INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
THE INNER STRENGTH OF WOMEN IN KHALİD
HUSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND ALICE
WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE
Abdul Wali YAWARİ
MASTER OF ART THESIS
Supervisor
Assist. Prof. Dr. Sema Zafer SÜMER
iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are some significant names whose contributions to this thesis I need to acknowledge.
First of all, I must express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor |Dr. Sema Zafer SÜMER who made the formation of this thesis possible with her unceasing support, invaluable guidance and most importantly with her sincere patience and understanding. Indeed, without her assistance and motivating attitude, I could hardly find the eagerness and courage in me to start and conclude this work.
I also owe thanks to Dr. Gülbün ONUR and Dr. Yağmur KÜÇÜKBEZİRCİ for their supportive attitudes and encouraging remarks in motivating me to finish my graduate studies.
Finally I would like to express gratitude to my mother who has been waiting for me to finish my two years of studies. My graduate studies would not have been possible without her devotions and love.
iv ÖZET
Bu çalışmanın amacı, zor yaşam koşullarına meydan okuyan kadınların yetenek ve gizil güçlerini gösteren kadın karakterlerinin özelliklerini incelemektir. Özellikle bireysellik, güçlü kişisel kimlik ve bireysel farkındalığı kapsayan bütüncül bir kadın vizyonunun sefil, bağımlı ve tutsak hayattan bağımsız, saygın, baskıcı erkek hakimiyetinden uzak bir hayata dair nasıl değişim geçirdiği açıklanmaktadır. Irkçılık ve baskıcı erkek hakimiyeti ile mücadele etme konusunda kadınların gizil güçlerini ve bireyselliklerini nasıl yeniden elde ettiklerini araştırmak için bu tezde Khaled Husseini’nin Bin Muhteşem Güneş ve Alice Walker’ın Renklerden Mor adlı kitapları analiz edilmektedir.
Her iki romanda da kahramanlar ırkçılık, cinsel ayrımcılık ve adaletsizlikten yakınan karakterleri canlandırmaktadır, fakat her iki kitabın son bölümünde karakterler saygın ve kendine güvenen kadınlar olarak yeniden ortaya çıkar. Celie çok sevdiği kızkardeşi Nettie ve arkadaşı Shug gibi destek veren diğer bayan karakterlerin yardımıyla çekingen bir kızdan bağımsız bir kıza dönüşür. Hem Shug hem de Nettie Celie’nin dağınık bir kimlikten bütüncül bir kimliğe ulaşmasında yol gösterici bir rol oynamaktadır. Husseini’nin roman kahramanı Meryem harami, evlilik dışı doğmuş bir çocuktur. Meryem, utanma ve işe yaramazlık hissinden muzdarip bir kız iken seven ve sevilen bir kadına dönüşür. Anlamsız ve amaçsız hayatı sevdiği kişilere barış ve huzuru getirmektedir. Ezilmiş köylünün gayri meşru çocuğunun bu dünyaya gelişini istenmeyen bir durum olarak düşünse de “dünyadan ayrılırken seven ve sevilen bir kadını geride bırakacaktır”… Meryem bu şekilde öleceğini düşünmüştü. Bu durum o kadar da kötü olmasa gerek. Gayri meşru başlangıçla elde edilen meşru bir sonuç” (Husseini, 2007;370).
v ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to focus and illustrate the characteristics of female characters that demonstrate the inner strength and abilities of women being challenged by hard life conditions. Particularly, it aims to explain how a unified vision of selfhood and strong self identity and self awareness of women changes a condition of miserable, dependent and oppressed life to an independent, dignified life, free of oppressive male dominance. The thesis uses Khaled husseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple to examine how women regain their inner strength and selfhood to fight the racism and oppressive male dominance.
In both novels the heroines are the characters who suffer tremendously from the ills of racism, sexism, and inequity, but in the end both of them reemerges as women with dignity and self-confidence. Celie transforms from a timid girl into an independent woman by the help of other supporting women characters like her beloved sister, Nettie and her friend Shug. Both Shug and Nettie play an instructive role in developing Celie’s fragmented self into a unified selfhood. The heroine of Husseini’s novel, Mariam is a
harami, a bastard. She transforms from a girl who suffers a constant feeling of
embarrassment and uselessness into a woman who has loved and has been loved. Her useless and unintended life can bring peace and comfort for the ones she has loved. “She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of lowly villager, an unintended thing…yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back… Mariam thought, that she would die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate beginnings” (Husseini, 2007:370)
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... i
BİLİMSEL ETİK SAYFASI ... iii
TEZ KABUL FORMU ... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... v
ÖZET ... vi
ABSTRACT ... vii
INTRODUCTION ... 1
CHAPTER ONE - BACKGROUNDS TO THE AUTHORS 10 1.1. Alice Walker as an African-American Writer ... 11
1.2. Khalid Husseini as an Afghan-American writer ... 16
CHAPTER TWO - THE ISSUE OF WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN 2.1. Afghan Women: Past and Present ... 13
2.1.1. Brief Background... 14
2.1.2. Modern Monarchies and Women ... 15
2.1.3. The First Era of Change ... 18
2.1.4. Post-Monarchy Period and Women ... 22
2.1.5. The Second Era of Change ... 23
2.1.6. Afghan Women After Taliban Regime ... 29
CHAPTER THREE - AFRO-AMERICAN WOMEN: VICTIMS OF DISCRIMINATION 3.1. American Form of Racism ... 31
3.2. Women Rights Movement ... 38
3.3. The Case of Black Women ... 47
CHAPTER FOUR - FEMALE CHARACTERS VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY IN KHALID HUSSEINI’S A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS AND ALICE WALKER’S THE COLOR PURPLE 4.1. Alice Walker’s The Color Purple ... 53
4.1.1. Analysis of Male Identity ... 54
vii
4.1.3. Sisterhood ... 82
4.2. Khaled Hussein’s A Thousand Splendid Suns ... 86
4.2.1. Analysis of Male Identity ... 86
4.2.2. Analysis of Female Identity ... 95
4.2.3. Sisterhood ... 100
CONCLUSION ... 105
WORKS CITED ... 110
1 INTRODUCTION
In the 1960s’, American slavery was past and supposedly after the establishment of the human rights movement equality between whites and blacks seemed to be finally achieved, but in practice, discrimination towards blacks was still alive. In the midst of the 20th century, blacks were no longer able to tolerate the hypocrisy of American democracy which still forced the country’s black population to feel as an inferior class and to accept the second-class treatment from all American institutions. This weariness combined with a new black-consciousness fueled black women and men to start the Civil Rights Movements of the 60s that keep its effects till today.
