Spiritual Power of African American Woman

 Spiritual Power of African American Woman

Dr Manisha Patil 

In Song of Solomon, Morrison denounces the destructive, materialistic, individualism which is the hallmark of white American patriarchy and which has also filtered in the psyche of African American men. Instead, she celebrates constructive, community centered spiritualism of African American people epitomized in one single woman – Pilate. ‘Born without a navel, Pilate is the ancestor, an “original” first mother who like the African woman in Tar Baby who holds eggs aloft in a Parisian market, offers eggs to Milkman and Guitar. She is the ancestral mother whose contact with the natural world has remained unbroken and whom her off springs deny at their peril. With blueberry lips constantly chewing seeds and pine kernels, Pilate is surrounded both by natural food and by the relics of her past carried in the green sack of bones [of her father’s bones] and the ear-ring containing the paper on which her father had written her name. Both are relics which affirm her identity and connectedness with ancestral dead. Unmindful of possessions, her spirituality gives her unquestioning acceptance of an otherworld reality.’18

John Duvell calls her ‘female Huck Finn’19 and Robert James Butter notes that Pilate is ‘one of the very few women in American literature capable of leading the picaresque life w is given so easily to the male protagonists of our literary traditions.’20 Her Birth on her own, after the death of her mother and her father’s choice of the name Pilate (name of the man that killed Jesus) as an act of rebellion, his retaliation against God for what he perceives as a cosmic injustice, mark Pilate different from other African American women. Further on, her lack of navel prevents her from getting married and socialized as subordinate to her man. Her constant wandering from place to place and her continuous rejection by larger African American communities, make her rethink about the accepted notions of sexuality, morality and community. She ‘cuts her hair signalling a repression of her sexuality since that is what has caused her the most trouble’ and ‘establishes a woman-centred alternative community that consistently operates without regard for middle-class conventions or the expectations of men.’ Utterly indifferent to possessions, she spiritually nurtures the people. ‘She has conjure powers and potions, can defeat apparently physically stronger men and can also make tools of the police.’21 Through her posthumous communication with her father, Pilate also becomes a link between past and present, living and dead. Her song contains the oral history of her family. Her bag of bones which she calls her ‘inheritance’, testifies her abidance to her father’s commandment: “You just can’t fly on off and leave a body.” (332) She does not know that the bones she carries are of her father but she does know her responsibilities. Throughout her life, she functions as a kind of ‘pilot’, teacher and godmother to Milkman. She is responsible not only for his birth (She made Ruth conceive from Macon with her root medicine) but also for his life. Her spirituality provides Milkman with an alternative to Macon’s materialism. ‘Pilate prevents Milkman from seeking flight from his responsibilities, from perpetuating the history of neglect. Milkman eventually learns to sympathize with the painful conditions of women he is related to: that of being left behind (Ryna), mistreated (Ruth), controlled (his sisters) and devalued (Hagar).’22 The punishment that Pilate gives him (knocking him down in the cellar for Hagar’s death), makes him rethink his excitement over flying. He realizes that the joy of flying away is exceeded by the pain of those left behind. ‘He had hurt her, left her and now she was dead he was certain of it. He had left her while he dreamt of flying, Hagar was dying. Sweet’s silvery voice came back to him: “Who’d he leave behind?” He left Ryna behind and twenty-one children. Twenty-one since he dropped the one he tried to take with him and Ryna had thrown herself all over the ground, lost her mind and was still crying in a ditch. Who looked after those twenty children? Jesus Christ, he left twenty-one children!’ (332) He repents his past mistakes, gives up materialism completely and accepts responsibility for his actions. ‘When he went home that evening, he walked into the house on Not Doctor Street with almost none of the things led taken with him. But he returned with a box of Hagar’s hair.’ (334) He also realizes that it is his responsibility to take Pilate to Solomon’s leap and make her bury her father’s bones there. So accordingly, he performs his duty. Unfortunately, twisted love of Guitar makes him attack the very people he wants to protect and he fires the bullet that kills Pilate instead of Milkman. Even on her deathbed, Pilate is not bitter. She still thinks of wellbeing of others. ‘She sighed. “Watch Reba for me”. And then Ì wish I’d a knowed more people. I would a loved all. It I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more.’ (336) Pilate’s dying words mark her as a total antithesis to the Seven Days. Seven Days claimed to love African American people but their love made them kill not only whites but also blacks. ‘Christ-killing’ Pilate, on the other hand, became the Christ figure who taught people to love even their enemy. In Pilate’s selfless loving, all other forms of selfish love stand exposed and Milkman realizes: ‘Why he loved her so. Without ever leaving the ground, she could fly.’ (336) Thus, finally Milkman gains the spiritual wisdom of Pilate by knowing that one can attain freedom only by fulfilling one’s responsibilities and one can become fully individual only by attaching to one’s family, ancestry and community as a whole.

Dr Manisha Patil