Bessie Head “The Collector of Treasures” Definition of Morality Play Quiz Okot P’Bitek

Bessie Head 1937-1986 Born in an asylum in South Africa in 1937. Her mother was a white woman who was sent to the asylum because she had an affair with a black man. Interracial intercourse was a criminal offense in SA under apartheid. Raised in foster care, then in mission schools. Her mother left behind money for her education. She writes of her experiences: “for years and years after [being at these schools] I harbored a terrible and blind hatred for missionaries and for the Christianity which they represented, and once I left the mission school, I never set foot in a Christian church again.” Became involved in South African Politics during the late 50s and early 60s as a journalist. Exiled herself to Botswana, after her unhappy marriage and divorce.

Her Themes Outsiderness – not really belonging anywhere. The fate of women in African society. Postcolonialism and feminism. “Black women have a certain history of oppression within African Culture . . . women’s problems are rooted in custom and tradition. What is certainly very dominant here is that the male had a superior position to the female” (Head, qtd in Lionnet). “Head explores how an individual’s inner sense of integrity and beliefs are often at odds with the society’s rules which impose a conformity on the community and stifle individual self-fulfilment” (Chetin).

However . . . Another critic writes that Bessie Head always maintains her individualism. Though feeling strongly about racism and sexual discrimination – and having gained by the bitterest experience a considerable knowledge of both problems – she never allowed herself to be totally identified with either African nationalism or feminism. Her vision included whites and blacks, men and women. What she feared was the misuse of power, what she strove towards was human goodness and love. The idea of the basic goodness and decency of the ordinary person never left her. (Eilersen)

Morality Play Dramatized allegories of the representative Christian life, in the mode of a quest for salvation in which the crucial events are temptation, sin, and the confrontation with death. The protagonist represents Mankind, or Everyman; among the other characters are the personifications of virtues, vices and Death.

Morality Play – Some related terms ALLEGORY—(from the Greek “allegoria,” which means “speaking otherwise.” A story in prose or verse that has a double meaning or multiple meanings, both the obvious surface meaning and one or more secondary meanings, and thus must be understood on two or more levels. PSYCHOMACHIA—the battle within the individual’s mind or soul, often represented allegorically in literature as a conflict between virtues and vices for the possession of the soul. APTRONYM—a name that fits the nature or character of an individual (a “label name”).

Folktales Folktales deal with adventures both plausible and implausible wrapped in the forms of human or animal abilities. They are the simple tales that have truly evil people or animals, and truly good people or animals, and the good always wins out in the end in these stories, giving way to the child's version of fairness. . . .Folktales proved to be excellent vehicles for teaching children the values and lessons in behavior which the storyteller thought appropriate. Quiz

Song of Lawino Song of Ocal – Okot P’Bitek In 1969, Song of Lawino was published. It is written in the style of a traditional Acholi song. It is an Acholi wife's lament about her college-educated husband, who has rejected Acholi traditions and ideas for Western ones. Much of Lawino's anger is directed at her husband's lover who embodies these Western values and customs, and who she contrasts with herself. In Song of Ocal, her husband responds to her, decrying what he perceives as Africa's backwardness, and extoling the virtues of European society and ideas. Lawino and Ocal's debate reflects the discourse taking place at the time in African societies about the implications of adopting Western culture and ideals.

Discussion Question How do these pieces connect to the theory we’ve been reading? For example, how do they connect with the ideas of Orientalism we talked about on Monday? How do they connect to the discussion of discourse and the development of systems of knowledge? How do they become a particular example of the general topic of the issues developed by colonialism/postcolonialism?