African & African American Art: A Reflection of Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

Literature is often referred to as a mirror to society. By examining the various elements of a creative work of art, including fiction, one can see the values, problems, and concerns of a particular society. By comparing the poetry and fiction of African artists with that of African American artists, one can notice some critical similarities and differences in their work. In analyzing a creative work of art, some elements of fiction that are important include themes, language, setting, character, and conflict. Some of these elements may be similar in works of African and African-American artists because they are universal, while others may be very different because some elements are unique to the culture being examined. Due to the vastness of the African continent, this paper will analyze works of fiction from West African writers, South African writers, and East African writers. In regards to African-American writers, the paper will examine the works of Zora Neale Hurston, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and Alice Walker among others. This paper will compare the elements of fiction between African and African-American authors.

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Themes

Colonialism VS Blackness

The theme is one of the most important elements of a creative work of fiction and poetry. It is through the theme or themes that the author or the poet examines some of the critical issues in society. Different authors from different cultural backgrounds examine various themes. While the theme of colonialism is one of the major themes among African writers, it is the theme of racial disparity and blackness that is prominent among the works of African-American writers.

In the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe of West Africa, the author examines the impact of colonialism on African societies (Achebe, 1996). In the novel, colonialism is seen to destroy family relationships and also drive a wedge between the different tribes. The same destruction of the society is seen in Ngugi Thiongo's A Grain of Wheat from the East African region (Ngugi, 1988).

Colonialism was a defining moment in the social and political affairs of the African continent. To begin with, colonialism took power away from the village elders and placed it in the hands of the district commissioners among other colonial administrators. This was a drastic change in the way that African societies had historically been governed. Some people benefitted from this change while the majority suffered under the new colonial masters. In Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo is one of the main characters and a tragic hero (Achebe, 1996). He is unable to fit into the new social structure and ends up hanging himself after killing a messenger. To him, the change was too much.

The same kind of effects on society is evident in the novel A Grain of Wheat (Ngugi, 1988). In the story, the British destroy the African culture in the process of setting up their colonial political structure. A lot of the men who go against the district administrators are arrested and confined into detention camps. Besides, some of the Africans ally themselves with the colonialists by becoming collaborators and help in hurting their fellow Africans.

Even when colonialism is officially over and the countries are gearing up for independence, their society is so disintegrated that the people are unable to make collective decisions. These stories represented the collective life of the African people when the colonialists were challenging the traditions and politics of the African people.

In contrast, African American writers often concentrate on themes touching on how it feels to be black in the United States. In The Fact of Blackness, Franz Fanon (1968) examined the condition of being black as explains that the body becomes an object of consciousness. Hence, while the theme of colonialism is central to African writers, it is the theme of blackness and racial disparity with the white race that is central to the writing of African-American novelists and poets.

Through characterization, the authors of The Bluest Eye and The Color Purple examine how the black color is associated with racial inferiority and ugliness in the US (Walker, 2003). The two narratives offer an intimate account of what it feels to be black. In the former, the protagonist is a black girl whose wish is to have very blue eyes. To her, being black is tantamount to being ugly and inferior in terms of beauty and social position.

In the later narrative by Alice Walker (2003), Celie is one of the main characters and she is rejected by everyone for the same reason- being black and ugly. Her pain for being black and inferior to the white girls brings her pain throughout the entire story. Shug, one of the characters in the story The Color Purple (2003), affirms Celie's fears by stating "you sho' is ugly" (Walker, 2003 pg 34). The theme of blackness in Alice Walker's story s so central to the story that she takes time to reveal that various shades associated with the black skin including clear medium brown, bright skin, and black as tar.

Double Oppression in Women

While each of the two cultures has struggled against various challenges, one of the dominant themes from both sets of writers is that women face double oppression. Double oppression is unique to women in that on top of struggling against the other problems; they suffer primarily because of their gender. For example, because racism is a dominant theme in African-American literature, the audience is likely to realize that on top of suffering from racism, the female characters also suffer from challenges that are unique to women such as domestic violence or women subjugation among others.

For example, in Alice Walker (2003) in the story The Color Purple, the women are subject to double oppression, as exemplified by Celie, who is not only oppressed for being black but also for simply being a woman. The mistreatment and suffering in her life begin early on when she is a child because her stepfather would systematically rape her. Besides, her husband periodically tells her how useless, dumb, and ugly she is. As he tells her, "you black, you ugly, you pore, you a woman. Goddamn" (Walker, 2003 pg 102). This point is constantly driven home by the society that reminds her that she is useless, ugly and dumb for being a black woman. There is the sense that apart from struggling in society for being black, Celie among other female characters suffers because of their gender.

