- [Narrator] The following program, Blacks Blues Black is made possible by a public service grant from the Olympia Brewing Company.

(singing in foreign language) - Hello, my name is Maya Angelou.

"What is Africa to me?

One three centuries removed from the lands my fathers loved the spicy grove, the cinnamon tree.

What is Africa to me?"

This is a question I ask myself and I ask Black Americans and I attempt in this series to answer it to my satisfaction at any rate.

If the African continent had never been opened for trade, legal and illegal, licit and illicit, slave and free, the planet as we know it would have a different face.

And South America, North America and the Caribbean would be unrecognizable.

You recognize that game?

That's jacks.

I'm not very good.

The game was brought to the United States by the slaves.

It's still played in West Africa.

Of course there's plenty of rubber.

So the children have balls, but the jacks, instead of jacks, they use stones.

Do you know that Black American children play hide and seek?

They call it hide and go seek with a song.

And the song is ♪ Last night, night before ♪ ♪ 24 robbers was at my door ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ Ask me to let him in ♪ ♪ Hit him in the head with a rolling pin ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80 ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ Who all is here ♪ ♪ All who ain't here, holler ah ♪ We went to see some children playing hokey pokey in an alley in San Francisco the other day.

♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out ♪ ♪ You put your left foot in ♪ ♪ And you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out ♪ ♪ You put your left foot in ♪ ♪ And you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out ♪ ♪ You put your right foot in ♪ ♪ And you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your head in, you take your head out ♪ ♪ You put your head in and you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out ♪ ♪ You put your whole self in and you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ And you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your left foot in and you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your head in, you take your head out ♪ ♪ You put your head in and you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ ♪ You put your whole self in, you take your whole self out ♪ ♪ You put your whole self in and you shake it all about ♪ ♪ You do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around ♪ ♪ That's what it's all about ♪ Hokey pokey.

Now, I don't say that hokey pokey comes from hocus pocus, but if you want to draw that conclusion, it's up to you.

Ham bone is a base for many wonderful Black American dishes.

Ham bone is also a cheap way to make music and ham bone is a game.

♪ Ham bone, ham bone where you been ♪ ♪ Been to the store and I'm goin' again ♪ ♪ Ham bone, ham bone, have you heard ♪ ♪ Daddy's gonna buy me a mocking bird ♪ ♪ And if that mocking bird don't sing ♪ And so forth and so forth and so forth and so forth.

Now, I think it's very easy to see those film, that film on the children and to see Ms.

Breed do the ham bone and see that there is an African influence here, not only in the rhythm, which is very obvious, but in the tonality and in the joy.

Now in Africa, when young children, boys and girls have completed their puberty rights, they return to the village with a particular walk.

Now this motor behavior is carried over into the United States so that we see Black Americans, young people walking in the streets of every city in the United States with a walk that talks about pride, dignity, and just a bit of arrogance.

(upbeat music) Now, when flirtation is added to that, it exaggerates a bit and it's almost a dance.

(upbeat music) Now you see that that's almost a dance.

Let's talk about dances.

Since the days of the bunny hug, the jitterbug, the black bottom, obviously the Charleston, the Jo.

Oh, what the tango, the samba, the cha cha cha, the Watusi obviously, the Frug, the jerk, the twist.

We can trace those movements directly back to Africa.

We are going to show some dances now, Mr. Duncan is going to do the authentic African movement, and Ms.

Breed is going to do the Black American movement.

The first movement is a dance called (speaks foreign language) in West Africa.

And Ms.

Breed is going to do the duck.

We'll see how they look alike.

(upbeat music) Very good.

The next movement is called in the States, it's called the Boogaloo.

And everyone knows that well, in Africa, where it came from originally, it's an (speaks foreign language) dance.

And Mr. Duncan will do the (speaks foreign language) step.

(upbeat music) Ms.

Breed is doing the boogaloo.

That's it, that's lovely.

(upbeat music) Makes me want to dance a little taste.

There's an Ashanti dance that is lovely.

It's smooth, it's graceful.

In fact, it's royal.

And there's a Black American dance called Escape that has all the elegance of the Ashanti dance.

The Ashanti dance is this.

