Pushkin’s Black Origins: Source of Inspiration for Youth of the African Diaspora

While much has changed in Russia and the world since I last visited well over two decades ago, what remains constant is the Russians’ deep admiration for Russia’s most revered poet, Alexander Pushkin, one of Russia’s most iconic and legendary literary figures. Pushkin is generally credited with shaping and influencing the whole of Russia’s rich literary heritage and it is a shame that few Americans and fewer of African descent know about him.

Pushkin’s African great-grandfather, Abram Petrovich Gannibal, was sent as a gift to Czar Peter the Great, educated in France at Vauban Academy and became Russia’s chief fortress builder. By many accounts, “Pushkin inherited his great–grandfather’s African features, including thick lips and somewhat frizzy hair and tan colored skin.” He often mocked Russia’s gentry by flouting the fact of his proud African Moorish heritage – a heritage rooted in legacies of royal dynasties, territorial conquest by Black nobles whose reign in North Africa and parts of Arabia and Nubia extended for centuries.

Alexander Pushkin is accorded heroic stature in Russian society to this day. He used his writings to explore humanity’s complexities, the beauty of nature, and human relationships, cultivating in Russians a fierce sense of national pride and identity through his works, which included an astounding array of forms: poetry, prose, fairy tales, histories, criticism, and letters. Pushkin was able to convey universal themes and tap into human feelings through his ideas expressed in great prose and poetry. Like Shakespeare, Pushkin wrote fluently about common threads found in today’s popular music: love, betrayal, rivalry, jealousy, sexual conquest, greed, and conspicuous consumption.

Pushkin biographers cite over 3,000 musical compositions by over 1,000 composers based on Pushkin’s works, including 41 operas, 19 ballets 20 symphonies and over 2,000 songs set to his lyrics. His voluminous output of works are said to mirror Russia’s soul and helped shape its national character, forging a common national identity among the Russian people. As with any life lived along epic proportions, Pushkin’s saga and generational influence are near mythical. The poet’s mystique is part of Russian folklore and his enduring popularity is still evident in Russian culture.

Today’s young people, the “Joshua Generation” who will carry on the work of social justice and equality of opportunity begun by Civil Rights forbearers, will eagerly identify with successful black political heroes as positive role models apart from sports and entertainment figures. So why not consider a cerebral leap into more scholarly pursuits like English and World Literature, poetry and non-revisionist history to fire the imaginations and dreams of minority youth? Considering the huge appeal of Rap and spoken-word prose prevalent in today’s youth culture, Alexander Pushkin as a literary hero, albeit from an empire once deemed evil by an American president, would seem a natural focal point in the classroom for getting students interested in reading the classics.

The fact that our nation twice elected as its President a person of African ancestry, one whose physical characteristics and cultural background for many resonate with the familiar, sparked a sense of national pride and heightened self esteem among even the most alienated of minority youth. For a great number of young people, coming of age means identifying with role models and heroes whose appeal is based on external cultural aesthetics like looks, athleticism, or accepted group norms deemed worthy of emulation.

Whether the hero embraced is President Barack Obama or Alexander Pushkin, the gravitas of identity formation as a means for motivating young people and developing their positive self-esteem should not be under-estimated.

What are some of the events that led to this impassioned, nearly religious zeal for Pushkin’s talents? Biographers seem to suggest a keen intellect, soaring rise to fame, passionate love trysts, multiple exiles , house arrests, censorship, espionage, and restrictions and hostility from imperial authorities and society alike. His keen wit and sense of integrity led him into at least twenty duels, the last fatal, when he was slain protecting his wife’s honor.

Perhaps Pushkin’s life story and impact eludes any American interpretation as hero. He is, after all, a foreigner. And as a nation we are engaged in an ever-evolving social experiment that challenges and expands our own national and cultural identity. Issues such as levels of immigration, bi-lingual education, shifting demographic patterns and conservatives’ anxieties around the loss of the elusive American character remain contentious. But since reading is so fundamental to developing self-esteem and competence, there must be some literary benefit to igniting the interest of so-called “at risk” youth who need every reason and encouragement to bolster healthy self esteem undaunted by gangs and violence. Many of these youth can be reached through role models, some through reading and media. Aspects of the life and works of Alexander Pushkin, can serve as an effective catalyst for studying classical literature and competing political ideologies without need of fearing a loss of the deep allegiance African American youth have for their American homeland. They can achieve academic success. Yes they can!