A Guerrilla Handbook by Amiri Baraka-Andrew Hensarling
Leroi Jones (also known by the name Amiri Baraka) was an American playwright and poet known for his provocative works that addressed the experience of African Americans living before and during the Civil Rights Movement. Some of his popular plays include Dutchman (1964), The Slave (1964), and The Toilet (1964), which address themes of racial oppression and black identity. However, his most recognizable pieces are his literature, including his series Preface to a Twenty-Volume Suicide Note (1961) and The Dead Lecturer (1964). These pieces echo many of the same themes that are represented in his plays, focusing on his identity as a black man in 1960’s America.
While his previous works are captivated by ideas of existential doubt and deep introspection, mirroring his struggle to find his own identity outside America’s system of racial oppression, his works post-1964, both literary and dramatic, take on a direct and confrontational tone that urges the viewer to action. This shift is examined in his first piece of this genre, The Dead Lecturer. Written in the heat of the growing Civil Rights Movement, it aligns with his increasing involvement in the Black Art Movement and his finding his identity in the cultural movement.
I was initially exposed to Baraka in The Book of Collateral Damage (Fihris) by Sinan Antoon who quotes his poem, “A Guerrilla Handbook.” It reads “We must convince the living that the dead cannot sing.” The narrator, Nameer al-Baghdadi, is communicating with Wadood Abdulkarim, a researcher and librarian who has begun to take an inventory of the damage from the first moments of the war in Iraq. He claims that he can hear the stories of the objects that were lost and writes them down in the catalog. This archive of lost items is crafted not only of people who were lost, but of inanimate items such as books, stamp collections, and tape recordings. These irreplaceable items have significant historical and sentimental value such as the writings of an ancient text that have never been transcribed, the prized collection of a friend that has been lost, or the voice of a father that will never again be heard.
Baraka’s The Dead Lecturer was not written about war; it was written in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement, which explains its vivid use of imagery in describing oppression, as that was a central point of contention during the 60’s. However, in the light of Antoon’s novel, this line takes on a different meaning that emphasizes the silence of death and passes a responsibility onto the living. Instead of attacking society for its complacency, it is a call to action for the living to remember that which was lost.
The original interpretation of the poem, through his use of dramatic metaphors and symbolism regarding death and decay, condemns modern society for falling victim to complacency rather than inspiring change. This is shown at several points, most especially in lines 9-13 which state “Convinced of the lyric. Convinced of the man’s image (since he will not look at substance other than his ego.” In this example, the man is subdued by his self-centered ideals and vanity and is no longer looking to create or inspire change.
However, in the light of collateral damage and the loss that is displayed in the novel, the poem has a new meaning altogether. For the bulk of the piece, he paints images of loss including unfulfilled futures – “the seed… burned up” (lines 2-3) –, forgotten victims – “leaves… [blowing] to the sea” (lines 7-8) –, and emotional fatigue – “women walk with their heads down” (lines 15-16). Then to wrap up the scene, he states “We must convince the living that the dead cannot sing,” urging the reader to act in remembrance of the victims. It bestows a moral duty on the living to memorialize the dead and to act against forces that perpetuate such destruction to save that which is lost from oblivion.