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The piece is a critical essay, based on Esi Edugyan’s ‘Out of The Sun: On Race and Storytelling’, which strives to analyse the notion of a Black identity and the historical prejudices and hardships associated with it. As an entire race emerges from the depths of a troubled past, its future looks both ambitious and precarious- consequently, the article maps out the journey of a community from the margins to the centrestage of history.
“But what if even the graves could be destroyed?”
- Esi Edugyan, ‘Canada and the Art of Seeing’
Living in India, the consciousness of the conspicuous struggles of the Black community emerged after the George Floyd incident in 2021, which took the world by storm. The event marked the beginning of my inquisitiveness about the experiences lived and unlived by the community and the historical travails that have deterministically coloured the portraits of their lives. I voraciously consumed the works of Morrison, Baldwin, Angelou, and Walker shortly after and delved into their narratives, those of unapologetic and bold characters that strived to make their place in the world. But the stories had something similar that strung them together- a low symphony that hummed in the background of their songs but reached a crescendo in the end- that of their Blackness and their identity, which emerged both as a powerful voice and a hurdle for the character. Myriad characters came and went; many backstories were explored and explained; however, the struggle to come to terms with the inherent racism that persisted in society remained and shaped the oeuvres of these writers. Esi Edugyan’s ‘Out of The Sun: On Race and Storytelling’ echoes similar contradictory notions that exist about the race- that of an identity erased and intangible but a source of strength for those who wear it every day.
Threads of Suffering and Erasure
The harshest ordeal suffered in the history of mankind is to be completely obscured from the narrative that has run its course since the beginning of time, or at best, to be completely relegated to the footnotes of the stories of the oppressors of one’s community, peering behind the darkened shadows of oblivion towards the light that would never shine on you. In a collection of five essays spanning four continents, Edugyan recounts the marginalisation of the Black lives- of those people whose veritable essence our history has failed to capture- and consequently, the future of a race that hangs by a precarious thread as they emerge from the shadows of an uncertain past that had afflicted unmitigable brutalities on them.
The most intriguing aspect of this collection of essays is the thread of Black suffering that binds the narratives and spans across distinct cultural identities, geographical contours, and temporal realities. As the author intermingles her experiences as a Black woman, the quagmires of her existence that shaped the contours of her identity and life, one can’t help but imagine how our souls are in a perpetual conversation with our histories, as if our present and past are in tide rolling and rushing together, in a constant rhythm and intermingling to form a distinct future. As the author peaks through the looking glass of the Black imagination, she sees the vivid visions of the future that overshadow the fallibilities of the past. Edugyan’s prose is one of hope and a farrago of possibilities that lie on the doorstep of the people who have long stayed on the margins. The novel recounts figures such as Angelo Soliman in the essay ‘Europe and the Art of Seeing’, who had been brought to Europe from modern Nigeria as a slave in the early 18th century and who rose to prominence in the Viennese court, and Edward Nkoloso, in ‘Africa and the Art of Future’ who was the visionary behind the abandoned Ghanian space programme ‘Afronauts’ during the 1960s in the era of Space Race between the Soviets and Americans. Both these figures reflect progression and farsightedness, an attribute that the White-centric Western world refuses to associate with Blackness- and consequently, similar extraordinary stories of Black achievement that stayed in the shadows of White vilification and ignorance.
The author’s remarkable prose not only takes us to a journey across geographical barriers but also through time- in ‘America and the Art of Empathy’, from activist Rachel Dolezal’s downfall in the modern day America after the sensational revelation of her Blackness- or the lack of it- that led to her unceremonious sacking as the President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 2015; to the story of the affluent, white-skinned, fair-haired Clarence King who presented himself as a Black man in the 1870s to experience the travails of racism in the erstwhile slavery-bound America. The essay tells us the story of a ‘Trans-Racial’ society where an individual has the agency to choose their own identity and to celebrate it- in order to reclaim their own individuality and to achieve a sense of pride in it. But what are the limits to this ‘Racial Passing’? And where does this end? Esi Edugyan leaves us with remarkable questions.
India, Africa, and the Reckoning of a Community
During this reading, I happened to do some research about the African community, when I came across numerous articles about the migrants from Africa who have made an enormous contribution to Indian history. Many reached the shores of the Indian subcontinent as traders, including from the coast of Gujarat in the 7th century BCE. The thirteenth century reign of the most prolific female ruler of India, Raziyya Sultan, was marked by a cherished friendship with an Ethiopian named Jamal ad-Din Yaqut (some historians believe an affair) who served as a noble in her court. The community of Africans settled in India came to be known as the Siddis and have been chronicled and eulogised in many places and forms, including a shrine attributed to Bava Gor, a holy man who arrived in India as a merchant. Interestingly enough, as I read through the historical archives of Africans in India, I came across the Sharqi dynasty and kingdoms in Janjira and Sachin, which were ruled by kings of African origin. The histories of all the three kingdoms are reminiscent of a Black reckoning in the pages of the past- of perceptions and challenges that plagued their narrative- that of, in John Lok’s words, “people without heads, having their mouths and eyes in their breasts.”
The story of this Blackness, that of veritable strength and accomplishment, is largely restricted to popular literature and movies. Edugyan recalls the movie ‘Black Panther’ as the cinematic achievement that heralded the era of African achievement by building a futuristic world that envisioned a country not exploited by the excesses of colonialism and Western imperialism. The movie, Edugyan says, is reminiscent of Nkoloso’s dream of Afronauts- ambition chained to the White man’s cuffs of oppression and nefarious perceptions that left the continent bereft of accomplishment and achievement. The story of Africa is, hence, incomplete; it has only just begun in the face of historical adversities.
Up to the Alps and Beyond
Edugyan stands in front of the portrait of the former President of the United States, Barack Obama. Painted by Kehinde Wiley, the portrait is adapted from the acclaimed painting ‘Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps’. As the author describes the revisionist strokes of the piece, depicting the American intervention in the Iraq War of 2009, one cannot help but ponder how the author felt then about the community emerging from the margins to the centrepiece. As she delineates the erasure of White history done by Wiley’s painting to accommodate Black Revanchism, the question remains- is it better to emerge from the gallows of White history to the centrestage to celebrate the achievements of Blackness that braved erasure and ignominy from their books? Or is it better to take control over your own narrative completely and etch new books that encompass the depth of your history, free from the historical travails of your ancestors? Only time will tell.
(This is an essay/review based on Esi Edugyan’s ‘Out of The Sun: On Race and Storytelling’)
Author Bio
Srishti Negi is an undergraduate student of Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi pursuing a major in Political Science and minor in History. She is a voracious reader of Politics, Economics, and International Relations, as well as of ‘No Plot Just Vibes’ literature.
References
Edugyan, E. (2021). Out of The Sun: On Race and Storytelling (2nd ed.). House of Anansi Press.
McLeod, J. (2024, February 13). Who are the Siddis? A Brief Introduction to the 800-year African Experience in India. BlackPast. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/perspectives-global-african-history/who-are-the-sidis-a-brief-introduction-to-the-800-year-african-experience-in-india/
Vallangi, N. (2022, February 25). India’s forgotten African tribe. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20160801-indias-forgotten-jungle-dwellers
Sargent, A. (2021, October 7). Esi Edugyan Revives Black Stories, to Move the Margin Into the Center. The New York Times. Retrieved June 16, 2024, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/books/review/esi-edugyan-out-of-the-sun-on-race-and-storytelling.html
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