Negro Digest - Freedom Archives

analogues for possible study . ) We
would also attempt to explore the
implications of the strong similarities
which a noted literary authority
claims he has found in the
literature recently coming out of
Harlem and out of black Johannesburg
. What fascinating insights
might courses in "Comparative
Black Literature" produce?
When we realize that there are
sections of Cuba and other parts of
Latin America where African religious
practices are alive and prospering,
it is obvious that the study
of comparative religious development
is also filled with new
possibilities in such a context .
(Especially as those who know
black folk religion in the United
States remind us of the persistent
presence of a belief in religious
magic here . ) Or it may be that in
such a setting, careful elaboration
would be done on a significant interdisciplinary
as well as intercultural
academic monograph, such as
Lanternari's The Religions of the
Oppressed. For here, in a study of
the messianic movements of the
non-Western world, it is clear that
history, political science, sociology,
psychology and religion encounter
and enrich each other . Few settings
would be more congenial to such
mutual intellectual fertilization
than the kind of institution we
envision .
Indeed such a study as Lanternari's
strongly suggests that the
black-oriented university could present
a marvelous opportunity for
NEGRO DIGEST March 1968
the social sciences in America to
break out of their nationalistic
trap . Sociology might include such
matters as urban development
among black people in Nairobi,
Chicago and Rio . Political Science
could well analyse the forms of resistance
to colonial domination in
Harlem, Cuba, Mozambique and
Vietnam . So, too, might specialist ;
in Education try to understand the
ways in which Indians, Africans,
and Afro-Americans have attempted
to rescue their educational
systems from the domination of
structures and ideologies shaped
in England, France and white
America . Seminars in non-Western
cultural nationalisms of the modern
world might be filled with excitement
and profit for those who are
trying to discern, develop and sustain
an Afro-American style of life .
The academic curriculum would
be, of course, only one of the
places in which the unique internationalism
of the black university
might be expressed . Special institutes
on Afro-American (using
"American" in the hemispheric
sense ) culture would abound . Colloquies
on a subject like Slavery
would engage scholars from all
over the New World, especially
those who still bear the marks
which were first painfully known
by their ancestors . Conferences on
such topics as "The Role of Women
in Re-Emerging Societies," would
simply be part of the breathing of
such a school .
Symposia on strategies for social
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