Saint Louis University

African American Review

Indiana State University

The Harlem Renaissance as Postcolonial Phenomenon

Author(s): Robert Philipson
Source: African American Review, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 145-160
Published by: African American Review (St. Louis University)
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The Harlem Renaissance as Postcolonial
Phenomenon

"Wonderwhy he chose an American college? Most of the chiefs' sons'll go to

Oxford or bust. I know- this fellow is probably from Liberia or thereabouts.
Robert Philipson is an inde-
Americaninfluence- see?"-Rudolph Fisher,TheConjureManDies
pendent scholar who lives in
Oakland, California. He has
published articles on African
and African American litera-
HarlemRenaissance--as Americanas FlorenceMills in ture in Callaloo, Research in
ShuffleAlong,LangstonHughes composing "TheNegro African Literatures, and other
venues.
Speaksof Rivers"while crossing the Mississippi on a train,Zora
Neale Hurston collectingBlackfolklorefor FranzBoas. And yet
the road version of ShuffleAlongalso hosted chorineJosephine
Baker,who scored internationalstardomas a headlinerfor the
ParisFoliesBergere; Hurstonfollowed her first successful rework-
ing of African American folklorein MulesandMen (1935)with
TellMy Horse(1938),an examinationof the practiceof voodoo in
Haiti;and Hughes's poem grounds itself specificallyin a dias-
poric consciousnessthat embracesthe Euphrates,the Congo, and
the Nile as rivers of Blackgeography.On the home front,the
biographyand careerof CasperHolstein, an immigrantfrom the
formerDanish VirginIslands,then ruled by the US Navy, illus-
tratesjust how seminal was the West Indianpresencein the
Harlemof the 1920s.Holstein, a formerporter,invented and
enrichedhimself through the numbersracket;yet as historian
David LeveringLewis points out, he used a portion of his wealth
not only to promote the HarlemRenaissancebut to make the link-
age between Americanracismat home and its export to its unac-
knowledged empire. "Invitedby his young friend Walrondto use
[the National UrbanLeague'sjournal]Opportunityas a sounding
board for conditionsin the VirginIslands,Holstein wrote a
detailed, carefullyargued articlefor the October1925issue. From
then on, the Opportunity network had a generous friend. . . .
Holstein's gift of a thousand dollars made the 1926awards possi-
"
ble {WhenHarlem Was In Vogue 130).1
In Alain Locke'sgroundbreakinganthology TheNew Negro
(1925),which announcedthe arrivalof the HarlemRenaissance
on the literaryscene, the Caribbeanpresence is evident.
Prominentlyfeaturedwere poems by the Jamaicanimmigrant
Claude McKay,and a short story titled "ThePalm Porch,"by the
West Indianwriter EricWalrond.Essays were contributedby
PuertoRicanbibliophileArthurSchomburg("TheNegro Digs Up
His Past"),and by the Jamaican-bornjournalistsJoelA. Rogers
("Jazzat Home")and WilfridA. Domingo. Domingo's "Giftof
the BlackTropics"not only claims McKayas a Jamaicanpoet but
explicitly states, "Itis probablynot realized, indeed, to what
extent West IndianNegroes have contributedto the wealth,
power and prestige of the United States"(344).

African American Rew'ew, Volume 40, Number 1

© 2006 Robert Philipson 145

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 The literarycontributionsof these they found themselves ultimately
CaribbeanBlacksreflectedthe demo- entangled.This strugglebore obvious
graphicsof Harlem,where almost 25 analogies to the effort of many African
percentof the Blackpopulace came Americanwriters to distancethem-
from outside the United States selves from a racistAmericandis-
(Osofsky 131).This presence often course,but the colonialworld provid-
resulted in intraethnictensions. ed, by definition,an internationalper-
AmericanBlacksoften applied the spective and a geographicallydis-
insult "monkeychaser"to residents of tanced locus of the ruling discourse.
West Indian origin- but many West Given the time period, the great colo-
Indiansmade their presence felt in the nial empires were alive and well, but
left-wing and radicalmovements of the intellectualseeds were already
Harlem'spolitical scene.2Journalists being sown for their eventual disman-
and activists of West Indianorigin, tling. The postcolonialattitudesof
including CyrilBriggs,RichardB. McKay,Walrond,and Holstein lay in
Moore,HubertHarrison,and Amy their rejectionof the imperialworld-
JacquesGarvey,played prominent view that always put Caribbeanand
roles in the United Negro AfricanBlacksunder the indefinite-
ImprovementAssociation,the Socialist and presumablybenign- tutelage of
SpeakersBureau,the Peoples the white races.
EducationForum,and the African The HarlemRenaissancedevel-
Blood Brotherhood,an early nationalist oped postcolonialdiscoursein three
organizationfounded by Briggsthat ways: (1) it provided a publishing plat-
eventually allied itself to the form for writing about life in territories
CommunistParty.Domingo explains under imperialrule;(2) it extended
that, coming from countriesin which postcolonialmodes of thought and
Blackshad experiencedno legalized resistanceinto an Americanintellectual
segregationand limitationsupon and political context;and (3) it provid-
opportunity,West Indianswere better ed a model and inspirationfor subse-
preparedto challenge racialbarriersin quent postcolonialideologies. When
the United Statesthan the more docile speaking of the HarlemRenaissance
AmericanBlacks:"Skilledat various and its influence as a postcolonialphe-
trades and having a contemptfor body nomenon, we must distinguish
service and menial work, many of the between the modes of thought and cul-
immigrantsapply for positions that the ture developed in three different
averageAmericanNegro has been empires- the British,the French,and
schooled to regardas restrictedto the American.
white men only, with the result that The BritishEmpirecast the deepest
through their persistenceand dogged- shadow on the HarlemRenaissance's
ness in fighting white labor,West literaryscene. McKay'smilitantson-
Indianshave in many cases been pio- nets electrifiedthe Americanleft and
neers and shock troops to open a way the Blackintelligentsia;while
for Negroes into new fields of employ- Walrond'scollectionof expressionistic
ment" (344-45). short stories, TropicDeath(1926),gar-
The West Indianpresence in nered criticalacclaim.Although
Harlemmade itself felt not only in rad- McKayand Walrondwrote American
ical and literarycircles,it brought to materialwith Americansettings, much
AfricanAmericanintellectualthought of their writing reflectedand analyzed
a postcolonialperspectivethat shaped conditions in their Britishcolonies of
the ideology of the Harlem origin,Jamaicain the case of McKay,
Renaissancein fundamentalways. and for Walrond,BritishGuianaand
McKayand Walrondwere formed by a Barbados.In the contextof their
colonialhistory and education against American-basedliterarycareers,
which they struggled but within which McKayand Walrondwere given a

