LITR 5731: Seminar in
American Minority Literature
University of Houston-Clear Lake,
spring 2003
Student Research Project
Elizabeth Martin
Minority Literature
Literature 5731
Dr. White
Due: 07 May, 2003
Birth of Nations:
Functions
of origin myths in Minority Literature
Only
barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where
they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if
so, why, and if not, why not.
Isaiah
Berlin
Since the beginning of mankind, there has been one common thread that
ties together all cultures and religions of the world: an attempt to explain
their origins. In the absence of science, they resorted to creating stories to
account for what they did not and could not understand.
While similar in their basic design and theory, these stories vary
greatly in their content and meaning. By
studying them, much can be learned about people of the present and past.
Myths have a way of creeping into all forms of literature.
They are a basis for storytelling in many cultures.
In every society there are fables of creation outside of religion, though
religious ideas are certainly a background in many stories. The Judeo Christian
story of Adam and Eve is actually a common form of creational ideas.
The concept of a supreme being creating man appears in almost all forms
of origin stories. Most minority
creation fables have an alternative story for the creation of their enemies, or
just those that are different from them. This
differs from the story of Adam and Eve. In this paper, I hope to show the way that common tribal
origin myths have affected minority literature while referencing Song of
Solomon, Bless Me Ultima and a passage of Woman Hollering Creek.
I also hope to link the myths with objective two from the syllabus.
Many myths found in Africa have man coming
from the earth or from the body of a god. The
way man comes to life makes certain class distinctions, between all races and
within races. I have chosen two
myths from Africa that come from tribes that were taken as slaves.
A Shilluk origin myth adapted from Folklore in the Old Testament,
by J.G.Frazer:
The creator, Jouk molded all people of the earth.
While he was engaged in the work of creation, he wandered about the
world. In the land of the whites he found a pure white earth or
sand, and out of it he shaped white people.
Then he came to the land of Egypt and out of the mud of the Nile he made
red or brown people. Lastly he came
to the land of the Shilluks, and finding there black earth he created black
people out of it.
He modeled humans to be able to walk and run through the fields and gave
them legs. Then he wanted them to
be able to cultivate millet, so he gave them arms.
So they could see the millet and fields he gave them eyes.
Then he gave them mouths and tongues so they could eat, sing, shout and
speak. Lastly he gave them ears so
they could hear the dance and speech. Then
Jouk sent them out into the world as perfect humans.
(99)
This shows the value system at work among the Shilluk, that work comes
above all else. It also attempts to explain the differences between men of
various races by telling how they
came about. Even with explanations to different races the fact remains that
all races came from the earth, we are all created equal in the beginning. The one exception to this is the mention of white sand; the
white sands are pure. This could be
interpreted by an Anglo-American as the white sand is superior.
It is actually quite the opposite. In
Africa the concept of color is reversed from the ideas that were formed
centuries ago in what is now the United States of America.
By making Africans slaves, a negative implication automatically was
coupled with dark skin. Also in
many religions, white symbolizes light and good, while black is dark and evil.
In African tribes such as the Mande and Yoruba black is a symbol of life,
it represents such things as fertile soil. It is also a representation of good, as they have black skin.
The term black magic also has a negative connotation as people generally
think of voodoo or witchcraft. On
the contrary, black magic is actually a term to describe the religion of some
African nations and the way that humans were created.
(Robinson 64) Jouk is the grand sorcerer of black magic as he creates all
the people. He saves the Africans
for last, because when crafting the earth he made man last.
In many origin myths man is the final creation, because he is the most
superior being. It would suffice to
say that in this African myth, Africans are also created last, because in their
culture they are superior to other races.
It is also important to note that Africans came from the earth in this
story. This shows how important the
earth was to them and that it should be worked.
Before Africans were sold into slavery, they were already conditioned to
the manual labor of working the fields. In
contrast to the symbol of Sambo, Africans were not lazy, happy and fat.
In fact, their bodies were conditioned already.
That is one of the reasons many of them could survive the long boat trips
to the United States.
