In a recent book on the ongoing relevance of Walter Rodney’s work, Karim F. Hirji notes that, “as with scores of progressive intellectuals and activists of the past, the prevailing ideology functions to relegate Rodney into the deepest, almost unreachable, ravines of memory. A person who was widely known is now a nonentity, a stranger to the youth in Africa and the Caribbean” and the U.S. Rodney’s theoretical and practical contributions to the socialist movement warrant an ongoing engagement with his life story and major texts.

Rodney’s most recent, posthumously-published text, The Russian Revolution: A View from the Third World, offers an important perspective on the time period in which it was written and the internal position of the author. Rodney’s family worked with Robin Kelley in taking Walter’s extensive lecture notes on the Russian revolutionary era and forming them into a complete manuscript.

This essay, which complements our new study guide on The Russian Revolution, offers a brief overview of Rodney’s background historical context. Highlighting aspects of Rodney’s individual life demonstrates that his commitments were not just the result of his own individual experiences and conclusions, but were part of and emerged from the revolutionary crisis ripping through the world at the time. To better comprehend A View from the Third World, we turn to Groundings with My Brothers, which Rodney produced as a relatively new professor in Jamaica. In that book, Rodney reflects on the dialectical pedagogy he developed to make his academic labor part of the global movement against capitalist imperialism, which he also called the white power structure.

Read the full article here: https://www.liberationschool.org/walter-rodney-a-peoples-professor/

Walter Rodney: A people’s professor

We're back for the third season of BlackTalk, and we are excited to kick off with Professor Rinaldo Walcott! 

Dr. Walcott is Professor and Chair in the Department of Africana and American Studies at the University of Buffalo; there he is also the Carl V. Granger Chair in Africana and American Studies. Rinaldo’s research focuses on the cultural expression of Black life with an interest in the transnational, diasporic, and the national crosscurrents of Black creativities. Rinaldo is the author of a number of single-authored, co-authored, and co-edited books. His more recent work is The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom (Duke, 2021) and On Property: Policing, Prisons, and the Call for Abolition (Biblioasis, 2021) which was shortlisted for the Toronto Book Award in 2021. Currently, Rinaldo is working on two monographs, one on freedom and the sea, and another on Black queer expressive culture. A third work seeks to grapple with the possibilities of achieving utopia from the grips of the catastrophe that threatens to consume all of planetary life. Rinaldo was born in Barbados. He divides his time between the city of Buffalo and the city of Toronto. 

In this episode, Rinaldo speaks about what it means to decolonize a curriculum, campus, and country. He also examines the role of Black studies in our broader community and unpacks the meaning of “diaspora,” the “myth of multiculturalism,” and the Black Canadian experience.

https://arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/africana-and-american-studies/faculty/faculty-directory/walcott-rinaldo.html

https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-long-emancipation

https://www.biblioasis.com/shop/non-fiction/cultural-criticism/on-property/

Episode 13 - Dr. Rinaldo Walcott

As a producer, Lamin Fofana makes ambient music that makes you think. His painterly compositions may be beatless, but they're full of movement, expanding and contracting from modulations and shifting frequencies to create a sense of infinite vastness. This immensity of sound creates a cerebral mood, allowing the Sierra Leone-born talent to explore sociocultural issues close to his heart, like the geographies of the African diaspora and what he calls Western rationality in music.

He translates this heavy subject matter into textural sound using narrative structure, field recordings and archival material. The final product could be an album or an audio-based installation. Rooted in themes of identity and belonging, his exhibitions seek to disorient the senses and have been shown around Europe, including the Biennial in Venice and Liverpool.

On his RA Podcast, the New York-based artist presents an all-original mix of loopy techno that mirrors the dynamism of his ambient productions. Laced with acid and pulsing synths, these cuts are faster paced and geared for dance floors, but they share the atmospheric touch of his earlier work. Based on the interview below, it seems like we'll be seeing more of this side of him in the year ahead.

