Category: 1910s

How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi’s Daughter

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Ward, Herbert. *A Bakongo Girl.* Bronze sculpture, 1901, Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History.

Nzambi, the goddess who dwelt upon earth, had a beautiful daughter. Nzambi vowed that no earthly being should marry her daughter unless he first brought the heavenly fire from Nzambi Mpungu, who dwelt in the heavens above the blue roof.[1] Now, the daughter was very beautiful and the people marveled saying, “How shall we secure this treasure, and who on such conditions will ever marry her?”

Then the spider said, “I will win Nzambi’s daughter if you will help me.” And they all answered, “We will gladly help you if you will reward us.” The spider than began to travel upward until he reached the blue roof of heaven. He then dropped down again to the earth, leaving a strong silken thread firmly hanging from the roof to the earth below. He now called the tortoise, the woodpecker, the rat and the sand-fly and bade them climb up the thread to the roof.[2] They did so. Then the wood pecker pecked a hole through the blue roof and they all entered the realm of Nzambi Mpungu, the god of the heavens.

Nzambi Mpungu received them courteously and asked them what they wanted. They answered him saying, “Oh, Nzambi Mpungu, of the heavens above, great father of all the world, we have come to fetch some of your terrible fire for Nzambi, who rules upon earth.”

“Wait here, then,” said Mpungu, “while I go to my people and tell them of the message you bring.”

But the sand-fly, unseen, accompanied Mpungu and heard all that he said. The Mpungu returned to the visitors and said, “My friends, how can I know that you have really come from the ruler of the earth and that you are not imposters?”

“Put us to some test,” they said, “that we may prove our sincerity to you.”

“I will,” said Mpungu. “Go down to your earth and bring me a bundle of bamboos that I may make myself a shed.”

And the tortoise went down and soon returned with the bamboos.

Then Mpungu said to the rat, “Get thee beneath this bundle of bamboos and I will set fire to it; then if you escape, I shall surely know that Nzambi sent you.”

The rat did as he was bidden. Mpungu set fire to the bamboos, and lo, when they were entirely consumed, the rat came forth from amidst the ashes unharmed.

“You are, indeed,” said Mpungu, “what you represent yourselves to be. I will go and consult my people again.”

The sand-fly was again sent after Mpungu and bidden to keep well out of sight, to hear all that was said, and, if possible, to find out where the fire, that is the lightning, was kept. He soon came back and related all that he had heard and seen.

Then Mpungu returned to them and said, “Yes, I will give you the fire you ask for if you will tell me where it is kept.”

And the spider said, “Give me then, O, Nzambi Mpungu, one of the five cases that you keep in the fowl house.”

“Truly,” said Mpungu. “You have answered me correctly, O spider. Take therefore, this case and give it to Nzambi, who rules upon earth.”

The tortoise carried it down to the earth and the spider presented the fire from heaven to Nzambi and Nzambi gave the spider her beautiful daughter in marriage.

But the woodpecker grumbled and said, “Surely the woman is mine, for it was I who pecked the hole through the blue roof, without which the others could never have entered the kingdom of Nzambi Mpungu.”

“Yes,” said the rat, “but see how I risked my life among the burning bamboos. The girl, I think, should be mine.”

“Nay, O, Nzambi,” said the sand-fly, “the girl should certainly be mine, for without my help the others would never have found out where the fire was kept.”

Then Nzambi said, “Nay, the spider undertook to bring me the fire and has brought it. The girl by right is his, but as you will make her life miserable if I allow her to live with the spider and as I cannot give her to all of you, I will give her to none, but instead I will give each of you her market value.”

Nzambi then paid each of them fifty bolts of cloth and a cask of gin, but the daughter ever after remained unmarried and waited on her mother.

“HOW THE SPIDER WON AND LOST NZAMBI’S DAUGHTER.” THE CRISIS’ VOL. 10, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1915): 301-02.

[1] This story sems to come directly from Kongo mythology. The Kingdom of Kongo was a large kingdom in western central Africa. In Kongo lore, Nzambi Mpungu is the father god who lives in the heavens and protects the secret of fire. Upon creating the earth, Nzambi Mpungu sends Nzambi there, who becomes princess of the earth. Eventually, Nzambi Mpungo comes down to earth and marries Nzambi, his own creation.