Another creational myth comes from the Sudan region.
It is told by the Boshongo tribe:
In the beginning, in the dark, there was nothing but water.
And Bumba was alone. One day
Bumba was in terrible pain. He
retched and strained and vomited up the sun.
After that light spread over everything.
The heat of the sun dried up the water
until the black edges of the world began to show.
Black sandbanks and reefs could be seen. But there were no living things.
Bumba vomited up the moon and then the stars, and after that the night
had its light also. Still Bumba was
in pain. He strained again and nine living creatures came forth; the leopard
named Koy Bumba, and Pongo Bumba the crested eagle, the crocodile, Ganda Bumba,
and one little fish named Yo; next, old Kono Bumba, the tortoise, and Tsetse,
the lightning,
swift, deadly, beautiful like the leopard, then the white heron, Nyanyi
Bumba, also one beetle, and the goat named Budi.
Last of all came forth man. There
were many men, but only one was white like Bumba, but he was grounded. (African
Cosmogent)
In this myth, there is no reason to explain why animals and man are
placed on earth. One would assume Bumba was lonely, but there is not an actual
explanation. It also does not tell
us how many colors of people were made, but it points out that there was only
one white man and that the god, Bumba, was white.
More importantly, he is land bound suggesting that the other men were
not. This could be where the myth
of flying Africans began.
The Boshongo tribe also has a myth for their enemies.
They say that the Tikuna tribe was expelled form the entrails of a
serpent that was then killed by a heroic tribe member of the Boshongo.
(Jacobs 256) The Tikuna
tribe was also a dark-skinned culture in Sudan.
The irony of this is they did not trust the tribe next door to them, but
they did trust the white man when he came.
The two tribes were sold together into slavery.
The Boshongo tribe is located in the Luba-Lunda States in Central Africa.
Luba-Lunda has a rich source of magical history.
They are famous for their chiefs that apparently at one time performed
miraculous events such as healing the sick, calming animals and flying.
Unfortunately, in the 15th century ivory hunters took over the
region. They sold many of the
people and much ivory to Portugal and eventually to the United States.
The people of Boshongo instantly trusted the ivory hunters and it led to
their downfall. Let it be said that
because of their creational myth of Bumba being white they did not fight back in
the beginning. The region has now become a central trading place for ivory,
but Boshongo tribe members remain and their population is growing.
The ideas of coming from the earth, the misfortune of trusting the white
man and flying all appear in Song of Solomon and throughout
African-American slave history. They
are not placed in stories and origin myths anymore, instead they have become so
integrated into oral history that they are part of a known history that surfaces
in African –American literature.
The character Pilate is an example of a human that came from the earth,
just like the people in the Shilluk myth. She
is born without a bellybutton, suggesting from the beginning her sustenance came
from somewhere else. She eats what
she grows. She is incredibly aware
that one must return to the earth, where they came from.
She carries around bones of the man from the cave for years, denying him
the right to a proper burial. When
it is revealed that they are the bones of her father she rushes to bury him so
that he is returned to the earth. Some
think of her as a witch, but it is not witchcraft it is actually an acute
awareness of her origins. She is in
direct opposition to Macon Dead who is a man of society, rather than the earth.
He cares for nothing but materialism.
It is ironic that they are brother and sister as one comes from a
spiritual, earthly womb and the other a physical womb.
In relation to the previous myths, Pilate is more like a Shilluk that was
created from the ground, while Macon feels as if he was expelled from a god’s
body like the humans in the Boshongo myth.
Guitar and the Seven Days are an example of retribution for trusting the
white. In the myth of the Boshongo
the tribe trusted the white ivory hunters, because they resembled their god
Bumba. The ivory hunters took them
as slaves and sold them to Portugal and America.
For many years Africans lived as slaves in captivity in the United
States. After their release they
were treated as a lesser culture. Laws
were made to prevent them from integrating into society.
The Jim Crowe laws made blacks and whites, “Separate, but Equal”. The problem is that nothing was actually equal.
