You are on page 1of 49

Etched with Fists: An Analysis of Martial Arts during the Black Power Era By: Maryam Khadijah Aziz

Table of Contents

Introduction.. Chapter 1 Finding the Warrior.... Part One: Inheritance.... Part Two: Claiming Inheritance.... Part Three: Affirming Inheritance Chapter 2 Unleashing the Warrior. Part One: Recognition.. Part Two: Rebirth.. Part Three: Release............ Conclusion. Appendix.... YesterdayToday and Tomorrow Coloring Series First Page Coloring Series Second Page Self Defense.. Bibliography..

3 9 9 11 14 18 18 21 25 39 44

45 46 47 48

Introduction
By means of television, motion pictures, newspapers, and magazines, a new hero image has been implanted in the American mind. No longer is mans strength limited to the weapon he carries: he now possesses the weaponless weapon, his own body, and all feats of prowess are possible. Americans are becoming conscious of the fact that their physical capabilities are dependent upon individual determination. Peter Urban, The Karate Dojo Karate must be nearly as old as man, who early found himself obligated to battle, weaponless, the hostile forces of nature, savage beasts and enemies among his fellow human beings. He soon learned, puny create that he is, that in his relationship with natural forces accommodation was more sensible than struggle. However, where he was more evenly matched, in the inevitable hostilities with his fellow man, he was obligated to evolve techniques that would enable him to defend himself, and, hopefully, to conquer his enemy. To do so, he learned that he had to have a strong and healthy body. Thus, the techniques that he began developing are a ferocious fighting art but are also elements of the all-important art of self-defense. -Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-D: My Way of Life

The path toward racial uplift has been wrought with the empty and armed hands of African Americans. They have searched for community empowerment through outlets reaching across the wide spectrum of economic, political, and civil liberation. The arena of the arts has not escaped participation in this fight. Performing arts of jazz and theater, literary arts of poetry and fiction, and visual arts of painting and film are categories of aesthetic production that have denoted time and again artists expression of and desire for liberation. Thus, it is not odd to begin exploring the role that another category of arts has played in the racial uplift of African Americans. Think with me what rewards could be reaped if we dug through the rubble of the 1960s and 1970s to research the martial arts. The term martial arts is a broad category that conjures precise images: Bruce Lee jumping into view in his yellow jumpsuit brilliantly waving a pair of deadly nunchaku; Jackie Chan sliding through window bars to throw punches at multiple henchmen; Jet Li battling his way out of ropes by kicking through his captors. These arts are more than the fantastical achievements of East Asia. They are physical and artful expressions wherein the body is the pen or brush and the environment is its parchment or canvas. If the roots of these arts are nearly as

old as man and are merely instinctive developments stemming from mans [obligation] to battle, weaponless, the hostile forces ofenemies among his fellow human beings, then we can imagine that the martial arts must have a place in the Long Black Revolt (Funakoshi viii-ix). Have African Americans not had to grapple with forces of nature, savage beats, and enemies collectively personified by fellow human beings (Funakoshi viii-ix)? Just as many others have, African Americans have entered the martial arts and let the martial arts enter them. Just as they did with literature and song and visual art, African Americans have used the martial arts to exert the freedom of body and mind once denied to their lineage. For a moment, substitute the image of a yellow-suited Bruce Lee with a yellow, karate gi [uniform] touting Jim Kelly about to glide through his opponent in Enter the Dragon. More appropriate still, replace Lee with shirtless Kelly dueling with White men who are attempting to bully and overtake his karate school in Black Belt Jones. Jim Kelly does not characterize just an action hero. His martial arts characters represent tropes in Black cinema at a crucial point in the American 20th century. Before Bruce Lees films were even shown in back alley theaters in New Yorks Chinatown district, African Americans had steadily become exposed to the martial arts of East Asia. The credit is to be awarded to World War II, immigration, and Black Nationalism. During the 1940s and 1950s, African American soldiers found themselves sailing and flying into bases in Okinawa and Japan. On army bases in these lands, the army hired instructors to introduce the blue boys to fighting arts such as karate and jujitsu. At home during the same period, African American youth began crossing cultural borders in American cities and interacting with territories shared with Chinese and Japanese Americans. Reasons ranged from personal goals of perfection to needing protect life and limb from hostile authorities, rough neighborhoods, and

accusations of ineptitude. Local YMCAs and community parks helped produce the aesthetic warriors, like Grandmaster Moses Powell, who would train the men and woman of the Black Power generation. Simultaneous as the rise of East Asian martial arts in cities like New York and Los Angeles, Black Power likewise arose out of the flames of the 1960s and 1970s. The context was staggering. Vietnam was exploding. Watts, Harlem, and Newark were going up in cinders from riots. Evers, Kennedy, and Shabazz had fallen. Sporadic recessions occurred as often as COINTERPRO struck at the heart of the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. Screams for Black Power welcomed the turbulence. With prevalent, pervasive racism and decreased economic prospects for African American communities, the attention of many activists turned toward self-determination and self-definition. Imagine it: the Black Power Era. The screams for Black Power eventually became shouts of Black Power! Though a malleable concept, Black Power can loosely be described as being proud, and never humbled, to be Black. Inspired by Malcolm X and his untimely passing, a fresh generation of impassioned and zealous blacktavists burst onto the scene to promote this power (Collins 4). The martial arts and Black Power intertwine. The martial arts are a vehicle within which to further understand and locate the struggle for Black Power and agency. If Black Power is, as Dr. Amy Ongiri argues, the conceptually diffuse idea that asserts the necessity for both economic independence and cultural self-determination, there is space to fit the martial arts on the spectrum of Black Power theory (Ongiri 2). To locate the martial arts effectively and in a manner that makes sense, one must turn to the aesthetic sister of the Black Power Movement [BPM], the Black Arts Movement [BAM]. Three reasons cause this. Firstly, unlike the usage of weaponry self-defense, the usage of karate and its relatives falls under artistic defense. Empty

hands do serve a similar function to armed bodies. However, there is an aesthetic quality to the usage of the unarmed limbs. Because they defend the body and community through technique and design, they perform an art of self-defense and not merely a manner of self-defense. If one focuses on the arts component of martial arts, it is logical to relate the martial arts to Black Power through an artistic avenue. Secondly, because the words of BAM artists articulated the agenda of the Black Power Movement, they lend themselves to serve as a lens of interpretation. If martial artists performed with their movements and verbalized with their teachings Black Power ideals, it can be understood how and why by analyzing acknowledged, Black Power art. Lastly, since the martial arts similarly provided a means for both economic independence and cultural self-determination, they can be viewed through the mindset and creation of the BAM artists. A primary source for actualizing [BAMs] demands for self-determined African American cultural production was through the creation of independent venues of cultural exchange which African American artistic vision and capital controlled (Ongiri 23). Martial arts instructors and schools achieved both of these through their successful survival and their ability to propagate their arts and disseminate them throughout communities. The African America freedom struggle has been represented and debated in virtually every artistic and cultural format in the terms defined by the Black Arts Movement: from the politically progressive experiments of free jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, and Pharaoh Sanders to Black Popular music in which James Brown sang Say It Loud, Im Black and Proud as the Impressions urged African Americans to Keep on Pushing; from the Black Arts drama of Ben Caldwell, LeRoi Jones, and Ed Bullins to the poetry of Sonia Sanchez and in the unprecedented

boom in film productions chronicling the African American experience. (Ongiri 90) Thus, by and large, it is time to add the martial arts to the particularly long list of subjects that still lack and yet warrant academic research. As of yet, no one has done the work of looking at the direct correlation between the rhetoric, goals, and motivations of the writers, painters, musicians, and the martial artists. Scholarship has barely been done on martial arts in any cultural capacity in African American communities. Unlike other categories of self-expression that have contributed to African American culture, there is little research on how the martial arts have interacted with the African American Community or how the masters of such crafts as karate, judo, or jujitsu have impacted and shaped the community. In this thesis, I hope to prove that the martial arts played an equal part in the development of the African American community as any other means of empowerment or artistic vision. This subject merits attention because if the instruction and representations of martial arts used by African Americans had a communal impact, these arts could be linked to a larger, periodic narrative of community and institution building, self-defense, and self-determination. To demonstrate my argument, I employ a unique combination of close reading, philosophical theory, performance analysis, and oral historical accounts. The two chapters of the thesis are divided into three thematic sections. Each chapter begins with a piece of literature from a BAM writer. These pieces I close read and dissect for the Black Power goals or ideals they tackle. Subsequently, I close read and analyze a work of East Asian martial arts philosophy as written by a master of the arts. At the end of this second section, I relate how martial arts, as posited by these masters of the craft, could serve as a means of Black self-determination and independence. Finally, the third segment provides examples of how this theoretical usage

