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Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
History of the Blues: Music born of sweat and sorrow that's at the heart of Ryan Coogler's Sinners
In Ryan Coogler's Sinners — set in 1932 Clarksdale, birthplace of the blues — music that alleviates pain can also invite spirits. The supernatural horror flick is anchored by blues melodies, with Coogler exploring the historical and cultural significance of an oral musical tradition born in the Mississippi Delta amid pain and suffering. To get the sound of the film right, Coogler roped in Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, who toured Memphis — home of the blues, rock 'n' roll and the famed Beale Street, where blues music thrived — to get the twangy guitars and the mournful sound in place. Blues is an oral musical tradition born in the aftermath of slavery, in the fields of the American South. It was survival music — sung in the cotton fields and rail yards as a work song, sometimes as a holler and sometimes an expression of longing and pain, all of it gradually evolving into what we now recognise as the blues: a 12-bar approach marked by repetition, improvisation, and the doleful blend of guitars and storytelling. While its chord progressions and simple structures are usually sparse, its emotional depth has continued to resonate. 'You don't sing to feel better. You sing 'cause that's a way of understanding life,' Ma Rainey, one of the earliest professional blues singers, would say. While blues as a form is relatively well-documented 20th century onwards, the story is older and quite fragmented, mainly because blues was considered an inferior form of music and thus attracted less academic interest in terms of documentation. The roots of blues music trace back to the Transatlantic Slave Trade among Africa, Europe and America between the 16th and 19th centuries. The slaves on the ships carried the trauma of uprooting and dehumanisation, but also carried rhythm, language, spiritual traditions, and some musical instruments. All of the factors, when combined, resulted in a musical expression that gave them a sense of identity and community when they sang together, especially when engaged in mechanical and tedious jobs such as on cotton plantations. Gradually, as slave labour gave way to the sharecropping system in the late 19th and early 20th century, the group singing style declined, giving rise to solo singing. Group singing continued in the prisons of the American south, where black prisoners worked while chained together. The holler songs were also more personal, sad songs, with an impression of Arabic music due to Islam's long presence in West Africa. Many of these were documented by musicologist and teacher John Lomax and later by his son and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax. Why did the blues grow in the Mississippi Delta? Many geographical, social, and cultural factors contributed to the growth of the blues in the Mississippi Delta. After slavery was abolished, the red fertile soil of the region drew in thousands of Black labourers. For sharecroppers, things were only marginally better than slaves. Blues came from sweat and sorrow, from the isolation, the violence during this era. By the 1920s, musical figures like Ma Rainey, gospel legend Blind Lemon Jefferson, and supremely popular Bessie Smith had begun recording on phonograph records. They were followed by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf — names now etched into American musical history. The blues would later grow and evolve in cities like Chicago and Memphis. The Robert Johnson story that gave rise to the popular 'the crossroads' Sinners also explores the mystery of the blues by interweaving musical folklore and the stories of the 'devil' associated with the genre, inspired by the mythical lore of blues legend Robert Johnson, who once, down and out as a musician, supposedly sold his soul to the 'devil' in exchange for supernatural musical powers. His music eventually inspired greats like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones and Muddy Waters. Called 'the crossroads' literally and metaphorically, and a significant motif in blues music, the place where the deal is said to have happened now exists in Clarksdale at the intersection of two highways . Three giant cobalt blue guitars adorn it, and the place remains a popular tourist spot. This engagement with the legacy of the blues is also why Sinners has found much attention. How did the blues become the heart of modern American music? 'The blues is the root, everything else is the fruit,' Willie Dixon, a famed Chicago bluesman, said once. The blues music travelled with the Great Migration in the mid-20th century, where millions of black people seeking better economic opportunities and respite from racial discrimination migrated to the Northern and Midwestern states, setting up in places like Detroit, Chicago and Memphis. This is where the blues evolved and amalgamated with many other musical forms. Jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong incorporated a lot of blues elements into their music. Early country, R&B, soul and even rock music drew heavily from it. Rock musicians made it quicker and louder. The Rolling Stones even took their name from a Muddy Waters song, while blues tunes and phraseology have been instrumental in Bob Dylan's music. Global popstar Beyonce has also credited the blues as a significant influence that shaped her sound and identity.
