Presenters:
Latif A. Tarik
My discussion will focus on the recent publication (Kendall Hunt, 2021) Black Freedom Struggles: Africana Reader which is a testament to Black excellence throughout the Africana world. The focus of Black Freedom Struggles is not to dwell on the oppression of Black people. The purpose is to show Black agency and teach common struggle. The Africana world witnessed some of the best leadership often developed at the community level. The development of Black Freedom Struggles incorporates the “Horne’s Thesis” named after Gerald Horne a prolific African diaspora scholar who methodology and scholarship challenge scholars to expand the capacity of their historiography to account for the complexity, magnitude, range, and tenacity of Black identity, cultural formation, and political engagement. Concepts such as African diaspora, transAfricanism, the Black Atlantic, and Pan-Africanism, will help students learn and explore strategies to learn about Africa and the African diaspora. This will allow students to understand how the concepts used in the reader are pertinent to historical study, examining Africa, and the diaspora current relationship to the global Black world. I will discuss Section I: Origins of Black Freedom Struggles which focuses on all Black settlements as communities of cultural enclaves, self-preservation, heritage, freedom, and culture. I will compare and contrast Black settlements in relationship to the Gullah Geechee Corridor and the African Diaspora.
Length: 60 minutes