Sipping Whiskey in Memphis

Robert Bernasconi (RB): Jonathan, to get us started, tell me about your background and what brought you to focus on the intersections of existentialism and racism?Jonathan Judaken (JJ): Well, I grew up in a Jewish family in Johannesburg in Apartheid South Africa. And I think all of those very specific facets of my upbringing are important to the trajectory of my work. My work has been a process of unthinking and dismantling and coming to terms with a past, a family, a legacy that very much defines who I am. I’m attempting to understand myself within the broader frameworks within which I grew up. I left South Africa permanently when I was twelve. This was in the immediate aftermath of the Soweto Riots that were steered by the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa, under the leadership of Steve Biko, a thinker whose framework is so clearly influenced by existentialism.

Counter-narratives of achievement at South Africa's first apartheid-era black medical school, 1950s to the early 1990s

This article examines the construction and dissemination of two particular achievement narratives - one focused on high academic standards, the other on a Black Consciousness-inspired "Black pride" - that were produced by academic staff and students at the University of Natal's Medical School, South Africa's first apartheid-era black medical school in the highly racialised context of the 1950s to early 1990s. While quite different in terms of their producers and periods of origin, the article argues that both these narratives developed with a similar purpose: as counter-narratives, which intended to critique or challenge the pervasive and disparaging apartheid-era discourse that portrayed black South Africans as inferior. Indeed, both these narratives sought, in their own respective ways, to enable those producing them to reframe the dominant apartheid discourse, to offer alternatives, including more positive views about black South Africans, and to take an oppositional stance. Yet, while both developed as counter-narratives, they did so with different emphases and stances taken to challenge apartheid, highlighting the complexity of these narratives. In addition, this article examines how both these narratives could sometimes, in particular historical moments, overlap in time and even amalgamate, leading to the construction of hybridised narratives.

A matter of consciousness – Introducing Zora Neale Hurston and Katie G. Cannon

This article involves a close reading of two African American authors, Zora Neale Hurston, an acclaimed novelist and Katie Cannon, an influential theological ethicist. Texts from Steve Biko on black consciousness and from James Cone on liberation theology are used as methodological tools in trying to ascertain the degree to which Hurston and Cannon espouse a black (womanist) consciousness. A strong resonance of black consciousness will indeed be found in Hurston’s and Cannon’s texts. The conclusion drawn is that not only is there a resonance of black consciousness, but both writers also give proof of a black womanist consciousness that reveals new knowledge. Cannon’s oeuvre also begs the question of epistemological privilege. In addition, an animated critique is registered between these women scholars and male colleagues, in the world of fiction (Richard Wright) and academia (white European males).Contribution: This article demonstrates a link from South African black consciousness (Biko) to black womanist thinkers in the United States (Hurston and Cannon). A connection is also made between male, black liberation theology (Cone) and black womanist thinking, while expounding the womanist approach, liberated from (white) male dominance, on par with all others.

A Bluesman's Beards: A Sign of Black Resistance in Bahian Rap

ABSTRACT Beards are an indication that man has reached maturity. It is with this idea in mind that the songs from the second album by artist Baco Exu do Blues, Bluesman, are analyzed. At the early age of 22, in his act of creation, Baco criticized the conditions of socioeconomic inequality and racism imposed on people of African descent, acting as an ideological sign in the construction of a Black Consciousness. As a symbol of insurgency, Baco also used mythical language to compose an identity and format his rap, creating a hero. Hip hop criticizes racial capitalism, established in Brazil with the colonization and the arrival of enslaved Africans. The compositions are analyzed as cries of resistance to necropolitics – a call to perform acts that relate ethical values and poetry when doing politcs.

Protecting our environment: The need for South African youth with a mission and black consciousness

Christianity has contributed to environmental degradation. In terms of their role, the church youth are ipso facto part of such a contribution. However, an eco-theological diagnostic analysis cannot interpret the role of youth, especially black youth, through the same lenses. From a Black theological perspective, black youth’s role should be interpreted and discussed in terms of what Fanon and Biko describe as ‘self-hatred’ and the need for black consciousness. It is such self-hatred that gives rise to environmental degradation that is not articulated within various eco-theologians’ strategies towards care for the environment in a neo-colonial context in South Africa. The article argues that such a deficiency in eco-theological literature needs some attention to address the future black youth’s contribution to a friendlier environment. The author therefore suggests a ‘missional consciousness’ for one of the strategies for black youth in the quest for the black youth’s participation in environmental care.Contribution: This article contributes to the broader discourses on ecotheology. It affirms the contributions on human beings’ role towards the environment, but further highlights the inequality among human beings in neo-colonial context and how ecotheology should approach the ecological crisis with consideration to such a context. Therefore, the contribution brings into dialogue the post-colonial discourse, specifically the discourse of black consciousness, in relation to a missional consciousness in resolving the ecological crisis through the participation of church youth. Ecotheology has not specifically considered the notions of ‘missional consciousness’ and ‘black consciousness’ in its discourse on protection of the environment. The author relates this discussion specifically to church youth.