It was after the 1960s that black women novelists, stimulated by the free expression atmosphere which prevailed in social life as well as literature, could make their voices heard through their great literary accomplishments. In a century that witnessed the achievements of black female writers, the activist and woman of letters Alice Walker (1944- ) was crowned with the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Awards with her book The Color Purple (1982), In her works, Walker reflect the reality amongst black people, indicating the fact that sexism in black community is as widespread and harmful as white racism. Her novel explores the true definitions of black womanhood. While going into the details of these themes, Walker search for a female autonomy through their female protagonists, which can be regarded as black female writers’ attempts to liberate themselves from the standard European and male-dominated literary trends. In her novel The Color Purple Celie the protagonist is a victim of extreme oppression, violence and absolute dominance of
2 men. The different kinds of sever oppression completely submits her to the male power and all she can do is to keep silent and do what she is required.
Khaled Husseini is known as one of the very successful writers in American literature who has appeared recently. His both novels The Kite Runner and A
Thousand Splendid Suns became the New York Times best seller. Furthermore,
Khaled Hussaini is important in American literature and in general for English speaking world, he took the English speakers audience into the culture, live stile, and history of Afghanistan. Indeed, since the deposition of the last Afghan king in 1973, Afghanistan became the field of war and terror. Until 2001, for almost three decades of conflicts Afghan women were the most defenseless people. Seven years after 2001, Afghan women were still voiceless and faceless, until Khaled Husseini broke up the silence with the story of Mariam and Laila’s troublesome lives, A Thousand
Splendid Suns. In his novel, Husseini reflect the hardships and sufferance of Afghan
women in a society where law, custom, traditions and religion have put hands together to narrow the circle of a free and independent live for women. The main characters of Husseini’s novel, Mariam and Laila live an oppressed live. But at the end of the story, similar to Celie in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple they transform into brave, dependent and women with dignified self identity.
In order to serve the purpose, this thesis consists of four chapters excluding the introduction and conclusion parts. The first part includes a short biography of both authors, Khaled Husseini as an Afghan writer and Alice Walker as an Afro-American author.
3 Chapter two, titled The Issue of Afghan Women in Afghanistan is a short glance to ups and downs of Afghan women’s lives. The lives of Afghan women have undergone three eras of changes in Afghan history. In 1923, during the reign of Amanullah a hasty reform was made to improve the situation of Afghan. But, the change was too rapid and was faced widespread protests and let to the collapse of Amanullah’s reign. The second period happened during the time of Dr. Najeebullah and the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan. (PDPA). Najeebullah during his time forced and agenda of social changed that empower women that caused ten years war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union. Eventually, after the overthrown of the Taliban regime in 2001, Afghanistan experienced a democratic election that allowed to be nominated for the presidency. The situation for Afghan women is currently getting better.
The three chapter titled Afro-American Women: Victims of Discriminations is about white racism towards African-American/coloreds which has obviously been the biggest issue in the agenda of the United States, since the first years of the its independence. The introduction of American slavery first started with the sale of 20 African descendants in Virginia in the 17th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries racism was in the shape of slavery, which dehumanized colored people in every aspect. They were taken from their homelands and were forced to work on the farms which were a kind of works the whites thought they are physically unable to adapt.
Chapter four, titled Female Character’s Voyage of Discovery in Khaled Husseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, goes through the analysis of both female and male main characters of both novel, in order
4 to testify how and what reasons are in the back of the dramatic change and transformation of the characters from being timid, silent, obedient and submitted characters into brave, dignified, independent women.
Celie, this silent, submitted and surrendered to the male power gains her inner strength and freedom as a woman by the help of Shug, a female singer who is a close friend of her. The years of sufferance and her silence as the only answers to all hardships, on one hand make live hard and dark for her, on the other hand these hardships becomes the cause she finds a true and stronger inner and personal strength as a women. Celie “experience epiphany-like moments that lead to a fuller, more coherent sense of self. In these moments the presence of a literal or metaphoric mirror enables the protagonists to move from an experience of fragmentation to a vision of a more unified state of self-possession” (Piffer, 1998: 56). Being raped in a very early age by a man whom she considers as her father and the repetitions of the action and its continuation by Mr. __ to whom she is sold, causes her to experience her body as fragmented and as being possessed by others, namely her victimizers. The appearance of Shug Avery gives Celie the first opportunity to look, both literally and figuratively, at herself. “Just as the living Shug replaces the photograph that Celie carries, Shug’s mirroring helps Celie to replace the void left in her by her troublesome past” (Pifer, 1998:45) By the help of Shug Celie starts to discover herself. Eventually, her troublesome past and her fragmented self results a power and energy in her to stand against the oppressive male dominance and free herself.
The transformation of Celie’s life is also accompanied with the transformation of her concept of God. The Color Purple, through the character, Celie, “redefines
5 God, moving from a patriarchal notion towards and understanding that the Spirit must be claimed within one’s self and divine recognized in nature and in the world in order to have a notion of God that is not oppressive, domineering, or harmful to either an individual or a community” (Thyreen, 1999:78) The transformation of God from “patriarchal male supremacist into trees, stars, wind and everything else” shows the change happening inside Celie. In other words, it reveals her unified selfhood. The redefinition of God gives Celie a power, a belief and strength which help her stand against different kinds of oppressive treatments.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is the story of Mariam and Laila’s troublesome
life. It begins with an unhappy little girl in a hut outside the Afghan city of Herat, then gradually widens its canvas to embrace numerous other people and to show, through their lives, what has happened to Afghanistan since the deposition of its last king in 1973.
The unhappy little girl is named Mariam. She is harami: a bastard. Her mother, Nana, was a servant in the household of Jalil, a rich and powerful man who took advantage of her. He built the hut for her and Nana, and occasionally visited them there, but utterly rejected his daughter in all other ways and kept her away from the 10 children he had by his three wives. Nana loves Mariam, in a crude way, but speaks bitterly to her, making plain that she "was an illegitimate person who would never have legitimate claim to the things other people had, things such as love, family, home, acceptance." To Jalil's wives she is "the walking, breathing embodiment of their shame," and after Nana's death, they marry her off to Rasheed, a
6 shoemaker from Kabul, "to erase, once and for all, the last trace of their husband's scandalous mistake."