The schools, restaurants, even bathrooms were inadequate for the blacks,
compared to the white only areas. Guitar
and his gang, called the Seven Days, took matters into their own hands.
Every time an African-American was killed by somebody white, then they
killed in the same manner. They
felt that African-Americans had been oppressed for too long and that the courts
and laws were made for whites, there could never be a fair trial.
It becomes the opposite of the KKK, “It doesn’t matter who did it.
Each and every one of them could do it.
Therefore, you just get any one of them. There are no innocent white people, because every one of them
is a potential nigger-killer, if not an actual one” (Morrison 155).
A pattern that started many years ago, that is told in the Boshongo myth
is carried out in Song of Solomon. This
time instead of being taken in by the ivory hunters, they fight back.
The concept of flying in the Boshongo myth also shows up in other
African-American literature. The
People Could Fly, by Virginia Hamilton, is a book containing folktales from
African-American history. I have
included a paraphrase of one of those tales.
In Africa, before men became enslaved there were magical people that
could fly. When they were taken as
slaves the had to rid themselves of their wings because there was not enough
room on the boats. Eventually they
forgot all about flying. Then on a
plantation, a slave girl named Sarah, worked the fields and remembers a story of
magical Africans that could fly. There
comes a point were she can not stand the crack of the whip over her back or her
child’s. She cries to her father
Toby it is time. He says, “Kum…yali,
kum buba tambe” ( Hamilton169) and her feet lift off the ground and she and
her babe fly away. The next day in
the fields a slave man collapses and the driver whips him.
Toby whispers the magic words to him and he lifts off.
Toby then spreads his arms, yells and the slaves begin to rise and fly
away while Toby follows behind. The
ones that can not fly tell the story to their children and it has been passed
down since then. (Hamilton 166-172) The
People Could Fly is a classic book, today.
It is a story of slavery times, but the roots are from much further back. Just as in the Boshongo myth, the African’s can fly and the
white man cannot. It has become a
common theme in African-American literature.
In Song of Solomon the story begins and ends with a flying
African, but there are other flight attempts.
Metaphorically white people, and black people that forget their roots or
become power hungry can not fly. For
example the peacock that appears in the novel is white and grounded.
The tail of the peacock is too ornate and therefore it can not fly. It serves as a reminder that this is an African myth.
Black people that become consumed by materials or try to be white are
also doomed to being earthbound. Smith was a member of the Seven Days gang.
His flight was marred by his connection with them.
Killing people becomes an issue of domination. He could not perform a
perfect trip with the weight of that association, neither can Guitar.
Milkman’s father is another case of a man who traded in his heritage
for wealth and power. He never ventures outside of his empire, he never is
enlightened. Another example is
Circe’s story of the last Butler woman. She
tried to commit suicide by throwing herself over the banister on the landing.
But as white women do not have the power to fly over a banister she
managed to injure herself in the fall and it took another week for her to die.
Solomon and Jake are two central characters in Milkman’s life that do
not surface until the end. The
images of flight are overwhelming in theses scenes.
Solomon was known as the flying African.
He was descended from legendary men that journeyed home through the air. Milkman says to Susan Byrd, “When you say ‘flew off’
you mean he ran away, don’t you? Escaped?”(Morrison
322). Byrd replies, “No, I mean
flew,” (Morrison 322).
Solomon picked up his son Jake and soared, but he dropped Jake and the
Byrds took care of him. He eventually fell in love with Singing Bird, a creature of
wings. They left Shalimar driving a
load of slaves to freedom, like Pilate they take a symbolic flight.
The last pages of the novel show two people unfurling their wings.
Pilate can not fly because she carries too much baggage, both
symbolically and literally. Her
father’s spirit tells her she cannot fly off and leave a body, so she carries
it around for the rest of her life, never understanding why she cannot reach
freedom. It is not until the last
pages that she finds out it is her father’s body and he was never properly
buried. After she lays him in a
grave, her freedom is given. When
Pilate dies, a bird swoops down upon the open grave and snatches her locket, her
name. She achieves symbolic flight, she is lifted up with the birds
and her name is then Pilot. Milkman
also leaves the ground, but he does it physically.