Just like Celie, Delia is the protagonist in Zora Neale Hurston's Sweat (Hurston, 1997). She is a hard-working middle-aged black woman and is the wife of Sykes- a lazy and abusive man. Just like the rest of the black community, Delia suffers from the harsh economic life that the black community seems to suffer from. As a result, she has had to work very hard. The suffering is said to have stolen her former beauty and left her with "hard knuckly hands" from washing other people's clothes.

However, also, she has had to suffer from domestic violence from her abusive husband- both emotionally and physically. For example, he is a serial cheater who takes up mistresses despite being married to Delia. As the story begins, he is with a woman named Bertha, whom he shows off around the town with her without a care in the world. He is also said to occasionally beat her up despite their size difference. He resorts to all manner of things to take away the house that Delia has bought through hard work. As a result, the women in these stories seem to carry a huge burden for both being black and being black women at the same time.

The same theme of double oppression in women is evident among African writers. For example, in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the women have to suffer emotional and physical abuse on top of struggling with the impact of colonialism in society (Achebe, 1996). For example, Ojiugo is the youngest and the third wife of Okonkwo. The protagonist beats her up savagely during a dedicated week of peace leading to a heavy fine being placed on him. However, what ultimately appears to be the only problem that the protagonist has done is only breaking a sacred tradition instead of the actual violence he unleashes on the woman.

Throughout the story, Okonkwo periodically threatens her and other women of a beating. In A Grain of Wheat (1988) Mumbi is a major character and a representation of women during colonialism times in Africa. Her lover is taken away and put in detention and she is not only left with the work of raising a child alone but she also suffers from emotional anguish waiting for her lover to come back home- if he ever comes back home. She knows that during such times of emergency, political prisoners would occasionally be beaten up while in custody. She also suffers torment from Karanja who had allied himself with the collaborators and, therefore, remained free.

Racism

Racism is based on the notion that one race is superior to another; a theme that often takes center-stage in African and African-American literature. This theme is especially prominent where the black race exists alongside the white race such as in the US and South Africa. As a result, both African and African-American writers have examined this theme in detail in their works of art.

One of the notable writers to come out of South Africa and address the issue of racism and apartheid politics was Alex la Guma. This theme is central to the story The Lemon Orchard (Guma, 1967). The story revolves around a colored man who is likely being led to be executed by a couple of white men because of the crime of raising an argument with the local white church minister. Throughout the story, he had his hands bound and a shotgun jammed against his back. The underlying tone is that there is a strict hierarchy and the colored man sat at the lowest strata primarily due to the color of his skin.

Throughout the walk on the farm, the colored man is referred to as a "hotnot," a racial slur despite him being an intellectual and a qualified teacher (Guma, 1967 pg 125). In contrast, the educational or professional background of the white men who accompany the black man is not mentioned, perhaps to indicate that they may as well be less learned and educated in comparison to the colored man. The theme of racism is also examined in the story of Alex la Guma's A Walk in the Night (Guma, 1967) that is set in Cape Town. Racism here is seen to demean and dehumanize the black race.

For example, the protagonist Michael Adonis is sacked from his manual job simply for asking his white foreman for a bathroom break. Also, all the policemen in the town are white and seem to particularly enjoy harassing the black natives. For example, the protagonist explains that from early on, as a black man, you learned not to gaze at the policemen's eyes but rather focus on a spot on their uniform. Rather than help the locals and maintain law and order, the police spent most of their time accosting them.

In particular, how the police constable hunts down and kills Willieboy is dehumanizing and racist. The suspect had accidentally killed a white neighbor by the name Uncle Daughty. One would expect that the suspect would face justice and probably be imprisoned for manslaughter. As a policeman, one would expect that he would hunt down Willieboy to arrest him and let the law take its course. However, his only intention is to kill the young man. He hunts him down like an animal and shoots him down in the streets like a beast. Under apartheid, racism comes out as being very brutal.

The theme of racism is central to Richard Wright's The Man Who Was Almost a Man (Wright, 1979). Here, racism takes the form of economic inequality between the races. From the short story, it emerges that the white race o...