Mariam is 15, Rasheed some 30 years her senior. He is a lout, his distinguishing features "the big, square, ruddy face; the hooked nose; the flushed cheeks that gave the impression of sly cheerfulness; the watery, bloodshot eyes; the crowded teeth, the front two pushed together like a gabled roof; the impossibly low hairline, barely two finger widths above the bushy eyebrows; the wall of thick, coarse, salt-and-pepper hair." Mariam is no beauty herself, but she has dignity and fortitude, and she suffers her husband's coarse behavior with as much cheer as she can muster. As it becomes increasingly clear that she will be unable to bear him children, his coarseness slips over into contempt and brutality:
It wasn't easy tolerating him talking this way to her, to bear his scorn, his ridicule, his insults, his walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat. But after four years of marriage, Mariam saw clearly how much a woman could tolerate when she was afraid. And Mariam was afraid. She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not. (Husseini, 2007:30)
The story of these two women, which reaches its climax in an act of extraordinary generosity and self-sacrifice, plays out against the backdrop of
7 Afghanistan's tumultuous recent history: the deposition of King Zahir Shah in 1973 by his cousin, Daoud Khan; the overthrow of Khan five years later rebels supported by the Soviet Union; the long, bloody war against Soviet troops for control of the country; the rout of the communists in 1992 and the rise of the mujaheddin, under whose chaotic rule "Pashtuns and Hazaras and Tajiks and Uzbeks are killing each other"; the calamitous triumph of the Taliban; the American invasion in the aftermath of September 2001.
The two stages of Celie’s life in The Color Purple are comparable to lives of Mariam and Laila. Mariam who appears first in the novel is an uneducated girl who is the daughter of her unmarried parents. She is forced by her father to marry a shoemaker from Kabul who is 20 years older than her. Her husband makes her wear Burqa and hid upstairs when the he has stranger visitors at home. She is neglected, punished and beaten. She is condemned to silence. She suffers from the same types of oppression and suppression that Celie does at the early stage of her life in The
Color Purple, such as violence and gender discrimination. Laila is the next main
character that appears later in the story. She is educated. She is a city girl. She believes that she isn’t in any way less than a man. Ceile gains a more unified state of self-possession after she discovers herself and stands against the challenges of an absolutely male dominated society and her husband. Similarly, Laila possesses a more developed selfhood then Mariam. She dares to talk back to her husband when she disagrees. She even tries to resist when her husband wants to beat her and she even sometimes become violent and punch or slap her husband.
8 Celie lives two different lives in The Color Purple, her life before meeting Shug Avery and after meeting Shug Avery. Before she meets Shug, she has endured rapes and brutality and she possess a fragmented selfhood. She prefers to be silent and obedient and do whatever she is asked by her husband just in order to survive. On the other hand, after she meets Shug, she finds a chance to discover herself. Celie becomes a model for her. Ceile’s life and her behavior influence her. Finally, the appearance of Shug in Ceile’s life brings self awareness and a unified state of selfhood for her. Ceile finally finds the ability to decide to leave her aggressive husband and live with Shug and later on she begins her fold pants business. In short, Ceile gains her freedom and real identity as a woman when she discovers herself and finds a chance to know herself as a woman and as an individual by the help of Shug.
In both novels the real freedom and a unified vision of selfhood is considered to be the result of self awareness. Ceile before gaining her identity as an individual owns a fragmented selfhood. Similarly, Mariam who resembles Celie before having met Shrug owns a weak, silent and obedient personality which is the result of her weak self-recognition and self awareness, while Laila as an educated and civilized woman owns a more developed sense of selfhood. Mariam and Laila, however suffers the hardships of life as two different individuals but both of them shares the same life and same fate. Their life is closely entangled and inseparable. Compared to Mariam, Laila has a life more in ease in Rasheed’s house, which is never because of her education or intelligence but the result of Mariam’s devotedly hard and troublesome life. As we will see in Ceile’s life. Ceilie’s difficult time and her
9 misrecognition of herself serve as facts that lead Ceile towards her unified selfhood as a woman possessing stronger identity.
According to Jacques Lacan’s view of the unattainableness of whole selfhood finds a more optimistic revision in Walker’s novel. The Color
Purple, in fact, endorses another view prevalent in modern thought- that
such illusions are not destructive but are positive accommodations that allow one to find meaning in life. ( Pifer, 1998:73)
The illusion in Celie and Meriam’s lives are not destructive according to the above quote from Lacan. Indeed, from Lacan’s point of view such illusions are positive accommodations that allow one to find meaning in life. As we see in both novels the unified selfhood that Ceile and Meriam find after years of troublesome life are for some reasons the results of their hard times they have passed. The senses of selfhood that Ceile and Mariam discover are certainly healthier than their previous notion of their selves as fragmented and belonging to others. Mariam and Celie’s lives are completely changing towards the end of the novels. In the beginning of the novels, they are weak, dependent, fragmented but towards the end they are independent, free and live in dignity and grace. In fact, the changes in their vision of selves become the change in their real live and also in the lives of people around them. As Walker points in The Color Purple, an oppressed woman can save herself and can enlighten the whole society once she finds the support of other individuals around her.
10 CHAPTER ONE - BACKGROUND TO THE AUTHORS
1.1 KHALED HUSSEINI AS AN AFGHAN AMERICAN AUTHOR Khaled Husseini was born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan. He grew up in Afghanistan. His father was a diplomat and his mother was a secondary-school teacher. He and his family moved to Paris, where his father worked at the Afghan embassy. When the soviet invasion of Afghanistan happened in 1979, they found it impossible to return to Afghanistan. They were granted political asylum by the United States, and they moved to California. Khaled Husseini attended Santa Clara University, where he studied biology. In 1989 he started to attend medical school at the University of California, San Diego. He entered practicing internal medicine in northern California in 1996 and three years later he received his medical degree.
Husseini started working on his first novel The Kite Runner in 2001 and it was published in 2003 which became the New York Time’s best seller. The Kite
Runner is the story of Amir, an Afghan boy who grows up in Kabul during the cold
war and during the hard time of the country when the transition from monarchy to one led by a president created a situation for power struggles that factionalized the country. The novel is told in Amir’s voice and it relates Amir’s childhood friendship with Hassan, the child of the family servant, and how Hassan is constantly betrayed by his closest friend, Amir. Amir tries to gain his father’s approval and love, but each time he tries, Hassan appears as a rival for him. Hassan unintentionally gains Amir’s father’s praise which makes Amir jealous, therefore Amir always tries to look Hassan as an enemy. The novel then jumps to the United States where Amir and his father take asylum during the Soviet invasion and subsequent Mujahideen era. In this
11 part of the novel Amir grows up and becomes a successful novelist. He returns back to Afghanistan to pay for his guilt and be good again by saving Sohrab, Hassan’s son who lives in an orphanage somewhere in Kabul.
