Building and Presenting Power Relations in Roots

Building and Presenting Power Relations in Roots Alex Haleys 1976 novel, Roots, portrayed the history of a Kunta Kintes family as an epic story of survival. Haley presented the history of a man and his family torn apart, but not broken, under enslavement in America. The experiences that ravaged Kunta Kintes family life display the lack of institutional power of those enslaved. Although Kunta and Bell do not have institutional power, they do possess a limited amount of power within their nuclear family unit. Haleys depiction of an enslaved family contradicts reports on the black family by sociologists such as E. Franklin Frazier and the Moynihan Report, which supported a matriarchal family structure. Roots depicts Kunta and Bell as equals, with regards to the amount of power vested in each individual. Neither the female nor the male, has a greater amount of power. Both are virtually powerless. Haleys novel, Roots, portrays the conflict between the lack of institutionalized power and the limited amount of familial power. Roots was published at a time where the structure and history of the American black family was a very contentious issue. In 1965, approximately ten years before the novels publication, the U.S. government published the Moynihan Report. The report placed the blame for continuing black inequality, upon the very structure of the black family.1 Moynihans central thesis was that the black family was crumbling and that a major part of the blame lay with the black matriarchy extant in the black community.2 Much of the information in the infamous Moynihan Report was first publicized by the prominent black sociologist Franklin Frazier, who published one of his studies on black culture in 1939. Frazier wrote that, the Negro woman as wife or mother was the mistress of her cabinand her wishes in regard to mating and family matter were paramount.3 In a sense, the Moynihan Report updated the early findings and observations of Frazier. Scholars such as Robert Staples and Angela Davis rose to challenge the assertions made by Frazier and Moynihan. Staples stated that a matriarchy is a society in which some, if not all, of the legal powers relating to the ordering and governing of the family-power over property, over inheritance, over marriage, over-the-houseare lodged in women rather than men.4 He argued that a matriarchal family structure was not plausible because the black woman was exploited because of both her gender and race.5 Davis was another sociologist who refuted the matriarchy thesis. She stated that the matriarchal structure presented by some ignored the profound traumas the black woman must have experienced when she had to surrender her child-bearing to alien and predatory economic instincts.6 In the novel Roots, Alex Haley depicts the struggles of an enslaved family. Under enslavement, Kunta Kinte and Bells lives are dictated by their status of being owned by Master Waller. Bell has a limited amount of power when it comes to trivial matter such as the appearance of her cabin, but when it comes to important matters such as keeping the family together, Bell (and Kunta) possessed no institutional power. Evidence which refutes Fraziers thought that the mother had control over her cabin and family life, is displayed when Kunta and Bells child, Kizzy, is sold. Neither of her parents can change the horrible fate of their only child. Bell pleads with Master Waller, Don split us up!,7 but to no avail. Kunta tries to physically save his daughter but he crumpled to his knees8 after he is hit by the butt of the sheriffs pistol as it crashed above his ear.9 Both the mother and the father, female and male are rendered powerless in the situation. This example exemplifies Davis thoughts on the lack of institutional power held by enslaved women, in the face of the whims of their masters. The cultural stereotype of the domineering black woman belies the existence of the masses of black women who constituted a defenseless group against the onslaught of white racism in its most virulent sexual and economic manifestations.10 The lives of enslaved women could be destroyed at any moment. After Kizzy was taken away, she was sold to a man of the name, Tom Lea2E The first night Kizzy is under Leas ownership, he rapes her. Then came the searing pain as he forced his way into her, and Kizzys senses seemed to explode.11 After Kunta and the other Africans get off the big canoe and wait for the slave auction to commence, he and his mates had had to sit there, burning with humiliation at being helpless to defend their women, let alone themselves.12 The women were powerless, as they could not stop the continual rape at the hands of the toubob and the men were powerless because they could not aid the women. Another instance where Kunta feels hopeless because he cannot aid a woman in need, occurs