Witoubou Newmai
In a time when the world swings Right at a high pace and the “state is taken over from within”(Marxist thinker Aijaz Ahmad in quotation), the likes of Toni Morrison will become more and more relevant “for us.”
Though no longer in physical presence, the African-American writer will continue to speak out for the ‘oppressed’ and against injustices through her books and speeches.
Toni Morrison, the doyen who did so much to expose bad experiences to the world in order to address injustices, passed away on last Monday after a brief illness.
By way of paying rich tributes to the Nobel Laureate, The New York Times ran a headline, ‘Toni Morrison, towering novelist of the black experience, dies at 88.’
Known for her bold and eloquent speeches, and her determined voice against injustices, especially on the issues related to racism, Toni Morrison will continue to be in the hearts of the ‘oppressed’ around the world.
The perceptions of the people on the African-American people got a sea change for good, and Toni Morrison was one of the key players behind this change. Her writings have buoyed activists/campaigners, writers and common people around the world to stand up against injustices. Her works inspired the people to stand up against injustices or else one will continue to live with those labels given to you by the oppressors. In this area, she succinctly said, “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”
Her famous book, ‘Beloved’, depicts one of the hardest and most inhuman sides of the Slavery era of the United States of America. The ‘Beloved’ was set in the time of the Civil War and it is based on a real incident where a mother killed her two-year old daughter so that the child escapes slavery.
Her writings such as these continue to permeate human conscience as aptly commented by Barack Obama, former president of the United States. According to him, Toni Morrison’s “writing was a beautiful, meaningful challenge to our conscience and our moral imagination.”
Paying tributes to Toni Morrison on her demise, Nigerian writer Ben Okri says that the work of Toni Morrison “spoke to people everywhere, to their traumas and their joys, in a language in which inspiration was at home.”
Indeed, if it was not for defiant voice such as Toni Morrison’s and the likes, people's perceptions would have been shaped to a great degree to ignore justice and aspiration.
And with this, let us hope that Morrison’s legacy will continue to be a great source of inspiration for the “defined.”
