Monday Musing

Newest book on my Kindle

Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" ~ by Zora Neale Hurston, foreword by Alice Walker, 2018, cultural anthropology, 208 pages

In 1927, Zora Neale Hurston went to Plateau, Alabama, just outside Mobile, to interview eighty-six-year-old Cudjo Lewis.  Of the millions of men, women, and children transported from Africa to America as slaves, Cudjo was then the only person alive to tell the story of this integral part of the nation’s history.  Hurston was there to record Cudjo’s firsthand account of the raid that led to his capture and bondage fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed in the United States.

In 1931, Hurston returned to Plateau, the African-centric community three miles from Mobile founded by Cudjo and other former slaves from his ship.  Spending more than three months there, she talked in depth with Cudjo about the details of his life.  During those weeks, the young writer and the elderly formerly enslaved man ate peaches and watermelon that grew in the backyard and talked about Cudjo’s past ― memories from his childhood in Africa, the horrors of being captured and held in a barracoon for selection by American slavers, the harrowing experience of the Middle Passage packed with more than 100 other souls aboard the Clotilda, and the years he spent in slavery until the end of the Civil War.

Based on those interviews, featuring Cudjo’s unique vernacular, and written from Hurston’s perspective with the compassion and style that have made her one of the preeminent American authors of the twentieth-century, Barracoon masterfully illustrates the tragedy of slavery and of one life forever defined by it.  Offering insight into the pernicious legacy that continues to haunt us all, black and white, this poignant and powerful work is an invaluable contribution to our shared history and culture.

Words of the Day

bar·ra·coon /ˌberəˈko͞on / noun (historical) = an enclosure in which black slaves were confined for a limited period.  Example:  "Cudjo Lewis and other slaves were held in a barracoon."

an·thro·pol·o·gy /ˌanTHrəˈpäləjē / noun = the study of human societies and cultures and their development.  Example:  "Zora Neale Hurston was a cultural anthropologist."

per·ni·cious / pərˈniSHəs / adjective = having a harmful effect, especially in a gradual or subtle way.  Example:  "Slavery is a pernicious legacy in the United States."

Rings on my fingers

On my left hand is the Tree of Life, a ring people around the Crown Center recognize because Donna wore it frequently.  The ring on my right hand looks like tiny cat paws wrapped around my finger; it makes me think of Clawdia.  On the one hand, I'm remembering Donna (who died July 24th); and on the other hand, I'm thinking of my furry little roommate named Clawdia.

Having rings on my fingers reminds me of this nursery rhyme I learned as a child:

No, I don't have bells on my toes, and I haven't ridden a horse in decades.  I make music by playing the piano or my cedar flute — or by playing the radio.