POETRY AND SOCIAL DISCOURSES
By Samuel Mwagalaba
28 June 2012
The society can be defined by its struggles and conflicts in daily activities,and knowledge is shaped by structures of that society,hence the appearances we see are the reflection of those.The established order of the said society etc plays a pivotal role subject to the means and ends of operative tools.The tools could be categorical, ie the cultural,the government,academic, security
As such we are at liberty to look at any particular organ of the society body and try to observe the operation and effect to the whole.Now lets look on how ideas organizes and sprung from a society in relation or due to the forces or influence of time becomes part of the infrastructure of that social building then and after.
The Last Poets was a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement's and black nationalist movement. Their name is inspired by a poem of Keorapetse Kgositsile a South African revolutionary poet and an active member of the A.N.C who fled into exile in the U.S in the early 60s up to the mid 70s.His underlying message being a line of poets was down from the original man and modern technology and weaponry would mark the last of the line.
The earliest member of the group were Felipe Luciano, Gylan Kain and David Nelson. Their work laid ground of what is known today as Hip Hop Music through its social consciousness recitation and rhythms that briged the Afro-American ideals.Formed on 1968 in East Harlem and in 1969 they were joined by Jalal Mansoor, Umar Bin Hassan,Abiodun Oyewole and the percussionist Nilaja Obabi who made the core of the group by 1970. " wake up ,Niggers" their song became a sound track of the films;Perfomance(1970) and 'Right On(1971) reaching US Top 10 charts.
However among many of their songs,"This is Madness " Album became a major hit with a very strong anti racial in discrimination message,that they had crashes with the then Richard Nixon administration.What happens when poets make it their work to address social problems. The Authorities persecute them.But a Poet finds no rest when the society is in chaos.even more so,when he or she is the last standing on the line.
Creatively they blended their poetry with funk and Jazz music instrumentation.If the the soul of the society is its poetry,then the true poet will strive never to loose it,but naturally craft it with other trends so that it survives and cruise in time carrying its message for us and those who are to come,the entity of its society.How can a poet imitate everything foreign?Music like language cant avoid all together the influence of other but proportionally never to loose its own stance.
During the 80s,together with the The Last Poets spokesmen like Gil Scot Heron and Gary Byrd had left a stepping stone for the rising Hip Hop Emcees that were to dominate a decade later. to understand something,one needs to break it down into pieces and find the original ingredients of its make up,and that fabric is its poetry,don,t loose your poetry, your roots.It is what makes up your image,you loose it you loose yourself.Yes different souls under the big umbrella,why should one make all of us see only what he sees? wITH OR WITHOUT THEM WE DO ,we did and we shall HAVE OUR SIGHT. And we know what we have seen.
Here i think for example that trend of Musicians from Salim Abdallah, Mbaraka Mwishehe,to Patrick Balisidya, Marijani Rajabu etc here in Tanzania, the Artist who had the vibrations of our souls,people who defined our entity,that was the time and we were the people,today what a shattered image we have,if its a cultural face,then it must have undergone a terrible accident,to be unrecognizable.
At least not altogether dead,there are people who are trying,to keep the roots,The last Poets,standing strong, since; we are we,and this is our land.Channel and move those ideas now for tomorrow.Poetry is the people.Is it setting or rising?Comrades we are the last poets,lets not loose the line.
The question posed before us, is how are we influenced by our predecessors? the way it stand we probably are more moved out of our line.Now I dont have any problem with the so called the new generation,even though to me the word is a coinage to brainwash the mind,that has already lost the chain command in its cycle.so it has forgotten were its coming from,not knowing where its going,even so more worse,it does not know even where it is,to think its new! like the body separated from its head...return to the basics,should be the call of the poets.Against The Pan Capitalists and all their likes.
Ideas travels and leave their marks shaping the societies.the cultural manifestations show cases the state of the community.Now when you those common community values like sharing responsibilities and strategies in its the wealth for the prosperity of all are abandoned,instead of which stands the mushrooms of individuals with the community resources at their grip,you get it the poetry is not right! Is the inside empty? For the poets to take their building material from else where?why should we buy the food we can produce from south Africa?Aren't we denying our own farmers and producers their fortune,and opportunity to prosper?The people prosperity is the Nation Prosperity..nothing more or less.
Umar Bin Hassan and Abiodun Oyewole
From South Africa to to the US traveled the ideas,the ideas that aimed to chide assumptions whose inclination is to maintain the colonial yoke around the neck of the disenfranchised.Same year (1968) they came to effect,Martin Luther King had been assassinated. bringing together music and the word,bringing back the old African Griots tradition to express the Black panthers heat.
And here is the line from Willie Kgotsisile poem,an inspiration of the last poets;
When a moment hatches in time's womb
There will be no art talk
The only poem you will hear
Will be the spearpoint
Pivoted in the punctured marrow of the villain.
Adios!
Copyright: Nyayo Cultural Center. All rights reserved.
