Sankofa, Jazz & Revolution

I took a Third World Cinema class at Howard University under a highly respected independent filmmaker by the name of Haile Gerima. Some of my peers felt Gerima was overly antagonistic (and he could be at times), because of his abrasive teaching style. His method was dialogical, but he forced you to probe deeper into the text of a film and defend whatever analysis you developed. Gerima was/is the antithesis of the dominant Hollywood paradigm. He opposed all things commercial and railed against the still pervasive racism of the entertainment industry. Gerima is most known for his film "Sankofa", which is the story of a model of African descent who is mystically transported into the past and experiences life as a house slave, and falls in love with a rebellious field hand. "Sankofa" is an Akan word which means, "one must return to the past in order to move forward."

I have been undergoing sankofa for over a decade, at first somewhat unconsciously, but now much more deliberately to better understand both my present and future, from two standpoints of identity; first as a Christian and second as an African-American. My old college roommate (I will refer to him as "J.B.") , who is an IT Specialist by day and a record company owner/manager/producer by night and weekend, is undergoing his own sankofa process right now. We have kept in touch over the several years since we graduated, but it is only recently that we have really reconnected and discovered how much we have in common - spiritually, creatively and intellectually.

Since we're both music lovers, J.B. and I decided to go see Maria Howell," who had a cameo appearance in the film, "The Color Purple," at a new jazz club in Charlotte called simply, "The Jazz Cafe'." Maria's voice was as extraordinary as the ambiance of the venue and she had a great band to complement her (My friend Anthony says if he ever starts his own church, it will be set up like a jazz club, because the improvisation and uninhibited nature of jazz in its purest form, mirrors the liberation and non-conformity of the gospel). Maria's powerful vocals blended with bass guitar, saxophone and drums, served as a backdrop for the intense conversation J.B. and I had about the state of American popular culture and African-American entertainment in particular.

We are both highly concerned with the increasingly explicit nature of what is often described as urban music, in terms of the overly sexual, violent and excessively materialistic content. Although the number of non-black consumers outnumber the black customers of hip-hop, the negative elements of that genre tend to impact us more, because we have disproportionate amounts of people who are living in proximity to the activities that many rap artists glorify, whether it be drug-dealing or homicide. Given that most of the audience for contemporary rap music and R&B is comprised of impressionable adolescents, the tired excuse of "it's just entertainment" will not do. I make these statements not as someone who is opposed to urban music, but as one who has a profound appreciation for it's history and the beautiful expressions that have come out of it.

J.B. has a vision for reversing these pathological trends, and from studying the past he has come to realize that as is the case with many dimensions of life, African-American popular culture is cyclical with seasons of digression and progression. Things can only get but so bad before they start getting better. However, unless there are people willing to step up and resist the ungodly powers of the age, things can get really bad, before they turn around. Black culture and life is but a microcosm of the the larger society, so we can be sure that our issues are not biologically determined. If we appear to be more immoral than our counterparts, it is largely because we have been more oppressed. We underestimated the extent to which the legacy of slavery and the seeds of self-hate would plague us beyond segregation. We let our guard down and now we're paying the price. The field must be toiled year in and year out, or weeds and pests will destroy the crop.

A year before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King said we need a "revolution of values." We're still waiting for that revolution. J.B. wants to start that revolution in the urban music arena. I want to support him to the best of my ability. I also want to make it clear that values have to be qualified, because they are not universal. MLK's values were rooted in his faith in Jesus Christ. Those are the only values I am interested in as well. The values of America, the market, or the so-called middle class mean nothing to me unless that are subjected to and consistent with the values of God's kingdom. When Christians fail to make that distinction, we lose the spiritual and moral foundation that makes righteous change possible. America has many ideals, but it has had a difficult time living up to them. The kingdom of God is not an ideal or a value. It is the ultimate reality which has been ushered in through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When you pray "Thy Kingdom come..." you are praying for God's revolution on earth and the soundtrack will definitely have some jazz.