Aesthetic modes in Afro-American fiction: Alice Walker and Ralph Ellison. (Literary Criticism).

Several Afro-American writers such as Phyllis Wheatley, Countee Cullen and W. E. B. Dubois depicted Africa in several of their works. Most of them were influenced by the religious and socio-political ideologies of their time in portraying Africa negatively in their writings. In Countee Cullen's "Heritage" for example, an ambivalent tone permeates all the verses. Phyllis Wheatley was more dogmatic. In "the University of Cambridge," she acknowledges her indebtedness to her European masters for resucing her from African pagan gods. Despite the negative portrayals of the continent and its culture in the earlier works, two major contemporary Afro-American writers--Alice Walker and Ralph Ellison have depicted Africa positively in their works and also used motifs from the culture very effectively.

In this study, I wish to substantiate the thesis that in some of her poems, "Diary of an African Nun," and The Color Purple, Alice Walker presents more positive portraits of African cultures than most of her predecessors. I will also indicate that there are interesting parallels between the oral historian or griot in African societies and some contemporary Afro-American writers such as Ralph Ellison. I submit that Ellison is an oral historian of Afro-American culture. Most of his works especially Invisible Man and the "Hickman Stories" exemplify his role as a custodian of Afro-American culture.

After her stay among the Kikuyus and Bugandans, Alice Walker wrote a collection of fascinating poems, which celebrate some aspects of African life. Unlike some of the earlier Afro-American poets such as Phyllis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammon who romanticized Africa in their poems, in "African Images, Glimpses from a tiger's Back," and "karamujans," Alice Walker vividly recaptures the mystique and picturesque scenes of African villages and cities. (1) The ideological content of her poems is devoid of the derogatory observations which characterized the works of Phyllis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammon.

"Diary of an African Nun" is an interesting short story, which illustrates the dichotomy between African and foreign religions. It is a stinging critique of the imposition of foreign religions on Africans. The age of imperialism does not escape her attacks. The irrelevance of foreign ideologies to Africans is highlighted by the narrator's ambivalence. She laments her marriage to God because it deprives her of all the rich, traditional ritual. Throughout the story, the narrator is overwhelmed as the rhythmic incantations of the sacred dance are heard in the horizon. She emphasized her dilemma when she observes:

At midnight a young girl will come
to the circle, hidden in black she
will not speak to anyone. The red
flames roar and the purple bodies
crumble and are still. And the
dancing begins again and the whole
night is a repetition of the dance
of life and the urgent fire of creation.
Dawn breaks finally to the acclaiming
cries of babies.... (2)

At first glance, it would seem as if The Color Purple focuses mostly on a series of love triangles--menage a trois. (3) This is a very common aspect of Alice Walker's works. In the novel, the two most prominent love triangles are; Celie, Mr.____________ and shug and Corrine, Samuel and Nettie. In Meridian, there is also a love triangle, which comprises Truman, Lynne and Meridian. The love triangles in The Color Purple are juxtaposed with the polygamous attitudes of the Olinkas. Hence, Alice Walker is expressing the exploitation of Black woman in the Diaspora.

During the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement of the 60s, several Afro-American artists advocated the notion that Africa was an invaluable source of personal and artistic inspiration. In The Color Purple, Nettie accompanies her host Corrine and Samuel to Africa. Her journey is a symbolic return to the native land in search of her identity. In Afro-American fiction, the existential journey in search of an identity is usually to the Deep South. James Weldon Johnson's hero in The Autobiography of an ex-Coloured Man returns to the South after his unfulfilled trip to Europe only to discover that he has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. In Meridian, Truman returns to the South for the same reasons. Nettie's journey also has similar ritual ritualistic connotations.