Miami Herald
28-03-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
60 years after ‘Bloody Sunday,' Trump's order on voting rights is Jim Crow all over
Is it me, or did President Donald Trump purposefully select the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to announce his overhaul of America's elections, which will require proof of citizenship? Was he even aware of the Day's significance to millions of free people around the world? 'That is a long title for a single day, but a very few words for a chapter of history that lasted for more than four centuries and devastated countless millions of human lives that mattered – and still do,' said Gene Tinnie, a former chair of the Virginia Key Park Trust. He said the crimes of slavery made the perpetrators '… fabulously materially wealthy, with fortunes that still continue to this day. March 25 is not a day to be allowed to slip by unacknowledged, especially in these times.' But the day did slip by for many. Only a few Black men, women and children know there is a commemorative day of remembrance for the millions of our ancestors who suffered on the slave ships, only to find more suffering once they set foot in their new homeland. So, I can't blame the president if he didn't know about the International Day of Remembrance, honoring the memory of a chapter of American history that lasted for more than four centuries. But even if the president did know about the commemorative day, it didn't stop him from trying to turn back the clock on that day, on a freedom that many former slaves and their ancestors died for — freedom to vote. To me, his order, which he signed Tuesday, is just another attack on our freedom and a blatant move to make Mr. Trump the dictator that he longs to be. Remember what said he during his campaign — vote for him and you will never have to vote again. He didn't hide his motives. He told us upfront what his plan was. In the words of the late Maya Angelou, we should have believed him the first time. We all know Mr. Trump's campaign motto — Make America Great Again. Well, it seems he wants to reach this goal by snatching away basic freedoms. His order includes requiring voters to present documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport, to register to vote in federal elections. Such an order, if carried out, would impact millions of citizens, especially the poor and many Blacks who do not have a passport or any other form of federal identification that carries their picture. Will there also be a literacy test given? Remembering 'Bloody Sunday' It was only 60 years ago that more than 600 civil rights protesters, seeking to secure Black voting rights, were viciously beaten as they attempted to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on their way to Montgomery, the state's capital. The marchers were so horribly beaten, the day — March 7, 1965 — was dubbed 'Bloody Sunday.' Pictures from that day — fire hoses turned on peaceful marchers, snarling dogs attacking men and women, deputies on horseback charging into the crowd swinging 'clubs, whips and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire,' according to a History Channel report — are a testament to the battles Black adults have endured to get the right to vote. Many of the protesters carried the scars to their grave. John Louis, then 25 and one of the march's leaders, was one of them. Lewis, who would go on to become a longtime U.S. House member in Georgia, later testified in court that a state trooper hit him in the head with his nightstick and kept beating him as he tried to get up. The Bloody Sunday violence was done for one reason — to stop Blacks from getting the right to vote, a right the 15th Amendment enshrined in the U.S. Constitution when it was ratified in 1870. But nearly 100 years later, Jim Crow laws in the South created obstacle after obstacle to prevent Black men and women from voting. So now, with this new executive order, I'm concerned that turning the clock back to the Jim Crow days is what Mr. Trump means when he pushes his motto, 'Make America Great Again.' Can he really mean that the days of segregation will again be in vogue? Already, we are seeing signs pointing in that direction. Books are being banned – books by award-winning Black authors like Toni Morrison and the deleting of Black history from our children's schoolbooks and classes. Do we really want to go back to those blood-washed days when we Blacks had to protest and fight for our very existence? Do we want to make America 'great again'? Or do we want to make our country GREATER? I vote for the latter. As Americans, we have come a long way. We've gone from slavery and Jim Crow and segregation to electing a Black president when Barack Obama was voted into office in 2008. And last year, we had Vice President Kamala Harris, a Black woman, run for president. But we've also witnessed many things that have torn our country asunder. Look no further than the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, when a mob of Trump supporters, egged on by his false claim that his loss to Sen. Joe Biden stemmed from a stolen election, mobbed and desecrated the U.S. Capitol. Five people died , including a Capitol Police officer who was assaulted by the rioters and died the next day. People are losing their jobs because our president has put in place as his advisor the richest man in the world, Elon Musk. Now, that really scares me. Musk is a man who grew up under Apartheid in South Africa, where Black South Africans were brutalized for decades. South African Blacks fought and died to be free under Apartheid. Many were killed and others were thrown into prison (let us not forget the great Nelson Mandela, who spent more than two decades in prison for opposing Apartheid). This is the kind of government that Musk grew up under. I don't know him, but I have never read anywhere that he opposed Apartheid. And while Trump signed the executive order to overhaul the voting rights of Americans, it would not surprise me one bit if Musk had something to do with his decision. It is time now to really wake up, America. This is no time to sleep in. We must be watchful and prayerful while we figure out a way to get back on the right track. We can rise again. Remember Mandela, who rose from the ashes of prison to become the president of South Africa, a country that had oppressed him and his people for decades. Just as He was then, God is still in control, and He can change minds and directions.
