Blackness in one's view will forever be a point of debate and a bone of contention when it comes to the emancipation of the global south. In understanding the parameters of enlightenment and where this aura of enlightenment emanates from it can be appreciated that the void can be filled by tracing the tides of time as they are the only substantive source that has a guarantee to all understanding of the contemporary twenty-first century. Expanding further leaning against the saying "History repeats itself" is so often a time, one gets to notice it is as-is. This is because one's submission in this case is based on the power dynamics between the conquered and conqueror. Therefore that imbalance could not meet the core of the conversation where there is and must be a point of reckoning and reconciliation when it comes to addressing the past if possible. However, be that as it may, in one's observation it can be noted that the 1960s are the definitive anchor to understanding the contemporary reasons that inspired the emergence of the conversations that are being discussed in many circles of epistemological debate. This essay is a reaction to the wave where there is literary censorship against the Critical Race Theory from the global northern hemisphere that is hellbound and determined with all it has to place sensors around the expansion of the theory. In one's observation, and being a member of the global south that is historically disenfranchised and still reeling and recovering from the shackles of colonialism, and neo-colonialism. CRT becomes the North star of reference in order to be able to understand contemporary reality. That is being faced by me and my generation and where do we stand in all of this after the first generation is dead and gone, where do we stand in this contemporary conversation, from a vantage point that seeks to embrace both spheres of the global south. It can be suggested that movements such as the Black Lives Matter, Fees Must Fall, DeColonisation, Accelerated Land Reform Program, Marikana 2012, and the Mau-Mau rebellion. The horizon is far and wide, there are a plethora of landmarks one can mention, however, for the sake of time, only a few can be mentioned. The idea is to bring to the fray the concept of finding the core of the meaning into where and how the 1960s were a penultimate period that has standing in black psychology. One would suggest that period is when the stars of black consciousness aligned as that period brought to question the status quo of the global south that is culturally intertwined and has brought into the fray the status of the global society and yet the reciprocity of the global north towards the global south is negative. Therefore schools such as CRT, and Black Consciousness become the standing yardstick not to evoke panic in the society but to evoke the suppressed consciousness of the world for the voices of the black community have been muzzled by the global north and become moving cadavers that have unintentionally but systematically forced to become zombies. In one's observation that period "1960s" was at a time when the black community rose to the table and sought to question the presupposed and assumed status quo that society was made to believe is how the world should be conducted when in actuality that is not the case. It stems from critiquing what is understood as what should be but in reality it is what should not be. Without world war 1 & ultimately 2, the black person would still be suppressed and still understand and believe that its place is in the corner and not at the table. Eventually, due to time, the black person would though find their place in this world one way or the other, however, as history and humanity saw it fitting that the two wars, were the fitting stage to evoke and provoke the dormant black mind into questioning its position in the global village. The point that is being delivered in this observation is that without the wars there would not have been a shift in the observation of the laws, the economics, and the politics of societies as they intertwin, cascade, and collide within each other. Therefore 1960, that decade is the decade that marked the beginning of black enlightenment and entitlement as the black majority deserves a share of the pie that is before humanity. Kwame Nkrumah said, "the black man can solve his own problems" in that spectacle the black person is expected to reap and benefit from the rewards that come along with solving his own problems. Therefore this then means theories such as CRT and B.C. act as an anchor in investigating the dynamics behind blackness and the world.
The 60s is an era where the global negro community started its trek to freedom. Without world war two, there would have not been black protestant writers, though eventually, they would have emerged in another way other than world war. As destiny has it world war was the platform that sought the explosion of black emancipation. In one's observation, the 60s can be called the black renaissance, the period of psychological convergence of the black persons. There and then the seed was sown and the expansive population of black awakening became the underground railroad to black freedom. It is still in one's observation as the global north still dictates the fate of blackness, which is still an imbalance the point is that, black expressive art is viewed with suspicion and there are gatekeepers that do not appreciate black expressive art as it dabbles on topics that leave many uncomfortable but that is the purpose of art to evoke the mind to think critically of what is around them. It has taken thirty years for black writing to be recognised on the global literary scene as if society does not appreciate black literature when essence black literature is where the forgotten heart of men still beats. The 60s is still and shall forever be the determining factor in black history; from the Caribbean to the U.S., descending back to Africa. You see that the 60s were at the juncture of the black universal stance. Questions such as where is my 40 acres and a mule or I fought with you side by side yet you want me to go back to my place of nothing.
The birth of Ghana, Algeria, to writers and thinkers such as Achebe, Davis, Fannon, Hampton, H. Newton. To leaders such as Nkrumah, Lumumba, Mugabe, Hani, Madikizela to Shakur, you see the unanswered questions of that era repeat themselves to this day and in the foreseeable future. Bringing to contemporary times the Marikana massacre 2012, Fees Must Fall 2015/16, to Black lives matter. Black consciousness is a virgin, the same with its literature, and imagination there is still a lot to be untapped discussed, and investigated around. Individuals such as Dedan Kimathi, to the role, played uMkhonto we Sizwe played a role in black enlightenment. Even in black art where culture laid the foundation for contemporary music. The likes of Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Winston Ngozi Mankunku "Yakhal'Inkomo", Lewis Nkosi.
The 60s are an interesting period that brought with it the questions that are central to the black struggle and how the black struggle has been articulated in a way where the black voice has not been given an opportunity to be heard. The black person has everything that has been taken away from it and in such a space where the black person is not accorded its fair share of respect. The only thing that a black person has to their name is black-rage. In one's view, the 1960s became the vantage point where blackness was ushered into the conversation on the various platforms of departure that seek to articulate the preservation of blackness from the political arena, to the social arena, cascading to the legal arena. Therefore from both fronts of the global south, the 60s became the point of focus as it dissects the conversation with regard to reparations and addressed the effects of colonialism and imperialism. What one is delivering to the fray is that the 60s era was the focal point of attempting to raise the conversation around where the black person seeks to comprehend the position of the black person. The matter of the black person becomes the focal point. The compounding circumstances resulted in the 60s being the epitome of black awakening where there was a seismic shift across the board when it came to the ideas of black emancipation and black representation; with an emphasis on self-determination. The idea of establishing a self-determined individual it allows the manifestation of black representation from the grassroots to the global scene. The compounding social circumstances within the black community dating back to as far as the trans-Saharan slave trade and were largely felt during the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The black nation-building project was disrupted further pushing aback the agenda by at least five hundred years and counting. In one's observation the 60s decade became that outlet where the realisation of black emancipation and taking the idea into practice in the 60s became the perfect setting for a unanimous stance against systemic and endemic misrepresentation. It has to be acknowledged that the disenfranchisement of the black person over the passage of time. Overtime inspired the emergence of radical and moderate resistant schools of thought. This can be linked with the access to education which allowed sporadic enlightenment that broadened the reasoning platform of the black majority. As can be traced to the following historical landmarks that came along with the 60s. The first port of call without any order, in the 60s the world saw the rise of the Nation Of Islam led by Prophet Elijah Mohammed which then gave the world Malcolm X. The black revolutionary's stance no black liberation that carried an aggressive radical stance catapulted him to the stage. Furthermore, one paying attention to the more moderate stance of non-violence the school of thought that was brought and advocated by Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The two black leaders zoning in one can note that they represented the divided mind of the black person. In this aspect, one expresses the view of interacting the point that notes, Malcolm X and Luther King Jr were the epitome of the black consciousness as their schools of thought amplified the microcosm of the macrocosm of the black thought. The 60s saw the emergence and rise of the black panther party led by Huey Newton which then spawned various stations across America and that saw the rise of Chairman Fred Hampton. Bringing the historical landmarks to Africa in the 60s saw the emergence of black nationalism across Africa. Where colonialism was being pushed back on the continent of Africa the first port of call that the continent witnessed was the establishment of the Organisation of African Unity. The organisation's mandate was to assist and oversee the declaration of African countries, the school of thought inspired various means and ways that brought with them the emergence of Pan-Africanism which saw the various methods of seeing Africa free and that is the use of guerilla warfare to fight the oppressors or means of diplomacy. In some instances where guerilla warfare was in east Africa Kenya. The Mau-Mau rebellion saw the rise of Jomo Kenyatta and then sparked the rise of post-colonial literature through the lenses of Okot P'Bitek and Ngugi Wa Thiongo. The same tangent of war was expressed in Zaire now known as DRC saw the rise and fall of Patrice Lumumba; going further afield one gets to mention icons such as Leopold Senghor that saw culture as a means to continental enlightenment. Seikou Toure. Trickling to southern Africa, in Rhodesia Joshua Nkomo at that time was a trade unionist and formed his own political party ZAPU around 1964/65. In that same year Rhodesia under Ian Smith, as the white minority government saw to it that they shall be toppled by the black majority. As a means of pacifying the black aggression, Ian Smith brought up with him the Unilateral Declaration of Independence "U.D.I." The move was meant to quail the looming, ensuing black aggression through the minority government declaring independence. London saw it as an insult and therefore Rhodesia was placed under sanctions. The point that is being delivered at this point in time is that the 60s ushered a seismic shift into the status of the black person in Africa and in the global South. When the black thought is aligned there is a great potential definitive shift in the world. Furthermore, as it is witnessed in the introduction of the arts to be specific African expressive art saw with it the awakening of the dormant black thought that focuses on