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Thursday 13 October 2011

"The Souls of White Folk", in 'Darkwater', W.E.B. Du Bois



 
Why he Wrote it
·         There can be seen to be many reasons for why Du Bois wrote “Souls of White Folk”.
·         Published in 1920, Du Bois puts forward a stubborn opinion as to why World War One took place as well as a warning about the future of capitalism, trade and imperialism if left to continue along the same path. At the heart of his text, he sends a clear message that these problems had severe implications for the non-white world.
·         He matter-of-factly comments how “It is expansion overseas; it is colonial aggrandizement which explains, and alone adequately explains, the World War” (P.5)
ð  This view was definitely met with resistance by American and European historians at the time.
·         He may have also written the text as a way of demonstrating how the war was not simply the result of what was deemed as the result of the tyrannical behaviour of Germany and that “Germany, at last one and united and secure on land, looked across the seas and seeing England with sources of wealth insuring a luxury and power which Germany could not hope to rival...immediately built her navy and entered into a desperate competition for the possession of colonies of darker peoples...England and France crouched watchfully over their bones, growling and wary, but gnawing industriously, while the blood of the dark world whetted their greedy appetites” (p7)
ð  This view could be down to the fact that he spent some time writing his dissertation in Berlin and was able to make his own judgement on the nature of German politics and society.
·         Diorita C. Fletcher holds the view that Du Bois chose to write about the roots of World War One as a way of showing the contradictions of white American and European culture.
·         Moreover, the text shows a clear shift in tone and that Du Bois wished to take the road of pointing more towards the wrongdoing of white people in the creation of a global racial hierarchy rather than simply describing the terrible conditions that black people suffered in.
·         L’Heureux Lewis comments how “Du Bois seems to have used his writing as a means to connect oppressed people of colour throughout the world – and develop a subtle, yet meaningful, resistance movement to global European hegemony”. (p.8)
·         Cheryl Townsend shares a similar view that Du Bois was focused on highlighting the oppressive nature of Europe and America; “oppression was the central issue...Du Bois emphasises gender race and class...with sociology as a means to seek solutions to social problems” (p.734)

Imperialism
·         A key theme running through the text is Imperialism, specifically the effect it has had on the non-white world.
·         His debate goes hand in hand with his view on the causes of world war one and that the scramble for colonies in Africa as well as the Far East not only impacted on the lives of natives of those countries but effectively created tension amongst European powers; the notion of greed plays an important role in the text.
Picture 1
·         Du Bois also refers to the fact that the mistreatment and massacres in Congo during the 1880’s and 1890’s were overshadowed by events in Belgium, commenting how “behold little Belgium and her pitiable plight, but has the world forgotten Congo?” (p.4)
ð  The fact that such events were happening in a white country made it more  
·         It is important to note that Du Bois felt strongly that colonialism emerged due to the fact that the white working class could no longer be controlled due to the emergence of industrialisation and globalisation.

Capitalism and Trade
·         Running alongside the failures of imperialism can be seen to be Du Bois’s distain for capitalism and globalisation.
·         He makes several references to the fact that such globalisation of trade and industry was at the expense of black people as well as other non-white populations.
ð  That the world was becoming increasingly obsessed with financial gain and power maximisation
ð  “The world today is trade. The world has turned shopkeeper; history is economic history; living is earning a living”. (P.4)
·         Du Bois also makes the point that such gains were made not because of the superiority of the white population but because of the hard work by those countries colonised and forced into work; he comments how this was no better than slavery.
ð  “Rubber, ivory and palm-oil; tea, coffee, and cocoa; bananas, oranges, and other fruit; cotton, gold, and copper...a hundred other things which dark and sweating bodies hand up to the white world from pits of slime, pay and pay well”.(P.7)



Religion

Du Bois uses religion in a way, that shows the loss of religiosity that has happened in the white world,
  • “Then always, somehow, some way, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever, Amen!”
    • Du Bois refers to the idea that humans are stewards of the earth , but in this sense it is only the whites how have this dominion .
      • Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.””


    Picture 2

    
    The use of religious phrasing is also used sarcastically, emphasising the loss of religiosity, and also his disregard for this idea that only whites should rule over the earth.
  • “A nation’s religion is its life, and as such white Christianity is a miserable failure. Nor would we be unfair in this criticism: We know that we, too, have failed, as you have, and have rejected many a Buddha, even as you have denied Christ; but we acknowledge our human fraility, while you, claiming super-humanity, scoff endlessly at our shortcomings.”
    • A nation and its religion are closely linked, especially where a majority subscribe to a certain belief. However, since white America is failing that means that the moral backbone to it must also be failing. Du Bois points out that the whites are too proud to acknowledge this, the blacks have acknowleged that they have failed in the past, and recognise that they are not infallible, but the whites uses this recognition to put the blacks down. Du Bois is showing the extent that religion is used to oppress, even though the religion used is a broken one.


