Newspaper Page Text
December, 1978 - New National BLACK MONITOR
Throughout the literary history of Ameri
ca, there has been little offered to black
readers, young or old, that gave us infor
mation about our own heritage and culture.
Slowly, the human rights movement that
brought about the need to know has influ
enced the growth of material and books
which give black Americans of all ages
some knowledge upon which to build.
The purpose of the MONITOR Book
Mart and the weekly Media Reviews feature
in your local BMI Coop newspaper is to
provide black Americans with information
about significant books by or about us or
books about which we should have some
information, because of their influence on
the lives of black Americans.
This month, the MONITOR Book Mart
staff selected a variety of books that we felt
were meant especially to be shared with
family and friends.
The books we have featured are all hard
cover, and that means they are expensive,
but these are also books of such beauty and
significance as to the way we see ourselves
that we did not want to take the risk of
waiting for a paperbound edition before
bringing them to your attention. Although
there are more books about the black ex
perience available today, we have found
that publisters tend to print limited num
bers because they do not anticipate volume
sales. These books infrequently, if ever, are
reprinted, and it is difficult to predict if a
particular book will eventually be printed
in the less expensive paperbound form.
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Monitor's book mart
So in this Christmas issue of the MONI
TOR, we have selected a few special books
that you might want to give to some very
special people on your Christmas list.
Black Men of the Sea, by Michael Cohn
and Michael K.H. Platzer (Dodd, Mead
and Co., N.Y., 1978). 158 pages—hard
cover —$8.95.
Michael Cohn is a senior instructor at the
Brooklyn Children’s Museum and is a lover
of the sea. In both capacities he has sought
to fulfill a task which, for much too long
a time, has been only dealt with half-heart
edly by schooled historians. It is that of
putting black people into what would there
by become a much more comprehensive
historical framework.
This has been done with Black Men of
the Sea, where Cohn’s equally thoughtful
co-author has been Michael K.H. Platzer, a
young lawyer whose professional associa
tions with the United Nations has height
ened his interest in black men in our na
tion’s maritime history.
While obviously not the detailed work of
trained historians, this fascinating book
helps set the record, of those who sail the
seas, straight by telling of the continuing
and largely overlooked roles of black
seamen whose often illustrious exploits
have added richly to our maritime life and
history.
For those who love the sea, this book will
bean important addition to your books of
A re you supporting the black-owned businesses and the black professionals in your community?
black lore and that of the sea. For those
who want to know more of the richness of
black life, this book will enhance your
knowledge and be an inspiration—another
welcome gift for Christmas giving.
Beautiful, Also, are the Souls of My
Black Sisters, by Jeanne Noble (Prentice-
Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1978) 353
pages—Hard cover—sl2.so.
The full title of Jeanne Noble’s most
remarkable book has the words added, “A
History of the Black Woman in America.”
It is much more than that. It is a history of
womanhood in the world, as exemplified in
her black African prototype, the first
known woman, scientifically known as
“Homo habilis woman,” meaning “wom
an with ability.”
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What a marvelous way to think of our
selves! We are women of ability.. .and of
beauty. Being the first known women in the
history of the world, we are like what
Countee Cullen, the poet, would have seen
as the women to whom “the birds of Eden
sang.”
Written beautifully in style and in the
warm, generous and gentle yet often
abruptly honest spirit which characterizes
the author herself, the book is doubtless the
most readable and comprehensive story of
black American womanhood which has
appeared thus far.
Still this is not enough to tell us what this
most important book should signify to all
who read it. It is a long-awaited song of
reality, an almost poetically presented and
heart-warming word picture of what black
womanhood essentially has experienced
and must come to be appreciated for,
respected as, and then be helped or enabled
to fulfill in the most concrete terms today.
If you want to “get back religion” and be
turned on to the very best in blackness, here
is “must” reading for you. This is a great
book for every home, both to give and
receive.
Magubane's South Africa, by Peter
Magubane. Foreword by Ambassador Ad
drew Young. (Alfred A. Knopf, New York,
1978.) 116 pages—hard cover—sl2.9s.
This book is a truly inspired photodocu
mentary of black life in South Africa. It is a
twenty-year collection of the work of the
sensitive and brilliant black South African
photojournalist, Peter Magubane, who has
been jailed, “banned,” and beaten as he
pursued his profession.
His descriptive captions for his extreme
ly moving pictures and his account of his
life are written in a starkly simple style that
has the grandeur of epic poetry. Os his 586
days in solitary confinement, he writes:
“You are in a world of your own, with
out company. You listen to the birds sing.
Sometimes one would perch on the window
sill and look into the cell. I would wish 1
could speak to it so as to be able to relate
my problems. Yet at my slightest move it
would fly off. In my heart I would say, ‘I
wish I was as free as that bird.’ Sometimes I
would scream, box the wall, pace the floor,
count the nails on the cell door. The only
way 1 could tell the time was by the sun’s
rays. My light would bum twenty-four
hours a day, so 1 lost track of time. So
many things would come into my mind but
the last thing 1 thought of was suicide. You
cease to exist, you become an animal, your
vocal cords are affected. You become sensi
tive to sounds. When you hear footsteps
coming you think they are for you. You
fear them. Yet you want to speak to some
body. Is it the warder coming to take you to
more interrogation? Or for exercise?”
This is a book to give and receive with
tremendous pride in black strength, cour
age and indomitability in the face of
horrendous obstacles.