Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
In my last Blog I included a picture of Titch (psychogeographicer) Thomas, or at least, an "artists impression", a pineapple. The caption of Google Images was "Strange Fruit" and this caption made me think of a much more dark subject, one the subject of a book I was reading recently on the history of protest songs. "Strange Fruit" was a song - first written as a poem by Abel Meeropol then later set to music - made famous by Billie Holiday. It concerned the racist lynchings of people in the South of the USA.
The whole subject of racism, of how each of us have to deal with "the other", involves much of what is in the air at the moment within the UK. But really, it is "in the air" at all times and in all places.
Moving on to our sporting world, many years ago a British Relay team, fresh from winning a Gold Medal, were being interviewed. They were asked what they thought of being of various colours. It was then that I was made aware of the potential of sport to heal - this because until this was mentioned I had not really been conscious that they were of different hues! I was made to do a double take as I thought of each one of the four man team. First and foremost they had been for me athletes.
This realisation came as a blessing, a blessing of just what sport could offer. Now, many years later, as banana skins are thrown at black footballers at UK soccer matches, it has to be recognised that any genuine sea change remains undetermined.
Leaping away at a bit of a tangent, and looking back at the history of the rise of Rome, there is a superb 15 volume history of that city - from its beginnings to its eventually fall - written by a Japanese lady, Nanami Shiono. Ms Shiono offers many fresh perspectives on ancient Rome, saying that often our judgement can suffer a degree of distortion because the actions of its people are often viewed through the prism of "our Christian sensitivities".
Nanami Shinono
Ms Shiono, not being a Christian, and looking with new eyes, sees much to be admired.
(As people were asked in the Life of Brian, "what did the Romans ever do for us?")
Think man, think!!
Up until the fall of Carthage in 146 BC - razed to the ground by the Romans after the Third Punic War - Namami Shiono, along with many other historians, judged the Roman expansion as "benign imperialism". This because those defeated by them were more often than not allowed to continue to manage their own affairs and more; even had citizenship (of Rome) extended to them. Rome also had a citizen army and did not hire mercenaries to fight their battles, as did most other power brokers of the ancient world. To be obliged to serve in the army was in fact a form of taxation for its citizens, an obligation only for those with the wealth and land ownership that attracted a tax demand. Those lower down the scale, though still citizens, had no such obligation. Already, for the perceptive eye, this is a "new" way of providing soldiers, and of just who would be soldiers. As far as I can determine, there were no draft dodgers; those with a true stake in the republic had to fight their own battles.
A Roman filing his tax returns
Citizenship, extended to many others beyond the city of Rome as it often was, can also be seen to be something with lessons for us, now, today. That citizenship was related to allegiance to Rome - not a thing of race, religious creed or colour. This is not an idealization but a known fact of Rome's rise from its mythic beginnings to the fully formed Republic.
Slavery was another matter - suffice to say that slavery was also at times the fate of conquered people, especially if they had picked the fight with Rome. Yet slaves were not sought for as such on foreign shores and deemed lesser beings because of colour. Again, a slave being rewarded with freedom was not totally unheard of and many, lifted from what is now Greece, Spain and elsewhere, were recognised as highly intelligent human beings, bi-lingual, and became teachers of the young, even historians (whose works are still extant) Nevertheless, freedom, however conceived and imagined, is obviously the bottom line, so let's leave it there.
A free man and a slave - and never the twain shall meet?
I think I am drifting and waffling as usual, but surely such lessons have to be considered in our current world of Nation States, of sometimes ludicrous imaginings of racial "purity", where immigrants are seen as second class citizens. One fact gleaned from Roman history:- a new citizen of Rome, just twenty years after being of a conquered foe, was elected as one of the two yearly Consuls, the highest position within the Roman republican system.
Truly astonishing if thought is given to it. Truly astonishing.
Anyway, to finish, a poem by Mary Angelou, "Equality":-
You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand ?
We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.
Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
Related Quote:-
"Strange Fruit" is a protest song, a musical response—in equal parts sorrow and anger—to the barbaric practice of lynching, that horrific brand of racial terrorism used to reinforce white supremacy from the end of the Civil War through the mid-20th century.
At the time "Strange Fruit" was first released, lynching remained a shockingly common and socially accepted practice; even powerful liberal President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unwilling to support an anti-lynching bill in Congress, fearful that it would cost him too much political support in the South.
Written as a poem by Abel Meeropol in 1937, and recorded as a jazz song by Billie Holiday in 1939, the song marked a kind of turning point between the Jim Crow and civil rights eras. In the song, you can hear the powerlessness and despair of an age when African Americans were afforded few legal rights and little political power; you can also hear the determination and resolve that led to a revolution in American race relations over the following decades.
"Strange Fruit" is a song that sings to both a dark past and a brighter future.
