MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 20, 2023) — The United States is composed of many diasporic communities. Such communities, such as, for example, of my Chinese or my African ancestors, faced a number of challenges attempting to fit in to a society that frequently preferred the fruits of their labor without evidence of their presence.
The week we read the stories I was distracted by the news of two of my cousins’ deaths. My memories of the stories was not terribly strong. One of the main takeaways I pulled out of the fog was the conflict immigrant families face between preserving their native (for lack of a better term) culture and assimilating into that of their new home.
The poster for “Daughters of the Dust” (1991), directed by Julie Dash.
Rather than focus on the stories I was in no shape to remember, I will illustrate the conflict using a story told in a visual medium: Julie Dash’s film, Daughters of the Dust. The film, set on Saint Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina, illustrates the lives of three generations of the Peazants, a Gullah family who are about to leave the island for a new life in the North.
The film moves slowly, with a pace worthy of a landscape ruled by the languid ebb and flow of the tide, and by high heat and humidity before the advent of air conditioning. It is beautifully shot, and skillfully captures the diversity of island residents who, because of their skin color, would be dismissed as merely “negro” or “colored” by the dominant white culture of the mainland.
The Gullah people are descendants of slaves who developed their own culture in semi-isolation in the islands off the South Carolina coast. They speak Gullah, a creole language derived from several African languages and English (the actors in the Daughters of the Dust were actual Gullah speakers). In the film, the younger members of the family had embraced modern (as of the turn of the twentieth century) technology and ways; the older members of the family, especially the matriarch, Nana Peazant, who wishes to remain on the island and tries to preserve the old ways—and encourages the younger members to remember those ways.
To add to the mix of cultures, the characters include Bilal Muhammad, a former slave who maintained his Muslim faith; and St. Julien Lastchild, a Cherokee determined to remain on his island home and who is in love with one of the Peazant granddaughters.
Despite the desire of some family members to stay on the island and hold on to their heritage, the tide of dubious progress was strong. The film ends with most of the family leaving the island, but—my impression only—with those leaving more or less determined to remember their roots in keeping with their matriarch’s wishes.
We viewers, with the advantage of knowing the events of the century that followed, realize it won’t be easy. The dominant culture has a ravenous appetite for grinding smaller cultures into dust. But we remain hopeful that those who leave will remember the old ways that make their culture so distinctive.
Editor’s Note: This original version of this piece was written for an American literature class at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on Oct. 20, 2023.
Reference
Dash, Julie. 1991. Daughters of the Dust. (Adisa Anderson, Barbara O, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Cora Lee Day, Geraldine Dunston, Vertamae Grosvenor, Tommy Hicks, Kaycee Moore, Eartha Robinson, Alva Rogers, Cornell Royal, Catherine Tarver, Bahni Turpin, Kai-Lynn Warren. Executive Producer Lindsay Law. Producers Julie Dash and Arthur Jafa. Screen Writer Julie Dash. Associate Producer Floyd Webb. Cinematographer Arthur Jafa. Production Designer Kerry James Marshall. Art Director Michael Kelly Williams. Editors Amy Carey and Joseph Burton. Original Music by John Barnes.) United States: Kino International.
When suitably inspired I will write something, maybe about a breaking story in science, maybe about my career as a scientist (specifically, a biogeographer). I may wage war against the forces of ignorance from the dubious bully pulpit of this blog. Or I may just tell some war story from my past in which I should have ended up dead as a result of my own stupidity.
Daughters of the Dust
Posted by AbyssWriter on 10/20/23 • Categorized as Commentary,Film Criticism,Movie Review,Race,Segregation,Slavery
MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 20, 2023) — The United States is composed of many diasporic communities. Such communities, such as, for example, of my Chinese or my African ancestors, faced a number of challenges attempting to fit in to a society that frequently preferred the fruits of their labor without evidence of their presence.
The week we read the stories I was distracted by the news of two of my cousins’ deaths. My memories of the stories was not terribly strong. One of the main takeaways I pulled out of the fog was the conflict immigrant families face between preserving their native (for lack of a better term) culture and assimilating into that of their new home.
Rather than focus on the stories I was in no shape to remember, I will illustrate the conflict using a story told in a visual medium: Julie Dash’s film, Daughters of the Dust. The film, set on Saint Helena Island off the coast of South Carolina, illustrates the lives of three generations of the Peazants, a Gullah family who are about to leave the island for a new life in the North.
The film moves slowly, with a pace worthy of a landscape ruled by the languid ebb and flow of the tide, and by high heat and humidity before the advent of air conditioning. It is beautifully shot, and skillfully captures the diversity of island residents who, because of their skin color, would be dismissed as merely “negro” or “colored” by the dominant white culture of the mainland.
The Gullah people are descendants of slaves who developed their own culture in semi-isolation in the islands off the South Carolina coast. They speak Gullah, a creole language derived from several African languages and English (the actors in the Daughters of the Dust were actual Gullah speakers). In the film, the younger members of the family had embraced modern (as of the turn of the twentieth century) technology and ways; the older members of the family, especially the matriarch, Nana Peazant, who wishes to remain on the island and tries to preserve the old ways—and encourages the younger members to remember those ways.
To add to the mix of cultures, the characters include Bilal Muhammad, a former slave who maintained his Muslim faith; and St. Julien Lastchild, a Cherokee determined to remain on his island home and who is in love with one of the Peazant granddaughters.
Despite the desire of some family members to stay on the island and hold on to their heritage, the tide of dubious progress was strong. The film ends with most of the family leaving the island, but—my impression only—with those leaving more or less determined to remember their roots in keeping with their matriarch’s wishes.
We viewers, with the advantage of knowing the events of the century that followed, realize it won’t be easy. The dominant culture has a ravenous appetite for grinding smaller cultures into dust. But we remain hopeful that those who leave will remember the old ways that make their culture so distinctive.
Editor’s Note: This original version of this piece was written for an American literature class at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on Oct. 20, 2023.
Reference
Dash, Julie. 1991. Daughters of the Dust. (Adisa Anderson, Barbara O, Cheryl Lynn Bruce, Cora Lee Day, Geraldine Dunston, Vertamae Grosvenor, Tommy Hicks, Kaycee Moore, Eartha Robinson, Alva Rogers, Cornell Royal, Catherine Tarver, Bahni Turpin, Kai-Lynn Warren. Executive Producer Lindsay Law. Producers Julie Dash and Arthur Jafa. Screen Writer Julie Dash. Associate Producer Floyd Webb. Cinematographer Arthur Jafa. Production Designer Kerry James Marshall. Art Director Michael Kelly Williams. Editors Amy Carey and Joseph Burton. Original Music by John Barnes.) United States: Kino International.
Share this: