African Pageant featuring Madikane Cele

One hundred years ago today … “M. Q. Cele, a native of Zululand, South Africa, with three other native Africans, gave an excellent pageant of native life in Africa at the Manhattan Casino” – according to the New York Age (“Manhattan and the Bronx.” New York Age, 22 October 1921, p. 8). The ads called it "The Greatest African Pageant Ever Given."

The 1921 photograph below of Cele in Zulu costume, with spear, is likely publicity material for the event.

Two days before the pageant at the Casino, Cele had given an address at the Abyssinian Baptist Church. The pageant appeared for one night in Harlem, then moved on, playing in Nutley, New Jersey five days later.

Madikane Cele was a Zulu Nation anthropologist and political figure. In 1920, he had published Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, which you can read in its entirety here.

During his 1921 trip to the US, he had tried to meet with W.E.B. Du Bois. When that fell through, he wrote Du Bois critiquing Marcus Garvey:

When I see the white man trying to ruin Africa for I know his object but for a black man try to ruin his own homes that makes my blood boil within me… Garvey's movement is nothing, but it is something enough to throw Africa 100 years back. 

NY1920s has reported on Du Bois and Garvey both separately often and together in several posts, such as this guest article by William J. Maxwell from August 1, 2020.

 – Jonathan Goldman, Oct 13, 2021

TAGS: Africa, Black history, Harlem, Pan-Africa