Did You Know About….?
Caribbean Life, OCT. 29-NOV. 4, 2021 43
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Tis the season of giving.
A few coins in a bucket, folded
dollars in an envelope, an
extra donation to the church,
you don’t mind. Wrap a small
gift for a child in need, give to
someone who has nothing, it’s
the holidays. Or read “Until I
Am Free” by Keisha N. Blain,
and give of yourself.
From the day she was born
in Mississippi in the fall of
1917, Fannie Lou Townsend
knew only poverty. She was the
youngest of 20 children, and
her parents were mostly sharecroppers;
because they needed
every pair of hands to keep
ahead, Fannie Lou often stayed
home from school to help,
beginning right at age six.
As a younger woman, Fannie
Lou stayed on the same
plantation where she was born
and though she seemed to live
a quiet life, there were hints of
mid-twentieth-century scandal:
documents show that she
may’ve been wedded to a man
named Gray before marrying
Percy “Pap” Hamer in 1944.
She never birthed any children;
it’s said that she tried to, but
was sterilized without her permission
in 1961, a fact that she
Book cover of “Until I Am Free” by Keisha N. Blain.
learned fourth-hand.
The following year, says
Blain, Hamer “found her calling”
when she attended a meeting
through her church, with
the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC).
It was an important event:
instantly, Hamer saw how voting
could give Black citizens
better opportunities and better
lives through their ballots.
For the rest of her days, Hamer
worked for civil rights, teaching
and speaking with an emphasis
on the Constitution.
She was a big proponent of
letting people decide their own
political futures locally, without
interference. She promoted
leadership within the Black
community, working for the
future of all, and especially Mississippi.
Hamer was not a feminist
but she was fierce about
empowering women. Almost
right up to the day she died of
breast cancer in 1977, she was
an activist and advocate…
In her introduction to this
biography, author Keisha N.
Blain wonders why the name
of Fannie Lou Hamer doesn’t
often stand in the company
of Dr. King, Rosa Parks, John
Lewis, and Angela Davis. In
“Until I Am Free,” Blain fixes
that omission.
Though it’s often repetitious,
Blain’s account of Black life in
the Jim Crow South is important
– maybe more so because
she leaves none of Hamer’s personal
stones unturned. This
makes for a very good portrait
of Hamer, but biography is only
half the story.
Using today’s headlines as a
frame for Hamer’s life, Blain
shows readers how events from
the past still resonate today.
She also lets us imagine what
Hamer’s outrage might be like
over Philandro Castile, Breonna
Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Sandra
Bland, and George Floyd by
tying their deaths to the mistreatment
that Hamer endured
through her childhood, during
her rise in activism, and
beyond.
For younger readers, that
could be an important part of
their education. “Until I Am
Free” will be a great inspiration
for you, if you’ve never heard
it before. This time of year, it’s
also a good book to give.
Until I Am Free: Fannie
Lou Hamer’s Enduring
Message to America”
by Keisha N. Blain
c.2021, Beacon Press
$25.95 / $34.95 Canada
200 pages
Keisha N. Blain, author of “Until I Am Free.”
‘The Art of Rebellion’
By Nelson A. King
The Smithsonian Center for
Folklife & Cultural Heritage
has featured “The Art of Rebellion,”
a series of articles that
it says reveals “the essence of
Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival,
one of the most influential
street festivals in the world,”
through an exploration of
important traditional carnival
characters.
Beginning just after Christmas,
the center said the carnival
season is marked by weekly
fetes (parties), competitions,
and, in every neighborhood,
“the unmistakable sound of the
steelpan.
“Carnival practitioners spend
months preparing for the culmination
of the festivities on
the two days immediately preceding
the Catholic observance
of Ash Wednesday,” the center
said. “With its long history,
carnival combines costuming
elements of the European colonizers
with religious and traditional
aspects of African, Indian
and indigenous cultures.
“While some characters and
rituals originated during the
slave trade, the end of slavery
in 1838 ushered in the official
two-day celebration,” it added.
“In many ways, it served, then
and now, as a form of healing,
rebirth and transformation for
Trinidadians and Tobagonians.”
The Smithsonian Center for
Folklife & Cultural Heritage
said carnival in Trinidad and
Tobago inspires offshoots in
major cities around the world.
“But still, thousands of visitors
flock to the (twin) islandstate
to experience events
firsthand,” it said. “This has
made carnival a significant economic
driver for local artists.
“However, traditional knowledge
related to historical characters
and rituals too often
die with practitioners, robbing
younger generations of their
cultural inheritance,” the center
added. “Although traditional
characters remain commonplace
in Trinidad’s Carnival,
their origins and importance
have faded from the memories
of most locals.
“In their place, a mass-produced
carnival has emerged,
one that tramples the efforts of
our ancestors to be seen, heard
and understood using the social
and political commentary that
accompanies most traditional
characters,” it continued. “As
their cries fade, so too does our
ability to truly understand our
history and ourselves. Today,
there are traditional masqueraders
who choose to maintain
the original portrayals, and
others who subvert them in
order to give them bold new
meanings.”
The Smithsonian Center for
Folklife & Cultural Heritage
said mas, the shortened form of
masquerade, is divided into two
main categories: pretty mas
and ole (old) mas.