Extraordinary Meeting on Naturalization as a Ghanaian Citizen25 August 2016Institute of African Studies Old Block Seminar Room

At Positive Kemetic Visions Kamau Kambon Guest Lecture 2017

Made with the direct participation of Malcolm X and narrated by Ossie Davis, this work of political cinema offers an intense, incendiary vision of black revolution across America. A forgotten masterpiece from radical filmmaker, theorist and founder of Cinéma Éngagé, Édouard de Laurot.

Suppressed in its initial release within the USA, the film went on to attain international recognition both as an artistic triumph and
as a work of authentic political acuity and power.

First Prize, Venice International Film Festival
Third World Film Festival, Paris:
Special Honours as the "First Authentic Underground Film from the USA"
First Prize, Black Film Festival, Chicago, USA
Awarded and honored around the world
from Africa to Australia, from Russia to Latin America.

Screened on the BBC, the CBC (Canada),
and other international television networks.

#####
Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.

⁣Why to prune - The idea behind small mango trees

In a 22 December 1958 letter, Morehouse president Benjamin Mays invited King to address the graduating class of 1959; King accepted six days later. In these prepared remarks—his earliest known usage of this title—King invokes his common themes of anticolonialism and black self-respect.1 He places the domestic “social revolution" in a global context and urges the graduates of his alma mater to rise above the limits of “individualistic concerns,” submitting that all people are “caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality.”

News coverage of the speech indicates that King modified this handwritten text at several points. He advised his audience to adhere to nonviolence, for the "oppressors would be happy if black Americans “would resort to physical violence” and reminded them of progress already made: “We’ve broken loose from the Egypt of slavery . . . and we stand on the border of the promised land in integration.”2 King reportedly closed with a warning against inaction: “If you go home, sit down and do nothing about the revolution which we are witnessing you will be the victim of a dangerous optimism.”3

There can be no gainsaying of the fact that we are experiencing today one of the greatest revolutions that the world has ever known. Indeed there have been other revolutions, but they have been local and isolated. The distinctive feature of the present revolution is that it is worldwide. It is shaking the foundations of the east and the west. It has engulfed every continent of the world. You can hear its deep rumblings from the lowest village street to the highest intellectual ivory tower. Every segment of society is being swept into its mainstream. The great challenge facing every member of this graduating class is to remain awake, alert and creative through this great revolution.

Shared for historical purposes. I do not own the rights.

#####
Reelblack's mission is to educate, elevate, entertain, enlighten, and empower through Black film. If there is content shared on this platform that you feel infringes on your intellectual property, please email me at Reelblack@mail.com and info@reelblack.com with details and it will be promptly removed.