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ISSN 2278-9529

Galaxy: International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

www.galaxyimrj.com

www.the-criterion.comThe Criterion: An International Journal in English

ISSN: 0976-8165

Preservation of Native Culture in Gloria Naylors Mama Day

Pooja Sahu
Research Scholar
School of Studies in English
Vikram University, Ujjain

Gloria Naylor like all black writers confront in her artistry in literary history. Naylors novels
provide an intimate portrait of everyday black folk whose lives are sometimes reduced
merely to the struggle for survival but reveal the inherent strengths of the black community
and the richness of black culture. Her novels have the influence of southern heritage. Her
third novel Mama Day is primarily set in the southern landscape. The novel strives to
reestablish the importance of southern place in African-American identity. The world of Afro
American is closely linked to black cultural and communal traditions. She has incorporated African
belief systems and rituals still central to African American life. She uses folklore to explore
the complexities within her culture. It chronicles the development of black folk culture in
depth through the depiction of Willow Springs and its residents. Her characters George,
Cocoa and Mama Day present a larger social context based on the strain between Eurocentric
culture and African American folk culture.
Gloria Naylor, as an African American, has deep connection with her southern roots and
heritage. The element from her life that has been most influential on her novels is her
southern heritage. Understanding that southern life in many ways defines the African
American experience, Naylor feels obligated to capture this essence in all of her works.
Though she knows that every black experience is not southern or working class, she affirms
the southern space as an inescapable foundation. According to herThe black community is diverse and all facets of black life should be
explored. this newer generationwill be further and further
removed from its southern roots, and with this shift there will be less
interest in those working class struggles that so often are related to the
racial conflicts so well known in the South.1
In this regard, Naylor has presented her novels with the cultural heritage of
African American culture in the form of oral tradition, story-telling, supernatural elements,
ancestral presence, and the folk traditions in order to preserve her native culture and its
various facets in the heart and mind of the coming generations who are deprived of her
culture in the influence of white culture. Henry Louis Gates asserts that: In the history of the
African-American literary tradition, perhaps no other author has been more immersed in the
formal history of that tradition than Gloria Naylor.2
In the context of cultural study, African American heritage is largely defined
by oral traditions and folklore. Africans brought in as slaves to work the plantations in the
New World strove to maintain their religious and cultural bearing by relying on their
memories of folk traditions in their various homelands and transforming them to usable and
passable forms in the Europeanized environment of the New World. Oral narratives are an
important means of maintaining the continuity of traditional Africans cultures. Myths about
lineage, legends, folktales and other forms of verbal art transmit knowledge from one
generation to another. The use of legend, passed on orally through the generations, erase the
boundary of time between past and present. For Bernard Bell- The Afro- American novel is

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not merely a branch of the Euro-American novel but also a development of the Afro American oral tradition.3
In oral tradition, folklore is a knowledge-sharing, identity forming practice
that is utilized by many cultural groups and it has emphasis on orality and story-telling. It is a
traditional part of culture which encompasses values, beliefs and assumptions which are
transmitted by word of mouth. It is an important dimension of cultural and literary
experiences. It has become a powerful instrument in the preservation of both history and
culture. For marginalized cultures, folktales are a means of creating a cultural identity outside
of printed history. The folklorist Bernard W. Bell asserts that folktalesTransmit knowledge, value, and attitudes from one generation to
another, enforce conformity to social norms, validate social institutions
and religious rituals and provide a psychological release from the
restrictions of society.4
Gloria Naylor in Mama Day employs folklore as the representative of
contemporary African American culture. Mama Day combines and emphasis upon the
supernatural elements, story- telling and folkloristic traditions. In southern communities, the
story- telling inspires the oral performances. In story-telling, the story tellers recount their
experiences in order to secure ownership of events that belong to them. Through story-telling,
members of southern community vigorously reaffirm their connection to each other in order
to willfully cultivate intimacy in a community. In Mama Day, the story-telling is conducted
in the racially separate African American community of Willow Springs, a mythical sea
island where the Day family has been lived since the times of slavery. The island of Willow
Springs is an independent state secluded from the mainland and the population of black
people ascribe to a different set of cultural beliefs.
Naylor subverts traditional African American folklore conventions through the
narrative voice. It is the organic voice of the Willow Springs community. The fictionality of
the narrator allows for a perfect ethnographer that presents the islands community without
bias. The narrator voice reflects folklore itself; both constantly adapt to meet the needs of
their social contexts. The voice establishes the porch connection that serves as the interactive
metaphor for tellers and listeners. It evokes southernness in its positions. In Willow Springs,
traditions are subverted by a set of myths. The story of Sapphira Wade governs the islands
history. In the myth, Sapphira was a slave woman who married Boscombe Wade and after
bearing him seven sons, she killed him. Those children are the heirs of Willow Springs
blessed with the gifts of magical powers. Boscombe Wades death and Sapphiras fate varies
and these inconsistencies within the myth are typical of oral folklore, which is adapted in
each telling. Oral myth is symbolic of community.
The residents of the island retell the myth to each generation to ensure its
longevity. They value their history through their relationships with one another. The oral
myth of Sapphira Wade emphasizes Willow Springs rootedness in the past. The myth of the
island is significant in its antithetical portrayal of heroism. Sapphiras heroism is directly
responsible for the existence of Willow Springs. Susan Meisenhelder states that SapphiraNot only asserted both her autonomous ethnic and gender identity by
defying her position as a slave and freeing herself from her white
master; but through her heroic actions in securing the land from her
descendents, she also made possible their freedom and cultural
independence.5

