Module 1
Toni Bambara Cade’s series of writings are instrumental in correcting the largely absent “herstory” of African American studies. Born in the United States, Bambara uses her writing pieces to enlighten the community and communicate what had not been said by earlier writers. Cade had a series of writings which mostly included short stories. She goes ahead to refer to herself as a short story writer, referring to her literary preference. Echoing herself as a short story writer, Cade refers to herself as a sprinter rather than a long-distance runner. She says that big books give the reader a different point of view compared to short stories. Cade concludes that short stories have a faster impact on a reader’s life compared to long novels, which take a lot of time to read and digest.
Her first short story compilation, Gorilla, My Love, was first published in 1972, and since then, it has never left the printing press, something which shows how impactful the book on people’s lives. This book consists of fifteen short stories, including Sweet Town, The Lesson, The survivor, and Mississippi Ham Rider, to mention a few. In this book, all the fifteen main characters are women, some speaking directly while others narrate. These short stories are female-dominated as minor characters, be it adolescents or children, are also female gender. Cade uses her stories to fill the gaps that had been historically left blank. Before her, many of the righters were men who though black as Cade, only advocated for their fellow men. Cade’s characters are portrayed to have strong feminist views in the society they live in. In the short story The Lesson, for example, Sylvia is brought out to hold strong feminist views as she fights for the black woman’s rights in the ghetto neighborhood she resides. As part of her writing styles, Cade uses the African American Vernacular English to express herself in her works. Sylvia stands out for what is right for her because her parents were not there to guide her through her life as parents should do since she comes from the ghetto where people toil all day to make ends meet.
Though the black woman is seen by society during her time to be black, ugly, and poor, Cade urges that this should not prove to be her limitations, and she should arrive to achieve what she wants. Cade is an inspiration to other upcoming feminist writers like Toni Morison, who continue to push for recognizing the black woman in society. Cade has written many influential short stories about the black woman who are being read even until now, which shows that her works are still changing the world’s perception of women. In her interview with Guy, Cade makes it clear that her books are not only for the poor black woman but also for the privileged white women. Cade’s works serve as a basis and enlightenment for all the women who have ever had an urge to portray their feminist views through writing.
In the short story The Lesson, Sylvia’s self-confidence, creativity, and assertiveness are inspired by three major factors. These factors include where she comes from; this includes the economic status, the people around who influence her the most, and how she is raised. Sylvia is a resident of New York’s ghetto. A neighborhood with only working-class people. A ghetto depicts that her family is languishing in poverty, and they cannot afford most of the things they need. As a twelve-year-old girl, this means that she does not spend a reasonable amount of time with her parents to take her through her adolescence since they are away toiling to bring something to the table. Parental negligence creates a different behavior in Sylvia. She speaks her mind with confidence whenever she needs to. Also, coming from a have-not background enables her to speak the African American Vernacular English because she does not attend school for her to speak ‘standard English.’ Sylvia, a black woman from a poor family that lives in the ghetto, tries to show that not even race, background, or gender can deter a determined soul from reaching its goals. Cade gives Sylvia the voice to speak for the voiceless black woman who is looked down upon because of her color, gender, and financial status. Sylvia can do this with a lot of assertiveness, self- confidence as well as creativity.
In her interview, Cade explains that the money incentive does not inspire her desire to write since short stories are not a source of sound money. She admits that she started to write because she observed that the writing industry was male-dominated and only pushed for their agenda. Cade started to write to speak for the poor, ugly, black woman who was voiceless.
On reading some of Toni Cade’s works, I have developed a deeper understanding of the history of racism. Her work Gorilla, My Love, which was first published with the African American Vernacular English title ‘I ain’t lyin’, am Hurtin’ seats with me as a forecast of George Floyd’s brutality in the hands of the police. As he complained about how he was hurting and could not breathe, this white racist police man could not let him go.
Module 4
Lovejoy’s The Africans in Diaspora: A revisionist interpretation of ethnicity, religion, and culture under slavery tries to explain black people’s origin in the Americas. Most of the Africans got to these countries through slavery. Lovejoy revisits their original homelands to trace exactly where they came from, including their culture and religion. Most of these slaves came from West Africa, which is evident in Benin, where many of the prisons where they were held captive before being transported using the trans-Atlantic trade are still evident. These places are now museums that hold a deep and painful story of what these Africans went through before getting to their slavery destinations.
