Africans in Russian literature and film

[luba ginsburg]

     Dear colleagues,

          I’m
following this train of ideas about possible sources on Africans and African
Americans in Russian history and culture and would like to throw a couple more
names and works to the list.

    First of
all, I saw that you have mentioned the film “Maximka,” which is really a great
movie and definitely is worth further research, as well as the book that the
movie is based on. I have not noticed the book in your list though. I strongly
recommend the book to whoever is going to do the research. It is an eponymous
short story by Konstatin Stanyukovich. I believe it has been translated into
English.

    Underestimated, in my view, is a group of African Americans who
introduced syncopated music and salon dances to Russia, and are worth
mentioning. Their appearance in a number of big cities were mentioned in a
number of memoirs, such as Aminado, D. Poezd
na Tretiem Puti, in which the author mentions a favorite of the Russian
public, Pearl Hobson: “… everybody knew that the best coffee with cream was at
Libman, the best cup of tea with the finest cake - at Fakoni, and the most
irresistible charm – at Hotel du Nord featuring an African American star Pearl
Hobson…”

     Don’t
forget Frederick Starr and his Red and Hot – a lot of material on African
Americans in Russia!

    The
stories of such performers as Ollie Burgoyne, Emma Harris, and Coretta Alfred
(mentioned by Langston Hughes) should not be forgotten as well. Emma Harris and
Olga Burgoyne stayed in Russia for many years, before returning to the United
States. Both had fascinating experiences that are worth exploring and
documenting. Alfred never returned to America, and died in Moscow in 1951, to
be buried in the Novodevichii Monastery cemetery. Her acting in 1946 in Vasily
Zhuravlyov’s P’yatnadtsatiletnii kapitan should make your film list. Her partner was Weyland Rodd, a participant of the
Mezhrabpom film group that toured the Soviet Union in 1932. (You can watch
excerpts of the film on YouTube). 


    Don’t
forget the success story of Frederick Thomas, an African American that had an
“amusement empire” in Moscow before the revolution. Professor Alexandrov is
researching his extraordinary life. I somehow lost track and not sure if the
book is out yet.

    Finally,
don’t forget African American jockey Jimmy Winkfield, who had “witnessed lynching,”
in the US, but upon relocation to Russia became enormously successful and a
very wealthy man, as well as Thomas’ friend and boxing champion Jack Johnson.
 
   I hope this
helps.

 My very best, 


    Lyubov
Ginzburg
    Rutgers
University


________________________________
 From: Olga Meerson <meersono at GEORGETOWN.EDU>
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu 
Sent: Friday, April 6, 2012 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Africans in Russian literature and film
 
Luna Park, a film by Pavel Lungin, has an interesting African 
girl character. This, overall, is one of the few truly anti-
xenophobic relatively recent films. Of course, no whiff of 
formal PC. But that allows the film to address true sore spots 
very powerfully.

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