The Poet as Liberator by Dave Jaffe
David Diop, the poet born in Senegal was an optimist and a visionary. He saw an Africa liberated from white people's rule and a continent prosperous and free. Unfortunately he died in a plane crash at the age of 33 in 1960.
"Hope was preserved in us as a fortress," he wrote in his poem 'The Vultures'.
"Spring will be reborn under our bright step."
To-day most countries in sub-Saharan Africa are ruled by black people. Yet this part of a massive continent is still beset by many problems. Its population has boomed as never before. Much of its soil is eroded and many African governments have pursued terrible farm policies. At a conference at the University of British Columbia in 1968, the French agronomist Rene Dumont told the people there in effect, "African governments are going down the wrong road in developing their countries."
In 1970 Africa fed itself. In 1984 it had to import its food. Transnational or multinational mining firms have opened up mines across the continent. They take home the minerals and leave behind few royalties and often massive pollution. European and American ruled government banks have often imposed terrible austerity programs on indebted African countries. Close to half of Africa's near one billion people live on $1.25 a day or less.
Yet Diop's optimism wasn't all wrong. In 1970 most people died in Senegal before the age of 45. To-day most Senegalese live well into their 60's. This is true for most of the African lands. Of course this massive increase in life expectancy has often outstripped many countries' abiltity to feed themselves.
Some African rulers have led competent, honest governments . Others have lined their pockets and their bank accounts a mile wide and a kilometre deep, while their citizens die from hunger ansd poverty.
"Do you see that house over there?" a Swiss citizen asked this blogger in Geneva in 1971. "It's the home of Mobutu." The mansion Joseph Mobutu owned, impressed many people. Mobutu was the ruler at that time of the vast interior country of the Congo. He became immensely rich while his country descended into civil war and was ravaged by AIDS. In a recent civil war in the Congo, over five million people were killed. AIDA and civil wars have taken a terrible toll on other African lands.
David Diop dreamed of a rich, peaceful Africa. Hopefully one day his dreams will come true. In the meantime his poetry stands out as a powerful vision of a future that hasn't yet been fulfilled. Still, he and his poetry were liberating forces.
Monday 25 April 2016
Saturday 23 April 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - Chapter Nineteen Section One- The Poet As Liberator by Dave Jaffe
The Poet as Liberator - David Diop
The Dark Continent. The poorest place on earth. A treasure trove of riches. Where all of the first human beings came from. The continent of Africa has been called all these thing and more.
The short-lived poet David Diop was born int the west African country of Senegal. He saw his birth place and the continent of Africa as poor exploited lands. Yet he also thought that things would get better for Africans who were black.
"Africa, tell me Africa," Diop wrote
"Is this you, this back that is bent
"This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation."
In the late 1950's when Diop, who was a victim of tubercolosis, wrote these words, sub-Saharan Africa, or Africa below the Saharan desert, did fit his description. White people ruled most of southern Africa. Most black people who made up most of the peoples in this area, didn't live past the age of 40. And most of Africa had been hammered by a succession of blows.
First came the slave trade which lasted from the 16th century to the 19th century. In this terrible chapter of black African life, white people oversaw a massive kidnapping of black people. Black people ended up in the Americas working as slaves for white rulers.
"33 million black people died in the slave trade," the African-American activist Malcolm X. once said in effect. The conservative British historian Hugh Thomas put the number of deaths in the slave trade at 13 million. Whatever the correct number, the white-run slave trade took the best, the brightest and many others from Africa. It devastated the continent of Africa below the Sahara.
After this massive blow came a second onslaught.At the Congress of Berlin held in the 1880's, European powers like Germany, Great Britain, France and Belgium carved out new empires in Africa. Again this was a terrible blow to Africa. The white colonization of Africa didn't unfold without a struggle.
Africans fought their invaders. Yet in the end, the white's superior weapons and technological skills prevailed. Still, by the mid-1940's, after the end of the Second World war, black Africans started their new struggle for freedom.
David Diop spent most of his life in France, a country that had colonized Senegal and other parts of west Africa. Diop was the son of a Sengalese father and a mother born in Cameroon that was another west African and French colony. Diop died in 1960 at the age of 33 in a plane crash along with other people including his wife.
By this time open warfare had erupted between black rebels and their white rulers. Many black people died in this struggle. Between 1954 and the 1990's, at least 5 million black Africans died in freedom struggles in Kenya, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and South Africa. The true figure could be even higher. White people died too as did black allies of the white rulers. Yet the vast majority of people who died in these struggles were black rebels.
This was a third blow inflicted on Africa, mostly by white people. Yet Diop never lost hope in the future of his native continent. (End of Section One. To Be Continued.)
The Dark Continent. The poorest place on earth. A treasure trove of riches. Where all of the first human beings came from. The continent of Africa has been called all these thing and more.
The short-lived poet David Diop was born int the west African country of Senegal. He saw his birth place and the continent of Africa as poor exploited lands. Yet he also thought that things would get better for Africans who were black.
"Africa, tell me Africa," Diop wrote
"Is this you, this back that is bent
"This back that breaks under the weight of humiliation."
In the late 1950's when Diop, who was a victim of tubercolosis, wrote these words, sub-Saharan Africa, or Africa below the Saharan desert, did fit his description. White people ruled most of southern Africa. Most black people who made up most of the peoples in this area, didn't live past the age of 40. And most of Africa had been hammered by a succession of blows.
First came the slave trade which lasted from the 16th century to the 19th century. In this terrible chapter of black African life, white people oversaw a massive kidnapping of black people. Black people ended up in the Americas working as slaves for white rulers.
"33 million black people died in the slave trade," the African-American activist Malcolm X. once said in effect. The conservative British historian Hugh Thomas put the number of deaths in the slave trade at 13 million. Whatever the correct number, the white-run slave trade took the best, the brightest and many others from Africa. It devastated the continent of Africa below the Sahara.
After this massive blow came a second onslaught.At the Congress of Berlin held in the 1880's, European powers like Germany, Great Britain, France and Belgium carved out new empires in Africa. Again this was a terrible blow to Africa. The white colonization of Africa didn't unfold without a struggle.
Africans fought their invaders. Yet in the end, the white's superior weapons and technological skills prevailed. Still, by the mid-1940's, after the end of the Second World war, black Africans started their new struggle for freedom.
David Diop spent most of his life in France, a country that had colonized Senegal and other parts of west Africa. Diop was the son of a Sengalese father and a mother born in Cameroon that was another west African and French colony. Diop died in 1960 at the age of 33 in a plane crash along with other people including his wife.
By this time open warfare had erupted between black rebels and their white rulers. Many black people died in this struggle. Between 1954 and the 1990's, at least 5 million black Africans died in freedom struggles in Kenya, Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and South Africa. The true figure could be even higher. White people died too as did black allies of the white rulers. Yet the vast majority of people who died in these struggles were black rebels.
This was a third blow inflicted on Africa, mostly by white people. Yet Diop never lost hope in the future of his native continent. (End of Section One. To Be Continued.)
Friday 15 April 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - Part Eighteen, Section Two. The Poet as Creator of the Beat Generation.
The Poet as Creator of the Beat Generation by Dave Jaffe. Section Two
Herbert Hunke was a thief, a male prostitute, and dealt drugs. Ginsberg met him in New York City in 1945 and Hunke remained close to Allen for most of his life. In fact, Hunke's stealing once nearly put Ginsberg in prison.
Hunke's life highlights the other side of the Beat Generation. It's all detailed in Bill Morgan's excellent book on Ginsberg called 'I Celebrate Myself'. Many of the Beats around Ginsberg were substance abusers, crooks and disturbed people.
"Their women are whores," one of my sisters said after reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. There's no doubt that many of the male Beats treated women terribly. And Ginsberg himself didn't pay much attention to women whether they were talented or not. Perhaps my sister was too judgemental. Yet many of the Beats were just bad people.
I once described Gregory Corso the beat poet as 'A nice man'. Corso was nice when he met Peggy Guggenheim, the famous art collector. Yet Corso was a criminal when he was young and when he was old. He was also constantly drunk.
William Burroughs the author of 'Naked Lunch' was a junkie for a long time. He shot and killed Joan Adams the woman he was living with. His son also named William but more popularly called 'Billie', died at a young age of alcoholism. Lucien Carr was a young very handsome man when Ginsberg first met him in 1945. Carr killed another man who came onto him, namely David Kammerer. Allen at one time loved Carr and remained friendly with him all his life.
Neal Cassady was constantly on the move. His personality and his writing and driving inspired both Ginsberg and Kerouac. He was one of the stars of Kerouac's 'On The Road', and Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test', the definitive book on the hippie movement. Yet Cassady was a speed freak who was addicted to amphetemines. He died in 1968, probably due to his addictions.
Jack Kerouac descended into alcoholism in his thirties and died in 1969 due to his constant drinking. By the time he died, Kerouac had become a virulent anti-Semite, just like his mother. He cursed Jews and called Ginsberg 'a kike'.
Allen had to break off contact with this very conservative abuser.
