Native Drums
Explore the powerful symbolism of drums in African American culture, once tools of communication and resistance during the darkest times of slavery. We confront the lingering shadows of economic exploitation and the pervasive influence of media and religion in controlling black narratives. Let’s reexamine the role of the black church and its mission to fight systemic injustices, urging a return to prophetic ministries that prioritize humanity and community over material wealth. This podcast episode is not just a reflection of the past but a call to action for the future, urging us to build a more just and liberated world.
Native Drums
Uncovering the Hidden Layers of African American History with Dr. Henry H. Singleton III
What if the stories you’ve been told have only scratched the surface of history? Join us on a journey with Dr. Henry H. Singleton III, a distinguished scholar in African-American history, as he uncovers the layers of struggle and triumph that have shaped the African American experience. Raised in a household that championed education and activism, Dr. Singleton brings unparalleled insight and passion to the conversation. Together, we emphasize the vital role of understanding our history to create a future of empowerment and unity.
Explore the powerful symbolism of drums in African American culture, once tools of communication and resistance during the darkest times of slavery. We confront the lingering shadows of economic exploitation and the pervasive influence of media and religion in controlling black narratives. Let’s reexamine the role of the black church and its mission to fight systemic injustices, urging a return to prophetic ministries that prioritize humanity and community over material wealth. This podcast episode is not just a reflection of the past but a call to action for the future, urging us to build a more just and liberated world.
Hello America, welcome to Native Drums. For some time, this program has been a vision of the pastor and people of God known as Savannah Grove Baptist Church in Effingham, south Carolina. In part, it is a response to America's decision to whitewash the history of its African people. It's a history we did not choose to create. It's a history forced upon us, one out of deceit. Deception, death, mutvation, rape, disenfranchisement. Nevertheless, it's a brilliant, a brilliant history, a history that has survived the atrocities of the transatlantic, the slave market, the plantation, sharecropping, gem-croism, jim Crowism, separate and unequal schools, segregation, meanness, hatred, discrimination, yes, and even plagiarism. It's a history, a brilliant history, a proud history of a people who could not read or write. Yet they produced great scholars and stellar individuals, like George Washington, carver and Boogity Washington and Benjamin E Mays and Mary McLeod, bethune. And, yes, built wonderful institutions of higher learning like Bethune-Cookman and Tuskegee Institute and Morehouse College and Allen University and Bennett College and Morris College, and scores of others that still serve our children. It's a history of a people who gave to the world great minds like unto WEB, du Bois and Thurgood Marshall, a people who, through the blood of the slaughtered, gave us Harriet and Sojourner Truth Rosa Parks, medgar Evers, malcolm Jordan, adam Clayton, powell, jr Harris, robert E McNair, charles R Drew, and the list just goes on and on.
Speaker 1:I do think that Mr Trump and his cronies are embarrassed that a people who had to, they mastered the struggle and became major figures in the broader history of this country. That's one reason. There is another reason for this program it represents the African church struggling to reclaim its voice and role as the ultimate liberator of the body, soul and mind of the people of God and all people. God has chosen the African church to under shepherd his flock, to aid, to abet and to advocate, to lift the people of God, to lead, to protect, to provide, defend. So we give to you, native drums, a voice to and enrich each one of us. The chains and shackles may be removed from the body, the wrist, the waist, the legs, but until your mind is free, you are still enslaved. Paul said in the book of Romans the renewing of your mind. Native drums is not a rhythm to excite your emotions. Native drums is an instrument to illumine your minds.
Speaker 1:I'm going to pause now for an interview with Dr Henry H Singleton III and then remarks. Dr Singleton, it is really a great delight to have you. We are excited about Native drums. We're equally excited that you are our very first guest and our first lecturer. Our first lecturer, welcome to Native Drums, and we anticipate a long and wonderful relationship as we work together to enlighten, inform and inspire the community. Now I've known you for a long, long time and I know that you're a PK. Your dad was a great preacher, a dear friend of mine. I know that you worked at Benedict College for a number of years and now at the university, a scholar in your own right. But tell our audience a bit more about you, because you are going to be a major figure in what we do in this programming.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, pastor, course of my integrity to select me to lead this podcast, which I hope will have a major impact in the life of the black church going forward. For we know that, of course, history is the door to our future. And so, if we don't know our history, future, and so if we don't know our history, our future will not be planned well and we'll be repeating ourselves continuously like people who do, who don't know their history. And so, in that sense, I am someone who is committed to making sure our people know as much about their history as possible, so that it will heighten their conscience and bring them a more informed perspective relative to their daily lives and relative to their place in history, relative to the life of this nation wherein black people have always been the moral conscience of this country. And we've been the moral conscience of this country because we have occupied a subordinate and marginalized status. And so, in that sense, our history is America's history and America's history is ours.