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The islands cultural traditions are communicated through folklore. In African

folk traditions, family is comprised of the living, dead and unborn with communication open
among each group. The African American world of Willow Springs sustains Cocoa and
Georges power to continue their talking and listening even after physical death. Cocoa
directly addresses George and George addresses Cocoa. It is imagined that Cocoa and George
have physical presence in the story but in reality, he has been dead throughout the novel.
Cocoa has been talking to him in her family graver, and in Willow Springs and he also replies
from the graveyard. African religions tend to stress the belief that death is a rite of passage
which allows for contact with the living. The traditional culture of Willow Springs challenges
the necessity of a physically present, living storyteller to permit an absent-present, dead yet
living one. Cocoas role as a story listener to her physically dead husband generates a kind of
discourse of distrust in African American fiction. Virginia Fowler says- The silent
conversation between the dead George and the living Cocoa that comprises much of the
narrative points to the African belief system operating in Willow Springs.6
Willow Springs followed the oral production where ancestors serve as models
for telling and listening. The African mothers used the oral tradition of story-telling to impart
cultural values which have been passed down from one generation to another. Mama Day
communicates with the dead. The spirits of her ancestors are placed in the Other Place. Mama
Day interacts with past family members, her father and mother to know about the family
whole. Her communication with the dead helps her to provide a means of influencing future
events.
The Africans native folk culture has included many religious beliefs such as
conjure, Voodoo, Hoodoo which have played an important role in African American culture.
Naylor is highly influenced with her native heritage in her perception of women. Her heritage
helps her in creating types of characters who carry within themselves the features of their
culture. Conjure addresses the undervaluation of African medicinal practices and belief
systems, not only in relation to medicine, but also to ancestry, religion and finally to language
and signifying practices. Lindsey Tucker uses a definition of conjuring traditions by a
nameless critic who prefers to view conjure as being comprised of practices which are
natural using plants to cure and unnatural using spells and charms.7
The elements of conjure are applicable to Mama Day of Naylor. Mama Day
characterizes the four traits oral quality, participation of the reader, the chorus and the
presence of ancestors. These traits are highly relevant to the magic realism with its emphasis
on the process of story-telling, links with the community and cultural background, and
interaction with the reader.8 Mama Day brings to the force African myths and beliefs,
conjuring and Voodoo practices, folklore and story-telling as a material unrecognized by
dominant cultural practice. Naylor employs magic realist strategies to force a re-visioning of
history. In an interview, Naylor has stated about the magic realism in Mama Day:
I moved from the most universally accepted forms of magic into those
things that were more resistant to accepting..Thats where there are
indeed women who can work with nature and create things which have
not been documented by institutions of science, but which still do
happen. So, the books an exploration of magic.9
It offers a heritage both to those black people who are culturally orphaned, cut
off from any traditions other than those of mainstream America, and to those who are linked
geneologically to the black American culture. Mama Day is the fusion of supernatural world

