Picturing the Black Dada Nihilismus (Part 2)
What is more is a reminder of the ceremonial blunt instrument of the ‘striking’ leader of “pre-dynastic,” ancient Egypt. This is from the so-called “Narmer Palette,” which is thought (by European authorities) to be a historical document—so when we see the figure representing the leader striking the head of the vanquished we “naturally” assume that this actually happened. (There are also beheaded figures depicted in this artifact, which permits us to assume that beheading actually happened as well.) So what we have here is a depiction of manhood—when taken literally this means that real men are men of war—and these men of violence make the women go wild with “true” ecstasy.
When we accept the ancient Egyptians as the most influential, generative cultural power of the Western world, our Black Dada Nihilismus, therefore inherits from this literal, straightforward interpretation of manhood. And he justified because of this particular interpretation of ancient expression. But remember how ridiculous he looks? He’s got the Dracula cape and the steel codpiece that looks like the chastity belt of a Renaissance Italian princess. He’s got the glinting, polished links, chains draped over his body. What does this mean—all of these elements fused together? To look for meaning here is to look for meaning in Dada representations. We must remember that Dada came out of World War I. We must remember that lone soldier walking through the horrific carnage, beyond trying to make sense of it all…
What’s really important for our Black Dada Nihilismus is that the women are driven into a frenzy—even these African women are so driven. And, for any young male, this is all that matters. This is just the kind of nihilism that is pleasurable and entertaining—as long as the women go along with this European meaninglessness born out of warfare, its, like, whatever. The priority here is to herd these females into submission, to conquer for their pleasure. For the most determined patriarchal male this can be malformed into a sacred duty of religious proportions. The assumption here, in the rasx() context, is that Amiri Baraka explores this area thoroughly in “Black Dada Nihilismus”—and I do not dare suggest that I know all of what he is writing about… What comes to mind for me is this image from George Clinton. It is as Baraka writes, a “transmutation, from stone…”—the stone of the Narmer palette to the stone crazy shit coming out of Clintonian imagery.