Time-binding in African American verbal art as a salve for post-traumatic slave syndrome
Abstract
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] In the same vein of their spiritual forbearers, the African griots, African American wordsmiths utilize their time-binding capabilities in oral performances to reenact and reinterpret the past as a medium to resolve the conditions of post-traumatic slave syndrome affecting marginalized urban black communities. In this thesis, I argue African American griots constantly re-evoke and address the traumatic experiences of slavery and post slavery; and fusing the two separate entities of the past and present as a cathartic/coping mechanism to achieve four basic goals: 1) foster self-esteem, 2) to reflect/instill black consciousness/pride 3) to exhort political activism against colonial/neo-colonial forces and 4) to establish a new or to reconnect African Americans to a African-based spiritual/communal worldview. By establishing continuity between the ancestral past and the present, I make the claim that verbal artisans strive to heal the psychological wounds stemming from slavery and post slavery conditions.
Degree
M.A.
Thesis Department
Rights
Access is limited to the campus of the University of Missouri--Columbia.