“BLACK POWER” AND BLACK RHETORICAL TRADITION: THE PROVERBIAL LANGUAGE OF STOKELY CARMICHAEL
Article Sidebar
245-299
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Main Article Content
Abstract
This essay explores some of the proverbs, sayings, and proverbial expressions used by Stokely Carmichael (1941-1998) that are found in writings such as: Black Power the Politics of Liberation in America (1967), Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism (1971), and his autobiography, Ready for Revolution: The Life and Times of Stokely Carmichael (2003). In the process of analyzing traditional language used by Carmichael, this essay also: (1) seeks to identify sources from which Carmichael’s sayings are derived, (2) examine some of the contexts in which they are used, (3) determine the extent that they illustrate Carmichael’s ever-evolving political philosophies and worldview during the Civil Rights Era (1954-1968) and the African Independence Movement (1950-1975) respectively, (4) and it also seeks to categorize Carmichael’s proverbs, sayings, and proverbial expressions based on origin, structure, and traits (such as word count and subject matter). (5) Additionally, this essay considers the extent that his proverbial language is used to establish, reinforce, and regulate both personal and professional relationships throughout his entire life.
Article Details
References
Abrahams, Roger. “British West Indian Proverbs and Proverb Collections”. Proverbium, vol. 10, 1968, pp. 239-243.
Amistad Research Center. “Theater Legend and Friend Remembered.” Tulane University,
http://www.amistadresearchcenter.org. retrieved on 12 July 2020.
Arora, Shirley L. “The Perception of Proverbiality.” Proverbium, vol. 1, 1984, pp. 1-38.
Blake, John. Children of the Movement. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2004.
----“Black in America 2.” CNN, 4 July 2020,
https://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/04/mlk.children.movement/index.html, retrieved on 27 July 2020.
Bowden, Betsy. “A Modest Proposal, Relating Four Millennia of Proverb Collections to Chemistry Within the Human Brain.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 109, 1996, pp. 440-449.
Carmichael, Stokely. Stokely Speaks: From Black Power to Pan-Africanism. Chicago: Lawrence Hill, 1971.
Carmichael, Stokely and E. Michael Thelwell. Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael. New York: Scribner, 2003.
Doyle, Charles Clay. Doing Proverbs and Other Kinds of Folklore. Burlington: The University of Vermont, 2012.
Doyle, Charles Clay, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. Shapiro. The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012.
Dundes, Alan. “On the Structure of the Proverb.” The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder, and Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, pp. 43-64.
Fabian, Johannes. Power and Performance: Explorations Through Proverbial Wisdom and Theatre in Shaba, Zaire, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Finnegan, Ruth. “Proverbs in Africa.” The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder, and Alan Dundes. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, pp. 10-42.
Gates, Henry Louis Jr. Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow. New York: Penguin Press, 2019.
Ibekwe, Patrick. Wit and Wisdom of Africa: Proverbs from Africa and the Caribbean. Trenton: Africa World Press, Inc, 1998.
“John M. O’Neal.” SNCC Digital Gateway, SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, http://www.sncclegacyproject.org. retrieved on 12 July 2020.
Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting ‘Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt, 2006.
---- Stokely: A Life. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2014.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. “Toward a Theory of Proverb Meaning.” The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder, and Alan Dundes. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1994, pp. 111-121.
Messenger, John C. “The Role of Proverbs in A Nigerian Judicial System.” Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, vol. 15, no. 1, 1959, pp. 64-73.
Mieder, Wolfgang. American Proverbs: A Study of Texts and Contexts. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1989.
---- Proverbs Are Never Out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
---- The Politics of Proverbs: Traditional Wisdom to Proverbial Stereotypes. New York: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1997.
---- “No Struggle, No Progress”: Frederick Douglas and His Proverbial Rhetoric for Civil Rights. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.
---- Proverbs: A Handbook. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004.
---- ““The Proof of the Proverb Is in the Probing”: Alan Dundes as Pioneering Paremiologist”. Western States Folklore Society, vol. 65, no. 3, 2006, pp. 217-262.
---- “Yes We Can”: Obama’s Proverbial Rhetoric. New York: Peter Lang, 2009.
---- “Making A Way Out of No Way”: Martin Luther King’s Sermonic Proverbial Rhetoric. New York: Peter Lang, 2010.
---- “‘Keep Your Eyes on the Prize’: Congressman John Lewis’s Proverbial Odyssey for Civil Rights.” Proverbium, vol. 31, 2014, pp. 331-393.
---- “‘The Dynamic Qualities of Proverbs in Performance’: Roger Abrahams’ Pioneering Contributions to Paremiology”. Western Folklore, vol. 75, 2016, pp. 397-420.
---- “Right Makes Might”: Proverbs and the American Worldview. Indiana University Press, 2019.
Nkrumah, Kwame. The Axioms of Kwame Nkrumah: Freedom Fighter’s Edition. International Publishers, 1967.
Prahlad, Anand Sw. African-American Proverbs in Context. E-book ed., Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1996.
---- Reggae Wisdom: Proverbs in Jamaican Music. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2001.
Seitel, Peter. “Proverbs A Social Use of Metaphor”. The Wisdom Of Many: Essays on the Proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder and Alan Dundes, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994, pp. 122-139.
Simpson, John. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Speake, Jennifer. Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. 6th ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Taylor, Archer. The Proverb. 1931. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Taylor, Archer. “The Wisdom of Many and the Wit of One.” The Wisdom of Many: Essays on the Proverb, edited by Wolfgang Mieder, and Alan Dundes. Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1994, pp. 3-9.
Ture, Kwame, and Charles Hamilton. Black Power the Politics of Liberation in America. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.
Whiting, Bartlett Jere. “The Nature of the Proverb.” Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, vol. 14, 1932, pp. 273-307.
---- Modern Proverbs and Proverbial Sayings. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.
“Willie Ricks.” SNCC Digital Gateway, SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, http://SNCCdigital.org, retrieved on 12 July 2020.
Wilson, F.P. Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs. 3rd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.