For the first time he understands the people he comes from and he is
proud. When he leaps there is no
doubt that his wings are true. He
will not fall from the sky, like Icarus or Smith.
He will gracefully float away because he is a descendant of Solomon.
The creational myths of the Shilluk and Boshongo are just two examples of
origin stories from Africa. When
they were brought here as slaves they brought their old stories and traditions.
They were then integrated into American culture and literature.
Mexican-Americans have entirely separate stories for explaining their
beginning on earth. In Woman
Hollering Creek the story is this:
God made men by baking them in an oven, but he forgot about the first
batch, and that is how Black people were born.
And then he was so anxious about the next batch, he took them out of the
oven too soon, so that how White people were made.
But the third batch he let cook until they were golden-golden-golden, and
honey, that’s you and me. (Cisneros
152)
This is a tale for children. It
gives the impression that brown skin is the superior color.
It also is based on Christianity, by invoking God.
The myth is very comical and geared towards children and self-esteem.
This is just an example of stories that are passed down.
It is not a creation story from the beginning of time though, the idea of
ovens shows the modernity of it. More
likely, the idea was created to take the sting out of racism for children.
Mexico is rich with culture. Mexico’s
roots are in ancient civilizations, such as the Aztecs and Mayans.
The Mayans were an advanced people who lived in
the area now known as Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and the Mexican state of
Yucatan, where their descendants live. This
story is from the Popol Vuh, the Mayan epic.
It is both a Creation myth and a morality tale.
There were four gods in heaven and each of them sat on his chair,
observing the world below. Then the
yellow lord suggested that they make a man to enjoy the earth and offer praise
to the gods. The other three
agreed. So the yellow god took a
lump of yellow clay and made a man from it.
But his creation was weak; it dissolved in water and could not stand
upright. Then the red god suggested
that they make a man out of wood, and the others agreed.
So the red god took a branch from a tree and carved it into a human
shape. When they tested it in
water, it floated; it stood upright without any problem whatsoever.
However, when they tested it with fire, it burned.
The four lords decided to try again.
This time the black god suggested making a man out of gold.
The gold man was beautiful and shone like the sun.
He survived the tests of fire and water, looking even more handsome after
these tests. However, the gold man
was cold to the touch; he was unable to speak, feel, move, or worship the gods.
But they left him on earth anyway. The fourth god, the colorless lord,
decided to make humans out of his own flesh.
He cut the fingers off his left hand and they jumped and fell to earth.
The four gods could hardly see what the men of flesh looked like as they
were so far away. From the seat of
the four lords, they looked like busy little ants.
But the men of flesh worshipped the gods and made offerings to them.
They filled the hearts of the four lords with joy.
One day the men of flesh found the man of gold.
When they touched him, he was as cold as a stone.
When they spoke to him, he was silent.
But the kindness of the men of flesh warmed the heart of the man of gold
and he came to life, offering praise to the gods for the kindness of the men of
flesh. The word of praise from the
previously silent creature woke the four gods from their sleep and they looked
down on earth in delight. They
called the man of gold "rich" and the men of flesh "poor,"
ordaining that the rich should look after the poor. The rich man will be judged at his death based on how he
cared for the poor. From that day
onward, no rich man can enter heaven unless he is brought there by a poor man.
(Farmer 37)
Along with the creation of man, this myth has several morals to it. The first three gods represent the three forms of skin color.
They all fail at making a human that is worthy of the world they have
created. The yellow and red people
cannot survive, while the gold man is heartless.
The colorless god was able to create men that surpassed all the others.
They were an actual part of the god.
Instinctively they knew to give back to their creator, unlike the gold
man who stayed silent. By
warming the heart of the gold man they fulfilled the age old task of evangelism.
This a moral about kindness, it can turn even the hardest of hearts.
It is also a story of charity. The
rich must care for the poor, but not out of charity, but out of the goodness of
their hearts. People were formed to
take care of each other, they are flesh of the gods.