After some harrowing experiences, she flees from home but she is rescued by a missionary couple who coincidentally also adopted her sister's children, Olivia and Adam. Although she goes to Africa as a missionary, it is significant to indicate that the condescending attitudes of most missionaries in Africa is conspicuously absent in her behaviour towards the Olinkas. Prior to her departure to Africa in search of her identity, she discovers some fascinating material about the continent as revealed in a letter to her sister Nettie:

Did you know there were great cities in
Africa, greater than Milledgeville or
even Atlanta, thousands of years ago?

That the Egyptians who built the pyramids
and enslaved the Israelites were colored?

  That Egypt is in Africa? That the Ethiopia
  we read about in the Bible meant all of
  Africa?.... (4)

In The Color Purple, Alice Walker continues to emphasize the differences between African and Western religions as she had done in "Diary of an African Nun." However, the novel is a major text, which recapitulates a segment of African history and offers an optimistic portrayal of the relationship between Africans and Afro-Americans. Nettie propagates the neo-Fanonist ideology of the need to unify all peoples of African descent. She observes in another letter to her sister that "we are black like the Africans themselves. And that the Africans and we will be working for a common goal: the uplift of black people everywhere" (p. 127). Alice Walker explores this theme very eloquently throughout the novel. This Afrocentric dimension of the novel is exemplified in the relationship between the Olinka belle Tashi and the Afro-American Adam during their stay among the Olinkas. Despite the cultural differences between these two characters, their marriage is a symbolic unification of people of African descent.

Besides her ideological inclinations, Nettie is also an artist. From this perspective, her return to the native land can be read as a quest in search of an African muse--for artistic inspiration as advocated by the Langston Hughes school of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Art Movement of the 60s. Her first encounter with Africa is dramatic as Langston Hughes' in The Big Sea. (5) In both accounts, Africa is presented as an idyllic Garden of Eden, a lost paradise. She remarks in one of the letters to her sister, "Did I mention my first sight of the African coast? Something struck me in my soul, Celie like a large bell, and I just vibrated. Corrine and Samuel felt the same. And we knelt down right on deck and gave thanks to God for letting us see the land for which our mothers and fathers cried--and lived and died--to see again..."(pp.132-l33). During her brief stay among the Olinkas, Nettie is overwhelmed by the artistic potential of her hosts. Artists feature prominently in most of Alice Walker's works. T he quilt is a mojor symbol of the artist in her fictional world. In "In Search of Uor Mothers' Gardens," (6) Walker reminds us about the subjugation of Black woman artists in the Deep South and the time they spent weaving quilts. As Nettie is dumbfounded by the artistic potential of her hosts, she discovers that they also have quilts. She remarks, "Over the mud walls I have hung Olinka platters and mats and pieces of tribal cloth. The Olinkas are known for their beautiful cotton fabric which they handweave and dye with berries, clay, indigo and tree back" (p. 146).

Unlike Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison does not portray African societies in his works. In Invisible Man for example, he creates a character, Ras, the Exhorter, who later becomes Ras, the Destroyer. Ras' iseological persuasion is reminiscent of Marcus Garvey and Malcome X. During Ras' brief confrontation with Clifton, he tries to articulate his pan-Africanist views. He informs Clifton:

You my brother, mahn. Brothers are
the same color; how the hell you call
these white men brother? Shit mahn.
That's shit! Brothers the same color.
We sons of mama Africa, you done forgot?
You black, BLACK! You--Godahm, mahna!...
You got bahd hair! You got thick lips!
They say you stink! They hate you mahn
you African. African! Why you with them?
Leave that shit mahn. They sell you out.
That shit is odl-fashiom. They enslave
us you forget--you forget that? How can
they mean a black maim any good? How they
going to be your brother... (7)

Although Ras articulates a similar worldview as Nettie in The Color Purple, Ellison does not emphasize this ideological stance in Invisible Man. Ras is killed during a fight and his appeal for the unification of Africans in the diaspora does not materialize in the world of the novel. (8)

Despite Ellison's negative views on pan-Africanist ideologies, all his works to date have interesting parallels with artists in traditional African societies. In several respects, most of Ellison's works indicate that there is an artistic continuum of art forms in Afro-American societies which have their base in African culture. In this connection, I suggest that Ellison's role as an artist is analogous to that of the griot in African societies. In Sundiata: An Epic from Old Mali, we learn that the griot is an oral historian of his people's culture. The griot is also an excellent artist. Besides, we are also reminded that "music is the griot's soul." Ellison is an accomplished, well-trained music critic. His artistic sensibilities were shaped by legendary blues and jazz men such as Jimmy Rushing.