Speaker 2:And so I did grow up in the state of South Carolina, born and bred in Conway, south Carolina, near the coast. I am a PK and of course that's a preacher's kid for those who don't know pastored by Reverend HH Singleton, cherry Hill Baptist Church in Conway, south Carolina, where I grew up, and I grew up in the shadows of the church, right behind it, in the parsonage, and, of course, I was raised in a home where we were taught by our father that the most contributory life is a life that contributes both to the edification of the body and to the mind, and in doing so you enhance the spirit. And for him, that was his moniker, that was the philosophy by which he lived, which was evidenced in not only him being a pastor, but he was also a social activist, being a pastor, but he was also a social activist, and he was also someone who was deeply involved in the community and in national affairs, especially as it relates to the advancement of people of color and women. And so out of that milieu I come as a graduate of the University of South Carolina, where I did a cognitive in African-American history under the late great Dean Willie Hereford, who passed away just a few years ago, and I feel privileged to be teaching in the African-American Studies Department at the University of South Carolina.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow, that's wonderful.
Speaker 1:A tradition, a heritage, and God, we're just so blessed to have you to agree to be a part of what we are attempting to do.
Speaker 1:Congregation just recently that one of our churches has just converted its church school department into a history, black history, an African American history forum and another church and another dear friend has made a major shift in the teachings at their church, just completed a study on generational wealth and now they are dedicating their midweek Bible study to the book of Exodus, with an emphasis on liberation and the history of our people as it relates to the story of Exodus us. And then we've got our little church, a rural church here in Effingham, south Carolina, which is just outside of Florence, and we are beginning this podcast and attempting to bring some of our best minds to the table to lead the entire community in a study that is designed to empower us to move to another level. What is your opinion of this movement, this shift, as the church seems to be moving more toward reclaiming its voice as a liberate of our people?
Speaker 2:Well, dr Canney, as we well know, that those conversant with our history realize that racism mutates itself in each and every generation.
Speaker 2:We had a type of racism during slavery that sanctioned slavery as being ordained of God.
Speaker 2:Post-slavery, we had a segregated racism that segregated on the basis of race and preached from the Bible that the races should be separated.
Speaker 2:Preached from the Bible that the races should be separated.
Speaker 2:And now we are living in a post-racial racist era where we are being inundated by white brothers and sisters with pretensions of post-racialism, where racial antagonisms and white privilege still is very much alive and well in American life.
Speaker 2:And so, in light of that, I am extremely pleased that Black churches have taken the lead in establishing a liberating presence in its institutional life, which has been sorely needed, especially when we take into consideration the removal of DEI programs, the removal of affirmative action programs, using critical race theory as a wrecking ball to demolish indigenous affirmations of black humanity, banning black books in public schools and, of course, banning black authors as well, seemingly brazenly and with little or no shame that the black church is stepping up with these measures, in my judgment, to be what it is needed to be in each generation to maximize its value in the life of the black community and subsequently in the life of the nation, to think where we would be as a nation, as a society, even relative to the level and the depth of our conscience, had it not been for the black church, and so, in this sense, I am extremely excited about the black church's participation in this process that will heighten the conscience of our people and, even happier, to be a part of that process.
Speaker 1:Great, great, great. As you know, we have tagged our podcast Native Drums. To me, it's a major salute to our forebears. A major salute to our forebears. Unfortunately, a number of us assumed that drums in our culture was about rhythm, was about dance, about feelings and emotions. But the drums really had a far more technical role in the conversation between tribes and between our people, from plantation to plantation. Is there anything you want to say to us about the role of drums in the life of our people?
Speaker 2:Well, because of the particulars of slavery, and in particular, a slave code passed in our illustrious state of South Carolina in 1712 maintained that slaves could not gather in numbers larger than fives.
Speaker 2:And the reason why this slave code was enacted by the South Carolina state legislature is to minimize the chances of slaves organizing for insurrection, the chances of slaves organizing for insurrection.
Speaker 2:And so, since we couldn't meet in groups larger than five, we then used the drum to communicate to those on the plantation about insurrections, the time of those insurrections, the place of those insurrections and the date of those insurrections. And so, in that sense, even though they thought they were preventing us from engaging in insurrection by not allowing us to gather in groups larger than five, in essence they are compelling us to fall back on an old custom from Africa itself that survived the plantation and was not completely obliterated by the ravages of white supremacy. And those native drums served as a medium of communication during slavery and as a basis for organizing ourselves for insurrection against slavery and to, of course, run away from the plantation with the intent to topple the institution ultimately. And so I'm glad that this was selected as the name of the podcast, because it represents a new and indigenous way of communicating as a people in which we begin to renew our interests, not only in Africa, but renew our interests also in our blackness, relative to its liberating and transformative dimension.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing no, no Mars code. No, no telegram, no telephone, no television. But our people were genius enough to create their own system of communications.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:And of course as you have just suggested.
Speaker 1:A part of the evil mind of oppression was this whole matter of keeping our people divided, separated, polarized, not only polarization among races, but then polarization among ourselves Absolutely. Which brings me to another point. I think it was Ronald Reagan, when he was president, said to African Americans you don't need a leader. You know, unfortunately, I think, a number of our people bought into that ridiculous ideology. It was a false philosophy and many have turned away from the church, turned away from organizations committed to liberation, turned away even from social entities, and have become more moved by this spirit of isolation and individualism which, in my opinion, critically undermines the movement. Yes, what is there anything you'd like to say to that issue?
Speaker 2:Well, part of part of part of white control over black bodies historically has had to do principally with controlling mediums of mass communication, and so, in light of that, african-americans in many instances have tended to take their cue as to how to engage and live American life from the white media and from white politicians and leaders, while at the same time telling us that we don't need leaders and that's to remove the black leader who would bring about a contrary or different methodology that was rooted more in unity and not more in individual accomplishment, which has been the message sent to us by the white media and white political leaders and, of course, ronald Reagan, as you mentioned, saying we don't need a leader. The same thing, unfortunately, has happened as it relates to the life of the church, and far too many black people have taken their cue from white evangelical leaders who preach a personalistic theology, who preach primarily an otherworldly theology and who preach primarily in otherworldly theology and who preach a churchy theology in which members should only be concerned about the condition of the building of the church and giving to the church and not be concerned about the life of the community beyond the church. This was done with direct intentionality and it was done primarily to control the thinking of black people. My father used to say all the time that Lerone Bennett, the editor at Jet Magazine, would always say he who controls images controls minds, and he who controls minds has little or no fair bodies. And so all of it was done for the purpose of maintaining social control of black people exploiting their labor so that they could benefit economically from it. And they have.
Speaker 2:It's been a transgenerational journey of wealth increase, namely because you can increase your wealth because you didn't have to pay your employees. We are still calling for reparations as black people, for for not being compensated like we should have during the slave trade, where we receive nothing for our labor. And so you know, as Jesse Jackson said, you almost have to be a genius to figure out how to fail at a business when you don't have to pay your employees. I mean, if you think about it, you know every, every cent you make is your profit. You don't have to pay the employees, you don't have to pay health insurance, dental insurance, workman's comp, you don't have to pay anything. And so that wealth accumulated for our white brothers and sisters over several generations. We even refer to it now, particularly in many southern cities, when we ride through and see these houses as you ride into these cities, these big white houses, and we say that's old money. And it really is old money.
Speaker 2:And so in that sense, the purpose has been to generate untold numbers of economic wealth and prosperity, which has happened off the backs of black labor, which has been free in nature, and so the mediums of mass communication and, of course, a virulent theology that is now morphed into this prosperity ministries that we see today, that really allow white people to prosper, individuals not black people to prosper at all, except for a few.
Speaker 2:Here and there have unfortunately been the cues by which black people have imbibed what is considered decent and, of course, far-reaching living. And of course that philosophy of living in national life has to be challenged by us. It has always been challenged by us, because it not only does not take into account the transformation of the masses of people who work two, three, four jobs to make ends meet, and yet the salaries of those two, three, four jobs are are such a paucity of an amount that they can't eke out a comfortable living. And so our struggle has always been not how we keep the masses content with their situation, but how we can transform the condition of the masses so that the richest country in the world can extend that wealth to the people who really built this country and who continue to be the engine that makes America go.
Speaker 1:Exactly. I say all the time and I'm certainly no scholar as you I say all of the time that from the very beginning the wealth of this country has been produced by our people, absolutely. They simply did not have the genius nor the muscle to create the infrastructure nor the wealth of this country. They failed miserably in the early days of development. They tried to engage the American natives and that failed. And prosperity only began to turn the corner when our people came to America and on their sweat and blood built the wealth of this country.