[2] Sand flies are small golden, brownish, or gray flies. The females feed on blood. These insects transmit several diseases like the pappataci fever virus, kala azar, Oriental sore, espundia, and bartonellosis.

Contexts

Starting in 1912, the October issues of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, were dedicated to children. A typical edition of these children’s numbers would contain a special editorial piece and two or three literary works specifically for children, while still including the serious pieces about contemporary issues with a focus on race that The Crisis was known for. These October numbers were sprinkled with children’s photographs sent in by the readers.

In his first editorial for the Children’s number in 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that “there is a sense in which all numbers and all words of a magazine of ideas myst point to the child—to that vast immortality and wide sweep and infinite possibility which the child represents.”

The success of The Crisis’ children’s number led to the standalone The Brownies’ Book, a monthly magazine for African American children that circulated from January 1920 to December 1921 under the editorship of Du Bois, Augustus Granville Dill, and Jessie Fauset.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

bolt: A roll of woven fabric: generally of a definite length; being, in various cases, 30 yards, 28 ells, or 40 feet.

Resources for Further Study

Under the title “How the Spider Won and Lost Nzambi’s Daughter,” the editors from The Crisis added the following text: “A Negro Folk Tale After Dennet; from the collection by M. N. Work.”
Dennet refers to Richard Edward Dennett (1857-1921), a Chilean-born English trader who later in his life wrote influential sociological and anthropological research on West African cultures. His book Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort (1898) contains more than 30 traditional stories from the French Congo.
M.N. (Monroe Nathan) Work (1866-1945) was an African-American sociologist who founded the Department of Records and Research at the Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute.
Bayeck, Rebecca. “Unsung History of the Kingdom of Kongo.”

1910s African American Fairies Fairy Tale Myth Short Story

The Black Fairy

By Fenton Johnson

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Robert Henri. *Eva Green.* Oil on canvas, 1907, Wichita Art Museum, Roland O. Murdock Collection. Public Domain.

Little Annabelle was lying on the lawn, a volume of Grimm before her. Annabelle was nine years of age, the daughter of a colored lawyer, and the prettiest dark child in the village.[1] She had long played in the fairyland of knowledge, and was far advanced for one of her years. A vivid imagination was her chief endowment, and her story creatures often became real flesh-and-blood creatures.

“I wonder,” she said to herself that afternoon, “if there is any such thing as a colored fairy? Surely there must be, but in this book they’re all white.”

Closing the book, her eyes rested upon the landscape that rolled itself out lazily before her. The stalks in the cornfield bent and swayed, their tassels bowing to the breeze, until Annabelle could have easily sworn that those were Indian fairies. And beyond lay the woods, dark and mossy and cool, and there many a something mysterious could have sprung into being, for in the recess was a silvery pool where the children played barefooted. A summer mist like a thin veil hung over the scene, and the breeze whispered tales of far-away lands.

Hist! Something stirred in the hazel bush near her. Can I describe little Annabelle’s amazement at finding in the bush a palace and a tall and dark-faced fairy before it?

“I am Amunophis, the Lily of Ethiopia,” said the strange creature. “And I come to the children of the Seventh Veil.”[2]

She was black and regal, and her voice was soft and low and gentle like the Niger on a summer evening.[3] Her dress was the wing of the sacred beetle, and whenever the wind stirred it played the dreamiest of music.[4] Her feet were bound with golden sandals, and on her head was a crown of lotus leaves.

“And you’re a fairy?” gasped Annabelle.

“Yes, I am a fairy, just as you wished me to be. I live in the tall grass many, many miles away, where a beautiful river called the Niger sleeps.” And stretching herself beside Annabelle, on the lawn, the fairy began to whisper:

“I have lived there for over five thousand years. In the long ago a city rested there, and from that spot black men and women ruled the world. Great ships laden with spice and oil and wheat would come to its port, and would leave with wines and weapons of war and fine linens. Proud and great were the black kings of this land, their palaces were built of gold, and I was the Guardian of the City. But one night when I was visiting an Indian grove the barbarians from the North came down and destroyed our shrines and palaces and took our people up to Egypt. Oh, it was desolate, and I shed many tears, for I missed the busy hum of the market and the merry voices of the children.