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platformfrom which they published States.Noting that in "New York,
CommonwealthLiterature. McKay'saestheticand personal
McKaymade his first literaryrepu- philosophies began to change and
tation in Jamaicawith the appearance develop," she argues that McKay
of two locally published books of poet- increasinglycomprehendedthe cen-
ry, but at that time, having been edu- tralityof color in class matters(41).
cated in colonial schools and mentored Moreover,Hathaway suggests, he
by an Englishman,WalterJekyll,he shared with many immigrantsfrom the
was still and unproblematicallya poet Caribbeanthe perceptionthat race
of the BritishEmpire.Laterin the 1920s affected "everyaspect of his life in the
and 30s, when New York-based United States"(41).She continues:
Harper& Brotherssupportedhis pub- Under the realitiesof Americansegre-
lishing career,several stories in his col- gation,in a world where he was now a
lection Gingertown(1932)and his third memberof the minorityratherthan the
novel BananaBottom(1933)were situat- majority, McKay became critically
aware ... of what it meant to be black
ed in Jamaicawithout obvious in his new culture.Whereasthe social
Americanoverlay. One of the criticism of his Jamaican poetry
Gingertownstories, "WhenI Pounded revolved almost exclusively around
the Pavement,"bears direct compari- class oppression,the focus of McKay's
son to GeorgeOrwell's famous essay Americanverse shifted to address the
barbarities of racism. . . . [H]e
"Shootingan Elephant,"in that both expressed the rage felt by black new-
protagonistsare reluctant,alienated comers, in particular, who came to
membersof the colonial constabulary America hoping to be welcomed into
forcedinto acts of aggressionby a colo- its melting pot, but who found them-
selves ostracized on the basis of skin
nial hegemony that they are powerless color alone. (41-42)
to resist. In his descriptionof the police
hierarchyof "WhenI Pounded the Walrond,in contrastto McKay,
Pavement,"McKayoffers a pithy, inci- writes out of not one but two colonial
sive analysis of Jamaicansociety: experiences.Having grown up in two
Manyof our sergeant-majorsand some empires, the British(BritishGuiana,
of our inspectorshad come to us from Barbados)and the American(the
the Irish Constabularyand socially as PanamaCanalZone), Walrond'scollec-
white men they were practically tion of Caribbeanstories, TopicDeath,
nowhere in our very British-spirited reflectsthe differingoppressions of
colony with its insouciant mass of both mindsets. "Drought,""Panama
black and brown natives, a proud and
self-sufficientmulatto aristocracythat Gold,""TheBlackPin," "TheWhite
had been building up and propagating Snake,"and "TheVampireBat"are set
its kind for generations upon genera- in Barbados.These are Commonwealth
tions, and a handfulof Britishadminis- stories reflectingthe minds, the lan-
trators.(203-04)
guage and lives of the Blackcolonial
Becauseof the US-centeredper- subject."PanamaGold"illustrateshow
spective of Harlem Renaissance criti- deeply ingrainedthe sense of British
cism, McKay'sJamaicanprose and identity can run, especially outside the
poetry has been slighted, but increas- Britishsphere. The title of the story
ing interestin Caribbeanliteraturehas refersto the money made by Mr.
broadenedthese horizons. Heather Poyer, a Barbadianmigrantworker,
s of
Hathaway' analysis McKay's oeuvre while working as a brakemanduring
as the product of a Caribbeanidentity the constructionof the PanamaCanal.
restoresa vital element to understand- In compensationfor a trainaccident
ing his work and contribution. that costs him his foot, Mr. Poyer
Hathawaymasterfully uncovers the receives enough money to returnto
Caribbeaninspirationbehind the mili- Barbadosand open a shop in the coun-
tant poems that first established tryside. In order to get his money,
McKay'sreputation in the United however, Poyer has to threatenthe

THEHARLEM PHENOMENON
AS POSTCOLONIAL
RENAISSANCE 147

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 Americanswith "theBritishbulldog" Destiny "justified"the forcedpurchase,
(TropicDeath42). "Man,"he exclaims absorption,annexation,and bellicose
to a villager, PettitBruin,"le me tell yo' theft of lands ruled by Spain and
something. I let dem understandquick Mexico,but as historianJuanGonzoles
enough dat I waz a Englishmanand writes, "USterritorialexpansion did
not a bleddy Americannigger! A' not climaxwith the closing of the west-
Englishman- big distinctionin dat, ern frontier;rather,it reachedits culmi-
Bruing!An' dat day couldn't do as day nation with the Spanish-AmericanWar
bleddy well of 1898"(56):
please wit' a The US gave Garvey- Spain, a
subject 'o the and McKay and Walrond- teetering
King!" (Tropic stagnant
Death 42). 3 the platform from which to speak, power,
was never
As Poyer's but the vision each put forth a match
experience for the ris-
reveals, howev- subverted all national ing United
er, much of the and imperial paradigms. States. Its
defeat
story of the
Caribbeanis about migration,move- finally
achieved what Jefferson, John Quincy
ment, and the mix of island, Latin Adams, and other Founding Fathers
American,and metropolitancultures. had long sought: plopping Cuba, the
"TheYellow One" takes its title from juiciest plum of the Caribbean, into US
the color of a Honduranwoman, la palms, and securing Anglo American
domination over Latin America for the
madurita,sailing from the Panama next century. The Treaty of Paris that
CanalZone where she had grown up formally ended the war gave the
to her Jamaicanhusband'shomeland. United States direct control not only of
Centralto the story is the sexual and Cuba but also over Puerto Rico, Guam,
and the Philippines.
racialrivalryshe unwittingly sparks
between a light-skinnedCubanmulat- Americanimperialismdiffered
to and a darkAmericanBlack.The from its Frenchand Britishcounter-
autobiographical"TropicDeath" parts in that no consistentcolonialpoli-
moves with its young Blackprotago- cy was ever developed. Outside of its
nist from Barbadosto the CanalZone. Spanishbooty, Americanimperialism
Yet with such stories as "Subjection" swamped and receded aroundthe
and "ThePalm Porch,"Walrondpio- world- but mostly in the Caribbean-
neers the anglophone fiction of the accordingto passing diplomaticand
AmericanCaribbeanempire. commercialinterests.Between the end
BecauseAmericanimperialism of the Spanish-AmericanWarand the
usually took the form of economic and dawn of the GreatDepression,the
political influence ratherthan outright United Statessent troops to Latin
annexationor the proclamationof a Americancountries32 times. It used
formalempire, its history has been the Roosevelt Corollary,an addition to
harderto traceand less publicly the 1823MonroeDoctrinedeclaring
acknowledged than its Frenchand LatinAmericato be a United States
Britishcounterparts.Furthermore, "sphereof influence,"to justify inter-
imperialistdominationis fundamental- vention. In the corollary,Teddy
ly at odds with the egalitarianand Roosevelt proclaimed,"Chronic
democraticideals of the American wrongdoing, or an impotencewhich
Revolution,and so the Americanpeo- results in a generalloosening of the ties
ple have often turned a blind eye to the of civilized society, may in America,as
foreign machinationsof their politi- elsewhere, ultimatelyrequireinterven-
cians,bankers,business enterprises, tion by some civilized nation, and in
and military.During the nineteenth the WesternHemispherethe adherence
century,the doctrineof Manifest of the United Statesto the Monroe

