ISBN : 9782296128033
REMEMBERING AFRICAN ANCESTRY IN FRED D'AGUIAR'S FEEDING THE GHOSTS
Abid Labidi
Based on a textual analysis of D'Aguiar's novel Feeding the Ghosts
(1997),1 this essay examines the crucial presence of African memory
in the slavery context. It will particularly emphasize the ways African
slaves rely on memory, and engage into cross-Atlantic cultural, spiritual,
and even imaginary dialogues with their African past and the
traditions that they have involuntarily left behind. Examining the
experience of D'Aguiar's protagonist, Mintah, I would like to show
how African bonds and cultural legacy survived the many inflictions
of slavery, and the way the New World slave largely remained African
in heart and mind, and never completely severed ties with the Africa
of his/her origins. I will also explore the way memory helped slaves
resist their oppressors and shield their African identity and heritage.
My essay will also briefly address the way memory can be useful in "fill[ing] in the details lost to histo