African Diaspora

Cultural Relativism and Women of the African Diaspora

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Maryse Condé present various female roles in order to encapsulate the challenges faced by women of the African diaspora. In Purple Hibiscus, female characters like protagonist Kambili, Beatrice, and Ifeoma display very different personalities that help one another better understand themselves and their roles as women in their time, and more importantly, the changing world around them. In I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem, readers follow the life story of Tituba, a woman who from birth faced obstacles because of the color of her skin and what that meant to the world surrounding her. Though Tituba and Beatrice are very different characters with experiences not

Before being called a “witch” for the first time, Tituba was brought up by an elderly woman called Mama Yaya after witnessing the hanging of her mother (Abena) and her adopted father’s suicide. Mama Yaya taught Tituba ways in which she could commune with the dead and nature, how to heal ailments of slaves, and other “upper spheres of knowledge” (Condé, 10). After Mama Yaya’s death, Tituba retired just outside of the plantation she was brought up in, since she was thrown out after her mother’s death and was technically “free”. After living the life of a content recluse, Tituba ventures out of her quiet sphere and encounters several slaves. Instead of simply greeting her, they look upon her with eyes of horror and bow before her. Confused and hurt, Tituba returns to her small, crooked home, unaware of how those stares of fear would result in her ultimate downfall. This is the first occurrence in the novel in which the protagonist’s identity as a black woman is taken from her, and replaced by an object of fear and awe. Since woman, especially women of color in this era (roughly the mid 17th century onward) were arguably the most marginalized group of people; viewers may find it shocking that she is being bowed to. The protagonist also found the site horrific, not because of her awareness of the status she has as a woman of color—she was alarmed that fellow human beings regarded her as though she were not just like them. This instance is the first of many in which Tituba is seen as the