The Fairfax
Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, June 13th at 7:30 p.m. (30 minutes later than usual)
in the meeting room of the Fairfax Library to discuss our June book, Barracoon
by Zora Neale Hurston.
Here are some
links for additional background and information:
My son’s
American history textbook includes this fact: “…of approximately 10 million men, women, and children who crossed from
the Old World to the New between 1492 and 1820, the vast majority, about 7.7
million, were African slaves.”
Many of you
heard about the Clotilda
being located in South Carolina last month
Both the
author and Cudjo Lewis had a wealthy, white patron, Charlotte
Osgood Mason
Two songs my
son was recently listening to both seemed to have roots in slave spirituals:
Broken
Bones by Kaleo (an Icelandic band)
We’ll take
the month of July off for summer vacation. After that, we have the following
books to look forward to reading:
Thurs. August
8th The Lightkeepers
by Abby Geni
Thurs.
Sept. 12th My Year of Rest
and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Thurs. Oct.
10th Less by
Andrew Sean Greer
Thanks for
reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.
Beth Bailey-Gates
Friends of
the Fairfax Library
Reading
and Discussion Guide
·
Oral history is an important facet of
maintaining and passing on African history. Hurston positions Cudjo Lewis as a
griot throughout the text. His recollection of the events of his life and those
following his being sold into slavery are verified by other historical texts,
and Hurston is quite confident in the veracity of his stories. Consider the way
history is preserved within your own family context.
·
As is pointed out in the book, one of the
most important things about printing and distributing Cudjo’s story is the fact
that at the time of its writing, the world was inundated with stories from
every perspective but that of the slave. Hurston writes in her original
introduction:
“All
these words from the seller, but not one word from the sold. The Kings and
Captains whose words moved ships. But not one word from the cargo. The thoughts
of the ‘black ivory,’ the ‘coin of Africa,’ had no market value. Africa’s
ambassadors to the New World have come and worked and died, and left their
spoor, but no recorded thought” (pg. 6).
Does this consideration
make the experience of reading Cudjo Lewis’ story even more powerful for you?
·
Cudjo spares no feelings in sharing that
the events that brought him under bondage were done by his fellow Africans —
the powerful Dahomey nation had made quite the business out of attacking other
tribes who had slighted them, killing many and selling those who they let
survive to the white men. This is a complicated and uncomfortable history for
some Black Americans to accept. Alice Walker struggles with this in her
foreward. Was this a painful history to read about for you? Have you heard
about the practice of some African nations selling their captives to American
and European slavers?
·
Hurston returns time and time again to
Cudjo’s loneliness. He had lost essentially his entire immediate family and his
homeland, and the toll this has taken on him is quite evident. One of the most
touching lines of the book was him describing how he felt without his wife.
De wife she de eyes to de
man’s soul. How kin I see now, when I ain’ gottee de eyes no mo’?” (pg. 93).
·
Part of the reason why the book was never
published while Hurston was alive was because editors wanted her to rewrite the
text “in language not in dialect” (pg. xxii). She refused, feeling that the
story must be told in Cudjo’s own words and tone. Was the experience of reading
in dialect difficult for you? Did it make Cudjo feel more or less believable to
you? Why?
