by Maya Angelou.
When the Black Lives Matter protests began I decided to make a conscious effort to search out more black authors. The more and more I thought about it, the more disturbed I became that all the books I have read with black characters, have all been written by white authors. I put a post out on facebook asking for suggestions and Maya Angelou was highly recommended.
The book is a retelling of Maya’s childhood and all the challenges and successes she faced as a young black American. It was extremely eye opening because it is a period of time that I have studied a lot (1930’s and early 1940’s and thus the start of the second world war) but from a viewpoint that has never been discussed in any of my lessons. The war is barely mentioned in fact and yet it is something that is featured heavily in British education.
Maya discusses her upbringing by her paternal grandmother, abuse and neglect at the people who were meant to be her parents, her relationship with her brother and navigating her first foray into the world of work after watching those in her town work their way into exhaustion on the cotton farms for minimal wages.
I spent the entire book wanting to scream at her parents for being so selfish and the white folk for being superior. It was a world that I felt so angry about despite Maya’s casual way of describing her life like it was a perfectly acceptable situation. This was the perfect book to start my journey on learning more about how oppression is still rife today. The ending of the book left me wanting to know more and I cannot wait to continue Maya’s journey with her.
Do you have any favourite black authors? What has surprised you most about their viewpoint?
See you on Saturday
Faerydae Stitches 