It did not matter to the flesh men that the gold man did not look like
them, they took care of him anyway. It
is not a coincidence that the men of flesh come from the colorless god.
It is a lesson that is still trying to be taught today.
Love of one another should be colorblind.
The Mayans knew this centuries ago.
The myth differs from the African myths and the Lacandon myth because
many Mexican American folktales seem to have their basis in Christianity.
In the Mayan folktale there are four gods, this differs greatly form
Judeo- Christian faith. In fact
because the men worship all of them it is idolatry.
On the other hand it has the mixing of morals within religion and fables. The idea of religion , morals and magic all coinciding is a
common thread in Minority literature. This
can be found in the Lacandon myth and Bless Me Ultima.
The Lacandons are the indigenous peoples of La Selva Lacandona in Chiapas,
Mexico. They have named themselves the Hack Winik, which means the
True People. They are inhabitants
of Lacandon Rainforest and it is rumored that they are descendents of the
classical civilizations of Palenque, Yaxchilan and Bonampak.
Their exact origins are unknown, but they have resided in the Chiapas for
over a century. They live in small clans but stay connected through religion,
intermarriage and traditions and language.
Until the 1950’s they remained secluded. The deforestation of the Lacondoan brought changes to the
Hach Winik. They are now a tribe of
only about 500. With civilization
came disease in the 1950’s. Many
died because their seclusion had kept them quarantined from even basic diseases
such as influenza. Today, in the
village of Najá, the elder Lacandons continue to inspire the community with
unique mythological stories, dream interpretations, rituals and agricultural
principles that are purely Mayan. They
have become famous for their dream interpretations. It is a common greeting in the morning to be asked what you
dreamed. In fact, their origin
story is one that was dreamed. (Leach
154)
An adaptation
of a Lacandon myth that was seen in a dream:
In the beginning, there were two brothers, Sukuyum and Nohotsakyum, and
they were the main gods. Sukuyum
was older and more powerful than Nohotsakyum, he ordered his brother to make him
a house, but he would not help him. Nohotsakyum
made a ball of masa, which became our world and Sukyum’s house.
He then went and made the sun, moon, stars, plants and animals.
Last he made humans out of clay. He
made them in groups of animals. For
example the Kalsia are the people of the monkey.
He formed their eyes, ears and other parts, then he baked them next to
his tortillas. When the clay
hardened the people lived. He then
made baby clay people and childlike clay people to repopulate the earth after
the first adults dies. When bad
people die they will go live with Sukuym, who is an evil god and lives among
fire. He will burn them and run hot
irons up their penises. When the good people die they will live with Nohuostkyum
and his wife in the sky. They will
work the land and eat from the land. When
the big jaguar comes and eats the world everyone will go live with him.
They will work in the corn patches, smoke cigars and eat tortillas and
beans. (34)
The creation myth of the Lacandon is amazingly similar to Christianity.
Until the 1940’s a missionary had never been to Lacandon, so the
parallels that are unmistakable are oddly original.
Nohotsakyum sounds a lot like God, while Sukuyum resembles Satan.
Of course God would never haven taken orders from Satan, but the
archetypes are there. Some examples of the way that Nohotsakyum is like God is
he creates the world, people and animals. He
also inhabits a place in the sky where the good people will go when they die.
In Christian beliefs there is a heaven and hell.
Heaven is usually described in the sky, with God.
God is the creator of man and woman, Adam and Eve.
He gave everything surrounding humans life.
In contrast, Satan lives in the underworld surrounded by fire. He is a fallen angel that could not tolerate having a higher
power and spends the rest of eternity fighting it and paying for it.
Sukuyum may have more power in this story, but he still parallels Satan.
When the unforgiven die they go to hell with Satan.
The differences are clear between this myth and Christianity, but still
the similarities are remarkable.
In Bless Me, Ultima, the mixing of religion, magic and morals are
a central theme of the story. It is
obvious by the myths provided, that different regions of Mexico practice
different forms of religion, but in modern day Mexico 79 percent are Catholic.
Catholicism is a denomination of Christianity. (Largo) Many
Mexicans became Catholics through the missionaries.
When they moved to America, just like the Africans, they brought their
religious beliefs with them. Along
with Catholicism, there is an entire counterculture of witchcraft in Bless Me
Ultima. Sometimes religion and
witchcraft are one in the same. Ultima
is a curandera, a healer. She is
also a catholic. It is strange how
the two can be one. She is called a
witch by some and a savior by others. If
she does have special powers, she uses them for the good, as opposed to the
three brujas. The brujas, witches,
and their father are the source of evil in the novel.
The idea of three against one matches the Mayan tale.
All four women posses’ gifts of magical appeal, but only one of them
uses them correctly. The first of Tenoria’s daughters dies, just like the yellow
god’s creation of clay does. The
second sister also falls ill and dies, like the red god’s man of wood.
The third sister lives at the end, she is representative of the gold man.
If this story of the three brujas and Ultima coincides with the myth it
is perceivably that her heart will turn from being a bruja.
It is not a direct parallel, but it is an interesting concept to
consider.
The next similarity between Bless Me, Ultima and the myths, is
that the Lacandon myth appears to have a basis in Christianity and the family.
Antonio’s mother is very catholic, it is also her side of the family
that works the land. The
lacandon’s put a lot of emphasis on working the land.
Heaven is working the land. The
Luna’s are a farming family, as opposed to the Marez who are ocean people.
Antonio struggles the entire novel over whether he should be a Luna, like
his mother, or a Marez, like his father. The
Lacandon myth has become a part of Mexican culture, therefore part of their
religion.
Objective two in the course syllabus is,
“to observe representations and narratives (images and stories) of ethnicity
and gender as a means of defining minority categories” (2). Creational myths
define how a culture thinks about themselves.
Most minority cultures in the United States have a story that tells why
they are the way they are. The
stories come from their native lands and were brought with them to this country.
The dominant culture, Anglo-Americans, have nowhere near the amount of
myths surrounding their skin color. The
reason for this is the majority of whites believe in the Judeo-Christian faith.
In this faith, people were created from the earth and made into Adam and
Eve, who are always depicted as white. Also
the savior of the religion is always shown as white, even though his birth is in
the Middle East and he would have had slightly darker skin.
The point is that the same validation is not needed in the United States
for Anglo-Americans, because they are the dominate culture and their religion
explains why they are the dominant culture.
No matter which story is true, the more a story is passed down from
generation to generation the more it is usually stretched.
In Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return, Michael
Eliade says, “Despite the presence of the principal witness, a few years
suffice to strip the event of all historical authenticity, to transform it into
a legendary tale” (45) This
remark is absolutely true, especially in oral tradition, which is found in both
African and Mexican storytelling. Only
in death will people know the truth of creation, it could be an eternally
unanswered question. The stories
our families and towns pass down find their way into our subconscious.
Even if we do not believe the exact way our origins are told, it is easy
to grasp the concepts behind them. It
is amazing when you start to dissect a work how many parts of myths find their
way into literature.
Works Citied
Anya, Rudolfo.
Bless Me, Ultima. Berkeley, California, Warner Books. 1976.
Eliade, Micheal.
Cosmos and History: The myth of the Eternal Return. Harper Brothers. New York,
New York. 1954.
Farmer,
Penelope. Beginnings: Creation Myths of the World. Halliday Lithograph
Corporation. Antheneum, New York. 1979
Largo, Esteban.
Breaking Down Walls. http://www.largo.mexicanwalls.com.
(17 April 2003).
Leach, Maria. The
Beginning: An African Cosmogony. http://alexm.here.ru:8081/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/051.html.
(05 April 2003)
Morrison, Toni.
Song of Solomon. Penguin Books. New York, New York. 1977.
Robinson,
Herbert Spencer. Myths and Legends of All Nations. Totowa, NJ:
Littlefield, Adams & Co. 1976.