What is Black Anarchism?

Comments · 752

• KH

  @KhadijaMbowe · 5 years ago

  Oh my goodness it's been a MINUTE since I binged someone's content and I can't stop watching your vids! I never knew what Black Anarchism was before this and had honestly been struggling to find an ideology (principal, tenant, charter) that spoke to the way I could see the world changing and benefiting and this just...makes sense. IDK. Just thank you so so much for sharing such important information!

  1.3K

• CO

  @conlinbryant5037 · 5 years ago

  Despite the video being about Black Anarchism, I see many parallels to the concept of Indigenous Anarchism, of which I ascribe myself too.

  823

• BL

  @blaze100587 · 5 years ago

  Its amazing how little info is out on yt about black revolutionary anarchism wen it seems obvious to me at least tht its black anarchists tht will be at the forefront of any successful anarchist movement. Great video

  139

• KA

  @KAR_yz · 5 years ago

  Excellent framing of anarchism, specifically black anarchism

  166

• RO

  @rowanjohnson9892 · 5 years ago (edited)

  I now 1000% understand why you’re going back to a twice-a-month upload schedule. With content this high-quality, I have no idea how you ever managed to put out weekly videos in the first place! Take care of yourself, comrade.<br><br>Edit: I just realized that you changed your usual white background to black for this video. Very clever, Andrew.

  408

• AL

  @alkihistoriker · 5 years ago

  From one black anarchist to another: This is an amazing video on black anarchism. It&apos;s an incredible resource for not only those new to the topic, but also those who have an Americentric understanding of black anarchism. <br><br>I&apos;ve already gotten four of my young black coworkers to watch this video. I can&apos;t wait to hear their opinions and discuss black anarchism with them.

  772

• RE

  @ReboursCVT · 5 years ago

  Lovely video<br>On the Pre-Colonial African «Anarchism» I&apos;d like to point at the societies in, what is now southern Burkina Faso.<br>From the book Burkina Faso: Unsteady Statehood in West Africa by Pierre Englebert<br>«With respect to their political organization, most of these ethnic groups are referred to as stateless and many as acephalous—or without the institution of chiefdom.<br>The Birifor, for example, a branch of the Lobi group that shares with the Dagara the land along the segment of the Black Volta that marks the border with Ghana, was a society with no central authority, without even chiefs or villages. Lineage determined everything, and authority belonged to the elder within each lineage. The yir, a family farm consisting of a household compound with animals and a small adjacent plot of land, was the unit of political and economic organi- zation. Everyone worked on the community fields in priority. The crops were collectivized and the harvest distributed to the women of the yirs every third day to prepare food for their families. Relations among yirs were structured by an elaborate system of checks and balances that helped avoid both excessive political and economic strength of one yir over the others and food shortages.<br>The Bwa, Samo, and Senufo were other such stateless groups.Yet in their cases the political unit was the village. The Bwa, for example, whose 450 villages overlapped what are now Burkina and Mali, added to the principle of lineage that of the territoriality of the village in which several families were concentrated. No allegiance was granted above the village level. Each village, which could count up to 1,000 members, was a completely autonomous and self-centered political unit. Within the village, however, the first unit of economic and political identity was the family. What made the different Bwa villages one single ethnic group was a common religious belief in a single god, Do. The leadership of each village be- longed to the eldest of the founding lineage, assisted by a council of elders. Within the village labor was divided among farmers, blacksmiths, and priests. There was endogamy among these different groups whose position was acquired by heredity, thereby preventing class conflicts.<br>Finally, the Gurunsi presented a type of village-based society in apparent transition toward statelike organization. The French penetration appears to have in- terrupted a process by which the authority of one village was progressively ex- tended over several other villages, moving toward an increasingly centralized system.»<br>(Page 16 to 17)

  147

• FL

  @FlorenceFox · 5 years ago (edited)

  Really informative video. Speaking as a white anarchist myself, I strongly believe we need to emphasize diversity in anarchism. Any anarchist who has done a google search knows about Kropotkin and Goldman, but I hadn&apos;t heard of a single one of the black anarchists you spoke of here until this video. There seems to be a tendency for anti-authoritarian movements in America to become hyperfixated on cisgender, heterosexual white men and their issues, while sidelining people of color, queer people and women. The punk subculture has long had a problem with that as well, and I&apos;d argue it was one of the biggest failures of the hippie movement.<br><br>Edit: I&apos;d also like to add, that as a queer anarchist in particular, finding out about Kuwasi Balagoon was quite enlightening. Just as we don&apos;t talk enough about black anarchist figures, queer anarchist figures are something I wish we would discuss more as well. I&apos;m thankful that, at least, Emma Goldman is as talked about as she is, not only being a woman herself, but also an early advocate for gay rights as well.

  202

• JA

  @jacobedward2401 · 5 years ago

  My granddad is from Trinidad. Visiting there was how I first learned about government corruption: &nbsp;All of those off-shore oil platforms yet none of the money went to the people.

  47

• AT

  @athenemathews783 · 5 years ago

  As an Indigenous anarchist, I appreciate you for taking the focus off of white folks in a history of horizontal hierarchies that finds its roots in colonized populations 💙✊🏽💙

  557

• TR

  @tristanwiren407 · 5 years ago

  Some of this reminded me of Modibo Kadalie&apos;s &quot;Pan African Social Ecology&quot;

  54

• RA

  @radicalrobynette · 5 years ago

  Thank you for making this video! It is needed. I&apos;ve seen people call anarchism &quot;white&quot; too many times.

  422