@laminfofana

Read more at https://ra.co/podcast/892

RA podcast

RA.892 Lamin Fofana

AfricaNow! July 5, 2023 Black Studies in Cuba--The Case of Malcolm X and the Universal Negro Improvement Association 

Topic and Guests: Today we feature a discussion which recently took place in Havana Cuba that focused on the Black Studies in the country.  The seminar highlighted the impact of and exchange of ideas with Malcolm X and Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Cuba.  Featured in the discussion are: Dr. Joshua M. Myers is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University and is a member of AfricaNow!’s and Africa World Now Project’s collective and author of the book Of Black Study; Dr. Justin Dunnavant, archaeologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UCLA; Jewell Humphrey, PhD Student at UCLA, Digital Storyteller, Africana Archaeologist; and Professor Kenia Serrano Puig of the University of Havana, organizer of the seminar.  The interpreter is Javier Huerta de la Presilla.

MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro--“EXUBERANTE” BY DIZZY GILLESPIE & MACHITO; break--“TANGA SUITE” BY MARIO BAUZÁ; sign-off--“LEKELA MUADI” BY TSHALA MUANA; closing--“QUILOMBO, O ELDORADO NEGRO” BY GILBERTO GIL commemorating Gilberto Gil’s birthday on June 26.

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFW write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

Photo: UN Cuba map from https://www.un.org/geospatial/content/cuba-0

AfricaNow! Jul. 5, 2023 Black Studies in Cuba--The Case of Malcolm X & the UNIA

Co-founder of Black Lives Matter-Canada and the Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, Syrus Marcus Ware explores the importance of future imagining for Black, queer, trans, disability and collective liberation projects. He speaks to us about the importance of speculative fiction for social movement organizers and radical dreamers. Syrus is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator, and educator. Syrus is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Arts, McMaster University whose work in curation, painting, installation and performance has been widely exhibited in Canada and internationally. Their writing (fiction, non-fiction and academic) can be found in many leading and grassroots venues.

* https://www.syrusmarcusware.com/

The Workers' Speculative Society is a research podcast about the world Amazon is building and the workers, writers and communities that are demanding a different future. It is part of the Worker as Futurist Project, which supports rank-and-file Amazon workers to write speculative fiction about "The World After Amazon. It is hosted by Xenia Benivolski, Max Haiven, Sarah Olutola, and Graeme Webb and is an initiative of RiVAL: The ReImagining Value Action Lab, with support from the Social Sciences a Humanities Research Council of Canada. Editing and theme music by Robert Steenkamer.

* soundcloud.com/reimaginevalue/sets/the-workers-speculative
* workersspeculativesociety.org
* reimaginingvalue.ca

Prototyping Ways of Being - Syrus Marcus Ware on sci-fi activism and imagination (WSS07)

Selwyn R. Cudjoe is currently a Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. He teaches courses on the African American literary tradition, African literature, black women writers, and Caribbean literature. A graduate of Fordham University where he received both a B.A. in English and an M.A. in American Literature, Professor Cudjoe also earned a Ph.D. in American Literature from Cornell University. Prior to joining the Wellesley faculty in 1986, he taught at Ithaca College and Cornell, Harvard, Brandeis, Fordham, and Ohio universities. He has been a lecturer at Auburn (N.Y.) State Prison and taught at Bedford-Stuyvesant (N.Y.) Youth-In-Action. Professor Cudjoe is the author and editor of several books, and has produced several documentaries. He has written for the New York Times; The Washington Post; Boston Globe; Harvard Educational Review; International Herald Tribune; New Left Review; Baltimore Sun; the Amsterdam News; Trinidad Guardian; and Trinidad Express. As president of NAEAP, Prof Cudjoe significantly raised the level of consciousness and activism of peoples of African descent living in the Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago.

In this episode, Dr. Cudjoe addresses the importance of knowing our literary history, building solidarity between Black American theorists and Pan African theorists, the activist legacies of Pan-African leaders, and the role of struggle and resistance in Black literature, among other topics.