(upbeat music) Now that (speaks foreign language) dance, you won't find in the nightclubs or in popular spots in West Africa, but you will see it if you go to the continent.

But this next dance, you will see everywhere, wherever friends get together and intend to enjoy themselves.

It's called a high life.

The American corollary to it is the hunch.

The high life is.

(upbeat music) The Ethiopian national dance is a very exciting dance and it calls for a kind of concentration on certain muscles, just the shoulders.

The Holy Gully is a Black American dance that calls for certain concentration on certain muscles.

In this case, Ms.

Breed is going to do the Ethiopian national dance.

I'll help her a little bit, and Mr. Duncan is going to do the gully.

(upbeat music) Now, there are movements that denote emotion.

Now, unfortunately, the official poster put out by the State Department, or rather by the United States Army to recruit personnel latently offends some 25 million Black Americans, because Black Americans do not allow any person to point their finger directly at them.

And the poster does say, Uncle Sam wants you.

Well, with Black Americans, when you do that, they slap your finger out of the way and say, don't put your finger in my face.

Now, in Africa, it is not only bad taste or taboo, it is against the law to point your finger directly at another human being.

The dancers are going to show us how that looks in the Black American world.

(upbeat music) Looks kind of fierce, doesn't it?

We are in the south when children put their hands on their heads like this, black parents tell them, absolutely don't do it it's bad luck.

Well, in West Africa, when people mourn their loved ones, they put their hands on their heads.

And when children in West Africa do the same thing, their parents tell them, don't do that because you will bring bad luck upon the house or upon the family or upon our friends.

The dancers are going to show us the movement.

(gentle music) It's very sad.

Now, there are stances that are African.

If an African woman or Black American woman or a West Indian woman puts her hand on her hip like this stands out a little, and lets that hip go out this way.

And her head is on this side.

It's supposed to tell you that she doesn't believe you very much, but if she puts both hands on her hips and steps to stride like that, you better believe she doesn't believe you and you'd better make an exit fast.

Those are African stances, African motor behaviors.

Black Americans and South Americans of African descent and West Indians can hold conversations without saying any word, any true word.

We might make a whole sentence just doing this.

- [Everyone] Mm mm mm mm mm.

Mm mm mm mm.

Oh we, mm mm mm mm.

Mm mm mm mm mm.

- We also do chips.

Now in the West Indies, this particular thing is called the chips.

In South Africa, I mean South America, it's called the chips.

And in Africa it's called the chips.

In the United States it's called sucking your teeth.

And black parents will tell you straight away, don't suck your teeth at me and you can get a whipping.

Young girls in Africa walk down the street and fellows say pleasant things to them, and they say, and ladies in their middle age say, but old women draw it out.

I can't really do it.

About a minute they go, that's the chips.

You can't really do it to anyone.

Those are carryovers, African carryovers that have lasted 300 years under unbelievable circumstances.

When if you would have a man enslaved, the first thing you must do is prove to yourself that the man is subhuman.

The second thing you must do is prove to your allies that the man is subhuman.

But the third and the unkindest cut of all is to convince that man that he's subhuman and deserves his enslavement.

When you do a proper job of this kind of brainwashing, then you no longer have to add to it.

It's like rolling a ball downhill.

I mean, it picks up its own momentum.

Now, such a comprehensive job has been done on the Black American that it's hard to say that he will know where he's going because he doesn't know where he's been.

It's impossible for a human being to lay any blue plans, blueprints rather for a future if he has no idea of his past.

If he thinks his past was a dark, deep secret, better left untalked about, well, we don't today we are dealing with African survivals that allowed us to survive a brutish treatment without becoming brutes, a bestial treatment without becoming beasts.

These are the survivals.

There are things other than tangibles.

There was a belief in the spirit of things that Africans brought to the United States, not in the things themselves, the belief in the spirit of a stone or the spirit of a root or the spirit of incense.

Now these are load stones.

We found them in San Francisco.

These are used by lovers.

The spirit of this load stone is helpful to lovers and the load stones are supposed to be lucky for love.

So the Africans brought this kind of belief to the United States.

- [Clerk] An active in philanthropy matter.

In purposeless power, it says purple should be taken in small doses.

In other words, it's a very strong animal.

- [Maya] All right.

- [Clerk] Did you want to take the bath?

- [Maya] Yes.

- [Clerk] Very good.

Did you get the lotion?

Yeah here is the lotion.

I want you to smell like this beautiful fragrance.

Hello how are you?

- [Person 2] Hi, how are you?

- Isn't that pretty?

You like?

- [Maya] Yeah.

- Now the idea would be to fill your tub half full of water as your water's running into the tub, allow your oil to run in and say a prayer.

Make this a personal prayer.

Ask God to sanctify the water too.

Bless it that it will cleanse you of anything ungodlike.

Rinse your bottle out.

And at this time, cup your hands in the water and say a wish or make a wish of your own.

You get in the tub and you use soap.

You take a bath and take the water and squeeze it and just let it run down over.

You stay in the tub seven minutes or more.

When you get out of the tub, there's a lotion.

I don't have the lotion in my hand.

Mac hand me the lotion, the patchouli, it would be in the little front room.

But you take the lotion, you put some of the lotion in your hand and rub your hands together.

And then you put your hands behind your back and you dress down.

You wanna smell louder.

It's a beautiful fragrance.

He'll show you in a second.

You dress yourself twice.

In other words, you hurt.

Put it on.

- [Maya] I mean, do it twice on your head?

- If you want to smell water, because it has a very nice fragrance.

Now, this, as you see is your zodiac bath.

This you follow.

This is the last bath.

In other words, they used this behind this.

This is often called a sealer.

They say it seals bad out in good end.

So that is the last bath.

Now, this is only one bath.

It is quite a strong bath without a milk.

There's two bottles in here, and both of them are very large and you put them both in at the same time.

See, one is a bath sauce and one is a bath oil.

And they go in at one time.

See, that is only one bath.

The other one.

(indistinct chatter) After you've done this for seven days, this would be your eighth bath.

Yes, that would be correct.

Now then you said you wanted wash and salty.

The master book of candle burning tells you all about this and dressing a candle, one never goes from the top to the bottom or the bottom to the top.

They take an oil, putting it on their hands, and they dress it with an oil that suits the purpose of what they're concentrating or praying for.

And they put the oil on their hand.

They dress the candle down completely around, and then they dress it up thinking or saying a prayer at the same time that they're doing this.

Then they light the candle, leaving it burn until it has burned completely up.

- [Maya] How long is that usually?

- A week.

- [Maya] Ah.

- This will vary a little in time, but usually a week.

It's called a seven day candle.

- Please explain to me about these black candles and red ones.

- Mostly, I would say to get rid of bad forces sometimes to turn a person around, to send them on their way are, if it'd be read to pull them to you, this one would be burned in a ritual also.

Now, the rituals, I'm not too sure of how they go about them, but the people that buy them do use them in ritual.

- [Maya] Would they also be used to bring bad luck on a person?

- Well, this one, as you can easily see, is a satanic candle.

It represents Satan himself.

People who would have possibly a bad force around them could burn this to eliminate or to get rid of.

They also could reverse this candle and use it for bad.

Of course, there's certain things that they would do that I wouldn't even know what, but it's as we think, so we are.

This candle here is red representing a person.

This is a love candle.

Red always represents love and it means to draw two or to pull someone toward you that you would be concerned about.

Now this candle here is a candle that I'm not too familiar with, but it is used in rituals, just how I wouldn't say it is used in this form.

And of course, this is a black figure.

And this would be to eliminate or to get rid of or to send someone on their way.

In other words, to let them be on their way or to be gone.

- [Maya] I see.

Now, explain this.

- Now, this is a candle that's quite new to me.

I sell a lot of them.

This is called a black list.

Now they write the person's name on this candle on the back.

It has nine times that you can write the name.

And on the front of the candle it has various things that you could write next to his name, which would indicate what you wanted to happen to him.

- Dad, John the conquer wrote and the Buckeye are good luck charms we find here on 24th Street in San Francisco and they are found in Ara Ghana, in (speaks foreign language) land in Nigeria and all over West Africa.

One of the African carryovers that has been almost totally taken over by white Americans is the hospitality.

Now, white southerners are very proud of their southern hospitality.