dictating its own story and calling for a conscious shift into the old order. In essence, the 60s during the height of mass censorship by the various oppressive governments saw the rise and emergence of singers such as Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Winston Ngozi Mankunku, writers such as Lewis Nkosi, Doris Lessing, Wole Soyinka. The arts scene became the home of the ideal black thought where places such as Sophiatown, where black art preserved the consciousness of the majority. Spoke about the ideal black utopia at the same time communicating with the rest of the world that in spite of the endemic violence exposed to the black person. The black person will find means and ways to entertain himself and at the same time educate himself on the visible-invisible red tapes. Thus one can suggest that the 60s was a convergence of the following Black Radical Imagination, Afro-surrealism, Afro-realism, and Afro-Dadaism. All the isms that pertain to creative workmanship were intersecting having an influence on the sub-conscious black person that in turn then question the status quo. In which the politics, the law, the society, the education, the religion. In the inception of the above social spheres, their inception did not consider the black person. Therefore one gets to observe the unholy murder of Emmett Louis Till, his death could be suggested as well into being the mulch that inspired the accelerated black consciousness that saw with it the rise of the 60s being the gateway into black emancipation. In that breath, the 60s saw the Rivonia Trial taking place, the emergence of Umkhonto We Sizwe, and the rise of the P.A.C. led by Robert Sobukwe. Winnifred Madikizela-Mandela was the custodian of the black revolution while Nelson Mandela and others were in prison. Therefore one can suggest that the black revolution did not end with the black man, the black revolution globally rested as well within the hands of black women as well. Thus echoing the sentiments within the black community of cohesion amongst the two genders that make up the black society. The rising of global conflicts such as world war one and two, the cold war was a catalyst for critical conversation with regard to the rights of black people globally. As the three wars posed a critical question on the global scale which was, where does the black person stand in the eyes of the coloniser, can the black person emancipate itself and be the master of its own destiny, furthermore, who is the black person on the global scene. As this can be observed with the three wars, the three wars were all based on a clash of ideas capitalism versus communism. Then the black person's psychology is the battleground for impirical attention. However, the question then poised was or would be where and if possible is the black person even allowed to pursue its own epistemological independence or it must be subservient and inclined with remorse to the ideals that have been established by foreign minds. Therefore in one's perspective and suggestion would be that the 60s is an important historical decade as it brought with it the core question of where and how can black independent thinking be viewed and witnessed. In many cases, according to history Black independent thinking is viewed with a grain of salt and is not permitted to roam free as it should and must be. As it can be submitted into the conversation through the sporadic coups that came along with it in Ghana in February 1966 Kwame Nkrumah was deposed by the military, tribal and ethnic conflicts decimated the Nigerian political structure, instead the Nigeria electorate voting based on party lines. The Nigerians still vote according to ethnic lines, which then creates a classicist, corrupt state virtually. The state fails before it ever begins its "independence" journey, paying attention to the Zaire case where black free thinking was quashed before it ever saw the light of day. The coup and assassination of Zaire's first and last democratically elected president Patrice Lumumba who was accused of being a communist and Mobutu Seseko through a coup became the de facto president of Zaire. A darling to the west but a foe to the people of Zaire. The 60s are an important decade for understanding the present, the future, and the past as the answers to everything that occurs in the black twenty-first century still repeat themselves in the 60s. The 60s brought with them the existential conversation around black literacy as it became the red carpet into black understanding. Which brought with it black reasoning, which then ushers the black person to be able to understand that the skills that are acquired at the tertiary level are not theirs per se. They belong to the community where they come from and the mantra "African problems need African ideas" echoes the declaration made by Kwame Nkrumah "The black man can solve his own problems", the unanimously means that the black person is given the chance to emancipate itself through successes and mistakes without interference has the capacity of solving its own problems and it can solve the world's problems. One can suggest that African philosophies have been decimated, while they do carry important notes and answers to the problems that humanity faces, "they gave us the bible, taught us how to pray when we opened our eyes they had taken the land". 1958 a penultimate year into black free-thinking, the year with it the first book was written by an African in English "Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart", the latter proves obvious as it can be understood that the body of work not only speaks about the state of the African. The body of work expresses the microcosm of the macrocosm with regards to the state of the African, therefore, observing the position of the African; Achebe the Godfather of African writing laid the foundation for what the 60s would be like for the black person in the global south. Achebe was like Jesus, African writers wrote and still write the Bible. The 60s are the foundation of black enlightenment, the past and the future repeat themselves and the present is a mystery.
In conclusion in my view, I have come to understand in my journey thus that the 60s when it comes to definitive global south defiance and deciding to choose its own path. In any creatives journey, the 60s is the place to draw understanding when it comes to understanding the past as it affects the future, but the present is a mystery.
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