148 AFRICAN
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Doctrinemay force the United States, administratorspreferredWest Indian
however reluctantly,in flagrantcases workersbecause they spoke English.
of such wrongdoing or impotence,to During the 10-yearperiod of the
the exerciseof an internationalpolice canal'sconstruction(1904to 1914),
power" (qtd. in Milkis 109). 25,000-30,000West Indianswere
Roosevelt,whose militaryexploits recruitedfor the project,Walrond's
in the Spanish-AmericanWaroriginal- fatheramong them. Gonzales estimates
ly propelled him onto the stage of that, counting the families of those
nationalpolitics, was also responsible workers,more than 150,000West
for anothermajoraddition to the large- Indiansmigratedto Panamaduring
ly unacknowledgedAmericanempire: construction(67).Although economi-
the PanamaCanalZone. Becausethis cally advantageous,the move from the
empire stretchedfrom the Caribbean Britishto the Americanimperiumwas
acrossthe Pacific,the old idea of a psychologicallydifficultfor the Black
canalbetween the two oceans took on laborer.The Americanmasters
new urgency. "Thecanal,"Roosevelt imposed their racialattitudesupon the
said, "was by far the most important inhabitantsof their possessions, and
actionI took in foreign affairsduring the CanalZone replicatedAmerican
the time I was President.When nobody racialconditions. "Theyestablished
could or would exerciseefficient separate'gold' payrolls for American
authority,I exercisedit" (qtd. in citizens,"Gonzales writes, "andmuch
Buschini). lower 'silver' ones for the noncitizen
The idea had been tried before. In West Indians. . . . Blackslived in
1878Ferdinandde Lesseps, the French squalid segregated company towns,
engineerwho built the Suez Canal, while the whites resided in more opu-
began to dig a canal acrossthe Isthmus lent zone communities,where every-
of Panama,then part of Colombia. thing from housing to health care to
Tropicaldisease and engineeringprob- vacationswere subsidized by the fed-
lems halted constructionon the canal, eral government"(68).
but a Frenchbusiness, the New Canaloverseerswere recruited
PanamaCanalCompany,still held the from the US South, since it was
rights to the project.Roosevelt agreed believed that they alreadyknew how
to pay $40 million for those rights,but to make Blackmen work, and the
when he offered Columbia$10 million marineswere as racistas the overseers.
for a 50-mile strip acrossthe isthmus, In one of Walrond'sstories,
Colombiarefused. Roosevelt then "Subjection,"a marinemurdersa Black
covertlybacked a plan for the armed laborerwith impunity afterhe tries to
succession of Columbia'sDarien prevent the tormentof anotherBlack
province.The chief engineer of the worker.Makingan invidious compari-
New PanamaCanalCompanypartici- son between the two styles of empire
pated in organizinga local revolt, in his essay "TheColor of the
helped along by the US sailors dis- Caribbean,"Walrondwrites, "The
patched to the port city of Colon. The English did not go, like their near-
rebels,now constitutingthe sovereign sighted cousins of a centuryand a half
governmentof Panama,gladly accept- later,with bombast and 'darky-hating'
ed Roosevelt's$10 million offer and acts and epithets. They went instead
gave the United Statescomplete con- with the one defined purpose of
trol of a 10-milewide canal zone. exploiting the mighty resourcesof the
Panamahad attractedCaribbeanimmi- tropics"(145).The British,as implicat-
grantssince the 1880s,the period of the ed in the ideology of white superiority
first Frenchattemptto build a canal, as the rest of the west, could nonethe-
but theirnumbersincreasedsignifi- less be more casual in its application
cantlywhen the US governmentbegan since they had no homegrown popula-
overseeing the project.The canal tion of Blackswith which to contend.

THEHARLEM
RENAISSANCE PHENOMENON
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 Ratherthan institutingand maintain- In its brilliantcompressionand ruth-
ing an elaborateapartheid,they could less analysis of the link between racism
simply let economics and the class sys- and capitalism,"ThePalm Porch"
tem confine the vast majorityof people depicts the world of Americancolo-
of color within oppressed communi- nialism with febrilerealism.
ties. No attemptwas made to rigorous- Yet it was the move to the Canal
ly exclude the lucky and talented few Zone that eventually led Walrondto
who managed to escape. Furthermore, the heart of the HarlemRenaissance.
the mulatto offspringof matings Beginninghis writing careeras a
between white men and Blackwomen reporterfor the English-language
were not denied social standing or Panama Star and Herald,Walrond
educationalopportunitiesif offeredby moved to the United Statesin 1918
their lighter parent. where he lived for the next 10 years.
However, the Walrondstory origi- Even though he had spent time in an
nally published in TheNew Negro,"The Americancolony, Walrondwas
Palm Porch,"illustrateshow easily the shocked, as McKayhad been, by the
casual racismof the Britishempire racialprejudicehe experienced.
adapted to the formalizedracismof the On coming to the United States, the
Americanone. The Palm Porchis a West Indian often finds himself out of
bordello run by a mulattafrom Jamaica patience with the attitude he meets
whose genteel mannersbarely mask here respecting the position of whites
the murderousruthlessnessthat keeps and Negroes. He is bewildered ... at
being shoved down certainblocks and
her business going. Miss Buckner, "
alleys among his own people/7 He is
though of mixed-raceancestryherself, angry and amazed at the futility of
is as virulently racistas any white seeking out certain types of employ-
cracker.Linguisticallycloser to the ment for which he may be specially
adapted.And about the crudest injury
people she despises than to the white that could be inflicted upon him is to
Spaniardwhom she would make her ask him to submit to the notion that
protector,she picks at the scab of an becausehe is blackit is useless for him
old wound as she remembershow her to aspireto be more than a trap drum-
eldest had taken up with "a willing mer at Small's, a Red Cap in
PennsylvaniaStation,or a clerk in the
young mulatto, a Christianin the BowlingGreenPost Office.(146)
MoravianChurch."
He was an able young man, strongand
The racialshocks Walrond
honest, and wore shoes, but Miss received primed him for an early,
Buckneralmostwent mad- groanedat youthful enthusiasmfor Marcus
the pain her daughters caused her. Garvey'sideological mixtureof Black
"Oh, me Gahd," she had wept, "Oh,
me Gahd, dem ah send me to de pride, diasporicconsciousness,and
defiance of white racism.After years of
dawgs - dem ah send me to de
dawgs." He was but a clerkin the cold trying to make a place for himself in
storage;sixty dollars a month- wages the Americaneconomy, Walrond'sfirst
of an accursed silver employee. Silver
is nigger; nigger is silver. Nigger-sil- professionalbreakcame as an associate
ver. . . Silver employee! Bah! Why
editor of Garvey'sNegroWorld,the
couldn't he be a "Gold"one? Gold is most importantBlackweekly of the
white; white is gold. Gold-white! early 1920s.NegroWorldhad a circula-
"Gold,"and get $125 a month,like "de tion of between 50,000and 200,000;it
fella nex' tarrim,he? Why, him had to
be black,an' get little pay, an' tek way published articlesin English,French,
me gal picknee from me? Now, han- and Spanish,and boasted the distinc-
swah me dat!"Nor did he get coal and tion of being banned by many colonial
fuel free, besides. He had to dig down governmentsfor its dangerousnation-
and pay extra for them. He was not, alism. As CaryWintz points out, the
alas!, white. Which hurt, left Miss
Buckner cold; caused her nights of "yearsof Walrond'sinvolvement with
sleepless despair.Wretch!(TropicDeath
the paper [1921-23]correspondedwith
92) the peak of Garvey'sliteraryactivity,

