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What Slaves' Folktales Say About Whites |
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All slave tales afforded their slave creators and slave
audiences a way to say what they thought of Whites. Themes included psychic
relief from oppression; a sense of mastery over Whites; and vicarious good
living. Regarding the latter, Brer Rabbit and his fellow creatures were too
humanized to be content with mere survival. As Levine (Black Culture p107)
says: "Their needs included all the prizes human beings crave and strive for:
wealth, success, prestige, honor, sexual prowess."
The tales gave voice to the slaves' otherwise
inexpressible angers, their gnawing hatreds, and their pent-up frustrations. In
the realm of unrestrained fantasies the impotent become potent; the brutalized
are transformed into brutalizers; and the under-men inherit the earth. However,
in the realistic realm the slaves were painfully realistic in teaching the art
of surviving and even triumphing in the face of a hostile environment. The
story of Brer Rabbit assaulting the tar-baby points out the dangers of acting
rashly and striking out blindly. The story of Brer Pig allowing Brer Fox to
enter his house points out the futility of believing in the sincerity of the
strong. Slave tales emphasized the necessity of understanding the ways of the
powerful since only through such understanding could the weak endure. In the
race between a slow animal and a swifter opponent, the former triumphs; not
through persistence-as does his counterpart in Aesop's fable of the Tortoise
and the Hare-but by outwitting his opponent and capitalizing on his weaknesses
and short-sightedness. The Terrapin defeats the Deer by placing relatives along
the route--with the Terrapin himself stationed by the finish line. The
deception is never discovered since to the arrogant Deer all Terrapins look
alike. For the slaves whose individuality was invariably denied by Whites, this
was a particularly appropriate and valuable message.
From slave folktales on another plane of existence, it was
clear to the slaves that the state of perpetual war and disharmony that
Europeans were (and are) engaged in vividly display the hypocrisy and
meaninglessness of their civility, rules, laws, codes of morals (right/wrong),
and codes of ethics (appropriate/inappropriate). This was demonstrated in the
slave fables whereby animals called each other brother and sister one moment
and were at each other's throats the next. Supporting tales emphasize in brutal
detail the irrationality and anarchy that rules the White man's universe. In
tale after tale, the slave's spoke to Europeans violence and duplicity and
pictured both as existing for their own sake, as when an animal character
performs acts of senseless cruelty for no discernible reason and apparently as
a manifestation of amorality. This is totally against African Tradition.
On still another plane of existence trickster tales were a
prolonged and telling parody of White society. The animals were frequently
almost perfect replicas of Whites from the slaves' point of view. Whites
occasionally worked but more often lived a life filled with leisure-time
activities: they fished and hunted; had numerous parties and balls; and courted
the demure women sitting on verandas while dressed in white. They mouthed lofty
platitudes and professed belief in noble ideals while spending much of their
time manipulating, oppressing, and enslaving even members of their own. They
surrounded themselves with meaningless etiquette; encased themselves in rigid
hierarchies; and dispensed rewards-not to the most deserving but to the most
crafty and least scrupulous. The Europeans world was filled with violence,
injustice, and cruelty. Though they might possess great power they did not
always wield it openly and directly but instead often with guile and
indirection. Hence, the strong and the weak tend to function as tricksters
(Levine p119).
Joseph A. Bailey, II, M.D.
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