One of the concrete pieces of evidence is the king’s brick wall that is still stained with blood from the slaves who were brutally beaten and others even sacrificed by their masters who had bought them. Slaves were captured for different reasons; some were political prisoners; those who faced religious persecution were also sold, while their community heads sold others due to financial bankruptcy. On reaching their slavery destinations, these slaves still lived in small communities that shared some common factors, for example, language or religion. Their slave masters or hosts respected these communities and used them in their division of labor. The communities which shared a particular language could have at one time discussed their origin to help them reconstruct their past. Lovejoy tries to bridge the gap that existed in slavery as a topic. Most writers and journalists are only interested in the slaves in the Americas, neglecting or rather ignoring how these slaves got to the Americas and their places of origin.
As we attempt to redress African Americans’ silence within the dominant canon of US history, Lovejoy’s piece of work gives us a greater scope of information on what exactly happened during this time. Revisiting the core slavery departing points is a fundamental step because first-hand information can be obtained. In the republic of Benin, for instance, there is rich information concerning the topic of slavery. Several museums still exist which give out information about how the Trans- Atlantic slave trade was undertaken. West Africa is a major contributor and participant in slavery because it was the main source of slaves. Slave masters preferred heavily built young men who could work in plantation farms. The slaves were also deported back to West Africa after the industrial revolution since they were surplus to the masters’ requirements. Through testimonies from former slaves, we can also understand their brutality in their white slave masters’ hands as they worked in the plantation farms.
Oral histories can be viewed as a “revisionist” approach to the historical study of Jim Crow, the great migration, and the civil rights movements because they share the same topics of interest only that oral histories seem to be more detailed and have a greater scope. Lovejoy’s work, for instance, tries to establish the origin of slaves who occupied the Americas. It identified how things came to be they are today. For example, the issue of racism dates from way back in history. Most of the writers only concentrate on current events such as racism, not giving a deeper focus on how it came to be the way it is. Through oral histories, we can reconstruct all these issues, including civil rights movements, Jim Crow, and the great migration, to be understood better.
Oral history follows several methodological considerations put in place. This methodology is based on several academic disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, journalism, history, sociology, and law. These academic disciplines have contributed a lot to the art of interviewing and helps an oral historian come up with a detailed work of oral history. The methodology used in oral history often involves three important tasks; preliminary research and coming up with a research design, writing a treatment, and completing the interview.
The preliminary research includes several interrelated steps. The literature research consists of both primary and secondary historical records on the subject. A file is prepared to contain the subject’s life experience and the time to be covered during the interview. A biographical file is also of importance. It should consist of articles, journals, and book reviews. To obtain a good depth of information, the interviews should be conducted in a certain order. The subject should also be prepared early to avoid inconveniences on a material day. The subject should be told what the interview is all about and also the information to be obtained. Treatment should also be designed to identify the scope of information that the subject has. This should be brief, and its main purpose is to avoid wasting precious time on subjects who lack the needed information. After the interview is done, the information obtained is then compiled into oral history.
Including demographic details in oral history is a no-brainer because many oral historical topics focus mainly on age, race, and sex. Some of these oral history works touch on employment, marriage, death, and birth rates, and it will be impossible to discuss them without including the demographic details. The oral historical issue of slavery, for example, will be incomplete if the writer does not include the race, where black people were the ones taken into slavery, the sex where women who could sire more children attracted handsome prices than those who could not, and gender where mostly young masculine men were the ones who were taken during the slave raids in Africa.
Oral history also focuses on the geography and social relationships of the subject. To obtain more information, oral historians should identify why the subject lives or lived where they are. The social relationship can also enable the interviewer to identify the subject’s social set up and thus understand them more. In slavery, for example, the slaves lived in communities based on either the religion or the language they speak. This social relationship is essential for an oral historian as it shows the building blocks each community is made of.
When dealing with issues that happened years ago chronologically, it is common for one to bump into biographical accounts. These biographical accounts help explain something that happened some years back, which helps shape the world we live in today.
The weakest part of oral history is not able to assess the chronology and time an event happened. As time goes by, communities with no calendars either grow to be vaguer or come up with methods to record their historical happenings in the past. In the past centuries, an account of time was kept by the king’s lists and genealogies. Though dynasty changes and lack of multiple reigns can be challenging while using the king’s list to record time, it was the standard method used during earlier centuries when the universal calendar had not been introduced.