Manuel Raimundo Querino (1851-1923): EBONY POWER

14/04/2009

EBONY POWER

EBONY's May issue, with Oscar nominees Viola Davis and Taraji P. Henson on the cover, names 'THE EBONY POWER 150: THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BLACKS IN AMERICA,' including President Obama, Rep. James Clyburn 40 other House members, Donna Brazile, Gwen Ifill, Mayor Fenty, Michael Steele, Soledad O'Brien, Don Lemon, General Powell, Oprah and Dr. William H. (Bill) Cosby Jr.

Also: 'POWER BEHIND THE POWER: TOP BLACKS IN THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION': 'Brought together by EBONY magazine on the White House grounds for the first time since Inauguration Day, they are part of a team put together by the president to carry forth his vision for the country. With one look at the historic collection of dynamic advisers-12, the most African- Americans ever in such high-powered positions within the White House-it is obvious that change has already come to the nation's capital.'

The remarkable photo includes Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; Eric Holder, attorney general; Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser; Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations; (standing, l. to r.) Melody Barnes, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council; Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; Ron Kirk, U.S. trade representative; Desirée Rogers, White House social secretary; Mike Strautmanis, chief of staff to the assistant to the president for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison; and Rob Nabors, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.

And in 'A GREAT DAY AT THE WHITE HOUSE: AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS,' Kevin Chappell (called on by President Obama at the last presser) reports that the press corps includes 'a record number of African-Americans who intensely cover the most watched president ever. Ebony magazine has gathered for the first time these nearly two dozen journalists in the White House press briefing room for a historic photograph of Black writers, editors, producers, correspondents, photographers and cameramen. They range from energetic newbies covering their first administration to grizzled veterans who have seen presidents come and go. They work for a variety of outlets, including mainstream media, African-American mainstays and Internet-only operations. While many of them were proud at the thought of the first African-American president, these journalists each day ask the tough questions, reject evasive answers and go after the news wherever it may lead. It's not personal. It's their job.'

The photograph includes: Pamela Gentry, senior political analyst for BET.com; April Ryan, White House correspondent for American Urban Radio; Suzanne Malveaux, White House correspondent for CNN; Nia-Malika Henderson, writer for POLITICO; Lauren V. Burke, freelance photographer; Darlene Superville, writer for The Associated Press; Michael Fletcher, White House correspondent for The Washington Post; Dayo Olopade, Washington correspondent for TheRoot.com; Athena Jones, NBC producer; Dan Lothian, White House correspondent for CNN; Giaco Riggs, cameraman for CNN; Andre Showell, reporter BET News; Kevin Chappell, senior editor for EBONY and Jet magazines; Karen Ann Carr, writer for Washington Waterfront News; Tony Umrani, cameraman for CNN; Rodney Batten, cameraman for NBC; Tony Butler, cameraman for NBC; Doug Perkins, freelance cameraman for CBS and The Associated Press; and Edward Lewis, cameraman for FOX. Not pictured are Hazel Trice Edney of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), Cynthia Gordy of Essence magazine and Wendell Goler of FOX News Channel.

Source: Mike Allen's POLITICO Playbook Daily Update

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About Manuel Querino

ln a racial climate that was at best condescending and at worst genocidal toward blacks, Manuel Querino helped pioneer the study of the Afro-Brazilians and their culture.

This blog is dedicated to the life, work and causes of this African-Brazilian scholar. The importance of his pioneering efforts in the study of Afro-Brazilian culture can only be understood in the perspective of the environment of pseudoscientific racism in which all intellectuals lived in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Brazil.

By recognizing the contributions of Africans and their descendants to Brazil's national identity and culture, even a Brazilian "race," Querino displayed phenomenal independence of scholarship and mind. He defied the influence of European pseudoscientific racism in a country whose economy was partially based on racial slavery until 1888. Like most Brazilian intellectuals, Querino was seeking to provide a scientific or historical basis for a founding myth of Brazilian nationality and culture: in searching for the characteristic that gave their country and people their unique identity, he chose the fait accompli and undeniable fact of widespread cultural and biological miscegenation.

Quotations

> "Here it was the work of blacks that sustained the nobility and prosperity of Brazil for centuries, without fail; it was as a result of their work that we have scientific institutions, letters, arts, commerce, industry, etc. Therefore, they have played an outstanding role as a factor in Brazilian civilization.” - Manuel Querino
> "Brazil has two great glories: the bounty of its soil and the talent of the mestiço." - Manuel Querino
> "The generosity of the human spirit can overcome all adversity. Through compassion and caring, we create...hope." - Nelson Mandela
> "The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice." - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
> "Until the lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." - African proverb
> "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others.... One ever feels his twoness, - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder." - W.E.B. DuBois
> "From a genetic perspective, all humans are Africans, either residing in Africa or in recent exile." - Svante Pääbo (Swedish biologist specialized in evolutionary genetics)
> "There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life." - Booker T. Washington
> "We have to recognize that the price of equality in pluralism, like the price of liberty, is eternal vigilance." - Carl N. Degler

Querinophiles and Querinologists

Several scholars have focussed on Querino in works published and produced in Brazil and the US over the past few decades, including Jorge Calmon, Pedro Calmon, E. Bradford Burns, Jaime Nascimento, Jaime Sodré, Maria das Graças Andrade Leal, David Brookshaw, Emanoel Araújo, Luiz Alberto Ribeiro Freire, Eliane Nunes, Kim Butler, Vivaldo da Costa Lima, Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimarães and Waldeloir Rego. The greatest "Querinophile" of all was Jorge Amado, who drew inspiration from Querino's life and works when creating Pedro Archanjo, the protagonist of Tent of Miracles.

Background

My interest in Manuel Querino began when I was studying for my MA in Latin American Studies at UCLA in the early 1980s. After reading Jorge Amado's Tent of Miracles, I learned that the protagonist was largely inspired by Querino's life and works. My MA advisor, the late E. Bradford Burns, shared my interest in Querino and urged me to write his biography. It has taken me a long time to get around to it - I moved to Brazil shortly after graduating in 1986 and spent 28 years there making a living as a translator and raising a family before returning to the UK. In addition to researching Querino's life and Brazilian race relations in general, my PhD in Ethnic Studies at CEAO/UFBA focussed on the intellectual history of the African diaspora through two figures: Manuel R. Querino and Booker T. Washington. I recently published a version of my thesis in Portuguese and am working on the English edition. Suggestions and/or critiques of this blog will be warmly and gratefully welcomed.

-- Sabrina Gledhill