materialized into real practice or representation. Examples are either historical accounts from instructors or historical representation provided by materials such as Blaxploitation films and cartoons. No matter the historical tool, the example will show how martial arts practice, physically or ideologically, iterated Black Power. Chapter One creates a narrative about the importance of recognizing the utility of warriorhood to propagators of and believers in Black Power. The chapter argues that there exists a bridge between the Black warrior inheritance discussed by Amiri Baraka and the classical definition of the warrior established by the famed samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The chapter concludes by demonstrating that the intersection of the mens philosophies manifests itself in aesthetic warriors like Master Mfundishi Maasi. If African Americans are going to be aesthetic warriors, they need to break the ties that prevent them from controlling their minds and bodies. Chapter Two begins by outlining Dr. Nathan Hares argument about how African Americans lost this control. It then demonstrates how martial arts can provide control again if practiced according to the theorist Master Peter Urban. Similar to Chapter One, it concludes by taking a look at the life of Mfundishi Maasi, arguing that his actual teachings during the 1960s and 1970s empowered his students to become agents of their own destinies. These two chapters build toward the conclusion. Having asserted that martial arts are a manner in which to achieve selfdetermination and accomplish uplifting goals of Black Power, the conclusion argues that the evidence provided should not stand alone. Because of the arguments the thesis substantiates, the conclusion argues that more examples can be provided and should be given the constraints and limits of the project.

Chapter One: Finding the Warrior


Part One: Inheritance
The verbalization of Black Power was the first step in the 1960s revitalization of the concept so diffuse that it resembled directly, if not continued, the intellectual legacy of African American leaders and writers such as David Walker and Marcus Garvey. With the birth of Black Power theorists and writers, such as Huey P. Newton and Amiri Baraka, also came the recognition that the movement required more than just these leaders. It required laborers or an army, of and from the Black community, to populate it. This collective had to strive toward economic independence and cultural self-determination, and so Amiri Baraka wrote Black Art to inspire their fervor for the cause. It was his most famous poem of the period and came from the BAM ideal of producing art that spoke up for the black realities of urban ghettos (Collins 8). It was not to be a manifesto on what he hoped Black Artists would be but what he believed they had to be. Though a literal reading of his poem can be appropriate, I choose to read it hyperbolically, as one prophetic symbol of verse. In the 1965 manifesto, Baraka proclaims, Let Black people understand/that they are.../warriors and the sons /of warriors (303). Baraka reminds and urges Black people to remember they are warriors by blood: to be related to and descended from a warrior means one has inherited that blood. Remembering this lineage is crucial for Baraka. Because warriors are individuals who are engaged aggressively or energetically in an activity, cause, or conflict, Baraka knows his artist wing of the Black Power army requires aesthetic warriors (Warrior). Black Power needs individuals who are willingly to zealously act on behalf of their communities self-determination. Baraka outlines that Black poetry, and, by metonymic representation, all Black art is bullshit unless it is action. That is why he calls for art or poems that kill (Baraka 302-303). Poems cannot literally shoot or
9

come at you, but Baraka does not expect them to (Baraka 302-303). He does not expect Black poets to be able to create poems with fists that beat people unconscious. However, he expects Black artists to be aesthetic warriors who write words that are as strong and direct as these actions. He expects them to understand their words can have strong consequences and to use them to powerfully advocate and educate. In fact, Baraka says art is not Black Art unless it is utilitarian and it is not utilitarian if it does not represent Black reality. Black art cannot be created solely for the purpose of being pleasing to the senses. Black people have too much to accomplish for their art not to have selfenhancement or advancement purposes. Black art comes alive with the words of the hip [Black] worldcursing blood (Baraka 302). Black art indicates the teeth [and] trees [and] lemons piled on the neighborhood stoop (Baraka 302). It must be created by those aggressively and energetically engaged in the struggle for the empowerment of Black communities. Otherwise, the art cannot be called forth into action to express the cause and culture of Blacks. Forget art that is not meant to fuck. Black poems are born when the pen forcefully strikes the page, angered by the weak negroleader who emasculates himself and his people by performing fellatio between the sheriffs thighsnegotiating cooly for his people (Baraka 303). Art has power, but it needs powerful determination behind it like the breaths of wrestlers (Baraka 302). Blacks cannot plead to politicians who do not represent or negotiate for them. Baraka wants Black art that wrestle cops into alleys/and take their weapons leaving them dead (Baraka 302). In between his violent lines, Baraka yearns for art with power, art that can affect change, and artists who are willing to write the change and affect it. He wants art that arms people with defense and enables them to defend their communities against an unjust system. Through his words, the true Black artist equips his people to deal with the cops who are symbolic of a violent system (Baraka

10

302). If art can figuratively bring fire and death to whities ass, then it can convince its readers that they are warriors that can literally do so (Baraka 302) Furthermore, Baraka tells Black people [to] understand/ that they are/sons/of warriors because the sons/of warriors Are poems &/poets&/ (Baraka 303). Black people are not just descendants of warriors. They are warriors themselves. As warriors, they can practice arts that free them from racist, Irish policemen, rich Jews who control the neighborhood, and sell-out Black politicians. Baraka exclaims we want a black poem. And a/Black World (Baraka 303). BAM artists want black poetry. They want action they control that does not sit quietly pleading for acceptance. Black art will not ask its people to be refind and to join th angelic train assumed to be the path of White America (Wheatley 220). Remembering their warrior lineage, Black artists will become people who clean out the world for virtue and love and create art that scream [screams] poison gas on beasts of all forms (Baraka 303). Often warriors fight for someone elses peace. Japanese samurai often fought for the visions of peace of others. Baraka called for the Black warriors of his era to cease and fight for their own visions. When he said Let the world be a Black poem, he meant let Blacks create a reality and an aestheticism that they control through the agency of the warriors they descended from and could be.

Part Two: Claiming Inheritance


Baraka wants all Black people to claim the dormant warriorhood within themselves. However, he does not mention how to uncover it or draw from its traits. Enter the production of martial arts. Martial arts form at the intersection of utilitarianism and aesthetic formation. Moreover, those classically known as warriors performed them. But can Baraka really mean that African Americans are born from lines of warriors? And even if they are, is their truly
11

significance to claiming this history? Are warriors artists or are artists warriors? Why warriors? Why are warriors necessary? And are their other types of arts that fit under the category of Black Art? Miyamoto Musashi, his mentality, and his way of life corroborate the intertwining of aesthetics and defense that Baraka describes. He is considered the grandfather of Japanese bushido, which literally means way, or d, of the bushi, or warrior (Musashi xvi). His classic, The Book of Five Rings: A Classic Text on the Japanese Way of the Sword, has been a pivotal text for Japanese culture enthusiasts and practitioners of Japanese martial artists. Written by this famed fighter and undefeated swordsmen, the text analyzes the process of struggle and mastery over conflict that underlies every level of human interaction (Musashi Back Page). Musashi clearly delineates a tie between artist and martial artist within the warrior. His very first statement about the way of warriors is that it requires familiarity with both cultural and martial arts (Musashi 5). Baraka implies this also. He wants poetry written and committed by the children of warriors. If the offspring of the warriors are also warriors, it is natural that they practice both the cultural arts, such as poetry writing and music making, and the martial arts, such as karate and jujitsu. Thus, Blacks warriors must engage martial arts as a part of fighting for their culture. Subsequently, Musashi says true martial arts have to be practiced in such a way that they will be useful at any time and taught in such a way that they will be useful in all things (Musashi 6). Utilitarian art: this is the core principle of Barakas Black Art. If martial arts are meant to be learned such that they are always useful, then Barakas argument about African Americans warriors makes sense. The warrior Baraka describes fits the standardized definition of Musashi the famous martial artist. Because martial arts are utilitarian arts by definition, Barakas