“But come with me, little Annabelle, I will show you all this, the rich past of the Ethiopian.”

She bade the little girl take hold of her hand and close her eyes, and wish herself in the wood behind the cornfield. Annabelle obeyed, and ere they knew it they were sitting beside the clear water in the pond.

“You should see the Niger,” said the fairy. “It is still beautiful, but not as happy as in the old days. The white man’s foot has been cooled by its water, and the white man’s blossom is choking out the native flower.” And she dropped a tear so beautiful the costliest pearl would seem worthless beside it.

“Ah! I did not come to weep,” she continued, “but to show you the past.”

So in a voice sweet and sad she sang an old African lullaby and dropped into the water a lotus leaf.[5] A strange mist formed, and when it had disappeared she bade the little girl to look into the pool. Creeping up Annabelle peered into the glassy surface, and beheld a series of vividly colored pictures.

*Brass Plaque: King Esigie Shielded by Attendants.* Brass, 1500/1599 [made in Benin City], The British Museum. Public Domain.

First she saw dark blacksmiths hammering in the primeval forests and giving fire and iron to all the world. Then she saw the gold of old Ghana and the bronzes of Benin.[6][7] Then the black Ethiopians poured down upon Egypt and the lands and cities bowed and flamed. Next she saw a great city with pyramids and stately temples. It was night, and a crimson moon was in the sky.[8] Red wine was flowing freely, and beautiful dusky maidens were dancing in a grove of palms. Old and young were intoxicated with the joy of living, and a sense of superiority could be easily traced in their faces and attitude. Presently red flame hissed everywhere, and the magnificence of remote ages soon crumbled into ash and dust. Persian soldiers ran to and fro conquering the band of defenders and severing the woman and children. Then came the Mohammedans and kingdom on kingdom arose, and with the splendor came ever more slavery.[9]

The next picture was that of a group of fugitive slaves, forming the nucleus of three tribes, hurrying back to the wilderness of their fathers.

In houses built as protection against the heat the blacks dwelt, communing with the beauty of water and sky and open air. It was just between twilight and evening and their minstrels were chanting impromptu hymns to their gods of nature. And as she listened closely, Annabelle thought she caught traces of the sorrow songs in the weird pathetic strains of the African music mongers.[10] From the East the warriors of the tribe came, bringing prisoners, whom they sold to white strangers from the West.

“It is the beginning,” whispered the fairy, as a large Dutch vessel sailed westward.[11] Twenty boys and girls bound with strong ropes were given to a miserable existence in the hatchway of the boat. Their captors were strange creatures, pale and yellow haired, who were destined to sell them as slaves in a country cold and wild, where the palm trees and the cocoanut never grew and men spoke a language without music. A light, airy creature, like an ancient goddess, few before the craft guiding it in its course.

*Stowage of* *the British Slave Ship “Brookes” Under the Regulated Slave Trade Act of 1788*. Etching, Library of Congress rare Book and Special Collections Division. Public Domain.

“That is I,” said the fairy. “In that picture I am bringing your ancestors to America. It was my hope that in the new civilization I could build a race that would be strong enough to redeem their brothers. They have gone through great tribulations and trials, and have mingled with the blood of the fairer race; yet though not entirely Ethiopian they have not lost their identity. Prejudice is a furnace through which molten gold is poured. Heaven be merciful unto all races! There is one more picture –the greatest of all, but –farewell, little one, I am going.”

“Going?” cried Annabelle. “Going? I want to see the last picture—and when will you return, fairy?”

“When the race has been redeemed. When the brotherhood of man has come into the world; and there is no longer a white civilization or a black civilization, but the civilization of all men. I belong to the world council of the fairies, and we are all colors and kinds. Why should not men be as charitable unto one another? When that glorious time comes I shall walk among you and be one of you, performing my deeds of magic and playing with the children of every nation, race and tribe. Then, Annabelle, you shall see the last picture—and the best.”

Slowly she disappeared like a summer mist, leaving Annabelle amazed.