Most tragic of all was Allen's long time companion Peter Orlovsky. "All families are dysfunctional", Vancouver resident Al Fossen once said. Yet Orlovsky's family was extremely so. Peter became a substance abuser and an alcoholic. Orlovsky had many nervous breakdowns and was in mental hospitals many times. Ginsberg continually refused to see the tragedies his friendship and love caused Orlovsky.
Allen's main spiritual mentor, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche also caused Allen many problems. He died of alcoholism in his late 40's.
Mental problems also plagued Allen Ginsberg for some of his youth. He at one time went into a mental hospital. And his mother, born Naomi Levy became a paranoid-schizophrenic.
"All revolutions fail," wrote George Orwell. "But they fail in different ways." The changes wrought by Ginsberg and his Beat cohorts amounted to a cultural revolution. In some ways the Beats didn't fail. Casual dress, casual drug use and casual sex have swept large parts of the western world. Yet many of the Beats and their friends paid a high price for leading their cultural revolution.
Allen Ginsberg was an exceptional man. His friends were not as moral as they might have been. This was the other side of the Beat Revolution.
Herbert Hunke was a thief, a male prostitute, and dealt drugs. Ginsberg met him in New York City in 1945 and Hunke remained close to Allen for most of his life. In fact, Hunke's stealing once nearly put Ginsberg in prison.
Hunke's life highlights the other side of the Beat Generation. It's all detailed in Bill Morgan's excellent book on Ginsberg called 'I Celebrate Myself'. Many of the Beats around Ginsberg were substance abusers, crooks and disturbed people.
"Their women are whores," one of my sisters said after reading 'On The Road' by Jack Kerouac. There's no doubt that many of the male Beats treated women terribly. And Ginsberg himself didn't pay much attention to women whether they were talented or not. Perhaps my sister was too judgemental. Yet many of the Beats were just bad people.
I once described Gregory Corso the beat poet as 'A nice man'. Corso was nice when he met Peggy Guggenheim, the famous art collector. Yet Corso was a criminal when he was young and when he was old. He was also constantly drunk.
William Burroughs the author of 'Naked Lunch' was a junkie for a long time. He shot and killed Joan Adams the woman he was living with. His son also named William but more popularly called 'Billie', died at a young age of alcoholism. Lucien Carr was a young very handsome man when Ginsberg first met him in 1945. Carr killed another man who came onto him, namely David Kammerer. Allen at one time loved Carr and remained friendly with him all his life.
Neal Cassady was constantly on the move. His personality and his writing and driving inspired both Ginsberg and Kerouac. He was one of the stars of Kerouac's 'On The Road', and Tom Wolfe's 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test', the definitive book on the hippie movement. Yet Cassady was a speed freak who was addicted to amphetemines. He died in 1968, probably due to his addictions.
Jack Kerouac descended into alcoholism in his thirties and died in 1969 due to his constant drinking. By the time he died, Kerouac had become a virulent anti-Semite, just like his mother. He cursed Jews and called Ginsberg 'a kike'.
Allen had to break off contact with this very conservative abuser.
Most tragic of all was Allen's long time companion Peter Orlovsky. "All families are dysfunctional", Vancouver resident Al Fossen once said. Yet Orlovsky's family was extremely so. Peter became a substance abuser and an alcoholic. Orlovsky had many nervous breakdowns and was in mental hospitals many times. Ginsberg continually refused to see the tragedies his friendship and love caused Orlovsky.
Allen's main spiritual mentor, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche also caused Allen many problems. He died of alcoholism in his late 40's.
Mental problems also plagued Allen Ginsberg for some of his youth. He at one time went into a mental hospital. And his mother, born Naomi Levy became a paranoid-schizophrenic.
"All revolutions fail," wrote George Orwell. "But they fail in different ways." The changes wrought by Ginsberg and his Beat cohorts amounted to a cultural revolution. In some ways the Beats didn't fail. Casual dress, casual drug use and casual sex have swept large parts of the western world. Yet many of the Beats and their friends paid a high price for leading their cultural revolution.
Allen Ginsberg was an exceptional man. His friends were not as moral as they might have been. This was the other side of the Beat Revolution.
Thursday 14 April 2016
Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health - Chapter Eighteen, Section One. The Poet as Creator of the Beat Generation by Dave Jaffe
The Poet as Creator of the Beat Generation - Section One
On the night of October 7, 1957, five poets showed up to give a poetry reading at an art gallery in San Francisco called the Six Gallery.
One of the poets, the 29 year-old Allen Ginsberg read the first version of his long poem called 'Howl'.
"I saw the best minds of my generation," Ginsberg's poem started out, "destroyed by madness, hysterical naked." The poem went on to denounce America, or at least portray its underside as it hadn't been seen before.