12

warriors can produce and practice martial arts that fit under the broader category of Black Art. What are the martial arts if not arts that relate to the reality of the people who practice them? Karate, born on the Japanese-occupied territory of Okinawa, grew out of the flames of subjugation. Karate-Do, or the Way [D] of the Empty [Kara] Hand [Te], resulted from an ordinance that specified Okinawans could not carry weapons. Their tradition of martial art furthered developed under the reality of their situation, i.e. the necessity to defend themselves despite being denied basic rights. Okinawans transformed farm tools into extensions of their empty hands, creating the weapons karatekas, or students of karate, avidly study today: staffs that carried buckets of water, specialty knives that cut bamboo, and sickles that threshed wheat. If the Okinawans developed karate as actionary art to their reality, African Americans can certainly use it as a reactionary art to their reality. Karate can be just as useful to the Black community as the poems of Sanchez. Almost prophetically, Musashi proclaimed that in individual martial arts also, you can threaten by means of your body, you can threaten by means of your sword, and you can threaten by means of your voice (Musashi 63). If being a martial artist means threatening through your body, the tool or sword at your disposal, and your voice, the enactors of Black empowerment fit this mold. The martial artists, or body, worked in conjunction with Black Power organizations, the sword, and BAM poets, the voice. Together, they can engage in flustering opponents...in such a way as to prevent them from having a steady mind and crushing Black Power (Musashi 64).

13

Part Three: Affirming Inheritance


If one needs to connect Barakas warrior poetry to Musashis widely cited warrior philosophy, it befits one to look at the life and teachings of Shaha, or learned elder, Mfundishi Maasi. A Jersey boy whose given name is William Nichols, Shaha Maasi was born in 1941 and has been practicing the martial arts since his days as a young man in the Marine Corps. Stationed at the Quonset Point Naval Air Station in Rhode in 1959, he and his fellows trained in karate, jujutsu, and judo under a staff sergeant who had studied the first in Okinawa and the latter two in Japan. A year later he would study Kempo under a platoon sergeant at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. After returning to Newark in 1962, he began training under James Cheatham, the sensei and operator of the only Black dojo in the city. Master James Cheatham demanded much from his students physical training. Maasi transitioned well into study under Cheatham because the challenges, physicality, and discipline fit well with the state of mind he had developed in the service (Maasi 2013). Cheatham was a member of the Nation of Islams Newark chapter and taught many of the Fruit of Islam [FOI], or young mens division, members. Maasi would himself become responsible for providing the martial arts instruction to Newarks Mosque #25. Looking back, Maasi remarks that experiences training and teaching that it was highly rewarding to see Black men unified toward a common purpose (Maasi 2013).When Cheatham died in a plane crash in 1966, his school disbanded and Maasi founded his own school, the Hakeem Martial Arts Association. That particular school remained open until the insurrection or the infamous Newark Riot of 1967 (Maasi 2013). Maasi recalls that pretty much shut everything down, as Newark had one of the most violent and serious riots during that Long Hot Summer of 1967 (Maasi 2013).

14

During the turbulence of late 1960s, Maasi also became the body guard for Amiri Baraka (Hinton 85). This proximity to Barakas mind only furthered Maasis own intellectual curiosities. Despite Newarks socio-political problematics, writers and activists like Baraka facilitated a rising or broadening of consciousness (Maasi 2013). In fact, Maasi considers the time a black renaissance (Maasi 2013). From the beginning, he sought cultivation of mind and body. He read through martial arts classics by karate grandmasters Mas Oyama and Hidetaka Nishiyama while sweating through Cheathams workouts (Hinton 87). Soon his body met the voice of Barakas poetry and together they became part of the warrior community wielding the sword, working together on the Committee for a Unified NewArk [CFUN]. By being in the environment of Baraka the literary artist, Maasi the martial arts became exposed to Barakas belief in African Americans ties to their African origins. Barakas own research into African contributions to global civilization, culture, and advancement impacted Maasi greatly. Maasi related them to martial arts: if martial arts are cultural arts and Africans contributed to world culture, African Americans are or can be present day cultural warriors of martial arts (Hinton 92). Alan Lee, a master of soft Chinese styles, taught Maasi that the global origins of martial arts need to be traced back, before China and India, to Egypt (Hinton 92-93). Is it a coincidence that Kara Katash, an African martial art loosely translated to Black mongo, has the kara of karate? Is it a coincidence that in both terms, Kara is the descriptor, meaning black in the first and empty in the second? Tossing around these thoughts, it is no surprise that the arts Maasi learned by chance in the military became useful teachings for him to share with his Newark community. If African Americans had a hand in the cultural history of martial arts, via lineage, would it not make sense for them to find utility for these arts again in the 20th century? For Maasi, a true master is not

15

simply a dojo master or someone who succeeds on wooden floors and in front of glass mirrors. A real master translates his skills onto the streets and political spheres of Newark just as samurai translated their skills onto the battlefield. Training is not useful if it has not been tested and one has not faced serious injury. Once has to face death many times or the threats of a White, socioeconomic and political society (Hinton 91). One has to be isolated on mountaintops or in the local meetings rooms meditating about the next step (Hinton 91). One has to succeed on the battlefield, as when the Committee for a Unified NewArk helped elect Kenneth Gibson, the first Black Mayor of Newark (Hinton 85). Maasi argues that the entirety of life is a testing ground and a battle ground (Hinton 92). Thus, being an African American martial artist during the Black Power era goes beyond the act of defending the body from police or fighting White society. Being a warrior means fighting to hold onto your empathy for your brothers and sisters. Being a warrior means fighting tirelessly to service your community and its children and their public school education. Being a warrior means fighting for streets that are safe for anyone of any age to walk down without fear of assault, murder, or rape. An African American warrior meets at the intersection of Baraka and Musashi by going beyond whats happening to me [or the I] to whats happening to [the] people (Hinton 92). Post Civil Rights Movement, African Americans were tasked with seeing the reality of the condition of our [their] people (Maasi 2013). Given the ethos of the era, action needed to be taken by individuals unfearful of the consequences. Maasis own goal was to train individuals who, rather than instilling fear in others, moved beyond fear themselves (Maasi 2013). Having moved beyond fear, he explains, the warrior is able to be compassionate as well as disciplined (Maasi 2013). Fearless, warriors stand at the forefront of battles. Maasi was

16

training young men and women who were at the vanguard of a socio-cultural war with their city. Before these young men and women could fully take up the ranks as the communitys first line of identity defense, they had to defend and interrogate their own identities. Black youth were still growing up in a society that shaped much of their self-images and controlled their avenues of destiny. The Moynihan report cited the bodies of Black females as problematic territories. High schools and colleges filled the minds of Black students with White social and cultural history. Thus, youth could not change the landscapes of their communities without help. Black theorists did their part by identifying how the image and control issues started and persisted. Martial arts instructors did their part by supplying a means of overpowering these issues, beating them, and washing them out of communities. This is where one must begin to analyze the specifics of martial practice.