Episode 16 - Dr. Selwyn Cudjoe

AfricaNow! August 23, 2023 Of Hesitance: W.E.B Du Bois from Josh Myers’s Of Black Study w/ Nathalie Frédéric Pierre

Topic and Guest: As we continue to commemorate Black August, we feature a critical exploration of Chapter 1 of Dr. Joshua M. Myers’s book Of Black Study.  Chapter 1 is entitled “Of Hesitance: W.E.B. Du Bois.” This is the first of five sessions where we unpack Myers’s meditations on Black Study, a line of thinking that is calling for us to think of ways to merge the material with the nonmaterial. To call into question the very foundations of systems of thought that guide our everyday practices of being human, of being human in the rhythms of Blackness.   This is a conversation between AfricaNow!’s Executive Producer and Co-Host James Pope and Dr. Nathalie Frédéric Pierre, an Assistant Professor of History at Howard University.  

In the classroom and within her research agenda, Professor Pierre highlights the plans and processes people of African descent set into motion in order to sustain sites of autonomy across the Americas.  She is currently writing her first book, The Vessel of Independence... Must Save Itself’: Haitian State Formation, 1757 - 1815 which articulates the political thought of Haitian statesmen, who were bound to preserve antislavery and create a government suitable for emancipated citizens of African origin in a revolutionary Atlantic world still reliant on enslaved labor.  Her work has been published in The Journal of Haitian Studies, Cultural Dynamics, Remembrance: Loss, Hope, Recovery after the Earthquake in Haiti, and other forums.

Myers opens, Of Black Study, with an epigraph from June Jordan, who along with Barbara Christian, Addison Gayle, Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Toni Cade Bambara were supporting students in a struggle around the “Free University”, an attempt to realize the dream of a Black University at City College of New York.  ....
 
MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro and on sign-off--“MAYIBUYE” BY HUGH MASEKELA; intro by James Pope--“MILLIONS OF US (Part 2)” BY BCUC—BANTU CONTINUA UHURU CONSCIOUSNESS; break--“HYMN TO FREEDOM” BY OSCAR PETERSON commemorating his birthday on August 15 (August 15, 1925—December 23, 2007);outro of interview--“FREEQUENCY” BY BLACK STAR FEAT. BLACK THOUGHT; closing song--“STRAIGHT AHEAD” BY COUNT BASIE commemorating Count Basie’s birthday on August 21 (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984).

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFW write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

AfricaNow! Aug. 23, 2023 Of Hesitance W.E.B. Du Bois from Josh Myers’s Of Black Study

AfricaNow! September 13, 2023 Hakim Adi on The Threats to Black Studies in The U.K. and Globally

Topic and Guest: September is African Heritage Month in DC and the Maryland counties of Montgomery and Prince George’s thus today the show features Hakim Adi on The Threats to Black Studies in The U.K. and Globally.   The topic is timely as we encounter increased actions such as the banning of books and school curriculums about African descendant peoples such as the recent termination of master’s by research (MRes) course in the History of Africa and the African Diaspora by the University of Chichester in the U.K.  University of Chichester also terminated Professor Hakim Adi, the founder and director of the master’s by research (MRes) course in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora.  To protest this action a campaign has been launched which is encouraging people to sign a petition to have University of Chichester reinstate the master’s by research (MRes) course in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora and Professor Hakim Adi.  More details of the petition and how to sign on are available at https://www.historymatters.online/ on the tab Save MRes Campaign.  One can also donate to the Save the MRes Defense Fund on that tab (Save MRes Campaign).

Hakim Adi is a renowned Professor of the History of Africa and the African Diaspora and is the first person of African heritage to be appointed a professor of history in Britain.  He has been shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, 2023—U.K.'s most prestigious history prize.  His publications “focus on the history of the African Diaspora in Britain, a relatively new subject for academic study and in particular on the political history of West Africans in Britain, and the influence of Communism and Pan-Africanism on anti-colonial activism”. His work demonstrates not only the important links that were established between those on the African continent and its diaspora but also that Africans and those of African descent have played a significant but often neglected role in the history of Britain.  

Professor Adi is author of numerous books such as, African and Caribbean People in Britain: a History (London: Penguin, 2022); Pan-Africanism and Communism: The Communist International, Africa and the African Diaspora 1919-1939 (Trenton: Africa World Press, 2013) … also translated in Spanish [Panafricanismo y communisimo, la Internacional Communista, Africa y la Diáspora, 1919-1930 (Havana: Ciencias Sociale, 2018)]; Pan-Africanism: A History (London: Bloomsbury, 2018); West Africans in Britain 1900-1960: Nationalism, Pan-Africanism and Communism (London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1998); Pan-African History: Political Figures from Africa and the Diaspora since 1787 (2003). He is active in a number of community and publicly accessible projects, which includes History Matters Initiative and journal as well as the Young Historians Project. 

MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro--“GRAB EDUCATION” BY STEEL PULSE; break “MERCY, MERCY, MERCY” BY CANNONBALL ADDERLEY commemorating his birthday on September 15 (September 15, 1928—August 8, 1975); sign-off--“AFRICAN DANCE” BY SOUL II SOUL; closing song--“MAKING HISTORY” BY LINTON KWESI JOHNSON commemorating his birthday on August 24 (August 24, 1952— ).

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFW write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

AfricaNow! Sep. 13, 2023 Hakim Adi on The Threats to Black Studies in The U.K. and Globally

Feminist Imperialism, Femcee, L-Arginglasterone, Giftedvoice, Harsh Electro, Hitori, Gossip Girl, Fungus, Freebeatdrill, Fastiv , Govinda(Arg), Fly Nari, Fet,, Gautamah, Fgomez, Fumo Friday, Greensboro, Fondo De Tik Tokhiphopmusic, Free Soundtrack Music, Frenchcandidate, Foeor, Gucci , Funnybunny, Imnotblue, Geminaii, I'm So Sad, Fresh La Douille, Game Opening, Fxnder,  Freestyle Type Beat , Flammarum, Gualeguaychu, Goasoul, Future Satellites, Guitar Background Music , Jetsontypebeat, Follow Me Facebook, Femalesinger,

,#Musicproduction, background sleep music FREE DOWNLOAD

AfricaNow! November 15, 2023 Josh Myers Explores Black Study, Settler Colonialism & the Academy

Topics and Guests:Today the show highlights a discussion at the London School of Economics and Political Science that features topics such as Palestine, Blackness in Britain, the burning questions facing Black academics in British universities, and related queries that came out of the Of Black Study Reading Group.  The conversation features Dr. Joshua M. Myers, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Howard University and is a member of AfricaNow!’s and Africa World Now Project’s collective and author of the book Of Black Study.  Also, in the discussion are: Rémy-Paulin Twahirwa, Research Student, Department of Sociology, convenor of the Of Black Study Reading Group, London School of Economics and Political Science; and Dr. Mahvish Ahmad, Assistant Professor in Human Rights and Politics, London School of Economics and Political Science who is the moderator/chair of the discussion.

MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro--“THE MASSAGE CONTINUES” BY NUBYA GARCIA; break--“LET ME TALK” BY EARTH, WIND & FIRE; sign-off--“JARABI” BY SONA JOBARTEH; closing song--“AFRICAN” BY PETER TOSH.

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFW write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

Photo: Courtesy of Joshua M. Myers from October 27, 2023 discussion at the London School of Economics and Political Science

AfricaNow! Nov. 15, 2023 Josh Myers Explores Black Study, Settler Colonialism & the Academy

The historical link behind how and why conservatives misappropriate Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.

One Negro's Opinion

The Misappropriation of King

AfricaNow! January 24, 2024 Reflections on Malcolm X…Pt. II—Black Workers & El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

Topic and Guests: Today AfricaNow! continues a series which highlights some of the discussion which took place during the Malcolm X: Radical Tradition and a Legacy of Struggle conference held in New York City in November 1990.  More than 3,000 people from 25 countries attended conference which featured more than 100 speakers that led 24 sessions that deeply explored, contextualized, and situated El Hajj Malik El Shabazz in the genealogy of Black radical internationalism as a Pan Africanist.  In today’s program we feature Part II—Black Workers & El Hajj Malik El Shabazz, part of the series on this conference.  In Part II— Black Workers & El Hajj Malik El Shabazz you first hear Ashaki Binta of the Black Workers for Justice, General Baker of Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) and the League of Revolutionary Black Workers, and Saladin Muhammad of Black Workers for Justice. 

