Steven Jones
2/2/11
Impression Paper

John Henrik Clarke was an educator, writer, and pioneer of Africana Studies. A student of history and world literature, he advocated to have the research and study of the African-American experience and history incorporated into our higher educational systems. In his essay “The Origin and Growth of Afro-American Literature”, Clarke presents us with a timeline of African American literature from the fourteenth century in Timbuktu to James Baldwin in the 1960’s. He describes that little known history of intellectual centers of education and culture in West Africa during the 1500’s when scholars such as Felix DuBois and Ahmed Baba were prominent during the height of the University of Sankore, and takes us through every major milestone in Afro-American literature after that. I appreciate how he shed light and emphasized that the ancestors of those who became slaves in the U.S. lived in a society where scholarship was present and appreciated. Clarke felt it necessary to emphasize and elaborate on this because of the contrary misconception that Africans at that time were uneducated and uncivilized compared to other society’s such as those in Europe. The section about petitioner Prince Hall gives us a glimpse into Afro-American history during the 1700’s. Hall’s questioning of the concept of freedom at the time lead to his great achievement of founding the first African Lodge in the U.S. in July 3, 1776. Hall’s use of the petition to fight for justice and equality shows how literature played an important role in the struggle for Afro-American civil rights. Writers such as David Walker, Samuel Cornish, and the noble Frederick Douglass followed in Hall’s footsteps. Douglass and Cornish used journalism to express the anti-slavery convictions of the times. Further along Clarke continues to paint a picture of the relationship between history and literature and the progress of Afro-American writer’s of each generation. It is important that these writers’ helped share what and how they saw society from the under-represented Afro-American perspective. At the end of his essay, Clarke urges the next generation of Afro-American writer’s to create a literature of celebration and survival in spite of oppression. I agree that this would be the next step along the timeline and would provide for great writing. A piece of information that was new to me where the section on Prince Hall and his petitions and helping found the first African lodge in the U.S. Also new to me was the background information about the African forefathers of slaves having intellectual centers such as the University of Sankore, and the information on scholars such as Ahmed Baba who authored over 40 books in his time.