If you take the Mineral Bluff Highway at Copperhill in Tennessee to cross state lines into Georgia, you enter the Chattahoochee National Forest roughly half an hour later. Climbing to the nearest summit gives you a breathtaking view of serene Georgian country for miles around. It gets quiet, the only sounds being those of the forest. At that moment, it is hard to believe that you are at ground zero of the what W. E. B. Du Bois calls the “color line” segregating African Americans from White Americans. This ground zero spans one state to the east and four states to the west: the cotton states of America, contingent on the functioning of thousands of plantations powered by the blood and sweat of African slaves for centuries.

The segregation which Du Bois delves into in great detail stands in stark contrast to the natural landscape of the American Cotton Belt. The Mississippi River and its basin is the lifeline of agriculture in the South and transcends both state and national borders. One is left to ponder, as a result, the depths of cruelty to which humankind can descend in the context of Du Bois’ “color line”. The source of all problems, as he puts it, of the 20^th century. The reason for the turbulence and instability of the 1960’s. The one massive and unsurpassable obstacle for the African American community in their quest for emancipation be it political, economic or physical. The segregation in every sphere of life leaves out the African Americans from the fast-paced life of progress in America, condemning them to a life of squalor and misery. From churches to schools, market places to bars, theaters to hospitals, graveyards to railway cars, there is a literal division of the people into ‘black’ and ‘white’. The silence at the summit in the Chattahoochee National Forest is one that blankets the music issuing from jazz clubs in the Deep South, the pain of the black people under the Jim Crow Laws. The echoes of slavery, the cries of families torn apart, the loss of loved ones are all silenced behind what Du Bois calls the “Veil” that forms the color line blackening out the African American community from light which shines upon the ‘American Dream’, pushing people from all over the globe towards the ‘land of opportunity’.

The loss of Du Bois’ own son when he was refused medical treatment because of racial segregation is a mere albeit bitter taste of life behind the Veil in The Souls of Black Folk. His twisted (for lack of a better word) happiness at the death of his son whom he imagined rid of the miserable life behind the Veil is a startling insight regarding the extent to which the African American community had been driven to over the course of a couple of centuries.

From the Bald Mountain to the Gulf of Mexico, from the South Carolina coastline to the Texas-New Mexico border, the lives and sounds of millions of innocent African Americans stand hidden behind the Veil and have been for generations. A Veil that was erected centuries ago and stands testament to one of the greatest tragedies of humanity. A Veil that defies the natural order of things. A Veil which stands in direct opposition to the natural landscape of the region from where it originated.

In the Book, Souls of Black Folks, DuBois gives a face to Fanon’s words- the face of Alexander Crummel.

Fanon’s struggle against colonialism gives birth to a new revolutionary subject. And this struggle allows him to tread on the path of self-discovery. DuBois’s Crummell treads on this path and unveils layers of this painful journey which makes him pass through the Temptation of Hate, despair and doubt. While this struggle doesn’t lead him to find his “place” on Earth, like Fanon’s revolutionary subject, however, Crummell becomes conscious of the forces of this bifurcated world. If nothing else, Crummell learns this bitter truth as stated by Fanon: “When I look for a man, I see a denouncement of man.”

And the struggle continues.

This journey begins from the day Crummell’s dreams are shattered. His bright days waiting ahead of him are stolen from him and made inaccessible to him.  The temptation of Hate takes control of his life. He begins to detest the veil which stands between him and his vision of Life.

A white hand is then extended for his help.

Crummell is then taken out of this temptation of Hate as he is admitted in a school. This black boy is understood as having emotion. The black skin is considered capable of possessing warm blood which pumps a heart that is filled with emotions such as hope and aspirations.

These hopes and aspirations are then met with a cruel reality. Temptation of doubt melts into despair. Crummell’s request of being a priest is rejected. He blames the institution, The General Theological Seminary of The Episcopal Church which refuses to admit a Negro and not the individuals that make up those very institutions. He calls them “calm, good men.” 

Then again, a white hand is extended for his help

Jhon Jay, the son of the father, allows him to preach to his black folks. Crummells is jolted back into life. And he begins to treat the “fatal weaknesses” of his people. These weaknesses in reality are defined by the colonizers. In  Crummell’s struggle to self-discovery, to finding his own place, he falls into the mistake of viewing his people with the gaze of the white man. He wants to cure them of a disease that is inflicted by the white man onto his people. This disease is only a disease in the eyes of a white man. And Crummell begins to see it as well.

The black man, however, is unaware of this. He refuses to be taught by Crummell. And then his Despair melts into Doubt. And he begins to doubt the very people for whom he is struggling. He begins to doubt the “destiny and capability of the race of his soul loved because it was his.” However, he doesn’t lose hope and continues to look for the best of the Negroes.

This time too, a white hand is extended for his help

Now, however, he refuses.

Because the help is wrapped in disgust and prejudice against the black souls. Bishop Onderdonk lays out the terms on which Crummel can continue teaching. His terms are nothing but preventing any Negreo priest sitting in his convention. This church which is run by the white man leaves no room for any coloured man to enter. Dignity and sacred are supposedly traits sacred to the white man only not black man.  Despite standing in this Valley of Humiliation, Crummell refuses to be humiliated. And so he enters the Valley of the Shadow of Death because now he had decided not to succumb to the terms of the white man. He wanted work on his own terms-terms of dignity.

So while Crummell continues to speak and influence others within the veil, but through his speech he is splitting the veil.  It is not just the splitting of the viel that is important but the extra ordinary effort it takes to see through the veil.

It appears that throughout this journey,  a white hand is extended through the other side of the veil- the side dominated by White- which stirs the black man in the right direction. It is, however, once the black man refuses to take help that he enters the final stage, the valley of shadow of death and he is able to let the revolutionary subject that Fanon has talked about to emerge out, who continues to struggle, but struggles on his own terms not those defined by the white man. Even though Crummel is denounced at every stage, sometimes by having his dreams crushed other times by being refused a respectable place in this world, he keeps walking.

Above all, this tale is a tribute to Alexander Crummell, whose struggle is marked by indomitable perseverance. Pulsating with emotion, this account is meant to acknowledge this unsung hero who continued to move forward, not because a future was certain but because stopping was not an option for him and for his people. Alexander Crummell is remembered for his courage and determination. He is remembered for he was forgotten.

“In another age he might have sat among the elders of the land in purple bordered toga; in another country mothers might have sung him to the cradles.”

The seemingly ubiquitous notion of objectivity being the only form of authentic knowledge is one of the deepest legacies of colonialism. For the colonial subject this, combined with the gaping lack of history, identity, and connection with the past, forms, and constructs their relationship with themselves and to those around them. It is this void that Negritude attempts to fulfill by positioning itself as an alternative to the ubiquity of objectivity.

Senghor makes a case for “African Ontology” emphasizing its moral law and aesthetic as a response to “modern humanism that European philosophers and scientists have been preparing since the end of the nineteenth century”. Negritude, in this sense, makes its case against the idea that the world, and one’s relation to it, must, and can only be, expressed empirically and quantifiably.

To illustrate this point, Senghor’s analysis of aesthetics and language is crucial. In contrasting the way with which European thought distinguishes between the body and the soul, and how this translates into the art they have historically emphasized (realism), to how African aesthetic, and language, makes no such distinction emphasizes the idea that an alternative way of being exists and can be adhered to.

Similarly, in emphasizing the rituals, beliefs, and even “intermediacy of ancestral beings” Senghor attempts to re-establish a severed link between the colored subject and their past and in doing so attempts to instill a sense of pride and continuity that the subject thoroughly lacks.

One can argue that such a link never really existed, that Senghor’s idealization of locating “Africanness” in the past is ahistorical, and that his praise of African artform being picked up by European artists only feeds into the exoticization of African culture.

Such a critique, however, misses the fundamental point of Negrtiude and, ironically, uses the very categories of objectivity that Negritude seeks to provide an alternative to. Negritude is a humanism for each and every subject that lacks a past, a narrative, and a connection to those before them. It is a humanism that is able to link the poet from the African Diaspora, the inhabitant of the African continent and colored subjects around the world robbed of their identity and sense of being by “diametrically opposing” them to the rational, scientific, quantifiable, empirical ways of being that have been thrust upon them.

It is an alternative way of being in the world that opposes the calculability of life, that opposes the notion of the rational, utilitarian, actor in the market, and that opposes the notion that such a calculability is the only way to be in the world.

By elucidating upon the African past, untainted by colonial intervention, and especially by emphasizing how African art “is not a separate activity, in itself or for itself . . .” but a “social activity, a technique of living” Senghor, invites us to consider that in order to decolonize one must be provided alternatives that can prove to be equally as valid as objectivity that the Western world parades as their contribution to humanity.  

Negritude is not just another way to trace identity. It is an entirely new way of being, different from the imperialist’s dichotomised view of the world. It is the separation of the colonised from object-hood into personhood. The coloured people become something more than just what the white man defines them as. In a sense, negritude is thus reactionary. It is a rejection of the white man’s gaze.

Critics point out that in an attempt to reaffirm the black identity and package it differently negritude seems to take on racist undertones. Senghor highlights an African rhythm, one which links man back to nature and nature directly to god. He embraces nature as part of man, especially a part of the African man. Being one with nature is said to be an intrinsic part of the African, something which the European lacks. This view is starkly different from the European ideas which separate man from nature and focus on overpowering it instead of harmonizing with it.

Consequently, Senghor’s vision has come to be recognised as particularistic and the entire movement as very narrow. He emphasises going back to the shared African past in order to reaffirm their identity and to find their place in the world today. But questions arise regarding whose past he is referring to. Is he talking only to the Africans who still inhabit the ‘motherland’ or are the African diaspora part of the narrative? He creates a new humanism which is in stark opposition to the image of the European. But by asserting this he brings to mind questions again regarding whether this humanism can be a global humanism and if it isolates the African from the rest of the world. Senghor is creating a new black identity entirely in response and opposition to the white man.
The movement assumes one shared African past for all black people who inhabit the continent, regardless of their country, clan or tribe. For this reason, Fanon sees the movement as essentially playing into the narrative of the European. The colonisers painted over the differences between the African population through their policies and narratives ignoring the rich cultural diversity of the continent. Negritude is criticized for doing much the same.

This notion of the black identity is thus particularistic. In trying to create a new identity it becomes suffocating and stifles the opportunities for the African people. It essentializes the black identity into only one way of being.

But then the question remains as to what do the Africans do? How do they create a place for themselves in an entirely white space? There seems to be no correct way in which they may assert their identities and their personhood which is not prone to criticism. In a world dominated by Europeans and divided between the white and the coloured, it seems impossible to create an identity which is not based on difference. Colonisation has forever left the world to be divided into binaries of the European against the rest of the world. For this reason, Senghor’s contribution and negritude as a whole cannot be criticized too harshly. According to Fanon, the ideal would be to create individual identities not based on caste or race but such an idealistic world is far from reality. In the meanwhile identities based on difference and opposition are all the coloured can resolve to.