Black Power in Hemispheric Perspective

When SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael first called for “Black Power” on a Civil Rights march in 1966 he not only gave name to a movement that shaped one of the most significant periods of the African American freedom struggle in the USA. His background as son of migrants from Trinidad and Tobago and his argument that the struggle for black liberation in the United States was part of a global movement against white supremacy also point to the international dimensions of Black Power. With a special focus on the Americas, this volume deals with the embeddedness of Black Power in a long history of resistance and its relationship with international freedom struggles beyond the boundaries of the African American community in the United States. As the articles brought together here show, Black Power was deeply rooted in practices of black transnationalism and heralded a new era of African American defiance, militancy, and cultural awareness, which left its footprints throughout the Hemisphere, providing marginalized communities beyond national and cultural boundaries with meaningful symbols of resistance and self-affirmation in the face of racial oppression. Black Power’s hemispheric impact encouraged the emergence of antiracist movements, musical genres, and border-crossing networks of solidarity among Afrodescendants in the Caribbean, Latin and North America, and continues to be a source of inspiration for the political and cultural expressions of the Black Americas in the 21st century. This transdisciplinary compilation of essays by scholars and activists intends to fill an important gap by addressing Black Power within a historical, polyvocal and multi-locational approach shedding light on the entangled manifestations of Black Power in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the United States. CONTENTS WILFRIED RAUSSERT AND MATTI STEINITZ Introduction: Black Power in Hemispheric Perspective 1 AFUA COOPER The Roots of Canadian Black Power: Thomas Peters and the Struggle for Black Freedom in the Eighteenth Century 33 WILFRIED RAUSSERT Before ‘Black Power’ there was Black Power: Garveyism and Public Performance Culture in the American Hemisphere 59 JOHN MUNRO Black Reconstruction and Black Power: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Radical Roots of 1968 71 MATTI STEINITZ Hemispheric Ambassador of Black Power: Carlos E. Russell and the Practice of Pan-Afro-Americanism between New York and Panama 87 PORTIA OWUSU “The Goose and the Gander”: Frantz Fanon and the Rhetoric of Violence in the Black Power Movement 113 JEFFREY O.G. OGBAR Revolutionary Alliances: Black Power, Brown Power, and Radical Ethnic Nationalism (1966–1973) 125 VALERIA L. CARBONE The United States, American Black Radicalism, and the Anti-Imperialist Struggle in Latin America: A Study of Stokely Carmichael’s 1967 Visit to Cuba 141 GEORGE REID ANDREWS Black Movements in Latin America, 1970–2000 157 ALBERTO ABREU ARCIA Black Power Cubano – African American and Afro-Cuban Movements between Solidarity, Repression, and Contradictions 173 ÁNGEL PEREA ESCOBAR The Act and the Shadow: Social, Artistic, and Cultural Influences of the Black Power Era in Colombia 193 CARLA GUERRÓN MONTERO The Quilombo Movement in Brazil: Becoming Invisible, Becoming Visible, Becoming Multivocal 205 KENSEDEOBONG BLESSED OKOSUN Soul Music and Sisterhood as Expressions of Black Power 223 CARLOS ALBERTO MEDEIROS Black Rio: Music, Politics, and Black Identity 239 ÁNGEL G. QUINTERO-RIVERA Afro-Knowledge, Sonic Aesthetics, and the Musical Practices of ‘Latin Beats’ 251 LISA TOMLINSON Dancehall Culture and Elements of Black Power 261 Contributors 277