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of Willow Springs Island and the realistic world of New York City. These natural and
supernatural codes cross multiple boundaries between the spiritual and the material, animate
and inanimate, life and death, and ultimately between reality and fantasy.
Willow Springs is a little island off the coast of the United States. It is located
between Georgia and South Carolina. It is not appeared on any map. It seems to be running in
its own pace. It is a close knit community of African Americans with common heritage and
tradition. The islands inhabitants experience a continuity of past, present and future. They
live on the land which is cultivated by their ancestors and where these ancestors are buried.
The spiritual life of its inhabitant remains bound within the fuzzy geographical location of the
island. They focus on faith and spirituality.
The magic of the novel is established from the beginning which forces to think
about the perception of the world and the concept of reality. The time of the events is
summer fourteen years ago when Abigails granddaughter, Cocoa comes from New York
with her husband George to visit her aunt, Mama Day. The time is now August 1999: Its
August 1999 aint put a slim chance its the same season where you are. Uh, huh, listen.
Really listen this time: the only voice is your own. [Mama Day, p.10] The story of the novel
takes place at New York and at Willow Springs. The story in New York Chronicles the life of
George, Cocoa and with their first meeting, marriage and early life together. Their life
symbolizes the modern and urban world which is juxtaposed against the natural world of
Willow Springs.
When George comes with Cocoa to visit Mama Day in Willow Springs, he
realizes the strangeness of the place on the island when he said: I had to be there and see
no, feel that I was entering another world. [Mama Day, p.175] The visit across the bridge
at Willow Springs takes him into a new and unknown world which suggests eternity, the
specific meaning and indomitable spirituality of the place full of mystery and inexplicable
events. Mama Days family has been living on the island for centuries and the place is an
inseparable part of her complex identity. Mama Day serves as a communicator between the
people on the island and the outer world. She is a smart wise old woman for the residents of
the island who has senses about the good and bad for the community. She represents a
nostalgic remembrance and reverence for the folkloric antecedents of African American
literature. Her character represents conjure woman. She has no biological children; she is
everybodys mama. Her given name Miranda, worker of wonders 10 bespeaks her power to
assist even in the creation of life. Mama Day mediates between the cultures of Willow
Springs and Manhattan, as she does between the past and the present.
In African American culture, witchcraft, conjuring and sorcery have its place
within black culture. The female ancestors of Mama Day were endowed with abilities of
casting spells and possessing medicine for healing. Mama Day reveals the power of
witchcraft and healers in the form of conjure woman. She continues the tradition of conjure
which has passed down through the generations of the Day family. Miranda descends from a
long line of conjurers both men and women. Her father John Paul was the seventh son of
Jonah who was also the seventh son. Jonahs mother, Sapphira Wade was a potent conjure
woman whose legacy took on godlike qualities. She has the power of her ancestors and her
great grandmother Sapphira Wade.
She feels changes in nature that communicate to her the signs of unpredictable
events. She has the ability to read signs. A practice of reading signs has great importance to
African American religion and textuality as an important concept of divination. Her second

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sight is her awareness of the behavior of plant and animal life. She knows of the coming
hurricane, not because of supernatural ability but her ability to read the actual signs of nature.
Mama Day has exceptional psychic abilities to forbid and predicts the unknown future. Her
intuition is also strong enough to foresee tragedies and odd consequences in the future. She
also has strong senses about Georges visit in Willow Springs that might have horrifying
consequences. It is an unpleasant thought and her inner foreboding scares her as she suspects
there is nothing she can do about it. A few days later, while Mama Day is enjoying the
company of George and Cocoa, the abstract premonition finally shapes into a concrete
thought: DEATH. Miranda feels death all around herThis here was real death. But whose?
It didnt have to be a who it could be a what. [Mama Day, p.226] Mama Day is also able
to listen to and read natures indications as when she feels about the coming of hurricane in
Willow Springs.
Despite her power as a conjure woman, Mama Day is also a healer. Healing is
an old practice prevalent among every culture. There has always been a close interrelatedness
between witchcraft and healing. Their knowledge and power of healing comes from their
ancestors who became an inseparable part of the healing process. The field of medicine and
religion are so thoroughly intertwined in African Culture. Mama Day is skilled as a root
doctor and a practitioner of herbal medicine. She employs both her supernatural powers and
her knowledge of natural medicine. Due to her medical knowledge, she is a successful healer
and a midwife. As a midwife, she manifests the natural healing component of ChristoConjure.
The residents have full trust in Mama Days remedies and highly respect for
her healing abilities. Mama Day performs magical pregnancies with ease. The occurrence of
the supernatural is mainly concentrated in the Other Place, the Days old house where
Miranda and Abigail used to live as children. The Other Place serves as a meeting point
between the real and unreal world where the unexpected events take place. For the pregnancy
of Bernice, a local woman, Mama Day uses her supernatural power and natural medicine. She
nurtures Bernice so much to prepare her for the final healing element in the Other Place.
With the help of indefinable ancient spiritual hands, Mama Day performs a ritual. She seems
to be holding a chicken on her lap. Hens and eggs stand as the symbol of fertility. The ritual
that takes place is quite otherworldly. Bernice strips down naked and rests her head on the
embroidered pillow. She feels someones hand in her body. The exceptional power of the
Other Place and the presence of an unnatural spirit serve as mediators between Mama Day
and Bernice. She uses the Other Place to enhance the power of her healing and to call for the
ancestral spirit to help in the pregnancy of Bernice who desperately longs for a baby. The
Other Place is connected to ancestral spirits that is an inseparable part of the islands history
and of Mama Days heritage. In Bernices case, the Other Place proves to assist in creating a
new life but in Georges case, it proves to be the cause of Georges death.
In black culture realm, the ancestral signifies a singular entity created of
the family membersblur [ring] into one historic body.11 The presence of the figure of the
ancestor functions as a mediator between the present and the past. The role of ancestral spirits
in the healing process is invaluable. Naylor creates the mythical character of Sapphira Wade
who is Mama Days Great Grandmother. Her ancestral voice is present on the Willow
Springs. She is the mythical one who left by wind. Sapphira was a prototype of ideal black
woman who secured the land for her descendants, freeing herself from her white master.12
Sapphiras presence is felt mainly by Mama Day who has a second sight. Mama Day uses her
ancestral power and the presence of Sapphira as a mythical power in Bernices pregnancy.
Sapphiras spirit is also felt in the destructive storm which comes to Willow Springs and tears