I suggest that they learned that hospitality from the African slaves because only those families who had money enough to afford slaves had manners.

The others are still as raw as they were when they came over here 300 years ago.

Those that are called the rednecks and the crackers and the white poe trash or poe white trash, they are still as raw because they did not have the money to afford slaves who were able to tell them how to act, how to be nice.

Our people say when you come in, take a seat, offer somebody a glass of lemonade, offer them some cake and so forth.

Make a person feel at home.

This is an Africanism that lasts, of course, in the Black American world, but it also lasts in the white American world.

Southern white women who are so affected, who just are faint almost if you look at them or used to pretend to do so during the southern slavery days, those women, I suggest learned those affectations from African slave mammies who said a nice woman is supposed to act a certain way.

She's not supposed to talk too fast.

She doesn't talk too loud.

She moves very slowly.

She doesn't react to things.

Now, if we check back, if we trace the source, if we look at Europe during those periods, there were not those affectations among European white women.

So obviously they must have come from somewhere.

They weren't born out of the Cyprus trees along the plantation.

So obviously the African mammy taught these women this.

And in West Africa you may see a woman with a tray of yams on her head, 75 pounds worth of yams on her head.

And she walks very easily without touching the tray.

She comes to your door, takes it off without bending bends like that and puts it on the porch.

And you say to her, auntie morning, how are you?

And she says, oh, as for me, I'm so tired.

Oh, I think you should try and bring me some tea.

Now it's my suggestion that there are no women in the world who love luxury and enjoy it and understand luxury as the African woman.

So I believe that this is another African carryover that we have lent to Europeans.

The, it's not necessary to talk long about religion and the way our people have have understood and apply Christianity.

It is said, you may disagree.

It is said that the Black Americans are the only people in history who have really tried to practice Christianity since of course the Roman days when people gave themselves up to the lions.

When we go to church, we use a particular passion in that church.

We have a particular kind of surrender of belief.

If you go into a negro church, a Black American church, an Afro-American church, I use the words interchangeably.

You find there's a feeling that is all just does not allow itself to be described.

You have to see it.

When in African ritual ceremonies, when a person goes into a trance, it's the same as when they get get the spirit in the Black American churches, the Black Americans have a joy.

There's a joy that Black Americans have in praising God in enjoying him.

We saw it in a revival here in San Francisco.

(upbeat music) (indistinct singing) - And I'm afraid again that too many of our ministers today have drifted away and touching upon things that is really not the core of the problem.

I stop by to tell you that when a doctor closes his office, Lord, help me tonight and comes to church on Sunday morning.

He does not come to touch to hear the preacher tell him about medicine.

He has studied medicine or you gonna pray.

When a school teacher shuts down her classroom and gets up on Sunday mornings and makes her way to the house of prayer.

She does not come to hear the preacher teach to her.

But what they want to hear is the word from God.

Is there anyone can help us when the Lord is hard and we pray and fall underneath it in love, who is generous, who will help us in our heavy hearts.

And just very, very one who understands our hearts when the thorns of life at pierce there till they bleed.

And while he was asking the question, he sat there and looked at the wind, looked at the leaves beating and said, yes, there is one.

Only one.

But I wanna tell you something.

The purpose that Jesus came was to change your way.

Lord, help me tonight.

I surrender.

I do give.

I'm free to give forever.

And in his presence every day.

Yes, the old folk used to sing the song because of faith, I used to do that.

I don't do my.

(indistinct chatter) - Lord give us a revival and let it begin in me, goodnight.

Shake hands with your neighbors and kiss somebody that you don't like.

God bless.

(indistinct chatter) - Kiss somebody you don't like.

Doesn't that remind you of the blues kissing someone you don't like or not getting a chance to kiss somebody you do like.

Black Americans say the blues ain't nothing but a good man feeling bad.

The preachers and the blues singers are the poets of the Black American world.

They write such purple blues, such beautiful words.

There's one blues that says, don't the moon look lonesome.

You see it shining through the trees.

And don't your house look lonesome when your baby packs up to leave.

Now that's poetry.

And when that minister said a few minutes ago, he wants to be born until his hands are new, born until his body is new, born until his thinking is new, born until his faith is new.

