Adaptation of Modern African-American Writers Essay -- Lucille Clifton

Adaptation of Modern African-American WritersModern writers learn from the past by reading works written by authors of that particular era. Contemporary African-American writers gain knowledge and insight into the horrendous and sometimes harmonious conditions that plagued Africans during striverry and the slave trade. By reading the actual words, thoughts, and feelings of these enslaved Africans, mod writers receive information from the perspective of the victimized. Lucille Cliftons slaveship is a vivid example of a contemporary writer borrowing from the past to depict another account of the slave trade. The fact that Cliftons father told her stories ab fall out her familys struggle and she, herself, traced her lineage back to Dahomey, West Africa helped to impact the tone, ideas, and imagery used in her poem. Although slaveship is not written by soul who has experienced slavery herself, it does use similar elements found in Olaudah Equianos Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equia no and Phillis Wheatleys On Being Brought from Africa to America.Cliftons slaveship begins with the image of people tightly packed and close together in the bottom of a ship. The narrator says that they were loaded like spoons into the belly of Jesus (lines 1-2). Later in the poem, the narrator describes being chained to the heart of the Angel (line 8). Equiano also speaks of the crowded conditions he faced on his journey to America. He states that he was soon put down under the decks (p 157) where this nauseous situation was again aggravated by the gallings of chains (p 159). The human cargo on these slave ships endured weeks and months of dreadful and disgusting odors as a result of these fasten conditions. Cliftons slav... ...Equiano at the end of Chapter Two. He says, O, ye nominal Christians might not an African ask you, learned this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto men as you would men should do unto you (p 161). In order to give an accurate depiction of life duri ng the Atlantic Slave Trade, contemporary African American writers must research and read to find out exactly how life was for those enslaved. The opinions and thoughts of those who endured and survived this wretched time are valuable pieces of information about what was happening. Modern writers, such as Lucille Clifton, adapt from previous writers. Without having lived during that particular time, contemporary African-American writers must rely on past authors and their knowledge of human nature to put forth accurate stories with the purpose of educating and informing todays readers about Americas hideous history.