Ellison's fascination with music like Sundiata's griot is evidenced in his allusions to Louis Armstrong's lyrics "What did I do to be Black and Blue?", the blues and spirituals which are used throughout the novel. The significance of music in Invisible Man accounts for the jazz-like, lyrical prose which permeates most of the major scenes in the work. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator informs us:

Now I have one phonograph; I plan to
have fun. There is a certain acoustical
deadness in my hole, and when I have
music I want to feel its vibration, not
only with my ear but with my whole body.

I'd like to hear five recordings of
Louis Armstrong playing and singing
"What did I do to be so black and blue.... (9)

As in traditional African societies, music plays a functional and entertaining role in Afro-American societies. Most of the lyrics in Invisible Man express the joys, melancholy and the ideological viewpoints of an entire people.

Throughout the novel, besides echoing Louis Armstrong's lyrics, Ralph Ellison uses the blues as an art form very effectively in Invisible Man. Besides their original roots in African culture, (10) the blues are significant in Afro-American culture for their aesthetic and historical significance. Like the griots in African societies, blues singers are oral historians because they articulate the struggles and victories of their people in their songs. Besides the historical dimensions, most blues songs in the novel have a dual significance. They express the collective concerns of the people but they also have a carthatic effect. Whenever most of the major characters in Invisible Man are confronted by major problems, they find consolation in the blues. Jim Trueblood is a case in point. After his incestuous relationship with his daughter, he is castigated and ostracized by the Black community. At this crucial stage, he finds consolation in the blues. He remarks:

...I better go confess my sin and make
my pease with God. I leaves tryin' to
pray, but I cain't....Finally, one night
way early in the mornin', I looks up
and sees the stars and I starts singin!

I don't know what it was, some kinda church
song, I guess. All I know is I ends
up singin' the blues. I sings me some
blues that night ain't never been sang
before, and while I'm singin' them blues
I makes up my mind that I ain't nobody
but myself and ain't nothin' I can do but
let whatever is gonna happen, happen. I
made up my mind that I was going back
home and face Kate; yeah, and face Matty
Lou too.... (10)

For Jim Trueblood, the blues provide a therapeutic effect. Besides him, seceral other characters in the novel also rely on the blues for moral and psychological support. Mary Rambo is enlivened with hope by singing the blues. Even the invisible man finds some consolation in the blues. Apart from the blues motif, Ellison also uses the spirituals and gospel music very effectively in the novel. By using music as a literary device in Invisible Man, Ellison successfully illustrates and preserves a major aspect of the culture like the griot in African societies.

The major character types culled from the lore used in Invisible Man such as the witty Brer Rabbit, Brer Dog and the preacher and his sermons have their base in African culture, Ellison is illustrating that an artistic continuum of art forms in the New World which have their base in exponent and custodian of Black culture analogous to the griot in African societies.