(From Shmoop Notes)
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
In my last Blog I included a picture of Titch (psychogeographicer) Thomas, or at least, an "artists impression", a pineapple. The caption of Google Images was "Strange Fruit" and this caption made me think of a much more dark subject, one the subject of a book I was reading recently on the history of protest songs. "Strange Fruit" was a song - first written as a poem by Abel Meeropol then later set to music - made famous by Billie Holiday. It concerned the racist lynchings of people in the South of the USA.
The whole subject of racism, of how each of us have to deal with "the other", involves much of what is in the air at the moment within the UK. But really, it is "in the air" at all times and in all places.
Moving on to our sporting world, many years ago a British Relay team, fresh from winning a Gold Medal, were being interviewed. They were asked what they thought of being of various colours. It was then that I was made aware of the potential of sport to heal - this because until this was mentioned I had not really been conscious that they were of different hues! I was made to do a double take as I thought of each one of the four man team. First and foremost they had been for me athletes.
This realisation came as a blessing, a blessing of just what sport could offer. Now, many years later, as banana skins are thrown at black footballers at UK soccer matches, it has to be recognised that any genuine sea change remains undetermined.
Leaping away at a bit of a tangent, and looking back at the history of the rise of Rome, there is a superb 15 volume history of that city - from its beginnings to its eventually fall - written by a Japanese lady, Nanami Shiono. Ms Shiono offers many fresh perspectives on ancient Rome, saying that often our judgement can suffer a degree of distortion because the actions of its people are often viewed through the prism of "our Christian sensitivities".
 |
| Nanami Shinono |
Ms Shiono, not being a Christian, and looking with new eyes, sees much to be admired.
(As people were asked in the Life of Brian, "what did the Romans ever do for us?")
 |
| Think man, think!! |
Up until the fall of Carthage in 146 BC - razed to the ground by the Romans after the Third Punic War - Namami Shiono, along with many other historians, judged the Roman expansion as "benign imperialism". This because those defeated by them were more often than not allowed to continue to manage their own affairs and more; even had citizenship (of Rome) extended to them. Rome also had a citizen army and did not hire mercenaries to fight their battles, as did most other power brokers of the ancient world. To be obliged to serve in the army was in fact a form of taxation for its citizens, an obligation only for those with the wealth and land ownership that attracted a tax demand. Those lower down the scale, though still citizens, had no such obligation. Already, for the perceptive eye, this is a "new" way of providing soldiers, and of just who would be soldiers. As far as I can determine, there were no draft dodgers; those with a true stake in the republic had to fight their own battles.
 |
| A Roman filing his tax returns |
Citizenship, extended to many others beyond the city of Rome as it often was, can also be seen to be something with lessons for us, now, today. That citizenship was related to allegiance to Rome - not a thing of race, religious creed or colour. This is not an idealization but a known fact of Rome's rise from its mythic beginnings to the fully formed Republic.
Slavery was another matter - suffice to say that slavery was also at times the fate of conquered people, especially if they had picked the fight with Rome. Yet slaves were not sought for as such on foreign shores and deemed lesser beings because of colour. Again, a slave being rewarded with freedom was not totally unheard of and many, lifted from what is now Greece, Spain and elsewhere, were recognised as highly intelligent human beings, bi-lingual, and became teachers of the young, even historians (whose works are still extant) Nevertheless, freedom, however conceived and imagined, is obviously the bottom line, so let's leave it there.
 |
| A free man and a slave - and never the twain shall meet? |
I think I am drifting and waffling as usual, but surely such lessons have to be considered in our current world of Nation States, of sometimes ludicrous imaginings of racial "purity", where immigrants are seen as second class citizens. One fact gleaned from Roman history:- a new citizen of Rome, just twenty years after being of a conquered foe, was elected as one of the two yearly Consuls, the highest position within the Roman republican system.
Truly astonishing if thought is given to it. Truly astonishing.
Anyway, to finish, a poem by Mary Angelou, "Equality":-
You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand ?
We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.
Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand ?
We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.
Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
Related Quote:-
"Strange Fruit" is a protest song, a musical response—in equal parts sorrow and anger—to the barbaric practice of lynching, that horrific brand of racial terrorism used to reinforce white supremacy from the end of the Civil War through the mid-20th century.
At the time "Strange Fruit" was first released, lynching remained a shockingly common and socially accepted practice; even powerful liberal President Franklin D. Roosevelt was unwilling to support an anti-lynching bill in Congress, fearful that it would cost him too much political support in the South.
Written as a poem by Abel Meeropol in 1937, and recorded as a jazz song by Billie Holiday in 1939, the song marked a kind of turning point between the Jim Crow and civil rights eras. In the song, you can hear the powerlessness and despair of an age when African Americans were afforded few legal rights and little political power; you can also hear the determination and resolve that led to a revolution in American race relations over the following decades.
"Strange Fruit" is a song that sings to both a dark past and a brighter future.
(From Shmoop Notes)
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