www.pergerakankebangsaaan.com
02-10-2019
Siapa mengira sebuah karya photography menginspirasi sebuah puisi. Abel Meeropol seorang Yahudi-Amerika dengan nama samaran Lewis Allan menulis puisi sebagai protes melawan lynchings yang ditampakkan melalui foto karya Lewrence Henry Beitler. Foto karya tahun 1930 itu terlalu sadis untuk ditampilkan di sini karena menampakkan 2 orang kulit hitam, Thomas Shipp dan Abram Smith tergantung dengan orang-orang sekitar nampak ‘sibuk’ berkerumun menonton. Tujuh tahun setelah foto itu beredar, tahun 1937 Abel Meeropol menulis puisi dengan judul ‘Bitter Fruit’ di The New York Teacher, sebuah majalah yang diterbitkan perkumpulan guru-guru. Dua tahun kemudian, 1939, puisi ini menggerakkan Billie Holiday yang juga berkulit hitam untuk menyanyikan dan merekamnya dalam ranah jazz, dengan judul lagu ‘Strange Fruit’[*] dan liriknya adalah puisi Abel Meeropol tersebut.
Billie Holiday
Akhir abad 19 dan awal abad 20 adalah rentang waktu yang ‘penuh kesibukan’ dalam perkembangan komunikasi ataupun juga telekomunikasi. Pada rentang waktu itu berkembanglah telegram, telepon, dan bahkan radio. Juga photography dan juga alat perekam suara, dan bahkan alat perekam gerakan, film. Juga pengeras suara. Dan tentu tidak ketinggalan juga, televisi. Tidak hanya Billie Holiday yang kemudian mampu ‘berenang di atas gelombang’ perkembangan tekhnologi komunikasi itu, tetapi juga Hitler di seberang lautan sana.
Apakah Hitler akan menjadi sosok Hitler yang kita kenal dari sejarah jika tidak ada penemuan radio dan pengeras suara itu? Menurut Walter J. Ong, suara, sound, akan cenderung mempersatukan. Dan bayangkan jika orang berkumpul dalam satu lapangan dan ada kaum Sophis di depan pengeras suara mulai bicara. Tidak hanya itu, tetapi juga disiarkan secara langsung lewat radio-radio. Tekhnologi memang pada dasarnya mempunyai dua sisi, sisi terang dan sisi gelap. Atau lebih tepatnya bukan tekhnologiya, tetapi adalah ‘man behind the gun’-nya. Billie Holiday dengan tekak-tekuk suara merdunya menyelusup menyentuh hati dan mendorong gerakan sipil di AS terkait dengan persamaan hak kulit hitam. Hitler melalui radio dan pengeras suara itu, berhasil mengkooptasi pikiran dan hati banyak warganya untuk melakukan hal sebaliknya.
Seratus tahun kemudian, ketika abad 20 menjelang berakhir dan abad 21 beranjak mulai kehidupan-nya, tekhnologi komunikasi mengalami perkembangan baru yang juga sungguh menggetarkan, era digital. Dan di salah satu tempat di planet ini, ada yang sedang mengikuti jejak-jejak Hitler. Tidak hanya ‘berselancar di atas gelombang perkembangan tekhnologi’ untuk mengkooptasi hati orang-per-orang warganya yang out-comenya itu adalah sebuah fanatisme buta yang bisa-bisa akan melanjut pada ‘banality of evil’ itu, tetapi juga untuk menebar bermacam fitnah, bermacam pelintiran informasi, dan bermacam lagi laku-laku yang berasal dari sisi gelap manusia. Kalau fitnah dan pelintirannya terbuka kedok-nya, pentungan yang kemudian maju. Sedang Hitler-nya, atau tepatnya boneka Hitler yang sedang dimainkan sang-dalang ‘the real Hitler’ ini, cukup dengan cengèngèsan saja –dan bahkan mungkin sangat menikmati, melihat ‘para pendukung’-nya beserta ‘piaraan’-nya itu terus berdengung liar tanpa henti menyesaki ruang-ruang publik. Sementara banyak musisinya masuk kelas medioker dengan ikut-ikutan cengèngèsan miskin empati, berdendang yang jauh dari memberikan inspirasi layaknya seorang Billie Holiday. Atau seorang WS Rendra dalam berpuisi. *** (02-10-2019)
WS Rendra
[*]
Strange Fruit
[Verse 1]
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
[Verse 2]
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
[Verse 3]
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
https://genius.com/Billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lyrics
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Quick Thought
We're picking up on two tree metaphors here. First you've got the tree, which is usually a symbol of life, being turned into a symbol of death. At the same time, songwriter Abel Meeropol seems to be making an allusion to family trees.
Deep Thought
Most of the time, trees are symbols of life. Makes sense, right? They're beautiful living things upon which all life on Earth depends.
The trees that Meeropol writes about here, however, are spattered with blood. Instead of apples and oranges, they bear the grisly fruit of racial terrorism: the dead bodies of lynched Blacks. In his reference to bloody leaves and roots, Meeropol seems to be extending his metaphor further, invoking family trees—charts that show a family's bloodlines. The topmost branches usually represent the most recent family members, while the lower ones and the roots represent more ancient ancestors.
Meeropol's tree has "blood on the leaves and blood at the root," showing that both recent and older generations of African Americans have experienced the same sort of violent persecution.
Black bodies swinging in the Southern breeze
Quick Thought
Lynching was a brutal and tragically common method of preserving white supremacy through the terrorization of African Americans.
Deep Thought
The practice of lynching was a horrific crime against humanity. It was practiced widely in the South in the late 19th century and continued well into to the 20th.
While "lynch mobs" didn't exclusively target Blacks, nearly four out of every five lynching victims in America was Black. Between the 1870s and the 1950s, thousands of Southern Blacks were murdered in lynching incidents, often before cheering crowds of whites.
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Quick Thought
Poplar trees encompass a wide variety of North American trees. Some familiar ones are the cottonwood, aspen, and balsam poplars.
Deep Thought
A common and distinct species is the Lombardy Poplar, which is unmistakably upright. These were the trees planted in public places in ancient Rome and Greece.
In the 19th century, the United Stages was hit by a wave of Neo-Classical architecture, a style inspired by these two ancient cultures. The Neo-Classical trend also inspired the planting of tons of poplar trees, particularly in the South.
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Quick Thought
The magnolia is one of the trademark tree species of the American South.
Deep Thought
These magnolias are, as the song says, very sweet smelling. They grow just about everywhere in the South, from northern Virginia down to Florida, and out west into Texas. The flowers of the magnolia are huge and white.
The Southern Magnolia is both the state tree and flower of Mississippi, and it is the state flower of Louisiana. The tree is found so commonly throughout the South that it has become a symbol of the entire region.
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Quick Thought
After a victim was lynched, his body would be left hanging for some time.
Deep Thought
Lynchings were meant to be a public spectacle—not a private way of punishing someone guilty of a crime. Often victims weren't formally charged and rarely had the opportunity for due process of law. Typically, the law seemed to hardly even matter.
In 1891, 11 Italian-Americans were lynched after being acquitted for the murder on an Irish police chief. Lynchings were largely a form of social control—a warning to those (typically ethnic) Americans who challenged the existing social order.
Often, lynchings were timed for optimal newspaper coverage and were even photographed to be sold on postcards. Sometimes they were large, organized events that even children went to see.
https://www.shmoop.com/strange-fruit/lyrics.html
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