W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963)

This collection of fourteen essays is written in an ornate style that shouldn’t obscure their enduring relevance, one hundred twenty years after the book appeared. Not that everything has remained the same since then—even Du Bois developed and changed his thinking over time. Perhaps conditions are not precisely as rendered in the two essays based on his sociological fieldwork in Dougherty County, in southwest Georgia. Nevertheless, they brought to mind and helped me understand what my child’s eyes took in uncomprehendingly sixty-five, seventy years ago as we drove the pre-Interstate Georgia roads.
Perhaps the felt relevance indicates that material change can outpace change in attitude and perception.
One of my favorite essays dealt with the history of the Black church. Another, on the death at eighteen months of his firstborn, was a poignant, bitter expression of the divided soul of the Black man.
Reading this book, I was struck again by the thought that accompanied me throughout my visit to the Smithsonian African American History and Culture Museum. No matter which side of what Du Bois calls “the Veil” we find ourselves on, this is our story. This is a book about and for all of us.… (plus d'informations)

A sometimes curious collection of writing from W.E.B. Du Bois, first published in 1920 and consisting of political essays, autobiographical content, allegorical poetry, and short stories, republished in 2022 by Flame Tree 451 rather oddly in their “Essential Gothic, Science Fiction & Dark Fantasy” series, complete with a useless glossary of Victorian terms. It’s at its best when Du Bois writes of his life and speaks such searing truth about racism, capitalistic excess, and world events, but it’s tortured and rather overwrought when he ventures into poetry and fiction. If I were to re-read it, or recommend it, I would say to simply skip this latter stuff.

Du Bois’ non-fiction essays were like a beacon at a time when America was mired in the nadir of race relations; this was a time of lynchings, massacres, segregation, sundown towns, and the President enthusiastically watching The Birth of a Nation in the White House. He is insightful and presages the rise of White Nationalism and Hitler in his brilliant chapter The Souls of White Folk. He points out America’s hypocrisy in making the “World Safe for Democracy” and condemning Germany for things like the Rape of Belgium in 1918 when it was committing its own atrocities all over the country. He criticizes colonialism and the teaching of world history in ways that are skewed towards white people and Western European nations. He speaks up for the working man against greedy businessmen, and points out the irony of white blue collar workers thinking their black counterparts were the enemy. He speaks up for women, and black women in particular. A great deal of it is still highly relevant today.

Du Bois was very well read and abreast of current events, which he often references without full explanation. A better modern edition would have included footnotes for the reader, but I didn’t mind pausing to look things up as I went. Reading The Shadow of Years had me referencing the lynching of Sam Hose in 1899, Of Work and Wealth spurs a reading on the massacres of black people in East St. Louis over May-July 1917, and The Second Coming the May 1918 lynchings and horrifying brutality in Valdosta Georgia (including to Mary Turner and her unborn baby).

On a lighter note, The Immortal Child had me sampling composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s works. And in one of his more extraordinary moments, after describing a litany of ways everyday racism may be encountered in Of Beauty and Death, he points out that “we cannot forget that this world is beautiful,” which gave me goosebumps.

Just this quote, on the wealth gap:
“Thus the shadow of hunger, in a world which never needs to be hungry, drives us to war and murder and hate. But why does hunger shadow so vast a mass of men? Manifestly because in the great organizing of men for work a few of the participants come out with more wealth than they can possibly use, while a vast number emerge with less they can decently support life. In earlier economic stages we defended this as the reward of Thrift and Sacrifice, and the punishment of Ignorance and Crime. To this the answer is sharp: Sacrifice calls for no such reward and Ignorance deserves no such punishment.”… (plus d'informations)

Hakim Adi's selection of writings about Britain (mainly England) by Black people of the late 18th to the early 20th century is carefully chosen to establish their presence in all strata of society at a date earlier than certain commentators would wish it known. There's a thread showing the development of abolitionism into emancipation into supremacism to justify the continued exploitation of Black Labour, and Adi's selections often strongly resonate with current issues, such as the Windrush scandal and the illegal Tory Rwanda deportation policy.

There's also many fascinating glimpses into Georgian and Victorian society and, while varying degrees of racism are noted, many of the impressions of visitors to the island are positive about their reception and of the culture in which they find themselves.

A nuanced and balanced selection of historical testimonies which I thoroughly enjoyed reading, not least the short section on John Ocansey's day trip from Liverpool to my home town of Southport 🏖️… (plus d'informations)