...Cultural Heritage Through the Creation of Art and Language: Recovering Ancestral Identity in Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow “People who can’t call their nation. For one reason or another they just don’ know. Is a hard thing. I don’ even like to think about it.” --Lebert Joseph, Praisesong for the Widow Paule Marshall’s autobiographical article “From the Poets in the Kitchen,” published a month before her novel Praisesong for the Widow, describes stories from her childhood that reflect the immigrant experience, addressing the constant presence of the Caribbean and its influence on Marshall’s life while growing up in the United States. Marshall’s mother and her female friends, immigrants from Barbados, would gather in the Marshall kitchen after their days of working in low-paid jobs to chat, gossip, and “tackle the great issues of the time” including the economy, politics, war, and their nostalgia for home. They discussed their adopted home, America—acknowledging both the racism they endured, and also the wealth of possibilities that the country offered. These women and their stories were, for Marshall, the origins of her fiction. She asserts that a writer’s ability to render everyday speech is derived from close listening, and the talk that “filled the kitchen” additionally functioned as a kind of therapeutic catharsis, a release of creative energy. The special kind of language used between certain groups of people gives writers their own narrative and unique...
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...social justice. This happens as tourists learn about marginal groups through educational tourism, engage in development projects with host-area residents, undertake pilgrimages that bring greater meaning and cohesiveness to an ethnic identity, or encounter stories that transform their view of social injustice and spur further action to reduce inequities. Tourism planning can produce a sense of reconciliation when it brings historically divided groups together. An example is found in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, where a group of white and African American residents are collaborating to develop tourism projects designed around a narrative of reconciliation, while they use the process of tourism planning to work towards racial reconciliation within their community. This case illustrates strategies tourism planners employ and challenges they face when they envision tourism as more than merely a means of economic growth. Keywords: heritage tourism; Mississippi Delta; racial reconciliation; social justice; sustainable community development The advantages of tourism to rural communities are generally painted as economic: developing a tourism industry brings in ‘‘fresh’’ dollars, provides jobs and offers opportunities for local entrepreneurship (National Agricultural Library, 2008; World Travel & Tourism...
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...African American Women Under Slavery This paper discusses the experiences of African American Women under slavery during the Slave Trade, their exploitation, the secrecy, the variety of tasks and positions of slave women, slave and ex-slave narratives, and significant contributions to history. Also, this paper presents the hardships African American women faced and the challenges they overcame to become equal with men in today’s society. Slavery was a destructive experience for African Americans especially women. Black women suffered doubly during the slave era. Slave Trade For most women who endured it, the experience of the Slave Trade was one of being outnumbered by men. Roughly one African woman was carried across the Atlantic for every two men. The captains of slave ships were usually instructed to buy as high a proportion of men as they could, because men could be sold for more in the Americas. Women thus arrived in the American colonies as a minority. For some reason, women did not stay a minority. Slave records found that most plantations, even during the period of the slave trade, there were relatively equal numbers of men and women. Slaveholders showed little interest in women as mothers. Their willingness to pay more for men than women, despite the fact than children born to enslaved women would also be the slaveowners’ property and would thus increase their wealth. Women who did have children, therefore, always struggled with the impossible conflict...
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...Columbia University were he begin releasing more poems that he had written. Hughes embraced crafting blues music into his poetry because it expressed the worries of the common man in a simple and direct manner. Blues songs feature heavy repetition, and singers often seem to be laughing and crying at the same time. One of his best works was the poem “The Weary Blues” which came in first place in a section of a literary contest in an Opportunity magazine published in 1925. The title itself gives an example on how Hughes wanted to give the reader an indication on how he crafted his fine arts. This poem became one of the most well known poems and helped launched his career. In the poem “The Weary Blues” The speaker describes hearing an African American musician playing a "drowsy tune" while swaying back and forth on Lenox Avenue a few nights ago under the light...
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...The formation of self-identity is a process each of us must go through on our journey to adulthood. The development of a system by which to lead our adult lives is difficult for all children, but especially for African American children. In addition to defining their personal character, they must define themselves in terms of their culture and nationality – African American and American. One of the ways in which black children create their self-identity is through the illustrations they see in the literature they are exposed to. We look to African American children’s books to help promote self-esteem, cultural identity, and pride for African American children. As books are read to them, children concentrate on the images, and become subject to the impressions these images create. Children’s books that are authentic to African American culture, physicality and intelligence are few and far between. With consideration to our theme, “Black Literary Contemplations on Thomas Jefferson and Western Enlightenment Ideologies of Race and Humanity” and Thomas Jefferson’s Query XIV, it is my belief that the images in children’s literature are important to development of self- identity and esteem in African American children. In Query XIV, in his comparison of whites and blacks, Thomas Jefferson commented on the beauty of whites and blacks, and critiqued blacks because of their “immovable veil of black” and lack of flowing hair. He then stated that black men favored white women over black...
