LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:3 March 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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The Origin and Growth of African American Literature

Dr. B. Lakshmi

Abstract

Abstract

This paper explores the origin and growth of African American literature. African American literature is a celebration of human and social rights. Black writers have used their skills to tell the world about the scars and pain of Black life. African American literature in America tells a story that can be understood as a counter-narrative, an alternate story about black and white people that works against the dominant society’s biased portrayals. The first literature by blacks in America was not in written form, but in the oral tradition. The enslaved Africans expressed their sorrow, frustration, anger, oppression, elation, and religious faith in collective voice. These are the integral part of the early literature of the black People in America. Lucy Terry’s Bars Fight is the oldest known piece of African American literature.

Status of Early Africans in America

The earliest African arrivals were viewed in the same way as indentured servants from Europe. Unfortunately, this similarity did not continue for a long time. By the latter half of the 17th century clear differences existed in the treatment of black and white servants. A 1662 Virginia law assumed Africans would remain servants for life. Africans were forbidden to speak their traditional languages. This had the effect of making it very difficult for Africans to sustain their history and culture. Language is, as Cheikh Anta Diop says, ‘the primary transmitter of culture’. An African who did not understand what was being communicated to him ,was beaten for not responding to the strange utterances of the slave owners. The enslaved Africans must have felt that learning the language would lessen the severity of the treatment they received from their oppressors. Forbidden to use their traditional languages, the Africans, having come from a historical tradition of story tellers, used this inherited genius to tell stories in the oral tradition, even as they struggled to learn English.

Oral Literature

The first literature by blacks in America was not in written form, but in the oral tradition. It consists of history, folktales, poetry, including spirituals, gospel music, blues and rap. The enslaved Africans expressed their sorrow, frustration, anger, oppression, elation, and religious faith in the collective voice. These are the integral part of the early literature of the black people in America, of the African Americans - of how they viewed themselves and others, and how they amused themselves to survive in a hostile white society. Joel Chandler Harris’s The First Nine Books of Back Folklore, is the earliest attempt to collect this oral literature.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. B. Lakshmi
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Vel Tech Dr. RR & Dr. SR Technical University
Avadi, Chennai
giridharlakshmi135@gmail.com
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