Malmström, August. *Dancing Fairies.* Oil on canvas, 1866, Nationalmuseum, Sweden. Public Domain.

JOHNSON, FENTON. “THE BLACK FAIRY,” THE CRISIS 6, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1913): 292-94.

[1] The establishment of black colleges and graduate schools during the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877) allowed the emergence of a new class of black professionals. The Howard School of Law, established on January 4, 1869, was the first black law school in America. Macon Bolling Allen (1816-1894), however, is believed to be the first African American licensed lawyer. He received his certification on July 3, 1844.

[2] The following excerpt from W. E. B. Dubois’s 1903 landmark The Souls of Black Folk, in which he partially outlines the influential concept of double-consciousness, may contextualize Fenton Johnson’s allusion to the Seventh Veil:

“After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,”a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself thought the revelation of the other world.”

[3] With a length of 2,600 miles, the Niger River is the main river of Western Africa and the third longest African river after the Nile and the Congo.

*Sun God Depicted as a Scarab with Human Head and Arms*. Limestone, 25th Dynasty (Ethiopians), Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany. Public Domain.

[4] The sacred beetle refers to the Egyptian scarab, a dung beetle that for the ancient Egyptians symbolized renewal and rebirth. This beetle was also associated with Khepri, a divine manifestation of the early morning sun.

[5] Tigit Shibabaw‘s interpretation of Eshururu, an Ethiopian lullaby in Ahmaric, an Ethiopian Semitic language. “Eshururu” means “hush little baby don’t you cry.”

[6] As of today, Ghana remains a leading producer of gold in Ghana and is the seventh gold producer in the world. Unregulated small-scale gold mining in this country are a current environmental concern due to its devastating effect on the landscape.

[7] The “Benin Bronzes” are brass-and-bronze sculptures whose creation dates back to the 16th century. In 1897, British soldiers looted hundreds of these objects from the Benin Royal Palace after a military expedition that effectively ended the independent Kingdom of Benin. The same year, the British Museum displayed a set of “Benin Bronzes” that together with later acquisitions from private collections still remains in the museum’s collection. In October 2021, the British Museum received a request from Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Information and Culture for the return of Nigerian antiquities. Representatives from the Benin Royal Palace have also asked publicly for the restitution of these looted art objects.

[8] “Crimson moon” and “blood moon” are non-scientific terms for a total lunar eclipse, during which the moon takes on a reddish color.

[9] Mohamedans are followers of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. In the XVI century, Islamic forces led by Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi invaded Ethiopia.

[10] Sorrow Songs (or spirituals) belong to the musical tradition of black slaves during the antebellum South.

[11] Between 1596 and 1839, the Dutch, active participants in the transatlantic slave trades, transported half a million Africans westward across the Atlantic.

Contexts

Fenton’s Johnson’s “The Black Fairy” also appeared in The Upward Path: A Reader for Colored Children in 1920.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

crimson: Of a deep red colour somewhat inclining towards purple.

hist: Used to enjoin silence, attract attention, or call on a person to listen.

Resources for Further Study

Ethiopianism, a literary-religious tradition that emerged during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, emphasized the classical values of African nations and their extensive histories before European colonization. In the United States, Ethiopianism “found expression in slave narratives, exhortations of slave preachers, and songs and folklore of southern black culture, as well as the sermons and political tracts of the urban elite.”
A brief history of fairies, courtesy of the World History Encyclopedia collective.
An article on fairies‘ folklore scholarship, with copious references and suggestions for further reading.
Kory, Fern. “Once upon a Time in Aframerica: The ‘Peculiar’ Significance of Fairies in the Brownies’ Book.” Children’s Literature, vol. 29, 2001, p. 91-112.

Contemporary Connections

Did you know that June 24th is International Fairy Day?

Louis Armstrong’s interpretation of “Go Down Moses,” an emblematic Sorrow Song.

1910s African American Poem Seasons Trees

Hope

Mary Betsy Totten. *Rising Sun.* Quilt, 1825-1835, National Museum of American History. Gift of Mrs. Marvel Mildred Matthes. Public domain.