In 1957, the United States of America was locked in a titanic struggle for world domination with the communists-ruled Soviet Union. Yet in the U.S. , the jobless rate remained low and inflation didn't go up too much every year. Many Americans, for the first time in their lives, enjoyed small homes, rising paycheques, buying new shiny cars and living in somewhat stable families.
It was the height of the so-called 'American Century' and the U.S. of A.'s image sat at an all-time high.
Ginsberg's 'Howl' trashed all this. What the British artist and writer John Berger said about Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting 'Les Desmoiselle D'Avignon' could be said of 'Howl'. "It was a raging frontal attack against life," as Picasso found it, wrote Berger. "Against the waste, the disease, the ugliness and the ruthlessness of it."
In his poem Ginsberg talked about substance abuse, same sex love and many other supposedly out-of-order subjects. With this one work and a few other poems, Ginsberg and some of his friends set off a cultural revolution. They created what came to be called 'The Beat Generation' which was part literary movement and partly a massive shift in cultural tastes.
In the 1960's and after, Ginsberg became a public figure who campaigned ceaselessly for many causes. He was overtly gay and constantly battled bigoted rulers and others who clamped down on gays and lesbians. Ginsberg sought to legalize marijuana, he joined peace campaigns and played a major role in the anti-Vietnam War movement.
A Jew from birth, Ginsberg sought for something spiritual to believe in and found it at last in Buddhism.
He became a sometime musician, and got interested in photography. He took many photographs that showed his talent. He also gave away much of what he earned. By the time he died, he was supporting at least ten people. The son of a poet and a disturbed mother he waged a peaceful war against all forms of censorship. Growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Ginsberg died in New York City at the age of 70.
Constantly on the move, Ginsberg travelled in dozens of countries and met many of his famous contemporaries. He helped create the Beat Generation and shook up the American literary establishment. Ginsberg found publishers for many of the Beat writers and others as well.
"He was not just an artist," someone said of the great British painter J.W.M. Turner. "He was a force of nature." So was Allen Ginsberg who helped father many of the cultural revolutions that swept across the western world in the 1960's and after.
He was a poet who made a difference in the lives of many many people.
On the night of October 7, 1957, five poets showed up to give a poetry reading at an art gallery in San Francisco called the Six Gallery.
One of the poets, the 29 year-old Allen Ginsberg read the first version of his long poem called 'Howl'.
"I saw the best minds of my generation," Ginsberg's poem started out, "destroyed by madness, hysterical naked." The poem went on to denounce America, or at least portray its underside as it hadn't been seen before.
In 1957, the United States of America was locked in a titanic struggle for world domination with the communists-ruled Soviet Union. Yet in the U.S. , the jobless rate remained low and inflation didn't go up too much every year. Many Americans, for the first time in their lives, enjoyed small homes, rising paycheques, buying new shiny cars and living in somewhat stable families.
It was the height of the so-called 'American Century' and the U.S. of A.'s image sat at an all-time high.
Ginsberg's 'Howl' trashed all this. What the British artist and writer John Berger said about Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting 'Les Desmoiselle D'Avignon' could be said of 'Howl'. "It was a raging frontal attack against life," as Picasso found it, wrote Berger. "Against the waste, the disease, the ugliness and the ruthlessness of it."
In his poem Ginsberg talked about substance abuse, same sex love and many other supposedly out-of-order subjects. With this one work and a few other poems, Ginsberg and some of his friends set off a cultural revolution. They created what came to be called 'The Beat Generation' which was part literary movement and partly a massive shift in cultural tastes.
In the 1960's and after, Ginsberg became a public figure who campaigned ceaselessly for many causes. He was overtly gay and constantly battled bigoted rulers and others who clamped down on gays and lesbians. Ginsberg sought to legalize marijuana, he joined peace campaigns and played a major role in the anti-Vietnam War movement.
A Jew from birth, Ginsberg sought for something spiritual to believe in and found it at last in Buddhism.
He became a sometime musician, and got interested in photography. He took many photographs that showed his talent. He also gave away much of what he earned. By the time he died, he was supporting at least ten people. The son of a poet and a disturbed mother he waged a peaceful war against all forms of censorship. Growing up in Paterson, New Jersey, Ginsberg died in New York City at the age of 70.
Constantly on the move, Ginsberg travelled in dozens of countries and met many of his famous contemporaries. He helped create the Beat Generation and shook up the American literary establishment. Ginsberg found publishers for many of the Beat writers and others as well.
"He was not just an artist," someone said of the great British painter J.W.M. Turner. "He was a force of nature." So was Allen Ginsberg who helped father many of the cultural revolutions that swept across the western world in the 1960's and after.
He was a poet who made a difference in the lives of many many people.
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