The Black Man's Folk Hero

[SupaDupaFresh]

So Japanese/Asians got the Ninja, the Samurai, the Pokémon master.

Western/European cultures have the Knight and much more. You can even count fictional ideas like the Wizard.

Even Americans have the glorified Cowboy and frontiersmen.

Lets even consider the complicated Italian/Irish anti-hero mobster as their popular folk character, all sensitivities aside.


But who or what would you say is the classic folk hero of black and African culture? Whether it is a historic warrior or something modern, fictional or real, what is the one iconic every-man you would say exemplifies us in popular culture and folklore?


And please no diaspora war bullshyt. Entirely inclusive of all ideas throughout time, cultures, backgrounds and histories of black people.

 

[The Fade]

Nat Love
Caporistas
John Horse
C.O. Chinn
Harlem Hellfighters, specifically the one who held off Nazis by himself for hours with a knife and his hands
The Black Civil War corps who cornered Lee
The dude who defected from the Army to help the Phillippines, who was a buffalo soldier
Dandies
Hipsters
Muhammad Ali
Black Panther archetypes

 

[Master Teacher]

Buffalo Soldiers, Bass Reeves, John Henry

 

[GR13]

..

 

[Westbama Heartthrob]

Harriet Turman

 

[Burned Verses]

If we're being honest it's ball players, entertainers, and drug dealers.

It's not a satisfying answer but these have been the main points of black male representation for the past 30+ years. The vast majority of people don't want to emulate any of the other examples in this thread.

 

[CopiousX]

So Japanese/Asians got the Ninja, the Samurai, the Pokémon master.

Western/European cultures have the Knight and much more. You can even count fictional ideas like the Wizard.

Even Americans have the glorified Cowboy and frontiersmen.

Lets even consider the complicated Italian/Irish anti-hero mobster as their popular folk character, all sensitivities aside.


But who or what would you say is the classic folk hero of black and African culture? Whether it is a historic warrior or something modern, fictional or real, what is the one iconic every-man you would say exemplifies us in popular culture and folklore?


And please no diaspora war bullshyt. Entirely inclusive of all ideas throughout time, cultures, backgrounds and histories of black people.

I admit that this one was kinda assigned to us, but was the "Mandingo" warrior that folk character for the last century?


Although he isn't a class of warrior and more of an individual, I think John Henry is up there as well



We also have all black military regiments such as the Tuskegee airmen. Or that one dude nick named "the black death"

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

Nat Love
Caporistas
John Horse
C.O. Chinn
Harlem Hellfighters, specifically the one who held off Nazis by himself for hours with a knife and his hands
The Black Civil War corps who cornered Lee
The dude who defected from the Army to help the Phillippines, who was a buffalo soldier

To be clear, not talking specific people. A few of those guys were still Cowboys, or US army men. Sort if more exploring the idea of a distinguished cultural folk hero of our own. Whether modern or historical, respectable or unapologetic.

I'd even accept the "rebel slave" (think "Catcher Freeman" in the Boondocks) or the classic blaxploitation "loner with a gun fighting injustice" as our own.

I like the idea of Caporistas or Hellfighters.

EDIT: I actually looked into John Henry and like this too. I seriously never heard of this. Interesting. Name more actual folk heroes!

If I had to choose my own, I always imagined as a kid a bad ass Moor, decked out in scarves and shyt with sword and knife on side could always be our "Shinobi."

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

..

Fukk yeah man!

 

[MajesticLion]

Really good question

 

[Brehvity3135]

..

I tell you one thing I ain’t never seen, a turtle with speed and a bytch I need

 

[UpAndComing]

I admit that this one was kinda assigned to us, but was the "Mandingo" warrior that folk character for the last century?


Although he isn't a class of warrior and more of an individual, I think John Henry is up there as well



We also have all black military regiments such as the Tuskegee airmen. Or that one dude nick named "the black death"

That's the problem, we always wait for White Society to assign something to us. Somehow we have no problem with outsiders creating our own narratives

 

[SupaDupaFresh]

 

[The Fade]

To be clear, not talking specific people. A few of those guys were still Cowboys, or US army men. Sort if more exploring the idea of a distinguished cultural folk hero of our own. Whether modern or historical, respectable or unapologetic.

I'd even accept the "rebel slave" (think "Catcher Freeman" in the Boondocks) or the classic blaxploitation "loner with a gun fighting injustice" as our own.

I like the idea of Caporistas or Hellfighters.

EDIT: I actually looked into John Henry and like this too. I seriously never heard of this. Interesting. Name more actual folk heroes!

If I had to choose my own, I always imagined as a kid a bad ass Moor, decked out in scarves and shyt with sword and knife on side could always be our "Shinobi."

I guess just being a Valiant soldier/warrior/general all around. From Gannibal, to the Black Count, to Chevalier st Georges , to Caporistas, Shaka, Toussaint, Hellfighters, Quilombos, Black Seminoles Dussalines and the woman who taught him battle craft, Menelik II etc.


A modernization of a Black weapons masters would be cool. There is a varied lineage of warrior tradition that was very effective. Modernization of Maroons and Cimaroons too

Also black pirates, they were not just white privateers.

Martial Artist Trope. As all the champions of UFC were all Nigerian at one time, + black people use martial arts very well in real life

 

[Pirius Black]

The Traveling Bluesman