Speaker 2:And in fact, that's why we were selected. Yes, west Africans were selected, not because of the narrative that went out in history that we were living in a dark continent, running around with bones in our nose and swinging from vines, with no civilization, but because of the opposite we were selected for enslavement by European planters because we did have developed societies, that we were skilled artisans in what was needed. They were already ahead of the curve in terms of economic development, global economic development, and that's why West Africans were selected. They were selected because of their ability to be able to till soil and to be able to do it with a know-how that can create a maximum profit for European planters. And when you combine that with the fact that West Africans were not immune, or that they were immune rather, to European diseases, particularly cold influenza, right that didn't.
Speaker 2:That didn't bode well for us, but it certainly bode well for them, because we're someone who doesn't get sick as much as Europeans do and we could work longer hours because of it. Like I said, it's a great personality trait to have for people, but it didn't help us in terms of being selected for the slave trade itself.
Speaker 1:What would you say to that young man, that young woman in our culture that senses frustration because they can't seem to get a foundation, a footing, and are not in the broader sense of succeeding in life? What can you say to them about who we are and about our history that might inspire them? To look at life differently and from a point of genius and strength.
Speaker 2:I think the best thing to do as black people is if you live your life and I too labored under this false assumption for years earlier in my life that your goal is to get solid footing, as you put it the reality is is that we've never really had solid footing as a people. We have always had to channel our frustration into a higher way of being in the world. We had to channel our frustration into fight, because if we didn't channel our frustration into fight we would become an extinct people. So my advice would be, as much as you can, become uncomfortable, or remain uncomfortable with the fact that you don't have solid footing, that success ultimately in life must not be measured by monetary gain. It must be measured by contribution to the onward march of human civilization, which is one of the things my father taught me years ago march of human civilization, which is one of the things my father taught me years ago. And so once you begin to look because even personally, things have happened in my life that were tremendous setbacks Things continue to happen in my life that are continued setbacks, and I think one of the universals of living is that none of us are really happy personally with where we are in life, that we are to some degree content, but part of the existential restlessness of living in this world is being able to be a contributory citizen, not only to nation but to world as well, even as you live in the midst of those personal foibles and the personal perfection you're seeking continues to remain an elusive quest. That, as you are, that as you are seeking that perfection and contentment in life as you have defined it, that there's also a larger call for you to be a contributory member to human civilization.
Speaker 2:Because, at the end of the day, your deeds will be judged not on how much material wealth you hoarded up. It won't be judged on how big your house was. It won't be judged on how many luxury cars you bought or how many places in the world you went on these grand vacations. It would be ultimately measured by the impact you have had on the lives of other people. Measured by the impact you have had on the lives of other people. And so, until that comes to the forefront of your being, in terms of why you're on this earth, as Mark Twain said, the two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why you were born. And so when you discover your meaning and your purpose in life and seek that meaning and purpose and come to find it, you'll discover that all the other things that were giving you frustration before just just begin to pale in terms of significance relative to what's really important in life.
Speaker 1:Hey, let's, let's push the issue, and I'm not going to hold you much longer. I just appreciate your conversation and your presence with us, but let's push the issue a bit further, because I am sensing an ever increasing tension between the church and the community. Unfortunately, there are forces that are disengaged in church, where the strength of our community lies, to mobilize in such a way not to push forward but to undermine what the church is doing, if there is going to be two entities, the two should at least be on the same course, headed in the same direction.
Speaker 1:What do you think?
Speaker 2:Well, in many ways, this could be an opportunity for the church, namely because, in many ways, religion does not compel us to listen. It compels us to absorb and internalize a theological perspective and impose it on other people. And what we have internalized in the black church in its history in fact, it's one of my segments on the podcast internalized in the black church in its history In fact, it's one of my segments on the podcast is that, as I said earlier, we have internalized a highly evangelical understanding of how Christian faith should be expressed, and we forget sometimes, in light of that, that in the early church, pastors understood and church leaders understood that a theological intelligentsia had to be created so that the church would never stray religion. Theologians to critique the church so that the church does not lose sight of its mission to liberate, and the tension was created when the church became more of a middle and upper class institution and it was occupied by members who had obtained their wealth through curry in favor with the system, and so they did not want a church in which its leadership criticized the system by which they were benefiting. So there's your tension, and so we're at a crossroads now at a black community, though, and so we're at a crossroads now, at a black community, though, where I think that there are voices, because some of the voices that you mentioned in the community actually grew up in the church yes, they grew up in the church and have strayed from the church, namely because many churches have arrogantly continued to promote a neo-evangelical theology that is primarily concerned with otherworldliness, and I think those voices are saying we want to hear in our songs, sermons and prayers things that speak to our contemporary condition, that speak to our contemporary oppression, that speak to contemporary racism, sexism, misogyny, poverty, and that we're not hearing those messages come across in the church, and I think it's an opportunity for the church to listen and an opportunity for the church to reinvent itself in the way of liberation, to be in tune with the Exodus narrative, as Brooklyn is doing, to do a podcast on black history, to be unashamedly indigenous and to say we are a black church and we are in the business of trying to create a liberated existence for our people, a tradition of which started from slavery itself.
