submitted by Ashley A

He has some interesting language here and there, but Dr. Du Bois was definitely on to some Afrolatinidades


In this brief 1919 article for The Crisis, Du Bois argues that Black Americans need to learn to speak other languages of Black peoples in the Diaspora to connect with those of African descent everywhere to form coalitions, spread information, and encourage solidarity.

 

“French and Spanish” by W.E.B. Du Bois

 

O

ne result of seemingly secondary, but really of prime, importance should come out of this war: the American Negro should speak French. It is idiotic for any modern man to be unilingual. Some of the most annoying misunderstandings of this period of revolutionary change have arisen from the fact that both in England and in France a man can rank as cultured and yet be able to make himself under­stood in but one tongue. Not only are there the usual and obvious arguments of mental and spiritual discipline for a working knowledge of living tongues, but American Negroes must remember that, out­side the United States, the overwhelming number of educated peo­ple of Negro descent speak French and Spanish. Any effective rap­prochement panafricain must depend, in the first instance, on the ability of the groups of the Negro race to make themselves mutually understood throughout the world.

But more important than this is the fact that the only white civili­zation in the world to which color‑hatred is not only unknown, but absolutely unintelligible is the so‑called Latin, of which France and Spain are leading nations. It is to these nations that we must speak and appeal intelligently and with perfect understanding; with these we must make our closest personal friendships. Today the greatest threat on the earth’s horizon is the possible world domination of the “nigger”-­hating Anglo‑Saxon idea. Only the world union of African, Latin, Asiatic, and possibly Slav and Celt can stop this arrogant tyranny-‑this death to human aspiration.

Toward all this the first step is language. Every Negro should speak French. Large numbers should speak Spanish and Portuguese. Let these languages immediately begin to displace Latin, Greek and Hebrew in our schools. The ancient tongues have their proud place in human discipline and should never yield to “agriculture” and pseudo‑science, but they must yield to modern tongues taught mod­ern‑wise-‑i.e., so as to enable the student in one or two years to speak and understand and read intelligently. This is the new article in our educational creed which the new times have brought.

In every colored community there should be not only French and Spanish classes, but groups reading and speaking, following current newspapers and literature, listening to invited lecturers and visitors, and corresponding regularly with persons in France, Spain, the Is­lands and South America. Our visits abroad should not be merely Cook’s tours, but personal rencontres for information and propa­ganda; every year from now on we should send abroad our best minds and most interesting personalities‑-if need be by public sub­scription‑-to teach the world the   A B C of American color prejudice. This is what the white South has been doing for a century, and the white North has stood by consenting. It is high time that, armed with modern tongues, we tried a counter‑propaganda and a positive spiritual alliance with the best culture of the modern world.

Source: The Crisis, April 1919, Vol. 17, No. 6.  pp. 269-270.