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some of which anticipatedthe develop- ural, free-spirited,working- class Black
ments several years later that launched protagonistby the name of JakeBrown.
the HarlemRenaissance"(148). (McKay'shomeland also laid claim to
Growingimpatientwith Garvey's the bestseller,awarding it a medal
mismanagementand excesses, from the JamaicaInstituteof Arts and
Walrondleft the United Negro Sciences.)While working as a cook on
ImprovementAssociationand Negro the railroad,Jakemeets and befriends
Worldto become the business manager the Haitianwaiter, an intellectualand
under CharlesS. Johnsonof the aspiringwriter,who clearlyserves as
National UrbanLeague'smonthly, McKay'sstand-in.Ignorantof Haiti's
Opportunity. This move put him at the history,Jakeraptlytakes in what
centerof the HarlemRenaissance.The McKaycalls "a romanceof his race"
1925award ceremonyof the first (134):
Opportunity prizes constitutedone of Jake sat like a big eager boy and
the signal opening events of the learned many facts about Hayti before
Renaissance,and it was Walrondwho the train reached Pittsburgh. He
securedthe money the following year learned that the universal spirit of the
from fellow West Indian Casper French Revolution had reached and
lifted up the slaves far away in that
Holstein to financethe second contest. remote island;that BlackHayti's inde-
While working for Johnson,a tireless pendence was more dramaticand pic-
booster of the Renaissance,Walrond turesque than the United States' inde-
securedthe publicationof TropicDeath pendence and that it was a strange,
from the publishersBoni & Liveright. almost unimaginable eruption of the
beautiful idea of the "Liberte,Egalite,
With its strangesubjectmatterand Fraternite"of Mankind,that shook the
strangerliterarytechnique,Tropic foundationsof that romanticera.
Deathquickly dropped from sight after Forthe firsttime he heardthe name
ToussaintL'Ouverture,the black slave
garneringslight but enthusiasticcriti- and leader of the Haytian slaves.
cal attention.Though Walrondhad Heard how he fought and conquered
moved beyond Garveyismat the time the slave-owners and then protected
he wrote his Caribbeanfiction,he them;decreedlaws for Hayti that held
shared one crucialaspect of his fame more of human wisdom and nobility
and reputation.BothWalrondand than the Code Napoleon;defended his
baby revolution against the Spanish
Garveyhad moved from the and the English vultures; defeated
Commonwealthworld, with London at Napoleon's punitive expedition; and
the center,to an Americanone, where how tragically he was captured by a
New Yorkruled the publishing scene, civilized trick, taken to France, and
the disseminationof literaryproduc- sent by Napoleon to die broken-heart-
ed in a cold dungeon. (131)
tion, and the elaborationof Blackpolit-
ical ideology. McKaywrote all of his novels and
McKay,in his prose, introduced short stories during a self-imposed
anotherdimension of the Caribbean Europeanexile that lasted from 1923to
postcolonialproblematic,anothercom- 1934.He had alreadylived in France
plex interactionof imperialismspast for a couple of years when composing
and present- this time Americanand Hometo Harlemand so was familiar
French- with his creationof the deraci- with Franceand her imperialadven-
nated Haitianintellectual,Ray. Haiti, tures. ConstructingRay with a Haitian
of course,was the Frenchcolony that nationalidentity allowed McKayto
had gotten away, the slave rebellionin educate his Americanreadersabout a
1802that had actuallysucceeded in few heroic episodes of Blackhistory.
establishingand maintainingthe inde- As criticJohnLowney notes, "Bywrit-
pendence of the West's first non-white ing the West Indianimmigrantnarra-
independent country. tive as a narrativeof Haitianexile,
McKay'sfirst novel, Hometo McKaysuggests a common ground for
Harlem(1928),gave to the world a nat- cross-culturaldialogue among African

THE HARLEMRENAISSANCE AS POSTCOLONIALPHENOMENON 151

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 Americanand Caribbeancriticsof Republic in 1916, and by purchasing
Americanimperialism"(426). the economically worthless Danish
West Indiesin 1916.(57)
Though Haiti had been indepen-
dent since 1802,the countryhad come Ray ends up in the United Statesas
under increasingscrutinyfrom the a result of the same geopoliticalevents
United Stateswith its acquisitionof the that brought the arrivalof Casper
PanamaCanalZone. Likemany Latin Holstein and EricWalrond:as inhabi-
Americancountriesof the time, Haiti tants of the de facto Americanempire,
acquireda significantforeign debt, they emigratedfrom the marginsto the
thus providing an excuse for European center.When Jakeasks Ray why, as an
intervention.The Roosevelt Corollary educated Black,he works the railroad,
stated that the United Stateswould Ray replies that Uncle Sam put him
ensure against such interventionby there.ThroughRay's story, McKay
assuming the burden of policing Latin scores more points about the natureof
Americancountriesthat were delin- Americanimperialism.
quent in honoring their international Maybeyou don't know that duringthe
debts. When WilliamHoward Taft,for- World War Uncle Sam grabbedHayti.
mer governorof the Philippines,fol- My father was an official down there.
lowed Roosevelt into the White House, He didn't want Uncle Sam in Hayti
he introducedthe policy of "dollar and he said so and said it loud. They
told him to shut up and he wouldn't so
diplomacy"to advance and protect they shut him up in jail. My brother
Americanbusiness in other countries. also made a noise and American
Electionof the DemocratWoodrow marineskilled him in the street. I had
Wilson in 1912did not change the nobody to pay for me at the university,
so I had to get out and work. Voila!
thrustof Americanforeign policy, and
(Home to Harlem 138)
the heated imperialambitionsof the
Europeanpowers that led directlyto In Hometo Harlem,McKaypresents
the outbreakof WorldWarI only Ray as a complex deracinatedintellec-
increasedAmerica'sdesire to protect tual who recognizesBlackkinship even
its self- proclaimedsphere of influence. as he kicks against it. "Whyshould he
The emphasis continued to be on limit- have and love a race?"he asks himself
ing Europeaninfluence,maintaining during a battle with insomnia (154).It
order,and furtheringAmericaneco- was race that cast him in the category
nomic interests.Germany,flexing its of the oppressed:"Rayfelt that as he
muscles since its 1870victory in the was conscious of being black and
Franco-Prussianwar, was particularly impotent, so, correspondingly,each
hungry for empire, and the United marine down in Hayti must be con-
Statesfelt most threatenedby per- scious of being white and powerful"
ceived Germaninitiativesin the (154).It was race that bound him to
Caribbean.The 1915occupation men and women with whom he shared
stemmed directlyfrom America'sfear no otherbond: "He rememberedwhen
that the Germansmight seize the little Hayti was flounderinguncon-
Haitianharborof Mole-Saint-Nicolas- trolled,how proud he was to be the
an almost accidentalby-productof son of a free nation. He used to feel
WorldWarI. As the historianHans condescendinglysorry for those poor
Schmidtwrites: Africannatives;superiorto ten mil-
lions of suppressed Yankee'coons/
Mole-Saint-Nicolas,SamanaBay in
the Dominican Republic, and the Now he was just one of them and he
Danish West Indies were considered hated them for being one of them. . ."
vulnerableto Germanseizure because (155).
the United States lacked firm control In Banjo(1929),his next novel,
over local politics in each case. . . . The
Wilson administration took over all McKaytransposesthe formless,buddy
three by establishing military occupa- structureof Hometo Harlemto
tions in Haiti in 1915,in the Dominican Marseilles,a site that allows the author