while at a slave auction, he hears a chained Jola woman shrieking piteouslybeseeching him to help her13 he feels a rush of bitter, flooding shame14 at the prospect that he could not or did not do anything to help the woman. After an argument concerning a visit Kizzy was to have with Missy Anne, Bell lay sleepless in their bed that night, he sat sleepless in the stable beneath the harnesses. Both were weeping.15 Neither of them, as parents could control whether or not their child went. Master Waller said he promise Missy Anne to drop Kizzy off at Massa Johns.16 Even though Kunta objected to this strongly, he could not do anything about it. It was not within his power it was outrageous enough to have to sit by and watch while Kizzy was turned slowly into a lap dog, but now they wanted him to deliver the animal to its new keeper.17 Under slavery, the family structure of the enslaved was neither matriarchal or patriarchal. How could it be? The lives of those bound under slavery were fully controlled by their master. Even the basic rights naming was controlled. When Kunta arrived at his first plantation home he was given a new name, Massa say your name Toby!.18 Kunta was flooding with rageand he wanted to shout I am Kunta Kinte, first son of Omoro, who is the son of the holy man Kairaba Kunta Kinte,19 but he could not utter a word. Kunta had no power. There were instances within Roots, where both Kunta and Bell exercised power to control aspects of their lives, albeit a limited amount of power. Bell had been on the Waller plantation for many years and as the cook for the main house, she had access to information and the master that many field slaves did not, Bell had more influence on the massa than anyone else on the plantation, or probably all of them put together.20 Bell, along with her daughter Kizzy, had another form of power, they were partially literate. Ultimately though, these powers hurt the interests of Bell and Kizzy. Even though Bell had such high standing with Master Waller, she still had no say in the sale of her daughter. Part of the reason Kizzy was sold, was because of her ability to read and write. Kizzys intellectual powers ultimately rendered her powerless. Kunta also struggled to retain power within his life and relationship with Bell. The naming of their daughter was one instance where he asserted power. Kunta wished to keep the traditions of his homeland alive. One way was by naming Kizzy by the same ritual as he was named in Juffure. Bell was reluctant to allow this but as deeply as Bell disapproved, she was even more apprehensive of what Kunta would do if she refused.21 Kunta named their daughter Kizzy, which as he explained to Bell, meant you sit down or you stay put which, in turn meant that unlike Bells previous two babies, this child would never get sold away.22 Unfortunately Kuntas wish for his child, as it was represented by the name he gave her, did not come true. Kizzy was sold and even though Kunta had some power within his own family, he did not have the institutional power necessary for stopping his (and Bells) greatest fear from happening. Alex Haleys poignant novel, Roots, depicts the fight for survival as it was experienced by the family of Kunta Kinte. The novel brutally portrays the conflict between the slaves lack of institutionalized power versus the power they retained within their family unit. Through many harrowing experiences, Haley presents Kunta and Bell as ultimately powerless in the face of their oppressors. Although the novel displays the precarious and vulnerable living conditions of Kunta and Bell, it also celebrates the resiliency of this family. Contrary to the beliefs presented by Frazier and Moynihan, the slave system did not and could not engender and recognize a matriarchal family structure. Inherent in the very concept of the matriarchy is power'.23 The portrayal of the enslaved family in Roots refutes the myth of black matriarchy. The novel does not try to prove a patriarchal family structure, it simply presents the lack of power of those enslaved. Notes 1. U.S. Dept. of Labor, The Negro Family: The Case for National Action (Washington, D.C. : GPO, 1965). 2. Robert Staples, The Myth of Black Matriarchy, Black Scholar, 2 Jan.-Feb. 1970, 341. 3. Deborah White, Female Slaves: Sex Roles and Status in the Antebellum Plantation South, Journal of Family History, 8 Fall 1983, 248 4. Staples, 336. 5. Staples, 335. 6. Angela Davis, Reflections on the Black Womans Role in the Community of Slaves, Massachusetts Review, 13 Winter/Spring 1972, 84. 7. Alex Haley, Roots (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1976), 452. 8. Haley, 452. 9. Haley, 452. 10. Staples, 334. 11. Haley, 455. 12. Haley, 214. 13. Haley, 322. 14. Haley, 322. 15. Haley, 385. 16. Haley, 385. 17. Haley, 385. 18. Haley, 232. 19. Haley, 232. 20. Haley, 336. 21. Haley, 367. 22. Haley, 368. 23. Davis, 82.