ENG 5480

[crystallizedchristelle-blog]

 Aside from being related to my topic for my research paper, I just really want to delve deeper into the “Mother Earth” stereotype/trope/theme that is often found when dealing with black women and their perceived connection with the earth.

I believe that it’s very important to look at the popular idea that the black woman has come from the earth and was harvested as a resources and spread thin during slavery. I like the idea that if the black woman was left alone, there would have been a power found within her as she would have had time for herself to create things. The image of Mama Day having weather manipulation at her finger tips is a great doorway into this topic.

When I made the connection that Mama Day has the same abilities as most favorite comic heroine–Storm–I could not help but to look at Storm in a different light. Both of these characters are involved in the theme of “Mother Earth” while one (Mama Day) seems to be more culturally influenced. 

Looking at this picture of storm reminded me of the cover of the novel. The hands are important to me as you can see their power coming towards their hands–a generator. Seeing black women’s hands and either being unable to see or focus on anything else, reminds me of the hard labor that they had to do. Aside from Storm’s hand’s in the picture–the over all essence of the drawing caught me as very Goddess-like. This got me thinking of many other pieces of art with black women depicted in the same presence as the universe. 

The image of a black woman as being in control of something so grand, something as huge as the cosmos is important to look at. Especially considering Mama Day’s heritage. 

Why did the creators of these women choose that ability? Both women are able to bend nature around them to their will–Mama Day in healing and assistance to her community while Storm is mainly a protector. What does this mean for the super-powered/paranormal inclined black woman in literature? I do not believe that Nylor was choosing lightly when giving Mama Day this ability. Do you believe that there was a hidden or special meaning behind Nylor gifting Mama Day’s heritage the way she did? 

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1988. Print

[foodf0rthought-blog1]

The women of the civil rights movement are more than often a forgetten group. Many people do not realize that they were the backbone of the movement. I chose this picture this week because I felt that it tied in well with this weeks readings of chapter 1-2 of The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Babmbara. The chapeters we readd this week focused heavily on the min character Velma’s past, and the dealing that she had with the men and women of the civil rights movement. One thing that stuck out to me was the author’s stressed importance of how thewomen of the movement never got the recognition or the equal treatment that they deserved, even though they were doing most of the work in the background. The women did the organizing, the campaigning, the raising of the funds, went to all the meanings, did amost of the planning. There is a good example of how women took a backseat to the men in the movement on page 26 in the book and it reads “Eight years before and five years before and three years before Jan had laid back when told to get back and had watched still another organization sacrificed on the alter of male ego”. And another example of how important women were to the movement can be found on page 27,”the men smoked and drummed their fingers on the tabletop and the women went on writing: so many receptions to cater, tickets to print, chickens to fry, cakes to box, posters to pres, so many gifts to exhort from downtown merchants for raffles and Bingo, ads to place, billboards to commandeer”, and the list goes on. I just thought this week I would highlight the women of the cvil rights movement because it already seems like it will be a theme in the novel. Women throughout history have been important, and I am glad that the author of the novel focused on their importance from the beginning of the book.

[foodf0rthought-blog1]

Thicker brain sections tied to spirituality: study

https://www.yahoo.com/news/thicker-brain-sections-tied-spirituality-study-191414460.html

The article I have chosen this week is written by Andrew M. Seaman and is about “ Parts of the brain’s outer layer, the cortex, were thicker in high-risk study participants who said religion or spirituality was “important” to them versus those who cared less about religion “, and how people with a high risk of depression could get some protection from spirituality. And I felt that the article tied into this week’s reading of Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters because the main focus of most of the chapters was on Velma’s mental health and her spirituality, as well was Minnie’s who was trying to spiritually heal Velma. Velma suffers from depression and Minnie is trying to get Velma’s “spirit” back in rhythm and sync because it is off beat, and many believe that is the cause of Velma’s depression, her spirit. If the studies done in this article are found to be true, then Velma’s mental health could have a chance to be saved by Minnie’s spiritual healing powers and practices, and have a chance at living a normal life again; something we might see by the end of this novel. Throughout the chapters we see read about Velma’s unraveling from her husband, her sister, her friends, and Velma her self, and the events leading up to her decision to commit suicide.All the while no treatment seems to help, until she is brought into the infirmary and attempts spiritual healing that seems to be working to bring her back to reality as far as I have read. I just cannot wait to read on to find out if this article can be proven, and if spirituality really does have an effect on the brain and can help protect a person from some mental illnesses.

[em-lit-wsu-blog]

She thought she knew that. At some point in her life she was sure Douglass, Tubman, the slave narratives, the songs, the fables, Delaney, Ida Wells, Blyden, DuBois, Garvey, the singers, her parents, Malcom, Cltrone, the poet, her comrades, her grandmother, her neighbors, had taught her that. Thought she knew how to build immunity to the sting of the serpent that turned would-be cells, could be cadres into cargo cults. Thought she knew how to built resistance, make the journey to the center of the circle, stay poised and centered in the work and not fly off, stay centered in the best of her people’s traditions and not be available to madness………

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.

In this passage Bambara describes the female struggle for power in a male dominant world of politics. To survive as a black female activist the character had to turn to history, literature and her community for help. When trying to meet the expectations of society towards black women she started questioning herself and her abilities. Velma’s journey reflects many of the historical figures mentioned in the passage to help the readers understand the self sacrifice that each one of them undertook.      

By going through this healing process the author is giving Velma an opportunity to be able to built a resistance, and to stand in the center of the circle which is her life. 

(via em-lit-wsu)

[tobefreelive-deactivated2016050]

Her bright-red flouncy dress drawn in at the waist with two different strips of kenti cloth, up to her elbows in a minor fortune of gold, brass and silver bangles, the silken fringe of the shawl shimmying at her armpits. Her head wrapped in some juicy hot-pink gelee, was tucked way back into her neck

This quote from Salt Eaters describes what Minnie looks like. Minnie’s appearance represents her method of healing because they way she is dressed is different from all the doctors and staff at the infirmary. All the other doctors,nurses and staff are all in uniform which represents the kind of care they are giving, whereas, Minnie is a physical representation of her own kind of healing she is giving. Just because she is not in uniform and is dresses differently doesn’t mean her method of healing is not going to help or cure Velma it just means it’s different. (via tobefreelive)

[sdassanayake7-blog]

“A Bunch of Birds Doing What Birds Do.”

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2014/06/08/lens-on-detroit-controversial-mens-rights-group-draws-protest/

On June 7, 2014, protesters insisted that Detroit’s Hilton Double-Tree Hotel cancel the Voice for Men International Conference on Men’s Issues due to the group’s notoriously “misogynistic” agenda and “dismissive [views regarding] sexual violence” (Neavling). According to Wayne State student of gender and culture, Kelly Jackson, Voice for Men is essentially “a hate group” ( Abbey-Lambertz). However, despite the presence of over 200 protesters and a petition of over 1,000 signatures calling for the cancellation of the conference, Voice for Men founder, Paul Elam, remained calm, encouraging protesters to “‘buy a ticket, come in and have a seat and let [Voice for Men]help you earn your way out of your ignorance’” (Abbey-Lambertz). 

Elam’s condescending attitude towards the feminist cause and the Hilton Double-Tree’s lengthy deliberation on the issue reflect years of failure to take the women’s rights movement seriously. In Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters, we see a similar response to Velma Henry and her fellow activists. Near the start of the novel, we see how the group’s driver, Fred Holt, views their rapid movement from one sociopolitical discussion to next as reason to refer them to a “good psychiatrist” (Bambara 67). Furthermore, when he witnesses the women partaking in traditionally masculine tasks like “[taking] apart machines” and handling cameras, he interprets the activities as implicitly sexual and perverse (Bambara 68). 

Although people have grown increasingly receptive to feminist ideology since the time period during which The Salt Eaters is set, clearly we have a long way to go. 

Abbey-Lambertz, Kate. “Controversial Men’s Right’s Conference Sparks Backlash.” Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 30 May 2014. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1980. Print.

Neavling, Steve. “Lens on Detroit: Controversial Men’s Rights Group Draws Protest.” Motor City Muckracker. Motor City Muckracker, 8 June 2014. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

[ravenannalove-blog]

In reading Trudier Harris’s “This Disease Called Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Characters,” one must consider the plight of the African American author to write at all. Toni Morrison, who Harris mentions within the essay, is well known for her dynamic black female characters and for her novels that push the boundaries of racial tension in surreal realities. In this interview, Morrison discusses the pressure imposed upon her to make what she refers to as “the white gaze” the dominant presence in her novels. Within the short clip, Morrison brought up several points that tie in directly to what Harris was getting at, and even expands upon the issue a bit. Toni Morrison was once asked when she’ll stop writing about race and why she excludes white characters from her novels. Looking deeper into that question, it would appear that the suggestion is that a “white voice” within the novel would somehow legitimize the work. That without such a presence, it can’t be taken seriously and won’t be palatable for the masses. Having as much credibility in the field as she does, it’s telling that even a writer of Morrison’s esteem would face such criticism and be subjected to that kind of pressure. Yet such is the dilemma of the African American writer in general. To put marginalized people at the forefront and to write about the things that impact them is being too exclusionary. However, the white gaze would make it universal? No matter what road the African American writer chooses to trot down, there will inevitably be some burden to bear. They simply cannot win.          

�����ѹl�q

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Gift of Hearing Voices

“I have a companion to talk to … I need not go out to speak. I can talk within myself!”

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/when-hearing-voices-is-a-good-thing/374863/

The article “When Hearing Voices is a Good Thing” discusses the idea that the way schizophrenics perceive auditory hallucinations may be linked to cultural context. The article focuses on a study led by Stanford anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann, where 60 people diagnosed with schizophrenia from Accra, Ghana, Chennai, India, and San Mateo, California were asked how many voices they heard, how often they heard them, and “what the voices were like” (Khazan). While all of the participants reported hearing both “good” and “bad” voices, the majority of schizophrenics from India and Ghana claimed to have mainly positive experiences with their hallucinations (Khazan). Many even described their voices as “friends” (Khanzan). In contrast, all of the American patients described predominantly negative, “violent” voices (Khazan). After analyzing this divided data, Luhrmann discerned that the polarization between the responses of the Americans and the other participants may be linked to differences in “societal values” (Khazan). According the Luhrmann, it is possible that due to the individualistic culture of the United States, the American schizophrenics may have viewed their hallucinations as “an intrusion into a self-made mind” (Khazan). However, the traditionally collectivist cultures of Ghana and India may have encouraged the participants from the two countries to view the hallucinations as mere additions to an “already extensive social network” (Khazan). 

The interpretation of the study described in “When Hearing Voices is a Good Thing” reminded me of Minnie Ransom’s relationship with Old Wife in Toni Bambara’s The Salt Eaters. Throughout the novel, Minnie maintains a dialogue with her “spirit guide,” Old Wife (Bambara 42). While others view Minnie as  “batty,” she views her connection to Old Wife as part of her “gift” (Bambara 51). This unorthodox perception of what most Americans consider mental illness could be linked to Minnie’s ties to African healing traditions. Although Minnie is American, her attire and healing methods reflect strong ties to her African roots (Bambara 4).  Therefore, perhaps she shares the more positive attitudes regarding auditory hallucinations found in various African cultures. 

Both “When Hearing Voices in a Good Thing” and The Salt Eaters address the question of defining illness. To what extent does the world determine what’s wrong with us? To what extent can we determine this ourselves? 

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1980. Print.

Khazan, Olga. “When Hearing Voices Is a Good Thing.” The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group, 23 July 2014. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

[zestyzeinabeng5480-blog]

Emotional Healing

Bambara, Toni Cade. The Salt Eaters. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.

Harris, Trader. “This Disease Called Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Character.” Wayne State University Libraries. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

In the novel “The Salt Eaters,’ and the article “This Disease Called Strength,” I have found many parallels, mainly, the idea of strength and healing in Black women. The two works share a focus on the emotional healing of Black women and the belief that it is okay to feel pain. In “The Salt Eaters,” I felt very affected by Minnie’s words about one of her patients who had just lost her mother.  “So I say, Sweetheart, what’s the matter? And she says ‘My mama died and I feel so bad, I can’t go on’ and dah dah dah. Her mama died, she’s supposed to feel bad. Expect to feel good when ya mama’s gone! Climbed right into my lap,” (Bambara 8). At this point in the novel, I realized the tendency of Black women to feel like they must always be strong, or at least appear to be. Although this patient was just one example thus far, she seems to represent a more general population of Black women, and the attitude of maintaining emotional strength. When Minnie’s patient lost her mother, and felt a very natural and expected pain, she didn’t know how to except the pain she was feeling. Instead, Minnie says that the patient expected to feel happy all the time. To me, this spoke a lot more about society than it did about the individual patient. I did not see her expectations to be happy all the time as a result of her own misconception of the hardships of life and the pain that comes with them. Instead, I saw her push back against her pain as a result of society’s expectation placed on Black females to appear to be strong, happy, and well put together… at all times! This idea society has that a Black woman is not affected by life’s pains in turn results in an unawareness of the normal emotional battles young women deal with, by young Black women. This unawareness could then lead a young Black woman to feel like being sad or heartbroken is not natural, and that she is mentally ill because of it.

Society’s idea of all Black women being “strong” is thoroughly discussed in Trudier Harris’ “This Disease Called Strength.” Harris describes how this attachment of “strength” to Black women is actually more harmful than it is positive. By having to live up to the strong image of herself, a Black woman is forced to be only that - strong. In turn, just as Minnie’s patient feeling extreme emotional pain for the first time, the Black woman begins to feel like something is wrong with her for feeling pain. She will also feel like she is weak for not being as “strong” as this fictional Black woman who is not affected by any emotional distress. Also, as a result of society’s expectations of Black women, they begin to feel alienated from the rest of society. How could a Black woman relay feelings of pain and sadness to people when she is expected to be strong?

Overall, the word “strength,” truly is an epidemic when placed on an entire group of people. An individual Black woman may be strong. All Black women may be strong. But to say for certain that all Black women are strong places unrealistic expectations for Black women within themselves, resulting in even deeper emotional distress. 

[spookypatroldetective-blog]

“Here’s What the Real Colors of the Kente Cloth Actually Mean”

“Minnie Ransom herself, the fabled healer of the district, her bright-red flouncy dress drawn in at the waist with two different strips of kenti cloth, up to her elbows in a minor fortune of gold brass and silver bangles, the silken fringe of the shawl shimmying at her armpits.”

In this rather interesting description of Minnie Ransom - a character from Toni Cade Bambara’s novel, “The Salt Eaters” - why did the kente cloth stand out? It stood out because of what the colors of the cloth mean. According to Ofori-Mensa, while the clothe is made by the people of the Asante and Ewe, the colors are what hold the most meaning: “Red: sacrifice, Yellow: royalty, Green: earth, Blue: shy, Heaven, Black: strength.” The meaning behind the colors seem to describe Minnie Ransom’s character. She is a ‘healer’ but more spiritual and connected to African Diasporic Religions and their practices in using nature and natural elements to heal.

Bambara, Toni Cade. “The Salt Eaters” Vintage Books (New York)1980 p. 3 www.omgvoice.com

[spookypatroldetective-blog]

“Enough With The Strong Black Woman Mantra”

“You need to be a STRONG black woman”! “Black Women are Strength”! “You don’t need nobody, be a Strong Black Woman”! And so on and so forth. These are just some of the thinks I’ve heard my whole life. I am a black woman and sometimes I feel that society will only look at me in one of two ways: Strong or Whore. There seems to be no in between or middle ground. There are definitely no complexities that I might grasp onto to be seen as an individual. It is akin to when boys are taught at a young age that ‘boys don’t cry’. Well 'black women are strong’ and there is no room for anything else. So how do we change this? Is there a way to change this? Trudier Harris suggest that we must first recognized the label of strength when applied - when applied to black women as a positive thing - is really a disease. But in thinking of it this way we must understand that diseases are notoriously hard to cure and many will suffer before there is one available.

Harris, Trudier. “This Disease of Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Character” The John Hopkins University Press (Literature and Medicine) 1995 www.yourblackeducation.com

[dddubose]

Depression, Black Superwoman Syndrome, and Suicide

She was the founder of For Brown Girls and, later, the #DarkSkinRedLip Project, as well as several online movements celebrating…

                                     Suffering Alone

She Tried to withdraw as she’d been doing for weeks and weeks. Withdraw the self to a safe place where husband, lover, teacher, workers, no one could follow, probe.

All Velma could summon now before her eyes were the things of her kitchen, those things she’d sought while hunting for the end. Leaves, grasses, buds dry but alive and still in jars stuffed with cork, alive but inert on the shelf of oak, alive but arrested over the stove next to the match box she’s reached toward out of habit, forgetting she did not want the fire, she only wanted the gas.

