24. The Sixties

Have You Heard George's Podcast?

BBC

Drama, History, Fiction

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2021

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The 1960s was a mad time for Black people. It was a mad time for the world, but especially for Black people. The African Independence movement boosted morale but quickly descended into cut-throat strongman politics. Meanwhile, the American Civil Rights movement empowered new voices but failed to eliminate racism. Both ended in violence. George revisits the birth of Uganda through the story of his grandfather - Andrew Frederick Mpanga. The disappointments of this period put into context the birth of Black Power, and the emergence of gang culture among African American youth. Warning: This episode contains very strong language and language that may offend, as well as adult themes. Credits: Written by George the Poet Produced by Benbrick and George the Poet Mixing, recording and editing by Benbrick. With music from: Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come The Last Poets - Black Soldier David McCallum - Edge 2Pac - 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted (feat. Snoop Dogg) All original music is written by Benbrick and recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra. We had the following guests: Nikissi Serumaga Thank you to: My team - Sandra, Vidhu, and Birungi; Dylan Haskins and the team at BBC Sounds, BBC Concert Orchestra; the Common Ground team - Anne Whitehead, Darshan Sanghrajka, and Benbrick. Archive: The clip of Kabaka Mutesa II used at 09:10 is taken from The BBC World Service show Witness. The theme used at 10.21 is the New Line Cinema ident. The clip of my Grandfather Andrew Frederick Mpanga talking with Robert Serumaga used from 11.54 to 15:16 is taken from BBC Africa Abroad. The clip of Malcolm X used at 16:56 is taken from his interview at Berkeley from 1963. The clips talking about The Black Panthers used at 18:44, 19:06, 19:17, and 19:22 are taken from the New York Times documentary “Black Panthers Revisited”. The announcement of Martin Luther King Jr’s death at 19:31 is taken from BBC News. We used Fred Hampton’s legendary “I am a revolutionary” clip at 20:38. The clip of Tupac Shakur at 24:25 is taken from the BET Networks video titled “Tupac Shakur: The World Is Hash And I just Don’t Got No Beautiful Stories”. Soundtrack: Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come 00:16 - 02:09 Benbrick - Change 03:42 - 04:55 Benbrick - The Sixties 05:42 - 11:29 Benbrick - Libya 11:35 - 16:24 Benbrick - The Sixties 16:53 - 18:04 Benbrick - The Sixties 18:44 - 19:30 The Last Poets - Black Soldier 19:46 - 20:38 David McCallum - Edge 21:33 - 22:51 2Pac - 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted (feat. Snoop Dogg) 23:17 - 25:55 Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come 26:19 - 27:38 Have You Heard George’s Podcast? is a George the Poet production for BBC Sounds. Commissioning Executive for BBC: Dylan Haskins

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC sounds, music, radio and the Peabody Award winning. Have you heard George's podcast?
0:09.0	This episode contains very strong language and language that may offend, as well as some adult themes.
0:17.0	There's something about the 60s. Freedom was in the air. Africa was finally going to get to spread her wings.
0:27.0	For the dream and the reality, two separate things.
0:34.0	This was the civil rights era. The American dream was still the American wish.
0:42.0	Change was promised. For the reality, different cut of the fish.
0:51.0	Both Africans and African Americans found themselves suddenly reacting to developments that changed the world in a short space of time, establishing new precedents, new establishments, new precedents.
1:08.0	The process was messy. A lot of blood was spilled. A lot of sisters hurt. A lot of brothers killed.
1:17.0	What would you have done? Would you offer up your skills or avoid the struggle and bottle up your guilt?
1:27.0	That damn hook.
1:30.0	Listening to change is going to come by a soundcooked, beautiful song. But the back story is crazy though. This next verse got banned from the radio.
1:40.0	Can you imagine?
1:56.0	It's been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change will come.
2:12.0	At the start of the 60s, new black leaders offered people new ideas, friendship and guidance. But by the end of the decade, a lot of these new movements were descending to violence.
2:29.0	If it wasn't African Americans assassinated Markham, it was the Congolese executed in Lumumba. Or call into a pro, or some military coup, or just heroes falling from grace like in Krumah.
2:47.0	You see, black people never had no overall system of working together. They were starting from scratch.
2:55.0	Most figured to a part of this batch of new leaders found it kinda hard to adapt. Dreams of an integrated market were scrapped.
3:05.0	After Markham X, Martin got capped, and the next generation started to act more militant, sometimes even targeting blacks.
3:16.0	I'm saying, Africans were never a unified group. They formulated kingdoms, tribes and clans. And in the 1880s, European powers devised a plan to divide the land.
3:35.0	So the only thing a lot of Africans had in common was exploitation at the hands of foreigners, other than the color they were different from each other.
3:47.0	Just because two people are from the same race doesn't mean they're coming from the same place. They had different problems. They had different needs, different myths, beliefs, different histories.
4:00.0	It was deep. Some of them had twisted beef, and they had to swiftly fix these issues in the 60s.
	...

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