Last Mighty Walk of Black Studies Advocate, John Henrik Clarke

Proponents of Black Studies in Britain have lost a major icon of Black self-assertion and advancement. The African American Professor John Henrik Clarke died this summer. Friends and supporters gathered at the Royal Commonwealth Society, London, 12th August, to see a documentary of his life work, "A Great and Mighty Walk".

The occasion was sponsored by the Society in association with the Jadeas Trust, a Nigerian educational and cultural organisation. Speakers included Professor J. F. Ade-Ajayi, emeritus professor of the University of Ibadan, Linda Bellos of the British Reparations Society and Dr. Barnor Hesse, senior lecturer in sociology, University of East London.

Guests recalled that Clarke's visits to Britain, often with his colleague Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan, drew large audiences. Black Britons were eager to hear his spirited defence of the Black contribution to world history. An intrepid traveller in many parts of the Black World, Clarke's last poetic thoughts were of Africa and peoples of African heritage everywhere:

"My feet have felt the sands
Of many nations,
I have drunk the water
Of many springs.
I am old,
Older than the pyramids,
I am older than the race
That oppresses me.
I will live on...
I will out-live oppression.
I will out-live oppressors.

Scholar-warrior
Born to a sharecroppers family in Alabama, but with a thirst for knowledge that spurred him to hop a train to Harlem, the black capital of America, and join a band of scholars that developed Black Studies, John Henrik Clarke, died in July, aged 83, at St Luke-Roosevelt Hospital Centre, according to an obituary in the New York Times.

An avid reader in the public libraries of New York City, Clarke found evidence to counter claims that black Africans had no history before European colonisation. When challenged, he accused white academics of disguising their Eurocentric propaganda as historical fact.

Like many self-taught scholar-warriors of his time, Clarke metamorphosed from Harlem Renaissance man to left-wing integrationist to new Afro-American nationalist calling for self-help and self-assertion. At heart he was an Africanist searching history for its black roots.

Clarke was often mocked for his lack of formal academic qualifications. In reply, Clarke would say "he had not missed much" since the renowned professors of his time had connived in the systematic and racist suppression and distortion of African history.

Clarke was an imposing advocate of anti-colonialism and black rights. He edited Freedomways the informative magazine on African liberation struggles in the sixties. He sharpened the intellectual thrust of Malcolm X, the rising star of the Nation of Islam. He had many acquaintances among Third World leaders and gave shelter in his home at 233 W. 137th Street to African freedom fighters like Eduardo Mondlane of Mozambique.

Enquiring mind
As much an academic as an activist, Clarke taught in the Hunter College Black and Puerto Rican Studies program and was visiting professor at Cornell University's Africana Research Center. He authored and edited many books, among them Malcolm X: The Man and His Times (1969), Harlem USA (1971), and Marcus Garvey and the Vision of Africa (1973).

Mourned by thousands, Clarke's funeral was headlined "Father History Passes" in the Harlem-based black newspaper, the Amsterdam News. A "service of commemoration and initiation into eternity" for Clarke was held at Abyssinian Baptist Church, Harlem, New York, July 21. His rebellious spirit of enquiry and defence of African culture was captured in an ancestral shield conceived by Dr. Iva E. Carruthers, crafted by Mitchell Melson and accepted by Woodruff Library Center, Atlanta University, Georgia.