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

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 arenaof 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, Oxford-

educated,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. Verb to be in American English: “Do you know that Sonny is working?”

2. Verb omitted in AAVE: “And, Sonny, he working, you know.”

3. Verb inserted in AAVE: “Sonny, he be working all the time,” shows continuity.