demográfica, como para esta reconfiguración de sus comunidades; incorporando no solo la conflictividad política de su complejo origen, sino también los elementos culturales indígenas, recogidos en este recorrido.

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Este sería el vínculo de ese cinturón Gullah Geechee con la cultura norteamericana, como su marco general; relativizando esa presión étnica que ejerce sobre esta, en una relación compleja y dinámica con este marco suyo. No hay dudas de presión étnica directa del cinturón Gullah Geechee, caracterizado por su extrema singularidad; pero esta singularidad no es funcionalmente distinta de las de las reservas indígenas, dentro de ese espectro norteamericano.

Ahora, justo por su menor isolación como estructura emergente, esta singularidad sería más activa que las indígenas; permitiendo en este mayor vínculo una presión más efectiva que las puramente indígenas, en sus prácticas concretas. Como margen, esto sería lo que permita una mayor incidencia de la cultura negra en la renovación de Occidente; al infundirle su propia vitalidad, frente a la lenta declinación de las puramente indígenas, perfectamente aisladas en su sistema de reservas.

Con la precariedad de su equilibrio, es también este margen lo que neutraliza la presión política del separatismo; ya que, como se habría visto,  la singularidad (neoafricana) no es absoluta como la de las reservas indígenas. Esta estructura cultural no admite entonces la alternativa política que requiere una emergencia separatista; ya que sus determinaciones son propias de esta estructura norteamericana, que es la que las provee en su relatividad funcional.

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Téngase en cuenta que, esta imposibilidad de una fractura política total, es propia de la singularidad Gullah Geechee; no se refiere al proceso paralelo —y diacrónico— del otro de esa estructura general, en la que decae Occidente. En este caso, el trauma político sólo remarcaría esa singularidad de una cultura neoafricana, haciéndola más conflictiva; pero manteniéndose aún, como el vínculo trascendente que dificulta dicha fractura, por la compleja densidad de su inmanencia

Como principio, esta contradicción redundaría en el debilitamiento de la capacidad política de esta singularidad; subordinándola, siquiera tangencialmente, a la vigilancia neo conservadora del nuevo liberalismo ideológico. Curiosamente sin embargo, también permite la conciliación de las contradicciones internas de esta singularidad; de modo que eventualmente puede madurar en su propia emergencia, revirtiéndose sobre esa estructura general, con su renovación.

Recuérdese que se trata de una tesis, por la que la religión es la que organiza el espectro hermenéutico en la cultura; brindando en sus cosmogonías los referentes (cosmológicos) para la reflexión existencial, en la praxis de esta cultura. La subestructura religiosa no puede ya suplir esta función supra estructural, al perder capacidad de determinación política; un proceso madurado con la Modernidad, pero llevado a su apoteosis como decadencia, con la postmodernidad.

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Aludiendo a la misma precariedad de todo equilibrio, esto sería un proceso que puede ser acelerado o retardado; siempre en función de los eventos concretos en que se realiza, pero que también lo hacen inevitable como proceso. En todo caso, se trata del futuro del país justo por esta singularidad, que no contradice sino condiciona y ajusta su actualidad; para conseguir la madurez que consiga la renovación hermenéutica de Occidente, cuando ya la religión no puede cumplir dicha función.