Black Speech and the
Traditions of Storytelling
1. Black Power in the Caribbean
2. Oral Tradition as Liberation Narrative
- oral tradition in West African
societies
- oral tradition in Caribbean and African
American communities
3. Written Tradition and the Problem of
Language
Black Power in a Caribbean Context
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Established historical continuity between Garvey
and contemporary resistance;
Challenged white cultural referents and valorized
blackness;
Drew its language and metaphors from
Rastafarianism;
Critical of the educational system and the middle
class;
Relied on a homogenized lower-class blackness
that failed to address issues of Indian ethnicity.
Willem Bosman (1705)
“They tell us that in the beginning God created Black as well as
White Men; thereby not only hinting but endeavouring to prove
that their race was as soon in the the World as ours; and to
bestow a yet greater honour on themselves, they tell us that God
having created these two sorts of Men, offered…Gifts, viz, Gold,
and the Knowledge of Arts of Reading and Writing, giving the
blacks the first Election, who chose Gold, and left Knowledge of
letters to the White. God granted their request, but being
incensed at their avarice, resolved that the Whites should for ever
be their Masters, and they obliged to wait on them as their
Slaves” (A New and Accurate Description).
Oral Narration in West
African Societies
Yoruba Tradition of IFA
sacred oral texts
Babalawos
Santería and Shango
Geneva Smitherman
NOMMO
Nommo is the productive power of the
Word; it is life force—that which is
necessary to actualize life and give
people mastery over things and their
Circumstances (Talkin’ and Testifyin’
78).
Oakland Board Resolution
“Now, therefore, be it resolved that the
board of education officially recognizes
the existence and the cultural and historic
bases of West and Niger-Congo African
Language Systems, and each language as
the predominately primary language of
African-American students.”
Theresa Perry
"Black Language is the last uncontested arena
of Black shame . . . . We have let go of a good
deal of the shame attached to Black hair. Not
that it is all gone. Black soap opera and
singing stars as well as Black academics now
proudly sport dreads, braids, Afros, natural
hair styles. Black Language is largely an
uncontested arena of Black shame” (“I’on
Know Why They be Trippin’”).
Marlene Nourbese Philip
“The African’s encounter with the New
World was catastrophic and chaotic: how
does one and how ought one to manage
such an experience in poetry and in
writing? How does one make readable
what has been an unreadable
experience?” (298)
Marlene Nourbese Philip
“As a writer, I had been aware for some time of a
reader over my right shoulder: white, Oxfordeducated,and male. Over my left shoulder—in the
shadows—was an old wizened and “wisened” black
woman. She Tries . . . succeeded in pushing the
reader to the right further into the shadows, and the
reader over my left shoulder has emerged more
clearly from the shadows into the light.” (297)
African American Vernacular English
1.
2.
3.
Verb to be in American English: “Do you know
that Sonny is working?”
Verb omitted in AAVE: “And, Sonny, he working,
you know.”
Verb inserted in AAVE: “Sonny, he be working all
the time,” shows continuity.