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to expatiateat length upon the nature "Theythink they understandNegroes,
of the Blackdiaspora.Ray reappearsas because they don't discriminateagainst
intellectualsidekickto anotherversion us in theirbordels. They imagine that
of the life-loving, charismatic Negroes like them. But Senghor,the
AmericanBlack,LincolnAgrippa Senegalese,told me that the French
Daily, a.k.a.Banjo.Banjolives the life were the most calculatinglycruel of all
of a beach bum, gatheringaroundhim the Europeansin Africa"(267).
an internationalcollectionof similarly The invocationof Senghor,almost
situated expatriateBlacksfrom the two decades before he became famous
Caribbean,Africa,and the United as the fatherof negritude, is both
States.As in Hometo Harlem,McKay remarkableand prophetic.Although
describesat length the lowlife of the written in Englishand put out by an
Blackunderclass,but the international Americanpublisher,Banjois more of a
reachof his dramatispersonaeallows negritude novel than an Americanor a
him to cast his discursivenet over the Britishone. Negritude, an ideology of
whole of the Blackdiaspora. Blackunity born at the heart of the
The port was a fine big wide-open Frenchempire, posited a Blackessen-
hole and the docks were wide open tialism that theoreticallytranscended
too. Ray loved the piquant variety of imperialand linguistic boundariesbut
the things of the docks as much as he
loved their colorful human interest. practicallyhad its greatestinfluence
And the highest to him was the and productivitywithin the francopho-
Negroes of the port. In no other port ne world. In order to help them formu-
had he ever seen congregated such a late their inchoateideology during the
picturesque variety of Negroes. 1930s,the founders of negritude,
Negroes speaking the civilized
tongues, Negroes speaking all the Leopold Senghor(Senegal),Aime
Africandialects,black Negroes, brown Cesaire(Martinique),and Leon Damas
Negroes, yellow Negroes. It was as if (FrenchGuiana),looked to the writings
every country of the world where of the HarlemRenaissanceas examples
Negroes lived had sent representatives of literaryexpressionof a positive
drifting in to Marseilles. A great Blackconsciousness.
vagabond host of jungle-like Negroes
trying to scrape a temporaryexistence BlackWritersin French,Lilyan
from the macadamizedsurface of this Kesteloot'sgroundbreakingliterary
greatProvengalport. (68) history of negritude, featuresa whole
In his descriptionof life in The chapteron the influence of the Harlem
Ditch, McKayanalyzes all of the ele- Renaissanceon the Blackstudents who
ments that not only separateBlack contributedto the creationof negri-
humanity- class, nationalorigin, lan- tude. She writes of the Parissalon of
guage, ideology -but those that bring PauletteNardal, founder of the Revue
them together:white racismand its du MondeNoir,where Africanand
imposition of Blackconsciousness. Caribbeanstudents met such visiting
Becausethe novel is set in France,the writers as Alain Locke,Countee Cullen
racismdepicted is generallyFrenchin (both ardentfrancophiles),Jean
origin, in spite of France'sclaim, Toomer,and LangstonHughes. "[O]ne
acceptedeven by some of her gens de can assert,"Kestelootwrites, "thatthe
couleur,that racismis foreign to her real fathersof the Negro cultural
spirit.McKayexposes the hypocrisy of renaissancein Francewere neither the
such a claimby writing an episode in writers of the West Indiantradition,
which Ray is beaten by a gendarmesim- nor the surrealistpoets, nor French
ply for being a Blackman in the wrong novelists of the era between the two
neighborhood."TheFrenchare never wars, but black writers of the United
tired of proclaimingthemselves the States.They made a very deep impres-
most civilized people in the world,"he sion on FrenchNegro writersby claim-
expostulatesto his white companion. ing to representan entire race,launch-

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 ing a cry with which all blacks identi- Enough
fied-the first cry of rebellion"(57). Enoughof the blues
of hammeringthe piano
In 1932,as the Renaissancewas of muted trumpet
deflating due to the GreatDepression, of madnessbeatingits feet
three Martinicanstudents in Parisput to the satisfactionof the rhythm
out the single issue of a radicallyracial-
ized journalentitled LegitimeDefense Enough of sessions at so much a
that Kesteloothas identified as an punch.
at ringsides
importantannunciationof negritude. jarredby cries
At the end of his condemnatoryexami- of untamedbeasts
nation of francophoneCaribbeanlitera-
Enoughof boot-licking
ture, EtienneLerodeclaimed, "The butt-licking
wind that blows from black America butteringup
will soon manage, let us hope, to and
cleanse our Antilles, of the aborted that posturing
fruit of an obsolete culture.Langston of the super-assimilated