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...fulfills his second objective, which was to create an account of his life that focuses on his survival through slavery, and not on the suffering stemming from it. While Douglass doesn’t explicitly acknowledge the fact that there are those who doubt his life story and heritage, the organization of the Narrative anticipates readers with that mindset. This is clear because of the introduction and structure of the first four chapters or so. Not only does Douglass have two white men introduce him, but each introduction seems as if their authors knew most of its audience would be skeptical. In their own ways, the two introductions treat the concept of a slave becoming as fluently literate as Douglass as nearly impossible. It’s...
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...seen. All testimony to the results of a little so-called freedom imposed on people who needed every care and guidance in the world to keep them from the cannibal life they preferred.” —Toni Morrison The Beloved White Outlook of Slavery Toni Morrison's highly critically acclaimed novel, Beloved, intensely scrutinizes the uttermost excruciating moment of the African American heritage, slavery. By way of what Morrison has called “rememory”, the act of deliberately reconstructing what has been forgotten; in this case slavery is the forgotten memory of the African American culture (Gillespie 23). The novel takes place after the Civil War and emancipation, during the period of national history known as Reconstruction. Throughout the novel Morrison gives a strong sense of white dominance with the purpose of exploiting the roots of the Africa American culture to the reader. As well as exploring the effects of slavery on individual characters, individual black families, and the black community as a whole. Beloved documents both slavery's horrifying destruction and survival of the African American people and their culture (Kubitschek 116-7). In Beloved, Morrison develops the story line behind one of the main characters Sethe; a run away slave, a proud and independent woman, and a extremely devoted mother to her children. Though Sethe herself never truly knew her own mother, her motherly instincts are her most noticeable characteristic (Roberson 198-9). With that being...
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...the K-12 educational experience for students of color, African American students in particular. Most of the studies that were conducted showed that African American students (and students of color) lagged behind their white counterparts in both mathematics and reading. The Coleman Report in 1966 gave rise to future discussions regarding gaps in achievement between African American and White students. Such conversations about disparities in academic achievement between African American and White students were generally from cultural deficit perspectives, meaning, students of color, were blamed for the gap in achievement between...
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...create Nettie’s voice and perspective in several ways. The extract is a dual narrative, where Celie is reading Nettie’s letters. This is Nettie’s third letter written chronologically, although it is the fourth ready by Celie; this reminds us of Celie’s presence as she is choosing the order to read the letters in. This letter was written just after Nettie left Celie, within the first fifteen letters of the novel. At this point in Celie’s life, “Shug Avery is coming to town!” and it is the first time Celie properly portrays her excitement within her letters; although contrastingly Nettie is at her lowest, this delineates the differences between the two sisters lives. It is written early in Celie’s narrative but it is not told by Celie until later, by this point Celie has developed, she has begun to find her voice and she has built up a network of women; hence she is able to provide Nettie with the strength she requires, whereas earlier in the novel she would have required the strength from Nettie. In this letter, Nettie explains that Samuel will not let her visit Celie, since he believes it is wrong to “come between a man and his wife”. We know that Nettie has grown anxious at this point because she formally states with the use of a modifier, “By now I am almost crazy”, it is evident that writing to Celie is holding Nettie together. Nettie’s letter is reported through Celie’s first person narrative within a single letter. The voice of Nettie is reported as direct speech, though...
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... However, woman in some societies still facing many difficulties at her work like cultural heritages that do not accept the woman as a leaders. In the last two decade woman’s leadership value increased significantly comparing to man in managing public and private organizations in Jordan .we started to see women in the decision making position in organization and leading their own businesses ,and fortunately the government constantly support them ,however , Whilst the subject of women and organization leadership is well documented internationally, research in this field is rare in Middle East and Jordan in particular. This scarcity consolidates the commonly held belief that equity has been achieved in this country which masks the persistence of gender discrimination and social injustice. My study will explore three keys: (1) how culture shape the way woman lead as well as their perceptions and beliefs about leadership in business and organizations in Jordan.(2) The Jordanian cultural influence on woman leadership. (3) The obligation of these woman leaders to have significant positive influence on their culture. Along with that ,I will the most important obstacles .Qualitative methodology and narrative analysis will be used in this study by interviewing some business and organization leaders woman from Jordan, and collect their professional and personal experience about the cultural influences on their leadership. which will allow to answer our questions...
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...2013 Mixed Racial and Cultural Groups of the United States is a huge topic being discussed recently because mixed racial relationships are increasing daily all around the world, but especially with-in the United States. There are many individuals who elaborate on whether or not each group expects to be treated as a separate entity, or be considered just Americans without the hyphen. Is the United States better off by classifying individuals by their ethnic background? What do we actually gain by these separate entities? Why is the government so concerned on everyone’s ethnic background? These are just a few of many questions that are being discussed and I will answer based on facts. While mixed racial and cultural groups continue to rise in the United States, it seems that the vast majority continues to pursue their separate ethnicity with-in the United States, but when approached abroad with-in another country, they seem to consider themselves as Americans vice African-American, Mexican American, Asian American, etc. (Perez and Hirshmann, “The Changing Racial and Ethnic Composition of the United States). Many Americans have multiple identities that reflect complex ancestral origins, tribal and communal associations, and varied ideological outlooks on race and culture. In general, people do not change their ethnicities as a matter of fashion, but they may emphasize different aspects depending on the circumstances. The United States is better off by classifying everyone...