In The Salt Eaters Velma seems to be a women of great strength. She’s a community activist, has a wonderful career, a husband and son who she loves and who loves her right? So in some peoples eyes she had a great life.  However, Velma’s life was not all what it seemed. She was suffering from severe depression but no one noticed until it was too late and she ended up in an infirmary after trying to take her own life. Often in the African American Community things such as depression and mental illness go unnoticed until it is to late. For African American women who are supposed to be the pillar of strength, the mother figure, the one every body can depend on it can become too much. However, the African American women often have no help coping because if depression is mentioned they are told to pray and let God handle it. They are often discouraged from seeking the medical treatment they need.  African American women are treated like superwomen and the article that I am sharing tells the sad story of how two African American women that everyone assumed had everything going right killed themselves. It it like when a black woman is depressed she has to find some type of way to deal with the problem as often she doesn’t want to be shunned by the people in her own community. I plan to obtain my PhD in Psychology and I have often had people in my family question my decision to become a psychologist, insisting that black people don’t believe in that mess. It is a sad shame that so many African American women have had to suffer alone and have even taken their own lives because they never sought help. I feel that African Americans really need to become aware that mental illness is real and that it is okay to seek help if they are suffering. But if they never seek the help we will continue to see suicide rates increase in the African American community. 

[nabilahwrites-blog]

‘Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well?’

Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters

(via nabilahwrites)

[dddubose]

Depression, Black Superwoman Syndrome, and Suicide

She was the founder of For Brown Girls and, later, the #DarkSkinRedLip Project, as well as several online movements celebrating…

                                     Suffering Alone

She Tried to withdraw as she’d been doing for weeks and weeks. Withdraw the self to a safe place where husband, lover, teacher, workers, no one could follow, probe.

All Velma could summon now before her eyes were the things of her kitchen, those things she’d sought while hunting for the end. Leaves, grasses, buds dry but alive and still in jars stuffed with cork, alive but inert on the shelf of oak, alive but arrested over the stove next to the match box she’s reached toward out of habit, forgetting she did not want the fire, she only wanted the gas.

In The Salt Eaters Velma seems to be a women of great strength. She’s a community activist, has a wonderful career, a husband and son who she loves and who loves her right? So in some peoples eyes she had a great life.  However, Velma’s life was not all what it seemed. She was suffering from severe depression but no one noticed until it was too late and she ended up in an infirmary after trying to take her own life. Often in the African American Community things such as depression and mental illness go unnoticed until it is to late. For African American women who are supposed to be the pillar of strength, the mother figure, the one every body can depend on it can become too much. However, the African American women often have no help coping because if depression is mentioned they are told to pray and let God handle it. They are often discouraged from seeking the medical treatment they need.  African American women are treated like superwomen and the article that I am sharing tells the sad story of how two African American women that everyone assumed had everything going right killed themselves. It it like when a black woman is depressed she has to find some type of way to deal with the problem as often she doesn’t want to be shunned by the people in her own community. I plan to obtain my PhD in Psychology and I have often had people in my family question my decision to become a psychologist, insisting that black people don’t believe in that mess. It is a sad shame that so many African American women have had to suffer alone and have even taken their own lives because they never sought help. I feel that African Americans really need to become aware that mental illness is real and that it is okay to seek help if they are suffering. But if they never seek the help we will continue to see suicide rates increase in the African American community. 

[ravenannalove-blog]

In reading Trudier Harris’s “This Disease Called Strength: Some Observations on the Compensating Construction of Black Female Characters,” one must consider the plight of the African American author to write at all. Toni Morrison, who Harris mentions within the essay, is well known for her dynamic black female characters and for her novels that push the boundaries of racial tension in surreal realities. In this interview, Morrison discusses the pressure imposed upon her to make what she refers to as “the white gaze” the dominant presence in her novels. Within the short clip, Morrison brought up several points that tie in directly to what Harris was getting at, and even expands upon the issue a bit. Toni Morrison was once asked when she’ll stop writing about race and why she excludes white characters from her novels. Looking deeper into that question, it would appear that the suggestion is that a “white voice” within the novel would somehow legitimize the work. That without such a presence, it can’t be taken seriously and won’t be palatable for the masses. Having as much credibility in the field as she does, it’s telling that even a writer of Morrison’s esteem would face such criticism and be subjected to that kind of pressure. Yet such is the dilemma of the African American writer in general. To put marginalized people at the forefront and to write about the things that impact them is being too exclusionary. However, the white gaze would make it universal? No matter what road the African American writer chooses to trot down, there will inevitably be some burden to bear. They simply cannot win.          

