The Black Man And Destiny

This post explores how the colonised of the world were assigned a permanent spot in the waiting room of history, not merely on the basis of the racial discourse powering the civilising mission and its super-imposition of the essentialist of categories of backwards and primitive on to the colonised, but also through the use of notions of destiny in the coloniser’s logics. The colonised people’s past was used to justify their future, and hence I employ the use of the term ‘destiny’, as it worked in a similar way as to subject the colonised to a pre-ordained set of conditions forever, without leaving room in popular imperialist understandings for any changes.

Applying this to the context of early 19th century America, which was recognised as a semi-colonised territory by Lenin, I am proposing that the black community was denigrated and exploited, and one way this was done was through explaining away their current situation as something that had always been and hence, would always be. To invoke Fanon, “For the black man, there [was] only one destiny. And it [was] white.” The monopoly of destiny, and hence possibilities, was determined by race primarily, and being black automatically disqualified you from being eligible. Hence, Claude McKay whose account we read, is enamoured by the dream of a communist utopia as it questions this very monopoly and its rhetoric of exclusion. This is captured in the following poster artwork by B. Kartashov.

The breaking of chains obviously has marxist connotations of the proletariat losing their chains and joining together to overthrow the capitalist system. I propose that in this context, these chains can be interpreted not only as chains imposed by a specific class, but as products of racial-colonial relationships and refer to the imprisonment of the black man by destiny. The black man’s face is appearing on the background of what looks like a page – his blackness expanding outwards, while his eyes are directed straight ahead. Using the page as a metaphor for the pages of history, this can be read as the black man asserting himself and being present in a history on his own, as he breaks away from the chains that had pre-decided his status as one that only deserved mentions in footnotes. The forward-looking gaze alludes to the black man now deciding what his story will be, and how it will be told, henceforth as he has access to the possibility the ownership of future holds. It is important to note that the entire piece is dedicated to the black figure – clearly sending the message that the black man can inspire art, and can be the center focus of it.

Parallels can be drawn between the black man’s visibility captured in this poster and the speeches McKay was asked to give at the meetings with communist leaders in Moscow. Not only did he gain a sense of being a somebody in the process, but he became a somebody who was proactive, who was in the lead, who was important enough to take the central space and use it to assert himself in absolute terms. What the poster and McKay account clearly depict is that the utopia of communist internationalist offered to the black man what he had been denied for centuries – a right to question the power of destiny on his past, present and future. It gave him the possibility to decide that this destiny would neither be white nor non-white, but would rather be a destiny decided on his own, absolute terms. He was no longer caged by a pre-determined status and could enter history the way he wanted, and not be consigned to stay there, but rather take space in the present and the future as well.