This we must see here this rhythmic beauty, which is poetry.

There is a blues that says, just give me the key to the highway.

I'm ready and I'm bound to go and I'm gonna leave here running because walking is most too slow.

Oftentimes we don't really listen to the blues.

There's one blues that says she's got long black hair and her hair hangs down like a horse's mane.

Now that's really supposed to be some pretty hair in that man's idea.

The man says, I bought her two gold teeth and I put earrings in her ear and now she's messing around and she's gonna run me away from here.

Now if that's not poetry, I don't know what it is.

There's a blues that says, if you don't believe I'm sinking, look what a hole I'm in.

And if you don't believe I love you, then look what a fool I'm in.

Mr. BB King is certainly the king of the blues and we went to hear him the other night.

♪ I've been downhearted baby ♪ ♪ Ever since the day we met ♪ ♪ I've been downhearted baby ♪ ♪ Ever since the day we met ♪ (indistinct chatter) ♪ You know our love is nothing but the blues, woman ♪ ♪ Baby, how blue can you get ♪ ♪ You're evil when I'm with you, woman ♪ ♪ And you are jealous when we're apart ♪ ♪ Oh I said you're evil ♪ ♪ You're so evil when I'm with you, woman ♪ ♪ And you are jealous when we're apart ♪ ♪ How blue can you get, woman ♪ ♪ The answer's is right here in my heart ♪ ♪ I gave you a brand-new Ford ♪ ♪ You said I want a Cadillac ♪ ♪ I bought you a ten dollar dinner ♪ ♪ And you said thanks for the snack ♪ ♪ I let you live in my penthouse ♪ ♪ You said it was just a shack ♪ ♪ I gave you seven children ♪ ♪ And now you want to give them back ♪ ♪ Yes, I've been downhearted baby ♪ ♪ Ever since the day we met ♪ ♪ I said our love is nothing but the blues ♪ ♪ Baby, how blue can you get ♪ - Thank you.

- What is it, what is the common element between the blues, the old blues, and this new rock that people, that's popular?

- Well boy, you really asked me one then the best that I can try to distinguish between the two is the regular old blues doesn't have the beat that the new rock has.

The rock has the beat of the church in a way of speaking of well this is the feeling that I used to get when I was in church and maybe I'm saying it wrong, but if I have to be quoted, I'll say that this have the beat like we used to have in the sanctified churches back home when I say back home, back down south where I were born.

But the blues have the melody part, the spiritual melody, which give you that, you know?

Yeah.

But the rock has the feeling of course, but mostly with the beat.

The beat where you can move about.

But the blues doesn't have it.

- Now, Mr. King, I wonder when you begin to compose of blues, do you think first of the rhythm or do you think first of the melody?

Or do you think first of the words?

- The words, - Ah-huh, and you set them in?

- Later on I set them in, for instance, I get an idea and I'm writing a story really, I'm thinking about what have happened and trying to put this thing together.

For instance, like I'm talking about shoes, for instance.

Then I'll try to figure out what do people walk on them or how long they last?

Do you have to lace them up or what have you.

Other words, my story is based upon the shoes.

Then after I get my story together, other words, paint my little picture in my mind, then I will start to try and play a beat with it.

And then after the beat, then I start to thinking about the changes, how it should sound and what have you, and how the band should play it.

- You see, that's poetry.

That shows that you're not only a poet in your music.

No, it's true.

It's the way poetry is done.

I'm going to ask you one last question and then we'll be finished.

The question is, what is the blues?

Now wait, Mr. King, one of the things I'm interested in here is the relationship of the blues to African music.

So you don't have to, unless you feel it, you don't have to deal with that directive.

But I would like to know, what do you say the blues is or are, whatever it is?

- Oh boy, you know.

Well, I'll tell you, I've never been to Africa, but I can say this from what I've read, when the Negro or the so-called Negro was brought to America, there were a lot of people, very spiritual, I'll put it like that.

At least they've been taught to me so, and some of the guys felt by praying to God wasn't turning to a loose.

So instead of just singing, like God helped me, this guy was having problems, like they, well, his old lady's been taken away and what have you, and he's sad about it.

So he started to singing instead of singing to God.

