African Survival and Creativity

1.      When and how did you first learn about the enslavement of African people (a/k/a slavery, the slave trade)?      After hearing Public Enemy's By the Time I Get to Arizona , I began to study the civil rights era, personalities, and Malcolm X specifically. He broke down a lot about slavery, and for the first time my eyes were opened by the realities of African America/Caribbean history. I knew very little.   

2.      How did that knowledge affect you at the time?         It affected me a great deal. One way it gave me a lot more pride about my African heritage. At the time I had a hard time embracing my direct African connection. I wasn’t comfortable with the difference.  But people who had been 400 yrs removed from the continent had more pride and respect than I did.  Only half a generation removed.   

One of the funny things that happened was I asked my older brother that if we were taken as slaves why didn't we have European names. It was from him I first learned that not all Africans were enslaved.   

3.      How does your knowledge and awareness of the history of the enslavement of African people affect you as an artist now?  How does it influence your work?   It makes me a lot more conscious of the role I walk in and the sacrifice people had to make in order for us to live the way we live.  It gives me a better understanding of the world in which we live, and why the have-nots have nothing and the haves have it all.   

4.      How have you personally experienced enslavement as an artist?  How have you personally experienced Emancipation as an artist?    Personally, I haven’t experienced any form of enslavement that is comparable to what was experienced and won't even attempt to put it in such terms.   

Emancipation, being freedom, being the freedom to express to communicate and to teach to the ability that God gave you.  Every time I get a new poem, I experience emancipation.  

5.      How can we as artists uplift our people, i.e. people of African heritage?  How can we as artists liberate our people?  How can we as artists unify our people?    For me, to do the job which you say needs to be done is something that goes beyond what artists can do.  We have the ability to epitomise the word. However, it will take economic strength, power, direction and planning to increase access to African people.  Artists cannot unify a people, leaders and organisations do that.  Artists can assist in putting out a word that can be palatable to the people while working in conjunction with our leaders.