Troubling Beginnings: Trans(per)forming African American History and Identity (Studies in African American History and Culture)

203 Pages·2003·0.69 MB·English

by  Maurice E. Stevens

S A A
TUDIES IN FRICAN MERICAN
H C
ISTORY AND ULTURE
Edited by
Graham Russell Hodges
Colgate University
A R S
OUTLEDGE ERIES
S A A
TUDIES IN FRICAN MERICAN
H C
ISTORY AND ULTURE
G R H , General Editor
RAHAM USSELL ODGES
PROPHETS OF RAGE “WHITE” AMERICANS IN “BLACK” AFRICA
The Black Freedom Struggle in San Black and White American Methodist
Francisco, 1945–1969 Missionaries in Liberia, 1820–1875
Daniel Crowe Eunjin Park
AN UNDERGROWTH OF FOLLY THE ORIGINS OF THE AFRICAN
Public Order, Race Anxiety, and the 1903 AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT,
Evansville, Indiana Riot 1865–1956
Brian Butler Aimin Zhang
UPLIFTING THE WOMEN AND THE RACE RELIGIOSITY, COSMOLOGY, AND FOLKLORE
The Educational Philosophies and Social The African Influence in the Novels of
Activism of Anna Julia Cooper and Toni Morrison
Nannie Helen Burroughs Therese E.Higgins
Karen A.Johnson
SOMETHING BETTER FOR OUR CHILDREN
GRASS ROOTS REFORM IN THE BURNED- Black Organizing in Chicago Public
OVER DISTRICT OF NEW YORK Schools, 1963–1971
Religion, Abolitionism, and Democracy Dionne Danns
Judith Wellman
TEACH THE NATION
W.E.B.DUBOIS Public School, Racial Uplift, and
The Quest for the Abolition of the Color Women’s Writing in the 1890s
Line Anne-Elizabeth Murdy
Zhang Juguo
THE ART OF THE BLACK ESSAY
AFRICANS AND INDIANS From Meditation to Transcendence
An Afrocentric Analysis of Contacts Cheryl B.Butler
Between Africans and Indians in Colonial
Virginia EMERGING AFRIKAN SURVIVALS
An Afrocentric Critical Theory
Barbara A.Faggins
Kamau Kemayó
NEW YORK’S BLACK REGIMENTS DURING THE
CIVIL WAR SLAVERY IN THE CHEROKEE NATION
The Keetoowah Society and the Defining
William Seraile
of a People, 1855–1867
JESUIT SLAVEHOLDING IN MARYLAND, Patrck N.Minges
1717–1838
Thomas Murphy, S.J.
T B
ROUBLING EGINNINGS
Trans(per)forming African American
History and Identity
Maurice E.Stevens
Routledge
New York & London
Published in 2003 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
www.routledge-ny.com
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
www.routledge.co.uk
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Copyright © 2003 by Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevens, Maurice E.
Troubling beginnings: trans(per)forming African-American history and identity/
Maurice E.Stevens.
p. cm.—(Studies in African American history & culture)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-415-94799-5 (alk. paper)
1. African Americans—Race identity. 2. African Americans—History—Philosophy. 3. African
Americans—Intellectual life. 4. African American arts. 5. Performing arts—United States.
I.Title. II. Series: Studies in African American history and culture.
E185.625.S76 2003
305.896'073–dc22 2003017038
ISBN 0-203-50198-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-57806-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-94799-5 (Print Edition)
To Ruby
The One Who Woke and Reminded Me
Elemental
Fierce
Necessary

Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface Troubled Beginnings 3
Translations
Introduction HereNow and ThereThen:
The Ambivilant Politics of Identity 11
Detranslations
1 Liberating Theologies:
Ibn Al-cArabi’s Bezels and James Cone’s Christ 41
2 Flesh and Facts: Toward a Critical Psychoanalysis 65
Retranslations
3 Freeing Films: Reading Sankofa, Malcolm X,
and Panther 89
4 The Power to Trans(per)form 137
Translations
Conclusion Trans(per)forming Pedagogy: or Teaching Agency 169
Bibliography 177
Index 187
vii

Acknowledgements
Troubling Beginnings is a project that like most, and perhaps all, did not come
into being simply, or of its own accord. Instead, it grew in fits, haltingly, and
often faltered before the challenges of life’s changes. Fortunately, this project
has always been buoyed by passions, some my own and some hosted by others.
The list of people who have induced me to limits both frightening and fruitful is
very, very long and marks my own intellectual travels. A sounding of some of its
names would include Chaney Holland, Naomi Pabst, Zachary Morgan, Grace
Hong, Joanne Barker, Laurent Dubois, Jacqueline Stewart, Roderick Ferguson,
Hugo Benevides, David Organ, Travis Jackson, Danny Widener, Charles Beatty,
Chandan Reddy, Candace Jenkins, Carlos Decena, Mendi Obadike, Victor
Viesca, Lynn Sacco, Holly Fogg-Davis, Ben Vinson, Lucia Suarez and the many
others associated with “The Mellon,” “The Ford,” “Ruby’s Reading Group,”
and “Santa Barbara Traumatists” who have listened to, critiqued and advanced
my work. The mentors and advisors that name my academic privilege have been
Malcolm Diamond, James Clifford, Angela Y. Davis, Herman Gray, Teresa
DeLauretis, George Lipsitz, Toni Morrison, Victor Burgin, Janet Walker, Lisa
Lowe, Cornel West, and Wahneema Lubiano. Still there are others, Carlos
Garcia, Judy Dolan, Miriam Martinez, Debbie Mishek, Keith Hutchison,
Barbara Cureton, Cynthia Bott, Ronica Lee, Willette Gibson, Dorothy Johnson,
Yannis Tusoullis, Mark Katz, Terri Fong, and the Reverend Gibson, who have
modeled the significance of mental and spiritual health, while teaching me how
to increase it. Institutions like the Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson
Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council and
their unflagging representatives Christine O’Brien, Lydia English, Richard Hope
and Beverlee Bruce, whose support and guidance many, many people in addition
to my self, can say quite literally has made being in the academy a possibility. Of
course, and always, there is the rest of my family. The mothers, fathers, brothers
and sisters, the ground on which I have rested: Jean, Mike, Greg, Gill, Laura,
Walter, Donna, Peggy, Bob, Dave, Tony, Micah, Megan, Emma, Chris, Deanna,
and Andy. And still rising are the brightest stars in my bluing sky; three very
special people who give meaning to the idea of “living alive,” Soliyah Sage,
Raeden Gibran, and Ruby C.Tapia. Their light makes it all visible, crisp and,
ultimately, real.
I Thank you all, deeply.
(July 2003)
I also would like to thank the publishers of the following journals for their
permission to reprint in revised form the articles listed below: