BLACK MOTHERHOOD. Blvck Vrchives
“Black maternity has culturally and historically been mythologized and black mothers stereotyped. A revisionist Morrison challenges the validity of the historical documentation of black culture and especially the role and significance of women in constructing this culture. Her revision of the concept of the black motherhood is a major step toward correcting the historical records concerning black maternity which is just another form of victimization of the black woman, society’ exploitation of the mother-child bond. “
-Demystifying the Myth of Motherhood: Toni Morrison’s Revision of African American Mother Stereotypes
Toni Morrison’s standpoint on black motherhood enables black women to resist these negative evaluations of black motherhood by re-articulating the power that is inherent in black women’s everyday experiences of motherhood. This re-articulation centers upon a reaffirmation of the traditional roles and beliefs of black motherhood that gives rise to Morrison’s theory of motherhood as a spite of power for black women and her theory of motherwork as an enterprise concerned with the empowerment of children…Black women raise children in a society that is at best indifferent to the needs of black children and the concerns of black mothers. The focus of black motherhood, in both practice and thought, is how to preserve, protect, and more generally empower black children so that they may resist racist practices that seek to harm them and grow into adulthood whole and complete…The experience of slavery saw the translation of othermothing to new settings since the care of children was an expected task of enslaved Black women in addition to the field or house duties. The familial instability of slavery endangered the adaptation of communality in the form of fostering children whose parents, particularly mothers, had been sold.This tradition of communality gave rise to the practice of othermothering. The survival of the concept is inherent to the survival of Black people as a whole since it allowed for the provision of care to extended family and non blood relations. The practice of othermothering remains central to African American tradition of motherhood and is regarded as essential for the survival of black people…
When a woman today comes to understand her life story as a story from the Motherline, she gains femal authority in a number of ways. First, her Motherline grounds her in her feminine nature as she struggles with the many options now open to women… Second, she reclaims carnal knowledge of her own body, its blood mysteries and their power…Third, as she makes the journey back to her roots, she will encounter ancestors who struggled with similar difficulties in different historical times. This provides her with a life-cycle perspective that softens her immediate situation. Fourth, she uncovers her connection to the archetypal mother and to the wisdom of the ancient worldview, which holds that body and soul are one and all life is interconnected. And, finally, she reclaims her female perspective, from which to consider how men are similar and how they are different.
Black mothers pass on the teachings of the Motherline to each successive generation through the maternal function of cultural bearing. Various African American writers argue that the very survival of African Americans depends upon the preservation of black culture and history. If Black children are to survive they must know the stories, legends, and myths of their ancestors. In African American culture, women are the keepers of the tradition: they are the culture bearers who mentor and model the African American values essential to the empowerment of black children and culture.
The survival of black culture and black selfhood was sustained by the Motherline. “The men in my family were buttresses and protectors,” writes Wade-Gayles, “but it was the women who gave meaning to the expression ‘pushed back to strength.’ Whether named mentor, role model, guide, advisor, wise woman, or advocate, the mother represents for the daughter a sturdy bridge on which to cross over. Even the author Renita Weems who was abandoned by her alcoholic mother writes: “Though not as sturdy as others, she is my bridge. When I needed to get across she steadied herself long enough for me to run across safely.”
Alice Walker’s classic essay, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens’ (1983), is a moving tribute to her African American foremothers who, in her words, “handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves hoped to see: or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.” “So many of the stories that I write,” Walker emphasizes, “that we all write, are my mother’s stories.”
Audre Lorde wrote in “Manchild: A Black Lesbian Feminist Response” that “for survival, Black children in America must be raised to be warriors. For survival they must also be raised to recognize the enemy’s many faces” She goes on to say:
“The strongest lesson I can teach my son is the same lesson I teach my daughter: how to be who he wishes to be for himself. And the best way I can do this is to be who I am and hope that he will learn from this not how to be me, which is not possible, but how to be himself. And this means how to move to that voice from within himself, rather than to those raucous, persuasive, or threatening voices from outside, pressuring him to be what the world wants him to be.”
“In an interview with Bill Moyers (1989), Morrison describes motherhood as the most liberating thing that ever happened to me… Liberating because the demands that children make are not the demands of a normal “other.” The children’s demands on me were things that nobody ever asked me to do. To be a good manager. To have a sense of humor. To deliver something that somebody could use. And they were not interested in all the things that other people were interested in, like what I was wearing or if I were sensual. All that went by.
You’ve seen the eyes of your children. They don’t want to hear it. They want to know what you are going to do now - today. Somehow all of the baggage that I had accumulated as a person about what was valuable just fell away. I could not only be me-whatever that was-but somebody actually needed me to be that. It’s different from being a daughter. It’s different from being a sister. If you listen to your children and look at them, they make demands that you can live up to.
They don’t need all that overwhelming love either. I mean, that’s just you being vain about it. If you listen to them, somehow you are able to free yourself from baggage and vanity and all sorts of things, and deliver a better self, one that you like. The persona that was in me that I liked best was the one my children seemed to want. Not the one that frowned when they walked in the room and said “Pull your socks up.” Also, you could begin to see the world through their eyes again - which are your eyes. I found that extraordinary.“
- (critical reading)Demystifying the Myth of Motherhood: Toni Morrison’s Revision of African-American Mother Stereotypes, Parvin Ghasemi and Rasool Hajizadeh
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