A Thousand Splendid Suns is a novel about women’s life in Afghanistan. It’s
the story of Mariam and Laila’s life both of whom are married to the same man. Mariam and Laila, indeed shares the same husband and the same destiny. The author chooses two women from a completely different background. Mariam is an illiterate girl from the southern city of Qandahar and Laila is an educated girl from Kabul. Through the novel both characters face hardships and difficulties of a male dominated society, and react in their own ways. Mariam, who is an uneducated girl, is unaware of her individual right as a woman. He is surrendered to the wills of a man, but Liala is an educated girl. She stands against her husband and tries to defend herself and Mariam. Laila and her lover named Tariq who had left Afghanistan because of Taliban returns to Afghanistan and works in organization and takes part in the reconstruction of their country. Indeed, the novel tries to picture a better future and create hope for women as it ends in the years after the eleventh September.
1.2 Alice Walker as an Afro-American Writer
The contemporary African-American writer Alice Walker (1944- ), owning the Pulitzer Prize and American Book Awards, is best known for her book The Color
Purple (1982). Soon after its publication, the novel created many controversies
amongst black male readers due to its depiction of “negative” male characters and high valuation of female characters who try to survive in a racist and patriarchal society. In her earlier novels too, namely The Third Life of Grange Copeland (1970)
12 and Meridian (1977), Walker particularly focuses on the black women’s strategies of survival in a racist white society and patriarchal black community, but unlike The
Color Purple, the former two novels mostly carry political messages that reflect
Walker’s experiences as an activist during the Civil Rights Movements of the 60s. Despite the differences in tone and theme, all these three novels alongside with her poems, essays and short stories, clearly reflect the literary intelligence of activist and writer Alice Walker.
The origins of Walker’s literary genius can be traced back to her childhood years and the upsetting experience she went through as a child: “At the age of eight, Alice Walker lost the sight of one eye when her brother accidentally shot her with an air gun”, and this experience led to her alienation from her peers (Russell, 1990; 117). Walker, “a lonely, solitary child”, has cultivated a deep interest in literature so as to escape from the humiliating looks of people (Bell, 1989; 259). Therefore, this unfortunate incident she experienced at an early age urged Walker to stand as an observer of life rather than actively participate in it. Her personal observations as a black woman regarding the reality amongst black community and white-dominated American society are best reflected in her woman-centered novel: The Color Purple.
“In The Color Purple, Alice Walker’s portrayal of Mister, a Black man who abuses his wife, Celie, explores the coexistence of love and trouble in African-American communities generally and in Black men specifically” (Collins, 2000; 157). Therefore, Walker’s work can be regarded as a ‘realistic’ portrayal of black society rather than as a negative portrayal of men in general.
13 Even though men were discontented with the novel, that does not alter the fact that Walker skillfully shows in her work that being a black woman is twice harder than being just a woman or just a black man because as Nancy A. Walker notes, “for minority women, the problems of selfhood and isolation have been compounded by cultural as well as gender barriers” (1990; 21), the barriers which are in the forms of racism and sexism.
In the West, racism emerged due to the white Europeans’ belief in the inferiority of darker-skinned people. This unhealthy belief was used consciously by the white-European colonists to justify their act of enslavement of other races. American form of racism is also directly related to the superiority-inferiority perception in white-skinned Europeans’ minds.
Alice Walker has written poetry, novels, short stories, essays and literary criticisms. She began her life on February 9, 1944 in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth and last child of sharecroppers, Lee and Minnie Luo Grant Walker. Both her parents were storytellers, and Alice particularly remembered her mother as “a walking history of her community”. Growing up in this environment had a profound influence on her later work. Her mother despite having all the hardships of raising eight children was known for her magnificent gardens which inspired Alice to write her classic essay, In search of our Mother’s Gardens: The Legacy of Southern Black
Women, published in 1974. Walker celebrated the artistic significance of gardening
and connected this with the deep spiritual foundation of southern black women. She had published a short story, Everyday Use, with the same theme which utilized the quilt as a metaphor for Black Women’s enduring creative legacy. Everyday Use had
14 a pervasive influence on American Literature. It became the subject of a book of literary criticism titled simply, Everyday Use, edited by Barbra Christian (1994).
Alice walker graduated as valedictorian of her class. She got a scholarship and attended Spelman College in Atlanta eventually transferring to Sarah Lawrence in New York. During her senior year at Sarah Lawrence, Alice wrote the poems that would be included in her first collection, Once. Also, during college Alice became more politically aware and active, participating in numerous marches and rallies in support of the Civil Rights Movement. Political activism remains an important part of her character to this day.
Upon graduation, Alice spent short period of time in New York. But felt compelled to return to the south. She worked for a time registering voters in Atlanta and spent time exploring the South she came from. In 1969, Alice had a daughter Rebbecca.
The Third Life of Grange Copeland, Alice’s first novel, was completed in
1967 with the assistance of a McDowell Fellowship, but was not published until 1070. Though some critics criticize the way black men are portrayed in the novel, no one can neglect the power and emotion conveyed through walker’s brutal but honest style. In love and Trouble and You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down explored more deeply the racism and sexism affecting black women.
In 1982 Alice published her most famous work, The Color Purple that won both, the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, as well as these two prizes,
15 she has also received the Lillian Smith Award, the Rosenthal Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Townsend Prize, Lyndhurst Prize and a Merrill Fellowship.
Through her novels she often portray black characters and the struggles and obstacles they face, Alice Walker’s works transcend race and gender and address the larger human situation. The novel, The Color Purple has had its supporters and critics. It has been supported for its powerful writing, strong spiritual vision, and smart analysis of the sexual politics in African-American society. On the other hand, critics have criticized its depiction of black men, the way African culture is portrayed, and glorification of lesbianism in the novel. The book became more controversial by the making of the movie version.
After The Color Purple became very controversial, in respond to the distressing affair, Walker published The Same River Twice (1996). She wrote in the preface “Art is the mirror… in which we can see our true collective face. We must honor its sacred function. We must let art help us.”
