While much of the oral tradition that existed in the 19th century might seem innocuous and even silly to today’s student, I believe that once they understand how these traditions moved into and determined the popular forms of the twentieth century, they will gain a deeper respect for the past. So the characters of African mythology found their way into the narratives described above. But the rhythms and rhymes of Africa could be heard not only in slave songs and gospels but the more poetic forms of storytelling known as the toast. The toast, a peculiar form of oral poetry, which was a gritty and vivid description of life on the street, on the road, in prison or wherever else hardship might be found. While much of the material is inappropriate to the junior high school student, there is enough material available to demonstrate how the characters and ideas of the slaves stories found expression in this twentieth century form. The toast is useful also because it was created to be performed.
The toast (no one seems certain as to why it is called this) is a completely social art form. The process of creation and the product of creation are one and the same. Although this tradition seems to have died off in the last thirty years, it remained a vital form of black expression for most of this century. It was competitive and historically was dominated by men. In barrooms, pool halls, front porches and prisons men would gather to tell stories. While entertainment was always one of the primary objectives, there was no doubt that the stories hoped to empower both listener and teller alike.
Commonly what would happen is that a group would gather and take turns telling the same story. Content and form remained fairly consistent so it was the teller’s style that defined the quality. The three best known stories to survive the years of mouth-to-mouth revival were:
Stackolee
,
Signifying Monkey
, and
Titanic
.
Stackolee
told the story of a relentless badman who never had any regard for the law. This lawlessness seemed to be a twisted version of Martin Luther King’s proclamation that the only place for a moral person in an unjust society is in prison. By breaking down the laws of society, Stackolee seems to be making a statement about these laws, which from the black perspective were designed to be oppressive.
Signifying Monkey
recreates the trickster persona so popular in the Brere Rabbit stories. Using his smarts Monkey tricks his enemy, the powerful lion, into a losing battle with Elephant. Although successful in this goal, Monkey is trapped in the safety of his tree, because if he comes down, lion will seek vengeance. This paradox reflects the complexity of any victory that the blacks won over the white man. Though victorious the Monkey has just traded one trap for another. The last toast,
Titanic
, is a retelling of the sinking of the famous ocean liner. Historically, there were no blacks on board. But in this version a lone black man emerges from the belly of the boat, swims to safety and leaves thousands of white people to die at sea. This fictionalization represents the blacks’ hope of steering clear of the battleship of oppression
Toasts evolved in the following way. At first they parodied well-known stories. They would sometimes describe the life of a well-known person. Sometimes they were just a clever assemblage of names. And finally they were a way of describing a heroic act of the teller himself. In general, sound and rhythm were vastly important to the storytelling. The telling of these stories was dependent on musical as well as acting ability. Common to all these was a coming to terms with a general lack of power. As such and being that they were predominantly male in origin, many have a strong sexual undercurrent. Enough versions have been recast outside of the sexual domain so as not to be inappropriate for the age.
The objectives of the section on tall tales and toasts would be:
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1.
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To understand the specific form and function of tall tales and toasts.
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2.
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To understand the importance of performance in the telling of a story.
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3.
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To understand the importance of rhythm in the telling of toasts.
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4.
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To begin to create stories of their own, in the form of one of the styles of storytelling that they had heard in class.
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5.
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To see how each storyteller shapes and gives personal meaning to a given text.
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Storytelling moved into the twentieth century in one other significant way. Because slaves were denied a formal education, their stories survived by being told as opposed to written down. People like Joel Chandler Harris attempted to write these stories down but his translation lost the immediacy and impact on the audience. In the early part of the twentieth century the accomplishments of a new generation of literate blacks created new traditions in African-American storytelling. While much of this was happening in the North, much of the new writing came from Southerners like Zora Neale Hurston, whose written musings borrowed a great deal from the oral tradition. Also prominent in giving a literary voice to the black experience were poets Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson. The situation that they described in the North was very different from the oppression in the South. To address it, poems and stories protesting political and economic injustice were given eloquent articulation.
Although the inclusion of these literary giants diverts somewhat from the stated goals of the curriculum, I believe that they are very important in understanding the progression from Remus to Rap. The urban poetry took on themes common to all the forms discussed up until this point: impotence, trickery, and heroism. Because of the active voice used in most of these works, as well as the fact that many of these writers also wrote plays, much of the poetry is very adaptable to performance. It is this melding of folk traditions with urban urgency that is the forbearer of Rap: street toasts of the 1980’s and 90’s.
The objectives for the section on the movement of storytelling into the twentieth century would be:
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1.
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To expose the students to the writing of African-Americans who may have grown up in circumstances more similar to their own than the 18th century slave.
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2.
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To compare the content and form of these stories with stories from the oral tradition.
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3.
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To adapt the work of a writer of their choice for performance to help them understand the active voice inherent in these written works.
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