A Tribe Called Quest and W.E.B. Du Bois?
lazola
23 Posts
Sup Strut? It's been a minute since I've posted here. Anyway, had a question, or point of intrigue, to bounce off the collective heads here. Maybe someone can shed some light on this.
I've recently started re-reading W.E.B. Du Bois' seminal work, "The Souls of Black Folks". In the second chapter, "On the Dawn of Freedom," Du Bois is describing--amongst other events of the late nineteenth century, as it relates to recently freed slaves--the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan in the South during Reconstruction.
While reading on, I discovered something I hadn't noticed before; a particular phrasing I recognized from A Tribe Called Quest. On page 18, in his description of a KKK-led attack on a former slave mother and her baby, Du Bois says "aye, too, at his behest had laid herself low to his lust, and borne a tawny man-child to the world, only to see her dark boy's limbs scattered to the winds by midnight marauders riding after 'cursed Niggers.' These were the saddest sights of that woful day...."
Du Bios refers to the horse-backed KKK riders as "midnight marauders," and while it may well be a coincidence, is there any connection here to the ATCQ album? "Midnight Marauders" as a concept album, to me, seems to have little to no semblance or connection to this particular essay, or the works of W.E.B. Du Bios at large. Anyone here who could shed some light on this? It very well could be purely coincidental, and I'm willing to concede as much, but then again, "midnight marauders" as a literary phrase seems pretty unique, and thus may deserve some discussion (or acknowledgment) of the matter, at the very least.
I'm sure I'm hardly the first one to notice this connection, but didn't really find much chatter on the interwebs on the matter. What say you, Strut? Literature heads, holler.
I've recently started re-reading W.E.B. Du Bois' seminal work, "The Souls of Black Folks". In the second chapter, "On the Dawn of Freedom," Du Bois is describing--amongst other events of the late nineteenth century, as it relates to recently freed slaves--the terrors of the Ku Klux Klan in the South during Reconstruction.
While reading on, I discovered something I hadn't noticed before; a particular phrasing I recognized from A Tribe Called Quest. On page 18, in his description of a KKK-led attack on a former slave mother and her baby, Du Bois says "aye, too, at his behest had laid herself low to his lust, and borne a tawny man-child to the world, only to see her dark boy's limbs scattered to the winds by midnight marauders riding after 'cursed Niggers.' These were the saddest sights of that woful day...."
Du Bios refers to the horse-backed KKK riders as "midnight marauders," and while it may well be a coincidence, is there any connection here to the ATCQ album? "Midnight Marauders" as a concept album, to me, seems to have little to no semblance or connection to this particular essay, or the works of W.E.B. Du Bios at large. Anyone here who could shed some light on this? It very well could be purely coincidental, and I'm willing to concede as much, but then again, "midnight marauders" as a literary phrase seems pretty unique, and thus may deserve some discussion (or acknowledgment) of the matter, at the very least.
I'm sure I'm hardly the first one to notice this connection, but didn't really find much chatter on the interwebs on the matter. What say you, Strut? Literature heads, holler.
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Behold a pale horse.