As the United States heads to the November 5, 2024, presidential contest—an election that could be decisive in terms of the acceleration of the extreme-right’s program—Tanbou wants to express its own observation and critique regarding the choice presented to the US electorate.
We do it in the form of the two articles that ollow. The first one is the republication of the French article «Kamala Harris ou l’illusion du changement», written by Thomas Frank and first published in the October 2024 edition of Le Monde Diplomatique. While cognizant of the binary, two-evil alternative, the article proposes a critical apprehension of the lesser of the two evils.
The second text is a panoramic poem from my upcoming book Gaze of Thunder (Nov. 2024). I recollect in that poem, as the title goes, “Moments in US Presidential History,” particularly regarding the 2024 election.
This election will have been indeed one of the most contentious in the history of the United States, where one of the two major candidates openly advocates hatred of the Other, designating groups of immigrants as vermin, dehumanizing large segments of society, including Blacks, women and almost all non-Whites, and presenting this ideological program as an acceptable proposal for policies—thus reviving the haunting memories of the period 1890–1960s when Jim Crow and misogynist laws were enacted in many parts of the United States.
On the other side, that is the other of the two major parties, we have a candidate, Kamala Harris, with great human charm, joy, intellect and determination but who doesn’t seem to want to evade reflexes of her four-year long participation in the Biden administration, which has facilitated Israel’s genocidal policies in the Palestinian territories, in Lebanon, and in most of the Middle-East.
Thomas Frank concludes his article with some kind of controlled optimism: “[The victory of the Democrats] next November would at least mark the end of the Trump era. And perhaps that’s all that can be hoped for now.”
In the end, as we say in the poem, either choice may not be relevant after all:
At the end it wouldn’t even matter
who won so coveted an election,
the whole prospect and the specter
of such a malevolent intent
hanging over humanity’s head
as a Damocles sword for our time
is already here; so too is the battle
for justice and for a better world.
The people will not succumb
to the abyss of darkness for too long...
—by Tontongi (Epilogistic poem from the upcoming collection Gaze of Thunder,Éditions Trilingual Press, November 2024.)
Further reading
Kamala Harris ou l’illusion du changement —by Thomas Frank (first published in the October 2024 edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, translated from the original English by Élise Roy.)
Moments in US Presidential History
Joyeux 30è anniversaire / Bòn 30em anivèsè / Happy 30th anniversary!
Nous marquons avec fierté le 30è anniversaire de publication de notre revue. Dès le premier numéro, au printemps 1994, nous exprimions « un immense plaisir... au milieu d’un univers de chagrin et de mort, de pouvoir donner naissance à une œuvre de vie qui parie sur l’espoir ». Nous renouvelons aujourd’hui le même vœu, le combat pour un monde meilleur traversant toutes les générations, avec toujours d’autant exigences. Joyeux anniversaire, Tanbou/Tambour.
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Nou fyète make 30yèm anivèsè piblikasyon jounal nou an. Soti nan premye nimewo a, nan sezon prentan 1994 la, nou te eksprime “yon plezi imans... nan mitan yon linivè nan lapenn ak lanmò, pou kapab bay nesans nan yon travay nan lavi ki konte sou espwa”. Jodi a nou renouvle menm volonte, batay pou yon mond miyò travèse tout jenerasyon, ak toujou menm revandikasyon. Bòn fèt Tanbou/Tambour.
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We proudly mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of our magazine. From the very first issue, in the spring of 1994, we expressed “an immense pleasure... in the midst of a universe of sorrow and death, to have been able to give birth to a work of life that believes in hope”. We are renewing today the same wish, the fight for a better world spans all generations, with ever more more urgency. Happy anniversary, Tanbou/Tambour.
Three of the first four printed editions of the revue Tanbou, first published in February 1994, September 1994 and December 1996 / Trois des quatre premières éditions imprimées de la revue Tanbou paraissant en février 1994, septembre 1994 et décembre 1996 / Twa nan kat premye vèsyon papye revi Tanbou ki te pibliye an fevriye 1994, septanm 1994 ak desanm 1996.