James Worksheet 2021 PDF

Preview

Summary

This is a worksheet focused on C.L.R James. It contains samples of his work and points of analysis....

Description

Black Radical Social Thought 2021: C.L.R. James’ Worksheet. There are two things here. The first are the lyrics to David Rudder’s Rally Round the West Indies, from his 1987 album Haiti¸ which we will listen to in the class (you can find it online if you are interested in hearing it beforehand). And, below that, a very short extract from an essay by James on the greatest of all West Indian cricketers: Garry Sobers.

This seminar marks the halfway point of the course (amazingly). So as a short exercise, just to get us reflecting on what we’ve covered so far, here’s a question that I’d like you all to come with an answer for in your groups: 1. If you could bring back one of the writers that we’ve ‘met’ so far on this course, and ask them one question, who would you bring back and what would you ask them?

Once you’ve had a chance to discuss that we’ll listen to Rudder’s song and then read the extract from James. Here are some questions to consider in response to this: 2. ‘When Toussaints go the Dessalines come’: what is the reference here, and what does it tell us about the meaning of the game to Rudder? 3. ‘This thing goes beyond the boundary’: what does Rudder mean – and in what senses might this be true? Indeed: is it true? 4. How is James urging us to make sense of – to ‘read’ – a popular cultural practice like sport? What ways of understanding it is he contesting? 5. Can you apply this way of ‘reading’ other forms of popular culture in the context of empire, or the histories of anti-racist struggle: in what ways might forms of music, writing, art or other sports act as ‘embodiments’ of this history?

Rally Round the West Indies – Way Down Under a warrior falls Michael Holding falls in the heat of the lyrics. battle "Michael shoulda left long time!" For ten long years I heard an angry brother shout We ruled the cricket world Now the rule seems coming to an end Caribbean man, that, that, that is the root of our trouble But down here In these tiny theatres of conflict and Just a chink in the armour confusion Is enough, enough to lose a friend Some of the old generals have retired Better known as the isles of the West Indies and gone And the runs don't come by as they did We already know who brought us here And who created this confusion before So I'm begging, begging my people But when the Toussaints go the please Dessalines come We've lost the battle but yet we will win the war Chorus Chorus: Rally, rally round the West Indies Now and forever Rally, rally round the West Indies Never say never Pretty soon the runs are going to flow like water Bringing so much joy to every son and daughter Say we're going to rise again like a raging fire As the sun shines you know we gonna take it higher Rally, rally round the West Indies Now and forever Rally, rally round the West Indies

Now they are making restrictions and laws to spoil our beauty But in the end we shall prevail This is not just cricket, this thing goes beyond the boundary It's up to you and me to make sure that they fail Soon we must take a side or be lost in the rubble In a divided world that don't need islands no more Are we doomed forever to be at somebody's mercy? Little keys can open up mighty doors Chorus

The pundits colossally misunderstand Garfield Sobers – perhaps the word should be misinterpret, not misunderstand. Garfield Sobers, I shall show, is a West Indian cricketer, not merely a cricketer from the West Indies. He is the most typical West Indies cricketer that it is possible to imagine. All geniuses are merely people who carry to an extreme definitive the characteristics of the unit of civilization to which they below and the special act or function which they express or practice. Therefore to misunderstand Sobers is to misunderstand the West Indies, if not in intention, by inherent predisposition, which is much worse. Having run up the red flag, I should at least state with whom I intend to do battle. I chose the least offensive and in fact he is obviously the most wellmeaning, Mr Denys Rowbotham of the Guardian. Mr. Rowbotham says of Sobers: ‘Nature, indeed, has blessed Sobers liberally, for in addition to the talents and the reflexes, conditioned and instinctive, of a great cricketer, he has the eyes of a hawk, the instincts and suppleness of a panther, exceptional stamina, and apparently the constitution of an ox’. I could not possible write that way about Garfield Sobers. I react strongly against it. I do not see him that way […rather I see him…] as exactly the opposite, the fine fruit of a great tradition. [James then goes on to discuss examples of how Sobers actually played the game, with quite a lot of technical analysis, and explains how he emerges out of a long history of the sport in the West Indies. He ends as follows]: ‘I think of Sobers walking down the pavilion steps at Lord’s [the ‘spiritual’ home ground of English cricket] […] Whoever and whatever we are, we are cricketers. Garfield Sobers I see not as a fortuitous combination of atoms which by chance have coalesced into a superb public performer. He being what he is (and I being what I am), for me his command of the rising ball in the drive, his close fielding and his hurling himself into his fast bowling are a living embodiment of centuries of a tortured history. From ‘Garfield Sobers’ (1969)...