Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Subject: According to Sandra L. Richards in her article “Yoruba Gods on the American Stage” she interprets August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone as having “elements of memory and desire” to embrace the African heritage. She describes the African American diasporas of 1911 of the Great migration had fragmented the African community. Many Africans were looking to start over and for their placement in the world. She claims that the boarding house acts as a place where people are able to share “fragmented memories” and motivate their desires and passions to move forward in their new world.
To support her claim he mentions gods of indigenous African culture Ogun and Esu that are alluded to in the play. The gods existence is still very prevalent in African culture even though Christianity has such a strong influence on the African community. Richards argues that Africa’s history even though assumed by many scholars that its history is from the influence of other cultures is very inaccurate. Africa and Africans have their own history and culture and Western ideology and thought cannot translate what African culture is really like. Even though many Africans came to American under the slave trade and were influenced and adapted to western culture, their African roots still are innate to them all. This is seen in the play with the Juba dance, this ritualistic dance is native to African culture, but in the context of the play it has been syncretized with Christianity as means of offering to their God. In these rituals the “elements of memory and desire” are the motivating factors that have the characters in the play as well as Africans, as Bynum preaches, look for and find their “song”. The song that will reveal their self-understanding and existence and release them to liberation. I believe that Richards makes very legitimate claims because the West does have a tendency to interpret cultures in their own perspective as they more familiarly have done with Orientalism. Therefore, we should try to understand African culture in the context of this play from their perspective rather than our own western perspective.
posted by Flora @ 9:36 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
The displacement of the African people, after being released from slavery is an interesting parallel to the religious aspect you discussed in your post. The displacement from Africa, from their families, from stability, is an incredibly difficult burden to bear. On top of that, as you discussed, their displacement from religion adds on to this sadness. You described how many adopted Christianity, but Christianity did not accept their African gods. Therefore, they cannot even truly be both; they cannot be full-fledged Christian and hold onto their roots in African gods. Very interesting post; I had not read that article. Do you think any traditional African religious aspects have carried over into our world today?
I agree that the dance in the play shows that they have not forgotten their roots and their African culture. I agree that the west does need to understand african culture, outside of what the west "thinks" African culture is. Western culture is usually not interested in actually fully understanding and willing to take a look into other cultures. I really like what you said about the fact that the west tends to interpret cultures according to their own culture. We tend to not even realize that we are interpreting cultures the wrong way.
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