The Grasp That Reaches beyond the Grave: The Ancestral Call in Black Women's Texts

Chapter 1 Othermothers as Elders and Culture Bearers in Daughters of the Dust and The Salt Eaters

1 Othermothers as Elders and Culture Bearers in Daughters of the Dust and The Salt Eaters An elder’s role is to guide his or her community and thus to lead others on the path to become elders and eventually ancestors. However, as Bunseki Fu-Kiau informs us, everyone does not achieve elder status, as this is not a natural progression like ageing, but an accomplishment dependent on drawing on the wisdom of the ancestors. In The Way of the Elders: West African Spirituality & Tradition, authors Adama and Naomi Doumbia observe, “We defer to those older than us to let them know that we appreciate their guidance and all they have to offer” (108). Elders are described as “those who look after us and who hold more responsibility” (108). It is clear from these comments that elders play an important role in the community; however, the respect given to elders is not merely based on their advanced age. In “Ancestors as Elders in Africa,” Igor Kopytoff asserts that “the elders’ authority is related to their close link to the ancestors. In some sense the elders are the representatives of the ancestors and the mediators between them and the kin-group” (412). In other words, elders serve as conduits of ancestral wisdom through their role as culture bearers because they pass down the wisdom of the ancestors. This close connection between elders and ancestors is particularly evident in Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust and Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters. Although everyone may not achieve this stage, I would suggest that vigilant elders such as the othermothers in Daughters of the Dust and The Salt Eaters take up their roles in earnest when they see the 31 32 The Grasp that Reaches Beyond the Grave young people they are guiding faltering and in danger of not reaching elderhood. The Peazant family in Daughters of the Dust is at a crossroads with some members ready to turn their backs on tradition and migrate to the North. The tension regarding their migration plans is exacerbated by a rape, which threatens to tear a family apart. The situation in The Salt Eaters is so bleak that a community organizer turns from marching and signing petitions to attempting suicide. The young adults in these novels have their worldviews challenged and in turn they question their ability to go forward. Thus, the notion of their maturing and eventually becoming elders cannot be taken for granted by their elders—an intervention is necessary. Although Daughters of the Dust is certainly one family’s story, viewers also get the sense that their story is in many ways a microcosm of the African American experience. Bambara comments on the significance of the setting of the film at the turn of the century in 1902: The Peazants and guests gather on the island at Ibo Landing for a picnic at a critical juncture in history—they are one generation away from the Garvey and the New Negro movements, a decade short of the Niagra/NAACP merger. They are in the midst of rapid changes; black people are on the move North, West, and back to Africa (the Oklahoma project, for instance). Setting the story amid oak groves, salt marshes, and a glorious beach is not for the purpose of presenting a nostalgic community in a pastoral setting. They are an imperiled group. (“Reading” 122) Bambara’s choice of “imperiled” to describe the family is particularly apt, as it becomes apparent that their way of life is endangered and the Peazant family is in disarray. As the Unborn Child narrates the film, she tells viewers, “My story begins on the eve of my family’s migration north. My story begins before I was born. My great-great-grandmother, Nana Peazant, saw her family coming apart. Her flowers to bloom in a distant frontier” (Dash, Daughters: Making 80). Nana is concerned about the impact migration will have on her family. In “Property Rights and Possession in Daughters of the Dust,” Nancy Wright talks about this impact in terms of threats, “In the early-twentieth century, decades after the abolition of slavery, the Peazant family faces a different threat to their personhood: cultural dispossession. To leave the islands in 1902 threatens to dissociate those who migrate from their family, culture, and belief systems” (12). As an elder othermother, Nana cannot ignore this threat to the stability of the Peazant family. [18.118.144.69] Project MUSE (2024-04-25 21...