16 CHAPTER TWO - THE ISSUE OF AFGHAN WOMEN
2.1. Afghan Women: Past and Present
The lives of Afghan women have seen three critical eras in Afghan history that have affected the status of women in Afghanistan. In 1923, during the reign of Amanullah a rapid reform happened to improve women’s live condition and position in the family, which is considered the first era of change in the lives of Afghan women. The reforms faced widespread protests and led to the collapse of Amanullah’s reign, eventually. The second period happened during the time and leadership of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) which was backed by Communists. This leadership forced an agenda of social change to empower women that led to the ten-year war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, the birth of the Mujahideen and the decline of women's status After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Mujahideen led the country towards 15 years of civil war which was followed by the birth of Taliban. During Mujahideen and especially during the Taliban regime schools were closed to the faces of girls and women could not work outside their houses. After the 11 September in 2001 Afghanistan experienced a democratic presidential election in which Afghans had a women candidate for the presidency. Despite the defeat of the first two reforms, the three eras provide evidence that Afghanistan has had a history of progressive efforts to provide women's rights and develop the basis for a more egalitarian and democratic society. (Ghosh, 2003: 45)
17 2.1.1. Brief Background
The disorders and conflicts in Afghanistan have often been caused by interference of western countries and countries bordering Afghanistan and it has contributed to the fragmentation of the Afghan nation and polity. In many cases, tribal politics is still determined by a bordering state that searches their own profits. Although there have been infrequent attempts to bring dissenting and apposing tribes together, the Afghans have at no points experienced a strong centralized state with a common legal system. (Mogadam, 1997) Instead, rival ethnic groups have had political ambitions to capture Kabul and, through well-armed tribal leaders (supported by external funds), created their own sovereignties. Ethnically based rivalries, combined with open and varied interpretations of Islam, have created fractious cultures. Eventually, the foreign interferences have often been the cause of war and civil war that have lasted for years and decades.
The effect of the mentioned domestic disorders and conflicts on women has been ruthless, since women’s lives have been used as tools to establish tribal kinship among ethnic groups. On the other hand, women’s liberty and freedom has been a very sensitive issue for the tribal leaders. They view the women’s freedom of thought and liberty as the weakness of the men of the society who has lost their control over their women. In the tribal leaders understanding a man should have complete control on her wife and the women of the family. Tribal laws view marriages as alliances between groups thus; women are pawned into marriages and are forced into marriages against their wills. The right of going to school and being educated is taken from them. (Ghosh, 2003: 87)
18 Women are supposed as the holders of men’s honor or Namus, thus they stay in the inside in the domestic sphere, and are silent and voiceless. The honor of the family, the tribe, and ultimately the nation is invested in women. Moghadam (1997:76) Moghadam accurately points out that, “the issue of women’s rights in Afghanistan has been historically constrained by (a) the patriarchal nature of gender and social relations deeply embedded in traditional communities and (b) the existence of a weak central state, that has been unable to implement modernizing programs and goals in the face of tribal feudalism.”
2.1.2. Modern Monarchies and women
During the time of Abdul Rahman Khan who ruled from 1880 to 1901, modern Afghanistan was born. He belonged to the Pashtoon ethnic group who largely ruled and controlled Afghanistan. Amir Abdur Rahman was the first ruler to attempt consolidation of the nation into a centralized state. He ruled with a brutality that led to him being called the “Iron Amir. Abdur Rahman tried to alter some of the traditional laws that were detrimental to women's status. For instance, he put an end to the custom forcing a woman to marry her deceased husband’s next of kin, raised the age of marriage, and gave women rights to divorce under specific circumstances. “In accordance with Islamic tenets, women were given rights to their father’s and husband’s property. Even though Abdur Rahman considered women obedient to men, he still felt that they were “due just treatment.” It can be inferred that his liberal wife, Bobo Jan may have influenced the Air, pointing out that, “In fact, she was the first Afghan queen to appear in public in European dress without a veil. She rode horses and trained her maidservants in military exercises. She had a keen interest in
19 politics and went on numerous delicate missions to discuss politics between contending parties.” (Ahmet, 2003: 84)
After the death of Abdur Rahman, his son Amir Habibullah Khan took over and reigned for 10 years. Habibullah continued his father’s progressive agenda by putting a limit on extravagant marriage expenses that often caused poverty in many families. His wives were seen publicly unveiled and in western clothes.
The most important contribution by Habibullah to the Afghan government was the returns of Afghans who were in exile; specifically Mahmud Beg Tarzi who played an important role in the modernization of Afghanistan. “If there is a single person responsible for the modernization of Afghanistan in the first two decades of the twenty-first century it was Mahmud Beg Tarzi. He returned from Syria to establish and edit a modernist-nationalist newspaper, the Siraj-ul-Akhbar-i Afghan (the lamp of the news of Afghanistan)” (Ahmet, 2003: 61). Between (1911-1918) he advocated modern education and political views critical of western imperialism as well as, in subtle ways, the monarchy. Educated in Syria and Turkey, Tarzi was strongly influenced by modern interpretations of Islamic jurisprudence, fiqh and by the liberties afforded to women in these countries. Convinced of women’s abilities to engage in public professions, Tarzi viewed women as people who deserved full citizenship; he claimed that educated women were an asset to future generations and concluded that Islam did not deny them equal rights. In his newspaper Seraj-ul-Akhbar, Tarzi devoted a special section on women’s issues entitled “Celebrating Women of the World” which was edited by his wife Asma Tarzi. As Schinasi concludes, “no one before Tarzi had pronounced such words as
20 “liberty”, “respect for the homeland and religion,” “union”, “progress”, or
“school”.” (1979:36)
As a result of Tarzi’s liberal influence, Habibullah opened a school with English curriculum for girls, which was considered against the traditional values by tribal leaders and mullahs. Unfortunately, the liberalization of the nation through education and modernization of even the “tiny elite” spawned an opposition movement. Education for women, and state’s interference in marriage institutions challenged the power of tribal leaders and their patrilineal and patrilocal kinship systems, resulting in Habibullah’s assassination in 1919. Habibullah is sometimes referred to as the forgotten king. But it was Habibullah who was keen to maintain Afghanistan’s position on the international as well as on the Muslim scene, but he was unable to control both with the same skills. (Ahmet: 2003)
2.1.3. The First Era of Change
After the assassination of Habibullah Khan his son, Amanullah was on the throne working for the modernization period of Afghanistan, as we will see later. What Amanullah did as the first task was to completely liberate Afghanistan from the British. He succeeded by defeating the British in the third and final Anglo-Afghan war in 1919. Amanullah was relentless in his attempts to modernize Afghanistan. His modernizing agenda included the liberation of women from tribal cultural norms. His enthusiasm and persistence in enforcing these changes were heavily influenced by the modernization agenda operating in Turkey and his impressions from his travels in Europe. (Ahmet, 2003: 241)
21 In 1923, Amanullah made the first constitution, establishing the basis for the formal structure of the government and setting up the role of the monarch within the constitutional framework. (Magnus and Naby, 1998:55) Amanullah was also influenced and encouraged by Mahmud Tarzi in his endeavors. Tarzi was specifically instrumental in designing and implementing changes pertaining to women through his personal example of monogamy, education and employment of female family members and their unveiled public appearances. His daughter Soraya later married Amanullah. Another daughter of Tarzi’s married Amanullah’s brother. Thus, it is not surprising that Tarzi’s sophisticated and liberal intellectual ideology blossomed and concretely embedded itself in Amanullah’s reign. Amanullah publicly campaigned against the veil, against polygamy, and encouraged education of girls not just in Kabul but also in the countryside. At a public function, Amanullah said that Islam did not require women to cover their bodies or wear any special kind of veil. At the conclusion of the speech, Queen Soraya tore off her veil in public and the wives of other officials present at the meeting followed this example. Throughout her husband’s reign, Queen Soraya, wore wide-brimmed hats with a diaphanous veil attached to them. (Dupree, 1986:34) Many women from Amanullah’s family publicly participated in organizations and went on to become government officials later in life. An example is Amanullah’s sister, Kobra, who formed the Anjuman-I-Himayat-I-Niswan, (Organization for Women’s Protection) in the early 1920s. This organization encouraged women to bring their complaints and injustices to the organization and to unite to contest the oppressive institutions. Along with her mother, Soraya also founded the first magazine for women called Ershad-I-Niswan (Guidance for Women). Another sister of Amanullah founded a hospital for women.