More on this--we encourage you to visit Abdul Alkalimat’s website at  www.alkalimat.org/brothermalcolm/1…onf_contents.htm to explore, read, and hear more of the conference.  
 
MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro--“YOU’RE PLAYING US TOO CLOSE” BY THIRD WORLD WITH STEVIE WONDER; break--“HAW RIGHT NOW” BY PATRICE RUSHEN; sign-off--“KURIMA” BY CHIWONISO MARAIRE; closing song--“YOU’VE GOT HAVE FREEDOM” BY PHAROAH SANDERS.

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFW write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

AfricaNow! Jan. 24, 2024 Reflections on Malcolm X…Pt. II—Black Workers & El Hajj Malik El Shabazz

BlackTalk producer Nicolás Arnáez chats with Dr. Andy Knight, creator and usual host of the BlackTalk podcast, and with multidisciplinary storyteller Brandon Wint, about the new Black Studies microcourse they have developed, "Black Canadians: History, Presence, and Anti-Racist Futures", soon to be available for the public to attend through Coursera. 

More course information will be found at the end of the month here: https://www.ualberta.ca/admissions-programs/online-learning.html

Brandon Wint is an Ontario born poet and spoken word artist who uses poetry to attend to the joy and devastation and inequity associated with this era of human and ecological history. Increasingly, his work on the page and in performance casts a tender but robust attention toward the movements and impacts of colonial, capitalist logic, and how they might be undone. In this way, Brandon Wint is devoted to a poetics of world making, world altering and world breaking. For Brandon, the written and spoken word is a tool for examining and enacting his sense of justice, and imagining less violence futures for himself and the world he has inherited.

W. Andy Knight is Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department, University of Alberta, and past Chair of the Department. He is Provost Fellow for Black Leadership and Excellence. He is the former Director of the Institute of International Relations (IIR), The University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad & Tobago, and co-founder and the former head of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC). Professor Knight serves as Co-editor in Chief of both African Security journal and International Journal -- two globally prestigious peer-reviewed academic publications. During his secondment in the Caribbean, Knight established the Caribbean Journal of International Relations and Diplomacy and he was co-editor of a highly regarded and award-winning journal -- Global Governance from 2000 to 2005.

BlackTalk Special Episode - Andy Knight and Brandon Wint

BlackTalk host Dr. Andy Knight talks with Dr. Adekeye Adebajo of the University of Pretoria, and Lula Adam of the University of Alberta, discussing their experiences at the Pan-African Symposium held at the University of Alberta in February 2024. All three speakers reflect on the ideas presented in the symposium, especially ideas of intellectual reparations, African scholarship, the publishing gap between Euro-North American and African journals, and practical, constructive paths forward for working to decolonize the University curriculum. 

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria's (UP) Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship (CAS). Professor Adebajo holds a doctorate from Oxford University in England, and served with United Nations (UN) missions in South Africa, Western Sahara, and Iraq.

Lula Adam is the Student Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Co-Ordinator with the Dean of Students Office at the University of Alberta, and the host of the upcoming podcast "You, Me, and Us: Equity and Belonging"

BlackTalk Special Episode - Pan-African Symposium with Adekeye Adebajo and Lula Adam

A well-read Black man with opinions on Black history, Black politics, Black culture, and Black people’s ongoing fight with racism

The ReImagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL) is a research and creativity workshop for the radical imagination active around the world and locally in Thunder Bay, Canada.

Socialist news and analysis from the front lines of struggle. Project of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

Ethnic, modern, inclusive and informative, BlackTalk leaves listeners with new perspectives about anti-Black racism and Black achievement. 

BlackTalk is a podcast about the personal experiences of global Black experts and Black Canadians contextualized within the historical experience of being Black. Ethnic, modern, inclusive and informative, BlackTalk leaves listeners with new perspectives about anti-Black racism and Black achievement. The show is conversational, not judgmental. It provides a unique take on the Black experience to help people of all backgrounds open their eyes, reflect and challenge their thinking.

New tracks tagged #Black Studies