mbewane
Knicks: 93 til infinity
Felt like sharing this because :
- it's not many french documentaries on the subject of Blackness that are subtitled in english, as opposed to the contrary, obviously (which is a whole other discussion about accessibility of knowledge and thus knowing other members of the Black diaspora, but that's a whole other conversation)
- it shows the divide and controversies within the delegates who were present in Paris, notably between African Americans and the rest on the similiarities -or lack thereof- between their struggles.
- also shows the role of Richard Wright in working with the US gvt because he felt the Congress was too...leftist. Seemingly he played a role in making sure DuBois couldn't participate. Ended up saying that "the West had liberated Africa" and spoke about the positive effects of colonialism
(ironically I just read Baldwin's essay on the Congress this morning, and Wright's positioning already struck me as very strange, to put it mildly)All in all an interesting piece of history, but one must keep in mind that the guy who did it is white american who moved to Paris, so that probably plays a role. However the amount of interviews of people who were there makes up for whatever bias there may have been. The Congress (and the subsequent meetings in Rome, Dakar and Algiers) still hold quite an important place for french-speaking black intellectuals, activists, artists etc.