22 Women were encouraged to get an education and in that attempt 15 young women were sent to Turkey for higher education in 1928. Soraya was very instrumental in enforcing change for women and publicly encouraged them to be active participants in nation building. In 1926 at the 7th anniversary of Independence, Soraya in a public speech delivered said, it [Independence] belongs to all of us and that is why we celebrate it. Do you think, however, that our nation from the outset needs only men to serve it? Women should also take their part as women did in the early years of our nation and Islam. From their examples we must learn that we must all contribute toward the development of our nation and that this cannot be done without being equipped with knowledge. So we should all attempt to acquire as much knowledge as possible, in order that we may render our services to society in the manner of the women of early Islam. (Dupree, 1986: 46)
In 1927-1928 Amanullah and his wife Soraya visited Europe. On this trip they were honored and feted. In fact, in 1928 the King and Queen received honorary degrees from Oxford University. (Stewart 1973) They were very impressed by Europe and also by the changes in Turkey. On their return to Afghanistan they tried to implement some of the social and cultural changes they had experienced abroad. This was an era when other Muslim nations, like Turkey and Egypt were also on the path to modernization. Hence, in Afghanistan, the elite were impressed by such changes and emulated their development models. However, the time was not right. Presumably, the British distributed pictures of Soraya without a veil, dining with foreign men, and having her hand kissed by the leader of France among tribal regions of Afghanistan. Conservative mullahs and regional leaders took the images and
23 details from the royal family's trip to be a flagrant betrayal of Afghan culture, religion and “honor” of women. One can take the circulation of such images from foreign sources as evidence of British efforts to destabilize the Afghan monarchy, the first of many international attempts to keep the country in political, social and economic turmoil. When the royal family returned, they were met with hostility and eventually forced out of office. (Stewart, 1973:342)
Amanullah tried to unite Islam and state policies, but faded when he tried to impose rapid changes relating to women’s status. Many conservative Afghans in the rural areas felt that the reforms were too “western” for their society and the forced changes were against the doctrines of Islam. People in the countryside were unable to comprehend the changes being imposed on them in haste, especially since men saw these changes as challenging their familial and tribal authority. Resistance was strongest to the elimination of bride price and polygamy, and to the introduction of education for girls. The 1920s were thus the time that conflicts between the elite modernists and traditionalist tribes began to surface. The main bone of disagreement was the changing status of women. What rose up the traditionalists and rural population was the institution in 1924 of the freedom of women to choose their own partners and attempts to abolish bride price. Fathers of young women saw such progressive laws as a loss of social status, familial control and financial security. By 1928, the ethnic tribal leaders in the rural regions grew restless and developed coalitions to protest the freedoms women were experiencing in Kabul. It should be pointed out here that in this period women in tribal and rural areas outside of Kabul did not receive the benefits of modernization. Tribal leaders controlled not only their
24 regions, but through inter-tribal unity, held sway over most of the nation in resisting attempts at modernization. The Loya Jirga finally put their foot down when marriage age of girls was raised to 18 years and for men to 21 years, and polygamy was abolished. They also opposed the education of girls, and by the late 1920s forced Amanullah to reverse some of his policies and conform to a more traditional agenda of social change. Schools for girls in Kabul and in rural areas were closed down, and women had to wear their veils again. (Huma: 2003) As Moghadam points out, women could not cut their hair, mullahs were given unlimited powers to institute their agendas and the old tribal system was to be re-established. Amanullah even married a second time (for a brief period) to pacify the opposition, but it was too late. (1997) Gregorian (1969:243) asserts that, “Amanullah, determined to improve this situation [the status of women] and maintaining that his support of the feminist cause was based on the true doctrine of Islam, took more steps in this direction in his short rule than were taken by all his predecessors together.” Amanullah was ahead of his time; his liberalism in an era when Afghanistan was barely united in a sense of nationhood was traumatic for the state. The next two decades saw the Afghan royalty change hands with different families and leaders, but not again a leader who would push the reform and women's agenda to the detriment of their rule. Following the exile of Amanullah, a series of rulers introduced conflicting laws regarding the status of women. From termination of gender equality laws under Amir Habibullah II, a Tajik (who ruled for a period of nine months after Amanullah), to Nadir Shah who exiled him, women saw in the 1930s and 1940s a cautious introduction of rights. In 1931 Nadir Shah announced the second Constitution. He opened some schools for girls and tried to bring about some gender-based reforms but was careful to avoid
25 conflicts with the mullahs and tribal leaders. Despite his cautionary approach to women’s rights, Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1933 and Zahir Shah came to power. (Hanne, 2003:232)
2.1.4. Post-Monarchy Period and Women
By mid-century, with massive foreign aid and technical assistance from the Soviet Union, Afghanistan started a modernizing journey. By the late 1950's, a need was perceived for women to be economically active to help Afghanistan achieve its targeted development goals. Women's issues were once again given some consideration. The Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud did not want to repeat the mistake of his predecessor Amanullah and declared veiling a (voluntary option.) By now women were expected once again to abandon the veil, marriage expenses were reduced, and women were encouraged to contribute to the economy. The 1940s and 1950s saw women becoming nurses, doctors and teachers.