Race

The use of race as a theme is found throughout the piece, but there are some particular ideas that Du Bois uses that are important to point out.
  • “Of them I am singularly clairvoyant. I see in them and through them. I view them from unusual points of vantage. […] Rather I see these souls undressed and from back and side. I see the working of their entrails. I know their thoughts and they know that I know. This knowledge makes them now embarrassed, now furious.”
    • Du Bois is emphasising the discomfort felt by whites, that he has been in their world, and he understands how they think and act. They cannot put him down in the same way that they wish they could, and this makes them even more frustrated. Du Bois revels in the fact that he can make them feel so uncomfortable by reversing the power control in the race relationship.
  • “They deny my right to live and be and call me misbirth! “
    • Du Bois is showing that because he is an intelligent black man, whites see him as a “misbirth”, and that because of his intelligence he should have been born white. It is also showing the idea that the only true and perfect race is the white race, and that all others should be exterminated, or at least below the superior white race.
“The discovery of personal whiteness among the world’s peoples is a very modern thing”

  • The idea of race and whiteness, Du Bois argues, is a relatively new concept. Using this, Du Bois then asks why it should be that white it the ultimate goal to achieve? As it is so modern there is no historical backing to it, and whites have no right to claim dominance. By using the phrase “personal”, it is also insinuated that by feeling and acting white, a person who is not white might also progress in the world.


DuBois Attitude to White People


Throughout the text we can see that DuBois refers to white people with much negativity.

  • “But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?”

From this we get the sense as though DuBois looks at his race higher than white people. He looks at the way they act and treat other human beings and believe that his race is better than that. Not only this but when talking of white people he states that:

  • “I see in and through them”

This gives the impression that DuBois thinks that he is more intelligent than white people. When talking of the world war DuBois states:

  • “this seeming terrible is the real soul of white culture”

Here we can see how although there were black soldiers in the war DuBois, looks at the atrocities of the war mainly associated to white people. In addition, when referring to the segregation between the races, he refers to white people as

  • “they are cowards in the face of mausers and maxims; they have no feelings, aspirations, and loves; they are fools, illogical idiots”

This quote accurately describes and sums up DuBois’ attitude towards white people and how he saw his race as being more superior.



Whites versus the Rest of the World
·         Du Bois makes the point of contrasting whites against the rest of the world either to show the amount of damage it has done to countries as far as China and Mexico or to prove that the white world, most specifically Europe, was soon to be overtaken by countries such as Japan.
ð  “Today Japan is hammering on the door of justice, China is raising her half-manacled hands to knock next, India is writhing for freedom to knock”. (p.9)
ð  Prophesying the demise of countries such as the “sick man of Europe”, the Ottoman Empire.
·         He also attempts to prove that the success of the white population was because of the superiority of non-whites;
ð  “Why, then, is Europe great? Because...the iron trade of ancient, black Africa, the religion and empire-building of yellow Asia, the art and science of the “dago” Mediterranean shore, east, south and west as well as north” – (p.5)
·         It can be argued that Du Bois was somewhat successful in his forecast of the rise in economic and political influence in countries such as China and Japan.


Citizenship

Picture 3: 14th Amendment

Section one of the 14th Amendment, which was adopted in July 1868, stated that:
  • “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

However, when Darkwater was published in 1920 it seemed as though this was still not the case. Although the 14th Amendment had given everyone the right to citizenship, black people were still being treated as second class citizens.

  • “I am given to understand that whiteness is the ownership of the earth forever and ever”

Here we can see that white people are seen as higher than black people. Not only this but black people were still being deprived of their liberty.

  • “a White Man is always right and a Black Man has no rights which a White Man is bound to respect”

Therefore, despite the 14th Amendment stated that the state was not allowed to deprive anyone of liberty, this was not entirely the case.

  • “Where sections could not be owned by one dominant nation there came a policy of “open door”, but the door was open to “white people only””

In the courts cases such as Plessy v Ferguson made sure that America was living under the term “separate but equal”. Nevertheless, they may have been separate but white people and coloured people were never considered equal.