17

Chapter Two: Unleashing the Warrior


Part One: Recognition
As a boy I used to hear old folks laughing and talking about the way white folks tricked Negroes to America as slaves with stories of a land where creeks were overflowing with molasses and flapjacks grew on trees. While hardly anybody seemed really taken in by that myth, it did have, as most jokes have of necessity, a certain tone of truth: that the Negro in America has been everlastingly misled, tricked and brainwashed by the ruling races of whites. Nathan Hare In his essay the Brainwashing of Black Males Minds, Nathan Hare, a University of Chicago educated sociologist and novice Golden Gloves Champion, dissects the process of black brainwashing, a so-called great trick and crucial component of the heist of Black Power and agency (178). Though the migration myth that white folks [tricking] Negroes to Americawith stories of a land where creeks overflow with molasses does not have historical credibility, Hare asserts that the action behind the myth, the trickery, has profound importance for understanding the Black psyche. Long ago, slaves experienced the real trickery as they left African shores and entered the Middle Passage. Given this, Hare worries about the legacies African Americans carried with them in the 1960s, continuing to be everlastingly misled, tricked, and brainwashed hundreds of years later (178). How does one remain in a perpetual state of trickery? The question is more appropriately phrased from the White power structures gaze: how do you keep a population of people disadvantaged and unable to see through your smoke of misrepresentation? It begins with mentally misleading said population with slanted language and distorted images of self, both of which intertwine. Hale argues that once ones mind is indoctrinated into a language which paints beauty white and ugliness Black, such learned knowledge remains there unshaken. This is the case of the collective American mind in the late 20th century. Each instance where a non-Black
18

person is described in terms of being blackballed or blacklisted or blackhearted, he or she feels repulsed by visions of Blackness and desires never to be black- (Hare 180). Each instance where an African American looks upon a holy, white visage of Jesus and seeks the ritual purity of being washed white as snow severs a chord of mental strength and self-love (Hare 180). The vernacular juxtaposition of White to Black represents a linguistic colonization which has transformed into subservience and ascribed etiquette over the centuries. During the Antebellum period, the beauty of whiteness was personified by the White slave master who benefited from cultural and linguistic superiority in the Black mind. He easily maintained the right to be referred to by power titles such as Mr., Sir, or Suh by enslaved and nonenslaved Blacks alike, further undermining the slaves self-respect and stimulating his glorification of the white mans world (Hare 179). White laws supported this biased language. They prevented Blacks from learning anything but the bible as taught by White Christians who twisted its words to suite their purposes (Hare 182). Hare contends that this control and manipulation of language and education dangerously affected the Black self-image (182). The whitewashed world overcame Blacks instinctual and positive images of themselves. Between colored words and fearsome religious teaching, the Negro succumbed to depending on the white man to tell him what to think even about himself (Hare 182). Black men and women grappled internally with the contradictions of wanting to feel beautiful while being ingrained with a mentality counterintuitive to their health. Simultaneously, their bodies were manipulated into being more inclined to bow down to the Great White Society (Hare 179). Whites had to exert power over the physical in order to maintain the mental enslavement of the Black psyche. The mental plantations owned by White society in Black minds were effectively maintained by the physical plantations that Black bodies were chained to.

19

Hare explains early on in his essay the situation Blacks find themselves in and how it was ultimately accomplished: Africans in the know have finally come to realize that: Once we had only the land. The white man came and brought us to the Bible. Now we have the Bible and they have the land. To accomplish this piracy-and retain the loot indefinitely-it was of course necessary to control the minds and bodies of the subjugated blacks. Indeed, control over the body is one basic means of manipulating thought. This was accomplished even more successfully in the case of American blacks, compared to Africans, because of the fact that brainwashing is best implemented by removing the subject from his normal setting, severing his social relations and identities ordinarily sustained only by regular interaction with family, friends and significant others. Communication is then restricted- in the case of the Negro slave, it was virtually destroyed-and the stripping process, the process of self-mortification (the destruction of identity and self-esteem) is then almost a matter of course. (Hare 178-179) If the body is the one basic means of manipulating thought, the subjugation of Blacks is completed by physically disassociating the body, and thus the mind, from familiarity and control. African American brainwashing and looting happened on the scale of being severed from their kin, the land of their warrior ancestors, and their culturally constructed identities. By stealing away Black bodies from their original geographical contexts to a foreign America being colonized itself, Blacks had to deal with radically different physical and mental environments. As the bodies became more and more physically threatened, tied, and disenfranchised from any source of familiarity by the plantation, Blacks lost control completely. Hare contends that the legacy of the physical control of the Black body persists through ingrained mental attitudes of

20

inferiority left over by colonization, slavery, and mis-education. It is logical for him to note that most Negroes are merely products of generations of the most efficient and gigantic system of brainwashing the world has ever known (Hare 185-186). White society and its medias assault upon the simple phrase Black Power is even more haunting to the era itself (Hare 183). Hare calls the judgment and fear projected onto images of armed, afro-ed, angry Blacks an effort to whitewash the tardy awakening of black men in America and deter them from any attempt to acquire or utilize power to their own advantage (183-184).This hysteria threatened the agenda of Black Power activists, particularly who shared the goals of the Black Panther Party. The media demonized images of blactivists who tried to determine the destiny of [their] Black Community and end the robbery of it by CAPALIST structures (Newton 3-4). It misconstrued their efforts to educate Black people on the true nature and true history of American society (Newton 3-4). Because of negative accusations, gaining unshakable support of Black Power necessitated an untainted re-envisioning of the Black self-image. In order to achieve this, the Black individual needed to recapture the ability of the mind and body to dialogue with and control one another. Enter again the lost warrior legacy. Enter the martial arts.

Part Two: Rebirth


In his book Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting, Vijay Prashad writes that with his fists and nanchakus, Bruce Lee provided young people with the sense that we [they], like the Vietnamese Guerrillas, could be victorious against the virulence of international capitalism (Prashad 127). If this belief can be applied generally, then the martial arts can show any student how to be invincible and unbreakable by the establishment (Prashad 127). Black martial arts instructors teaching Black self-empowerment directly ties usages of martial arts to Black Arts
21

Movement rhetoric. If Hare argues that a piracy of control over body and mind has occurred and needs to be overturned, then the martial arts provide a method for regaining control. During their training, student learns the ins and outs of their bodies and how to control them. Furthermore, they learn to use them shape to their environment. In his crucial text The Karate Dojo, Peter Urban, who introduced Goju Ryu Karate to America, demonstrates how karate, and by extension all martial arts, serves as the perfect form with which to achieve Hares goals. Because of the nature of empty handed martial arts, the -ka, or student, of said art develops practiced control of the limbs and certain mental energies [which] make the body into a highly effective tool of the mind (Urban 11). Students acquire an acumen that allows for mental comprehension of how to turn the body into a weaponless weapon. They practice daily, sweating through powerful, dance-like movements known as katas or forms. The aptitude of learning how to harden the body without breaking it is acquired. The karateka first studies and thinks through the movements. Afterward, he learns to seamlessly enforce the will of his mind onto his body. Once a student develops his mental ability to control his body and consciously knows he possesses the faculties to do so, he has created a strong mind-body connection that crafts him into a weaponless weapon. The body becomes controllable because the mental demands in rigorous Karate training are more taxing than the physical demands (Urban 12). After having gone through such training, the mind becomes a strong force aware and cognizant of its abilities, a brain unwashed. In The Karate Dojo, Peter desires nothing more than for the student to gain agency and independence through the art. Eastern martial arts, Urban explains, would not be as effective if they were merely pertaining tomilitary training for the purpose of war as martial arts implies in Western contexts (Urban 12). Eastern martial arts, specifically those of East Asia, have philosophical

22

content which battle hardens and sharpens the mind (Urban 12). The martial arts utility cannot be derived from their English synonym, fighting arts (Urban 12). More effectively referred to as budo, which can be interpreted as the way [D or Tao] of the fighter, eastern martial arts fundamentally require a mental and spiritual grasp upon the profound way (Urban 12). As a karateka, one walks a path that requires you to strive for the attainment of perfection or what is often known as self-realization, enlightenment, or simply maturity (Urban 13). Finding this path inherently requires a mental depth that White plantations attempted to prevent within Black minds. This forced Black minds to remain, as Hare asserts, uneducated and mislead, painting a false self-image. Urban further argues that martial artists are the Zen warriors or samurai of the modern era. Like the originals, they are taught to never surrender or ask for mercy. They have an immensely deep sense of their cultivated, spiritual attitude, an attitude marked by virtues of relaxation, even-mindedness, pride, confidence, and graciousness (Urban13-14). The result of their fighting aesthetic is a sound mind and a sound body (Urban 14) Together, the two achieve oneness within the individual (Urban 14). The unification of zen [mind] and ken [fist or body] creates a student who believes one must and can do what one is told one cannot do (Urban 14). By doing this, he or she can excel and transcend limitations (Urban 14). Because the mind has no time to be troubled in a tough Karate workout, it learns to be an impenetrable organ that resists executing movements orchestrated by others. Thus, the student follows the rules of a dojo because he is independently motivated and self-disciplined and not because he is chained to unquestionable obedience. Training in the way of the spiritual warrior assuages Hares fear of lasting White control over Black minds and bodies. The learned meditational and focus techniques enhances ones

23

ability to clear the mind and relax the body instantly and act upon the command of ones will or impulse (Urban 20). These techniques should not be neglected areas of development because the ability to bend the mind and body to ones will is necessary for enabling self-determination. Self-determination is as diffuse an idea as Black Power. The battle for it will be a struggle over Blacks freedom to freely choose their actions without coercion, be they personal, political, economical, or otherwise. Once, Huey Newton re-quoted Mao Zedong and spoke of a colossal event that would occur in the future where the masses of the people will rise up like a might storm and a hurricane, sweeping all evil gentry and corrupt officials into their graves (Newton 77). If the masses of Black peoples in America rise up like a mighty storm made of individual, enraged storms, then they will have the confidence of having freely chosen to act in a lightening, revolutionary, and poignant manner. If Huey predicts its inevitability, Urban posits its plausibility. Urban believes that the life force of humans has the ability to become a phenomenal phenomenon of nature. He writes that: A true karateka reaches the zenith of training when he can conquer the unyielding with the yielding. One invariably asks, How can a yielding object conquer an unyielding object? This can be best illustrated by a famous karate lesson, to wit: There is nothing in life more unyielding than a whiff of air or a drop of water, but who can withstand the force of a typhoon or a tidal? The typhoon and the tidal are nothing more than the mass movements of air and water, which had their beginnings in a single whiff of air or a single drop of water, pliable and yielding. A Karateka is relaxed, physically at ease, spiritually enlightened, but has the capability raising himself to the raging heights of a typhoon or a towering tidal wave, sweeping away every obstacle when his life or the lives of those he loves are in danger. (Urban 28)

24

Whether Hare was aware of it or not, he wants Black martial artists. He needs individuals who have the capability of elevating themselves to great heights at will and who believe that they possess the power to sweep away every obstacle (Urban 28). Huey Newton needs individuals who are ready to sweep down as droplets and collectively create tidal waves that eliminate the danger their lives and lineages have been put it. Colonization of the minds and lawful regulation of the bodies are obstacles that place peoples in danger. African Americas had been suffering through them since the 1600s. Blacks cannot control their lives or fight against a society that attempts to mold them without mental and perspective shifts. If Black Power vocalists want Blacks to shape their environments with independent modes of thought and through selfmotivated actions, the martial arts can teach them how. And, in the imagination and reality of 1960s and 1970s New York and Newark, they did.

Part Three: Release


Super Fly, directed by Gordon Parks, Jr. is an excellent lens for analyzing and exploring the representational usage of martial arts as sources of strength and re-empowerment. Released in 1972, it specifically situates or depicts martial arts ability to be a site of determining selfhood. Priest, the main character from Super Fly, exemplifies the beginning stages of martial arts infiltration into Black, urban communities. From the opening scenes of Super Fly, we see the cool, aspiring dope dealer ambushed for his product. After an initial stun, during which he is thrown to the ground, he kicks one of his attackers in the abdomen from the floor. Though initially rattled, he immediately jumps up and chases the other attacker out of his building through the run-down streets of Harlem and through decrepit back alleys and apartments. Eventually, he catches him, takes back his dope, and angrily kicks the mans ribs. As a dope
25

dealer, Priest exhibits control over his environment by handling and protecting the flow of that product. It is crucial at this point in the film that he tracks down his attacker in order to protect his product rather than to avenge the damage done to his body. For the purposes of this exploration, it is important to comprehend that Priest is athletically and physically enabled. He leaps over fences and onto ladders and is capable of sexually stimulating women with his body. However, those around him tell him that, despite his physical capacities, he does not have bodily agency. Priest, though excellent at dealing, wishes to not spend the rest of his life in the trade. His partner in the dope game inquisitively but cynically asks, What the fuck you gon do [after you stop selling]?, implying that the only feat Priest is capable of accomplishing professionally is superior dealing (Super Fly). His partner tries to serve as a reminder that in the end, Priest has limited power over his body and that he cannot accomplish with it what he wills. Nevertheless, Priest is not convinced that he occupies a powerless position. As the movie progresses, we see him becoming more ambitious with his skills. Against his partner's advice, he decides to pursue a sell so large that it will facilitate his retirement. As he strives to pull himself up by his snake-leather shoelaces, the audience is presented with a seemingly unimportant scene: a karate lesson, squished between the other responsibilities of his routine. It appears as recreation, similar to the yoga class that the affluent White woman places in her day in order to remain active. However, close analysis of this scene shows that there is a focus in Priests eyes. The way that he moves suggests swift intent and not bourgeois disinterest. If one reconsiders the opening scenes where Priest is jumped, it is evident that, despite Priest regaining his product, he is not able to undo the bruises he has sustained. If he could have defended his person excellently in the beginning, he would not have worried about losing potential money. By participating in the karate lesson, Priest comprehends that it is much more important to protect

26

the body than the product. By learning the weaponless art, Priest is fashioning his body into a self-sufficient, defensive mechanism. In the scene where Priest works out with his teacher, we see him arming himself weaponlessly. He is equipping himself with the tools to win the fights that lie ahead of him, whether they catch him in drug ridden stairwells or barren outskirts of town. Through his characters in Arm Yourself or Harm Yourself, Amiri Baraka writes that Aint no devil on this planet gonna put his bloody claws on me, brother Not no more, my mannot no more (Baraka Arm Yourself, or Harm Yourself: A One Act Play). Though this statement is geared toward the so-called White male devil specifically, it is clear that no one should have the privilege of violating a Black persons physical well-being. It is the frustration another character expresses that captures the feeling of helplessness when a man is unable to defend his body. He expresses that he cant do nuthin. Caint do nuthinIm sicka this muthafucking shit (Baraka Arm Yourself, or Harm Yourself: A One Act Play). As the title of the play suggests, that it is unjust for a Black man to not defend himself and that not arming himself is actually harming himself. By the end, Priest goes from being pushed around by his first set of attackers to fully handling the White men who attack him during the films conclusion. It is as if everything before that point was practice. When he manages to bring his dreams of escape to the forefront, he finally uses his martial skills. It is almost a Cleaverian moment. However, instead of using Black women as practice for the act of raping White woman, Priest used his Black muggers as practice for the day that he would use martial arts against White men. Unlike Eldridge Cleaver however, Priest directly fights the force that tells him he is worthless. The final scene is his acting out moment. There are no scapegoats, and there is nothing that stands between him, as the attempted escapee, and the man who says he owns him. It is a pivotal moment in the narrative of Black

27

Power when the White boss tries to tell Priest that he is merely a pawn in his game. Priest defiantly proclaims that You dont own me pig and no mother fucker tells me when I can split! (Super Fly). This scene, where Priest defeats not one but three White men, the kingpin and his henchmen, is a culmination. Standing up for himself and defending his body against Whitey is crucial. In this same moment where three White men attack an outnumbered Black man, Priest demonstrates that he has not only learned how to defend his body but that he has learned to defend his right to independent existence. He recaptures the part of the Black masculinity that was stripped away on the selling block. This scene and many others like it in Blaxploitation films are some of the first instances in cinematic history where a Black man physically and fearlessly resists the white man in battle. Learning to defend his right to a crimeless existence can be seen as linked to fighting toward a better existence overall. By fighting back against the man who supposedly owns him, Priest is also fighting against the doubters who are convinced he does not have the wherewithal to accomplish anything outside the world of illegal business. Despite the doubts, Priest fervently believes that he can be better and grow personally. If one takes yet another look at the karate lesson, the scene can be read as Priest developing not only as a martial artist but as a person. His movements and intention say to him, his teacher, and the audience that Priest can be better and that he is working towards that betterment. It is quite evident that, for valid reasons, Priest is afraid of going back to being nothing and being owned by Whitey and dope his entire life. One teaching that the martial arts impart to practitioners it is that You should be able to believe in yourself to be able to climb the highest mountain. Or just go against whatever is thrown your way. You should be able to look at adversity in its face and believe in yourself to get what you want (Prashad 148). That is, in fact, how the martial arts can loosely be defined: as self-