Hughes and Claude McKay,two revo- Enoughfor a while

lutionaryblack poets, have brought us, of the easy-goinglife
marinatedin red alcohol, the African and the wishes
love of life, the Africanjoy of love, the and the needs
and the selfishness
Africandream of death"(qtd. in Fabre of individuals.
154-55).
The poetry of Damas and Cesaire Unlike Damas, McKaydidn't have
fulfilled the prophecy.Damas in partic- to imagine the diasporicMarseillesthat
ular seemed to reproducethe corrosive he depicts in Banjo;he lived the life he
simplicity,filteredthrough surrealism, describes.His biographer,Wayne
of LangstonHughes in his more acer- Cooper,notes that Banjo"madean
bic moments. Publishedin 1937,the overwhelming impressionon French
poem "Treve"summons an American West Africanstudents in Francewhen
scene that the Frenchstudent of it appearedthere in translationin
Guyanese origin could have only 1929"(258).He also speaks of its influ-
known about through the myth of the ence on the negritude writersoutside
HarlemRenaissance. of the founding triumvirate:
Treve Ousman Soce rememberedthat "Banjo
Trevede blues was displayed in black-studentbook-
de martelementsde piano shelves right next to a book by [the
de trompettebouchee anthropologist] Delafosse/' who was
de folie claquantdes pieds also writing sympatheticallyof African
a la satisfactionde rythme culture.In 1950,JosephZobel remem-
bered in La Rue Cases Negres that Banjo
Trevede seancesa tant le swing also aroused much discussion in
autourde rings Martinique.Finally, in 1956, Sembene
qu'enervent Ousmanefrom Senegalwrote Ledocker
des cris de fauves noir, a novel that Kesteloot believed
"was more influencedby Banjothanby
Trevede lachage the novels of RichardWright,to which
de lechage Le docker noir is occasionally com-
de leche pared." In interviewing Senghor,
et Damas, and Cesairein the early 1960s,
d'une attitude Kesteloot found they could "still cite
d'hyperassimiles entire chapters"of Banjo."Whatstruck
me in this book," Cesairerecalled, "is
Treveun insant that for the first time Negroes were
d'une vie de bon enfant described truthfully, without inhibi-
et de desirs tion or prejudice."(269)
et de besoins
et d'egoismes It is easy to see why the book had
particuliers. the impact that it did upon the nascent

1 54 AFRICAN REVIEW
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ideology; Banjois a negritudenovel miscegenation. At college in America
and among the Negro intelligentsiahe
avantla lettre.4"
Not only does it excori-
had never experiencedany of the sim-
ate the hypocrisy of Frenchracism,it
ple, naturalwarmthof a people believ-
provides an early and accurateanalysis ing in themselves, such as he had felt
of the false consciousnessof the evolue among the rugged poor and socially
later so masterfullydissected by Franz backward blacks of his island home.
Fanon in Peau noire, masquesblanques The colored intelligentsialived its life
"to have the white neighbors think
(1952).In chapter16, Ray has a discus- well of us," so that it could move more
sion with a Blackstudent from peaceablyinto nice "white"streets.
Martiniquewho glories in the fact that Only when he got down among the
black and brown working boys and
the EmpressJosephinewas born there
and who deplores the coming of Black girls of the country did he find some-
thing of that raw unconsciousand the-
Africansto Francein the wake of the devil-with-thempride in being Negro
GreatWar.Ray criticizeshim for trying that was his own natural birthright.
to distancehimself from other Blacks (320)
who are consideredless "civilized"by Trueto his belief that the greatest
white standards:"You'rea lost crowd, racialauthenticityresided among the
you educated Negroes, and you will Blackproletariat,McKayshunned liter-
only find yourselves in the roots of ary circlesin Franceand America,but
your own people" (201). his writings were centralto both the
Banjoanticipatedall of the major HarlemRenaissanceand the inchoate
themes of negritude:the healthy primi-
tivism of Blackconsciousnessopposing negritude movement that maturedin
the following decades. He was the
the mechanizedsterilityof white civi-
postcolonialhyphen that linked negri-
lization;the distortionof Blackvalues tude to that necessarymanifestationof
as filteredthroughwhite prejudiceand Blackconsciousnessthat preparedthe
education;the uncomplicated,natural way for the HarlemRenaissance-
sexualityof the Blackman;the essen- Garveyism.
tial oneness of Blackidentity and the WithoutGarveyism,the Harlem
sense of rhythmat its base;Africaas Renaissancewould have developed
the originalsource of authenticity.The
along considerablydifferentlines. As
following passage not only formulates crack-brainedand as badly misman-
McKay'sworking out of negritude ide- aged as the movement became, during
ology but also uncovers its Caribbean its heroic period from 1917to 1922,it
origin. seized the hearts and minds of the
The Africansgave [Ray] a positive AfricanAmericanand West Indian
feeling of wholesome contact with working class Blacksas no previous
racial roots. They made him feel that
he was not merely an unfortunateacci- ideology had ever done. In an article
dent of birth,but that he belonged def- on Garveypublished in TheLiberator,
initely to a race weighed, tested, and McKaydubbed this period "five years
poised in the universal scheme. They of stupendous vaudeville" ("Garveyas
inspired him with confidencein them. a Negro Moses"69). The class differ-
Short of extermination by the ence that Ray noted in the quote above
Europeans, they were a safe people, held true for the Garveyitemasses as
protectedby theirown indigenous cul-
ture. Even though they stood bewil- well. Du Bois's TalentedTenth and the
dered before the imposing bigness of civil rights organizationswith which
white things, apparently unaware of
the invaluableworth of theirown, they they worked deplored the Jamaican
were naturally defended by the rich- propagandistand his wild ideas. In
ness of theirfundamentalracialvalues. spite of TheNew Negro'sinclusion of
He did not feel that confidence West Indianwriters,the writings of
about Aframericanswho, long-deraci- MarcusGarveyrepresenta huge lacu-
nated, were still rootless among phan- na in the presentationof the modern
toms and pale shadows and enfeebled
by self-effacementbefore condescend- spirit that Lockeclaimed to character-
ing patronage, social negativism, and ize. Of course,by 1925the federal gov-