In 1964 the third Constitution allowed women to enter elected politics and gave them the right to vote. The first woman Minister was in the health department, elected to the Parliament along with three other women. In 1965 People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), a Soviet-backed socialist organization was formed. The same year also saw the formation of the first women's group, the Democratic Organization of Afghan Women (DOAW). The main objectives of this women's group was to eliminate illiteracy among women, ban forced marriages, and change the bride price for the good of people who had weak economy.
26 2.1.5. The Second Era of Change
In late 1970s the second era of intense reform happened in the lives of Afghan women. There was a rise in the women’s education, and there were women professors in the universities and representatives in the parliament. (Dupree, 1986) The year 1978 saw the rise to power of the controversial PDPA. It is during the PDPA rule that rapid social and economic change, echoing some of the 1920s themes, was implemented and mass literacy for women and men of all ages was introduced. (Moghadam, 1997:432) Massive land reform programs, along with abolition of bride price and raising of marriage age were also part of the PDPA agenda. In October 1978 a decree was issued with the explicit intention of ensuring equal rights for women. Minimum age of marriage was set at 16 for girls and 18 years for boys. The compulsion of women into education was perceived by some as “unbearable interference in domestic life.” (Hanne, 1990:102) Again, the revolutionary speed of social change caused concern among the mullahs and tribal chiefs in the interiors. They viewed compulsory education, especially for women, as going against the grain of tradition, anti-religious and a challenge to male authority. As Moghadam (1997:67) reports, incidents of shooting of women in western clothes, killing of PDPA reformers in the rural areas and general harassment of women social workers increased. As Marsden (2002:24) points out, “The PDPA’s use of force in bringing the changes to fulfillment, combined with a brutal disregard for societal and religious sensitivities, resulted in massive reaction from the rural population.”
During the turbulent (democratic) Soviet-supported regime women's issues became central and implementation of reforms was enforced, to some extents.
27 During this era women were employed in significant numbers in Universities, private corporations, the airlines and as doctors and nurses. But for the nation as a whole, it was a period of anarchy and destruction. Beginning with the Soviet occupation in December 1979, Afghanistan witnessed a decade long war. Fueled by external forces, funding, and political interests by the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and China, the Mujahideen fought against the Soviets. The Afghan countryside was the breeding grounds for these “freedom fighters.” Suspicious of the Soviet socialist agenda to defeat the traditional culture and religion of Afghanistan, the Mujahideen was able to gather forces to form their own revolutionary army. Their battle cry was a war in the name of Islam, emphasizing the failure of all socialist policies including those that guaranteed women liberties through education and employment. (Hanne, 142:43)
In 1989, when the Soviets left Afghanistan, the country was in disorder and became the site for civil war with the government transfer of power in 1992.That year the Mujahideen took over Kabul and declared Afghanistan an Islamic state. According to the US Department of State (1995), “In 1992 women were increasingly precluded from public service. In conservative areas in 1994, many women appear in public only if dressed in a complete head-to-toe garment with a mesh covered opening for their eyes." This was only to be the start of the apartheid against women. As the author of Zoya’s Story (2002:63) claimed, “Far from rejoicing that the Russians had been defeated, Grandmother told me that a new worse Devil had come to my country. There was a popular saying around this time: “id us of these seven donkeys and give us back our cow. The donkeys were the seven factions of the
28 Mujahideen, and the cow was the puppet regime [Najibullah who was installed by the Russians before they left].” According to Zoya (2002: 54), the Mujahideen entered Kabul and burnt down the university, library and schools. Women were forced to wear the burqa and fewer women were visible on television and in professional jobs. The period from 1992-1996 saw unmatched barbarism by the Mujahideen, where stories of killings, rapes, amputations and other forms of violence were told daily. To avoid rape and forced marriages, young women were resorting to suicide.
Later in 1996, the same group (U.S.A., Pakistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia) supported the Taliban to counter the “mismanaged” politics and “unexpected” brutalities of the Mujahideen. Initially a sense of relief was palpable. But it was extremely short lived, and very soon the Taliban set up Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi An al-Munkar (Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) to monitor and control women's behavior. The Taliban made sweeping changes in the social order and used the radio to broadcast its new laws (televisions were banned). Daily, Radio Sharia reminded the citizens of their duty to the country and Islam, and listed the changes men and women needed to make to conform to the new fundamentalist regime. For women, this meant no longer being able to go outside except to buy food. If women did leave home they had to be accompanied by a mahram (male relative). Women had to wear the burqa and no makeup or fancy shoes. White shoes were forbidden since that was the color of the Taliban flag. Women and girls could not go to school nor visit male doctors. Not unlike the Mujahideen, the Taliban too indulged in forced marriages and rapes. On the
29 liberation of Kabul in November 2001, Zoya (2002:226) states, “No one was sorry to see the Taliban defeated, but neither did they rejoice when the Northern Alliance [mainly Mujahideens] took over. They too had blood on their hands.”
Thus the two so-called progressive eras of the 1920s and 1970s, while attempting to improve women’s status were not only unsuccessful but also led to violent, fundamentalist reaction by following governments. In both periods, tribal leaders who objected to the redefining of women by the state and the reduction of their general authority initiated the disorder of the modernization process. These patterns of resistance to change focused on conditions for women suggest that future efforts to “modernize” in Afghanistan will only succeed with full recognition of the multiple conflicts, gaps and resistances to change. Though the first era saw a despot implement change (undeniably favorable to women), the second era saw a socialist-democratic but equally authoritarian regime forcibly impose change. As desirable as many of these changes may have been for Afghanistan, in neither situation were rural communities of Afghanistan involved. These issues remain important today when once again a limited national government and international pressure demand radical changes in women’s status.
2.1.6. Women after Taliban Regime (Third Era of Change)
After the American invasion and defeat of Taliban regime in 2001 Afghanistan experienced a sudden move towards democracy. For the first time in its history Afghans took part in a presidential election. Schools reopened for girls, women started to go out and work in offices. Women took part in politics and there were women candidates for the parliament. After the parliamentary election several
30 women succeeded to (got enough votes) to become parliament members. In the second round of parliamentary election again women had great roles. After the election there even a larger number of women members in the parliament.
On the other hand, the three decades of war and conflicts in Afghans left millions of women widowed. According to United Nations Development Funds for Women (April 2006) and Institute of War and Peace Reporting (2003) there are an estimated two million war widows in Afghanistan, 30,000 – 50,000 of which resides in the capital Kabul. Most women are widowed as a result of the decades of conflict during which many men were killed or went missing. In addition, low life expectancy and early marriage in Afghanistan result in women often being widowed in their 20s and 30s.
