In this episode, we’re going to showcase several African poets and talk about the role of poetry and culture in the African anti-colonial struggle.
We know that the spoken word is powerful. If not, colonizers would not have stripped Africans of their names, their language, their traditions and their songs.
The anticolonial writer from Martinique Aime Cesaire wrote extensively on the power of poetry, the spoken word and culture. In the important essay, “Poetry and Knowledge”, Cesaire argued that poetry was an anticolonial tool because it challenged the conventions of colonial society and allowed the oppressed to imagine new worlds.
In the essay, "Poetry is not a luxury," Audre Lorde wrote, “poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hope and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into tangible action. Poetry is the way we can help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.”
There is not a time in the struggle for African liberation that we have not seen the power of spoken word, poetry and music as anticolonial cultural influencers.
Today we will speak with revolutionary culture workers including FoFeet Alkebulan. FoFeet is the Economic Development Coordinator and organizer with the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement in St. Louis. As part of her organizing efforts, FoFeet organizes the Musa Abantu Poetry Nights for the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement.
FoFeet is joined by Valerie VKween Young from St. Louis Missouri, Jheanelle Owens from Jamaica, and Dzidzor from Boston.
We also showcase the poetry of Claude McKay and Gil Scot Heron.
The People's War radio show is produced by WBPU 96.3 FM "Black Power 96" in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is hosted by Dr. Matsemela Odom and Dexter Mlimwengu, bringing an African Internationalist perspective to the important issues of our world.
Episode #88: Touch One! Touch All! Denzel Draughn acquitted for pepper spraying San Diego cops
Episode #87: Africans in St. Petersburg Florida Demands Reparations! Take Back the Dome!
Episode #86: From Protest to Power: Kyle Rittenhouse, Ahmaud Arbery and the Black People‘s Court
Episode #85: NoThanks to Colonialism--African and Indigenous Solidarity and Anticolonial Resistance
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #84: Deepening the Resistance to Police Terror--The 13th Annual Black People‘s March on the White House
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #83: Live like Huey!--The African Working Class Defends the Legacy of Huey Newton
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #82: ”Stop stealing our babies”–African Women organize against CPS
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #81: ”Water more poisoned than Flint‘s”--Activists on the Benton Harbor Water Crisis
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #80: 55th Anniversary of ”The Battle of Algiers”: Anticolonialism, Revolutionary Film, and Afro-Asian Solidarity
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #79: The Road to Socialism is Painted Black!
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #78: Organizers demand the US Stop the Deportations and Reparations to Haiti and All African People
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #77: “The Truth About Afghanistan - Colonialism: the graveyard of imperialism Part 2”
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #76: “The Truth About Afghanistan - Colonialism: the graveyard of imperialism”
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #75: Getting Fit for the Revolution
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #74: It‘s 2021! African Workers Unite! Let‘s Get it Done!
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #72: Long Live Marcus Garvey!
The People's War Radio Show, Episode #71: Black August: Free our political prisoners!
The People's War Show, Episode #70: Tribute to Glen Ford, African freedom fighter
The People’s War Radio Show, Episode #69: Africans continue fight against COVID, Vaccine protocols issued
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free