Damballah by John Edgar Wideman
"Damballah" by John Edgar Wideman is a poignant narrative that intertwines themes of identity, resilience, and the struggle for connection within the context of slavery. The story centers around a character named Ryan, a physically beaten African man on a plantation who is largely disavowed by others, except for a young slave boy who is captivated by him. This boy, yearning for deeper understanding and male camaraderie, finds solace in Ryan, who embodies strength and a connection to African heritage through the powerful name “Damballah.”
The narrative reflects the boy's inner turmoil as he navigates a world filled with oppressive orders and the desire for self-expression. Despite the harsh realities of plantation life, Ryan's spirit becomes a conduit for the boy to connect with his roots, even after Ryan faces a tragic fate at the hands of the overseers for striking back against injustice. Through spiritual intercession, Ryan's legacy continues to inform and empower the boy, symbolizing the enduring strength of cultural narratives and the quest for identity. The story ultimately encapsulates a profound exploration of the human spirit’s resilience amidst suffering and the importance of remembering one’s heritage.
On this Page
Damballah by John Edgar Wideman
First published: 1981
Type of plot: Psychological
Time of work: The 1800's
Locale: A cane plantation somewhere in the Deep South
Principal Characters:
Orion (Ryan) , an intractable slave, alienated from both blacks and whites and intent on preserving his African language and ritualsAn unnamed slave boy , who is fascinated by Orion's strange habitsAunt Lissy , one of Orion's detractors, the black cook in charge of children too young to work in the fieldsMaster , Orion's white owner who has grown intolerant of Orion's defiance
The Story
Orion is the name of a brawny giant in Greek mythology, a slayer of all beasts, who became a constellation. In this story, his namesake is a physically beaten, emaciated African disavowed by all on the plantation except one slave boy; accordingly, his proud name has been truncated to "Ryan." The boy, contemptuous of his vapid chores and the animal stories often repeated to him, is eager to take his place alongside the field hands and to learn the subtleties of male conversation. Restless, he alternately laments both "the nothing always there to think of" in his mind and the bombardment of orders from others on him, "so crowded and noisy lots of time don't hear his own voice." For this reason, Ryan, who maintains serenity while obstinately speaking "heathen talk," abstaining from American food, and meditating in the river, poses an irresistible attraction.
Despite a beating from Aunt Lissy, the black doyenne of Mistress's kitchen and the supervisor of the slave children, the boy follows Ryan every spare moment, hiding behind trees. He even memorizes a word that he has heard the man shout in his direction: "Damballah." Though the boy does not know that this refers to a powerful god in the African pantheon, the word's very sound engenders equilibrium in him. He senses that Damballah will permeate something latent and beneficent inside himself, like a sudden gleam "you knew all the time . . . was there" appearing in a tarnished spoon when he polishes Mistress's silver.
The boy suspects that Ryan, aware of his spying, longs to communicate with him, yet before the two can meet directly, Master loses his patience with the recalcitrant man. Frustrated and irate, Master requests a full refund for Ryan in a letter to the unscrupulous trader who sold him. Then at last Ryan does something powerful, worthy of the legendary Greek hunter but for him, a slave, unthinkable and fatal. He strikes an overseer from his horse with bone-breaking effect, incurring a punishment of death: Master and the other overseers torture and decapitate him. Not even death can stop Ryan from contacting the boy, however, and through Damballah's intercession Ryan transmits to the child the native stories that he had yearned to preserve. When his spirit finally departs, the boy tosses the severed head into the waters where the dead man used to stand.
Bibliography
Baker, Lisa. "Storytelling and Democracy (in the Radical Sense): A Conversation with John Edgar Wideman." African American Review 34, no. 2 (Summer, 2000): 263-272.
Bell, Bernard W. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1987.
Bennion, John. "The Shape of Memory in John Edgar Wideman's Sent for You Yesterday." Black American Literature Forum 20 (1985): 143-150.
Byerman, Keith E. John Edgar Wideman: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1998.
Callaloo 22, no. 3 (Summer 1999). Special issue on Wideman.
Coleman, James W. Blackness and Modernism: The Literary Career of John Edgar Wideman. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990.
Hume, Kathryn. "Black Urban Utopia in Wideman's Later Fiction." Race & Class 45, no. 3 (January-March, 2004): 19-34.
Lucy, Robin. "John Edgar Wideman (1941- )." In Contemporary African American Novelists: A Biographical-Bibliographic Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1999.
Lustig, Jessica. "Home: An Interview with John Edgar Wideman." African American Review, Fall, 1992, 453-457.
Mbalia, Dorothea Drummond. John Edgar Wideman: Reclaiming the African Personality. Selinsgrove, Pa.: Susquehanna University Press, 1995.
Rushdy, Ashraf H. A. "Fraternal Blues: John Edgar Wideman's Homewood Trilogy." Contemporary Literature, Fall, 1991, 312-345.
TuSmith, Bonnie. Conversations with John Edgar Wideman. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1998.