28

betterment and striving toward perfection. Gngfu, the overarching name given to martial arts with Chinese origins, literally translates to human achievement through great effort. In the words of its most renowned practitioner, Bruce Lee, the purpose of the martial arts is to cultivate the mind, promote health, [provide] efficient means of self-protection against attacks[and to develop] confidence, coordination, adaptability, and respect (Prashad 132). There is a certain courage that martial arts enable and that courage contributes to Priests ascension to being an independently willed individual in control of his own bodily course and discourse. In the end, the plot can be deconstructed by examining Priests esteem of his honor and pride. If someone disrespects you verbally, he may be willing, as the film illustrates, to disrespect you physically as well. Both the police that rough Priest up during the middle of the movie and the kingpin from the end of the film verbalize their abuses before enacting them on Priests body. However, by the finale, Priest has learned to become untouchable when weaponless. In other words, he has learned to become weaponful. It is fruitless for the White men to assert themselves upon him. This power that Priest feels and then enacts against his opponents symbolized his mastery of self. He dreamed of getting out, but how did he master his thoughts and materialize them? He mastered his body. What would have happened if he had, indeed, not survived the final ambush? There would have been no escape, no freedom, and independence. Just as Peter Urban said, there is a close correlation between mastery of the body and mastery of the mind. Combined, these two lead to a mastery of the surrounding element or agency in ones environment. If they did not, Priest would not be able to fulfill his separation from his dope dealing habits. In some capacity Gordon Parks, Jr., must have believed, as Bruce Lee did, that the martial arts give oppressed young people an immense sense of personal worth and the skills for

29

collective struggle (Prashad 132). In Super Fly, Priest demonstrates that in order to reclaim the body, one must be defense-empowered. After years of being punked by America, African Americans who achieved control of their bodies during this era would never be punks again. Priest persisted in an environment of discouragement because he had firm beliefs and sufficient confirmation of self-worth. He strove to define the parameters for his warriorhood. Priest used the building blocks of his karate lessons to rebuild his defenses and patch his manhood. If Super Fly provides cinematic evidence of how an individual can accomplish Hares goals by personifying Urbans artistic theory, YesterdayToday and Tomorrow: A Black Reading Experience provides similar proof in print form. This publication, a work of UHURU SASA SHULE Inc., shows how martial arts, their theories, and their applications became central to community organizations that echoed Black Power rhetoric. The UHURU SASA was a component of Brooklyns Black Nationalist organization The East and a member of the Council of Independent Black Institutions. It saw itself as an educational vehicle for Black identity, cultural instruction, and community mobilization. It described itself as a young, community operated school in Brooklyn that, in the troublesome time of the 1970s, was providing black parents of our [their] community a viable alternative to the systems that have failed us [them] in the past (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 4). The publication disperses cartoons, historical essays, and poems amidst one another, supplying learning comprehension questions and activities. Black parents are meant to teach their children from the pages of the publication to further derail the continuation of Black brainwashing, very much in the vein of the home-schooling techniques of Clara Muhammad and the University of Islam schools. YesterdayToday and Tomorrow dared to teach youth Ragtime Roots of Jazz, a James Weldon Johnson essay about cultural heritage, alongside a revisionist essay on Afro-American History authored by El Hajj Malik Shabazz.

30

Equally displayed amongst these materials within this re-education tool are the martial arts cartoons and illustrations. Sandwiched between an excerpt from Sam Greenlees The Spook Who Sat by the Door and assorted poems by Sanchez is an installment in the coloring series called Martial Arts/Mental & Physical Development. On the preceding pages, Greenlee speaks of how to use the [White] Mans own techniques to plot a revolution. On succeeding pages, Sanchez speaks out against getting high on shit because it distracts from building the Black family and nation (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 16). Why interrupt their thoughts to present youth with images of Karate, Judo, Aikido, and Kung Fu? The coloring activity asks children to color in the above panels using crayons, colored pencils or water colors (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 14). The minutes the childreader spends filling the illustrations with colors from his imagination are minutes spent mentally digesting the four, dynamic images on the page. In the top-right panel, calm aikido students using hand/wrist techniques for throwing, demonstrating the aikido principle of using the flow and energy of the attacker against him. The panel to its right depicts a karateka who is working in cat stance, a foundational, fighting stance in karate that builds strong defense. On the bottom right, a soft Chinese style practitioner uses finger strikes to handicap and wound his opponent while protecting his own weak spots. The final panel illustrates Judokas applying chokes, holdingand throws to disable the life force of their opponent and maintain theirs. These detailed images do not only depict figures with East Asian facial features but also with African American features. There are African American men depicted in the karate and kung fu photos, and they are confident and hardened in the face. There is seriousness in the arts they are practicing: is it not serious to protect ones body and mind? These strong, physical figures flash

31

across the mind of the youth as they color the vivid images onto the page and into the subconscious. Below the cartoon panels are questions that require the youth to reflect on the content behind figures. If the UHURU SASA thinks to ask What is the code of Bushido?, which Musashi explores, and How does it relate to Black people in America, one does not have to make an argument for martial arts instruction being crucial to African American communities; the East has made it by integrating this material within the folds of its parental guide (Jana, LeoNa Kesho 14). Through the activity, the publishers demonstrate their familiarity with Eastern martial arts and their non-physical benefits. When you ask What is the purpose of Meditation & Spiritual Development as related to: a) the Martial Arts b) everyday living (Jana, Leo-Na Kesho 14), are you not alluding to Urbans insistence that a martial artist is always relaxed, physically at ease, [and] spiritually enlightened (Urban 28)? Are you also not alluding to martial arts applicability to developing the brainwashed Black mind, which has yet to gain control of an independent, Black body? On the next page, the series asks the youth to match karate techniques, such as blocks and strikes, with the body parts that execute them. The student must look closely to differentiate moves such as the side kick and the back kick. Though both kicks utilize a fully extended leg, turned hips, and thrusting rotations, nuance differences exist between the directions and angles used to implement each technique. These differences are not explained on the page. The child completing the activity must already study martial arts as a part of their education because it is impossible to tell otherwise. In addition to matching the techniques to their physical representations, the youth are provided with the Japanese words for 15 martial art techniques. The child is learning the art in its

32

all its aspects: its verbal form, its rote practice form, and its practical form. The drawings expand the youths mind by teaching him to appreciate art in the language of its creators, thus retranslating side kick into a yoko-geri or a teacher into a sensei. Furthermore, all the figures on this page are drawn with afro-centric facial features on this back page. This artistic choice expands the youths mind by showing him a Black man in an afro demonstrate the techniques, integrating the idea of these arts into the youths own frame of cultural reference. As shown in the pictures, these arts have intricacies that youth can partake in and use to build strong, controlled bodies. Once internalizing the physical and verbal aspects in the second section, the youth is told to turn to Self Defense on page 31 and name the techniques utilized in the cartoon. The child flips through the book past the essay Independent Africa by Wilfred Cartey but stops before finding the canonical, educational essay The Mis-education of the Negro by Carter G. Woodson. On page 31, the child sees that the figure of a calm, Black woman has replaced the focused body of the Black man. The strip does not seek to merely give the youth practice of identification, however. The child reads through an ideology that blatantly states why the martial arts are in the book and integral in terms of Black Power attainment. The final cartoon begins with the narration: In todays time of nation buildingmany Black women are being ripped off in our communities by sick (brothers). One cure for this is knowledge of martial artsit teachesspiritual and mental control and self defense (Jana-LeoNa-Kesho 31). The authors of the comic certainly corroborate Urbans point about the arts. However, they are also concerned with building and strengthening a Black community or unified nation within America, echoing the Black Panther Party and Nation of Islams often separatist beliefs. The heroine of the comic is attacked by three men equipped with knives and trash cans.