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RENAISSANCE
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 eminent had placed Garveyin a US are showcased, praised, and criticized,
prison aftera trumped up conviction Amy JacquesGarveyis wildly enthusi-
on chargesof mail fraud.Withoutthe astic about LangstonHughes; Garvey
widespread disseminationof and and his editors alternativelypraise and
excitementgeneratedby the Universal condemn McKay;Hurstonis given her
Negro ImprovementAssociationand firstnational and internationalexpo-
its creationof the BlackStarLine in the sure;and Augusta Savage comes to
period immediatelypreceding the Harlem,works on a bust of Garvey,
HarlemRenaissance,though, the psy- publishes poetry in the paper and mar-
chology of the New Negro would have ries the UNIA's secretarygeneral"
been probablyless assertive. (xviii).
Garveyism,with its emphasis on Yet if the Americansmentioned
Africancolonizationand its disdain for above were never Garveyites,West
the leadershipand integrationistgoals Indianwriters and journalists- name-
of such civil rights organizationsas the ly, EricWalrondand W. A. Domingo-
NAACP and the NUL, was anathema had their flirtations.Indeed it was the
to the mainstreamrace leaders, and The West Indian commentatorsWalrond
New Negrowas nothing if not a and McKaywho uncovered the
TalentedTenthproduction. Jamaicanelements of Garvey'sideolo-
Nonetheless, Garveyismcould not gy. McKaypointed out the messianic
be ignored as a factorin the develop- similaritiesbetween Garveyismand a
ment of the HarlemRenaissance,and homegrown prophetnamed Alexander
no subsequentanthology of Harlem Bedward,a BlackBaptistpreacher:"To
Renaissancewritings has failed to those who know Jamaica,the home-
include some of the Jamaican'swriting land of MarcusGarvey,Garveyism
(Huggins 34-42and D. Lewis, The inevitably suggests the name of
PortableHarlem Renaissance17-28). The Bedwardism"("Garvey"66). Bedward
Blacknationalismthat Garvey taught that he was the reincarnationof
espoused- a volatile mixtureof Black Christand that his ascensioninto heav-
pride, defiance,imperialpageantry, en would be accompaniedby the
and far-fetchedeconomic initiatives- destructionof the white race.Like
planted his particularform of militancy Garveyism,Bedward's movement
permanentlyinto the AfricanAmerican attractedthe most oppressed and least
ideological arsenal.As Garvey'sbiog- educated sector of the Blackpopula-
rapherEdmund Cronennotes, "The tion.6The Britishrecognized the covert
enthusiasticresponse to Garvey'sper- racialand nationalistagendas under
suasive programof Blacknationalism cover of religious frenzy, and arrested
shows beyond all question that the Bedwardfor sedition in 1891.He was
Negro masses can be reachedthrough judged insane but released,whereupon
an emotional appeal based on race he continuedhis preachinguntil finally
pride"(203).5Yet although the Harlem committedto an asylum in 1921.
Renaissancewas unquestionablya cre- Anticolonialsentimentamong the
ation of the Blackintelligentsiaand masses often took the form of religious
white avant garde, Garveyismlaid the exaltation:Kimbanguismin the Belgian
groundworkfor the crossing of class Congo, the MajiMajirebellionof
boundarieseffectuatedby such writers Tanganyika,followers of the Mahdi in
as Hughes, Hurston,and Sterling the Sudan. Even in the United States
Brown.Tony Martinargues that the the bloodiest and most successful of
NegroWorldprovided a kind of the slave rebellions,that led by Nat
rehearsalspace for the Harlem Turner,drew its inspirationfrom reli-
Renaissancebefore the mid-1920s,and gious prophecy.The Americancivil
continued to act as booster for certain rights organizationswith their middle-
of its personalitiesuntil its demise in class orientationcould not tap into the
1928:"Theyounger writers and artists power of religious fervor,but Garvey

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who, like Bedward,often referredto McKay,contributedto the rift between
the Biblicalpassage "Ethiopiashall him and the leaders of the civil rights
stretchout her hands to God" (Psalm organizations.Du Bois's Talented
68:31),instituted an AfricanOrthodox Tenthwas light in color and valued
Churchthat soon taught that both God itself accordingly.
and Christwere Black.Countee Cullen, Garveyismvalidated previously
culturedand genteel, could not be scorned elements of AfricanAmerican
called a Garveyiteby any stretchof the culture:dark skin, Africanorigins,
imagination,but in his torturedgrap- racialparticularity.Garveypreached
pling with Blackidentity, "Heritage," this color appraisalin Americabut not
he follows, however reluctantly, out of an Americanperspective.His
Garvey'slead. philosophy grew in the humus of the
BritishEmpire.Garvey cut his anticolo-
Lord,I fashiondarkgods, too,
Daringeven to give You
nial teeth in Jamaicain 1910as secre-
Darkdespairingfeatures,where, tary of the National Club, an organiza-
Crownedwith darkrebellioushair, tion startedby "a near-whitebarrister
Patiencewaversjust so much as who had been discriminatedagainst in
Mortalgrief compels,while touches the Civil Service,and who was said to
Quickand hot, of anger,rise
To smittencheekand weary eyes. have been influencedby the Sinn Fein
Lord,forgiveme if my need movement. The Club called for 'self-
Sometimesshapes a human creed. governmentwithin the Empire'similar
Likethe assertiveNew Negro, Cullen's to that of Canadaand Australia"(R.
darkChrist,"crownedwith darkrebel- Lewis 42).
lious hair,"responds to his torment The Irishconnectionunderscores
the Britishanticolonialcontext out of
with hot, quick anger.
In his 1925articletitled "Imperator which Garvey and McKaywere operat-
Africanus,"Walrondbrought out ing. Sectorsof the Irishpopulation had
been agitatingagainst the Britishoccu-
anotherJamaicanelement in Garvey's
pation of their island since the crystal-
thinking:the blackerthe berry,the lization of nationalistsentimenttoward
sweeter the fruit. Contraryto the color the end of the eighteenth century.
strucknotions of AfricanAmericansof World attentionfocused on this strug-
the period, Garveyismcelebrateddark
skin. As Walrondwrites: gle with the execution of 16 nationalist
leaders who had helped to lead a
In the island of his birth, Jamaica, a week-long rebellionduring Easter
land with as many color distinctionsas 1916.During his opening speech to the
there are eggs in a shad's roe, and all
1920convention of the Universal
through his life, the fact that he was
black was unerringly borne in upon Negro ImprovementAssociation,
him. Wherever he went, whether to attendedby 25,000delegates and rep-
Wolmer's, the college patronized by
the upper-class mulattoes in Jamaica,
resentingthe movement at its zenith,
or to Europe or Central America as Garveyannouncedthat the association
student and journalist,he was continu- had sent a telegramto the Irish
ously remindedhe was black and that Republicanleader, EamonDe Valera,
it was futile for him to rise above the conveying sympathy for the nationalist
"hewerof wood and drawerof water/' cause. "Webelieve Irelandshould be
In Jamaica, as elsewhere in the free even as Africashall be free for the
United Kingdom, England differenti-
ates between the full bloods and the Negroes of the world," the telegram
half bloods. In Garvey's Jamaica,the read. "Keepup the fight for a free
mulattoes are next in power to the Ireland"(qtd. in Cronon64). In Banjo,
whites. The blacks, who outnumber
them three to one, have actually no
McKayhas his mouthpiece,Ray, coun-
voice politicallyor economically.(122)
sel his brainwashedMartinicaninter-
locutor that he should turn away from
Garvey'smistrustof mulattoes,a habit the haughty Frenchas social models:
of mind sharedby his fellow Jamaican "Ifyou were sincerein your feelings

