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Sunrise Out of Africa: Recovering the Radicalism of Langston Hughes’ African (Re)Turn 1954-1960 |
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Abstract:
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The powerful role of Africa in Langston Hughes’ literary imagination is well known. But in the final period of his career, Hughes’ orientation to Africa underwent a radical and largely unacknowledged change. This shift in Hughes poetics of Africa--his African (re)turn--is as poorly understood as the late-career political renewal that underlay it. As revolutionary momentum began to build in Africa and the Third World toward Bandung in 1955 and Ghanaian independence in 1957, Hughes in 1953 was summoned before the McCarthy Committee. Hughes scholarship--Arnold Rampersad’s biography in particular--still largely assumes that his encounter with McCarthyism caused Hughes to turn his back on the political radicalism he had embraced during the 1930s and 1940s. But Hughes’ neglected work from 1954-1960 reveals instead a black writer finding an immediate and growing renewal of revolutionary commitment and energy by embracing the new decolonizing Africa and its writers. When viewed in light of his African (re)turn, Hughes’ post-McCarthy-Committee period demands a profound reassessment. Recently, James Smethurst has begun this project by documenting the lines of Hughes’ personal influence on Black Arts Movement writers and by reframing the poetry of The Panther and the Lash as engaged with contemporary Black Power issues and debates. But Hughes’ self-immersion in 1960s black nationalism actually begins much earlier. In this paper, I examine the anthology Hughes assembled from 1954-1960, An African Treasury, and uncollected weekly columns that Hughes penned for the Chicago Defender in 1959. Involving personal correspondence with emerging African writers and activists such as Eskia Mphahlele and Tom Mboya, Hughes’ work on An African Treasury shows him engaging with radical anti-colonialist nationalism and Pan-Africanism in a process of self-transformation. By recovering Hughes’ neglected columns within the context of increasing militancy in the Defender’s news editorials in 1959, I argue that Hughes not only participated deeply in but sought to lead the broader radicalization of the African American political imagination of the 60s in response to African decolonization. In the early summer of 1959, Hughes had his alter-ego “Simple” dreaming of a “second reconstruction” in the South. In the fall, Hughes devoted 10 consecutive columns--more than two months’ worth--to commentary on decolonizing Africa. As a more developed expression of his re-engagement with revolutionary politics in 1959, Hughes's ten Defender Africa columns are as important as his Soviet Union series of 1946 but have never been examined. The series raises important questions about the meaning of Hughes’ radicalism over the trajectory of his entire career. [Note: I would be willing to deliver this paper in "Talk" format.] |
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Association:
Name: American Studies Association
URL: http://www.theasa.net
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Citation:
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MLA Citation:
| Kim, Daniel. "Sunrise Out of Africa: Recovering the Radicalism of Langston Hughes’ African (Re)Turn 1954-1960" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association, Oct 12, 2006 <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p114452_index.html> |
APA Citation:
| Kim, D. W. , 2006-10-12 "Sunrise Out of Africa: Recovering the Radicalism of Langston Hughes’ African (Re)Turn 1954-1960" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association <Not Available>. 2009-05-24 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p114452_index.html |
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The powerful role of Africa in Langston Hughes’ literary imagination is well known. But in the final period of his career, Hughes’ orientation to Africa underwent a radical and largely unacknowledged change. This shift in Hughes poetics of Africa--his African (re)turn--is as poorly understood as the late-career political renewal that underlay it. As revolutionary momentum began to build in Africa and the Third World toward Bandung in 1955 and Ghanaian independence in 1957, Hughes in 1953 was summoned before the McCarthy Committee. Hughes scholarship--Arnold Rampersad’s biography in particular--still largely assumes that his encounter with McCarthyism caused Hughes to turn his back on the political radicalism he had embraced during the 1930s and 1940s. But Hughes’ neglected work from 1954-1960 reveals instead a black writer finding an immediate and growing renewal of revolutionary commitment and energy by embracing the new decolonizing Africa and its writers. When viewed in light of his African (re)turn, Hughes’ post-McCarthy-Committee period demands a profound reassessment. Recently, James Smethurst has begun this project by documenting the lines of Hughes’ personal influence on Black Arts Movement writers and by reframing the poetry of The Panther and the Lash as engaged with contemporary Black Power issues and debates. But Hughes’ self-immersion in 1960s black nationalism actually begins much earlier. In this paper, I examine the anthology Hughes assembled from 1954-1960, An African Treasury, and uncollected weekly columns that Hughes penned for the Chicago Defender in 1959. Involving personal correspondence with emerging African writers and activists such as Eskia Mphahlele and Tom Mboya, Hughes’ work on An African Treasury shows him engaging with radical anti-colonialist nationalism and Pan-Africanism in a process of self-transformation. By recovering Hughes’ neglected columns within the context of increasing militancy in the Defender’s news editorials in 1959, I argue that Hughes not only participated deeply in but sought to lead the broader radicalization of the African American political imagination of the 60s in response to African decolonization. In the early summer of 1959, Hughes had his alter-ego “Simple” dreaming of a “second reconstruction” in the South. In the fall, Hughes devoted 10 consecutive columns--more than two months’ worth--to commentary on decolonizing Africa. As a more developed expression of his re-engagement with revolutionary politics in 1959, Hughes's ten Defender Africa columns are as important as his Soviet Union series of 1946 but have never been examined. The series raises important questions about the meaning of Hughes’ radicalism over the trajectory of his entire career. [Note: I would be willing to deliver this paper in "Talk" format.] |
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