Colonial Despair and Cultural Revolt in Kamau Brathwaite’s poem “Ananse”
Abstract
The Caribbean Literature speaks
of this world, of the former colonial world and of
new contemporary world. It was refined by the voices
of great writers. The most common
theme in this kind of literature is the cultural
passivity of the societies they belong to. The
paper scrutinizes how Kamau Brathwaite’s “Ananse” recreates the lost native culture of
Africa by binding past stories, cultures, words and
songs of Africa. It brings dead African
Culture to life.
Key
Words:
Culture, rebirth, colonization, trauma,
memory,cultural revolt.
Introduction:
Amalgamation of
the colonizer’s culture and the native culture becomes an important
aspect
from the point of view of the birth of West Indian’s own tradition. In Raymond Williams view, culture is “One of
the two or three most complicated words in the English Language”(87). The kind
of English language used creatively by the Caribbean and was termed as ‘Nation
Language’ by Brathwaite. The dark night of the lonely soul forces Brathwait to
undertake a search to understand his past. The historian in Brathwaite takes
over and transports him to Africa where his ancestors and his fellow black men
come. He felt with agony when he realizes that Africa of today cannot give him
an access to the ‘Umbilical Cord’ of the Black Men who were tortured through
slavery. In Brathwaite’s the unpromising past the broken down present and an
uncertain future are simultaneously overcome in a new vision. There was only
oral form of literature existed to reveal the culture of Africa in the past.
These concepts also exist in this poem. The meaning of this poem lies in the
sound or form of the poem. The poet is actually referring to the importance of
oration.
Discussion:
During the Pre-Colonial period,
Africa was very famous for their culture and tradition. The belief that the
ancestors played prominent roles in the maintenance of morality in the
community hardly dies. Even after the colonization many believes there is no
death for their religion. African’s traditional belief, God is the explanation
of all things.
African loss their shallow language and their history.
Mostly, African spent half their time learning and mastering the languages,
culture and religion of their oppressors. During the era of colonization their
words and original accent were disappeared from use and circulation. Also their
meanings are lost and misrepresented. The colonizers had forced Africans to
withdraw their own native languages. Through this the colonizers can find the
archetype of the enslaver. This gave Africans a false sense of belongings; a
soothing determination to be seen to belong and yet not be a part of a
distorted sense of purpose in helping advance the economic upliftment of their
oppressors while gaining little else other than a part on the black.
During the 18th century Edwin Smith in his
missionary explained about the racism and slavery of Africa. He wrote in detail about European
colonizers suppression towards Africa. His book ‘The Golden Stool’ describes
how European destroyed the institutions, traditions and religion of the people.
The colonizer ruined the customs and traditions of Africa. One of the primary
fact is that the colonizers initially disassociate those people from their God
, their spirituality,their culture, and their history. With these the cultures
and traditions lessened and finally disappeared.
Ananse is an imaginary character in Caribbean folktales.
This character appears as a mythical spider in the human form. Inorder to
highlight the African origin, Braithwaite chose Ananse as the title. Here the poem portrays the
dilemma of the Africans who were tortured and suppressed by the colonizers.
They lost many of their traditions and
customs. Through the poem ‘Ananse’ the reader can feel the rage of the African
towards the colonizers. The poem picturizes the social relevance of Ananse
particularly in the site of transformative discriptions like revolts and
rebellions.
“memories trunked up in a dark attic,
he stumps up the stares
of our windows, he stares, stares
he squates on the lips.
Of our language
black burr of conundrums
eye corner of ghosts, ancient his-
tories
An attic, a storing area for old conjures up an idea of web-filled place, the
common haunt of spiders. These lines deals with the ancesteral memory. The
memory evoked here is the African heritage the slaves brought with them to the
Caribbean, those are the ancient histories of various tribes transported from
Africa,. Only the proverbs, riddles, ‘ Conundrums’ kept the African language
alive. The influence of foreign language killed many of the African dialects.
he spins drum,
beats,
silver skin
webs
of sound
through
the villagers;
tacky
heared him
and
L’Coverture
all
the hung-
ry
dumb-bellied cheiftains.
The
ancient way of life resonant with drums beating to convey messenger from one
village to another. The colonizers occupied the peaceful life of the villagers.
Tacky and L’ouverture exploits in popular slave rebellions ‘Cheiftains’ also
placed. Intrigue practised by them was required for the overthrow of colonial
slavery. This is equated with the ability of the spider to spin webs which
ensnares unsuspecting victims. In west African culture traditional
story-tellers, griots, often narrate stories to the villagers gathered around a
fire. Wallaboo tree is native to this region. The colonizers captured all the good things from the native and
destroyed poor lives.
who spat
their death into the grounds
Goave, Port-au-Prince, Half Moon
Fort,
villagers,
dead lobstor-pot crows,
wire red, sea shells, coconut trees’
hulls,
black iron bells, clogged,
no glamour of moon on man
This carries history with emotions
of war between colonizers and the west African slaves, ‘lobstor-port crews’
were the first casualties of war. Their “nodding skulls” are floating on the
water, the colonially imposed religion abandoned their lives.
Brathwaite brings out the fervour
which was seen on the eyes of West Africans to rebuild their lost culture. The
black snake in the poem refers to the Blackman. The revolt begins here with
huge anger. Where is the anger? It is inside the thoughts of every West African
slave. Their frustration kept hidden. It was expressed later as a revolt in the
way of literature. Brathwaite
believes that he can regain his
native culture with the help of his memories. He goes on thinking to recollect
the past memories. The use of Ananse as the narrator, creator, and fighter
symbolizes the power of an African, who can rebuild his culture by rejecting
the colonial culture. Thus we find a revolt against the domination of the
culture of colonialists through the use of language in the poem. For example:
the poet used the term “hung-ry” instead of “hungry”. Again he used the word
“iron-eye’d” instead of ”ironied”
Conclusion:
The poem ‘Ananse’ has the ability to
inspire historical figures are instances of popular folk culture playing a decisive
role in social, historical process. It is ultimately the poem degenerate the
dead culture. Culture was lost not only in Africa but it was also lost in
various countries. For example: British colonizers invaded India in 19th
century, they changed the culture and traditions of India and injected their
culture into the lives of Indians. Even today the effect of this imposed
culture exists similary the west Africans are facing the problem of
westernization. Taking into consideration that discussed above can be concluded
that culture has a strong force in itself which cannot be destroyed by any
colonizers. Even in this poem ‘Ananse’ the line
“a new fall from heaven” reminds us the great fall of Adam from heaven
to Earth. Though the God cursed him he did not lose his faith upon Him.
Similarly, West Africans were dominated and tortured by the colonizers and were
thrown away from the Nation but still
the native Africans have strong faith and hope towards their land including
their culture, tradition, language and religion. Thus no colonizers can destroy
the culture of any Nation. Somewhere it definitely exist.
Work Cited:
https://www.news24.com/.../Loss-of-African
languages-and culture-20140527
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