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down the bridge to the mainland. The strength of the storm delineates Sapphiras sacred
feminine and spiritual power that she was endowed with.
Along with the ancestral power of Sapphira Wade, the Willow Springs is also
the witness of the ritual of Candle Walk which is performed by the residents as a text of
condition. The ritual of Candle Walk is performed on the 22nd December, the longest night of
the year which marks a rebirth of the terrestrial world. It is a Christo-Conjure celebration that
incorporates the practice of ancestral reverence. It re-inscribes Sapphiras position as a
goddess or the Holy Spirit. In Willow springs, Candle Walk is an oral tradition which passes
from generation to generation to remember the power of ancestors, who were the parents of
this island and part of its story of origins. The motto behind this oral tradition is Lead on
with light, Great Mother. Lead on with light. [Mama Day, p.111]. The candle walk
celebration symbolizes the light with which their goddess Sapphira led them out of darkness
of slavery into the light of freedom. Sapphire is like Moses, the greatest biblical conjure.
Naylors Mama Day has presented the preservation of native culture in black
society through oral history, story-telling and the presence of ancestors which make the
African Americans closer to their native cultural heritage. She focuses on the intricacies
within African American culture and creates an environment in which the richness of black
folk culture can be explored. She has preserved and drawn on a sense of distinctive black
cosmology and mythology.

Works Cited:
1

Wilson, Charles E, Jr., Gloria Naylor: A Critical Companion. London: Greenwood Press,
2001, p.12.

Gates, Henry Louis, and K. A. Appiah, eds. Gloria Naylor: Critical Perspectives Past and
Present. New York: Amistad, 1993, p. ix.

Bell, Bernard W., The Afro- American Novel and its Tradition. Amherst: The University of
Massachusetts Press, 1987, p. xiii.
4

Bell, Bernard W., The Contemporary African American Novel: Its Folk Roots and Modern
Literary Branches. Amherst: The University Of Massachusetts Press, 2004, p.73.
5

Meisenhelder, Susan, False Gods and Black Goddesses in Naylors Mama Day and
Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God. Callaloo. 23.4, Autumn (2000): 1440-1448.
Print.
6

Fowler, Virginia C., Gloria Naylor: In Search of Sanctuary . Ed. Frank Day. New York:
Twayne Publishers, 1996, p.94.

Tucker, Lindsey, Recovering the Conjure Woman: Texts and Contexts in Gloria Naylors
Mama Day. African American Review 28.2 (1994): 173-188. Print.
8

Foreman, Gabrielle, Past on Stories: History and the Magically Real, Morrison and
Allende on Call. Magical Realism: Theory, History, Community. Eds. Lois Parkison Zamora
and Wendy B. Faris. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995, p. 286.
9

Perry, Donna, Interview with Gloria Naylor, December 1991. Backtalk: Women Writers
Speak Out. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1993, p. 233.

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10

Wall, Cherly A., Extending the Wall: From Sula to Mama Day. Callaloo. The Johns
Hopkins University Press, Vol. 23 No.4 (2000): 1449-63. Print.
11

Wardi, Annisa J., Inscription in the Dust: A Gathering of Old Men and Beloved as
Ancestral Requiens. African American Review 36.1 (2002).
12

Meisenhelder, Susan, False Gods and Black Goddesses in Naylors Mama Day and
Hurstons Their Eyes Were Watching God. Callaloo. 23.4 Autumn (2000): 1440-1448.
Print.

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