Black Speech and the Traditions of Storytelling

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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).

4. Oral Narration in West African Societies Yoruba Tradition of IFA sacred oral texts Babalawos Santería and Shango

5. 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).

6. 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.”

7. 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’”).

8. 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)

9. 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)

10. African American Vernacular English • 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.