Speaker 2:And I think if, as we say in the Baptist church, we have a period of rededication toward the end of the service, there is the call now for churches, black churches of all denominations, to rededicate itself to prophetic ministries that address systems of injustice and not continue in a path of thinking that somehow we engage in a triumphalist pretentiousness, as it's called, that all we have to do is worship and praise God and that God is going to take a magic wand and touch the earth and make it better. That we will continue in this particular form of theology. And I think what people are saying in the community is that we are not anti-church, we are pro-church. We are just not pro-church in the sense that it does not address what we're facing once the benediction is given and we leave the church.
Speaker 1:Right. Hey, you are a product of the church. You've been in the church all of your life and, through the church and the grace of God, you are now positioned to be an enabler of the church. Thank you, sir. What a powerful transition to take place in life. Transition to take place in life.
Speaker 1:I'm really, really grateful that you so readily agreed to be a part of Native Drums, and for the next six weeks we as a community will sit at your feet karma relationship between you and others like you as we attempt to expand forums like this so that we empower the minds of our people, because if we can get, their minds in proper perspective, getting their souls in perspective will not be a problem at all. Not at all. As we come to a close, I want to ask you to give us an overview of the six weeks. Would you mind doing that, and then we'll bring this conversation to an end.
Speaker 2:Actually, I've shared with you a couple of them in responses to your questions. It's a six-week overview of lectures that I've done before in community halls and in class One of them. Of course, I begin with Africa and the pre-colonial African context, which is very important to give the listener an opportunity to understand what life was like in Africa before we were abducted and talk about why we were the fifth choice actually for European planters for the slave trade. There were four groups before Africans that didn't, as we say, make the cut, and so I look forward to sharing that with you as well.
Speaker 2:I also will share a lecture titled the Coming of the Gods, where I be, where I lift up the theological presuppositions of the early theology of the white church and then the black church Once it was created in plantation life. There are a couple of similarities there Relative to the valuation of humanity, relative to the way white people and, of course, the Voting Rights Act signed by President Johnson and, of course, the civil rights bill signed by Johnson earlier that year, after John F Kennedy unfortunately was assassinated, and so I'm looking forward to sharing those segments. And, of course, I like to end with the repeal of Section 5 and 4 of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, because that didn't have to be cleared by the Justice Department. That made voting more difficult for African-American people as a means of trying to gain even more political power for their white constituents, and so we'll be looking at that as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm overusing the word excited but, I, am excited, excited, excited, and I pray that our congregations and the audience in general will be excited about the opportunity to sit at your feet. Many of us are not able to be in the lecture halls at the academy Right, but through this podcast we're going to be able to sit in the comforts of our homes and have an exposure I suspect that most of us have never had before. So I say again and again you listening, get prepared.
Speaker 1:Say like the bishop in Texas get ready, get ready, get ready because we are really going to a level of mental, intellectual and spiritual empowerment. I firmly believe that every one of the sessions will make a difference in your life, will impact your family and your community, so invite them to become engaged. Let this series be a family affair. Organize cell groups. Organize cell groups. Meet around the table and share in discussions at the close of these sessions and let's design together a strategy that will elevate and empower us all. Doctor, thank you so very much for being our guest and we look forward to having you the next 6, 12, 18, 30 months.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, sir. I'm looking forward to it and thank you for doing this podcast Sure, yes, Welcome back, join us again next Sunday and each Sunday following at 6 o'clock.
Speaker 1:Be a part of this dynamic lecture series by Dr Singleton, to be followed by Dr Bobby Donaldson Jr. Other noted scholars, politicians and leaders. Tell others, help us build the audience, build the minds of our people, so that we can properly respond to these times. I'm proud to be the pastor of Savannah Grove Baptist Church and your host for Native Drums. God bless you and we'll see you next week.