Plain Talk

By Mursi Saad El-Din

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Last week, I discussed a recent doctoral thesis by Naeema Ali Abdel-Gawad on the struggle of Afro- American people in the plays of Le Roi Jones and Ed Bullins, and would like to elaborate here on the works of these two playwrights.

As the researcher argues, the history of African Americans is one of relentless struggle against a cruel coloniser, the aim of the struggle being to replace a debased image created by the whites by an authentic one of their own.

Out of this internal 'colony' sprang Jones and Bullins as two prominent literary examples who were themselves subject to the process of colonisation and decolonisation. But the two have different backgrounds. Jones grew up as part of white society; he lived with the whites and married one of them. In the prime of his life and the apex of his fame, he felt alarmed when he sensed he had begun to turn into a white man but with a black face.

Jones' struggle was on the personal, literary and political levels. On the personal level he severed whatever affiliations he had with white society: he quit his job, left his dwelling in a well-off white area and divorced his wife. It is perhaps in his literary production that his new stand is reflected. He turned his works, in the words of the researcher, into "an educative medium that teaches his people how to know themselves and discern their enemies. His works also became the weapon which he [wields in] the face of the enemy whenever he feels that the whites are on their way to frustrate the black struggle."

The case is different with Bullins. He was not a late convert since, unlike Jones, he was brought up within the black ghetto. He was deprived of recognition in white society and denied the right to full citizenship. He realised that the economic and social perspectives of the black ghetto would not improve unless the blacks liberate themselves. Somehow this reminds me of Palestinians who live in refugee camps in their suffering and efforts to achieve liberation. Bullins' plays reflect this spirit.

Going through the plays of Jones and Bullins, one cannot fail to register their effort to legitimise the existence of African American people. Both expend much energy on reviving the distinctive and original African American history. In both Slave Ship by Jones and In Wine Time by Bullins there is an effort to historicise, in the search of "a distinctive identity for their black nation," and a creative response to the violence of the slave period. It is, in a nutshell, a rewriting of the African American culture in an attempt, as the researcher puts it, "to resist the negative impact of the coloniser."

Both Jones and Bullins point out that real and irrevocable decolonisation demands collective struggle that "will surely destroy the slave ship over which the blacks are" colonised.

What I particularly like about the thesis is the conclusion that Abdel-Gawad reaches, especially in light of both history and recent events. Bullins' concern is with black identity; he is distressed to have his people measured according to white social parametres, which confine the blacks within the boundaries of slavery.

What I got out from this informative and interesting thesis is that there is a movement of African American cultural revival of which we catch powerful glimpses in the works of these two writers. But this movement must be presented to the world not in a patronising vein that is meant to show the world how tolerant American society is. Rather it should be showcased to demonstrate what many have suspected all along, namely how effective and inspiring the contribution of African Americans is to the life and thought of modern America and also to the rest of us.