Black preachers and narratives of the independence

A very interesting discussion introducing a collection of sermons by Black preachers (1750-2010), from the first Black ministers to today.

You've all heard Martin Luther King's speech; even if his style is quite unique, it is interesting to see how he is deeply grounded in a long standing tradition of preaching in African-American churches. To learn more about this tradition of Black preaching, listen to this story from NPR News and Notes. This is a very well crafted and edited broadcast, with analysis, comment and examples from sermons preached by African-American ministers.

W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in the Souls of Black Folk that the three main features of the preaching style of African-American preachers were the preacher, the music and the frenzy. I think this is very accurate description for many of these sermons including the one we studied in the seminar on the civil rights movement.

For those of you who are interested in the history of decolonisation, there is currently a very good series of radio broadcasts, in French, on France Culture : Boulevard des Indépendances. I listened to the episode on the independence of Congo and found that it was a brilliant example of how one can try and reconstruct events. The events are narrated by different eyewitnesses and participants who provide clues and partial explanations to the causes of the succession of events; but, ultimately, the listeners have to do the historian's work of analysis and piecing together the meaning of these events. You can listen to this series on the radio, online or podcast each of the shows.

Enjoy the summer holidays.