The Black Man's Folk Hero

[get these nets]

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.

Toussaint L'ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines. Most successful slave rebellion in history.

 

[Wildhundreds]

In Chicago we got Bud Billiken

The Bud Billiken Parade and Picnic (also known as The Bud Billiken Day Parade) is an annual parade held since 1929[3] in Chicago, Illinois. The Bud Billiken Day Parade is the largest African-American parade in the United States of America. Held annually on the city's south side and on the second Saturday in August,[4][5] The parade route travels on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive through the Bronzeville and Washington Park[6] neighborhoods on the city's south side. At the end of the parade, in the historic Washington public park is a picnic and festival. Robert S. Abbott, the founder and publisher of the Chicago Defender, created the fictional character of Bud Billiken, which he featured in as youth advice column in his paper. David Kellum, co-founder of the Bud Billiken Club and longtime parade coordinator[7][8] suggested the parade as a celebration of African-American life

 

[UncleTomFord15]

The fact no one in this thread can, really come up with an answer... shows just how much we lost

 

[get these nets]

Entirely inclusive of all ideas throughout time, cultures, backgrounds and histories of black people.

 

[Dwayne_Taylor]

We have legit folk heros like John Henry the steel driving man and the Br'er Rabbit.

But if we're really keeping it a buck then its rappers, pimps and drug dealers.

 

[FrontoBama]

The fact no one in this thread can, really come up with an answer... shows just how much we lost

nikkas is in here saying Harlem Hellfighters all typa’ shyt like little Black kids is running around pretending to be John Henry . This site be too much lol.


OP, different regions have different folk heroes but on the continent, especially Niger-Congo the chieftancy is still a seminal part of our culture in that young kids talk about being the chief one day, subjects recite folk songs and tales about the chief and the broader population (non-blacks) see it as the defining strain of African polity. Very often the chief also gets his pick of women (Which ain’t cool)

If you extrapolate that FUNCTIONALLY (Not nominally) I think that you’ll find the various kingdoms of South Africa were more in line with the West African variety than a traditional European “kingdom” in that the monarch directly administers his realm on all levels of society, so there’s not a council with a minister of treasury etc. he just meets them directly and is more beholden to them than a pre-magna European King.


So yeah i think the chief, famaa, oba, iyolane, King is the Black mans folk hero.

 

[Wildhundreds]

The fact no one in this thread can, really come up with an answer... shows just how much we lost

I did..

 

[010101]

the best case scenario is you grow up with your pops grands uncles & ogs as your heroes*

 

[Velvet_Ace]

For modern times I'd say the boxer is a really symbolic figure.

 

[Wildhundreds]

the best case scenario is you grow up with your pops grands uncles & ogs as your heroes*

Some brothers and sisters never seen no one in their homes make shyt happen. You can't be what you can't see.

 

[010101]

Some brothers and sisters never seen no one in their homes make shyt happen. You can't be what you can't see.

exactly

we are supposed to be raised in the footsteps of individuals leading us on the path to better

we are all meant to grow into our own heroes

but emerging from the right family is key

sometimes miracles do happen but why count on that when we can simply be sure & build families to guarantee success

*

 

[MasterThought]

Rappers with big chains around their necks and guys who dunk basketballs

 

[Fill Collins]

Modern day? Couldn't tell you, but historically? First thing that popped up in my head were the trickster deities/characters slaves used to tell stories about, I remember hearing them first on Reading Rainbow as a jit

After the passage of time though, some of the stories have negative connotations but that's another thread:

Br'er Rabbit (Southern US & Caribbean): Apparently comes from Sene-Gambian folk traditions, but the hare/rabbit trickster is a pretty widespread folk device all over Black Africa

Anansi/Aunt Nancy (Caribbean):

The OG West African trickster god is Eshu; over time he became the abstract concept of the crossroads in the deep south

 

[Wildhundreds]

exactly

we are supposed to be raised in the footsteps of individuals leading us on the path to better

we are all meant to grow into our own heroes

but emerging from the right family is key

sometimes miracles do happen but why count on that when we can simply be sure & build families to guarantee success

*

We've lost the concept of wanting better for our children mentally.. . Its nothing else really to discuss here. If you not teaching your kids morals and how read and write you ain't on sh*t..

 

[8WON6]

At least in America the black folk hero is "The Civil Rights Activist". I'm not talking about specifically MLK or Malcolm or Harriet...but the CRA is our folk hero. To the point where people, good or bad, people look to black people when they go through some type of civil rights issue. Or they mimmick black civil rights things. That archetype of civil right's hero is our folk hero.