Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Texts: Manifestations of Àjé in Africana Literature (Blacks in the Diaspora)
"Certainly readers will find new ideas here—surprising and illuminating readings that reveal the female protagonists' control of and by Àjé.... Highly recommended." Choice" —Choice"Washington (Kent State Univ.) provides a feminist but distinctly non—Western analysis of the Yoruba concept of Àjé (Aje) and its appearance through a wide variety of Africana literature. In part 1, the author identifies Àjé (Aje) both as a creative and life—giving power and as the people, usually women, who wield it. She lays out the place of Àjé (Aje) in Yoruba cosmology: its revelation in the praise song Ìtàn—Orík^d`i (Itan—Orik^d`i) and its passage in new forms, including hoodoo, to new lands through the African diaspora. In part 2, Washington interprets important Africana works as manifestations of Àjé (Aje), showing particularly how displaced peoples of Africa have called on Àjé (Aje) to combat or make sense of oppression based on race, politics, or gender. Washington argues that traditional readings of, for example, Toni Morrison's Beloved, Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, and Gloria Naylor's Mama Day are based on inappropriate Western assumptions and values. Certainly readers will find new ideas here—surprising and illuminating readings that reveal the female protagonists' control of and by Àjé. (Aje.) Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper—division undergraduates through faculty. —Choice, Nov. 2006" —C. A. Bily, Adrian College