By Georgia Douglas Johnson

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Frail children of sorrow, dethroned by a hue,
The shadows are flecked by the rose sifting through,
The world has its motion, all things pass away,
No night is omnipotent, there must be day,

The oak tarries long in the depth of the seed,[1]
But swift is the season of nettle and weed.
Abide yet awhile in the mellowing shade
And rise with the hour for which you were made.

The cycle of seasons, the tidals of man,
Revolve in the coil of an infinite plan,
We move to the rhythm of ages long done,
And each has an hour--to dwell in the sun!

JOHNSON, GEORGIA DOUGLAS. “HOPE.” THE CRISIS’ 14, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1917): 293.

[1] Oak acorns exhibit dormancy, which means they germinate slowly or not at all after they drop from the tree. These seeds can remain inactive on the ground from August or September of any given year until the next spring.

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

flecked: Of darkness: Dappled with bright spots. Of the sky: Dappled with clouds. Of clouds: Cast like flecks over the sky.

nettle: Any of various plants with inconspicuous green flowers and (usually) stinging hairs that constitute the genus Urtica (family Urticaceae); esp. the Eurasian plant U. dioica, which has strongly toothed ovate leaves and is an abundant weed of damp waste ground, roadsides, etc. (also called (common) stinging nettle). Also (usually with distinguishing word): any of various plants of other genera and families with stinging hairs.

omnipotent: All-powerful, having absolute power. Also: having unlimited or great authority, force, or influence; extremely strong.

Resources for Further Study

In her book Racial Innocence: Performing American Childhood from Slavery to Civil Rights, Robin Bernstein illustrates how the American idea of childhood innocence became racialized and excluded black children.
Georgia Douglas Johnson: Rereading the Harlem Renaissance.

Contemporary Connections

In her 2017 poetry book One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance, poet Nikki Grimes uses Georgia Douglas Johnson’s “Hope” to create a golden shovel poem titled “On Bully Patrol.” Golden shovel poetry is a poetic form created by Terrance Hayes in 2010 that uses each word of an existing poem as the last word of the successive lines of a new poem.

1910s African American Poem Seasons

O Autumn, Autumn!

By Mary Effie Lee

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

William Henry Holmes. *Autumn Tangle.* Watercolor, 1920, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Florence Deakins Becker. Public domain.

O Autumn, Autumn! O pensive light and wistful sound!
Gold-haunted sky, green-haunted ground!
When, wan, the dead leaves flutter by
Deserted realms of butterfly!
When robins band themselves together
To seek the soul of sun-steeped weather;
And all of summer’s largesse goes
For lands of olive and the rose!

LEE, MARY EFFIE. “O AUTUMN, AUTUMN!” THE CRISIS 16, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1918): 269.

Contexts

Mary Effie Lee kept contributing to The Crisis as Mary Lee Newsome after her wedding to Rev. H. N. Newsome of Selma, Alabama, in 1920. She was one of the African American poets who wrote primarily for children. The Envious Lobster also contains selections from Gladiola Garden, her one volume of poetry.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

haunted: Frequented or much visited by spirits, imaginary beings, apparitions, spectres, etc.
largesse: The willingness to spend freely; (the virtue of) generosity; liberality, munificence.
wan: Lacking light, or lustre; dark-hued, dusky, gloomy, dark. Obsolete. Chiefly poetic.

1910s African American Autobiography Essay Family Farm life Sketch

How I Grew My Corn

By Helen Stevenson

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Charles E. Burchfield. *Sunlight on Corn*. Watercolor on paper, 1916, Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo State College, NY. Public domain.

In the year 1914 all the children schools of Cumberland county, N. J., were given the privilege to enter a contest. The girls were to sew, patch or bake and the boys to grow corn or sweet potatoes.[1] As I liked to work out of doors I entered the corn contest. The rules were that the boys should do all the work themselves; the girls were to do all except the plowing. We were to have one-tenth of an acre and find our own seed.

When I first asked my father for a piece of ground he said, “I can not spare it.” But at last he consented to give me a plot next to the woods, if I could get one-tenth of an acre from it.

One night after school I went down and measured off my ground. On the nineteenth of May I took my old friend, Harry (the horse), whom I had worked in the field before, and went down to my farm, as I called it. There I worked until I had an even seed bed, after which I marked it out and fertilized it. On the next day I planted my corn putting three grains in a hill and covering it with a hoe.

