We Have Been Believers
BY MARGARET WALKER
MIKE COGGINS
Margaret Walker
 Born on July 7, 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama
 Received her Bachelor’s from Northwestern in 1935
 Received her Master’s in creative writing from University of
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Iowa in 1942
Founded the Institute for the Study of the History, Life and
Culture of Black People in 1968
Won the National Endowment Award for the Humanities in
1972
Won the White House Award for Distinguished Senior
Citizen
Died of cancer on November 30, 1998 in Chicago
Famous for her literature concerning black culture
We Have Been Believers
We have been believers believing in the black gods of an old
land, believing in the secrets of the seeress and the magic of
the charmers and the power of the devil's evil ones.
And in the white gods of a new land we have been believers
believing in the mercy of our masters and the beauty of our
brothers, believing in the conjure of the humble and the
faithful and the pure.
We Have Been Believers
Neither the slaves' whip nor the lynchers' rope nor the
bayonet could kill our black belief. In our hunger we beheld
the welcome table and in our nakedness the glory of a long
white robe. We have been believers in the new Jerusalem.
We have been believers feeding greedy grinning gods, like a
Moloch demanding our sons and our daughters, our
strength and our wills and our spirits of pain. We have
been believers, silent and stolid and stubborn and
strong.
We Have Been Believers
We have been believers yielding substance for the world.
With our hands have we fed a people and out of our
strength have they wrung the necessities of a nation.
Our song has filled the twilight and our hope has
heralded the dawn.
Now we stand ready for the touch of one fiery iron, for the
cleansing breath of many molten truths, that the eyes of the
blind may see and the ears of the deaf may hear and the
tongues of the people be filled with living fire.
We Have Been Believers
Where are our gods that they leave us asleep? Surely the
priests and the preachers and the powers will hear.
Surely now that our hands are empty and our hearts too full
to pray they will understand. Surely the sires of
the people will send us a sign.
We have been believers believing in our burdens and our
demigods too long. Now the needy no longer weep and
pray; the long-suffering arise, and our fists bleed
against the bars with a strange insistency.
The poem, again…
We Have Been Believers
We have been believers believing in the black gods of an old
land, believing in the secrets of the seeress and the magic of
the charmers and the power of the devil's evil ones.
And in the white gods of a new land we have been believers
believing in the mercy of our masters and the beauty of our
brothers, believing in the conjure of the humble and the
faithful and the pure.
We Have Been Believers
Neither the slaves' whip nor the lynchers' rope nor the
bayonet could kill our black belief. In our hunger we beheld
the welcome table and in our nakedness the glory of a long
white robe. We have been believers in the new Jerusalem.
We have been believers feeding greedy grinning gods, like a
Moloch demanding our sons and our daughters, our
strength and our wills and our spirits of pain. We have
been believers, silent and stolid and stubborn and
strong.
We Have Been Believers
We have been believers yielding substance for the world.
With our hands have we fed a people and out of our
strength have they wrung the necessities of a nation.
Our song has filled the twilight and our hope has
heralded the dawn.
Now we stand ready for the touch of one fiery iron, for the
cleansing breath of many molten truths, that the eyes of the
blind may see and the ears of the deaf may hear and the
tongues of the people be filled with living fire.
We Have Been Believers
Where are our gods that they leave us asleep? Surely the
priests and the preachers and the powers will hear.
Surely now that our hands are empty and our hearts too full
to pray they will understand. Surely the sires of
the people will send us a sign.
We have been believers believing in our burdens and our
demigods too long. Now the needy no longer weep and
pray; the long-suffering arise, and our fists bleed
against the bars with a strange insistency.
The Speaker
 A black person, man or woman, speaking on behalf
of the black community as a whole
 Speaks both of black culture and experience
 Puts emphasis on black religious beliefs and
practices
The Speaker’s Attitude towards the Poem’s
Subject Matter
 Belief in black culture
 Proud of their traditions- Nothing could “kill our black belief.”
 Later feels a sense of abandonment- “Where are our gods?”
 Black struggle in America
 Never has a positive view of white oppression
Initially- “believing in the mercy of our masters”
 By the end, there is a call for action
 “believing in our burdens and our demigods too long.”

Organization of the Poem
 8 stanzas
 Free verse
 Repetition of “We have been believers” to emphasize
the speaker’s main focus (black belief)
 Stanzas 1-5 are in the past tense

Description of past beliefs and experiences
 Stanzas 6-8 are in the present tense
 Speaker’s thoughts as to what the black community should do
moving forward
Organization of the Poem
 Stanza 1
 Description of traditional African beliefs

Seeress (prophetess), charmers, and the devil’s evil ones (demons)
 Stanza 2
 Beginning of black experience in America
“white gods of a new land” and “mercy of our masters”
 Reference to white dominance
 “beauty of our brothers”
 Fellow blacks

Organization of the Poem
 Stanza 3
 Talks of black endurance through the hardships of slavery and
racism


“the slaves' whip nor the lynchers' rope nor the
bayonet could kill our black belief.”
Constant sense of faith, but now it is faith in Jesus

“the new Jerusalem.”
 Stanza 4
 Describes black service to the whites through slavery


Reference to the Moloch, a Semitic god
Describes the blacks as stubborn, strong, silent, stolid
Organization of the Poem
 Stanza 5
 Speaks of the importance of the slaves to America
Their hands “wrung the necessities of a nation.”
 The song and hope are references to the slaves’ actions and
mindsets while working

 Stanza 6
 Hopes for a catalyst that will spark a movement for equality
and rights

Heat imagery- “fiery iron” and “molten truths” and “tongues of
living fire”
Organization of the Poem
 Stanza 7
 Feels a sense of abandonment

Still optimistic that the powers and the people will hear the
message that they need to revolt against racism and oppression
 Stanza 8
 States that they have accepted their “burdens”
(slavery/racism) and their “demigods” (whites) too long
It is time to fight for rights
 “Fists bleed against the bars with a strange insistency.”
 Image of a person in jail who yearns to escape

Dominant Imagery
 Slaves’ whip/Lynchers’ rope/Bayonet


Representative of the oppression that the blacks faced while enslaved
Basis for the speaker’s call for change
 The new Jerusalem

Image of hope and salvation for the black community
 Fire
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“Fiery iron”- what will cause the blacks to revolt
Fiery tongues- how the blacks will act during revolt
 Gods
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Black gods- depicted as good
White gods- the slaves’ masters
Diction
 Most language is straightforward, but there are a few
uncommon religious references

Seeress, Moloch
 Often describes with alliteration
 “secrets of the seeress”
 “mercy of our masters”
 “beauty of our brothers”
 “silent and stolid and stubborn and strong”
 “the priests and the preachers and the powers will hear”
Syntax
 The poem is understandable, but some
unconventional word order is used

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“And in the white gods of a new land we have been believers”
Breaks her convention of repeating the refrain at the beginning
of sentences
Says “We have been believers believing in…” as opposed to
“We have believed in…” to add emphasis to their belief in
tradition
Conclusions
 “We Have Been Believers” straightforwardly tells of
the speaker’s views of black culture and experience.
She notices that their old gods were replaced with
new, white demigods (their masters). She describes
the hardships that blacks have faced in America,
specifically slavery. Her final plea to the black
community shows her desire for change to occur.
She doesn’t expect society to change itself. Instead,
she believes that the blacks will have to work to
achieve change.
References
 Biographies
 http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/mswriters/dir/alexander_margaret_walker/
 http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/walker/walker.
htm