Historical and Classical Imagery
·         Du Bois makes several references to historical or classical imagery throughout “Souls of White Folk”; it can be seen to be maybe due to his classical education he received over the years and the fact that he wanted to prove himself as an elitist or educationist. However, it is at times unclear as to why some of these are relevant to his account.
·         There are many links to classical imagery throughout the text such as on page four with “Peace to the Augurs of Rome!” An Augur in the classical world was a priest or official whose main role was to interpret the will of gods by studying the flight of birds.
·         Moreover, Du Bois, with his roots in philosophy, scatters his text with links to historical tenets of philosophy such as how “This sudden descent of Europe into hell brought unbounded surprise; to others, over wide area, it brought the Schaden Freude of the bitterly hurt” (p.3).
ð  Schaden Freude has many interpretations, with the Book of Proverbs mentioning it as well as Aristotle in “Nicomachean Ethics” describing the term as a person that takes pleasure in another’s ill fortune.
ð  It is also referred to in Robert Burtons 17th century “The Anatomy of Melancholy” as well as by Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer as it being the most evil sin of human feeling
ð  Such references show Du Bois’s need to prove himself intellectually in a world where there were not many opportunities for African Americans to gain higher education.
·         There are many historical references in “Souls of White Folk”;
ð  “The middle age regarded skin colour with mild curiosity; and even up into the eighteenth century we were hammering our national manikins into one, great, Universal Man....” (p. 1)

Picture 4

ð  This can be seen as a reference to the ideals that emerged after the French Revolution by philosophers and reactionaries such as Thomas Paine and the “Rights of Man”.
ð  Moreover, he touches on the history of collective security and changes that happened through enlightenment in terms of a change in the philosophy of war; “The Middle Ages built its rules of fairness – equal armament, equal notice, equal conditions. What do we see today? Machine-guns against assegais; conquest sugared with religion” (p.4)


Animal Imagery

  • “like a swarm of hungry locusts “
  • Du Bois uses animal imagery in a reverse of the typical derogatory animal imagery that was used to describe black people. In this case he describes the white colonialists as insects that strip a land clean of harvest able crops, much like the whites taking the natural resources of the blacks. Again, Du Bois has reversed the norms, taking what was traditionally used against blacks by whites, and flipping it against the whites.
Picture 5


'The Riddle of the Sphinx'


Du Bois's poem, The Riddle of the Sphinx appears under three titles during his lifetime and we encounter it under this title in chapter two of Darkwater


  • For those who do not know, the riddle of the sphinx is as follows: Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at midday on 2, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?
    • it would appear that Du Bois is more interested in the answer: man, and more specifically: what is man?
  • From the Riddle of the Sphinx, we can assess Du Bois's view towards Black Nationalism
    • his attitude can be described as ambivalent, reflecting his double-consciousness as both a black man and an American
      • Du Bois describes this on p.3 of The Souls of Black Folk: he has "two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body"
    • Du Bois attempts to understand this through Ethiopianism, a theme we find in The Riddle of the Sphinx
  • The Ethiopian tradition arose from certain shared political and religious experiences of English-speaking Africans during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
    • Ethiopianism found expression in slave narratives and the songs and folklore of the slaves of the Old and peasants of the New South.
  • We encounter this in the poem as follows:
          Dark Daughter of the lotus leaves that watch the Southern Sea!
          Wan spirit of a prisoned soul a-panting to be free!
                    The muttered music of thy streams, the whisper of the deep,
                    Have kissed each other in God's name and kissed a world to sleep.
  • The woman described here is a personification of Africa.  "The burden of white men bore her back and the white world stifled her sighs"
    • Du Bois is commenting on the ascendancy of the West based upon Mediterranean culture
    • Yet he is quick to say that it will go under:
      • downdowndeep down,Till the devil's strength be shorn,Till some dim, darker David, a-hoeing of his corn,And married maiden, mother of God,Bid the black Christ be born!
  • We can clearly see an example of Ethiopianism in the poem which can be defined as the effort of the English-speaking African person to view his past enslavement and present cultural dependency in terms of the broader history of civilisation.  It reminds his that his present scientific technological civilisation, dominated by Western Europe for 400 years, will go under like all Empires of the past.
  • Do Bois' poetry is thus a product of his own tradition
  • Yet how can we reconcile the Du Bois the social scientist and Du Bois the poet?
    • Du Bois, after 1910 began to move away from his belief that social sciences might provide a science of racial advancement and put his faith more in the power of the imagination as the chief instrument for changing public morality.
  • The Riddle of the Sphinx is thus an extremely important part of Du Bois's literature, his way of attempting to further the black racial cause.


Bibliography
            Picture 2
http://journal.earthwitness.org/storage/creation/raffaello%20creation%20of%20animals%20detail.jpg


Moses, Wilson J, 'The Poetics of Ethiopianism: W.E.B. Du Bois and Literary Black Nationalism, American Literature Vol 47, 1975

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

Rabaka, Reiland; "The Souls of Black Radical Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois, Critical Social Theory, and the State of Africana Studies"; Journal of Black Studies; Volume 36; No.5; The State of Black Studies in the Academy (May 2006)

Fletcher, C. Diorita; "W.E.B. Du Bois' Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilisation - His Essays Analysed" - www.nathanielturner.com/duboisindicttmentofwhitecivilization.htm

Lewis, L'Heureux; "Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil, Annotated Edition" - http://www.supremedesignonline.com/content/DWexcerpt.pdf


 

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