I paid it daily visits and when it was about two inches high I replanted it and hoed the hills which were up. From then on I hoed and cultivated my crop and kept it free from grass until it grew too large to be attended. As it was a dry season that year, the stalks next to the woods did not grow to their full height.

I also had visitors to come and see my corn. This gave me more courage to go on as all the other girls and boys in Fairfield township had given it up. Mother and father had also tried to discourage me, but I kept on.

I did not cut it down until November. I then measured my highest stalks which were from fifteen to sixteen feet. On the day before the contest I stayed home to get my corn ready. Mother and father coaxed me not to take it away, but I did.

After selecting ten of my largest and best ears of corn, I put them in a basket and went to Bridgeton with one of my neighbors, as father would not take them. After arriving in town I carried my corn up to the Court House.

The next day I went to school and in the afternoon my teacher received a telephone message which said I had won a prize. I was very happy indeed; mother and father were surprised.

On Saturday went to the Bridgeton Library annex where things were being exhibited and saw my corn with a prize tag on it which made me feel very proud. I then went to the Commercial League room where the prizes were distributed. I received my prize and went home very happy and full of courage to try again.

The amount I cleared for my corn was $12.00–$5.00 for my fodder, $4.00 for my seed and $3.00 for my prize.

I am going to try again this year and I think all boys and girls who have the privilege of learning to farm should do so–for there is nothing better than life on a farm.

STEVENSON, HELEN. “HOW I GREW MY CORN.” THE CRISIS 8, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1914): 273-74.

Cover of the State of New Jersey’s Department of Public Instruction’s *Leaflet No. 3: Corn Growing* (1914).

[1] In February, 1914 the Department of Public Instruction from Trenton, N.J. published an elementary agriculture manual on corn growing. This document’s foreword references “the widespread interested aroused at the present time by the organization of ‘Corn Clubs’ [that] makes a study of corn one of the best ways of introducing agriculture in the elementary grades of the public schools of the State.” The section “Suggestions for Girls’ Participation in the Study of Agriculture” speaks directly to Helen Stevenson’s experience: “The girls may do exactly the same work as the boys . . . Not a few girls will prefer this plan and some of our girls have grown corn quite as successfully as boys.”

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

fodder: Food for cattle, horses, or other animals.

Resources for Further Study

After the Civil War (1861-1865) and the subsequent abolition of slavery, former slaves were notoriously promised “forty acres and a mule” as a compensation for their unpaid work during slavery. Ultimately, this attempted redistribution failed and by the end of the Reconstruction period (1865-1877) lands were returned to their previous white owners.
A timeline of interactions between black farmers and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 1920 to 2021.
Oxford Bibliographies‘ page on African American agriculture and agricultural labor.
TED-Ed short animation on the history of corn. Indigenous peoples from southern Mexico domesticated corn about 10,000 years ago. Today, this crop accounts for more than one tenth of our global crop production!

Contemporary Connections

Data on female producers from the 2017 Census of Agriculture.

“Living off the land: the new sisterhood of Black female homesteaders.”

1910s African American Family Folktale

A South African Red Riding Hood

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Original image and caption from “A South African Red Riding Hood” as it appeared in *The Crisis,* volume 14, number 6, from October 1917, p. 287.

(Selected by Monroe N. Work)

Once upon a time there was a Bechuana man who had a daughter named Tsélané.[1] One day he set off with his family and flocks to seek fresh pastures; but his daughter would not go with him. She said to her mother, “I won’t go. Our home is so pretty that I cannot leave it.”

Her mother said, “Since you are naughty you may stay here all alone. But shut the door fast, lest a Marimo (a cannibal) comes and eats you.”

With that the mother went away, but in a few days came back bringing food for the daughter She called “Tsélane, my child, Tsélané, my child, take this bread and eat it.”

“I hear my mother speaking.” said Tsélané, “like a bird coming out of the wood.”

For a long time the mother brought food to Tsélané. Whenever she came she would call, “Tsélané, my child, take this bread and eat it.”