�����ѹl�q

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Plight and Power of the Conjurer

“JACK PRITCHARD – The Court, after deliberately considering all the circumstances of you case, are perfectly satisfied of your guilt. In the prosecution of your wicked designs, you were not satisfied with resorting to natural and ordinary means, but endeavored to enlist on your behalf, all the powers of darkness, and employed for that purpose, the most disgusting mummery and superstition.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h497t.html

The excerpt above is from a transcript of Jack Pritchard’s (“Gullah Jack”) trial sentence. A notoriously powerful African conjureman, Gullah Jack was charged with helping  Denmark Vesey organize a rebellion of free and enslaved African Americans in Charleston, South Carolina in 1822 (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). As a distinguished priest in Charleston’s African American community, Vesey sought to combat the white authorities’ repression of the black church (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). However, the rebellion was stopped in its tracks and Vesey and Gullah Jack were executed (”The Vesey Conspiracy”). 

While the transcript implicitly claims to condemn Gullah Jack on a legal level, the Presiding Magistrate,  L.H Kennedy, seemed more concerned with Gullah Jack’s use of “all the powers of darkness” in his “wicked designs” (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). In fact, most of the transcript records Kennedy’s disgust towards Gullah Jack’s “charms,” “altars,” and “gods” (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). Although Kennedy’s hatred for Gullah Jack is all but palpable in the document, I could not help noticing the traces of fear woven into the magistrate’s self-righteous rhetoric. I felt as if each bold condemnation possessed a degree of uncertainty-as if Kennedy half believed that “the airy spectres, conjured by [Gullah Jack]” could come back if the man remained alive (”Sentence of Gullah Jack”). 

Gullah Jack’s powerful role in the Vesey Conspiracy reminded me of Mama Day’s position in Willow Springs in Gloria Naylor’s novel, Mama Day. Despite Dr. Buzzard and Dr. Smithfield’s medical titles, the residents of Willow Springs place their faith in Mama Day’s healing expertise. Even when Bernice takes pills from Dr. Smithfield’s office, she insists on consulting Mama Day after she experiences side effects (Naylor 72). Ultimately, Mama Day and Gullah Jack’s influence over their communities illustrates racial division based on spiritualism and healing. In both situations, we see a black population gravitating towards non-normative practices that challenge the influence of the dominant ideology. From the obvious friction between the black church and white authorities in Charleston, 1822, to the subtle tension between Willow Springs and the mainland in Mama Day, it is clear that the conjurer was a force to be reckoned with. 

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988. Print.

“Sentence of Gullah Jack.” Slave Insurrections: Selected Documents. Connecticut: Negro Universities, 1970. 1-114. PBS-Africans in America. PBS. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

“The Vesey Conspiracy.” PBS-Africans in America. PBS. Web. 6 Mar. 2016.

[sdassanayake7-blog]

The Magic of Tradition

“ On Willow Springs, the Day family, a community of women, preserve their cultural memory through the repetition of material practices that include cooking and weaving, and through the transmission of personal and communal stories.” 

In Daphne Lamothe’s essay, “Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day: bridging roots and routes,” Lamothe discusses the relationship between magic, culture, and maintaining tradition. While the novel frequently emphasizes the role of the “true conjure woman,” Sapphira Wade, and her magical descendants, Lamothe suggests that the magic of Willow Springs also presents itself through  daily practices of the female residents  (Naylor 3), (Lamothe 155). The essay discusses how “material practices” like “cooking and weaving… [along with] the transmission of personal and communal stories” serve as means through which the residents of Willow Springs retain cultural identity (Lamothe 155). Thus, Lamothe equates these more mundane activities with magic in terms of cultural relevance. Furthermore, the essay also discusses Willow Springs’ isolation from the mainland, illustrating how geography permits a degree of resistance to “Western” influence on the island (Lamothe 156). The town’s geographic and cultural distance from the rest of the United States implies that Sapphira Wade’s magic can only exist within such a controlled environment. 

Ultimately, Lamothe’s piece made me wonder if the magic in Mama Day should be interpreted literally. Perhaps the magic of Willow Spring’s is not so much about actual supernatural power as it is about the combination of culture and history that thrives in the town. Just as Sapphira Wade’s power was passed down to Mama Day, recipes and stories survive generations in Willow Springs. Perhaps Willow Springs is simply colored by the magic of tradition.

Lamothe, Daphne. "Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day: Bridging Roots and Routes.” African American Review 39 (2005): 155-69. Biography in Context [Gale]. Web. 29 Feb. 2016. 

Naylor, Gloria. Mama Day. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988. Print.