From the Archive
Revisiting Black Palestine
“… I had no concept of black Palestinians; yet here I am, deep in a community of black Palestinians, black people—a gumbo of complexions—who look like they could be from Haiti or Harlem or Ghana or out the Tremé. These Black people were born in Palestine and live there, too: the African Diaspora in the flesh, the Gulf Coast meets the Middle East. And somehow, I manage to hook up with a clique of sisters. Maybe I could have fit in, gone unnoticed, except for my inability to speak or understand the language—and my American- ness, impossible to conceal, not even in my oversized backpack.
It is unclear how many Palestinians of African descent are in Palestine, but what is certain is that I had stumbled upon a strong enclave of them in Deir el-Balah. Their existence is swallowed whole in the dilemma that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where religious and political oppression and restriction of movement in a sixty-plus year fight hardly leaves any room for an identity separate from the national one.”
–from “Related Somehow to Africa” by jewel bush, Transition Magazine 115, 2015
As a New Orleanian, I have an intimate relationship with displacement. Like so many of my brethren and sistren, we have come to measure time, pre-Katrina and post-Katrina. More than 85% of Gaza’s population has reportedly fled their homes in the four months since Israel began its military operation in response to Hamas’s deadly attacks on October 7, 2023, according to the BBC. Imagine the current population of New Orleans displaced — times six! That amounts to nearly two million people.
Samra was my first thought when I saw this news out of Gaza last fall. The two of us became fast friends when we met in Deir el-Balah, a town in central Gaza located on the Mediterranean coast, 15 years ago. Now, she lives in Istanbul, Turkey with her husband, but when we last spoke, she was on extended stay in Palestine where she had traveled to be near family when she delivered her baby. We had the good fortune of reconnecting in 2012 when she visited New Orleans as part of a UN Women’s Empowerment program.
A headline from the Associated Press on October 21, 2023: Whole family hit by Israeli airstrike on Deir al Balah.
I began sending her messages on Instagram. Days … weeks went by with no answer. This was déjà vu. About a decade prior, we exchanged Facebook messages during a time of unrest in Gaza, but nothing nearly as dire as it is now…
Samra and Suad at Suad’s home, June 2009. © jewel bush.
My worry grew. Eventually, I was able to get in touch with her husband. Samra and baby Soykan had recently returned from Gaza and were out of harm’s way and back in Istanbul.
Via Instagram: October 27, (2023) at 6:17 PM
Samra: Hey sis how r u? Um fine, but Gazza is the worst nightmare. We need all prays sis. My family is ok till now but then! No one knows.
——-
Samra and I remain in touch and chat like the old friends we are. While we do what mothers do, exchange pictures of our sons, we still talk of war …
Artist Spotlight
Yvonne Osei
Multidisciplinary Ghanaian artist Yvonne Osei uses photography and the language of textile design to create full-body portraits of African and African American women, including herself, adorned in vibrant, colorful textile patterns. Her series, “Here to Stay,” serves as a focal point for celebrating the elegance, ingenuity, resilience, and contributions of black women. The title, “Here to Stay,” signifies a declaration of presence and an endeavor to establish enduring recognition for young black women. This work operates on both physical and metaphorical levels of insertion.
Created in 2016-17, during a year-long residency at St. Louis, Missouri’s cherished open-air museum, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Osei spent time photographing and gaining insights into the park’s public artworks. Seeking to infuse her perspective and that of individuals who share her background into the park’s landscape and collection, she transformed photographs of artworks, vegetation, signage, and park visitors into textile designs reminiscent of traditional West African textiles and wax print cloths worn in Ghana, her home country…
Here to Stay: Yvonne in Pepper Them (Blue), Yvonne Osei, photograph, 2017. Photo courtesy the artist and Bruno David Gallery
Our History
The Longest-Running Pan-African Cultural Magazine
In immediate postcolonial Africa…the various decolonized or soon-to-be decolonized countries didn’t know too much about one another…
Featured Award
Leah Penniman Wins a Pushcart Prize for “Black Land Matters: Climate Solutions in Black Agrarianism”
Leah Penniman’s essay “Black Land Matters: Climate Solutions in Black Agrarianism,” featured in T133 CLIMATE, was selected to appear in PUSHCART PRIZE XLVIII, the 2024 Edition, which will be published in December, 2023 and distributed by WW Norton Co. Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm received the added honor of serving as a contributing editor on all future Pushcart Prize Editions.
Leah Penniman is a Black Kreyol farmer, author, mother, and food justice activist who has been tending the soil and organizing for an anti-racist food system for 25 years. She currently serves as founding co-ED and Farm Director of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, a Black & Brown led project that works toward food and land justice. Her books are Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (2018) and Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists (2023)
Transition Magazine
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Transition aims to speak to the lay intellectual through jargon-free, readable prose that provides both insight and pleasure.
