Is it possible for black to repatriate to africa?

[blacka]

Many artists sing about going back to africa but i think this is fantasy because as an afrian from kenya myself i can say that conditions in africa r too tuff for anyone who was not born there.please tell me what u think.

[Vinnie]

i think it is irrelevant

marcus garvy was (in my opinion) refering to breaking from the shackles and chains of slavery and white oppression
and going to the promised land, freedom

[Vinnie]

and i dare to say in those days life in africa was better (for black people)than in the US compared to now

[picaraza]

Vinnie,

Where exactly in Africa was life better than in the United States? "Rhodesia"? South Africa? Congo?

I dare say that when Marcus Garvey was alive, there were few independent nations in Africa-- Liberia and Ethiopia, I think. And at the end of Garvey's life Ethiopia was occupied by fascist Italy.

[picaraza]

Just remembered there is a terrific article in a recent edition of the New York Review of Books about repatriation that discusses a number of recent books as well as the author's personal experience.

Unfortunately the article is not available for free online. Worth checking out at your library if you have a chance. Or you can buy access for $2 online. http://www.nybooks.com/contents/20070927

Very thought provoking.



Kwame Anthony Appiah, "What Was Africa to Them?*"

The Door of No Return: The History of Cape Coast Castle and the Atlantic Slave Trade by William St Clair

Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787–2005 by James T. Campbell

American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era by Kevin K. Gaines

Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond by Ekow Eshun, with illustrations by Chris Ofili

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman

[Vinnie]

Vinnie,

Where exactly in Africa was life better than in the United States? "Rhodesia"? South Africa? Congo?

I dare say that when Marcus Garvey was alive, there were few independent nations in Africa-- Liberia and Ethiopia, I think. And at the end of Garvey's life Ethiopia was occupied by fascist Italy.

you are correct there

[bleep]

makes me think of this hop hop song from a rapper in africa one line he says " so you think your tough? everday i hunt for food and avoid the soliders with ak" ....he was taking a jab at american hip hoppers who sing about the tough old ghetto life they live in usa,as if it were a joke to him and more like luxury their u.s.a ghetto.

stange huh one mans ghetto is anothers paradise

[blessup]

Leggo Rocker, You nailed it My Bredren!

[Vinnie]

i believe this was the reason why marcus garvey founded the blackstar liner tho to repatriate to africa

[picaraza]

@leggo,

Yes, but in that context "Zion" and "Babylon" are metaphors. Similarly, "Africa" may be used as a metaphor.

But the topic is repatriation--physically packing your bags and moving to the continent of Africa.

Rasta grew out of Garvey's Back-to-Africa movement. Certainly, if Garvey is considered to be a prophet his words and deeds must be taken very seriously. And. as Vinnie points out, the Black Star Line was not a metaphor, but an earnest effort to transport Americans to Africa.

Spiritual journeys are one thing, but pan-Africanism, Afro-centrism, black separatism, and repatriation are also in-the-world (corporeal) political movements.

I don't see Rasta as being "quietistic" in any sense. I don't see an indifference to politics or the in-the-world the needs of "blood, flesh, and bone bags". Politics matter.

(But then, I am an outsider looking in.}