33

She flips, kicks, stomps, and elbows her way to safety with her techniques from karate and judo. The men expect to rob her easily for money ta git sum smack (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 31). They anticipate that they can control her body and retain her loot. However, the woman executes the defensive and offensive moves the children are being trained to memorize. Even when one of thugs thinks he has finally got her, she breaks through him with her verbal and physical release of force, the quintessential kiai. Urban defines this kiai as the the explosive forcing out of the breath in the form of a loud, intensely piercing yell or scream, propelled by the muscles of the lower diaphragm (48). This kiai signifies that the heroine, at the exact moment of impact, is clearing [her] mind of fear, enabling her to commit [herself] totally to [her] action (Urban 48). While screaming the kiai with her lips, the women is also implementing the kiai of the eyes or the cat-eyes power (Urban 49). As her eyes turn to power, her attackers eyes turn to weakness, awe, and fear. When the kiai develops as fully as the heroine has developed it, then the concentration on will power causes both the mind and the bodyto do the seemingly impossible without realizing it (Urban 49). The impossibility of protecting the black womans body after centuries of violation can be rectified by training, a good teacher, and relaxation (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 31). If the Black woman of the comic strip can be taken as a metonymic example of the Black community, as it has also been pillaged and abused, then the community can shed the impossible mental and legal chains that bind it to subservience. It can do so by training all Black minds and bodies to concentrate on protecting and maintaining their worth and importance. Each part of the self defense portion can be brought back to the idea of training or honing. Urban firmly believed all karate/martial arts practitioners

34

develop the art of complete relaxation, for they learn to use their training and spiritual concepts in every aspect of their daily lives. Profound personality changes occur as new students develop fighting ability. The introvert finds that he has become brave, the overly aggressive personality becomes calm. Karate training has the power to destroy neurosis and integrate and broaden the character. Confidence becomes evident in students everyday living (Urban 28) The UHURU SASA urged martial arts training because its educators realized martial arts could be utilized to overcome White Societys brainwashing. Is not the state of being brainwashed a form of neurosis? What if the black man illustrated in the cartoons was the introvert trained to become brave? What if the comic strip heroine now walks calmly down the street without fear, knowing she can defend her body? What if, because of martial arts training, both the Black man and woman can rise like Newtons storm when the occasion warrants their sudden attention? The strip wants youth to interrogate how these arts and warrior codes affect them and their lives. This is how: gaining confidence, attaining knowledge, and engendering pride. If that is all it takes to begin the process of healing the individual and community, then all the youth reading YesterdayToday, and Tomorrow need to do is find that good teacher and train (Jana, Leo Na Kesho 31). Below is evidence that many did just that. In the same vein that Mfundishi Maasi was a cultural and martial theorist, he was a good teacher. He would teach hundreds of students during the 1960s and 1970s. However, he clearly states he did not train a mass of movie stars; his dojo did not pump out Jackie Chans. What he created though through his instruction was community organizers and leaders. Instead of being known by millions of people across the globe, they were known at home. The majority of his black belts were instrumental [at home] in the communities-working, teaching young
35

folks (Hinton 90). Though you may not find them in Black Belt Magazine, the premier and iconic martial arts periodical, they turned into good, community-based people (Hinton 90). Maasi taught them life lies with the individual and stressed that the art[s] can be utilized as an instrument for enlightenment (Hinton 88). He imparted to his students the most valuable knowledge he gained through his own training: knowledge of self (Hinton 87). If one desires to gain bodily control, he or she must understand what Maasi learned and then taught to Newark youth. Understanding personal fears, desires, and limitations leads to discovery of the inner self. Once this inner self is found, it can be used to understand the entire self. It was clear to Maasi early on that martial arts could take their practitioners farther than maintain [maintaining] my [their] ability to beat somebody (Hinton 91). Thus, he centered his teachings on knowing who you are (Hinton 91). He explained his philosophy in terms of the wheel. If a subpar life is a wheel, you perpetually roll around on that wheel until you understand how to jump off it. When you finally comprehend how the wheel works, you can jump off and free yourself of the monotonous cycles or continuous incarnations of that life (Hinton 92). If one views this wheel as the lives African Americans have been leading since slavery, younger generations can only break free physically from the cycle after enlightenment is grasped mentally. Through Maasis instructions, students came to understand their selves and how those selves developed, eventually releasing their bodies and minds and freeing them for new interpretations. In order to realize his schools mission of self-mastery, Maasi taught within its walls the principles that grounded his growth as a martial intellectual, The Nine Lives of the Ancient Masters (Maasi 2013). It was his schools mission statement. The Nine Lives constituted the cornerstone of the mental training. The tenants, listed below, reflect how a warrior interacts with each sector of his life:

36

1. The life that the warrior lives with his inner self is one of internal harmony and balance. 2. The life he lives with his family is one of devotion and unity. 3. The life he lives with his friends and associates is one of loyalty and honesty. 4. The life he lives with his superiors and elders is one of respect and honor. 5. The life he lives with his weapons, which are the instruments of combat, is one of patience and dedication to improve his or her skills. 6. The life he lives when facing his opponents is one of confidence and courage. 7. The life he lives when in communion with nature is one of humility and admiration. 8. The life he lives when in communion with the spirit of the dead and the spirit of warriors who have gone on is one of homage and reverence. 9. The life he plans to live after his death is one of serenity and tranquility for he has lived the disciplined life of a warrior. (Maasi 2013) Before one can begin to lead a proper life with external entities, the student starts with the self. Knowing and being at peace with the self enabled serenity in the other Eight Lives. The particular style Maasi co-developed tied the search of the personal self to the cultural self. Due to collaboration with Shaha Mfundishi Tolo-Naa, Maasis counterpart in Chicago, the style became known as kupigani ngumi, a term from Kiswahili meaning the way of fighting with the fist (Maasi 2013). The motive behind teaching it was to provide an art that, though based in East Asian styles, integrated cultural reflections youth could identify with. According to Maasi, kupigani ngumi attempts to present art in a way that our people at the time, who were in the midst of cultural struggle could relate to on a cultural level (Maasi 2013). He and Tolo-Naa
37

chose African terms and principles because the young men and women engaged the art more if they related to them. Thus, in addition to the Nine Lives of the Ancient Masters of East Asia, students learned the concepts of kuzviata and kurimedza (Maasi 2013). Maasi and Tolo-Naa used these two Shona terms to formulate the core of the art (Maasi 2013). Kuzviata loosely translates to to reach out and touch yourself and Maasi used it to represent the discipline he sought from students (Maasi 2013). Together with kurimedza, meaning to enthrone with dignity, he created an educational atmosphere where students see could the cultural relevance of building their fortitudes and characters (Maasi 2013). I found that these methods helped to bind the brothers in principle in a way that they would relate to each other not as...competitors, he notes, but as brothers on the field of cultural battle (Maasi 2013). Equipping the young warriors with the tools to succeed on the front of cultural battle did not entail leading them into confrontation or physical conflict as soldiers. It meant building up positive and strong self and cultural images. His students were his to guide toward self and cultural survival every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. They were his young lions or Simba Wachunga (Maasi 2013). They were his to lead past the contagious self-limiting thoughts, the sense of inferiority, and hopelessness, and the loss of heritage, dignity, and self-respect (Maasi 2013). Through his dedication, Maasi became UHURU SASAs vision, Gordon Parks Jr. off-screen sensei, and Hares solution.