One day Tsélané heard a gruff voice saying, “Tsélané, my child, Tsélané, my child, take this bread and eat it.”

Tsélané laughed and said, “That gruff voice is not my mother’s. Go away, naughty Marimo.”

The Marimo went away. He lit a big fire, took an iron hoe, heated it red hot and swallowed it to clear his voice. Then he came back and again tried to beguile Tsélane. But he could not, because his voice was still rough and harsh.

The Marimo went and heated another hoe and swallowed it red hot. Then he came back and said in a small voice, “Tsélane, my child, Tsélané, my child, take this bread and eat it.”

Tsélané thought it was her mother’s voice and opened the door. The Marimo entered, put her in his sack and carried her off. Soon he felt thirsty and, leaving his bag in the care of some little girls, went to a village to get some beer. The little girls peeped into the bag, saw Tsélané and ran and told her mother, who happened to be near. The mother let her daughter out of the bag and stuffed it, instead, with a dog, a scorpion, a snake, and bits of broken pots and stones.

When the Marimo got home with his bag and opened it, intending to take Tsélané out to cook and eat her, the stones bruised him, the bits of broken pots wounded him, the scorpion stung him, and the dog and snake bit him. In great pain and agony he rushed out and threw himself into a refuse heap and was changed into a tree.

The bees made honey in the bark of this tree. In the spring the young girls gathered the honey and made honey cakes.

This bit of African folk-lore reminds at once of two truths: first, how like the races of men are and how curiously their minds run in the same direction. Second, how peculiar and exquisite is African genius and how different from the ways of other folk. Could one conceive a more original tale than this?

George Harper Houghton, [Tree]. Photograph, 1861-62, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Public Domain.

“A SOUTH AFRICAN RED RIDING HOOD.” THE CRISIS 14, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1917): 287.

[1] The Bechuanaland Protectorate, established in 1885 by the United Kingdom, became the Republic of Bostwana in 1966.

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

Bechuana: A member of a black African people inhabiting the country between the Orange and Zambezi rivers in southern Africa, and speaking a Bantu language, Tswana (formerly called Sechuana).

Resources for Further Study

The University of Southern Mississippi’s The Little Red Riding Hood Project gathers sixteen English versions of the well-known fairy tale that were published between 1729 and 1916.
The Oxford Bibliographies‘ overview of cannibalism or anthropophagy reveals that the term “cannibal” first came to use in the context of the European colonization of the Americas. The trope of cannibalism followed European imperialistic incursions in Africa and Southeast Asia, wherein, in some cases, accusations of cannibalism justified cruelty and conquest.
The Morgan State University’s African Folk Tale Library project seeks to gather African “folk tales from both historical sources and contemporary informants in the original language with English translations.”

1910s Life and Death Native American Poem Rivers Water

Song of the Oktahutchee

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

Untitled, pastoral river scene. Oil, 1874, by William Rickarby Miller. Public Domain.
Courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Far, far, far are my silver waters drawn;[1]
	The hills embrace me loth to let me go;
The maidens think me fair to look upon,
	And trees lean over, glad to hear me flow.
Thro’ field and valley, green because of me,
	I wander, wander to the distant sea.
Tho’ I sing my song in a minor key,
	Broad lands and fair attest to the good I do;
Tho’ I carry no white sails to the sea,
	Towns nestle in the vales I wander thro’;
And quails are whistling in the waving grain,
	And herds are scattered o’er the verdant plain.

Posey, Alexander. “Song of the Oktahutchee.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30

[1] The poem speaks in the river’s voice.

Contexts

The Indian School Journal was the official publication for the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School (also known as the Haworth Institute, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and the Chilocco Indian School). Located in north-central Oklahoma near the Kansas border, it began taking students in 1884, enrolling 150 from seventeen tribes that first year. Enrollment had more than doubled by 1895, with students coming from various tribes, including the Cherokee, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Pawnee tribes. The Oklahoma Historical Society notes that “significant enrollment from the so-called ‘Five Civilized Tribes’ did not occur until after 1910 but by 1925, Cherokee constituted the largest single tribal affiliation at the school (26 percent of approximately nine hundred students).” Following World War II and the expansion of public education, the school enrolled mostly students who lacked access to such education.