There are several characters in Invisible Man whose behaviour patterns are analogous to that of Brer rabbit in the oral literature. Dr. Bledsoe, Mr. Norton, Rhinehart, Brockway and Jack are excellent examples whose main objectives are to outwit others. On several occasions, Dr. Bledsoe indicates that his main objective in life is survival like Brer rabbit in the lore. Consequently, like Tyree in Richard Wright's The Lone Dream, he survives by guile and indirection. When one of the school board trustees arrives for a visit, the invisible man takes him to an area of the town which is not too respectable. Dr. Bledsoe is outrages and gives him a lesson on the art of survival similar to the one Tyree gives his son Fishbelly in The Lone Dream. He wears a mask throughout the trustee's visit to the school. The invisible man is astonished by his submissiveness. However, Dr. Bledsoe's main preoccupation is to get what he wants by "grinning and jiving." The invisible man states his bewilderment thus:

And Dr. Bledsoe's attitude toward Mr.
Norton was the most confusing of all...
Hadn't I seen him approach white visitors
too often with his heart in his hand,
bowing humbly and respectfully? Hadn't
he refused to eat in the dining hall
with white guests of the school, entering
only after they had finished and then
refusing to sit down, but remaining
standing, his hat in hand, while he
addressed them eloquently, then
leaving them with a humble bow?... (11)

Although the invisible man is confused by Dr. Bledsoe' s behaviour, later on he understands that in order to survive in a hostile society, guile and indirection are indispensable.

Alice Walker and Ralph Ellison are major contemporary Afro-American writers whose portrayal of Africa in their works and use of art forms from the continent are different from those of their predecessors. For Alice Walker, Africa is a source of artistic and ideological inspiration. That is why in her poems, "Diary of an African Nun," and The Color Purple she portrays Africa in a positive way. Ideologically, in her Pulitzer prize winning novel she propagates the neo-Fanonist concept of the unification of Africans in the diaspora as epitomized in the marriage between Tashi, the Olinka belle and Adam, the Afro-American who willingly embraces the scarification ritual of his African hosts. Although Ralph Ellison does not propagate a pan-African philosophy in his works, there is overwhelming evidence in all of them that he celebrates Afro-American culture similar to the griot in traditional African societies. He is essentially a strong advocate of the use of art forms from the culture as artistic devices in works of art by contemporary artists. Consequently, like the griot in African societies he is an oral historian. In Invisible Man, and his short stories he conveys this notion very eloquently. Hence, by using different motifs in his works such as Brer Rabbit, Brer Dog, the blues which have their base in Africa, Ellison is demonstrating that there is a artistic continuum of art forms from the continent in the New World.

Notes.

(1.) Alice Walker, Once: Poems by Alice Walker (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1968), pp.3-22

(2.) Alice Walker, "Diary of an African Nun," in In Love and Trouble:Stories of Black Woman (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1967), pp. 113-118

(3.) See also Alice Walker's two novels, Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland.

(4.) Alice Walker, The Color Purple (New York: Washington Square Press, 1982), p. 123

(5.) Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (New York: Hill and Wang, 1963), pp. 101-122

(6.) Alice Walker, "In search of Our Mothers' Gardens," in Womanist Prose by Alice Walker: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens (New York: Harcourt Barce Jovanovich, 1983), pp. 231-243. See also another interesting essay entitled "Writing The Color Purple" in the same collection of essays, pp. 355-360

(7.) Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books Edition, 1952), pp. 361-362

(8.) Ralph Ellison has been castigated by critics and students for not emphasizing the ideological content of his works. He remains defiant and remarks that those who want to write sociology instead of art should do so. Despite his unfortunate remarks his writings to date andexcerpts from his novel still in progress-"the Hickman Stories" are inundated with sociological material from Afro-American culture.

(9.) Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books, 1952), pp.7-8

(10.) Samuel Charters, The Roots of the Blues: An African Search (New York: Perigee Books, 1981), pp. 119-126. See also "Invisible Man: Black and Blue," in Robert G. O'Meally, The Craft of Ralph Ellison (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980) pp. 78-104 and Ralph Ellison, "Sound and the Mainstream,' in Shadow and Act (New York: Vintage Books, 1972), pp. 187-260

(11.) Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (New York: Vintage Books, 1952), p. 103

Charles Nama is an assistant professor at the University of Yaounde, Cameroun. He is also a co-editor of the literary journal, Epasa Moto.