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Africans, Africanists, and the Image of Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Edris Makward
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Extract

Friday, November 4, 1977, I am sure, is just another day for most of you gathered here to deal with some important business concerning this honorable association of scholars, professionals and other genuinely interested men and women.

This Association is after all basically a membership organization and it exists primarily through, and for its constituent members. Characteristically the first line of our By-Laws (as revised in April 1970) states that ‘The Corporation shall consist of not less than 100 members.”

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 7 , Issue 4 , Winter 1977 , pp. 1 - 5
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1977 

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References

Notes

1. LASA—The Latin American Studies Association. The 1977 ASA annual meeting was held jointly with LASA at the Houston Shamrock Hilton Hotel, November 2-5, 1977.

2. In Issue, Vol. 7, no. 1, Spring 1977, pp. 5-11.

3. Exact title: “African Studies: A Personal Assessment” in African Studies Review. Vol. 14, no. 3, December 1971, pp. 357-368.

4. Chants d’Ombre. In Senghor, L.S.: Poèmes, Seuil, 1964, p. 21 Google Scholar. Translation: They call us men of coffee, cotton, oil/They call us men of death. (Translated by Reed, John and Wake, Clive in L.S. Senghor’s Selected Poems, Atheneum, New York, 1969, p. 9 Google Scholar.

5. Christiane Seydou’s famous griot informant for her invaluable work: Silamaka and Poulori, Armand Colin, Classiques Africains, 1973.

6. The school was one of the earlier bastions of French education in Black Africa, the Lycée Faidherbe of Saint-Louis (Senegal). The year was 1952 and the author of the memorable statement was one of my teachers at Faidherbe. Throughout my career at Faidherbe from 1949 to 1956 all the teachers there were from metropolitan France except one Martiniquan teacher of English. My most objective translation of the statement: “Freakish and talkative, a perfect duffer.”

7. The title of Jean-Paul Sartre’s resounding lyrical introduction to Senghor’s, L.S. historic Anthologie de la nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française. Paris, P.U.F., 1947 Google Scholar.

8. Césaire, Aimé: Cahier d’un retour au pays natal, Présence Africaine, Paris, 1971 Google Scholar. Bilingual edition, pp. 38-39. “L’instituteur dans sa classe ne (pourra) tirer un mot de ce négrillon somnolet. . . car c’est dans les marais de la faim que s’est enlisée sa voix d’inanition. . ./Car sa vois s’oublie dans les marais de la faim/et il n’y a rien, rien à tirer vraiment de ce petit vaurien./ Qu’une faim qui ne sait plus grimper aux agrès de sa voix/une faim lourde et veule,/une faim ensevelie au plus profond de la faim de ce morne famélique.. . “

9. A revised edition came out in 1974, Frederick A. Praeger.

10. University of Wisconsin Press, second printing in 1973.

11. Op. cit., p. 480.

12. Stanislaus Adotivi: Négritude et necrologues, 1018 Union générale d’éditions, Paris, 1972, p. 102. My translation: “The Black man who shows his racial awareness is a good Black man, but if he no longer remembers our fall, if he becomes unmindful of himself, if he abandons himself into a mystical ecstasy, if he sees Black instead of seeing right, he will lead himself astray; he will lead the Black man astray while losing his own eyesight.”

13. The text of the resolution was: “It is appropriate for resolutions on political issues that arise in relation to African affairs to be moved, debated and voted upon at the annual business meeting.”

14. McKay, Claude: Selected Poems, Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc., New York, 1953, p. 36 Google Scholar.

15. Andrée Chedid by Jacques Izoard (Poètes d’aujourd ‘hui), Seghers, Paris, 1977. My translation: “Do not turn your back on me, my story is yours;/Every poet carries in his heart the heart of the listener./., .. And tell me, what is missing for the deciphering of the unique path?/I am the pursuer/I shall never break the ring./. . . The sands of madness, suddenly reconciled,/Are now returning home./I am the pursuer/I keep walking, that is my course./Our country is nowhere.. . (secret Earth)./Let the threat thunder/Let it penetrate us/It is time to believe/Time to accept this our concise earth. (Beloved earth).

16. Op. cit. my translation: “I no longer believe in shipwrecks/There is a blue mask at the bottom of every well./The carriers of bread succeed one another ./Lives remember other lives. (A window to lean from.)