Like most federally funded Indian schools, Chilocco sought to assimilate Native children into white society. Also like other schools, it stressed “industrial” education—manual and domestic labor—over academic pursuits, aiming to train them as workers for white families. Education at Chilocco was notably militaristic; students attended weekly Christian religious services, also intended to weaken their ties to family and tribe. In the 1950s, student numbers peaked at around 1300, and the school closed in 1980.

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River, this poem’s subject, when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Posey poems appear in The Envious Lobster as versions he published in the school’s magazine.

This poem celebrating the Oktahutchee is especially poignant, given the poet’s close connection to the river.

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995). https://www.amazon.com/They-Called-Prairie-Light-Chilocco/dp/0803279574.
Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind.

Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Canadian River near Oklahoma City, Indian Territory. Photo, May 21, 1889,
by J. C. Chrisney.
The Oktahutchee River was known to white settlers as the North Canadian.

1910s Native American Poem Stars, Moon, Sky

Nightfall

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

As evening splendors fade
	From yonder sky afar,
The Night pins on her dark
	Robe with a large bright star,[1]
And the moon hangs like
	A high-thrown scimitar.
Vague in the mystic room
	This side the paling West,
The Tulledegas[2] loom 
	In an eternal rest,
And one by one the lamps are lit
	In the dome of the Infinite.

Posey, Alexander. “Nightfall.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] The planet Venus.

[2] Posey probably references an area somewhere near the multicultural town of Oktaha, Oklahoma, as his poem “Tulledega” suggests. The name echoes Talladega, a county in Alabama that was the traditional homeland of the Muskogee/Creek nation.

Contexts

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind.

Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

1910s Flowers Life and Death Native American Poem

To a Daffodil

By Alexander Posey (Muskogee Creek)

Annotations by Karen Kilcup

Daffodils in Winter. Pastel, c1902, by Sarah Wyman Whitman. Public Domain.

When Death has shut the blue skies out from me, sweet Daffodil,[1]
	And Years roll on without my memory,
Thou’lt reach thy tender fingers down to mine of clay,
	A true friend still,
Although I’ll never know thee till the judgment day.

Posey, Alexander. “To a Daffodil.” Indian School Journal 6, no. 10 (April 1910): 30.

[1] Popular in the United States and around the world, daffodils are a type of narcissus that flower in early spring. Mentioned in gardening books and journals as early as the 1600s, they encompass 32,000 cultivars today, though many fewer are commercially available.books and journals as early as the 1600s, they encompass 32,000 cultivars today.

Contexts

Muskogee Creek poet, journalist, and humorist Alexander Posey was a nationally known writer whose appearance in the school’s magazine suggests his powerful influence on young Native American readers. Following his tragic death by drowning in the Oktahutchee River when he was only 34 years old—and only a few months after The Indian School Journal published several poems—his wife Minnie collected his work in The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. His evocative poetry is also available through the Academy of American Poets (poets.org) and The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation. The Envious Lobster uses the versions Posey published in the school’s magazine.

Resources for Further Study

Archuleta, Margaret L., Brenda J. Child, and K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled), eds. Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Experiences, 1879-2000.
Connelley, William Elsey. “Memoir or Alexander Lawrence Posey.” In The Poems of Alexander Lawrence Posey. Ed. Mrs. Minnie H. Posey. Topeka, KS: Crane and Company, 1910. Pp. 5-65.
Higgs, Richard. “The Oktahutchee Claims One of Its Own.” This Land, April 10, 2013.
Littlefield, Daniel F. Jr. Alexander Posey: Creek Poet, Journalist, and Humorist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). “Chilocco Indian Agricultural School.” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Oklahoma Historical Society.
Lomawaima, K. Tsianina. (Mvskoke/Creek Nation of Eastern Oklahoma, not enrolled). They Called It Prairie Light: The Story of Chilocco Indian School (1995).
Wilson, Linda D. “Posey, Alexander Lawrence (1873-1908).” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture.

Contemporary Connections

“At Length with K. Tsianina Lomawaima.” At Length with Steve Scher. February 10, 2016.

“Chilocco Through the Years.” Firethief Productions. