The Dissemination of Knowledge

Meocha Belle 6/22


While speaking with the staff of Anibwe bookstore, they mentioned the influence of George Jackson and Cheikh Anta Diop had on their work. They also drew parallels to the social issues happening in France to past movements in the United States. A major question that was brought into conversation was whether or not the education of our children should be left to schools. To put reason into why there is great mis-education and/or a lack of education of Afrikan Presence, the United States will be used as a reference point, since the struggles of Diaspora are very similar no matter where in the world study is drawn on.
To keep the authoritarian position, the United States’ and French governments both use its schools to mobilize the myth that the Pan-Africans have no history, as discussed in Cheikh Anta Diop’s The Afrikan Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. This level of mis-education suggests that the ruling culture does not want blacks to recognize or appreciate their craft and strength, nor claim the fruits of their labor (Jackson 57).
George Jackson clearly communicated from his findings that “the most damaging thing a people in a colonial situation can do is to allow their children to attend any educational facility organized by the dominant enemy culture” (Soledad Brother 12). His reasoning stems from the following expose, “…the mass public school system was developed to assimilate an essentially immigrant working population into the economic, social, and political structure of the American Way of Life,” found in Grace Lee Boggs’ piece, “Education: The Great Obsession”. Since, “…the school system was organized to prepare the children of the well-born and well-to-do to govern over the less wellborn and not so well-to-do,” blacks, and other peoples of color, need to educate themselves through non-traditional ways of learning. Even though this statement was made of standard American culture, similar class struggles exist and occur in France and therefore apply.
Clearly, the movement of knowledge is dependent upon those in power and is oftentimes favorable of the teacher's views. This is why there is a mis-education and lack of education of Afrikan Presence, within a variety of mediums. Baldwin's No Name in the Street, Lamar's Ghosts of Saint Michel, Stovall's Paris Noir, Fabre's From Harlem to Paris, tour guides of Paris, Musee du quai Branly exibits, and conversations with the Anibwe bookstore staff has validated this, while here in Paris.

~Paris Noir 2010