31 CHAPTER TWO - ARO-AMERICAN WOMEN: VICTIMSM OF
DISCRIMINATION
3.1 American Form of Racism:
Racism, specifically white racism towards African-Americans/blacks, obviously has been the biggest issue in the agenda of the United States since the very early years of Independence until today. Racism should not be regarded simply as dislike or prejudice towards African-Americans as it is not only a sentimental issue that surfaces when a black person and white one encounter. Jenny Yamato in her essay points out that, “racism is the same thing as oppression, and it requires with itself an element of power”. It is the “systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of one group of people by another for whatever reason” (1995: 85). In the case of blacks, this “institutionalized mistreatment” can be named as slavery which would have consequences for centuries to come after it was established.
In order to understand the roots of American racism, which resulted in the black anger that exploded in the 1960s, one must trace the history of the country back to the 17th and 18th centuries since, “the early failure of the nation’s founders and their constitutional heirs to share the legacy of freedom with black Americans is at least one factor in America’s perpetual racial tensions” (Rothenberg, 1995; 297). With the betterment in England’s economy during the 17th century, the number of poor English people willing to sell themselves into indentured servitude decreased. The decrease in the number of British indentured servants gave rise to an increase in the sum of indentured servants coming from Ireland, Wales and Germany, but they were not enough to serve the needs of early settlers whose demands boosted in parallel with annexing more territories in the continent.
32 Therefore, the increase in early settlers’ demands for more human labor forced the use of Africans as slaves in the 17th and 18th centuries. Slave trade, that made the forced migration of numerous Africans from their homeland to a totally new terrain possible, continued brutally in the two centuries.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, American racism was in the shape of slavery, in which institution master-victim relationship between whites and blacks in present-day started and which dehumanized blacks in every aspect. Taken from their homeland Africa, not knowing one single thing about their new destination, these people were hopelessly at the mercy of the white-European land-owners who had arrived in the continent earlier and realized that there was too much work to do but not enough human labor. Consequently, these African people were basically used in back-breaking farm labor which was kind of work whites believed they were “physically unable to adapt” (Rothenberg, 1995: 8). White men, too fragile to work on the fields, constructed black image as labor force in the 17th century and this image has continued till today.
The introduction of African-American slavery first started with the sale of 20 African descendants in Virginia in the 17th century. Compared to other labor forces—Native Americans and white indentured servants—these Africans were more profitable in the eyes of British colonists for a number of reasons. Unlike Native Americans who resisted working like slaves and ran away easily since they knew the territory well, Africans did not know the continent and could not escape easily when they were brutally forced to work in plantations. Thus, for the white settlers, it was quite a difficult task to make a Native American work continuously while an African
33 was comparatively easier to handle. Similarly, European indentured servants were not possible to be ‘used’ as permanent slaves because they had the right to receive freedom after serving four to seven years. Theirs was a temporary slavery whereas Africans, who had no idea about the language or the life in America, could not escape from slavery easily and legally. Unlike other white-skinned labor forces, African slaves were regarded as the properties of their white owners. They had absolutely no rights; they were not even allowed to marry whom they wanted or could not even have the right to parent their own offspring. In short, most of the time, they were treated as lower than animals in slavery.
Slavery in the North declined with the rise in economic prosperity that flourished during the American Revolution (1775-1783). However, in the South, slaves were still forcefully used as labor force in big cotton plantations as the economy in the South depended mainly on agriculture. The tension between the North and the South about the continuation of slavery increased so much that it caused the most tragic and bloody war in American history: The Civil War (1861-1865). The victory of the North was a turning-point in the lives of African-American slaves. During the period called Reconstruction, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the 16th president of the U.S. (1861-1865), declared Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and in the following years with the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, blacks gained the rights of full-citizenship and voting (only for the males). Yet, not all the whites in the continent were in full concord with the rights given to the black population. Their resentment and hatred, but more importantly their desire to preserve white supremacy over blacks, helped them to gather around
34 racist groups such as Ku Klux Klan, The Knights of the White Camellia and The White League, which organized intimidating attacks towards blacks. Whites continued their attacks in social life too by segregating blacks from using schools, restaurants and other public facilities. Known as “Black Codes”, these laws segregated blacks in all areas of life and put them once again—even after the abolishment of slavery—into a subservient position. What those whites did was, in Jenny Yamato’s words an “aware-blatant racism” (1995: 86), which was supported by government acts such as 1857 U.S. Supreme Court decision Dred Scott v. Sanford that legally regarded slaves “as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in political or social relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect” (Rothenberg, 1995:70).
As a reaction to de jure (by law) and de facto (by fact) segregation, “uncivilized” African-Americans gave a civilized response by founding democratic organizations namely The National Afro-American League (1890), the Niagara Movement (1905) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1910, which, unlike the KKK, were not racist but simply aimed to gain equal rights for blacks that should have been granted to them at the early stages of independence.
In the 1920s, the pressure that increased in Southern states, combined with the desire to lead an economically better life, gave rise to the migration of blacks from Southern states to Northern states where they looked forward to gaining an equal position. That migration and the rise in African-American middle class in the
35 North account for the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement in art, music and literature. With the Depression of the 1930s, Harlem Renaissance came to an end, leaving behind the fact that, “the status, wealth and power offered by white America and radical black intellectuals before the economic disaster of 1929 were more shadow than substance” (Bell, 1989: 149). The quick end in black population’s ‘rebirth’ proved that racial equality was still a long way ahead for the blacks in America.
Having experienced Civil War, Reconstruction and Harlem Renaissance, African Americans began to gain a new consciousness of their identity and feel the freedom to express their resentment towards the white-European dominated system in the country. However, it was not until the 1960s that they could actually make their voices heard by the whole American society. In the 1960s, slavery was already over, allegedly ‘equality’ was achieved, but in practice discrimination was still alive. In the middle of the 20th century, blacks were no longer able to tolerate the hypocrisy of American democracy, which still forced the country’s black population to feel like an inferior class. This weariness combined with a new black consciousness fueled them to start Civil Rights Movements of the 60s that keep its effects till present-day.
The events recounted in Walker’s novel take place between the 1920s and the 1940s before the beginning of the Civil Rights Movements. Even though in the 1920s and the 1940s, blacks were no longer slaves, they were not treated as ordinary white citizens yet. Discrimination towards blacks was so widespread that blacks were still not still feeling as a part of American identity. As Harpo, a black male character
