Imagine that all you knew about your ancestors was that they were long-suffering. Then you discovered that you were descended from a rich tradition. How would that discovery change the way you think about yourself?

Imagine that you are at a family gathering. An elderly uncle tells a story of endless suffering, of oppression and sorrow, of loss and degradation. This is the story of your ancestors. What does it say about you?

Imagine another scenario. The uncle begins to tell a story. But this story is about kings and princes, scholars and inventors, artists and scientists, and builders of magnificent cities. It's a tale of a people whose culture and civilization was so grand that descendants would claim kinship with pride. It's a nice story, but it doesn't have much to do with you. Or does it?

If these were your ancestors would it make a difference to you? Does it matter to you, today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, whether your ancestors were paupers or princes—whether you inherited from them a tale of glory or a tale of woe?

It matters to poet Askia Touré. In a way, Touré is the uncle with the tale of glory. And he has dedicated himself to correcting the collective memory of African Americans.

If African Americans were more aware of the great social and intellectual accomplishments of their ancestors since the dawn of human history, suggests Touré, they would have a different sense of themselves now. But for so many modern African Americans, says Touré, "their history has been erased—by slave masters who tried to wipe clean the minds of their forbearers, changing their names and denying their identities."

In West African tradition, a griot (GREE-oh) or djali (JAW-lee) is a storyteller who keeps alive the memory of his people. Touré has donned the role of an American griot.

So how do you rebuild historic memory in a culture whose memory is lost? Touré decided to build an epic memory through the poem Dawnsong!, which focuses on the ancient and predominantly black Egyptian and Nubian civilization along the Nile River. The Egyptians considered Ethiopia and the African interior as the holy land from which their own ancestors had come. Some believe that the entire human race can trace its origin from tribes in that area.

Dawnsong! takes us to an Africa of early human history—one that predates the slave trade by thousands of years. In it, Touré traces the evolution of a people from their invention of agriculture to their place in a magnificent walled city of high cultural importance.

The reader follows the progression of civilization from the dawn of time through tribal cultures, on to farming and matrilineal (tracing descent through women) cultures, and finally to a highly advanced civilization based on science and the arts.

Touré was deeply influenced by two great poets whose writings helped to resurrect their people's history. The first, Irish poet William Butler Yeats, helped to bring the Gaelic language and culture back to the Irish people living under the rule of the British. In many of his poems, especially "Easter 1916," Yeats tapped the national consciousness of a people oppressed by a dominant culture that tried to rid them of their native identity.

The second, Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda, wrote a great epic poem of Latin America (Canto general) depicting an indigenous nation in continuous struggle against oppression. "I loved the imagery and narrative strategies in Canto general," says Touré. We African Americans don't have an epic tradition."

Dawnsong! shows Touré's commitment to imagery, rhythm, and the female influence in his work. "My verse tends to be highly imagistic," he explains. "I like to paint pictures with words." Those images begin to emerge at the very beginning of the poem as a mythic bird rises from its ashes, welcoming a new day.

• Bennu is another name for the phoenix, a mythical bird that rose out of its own ashes to live again. The ibis is another Nile bird often pictured with gods in Egyptian hieroglyphs. What do these images, and words such as "welcome a new sun rising" suggest?

• The poet is addressing the birds, but whom else might he be addressing?
  

Touré describes his style as "a postmodern kind of free verse, with strong rhythmic structures from jazz." Read the following stanza:

• The rhythm of a poem is best understood when it is read aloud, but the way its lines are physically arranged gives clues as well. How do the indentations and line breaks contribute to the poem's rhythms?

In Dawnsong! Touré also refers to the land as female and often uses images that celebrate the female principle. He describes the people in the poem as "Matrilineal clans honoring goddesses as 'Great Mother'..."

"This was a nurturing, civilizing society," he explains. "The ancient culture of the Central African lake region was of the matriarch. Women created agriculture. The Pharaoh sat in the lap of Isis, the major Egyptian goddess. I purposely use images of female strength, as opposed to the conquering, destroying images of other so-called great civilizations.

"The messages our children are getting from the major communications industries in our society are full of violence and are degrading to women. Part of the strategy in Dawnsong! is to show that patriarchal institutions are not necessarily the natural way."

Askia Touré's dedication to his people's plight and to the power of language made his politics and his poetry inseparable. "I'm part of what's been called the Afro-centric movement," says Touré, "but I prefer to call it African restoration because I try to restore and resurrect the ancient archetypes of the African people."

Learn More

• Women writers in America have faced their own challenges in expressing themselves. Read about them in the Riverdeep Today article, "They Struggled to be Heard."
  
  
  

More Links

• Find out more about the Black Arts Movement, to which Askia Touré belonged.

Related Resources

• Get Dawnsong! the Epic Memory of Askia Touré .