Ancestral Memories, Ritual Archives and the Anatomisation of Yorubaisms in Nicolás Guillén’s Poetics

Abstract

SummaryIn view of the valorisation of Yorùbá cultural elements in the poetry of the Atlantic Yorùbá poets, it has been observed that the poets often use enormous continental Yorùbá cultural resources in their creative explorations. This is achieved through the retentive agencies of oral traditions, history and instinct employed by the poets to assert their Yorùbá cultural heritage and create a unique identity for themselves amidst the labyrinth of American rainbow cultures. Identity creation and affirmation becomes important to them, considering the conflict of identities or double consciousness that the peculiar multicultural Atlantic space has fostered on the American Yorùbá and other African Diasporas in the New World. To this end, this article examines the preponderance of Yorùbá cultural elements (Yorubaisms) in Nicolás Guillén’s collections: Yoruba from Cuba and Man-making Words to asseverate how his unconscious explores the elements for identity (re)creation, portrayal of transatlantic slavery and propagation of his mulatez integrationist philosophy. The examination is expedient in order to anatomise the cultural configurations of the Americas and identify those unique continental Yorùbá cultural influences there. The article is mainly anchored in Jungian collective unconscious or racial memory to expound peculiar repressed cultural information which finds expression in Guillén’s poems.