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Most Britons do not know scale of UK's involvement in slavery, survey finds
Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain's involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to 'compensate' enslavers after abolition. The poll, released to coincide with Tuesday's UN International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, was commissioned by the Repair Campaign, which is working with Caricom to secure reparatory justice for member states through health, education and infrastructure projects. The sample of more than 2,000 people representative of the UK population found 85% did not know that more than 3 million people had been forcibly shipped from Africa to the Caribbean by British enslavers. It also found 89% were unaware British merchants had enslaved people in the Caribbean for more than 300 years and that 75% did not know it was after 2000 that British taxpayers finished paying off the money borrowed by UK government in 1833 – equivalent to 40% of the government's total annual expenditure at the time – to compensate enslavers for their 'loss of property'. Nonetheless, the survey found support for some form of reparations is growing, with 63% now agreeing that Caribbean nations and descendants of enslaved people should receive a formal apology, up 4% from last year's poll, while support for financial reparations has also increased, with 40% now in favour. Ninety percent of those in favour of financial reparations said they should be directed toward long-term education, health and infrastructure projects. Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan Reparations, said she was 'not surprised' about the lack of understanding about the scale of slavery, and that reparative justice also required education. 'People point to reparations and think merely in financial terms, but one of the most important things is correcting the record – because until people learn what happened there will not be that widespread, public will to make reparation possible,' she said. The Labour government has said the UK will not pay cash reparations, but is working with Caribbean partners on issues such as security, growth and climate change. Ribeiro-Addy said there had to be a 'willingness to listen' from the UK government, which is yet to make a formal apology for slavery, faced with a 'large chunk of the world' that was unified on the need for reparative justice. 'For us not to listen is disgraceful and could have consequences of its own,' she added. Walker Syachalinga, a solicitor at the law firm Leigh Day, which is investigating claims against institutions, companies and families, said of the survey's findings: 'They speak to what has been a feature of English law and commerce – this idea of offshoring the more unpalatable aspects of our history while retaining the benefits.' Denis O'Brien, Repair Campaign's founder, said the poll showed 'heartening' growth in public support for an apology and reparations, but also 'how little people in Britain really know about the country's past.' Dr Hilary Brown, a programme manager at Caricom Secretariat, said: 'Our shared humanity demands justice for the horrific crimes committed. Addressing the knowledge gap in the UK on the country's history of trading and enslaving Africans is urgent.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Know Your Rights: Immigrant Legal Resources
Uchechukwu Onwa likens his three-month detention by immigration agents — when he was apprehended at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in 2017 after fleeing homophobic violence in his Nigerian homeland — to the treatment of African ancestors being transported to America during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 'I was handcuffed from my hands down to my waist and my legs,' said Onwa, who now serves as an organizer at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, an advocacy group for Black immigrants from Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin America. He recalls the discomfort and inhumanity of having his ankle and wrist chained to a hospital bed while he received medical treatment — all because he was wrongly told his visa was insufficient to enter the country. 'I saw first hand the injustices and abuse that Black migrants are experiencing in detention.' Onwa shares the rising concern that such experiences will become more common for Black Atlantans due to a nationwide crackdown on undocumented immigration, reflected through both federal law and policies. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, along with other local and federal law enforcement, have reportedly detained MARTA riders and made arrests at metro-area churches in January. That same month, President Donald Trump signed into law the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain any undocumented immigrant who admits to or has been arrested, charged, or convicted of burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting; assault of a police officer; or 'any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury.' Immigration attorneys and immigrant rights groups have decried the law as another tool to target undocumented migrants that won't actually help make communities any safer. Racially biased policing practices result in Black immigrants being stopped, searched and arrested more frequently than non-Black immigrants. There were 190,000 Black immigrants living in the Atlanta metro area in 2019, making it the fourth-largest population of its kind in the United States, according to Pew Research. 'Our experiences as Black immigrants is different,' said Onwa. 'With the current political climate, I think this is really the time for Black communities to get together and organize.' Amid ICE raids and other deportation efforts happening with growing frequency, legal services and advocacy groups have stepped up to offer assistance to those in need. Capital B Atlanta has compiled a list of legal and organizing resources for Black immigrants in metro Atlanta. Organizations that have an existing relationship with detention facilities are noted. Location: Norcross Phone number: (770) 685-1499 Email: help@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center, Cobb County Jail, Hall County Jail, Irwin County Detention Center, North Georgia Detention Center, Stewart Detention Center, Whitfield County Jail Location: Atlanta Phone number: (770) 938-1112 Email: info@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (678) 222-3920 Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Sometimes Detention facilities: Folkston ICE Processing Center, Stewart Detention Center Location: Atlanta Phone number: (678) 335-6040 Email: info@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: No Detention facilities: Atlanta City Detention Center Location: Riverdale Phone number: (404) 907-1927 Email: dan@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 500-8097 Email: Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 292-7731 Email: Non-legal status accepted: No Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 334-9170 Email: infoatlanta@ Non-legal status accepted: No Fee charged?: No Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 844-5205 Text: (470) 620-5157 Email: Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Atlanta and Norcross Phone number: (404) 471-1889 or (678) 205-1018 Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: Yes Location: Tucker Phone number: (404) 299-2185 Email: tapestri@ Non-legal status accepted: Yes Fee charged?: No Location: Atlanta Phone number: (347) 464-5422 Email: info@ Location: Atlanta Phone number: (470) 890-2932 Location: Atlanta; Decatur; Clarkston Phone number: (404) 875-0201 Location: Atlanta Email: vmills@ Location: Decatur Phone number: (404) 437-7767 Location: Atlanta Phone number: (404) 292-7731 The post Know Your Rights: Immigrant Legal Resources appeared first on Capital B News - Atlanta.
