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Tracie Church Guzzio
Touré, Askia Muhammad (Roland
Snellings) (1938– )
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, poet, musi-
cian, educator, and community activist-artist
Askia Touré, along with AMIRI BARAKA and LARRY
NEAL, was one of the architects of the BLACK ARTS
MOVEMENT. A participant in the Umbra workshop
founded by DAVID HENDERSON, Touré, a former air
force enlistee, coauthored the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Black Power
“Position Paper.” With SONIA SANCHEZ and Baraka,
Touré helped build one of the first black studies
programs in the country at San Francisco State
University. His political vision, sense of commu-
nity, and Afrocentric perspective are reflected in the
name he has claimed for his own: Askia Touré is the
name of a 16th-century African king who united
the entire central region of the Western Sudan.
The author of five books of poetry, including
Earth (1968), Juju: Magic Songs for the Black Na-
tion (with Ben Caldwell, 1970), Songhai! (1972),
the American Book Award-winning From the Pyra-
mids to the Projects (1990), and Dawnsong! (1999),
Touré writes with revolutionary fervor of “the
dawn of Socialism’s promise” in “CUBA: A LOVE-
SONG!” and celebrates exiled Black Panther activ-
ist Assata Shakur as an “African freedom fighter, a
warrior-spirit in the mold of Harriet Tubman in
Palenque Queen by Habana’s Shores.” But, as he
does in “The Frontier of Rage,” Touré also calls at-
tention to the destructive consequence of racism
on black male/female relationships:The frontier of rage that exists
between Black men and women
is an open wound slowly
dripping through the years
causing us to miss each other, dismembered
by our needs and self-righteous vindications
of our egos.Among his more recent works, Dawnsong! en-
gages Egyptian myths of birth, death, and re-
birth, particularly the myths of Isis and Osiris.
The tonality and phrasing of his poetry is often
grounded in African-American music, especially
gospel, rhythm & blues and jazz. He was deeply
influenced by John Coltrane. In summary, Touré’s
first love, African-American music, continues to
center his life and work. When combined with
his black nationalism, cosmic perspective, and
Islamic faith, the result, like “Extensions,” is a de-
mand for black spiritual renewal, transformation
and transcendence: “BROTHERS: Fools, you can’t
beat the Devil at his game. / You are men of the
Spirit—earth-gods; reclaim your thrones!” (Un-
derstanding a New Black Poetry 304–306)
THIRD WORLD Press published Touré’s poetry,
which also appeared in Negro Digest/BLACK WORLD,
Black Scholar, Liberator, and Freedomways.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Henderson, Stephen. Understanding the New Black
Poe t r y. New York: William Morrow & Company,
1973.
Miller, E. Ethelbert, ed. In Search of Color Everywhere:
A Collection of African American Poetry. New York:
Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1994.Touré, Askia Muhammad 503