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Article: A Negro in Moscow
- Article from:
- Black Renaissance
- Article date:
- October 31, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Indiana University Press Oct 31, 1997. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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A Negro in Moscow
Abraham Hanibal: l'aïeul noir de Pouchkine
{Abraham Hannibal: Pushkin's Black Ancestor}
DIEUDONNÃ GNAMMANKOU.
Paris: Présence Africaine, 1996
Why does your wondrous pencil strive
My Moorish profile to elicit?
Your art will help it to survive,
But Mephistopheles will hiss it.
Draw Miss Olenin's face. To serve
His blazing inspiration's duty
The genius should spend his verve
On homage but to youth and beauty.
It is generally known that the great-grandfather of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was of African descent. Beyond this fact, however, little else is known about him. Much of the literature on Pushkin provides only vague and contradictory details about his ...