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...Smith. Morales is a woman if mixed race; Puerto Rican and Jewish, while Smith is African-American. We all want to think that someone’s race or color of their skin wouldn’t determine how they are treated or how they are perceived, but this is not the case. When talking amongst friends about someone they do not know we often describe them by using their skin color. And when meeting someone new one of the first questions we ask is “what race are you?” or the harsher “what are you?” Both of these poems give the reader a look into the mind of two young women of different races, one being mixed and the other being an African American, and how each girl views herself. The poem, “Child of The Americas” by Aurora Levins Morales, the reader looks into the consciousness of a young multi-racial woman. Morales herself is a multiracial woman “Puerto Rican-born and Jewish American Aurora Levins Morales is a poet, essayist, historian, and activist” (Fiandt, 2006). Morales’ poem talks about finding ones identity. Morales starts her poem off by stating that she is an American “she does not claim any single identity beyond “American” and this “American” includes the multiple races and nationalities that have entered the Western hemisphere” (Bost, 2000). The next lines go into more detail of where her ancestors came from. She is a mestiza or “a person of mixed blood; specifically: a person of mixed European and American Indian ancestry” (Merriam-Webster.com, 2013), and a diaspora “a Jew living outside...
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...[Indiana University Libraries] Date: 24 February 2016, At: 16:43 Journal of Postcolonial Writing Vol. 46, No. 1, February 2010, 65–75 “He does not understand our customs”: Narrating orality and empire in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart Jarica Linn Watts* University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA Downloaded by [Indiana University Libraries] at 16:43 24 February 2016 jarica.watts@utah.edu Jarica 0 100000February 46 2010 &Article OriginalofFrancis 1744-9855 (print)/1744-9863 JournalandPostcolonial 10.1080/17449850903478189(online) RJPW_A_448194.sgm TaylorLinnWatts 2010 Writing Francis This article delineates different strains of Achebe’s narrative technique in Things Fall Apart, arguing that earlier critics have failed to account fully for two fundamental principles in Achebe’s narrative: the myriad phrases that are repeated throughout the first part of the work; and the formative shift, the poetic volta, that takes place between parts one and two of the novel. Drawing on Achebe’s assertion that “anyone seeking an...
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...BECOMING ZIMBABWE TEACHING HISTORY IN CONTEXT IN ZIMBABWE Miles Tendi Published by the Institute for Justice and Reconcilation Wynberg Mews, Ground Floor, House Vincent, 10 Brodie Road, Wynberg 7800, South Africa www.ijr.org.za © 2009 Institute for Justice and Reconciliation First Published 2009 All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-920219-18-5 Produced by Compress.dsl www.compressdsl.com CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 CHAPTER 1: Using history 5 The uses of liberation history in Zimbabwean politics • Historical context • ZANU PF’s ‘Patriotic History’ • Patriotic History’s detractors • What is Patriotic History? • The opposition’s use of history 5 5 6 6 8 CHAPTER 2: History in secondary and higher education 11 History curriculum development in Zimbabwe’s secondary schools and higher education institutions, and the implications for reconciliation, national healing and transitional justice • The growth in education since independence • History in secondary schools • History in higher education • A review of the NASS syllabus 11 11 14 17 CHAPTER 3: Teaching history 23 Challenges of teaching history in Zimbabwe, points of contention and consensus, and future prospects • Repression in tertiary institutions • Decline in secondary schools • National youth training service centres • Reasons for optimism 23 25 25 26 CHAPTER 4: Supporting history teaching 29 Supporting secondary and higher educators, and proposals towards learning sessions, modules and activities for history...
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...succeed, writers must understand themselves. Such writing is deeply personal. Expressive writing is designed to prepare students for writing outside academics—communicating feelings and observations, beliefs and opinions, community and individuality—all skill sets that will enable students to succeed in any discipline or career path. From a learning perspective, expressive writing is often an easier form of writing than academic. It allows students to begin working with such concepts as language, reasoning and mechanics while working with material they find worth discussing. In this assignment, I want students to carefully examine both themselves and their community. What makes their community unique? What is their place within the community? How did their unique, individual personality take shape? Project Overview: How do I want the student to do the assignment? Component One: Personal Students will choose to write on one of the following three topics: • One’s sense of place (observation) • One’s place within a community (ethnography) • One’s relationship to an event from the past (memoir) Observation Students will write a “detailed description” of a local place that they know well (meaning: this place must be located in Polk County). By visiting, researching and thinking critically about this place, students are encouraged to evaluate such concepts as culture, heritage, history, recreation, aesthetics and landscape, architecture, politics...
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