March On
Midi version of the bar of music.
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Chorus: |
This verse is obviously a reassurance that Black folk should march on to gain
victory, with the South as Egypt. In the Koran, Sura 28, Allah says to
Moses, "Ye twain and they who shall follow you, shall gain the day."
Allah is reassuring Moses, who has doubts about their escape from Egypt as he
negotiates with Pharaoh. Did Du Bois know of the Koranic reference? Or is it an
Africanism that resonated with Du Boius's African American imagination? It
would seem the latter, as he makes this song a second-stage (Afro-American)
song rather than an African one. Who was the "black and unknown bard"
to make such a reference into a spiritual during slavery?
Chapter | Title of Chapter | Chapter's Song | Significance of the song | Author | Title | Comment |
6 | Of the Training of Black Men | March On | the second, Afro-American, stage of Black music | Fitzgerald | "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" | Body a shame when souls can fly |