Motherhood In African American Literature

ABSTRACT

The article discusses one of the most integral components of African American female writing which has its roots from ancient African traditions which is Motherhood. Renowned Black female authors have all treated motherhood in various forms in their novels and stressed the important role it plays in strengthening their lives and that of the society. The authors themselves have looked up to their literary foremothers for inspiration for their works of art. They have tried to defy the stereotypical portrayal of a woman as mammy, domineering, Jezebels and Sapphires and even went to the extent of negative portrayal. The article stresses the importance Motherhood has gained over the back drop of slavery, Patriarchy and racism and how it

A series of African American writers began to flourish during the Harlem Renaissance though they faced problems in getting recognition. Their subject revolved around slavery, racism and their economic and social suppression. The black women had even more tougher time being exploited by their own men in addition to all the other suppressions they faced as a community. The women felt a need to be heard as a result of which African American female writings also grew rapidly producing a multitude of works of all types mainly revealing their condition. The sufferings of one woman can be related and understood by another and thus they had only each other to support themselves. Mothers and motherhood play a very important role in African American writings which draws its inspiration from the age old African tradition of mothers playing a central role in their family

Any woman who offers the kind of love and support as a mother becomes a foster mother also called as earth mothers, other mothers and community other mothers. These other mother relationships are sometimes more fruitful than actual family. It also helps in bridging the void created due to the absence of a real family. Other mothers play major roles in Naylor’s novels where they act as the strength of sustenance and source of joy in their morbid lives. The principal character, Mattie in The Women of Brewster Place acts as a surrogate mother to all the other women offering them love, support, advice in all ways possible and plays a heavy role in their redemption. Mattie saves her foster child, Ciel from destroying herself after the death of Ciel’s baby daughter. Michael Awkward in his essay Authorial Dreams of Wholeness: (Dis) Unity, (Literary) Parentage, and The Women of Brewster Place opines thus: “Mattie’s rocking allows Ciel to connect the pain of her own maternal losses with an apparently timeless—and, in a sense, equally gainless history of maternal pain” (54). It is not only the motherly instinct to run and save the daughter in distress that prompted Matie to run to the rescue of Ciel, but it is also the loss of motherhood that connects their pain as Mattie herself lost her son, Basil who ran away from home. Loss of