38

Conclusion
African American participation in the martial arts started long before Bruce Lee ever became an action star. Enter the Dragon was not responsible for making martial arts an avenue through which to pursue individual, community, and institution building. Lee was not the reason Mfundishi Maasi worked with the Committee for a Unified NewArk or taught children martial arts on Saturday mornings. The evidence presented in this thesis proves that influential organizations and organizers of the period strategically located the martial arts within their activities. The evidence presented also indicates that martial arts went further than imparting selfdefense. They provided self-education to the youth and assisted individuals on their path to selfdetermination. Though the martial arts did not directly touch the lives of everyone in the communities they permeated, their presence was noticeable. The store owners on the street of Maasis dojo told him that changes occurred when his school opened. They remarked how the students presence had improved the behavior and general attitude and the atmosphere of that particular location (Maasi 2013). His students behavior and the manner in which they presented themselves had an intangible yet visual affect on the neighborhood. Between these observances and the representations in Super Fly and Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, it is hard to think that the martial arts did not contribute to an atmosphere of racial uplift. Thus, if Newark of 1967 and New York of 1972 were cultural battlefields, then activists, literary artists, and martial artists were all cultural warriors upon it. And often individuals represented more than one category. They had to. Barakas poetry and Musashis philosophy insist that warriors must be familiar with all arts and means of self-defense. The voice, the pen, and the armed or empty hand are all means of defending the self. To create these warriors on the
39

front lines of cultural and socio-political revolution, it was necessary to free the mind and the body from external control. How can one write, perform, or teach uplift to the community if the individual is bound and shackled? Poems and punches alike left indelible stains upon the Black conscience. Martial arts ideals fit into affirmations of Black Power because they blended with the other ideals touted at the time. These arts supplied teachings that supported values from across the spectrum, from the Black Panthers advocacy for healthy bodies to the FOIs teachings of self-defense. Martial arts helped to build the independent, community advocates and educators that these organizations craved. Still, this thesis cannot singularly prove that martial arts had an equal part in developing African American communities during the Black Power Era. It is the first step in unearthing a hidden part of the African American cultural tapestry. Shaha Maasi cannot stand alone as the beacon of demonstrated martial arts instruction. Man of Steel Discipline by William Hinton and Black Heroes of the Martial Arts by Grandmaster and actor Ron Van Clief have surveyed the lives of other instructors. The research gathered in these books stands as a testament that Maasi was not alone. His partner Tolo-Na was just as influential a figure in Chicago as Maasi was in Newark. Moses Powell, the first martial artist to perform at the United Nations, was also a crucial instructor, setting up his dojo in Brooklyn and founding the Sanuces Ryu style of Jujitsu. One cannot talk to a martial artist in New York, Black or otherwise, and not hear about him. He and his black belts taught an innumerable amount of students beginning in 1960. Even in Newark, Maasi and the Nation of Islam were not alone. Though not mentioned here, it is well known that Newarks Black Panther Party also stressed martial arts training. Indeed, this thesis has its limitations. Such limitations need to be explored before a definitive position on the martial arts roles in Black empowerment can be taken. The most

40

significant is perhaps an analysis of gender and an exploration of female martial artists. Due to the material available to me and the research I collected, a proper analysis of female participation was not possible. Most of Shaha Maasis students of the period were male, partly because he was an FOI instructor. Martial arts were a central part of the curriculum for most FOI branches. This Nation of Islam sector was dedicated to disciplining the men [so that] they would have a concept of community and commitment to order within the community (Maasi 2013). Given that Shaha Maasis oral history is the only one included in this thesis, the demographics and body of experiences that it can speak to are limited. I cannot speak to whether or not martial arts instruction was also integrated into the Muslim Girls Training & General Civilization Class, the sister branch of the FOI. Further, my cinematic evidence favors a male perspective and study. Super Fly is very much about a masculine agency. Its narrative discourse leaves little room to discuss women overcoming the obstacles placed before them through the martial arts or otherwise. Given the space though, I could have very well brought in an analysis of the Blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones, which tells the story of a female secret agent with deadly head kicks. The martial arts texts I chose to close read also complicate the scarcity of female specific voices and stories. Musashis samurai lifestyle was a male sphere. Even if it had not been, warrior narratives and ideals are historically written with from a male perspective. This legacy influences the works of those like Urban practicing martial arts in the 20th century. It was the norm to speak of a warrior student as a he. However, authors often used the gender neutral he when referencing an unspecific person. Because of these reasons, when Urban does use he to refer to the karate student, it does not mean he is solely speaking about males. In his oral historical interview, Maasi did not only speak of males. Maasi actually used both male and

41

female pronouns when reciting the different points of the Nine Ways of the Ancient Masters. However, I choose to use the singular he when I quoted it to keep the pronoun usage consistent. And there were female warriors. Maasi commented about having and educating female students. Though he only had two female students at his original Newark dojo, it is important to remember this school had no more than twenty-five students total before its demise. When East Orange, New Jersey sponsored a city-wide martial arts program in 1972, the population of females in Maasis classes increased as the overall student body grew to over 600. Lastly, from conversations with individuals such Professor Komozi Woodard, who worked for CFUN, I know there were female participants in the martial arts under Newarks Black Panther Party. Thus, the concern lies not in whether there were female warriors but rather in what their roles were. The UHURU SASA SHULE dispels the idea that Black women were not meant to seek martial arts instruction. However, its representation seems to imply the idea that women need to learn the arts primarily for self-defense rather than for the mental and spiritual aspects. To fill in the gaps in knowledge it is necessary to actively research female participation and rediscover female practitioners. There is the potential to find a complimentary narrative to the heavily male dominated practice presented here. Indeed, in 1970 at rally for fugitive Angela Davis, the future Million Man March organizer Minister Louis Farrakhan expressed that The Black Woman has been in the forefront of the Black Man's struggle for justice. She's a warrior! She's a fighter. And many times, when Black men show cowardice, the Black woman is out there, punching, and out there battling (Farrakhan 104). Such a gendered expansion of the project would find complimentary lens in writers such as Audre Lorde, who firmly wrote about the existence of a Black female warrior tradition in The Black Unicorn.

42

This type of martial arts research is promising because it ends with more leads to follow. More people need to be interviewed, more organizations need to be analyzed, and more cities need to be researched. To this day, Shaha Maasi receives communication from students who came through during that time, and they often speak about the benefits of training and how it shaped their lives (Maasi 2013). Imagine if students of Moses Powell and Tolo-Na express similar sentiments. There may be a generation of African Americans who took these trainings to heart, and the world has yet to hear from them. Maasi makes a strong point when he notes that the martial arts cause a person to take a good look at themselves and help them establish self confidence and self esteem, which are twin paths leading away from slave mentality (Maasi 2013). Martial arts bring something to the table, something specific, that helps with the liberation and empowerment processes. It would be telling if the evidence in this thesis can be substantially corroborated by other accounts and materials. As the martial arts now reenter the public conscious, it is appropriate to research them and give them their location in American history. This is the task that lies ahead of me and other warrior-scholars.

43

Appendix

44

45

46

47

Works Cited Baraka, Amiri. Arm Yourself, or Harm Yourself: A One Act Play. Newark, NJ: Jihad Publication, 1967. Print. Baraka, Amiri. "Black Art." Black Fire: An Anthology of African-American Writing. Ed. Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal. Baltimore: Black Classic, 2007. 302-03. Print. Collins, Lisa Gail., and Margo Natalie Crawford. New Thoughts on the Black Arts Movement. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2006. Print. Farrakhan, Louis. 7 Speeches. Newport News, VA: Ramza Associates & United Bros. Communications Systems, 1974. Print. Funakoshi, Gichin. Karate-D: My Way of Life. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1975. Print. Hare, Nathan. "Brainwashing of Black Men's Minds." Black Fire: An Anthology of AfroAmerican Writing. Ed. Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal. Baltimore: Black Classic, 2007. 178-86. Print. Hinton, William, and D'Arcy Rahming. Men of Steel Discipline: The Official Oral History of Black Pioneers in the Martial Arts. Chicago, IL: Modern Bu-jutsu, 1994. Print. Jana, Leo Na Kesho. YesterdayToday and Tomorrow: A Black Reading Experience. Brooklyn, NY: East, 1972. Print. Maasi, Mfundishi. "Oral Historical Interview with Mfundishi Maasi." Telephone interview. 28 Mar. 2013. Musashi, Miyamoto. The Book of Five Rings. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1993. Print. Newton, Huey P. To Die for the People; the Writings of Huey P. Newton. New York: Writers and Readers, 1995. Print.

48

Ongiri, Amy Abugo. Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2010. Print. Prashad, Vijay. Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity. Boston: Beacon, 2001. Print. Super Fly. Dir. Gordon Parks, Jr. Perf. Ron O'Neal. Warner Bros., 1972. DVD. Urban, Peter. The Karate Dojo; Traditions and Tales of a Martial Art. Rutland, VT: C. E. Tuttle, 1967. Print. "Warrior." Def. 1. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 4th ed. N.p.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. The Free Dictionary. Farlex, Inc. Web. 5 Jan. 1991. Wheatley, Phillis. "On Being Brought from Africa to America." The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Ed. Henry L. Gates, Jr. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2003. 219-220. Print.

49

You might also like