He was singing about what was happening to him, hoping that maybe God would hear him.

Yes.

But this didn't seem to work with the other brothers that were supposed to be real spiritual or holy or what have you.

So he was just singing to himself.

And then I would, my feelings is that we've heard that ladies will cry when something happened to them.

A man won't cry on the outside, but he usually cry inwardly.

So I personally me, the way I feel when I have blues, I mean, when I not sing 'em, I'm talking about when I have them, when something have gone wrong somewhere or other with me or with some of my friends or just the surrounding, well, I feel it inwardly and I sing about it.

I just have to, a lot of times you don't have friends to talk with, so you just sing, you sing about it.

You sing because this hurts.

It hurts inside.

Like so many things hurting today.

I mean, it bothers me.

Like it, there was a time when something could happen in Europe or Asia or Africa or someplace.

We never knew about it until maybe six or eight months later.

But now, today everything happened.

You know about it right away, just like your friends around you, something happened and maybe you can't go.

I can't come to you and say, well, it happened last night because maybe it might be one of those funny type of things that you, I feel that you may laugh at me about it.

So I'll get out to myself and I sing about it and eventually it becomes a song.

Well, a melody will come to it, come to you to sing this particular something with.

And I think this is how it begins really.

And I think this is the way it begun.

(upbeat music) ♪ I've got a whole lotta loving ♪ ♪ Baby just for you ♪ ♪ I've got a whole lotta loving ♪ ♪ Baby just for you ♪ ♪ The way I can love you babe ♪ ♪ And I know you can love me too ♪ ♪ You're such a good looking woman ♪ ♪ I can feel from the crowd ♪ ♪ Such a beautiful woman, I can feel from the crowd ♪ (indistinct singing) - Now, certainly that was the blues.

You've seen traditional blues, which Mr. BB King sings and traditional religious music.

I'd like to sing you a song that was written by two young black geniuses.

If that's the plural of genius.

Mr. Max Roach and Mr. Oscar Brown Jr. wrote a blues.

It has the traditional feeling, but it's modern.

It's five, four times and it has a kind of political significance.

It's ♪ Driva'man he made a life ♪ ♪ But the Mamie ain't his wife ♪ ♪ Choppin' cotton, don't be slow ♪ ♪ Better finish out your row ♪ ♪ Ain't but two things on my mind ♪ ♪ Driva'man and quittin' time ♪ ♪ Driva'man de kind of boss ♪ ♪ Ride a man and lead a horse ♪ ♪ When his cat 'o nine tail fly ♪ ♪ You'd be happy just to die ♪ ♪ Runaway and you'll be found ♪ ♪ By his big old red bone hound ♪ ♪ Pater oller bring your back ♪ ♪ Make you sorry you is black ♪ ♪ Ain't but two things on my mind ♪ ♪ Driva'man and quittin' time ♪ ♪ Ain't but two things on my mind ♪ ♪ Driva'man and quittin' time ♪ ♪ Ain't but two things on my mind ♪ ♪ Driva'man and quittin' time ♪ Now that's a new blue, new old, traditional folk song written by two brilliant young black men.

When we started this program, I started talking about African carryovers, the positive African carryovers in Black American current day life.

Now on the next program, I shall deal with negative African carryovers.

And my suggestion to the Black American is to cut them out ruthlessly, recognize them, admit them, and cut them out as ruthlessly as a surgeon cuts out rotten tissue unceremoniously.

As I opened the program, I began with a few lines from an old poet, a dead poet, I'm sorry to say, Mr. Countee Cullen's poem, "Heritage".

And I think I shall close the same way.

"What is Africa to me?

One three centuries removed from the lands my father's loved spicy grove cinnamon tree.

What is Africa to me?

All day long and all night too.

One thing only must I do cool my pride and quench my blood, lest they perished in the flood, lest a hidden ember set timber that I thought was wet burning like the driest flax melting like the merest wax, lest that grave restore its dead.

Not yet has my heart or head in the least way realized that they and I are civilized.

What is Africa to me?"

Join me next week and we'll continue to talk about Africa and Black Americans.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (singing in foreign language) - [Narrator] The proceeding program, Blacks Blues Black was made possible by a public service grant from the Olympia Brewing Company.