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 about racialadvancement,you would is the black man's Government?where
turn for example to whites of a differ- is his King and his kingdom?Whereis
ent type. You would study the Irish his President,his country,and his
culturaland social movement"(201). ambassador,his army,his navy, his
Fromthe colonial margins,Garvey men of big affairs?'I could not find
eventually made a sojournto the impe- them, and then"I declared,'I will help
rial center.He had alreadyspent time to make them' (qtd. in Cronon16).
in Costa Rica,the CanalZone, and Returningto Jamaica,Garveylaunched
Ecuador,observing with growing the UniversalNegro Improvementand
indignationthat the Blackman was ConservationAssociationand African
exploited everywherehe worked. From Communities'League (latershortened
1912to 1914Garveylived in London, to the UNIA) on August 1, 1914,
meeting colonized intellectualsfrom EmancipationDay, which was then cel-
other parts of the empire and learning ebratedas the day markingthe aboli-
about the condition of Blacksaround tion of slavery in the BritishWest
the world. Centralto his development Indies.
was his associationwith the Black The next eight years saw the birth
Egyptianjournalist,Duse Mohamed and rise of a movement that would
Ali. Duse Mohamedpublished the grip the imaginationof the Blackdias-
monthly African Timesand Orient pora as none had ever done before.
Review,with which Garveywas associ- Americagave Garvey- as it gave
ated and to which he occasionallycon- McKayand Walrond- the platform
tributedarticles.Duse Mohamed cam- from which to speak, but the vision
paigned for Egyptianhome rule, but that he put forth subvertedall national
his monthly served as a precursorto and imperialparadigms.Neither New
ThirdWorld publications,sweeping Yorknor Londonnor Pariswas the
into its purview the peoples of Africa, centerof the world- that place would
the West Indies, China,Persia,India, be the Africaof the future.
and BlackAmericans.7The October Garveyismwas one of the earliest
1913issue carriedGarvey'sarticle"The and most seminal expressionsof dias-
BritishWest Indies in the Mirrorof poric consciousnessthat later recurred
Civilization,"which espouses the ide- in the ideologies of negritude,the
ology of Garveyismin gestation. AfricanPersonality,and Afrocentrism.
As one who knows the people well, I
The rational,moderate,middle class
make no apology for prophesyingthat orientationof pan-Africanismthat Du
there will soon be a turning point in Bois was trying to promote at the same
the history of the West Indies;and that time stood no chanceagainst the trum-
the people who inhabitthat portion of
the Western Hemisphere will be the peting fantasiaof Garveyismas Black
instrumentsof uniting a scatteredrace wish-fulfillment.8"Blackmen, you
who, before the close of many cen- were once great;you shall be great
turies, will found an Empireon which again"(Garvey25). Although the
the sun shall shine as ceaselessly as it movement had partiallyself-destruct-
shines on the Empire of the North
ed, partiallysuccumbedto outside
today, (qtd.in R. Lewis 47) attackby the time TheNew Negro
Ironically- and this fact shows just announcedthe advent of the Harlem
how racialsolidaritycan subvertimpe- Renaissance,Garvey'sideas had fil-
rial influence- Garvey'sdiscovery of tered down to the younger generation
BookerT. Washington'sautobiography of AfricanAmericanwriters.Hughes
in London inflamed his imagination and Cullen would write of Africa;
and convinced him that it was his des- Hughes and Hurstonembraceda dias-
tiny to found the Blackcenter:"Iread poric consciousness.Blackpride and
Up FromSlavery. . . and my doom- if I Blackmilitancyhad become part of the
may so call it- of being a race leader AfricanAmericanmental landscape.In
dawned upon me. ... I asked:'Where spite of his silence on the subject,

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Locke'sNew Negro had Garveyas a Renaissancewas American,but
not-so-secretancestor.9 because, for the first time, it was also a
The most postcolonialaspect of the culturalmovement of significantBlack
HarlemRenaissancewas its promulga-
tion of a Blackidentity that transcend- autonomy, it realized the promise of a
ed white labels:West Indian,Negro, diasporicconsciousnessthat had
African."Whatis Africato me?" always been implicit in Blackidentity
Cullen famously asked in "Heritage." and that would later pose a momen-
A link to others of Africandescent and tous challenge to the dominantpara-
heritage,something that overflowed digms of nationalidentity, colonial
the colonial and nationalformationsof centers,and literarytraditionsdefined
the west. Certainlythe Harlem by the languages of the west.10

1. Holstein was portrayed in Carl Van Vechten's roman a clef of the Harlem Renaissance, Nigger Notes
Heaven, under the name "Randolph Pettijohn, the Bolito King"(19). As Van Vechten's prissy heroine
reflects, "She even tried not to be a snob when she thought of the manner in which he had accumu-
lated his fortune. Hot-dogs, cabarets, even gambling, all served their purposes in life, no doubt,
although the game of Numbers was deliberate-and somewhat heartless, considering the average
winnings-appeal to a weakness in the ignorant members of her race which she could not readily con-
done" (19-20).
2. Cf. "Ringtail,"by Fisher.
3. In McKay's 1928 novel, Home to Harlem, a young West Indian woman breaks up a catfight
between two other West Indian girls in a Harlem cabaret with the comment, "It'sa shame. Can't you
act like decent English people?" (97).
4. In a 1950 lecture on "LaPoesie Negro-Americaine," Senghor declared, "Claude McKay can
rightfullybe considered the true inventor of Negritude. I speak not of the word, but of the values of
Negritude"(116).
5. Garveyism, soon gutted as an immediate political force, fed into all the Black nationalist ideolo-
gies that came to birth in later decades from the Nation of Islam to Afrocentrism; it also fathered
Rastafarianism "back home" in Jamaica.
6. In a 1924 story published in Success magazine, Walrond introduces a Jamaican maroon given
to prophecy who is a former Bedwardite ("The Godless City"162).
7. At the height of the Garvey movement, Duse Mohamed wrote for the Negro Worldon a weekly
basis.
8. "Pan-Africanismas a living movement, a tangible accomplishment, is a little and negligible
thing," Du Bois wrote in his compte rendu published in The New Negro (Locke 41 1). Itwasn't until the
British Commonwealth had produced an African middle class elite capable of leading the masses that
Pan-Africanism really took off as a potent ideology in the 1940s.
9. Senghor declared the parentage before any American commentators: "The African mystique
preached by Garvey bore its fruit.When negritude is discovered, cultivated and exalted, it's because
Africa is considered as a rich heritage. Of course, this Africa is adorned with all the virtues lacking in
the industrial civilization of the Whites: courage, nobility, beauty. But also innocence in liberty. Africa
thus becomes a peaceful refuge from the hardness of the American world, a bath of primitive life
against the sophistication of white culture"(120).
10. The diasporic consciousness of the Harlem Renaissance points the way from colonial literary
traditions (francophone, Commonwealth) to transnational formations that transcend these histories
and literarytraditions. McKay and Wright can be studied in the context of an international Left along
with Maxim Gorky and Henri Barbusse. Nugent and Cullen would easily fit into gay and lesbian
canons that include Andre Gide, Garcia Lorca, and Arturo Islas. Cf. Hughes's 1926 poem "Negro."

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