A Delineation of Black Feminine Consciousness and Divine Power: Self-Acceptance and Empowerment in Ntozake Shange's Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo

Abstract

CLA JOURNAL 63 A Delineation of Black Feminine Consciousness and Divine Power: Self-Acceptance and Empowerment in Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo J.K. Surrency Though not as popular or recognized as Ntozake Shange’s choreopoem for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf, Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo (1982) encompasses similar subject matter, one common to many of her works: the marginalization of Black women. Set primarily in Charleston, South Carolina, the novel is written within the framework of the Civil Rights and Black Arts Movements, which exulted Black men but oftentimes negated Black women while doing so. Located at the intersection of such movements, the novel’s call for Black feminine consciousness remains just as relevant today, over four decades later, in a world where the need for social movements, such as #SayHerName and #MeToo, remain. Weaving together the lives of the three sisters—after whom the novel is named—and their mother, Hilda Effania, Shange challenges the negation of Black women by intertwining their selffulfillment and spirituality. The southern setting of Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo fosters that interweaving and mirrors a literary technique shared by Shange’s compeers, including Gloria Naylor (Mama Day 1988) and Paule Marshall (Praisesong for the Widow 1983), among others, in their collective dialogue and canon concerning Black women’s search for space and self-actualization in the South. As Mary Hughes Brookhart points out in “Spiritual Daughters of the Black American South,” for many Black women writers “the South is more than a physical location; it is a psychological space where those who have been made anemic by their exile can come in contact with mystical powers and be rejuvenated” (125). Brookhart further opines, “as in the African tradition, which is their ultimate source, those powers may come from ancestors still effecting action from special people in tune with supernatural forces” (125). As the opening lines of Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo articulates,“where there is a woman there is magic” but for this magic to be realized, the woman must be “a consort of the spirits” (3). For Shange, as well as her contemporaries, “the region to get in touch with such powers is not Africa but the southern United States— the region of their characters’ internalized history” (Brookhart 125-126). In this respect, Shange situates Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo in a southern locale to position her characters in proximity to the source of their power and cultural heritage. This article proposes, then, that Shange incorporates aspects of the Gullah/Geechee culture and African spirituality as a directive to empowerment and self-acceptance, 64 CLA JOURNAL Jeneen K. Surrency thereby arguing that Black women may truly reach their heightened feminine consciousness and divine power when they embrace their spiritual and ancestral past. A compilation of narrative, letters, poems, recipes, and potions, Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo tells each sister’s story both cyclically and separately, beginning and ending with Indigo, who, even as a young girl, has a “moon in her mouth… [that] kept her laughing” (Shange 3). Although all three sisters search for a sense of self, this article focuses predominately on Indigo, whose journey is the most knowingly grounded in her ancestors. Despite Indigo—the youngest sister and a preteen when introduced—is present only in the novel’s opening and resolution, she is the sister with the most pronounced connection to the South and awareness of her forebearers’ power. Shange stresses this fact by having variations of Indigo’s mother’s explanation of Indigo’s behavior and actions—that Indigo’s “got too much South in her” (4)—reiterated throughout the novel’s sections devoted to the character. For Hilda, that “too much South” equates to the overly abundant influence of the region’s African history and ancestors and not enough of the social norms of the dominant class.As Teresa N.Washington points out,“Indigo’s destiny is to facilitate the unification of various peoples, ages, places, spirits, and ancestors in her attempt to solidify and sanctify a safe place for African Americans” (146). Hilda and her daughters are artists and crafts workers; and, Indigo’s initial artistry, doll making, is her preliminary conduit for this union. Indigo...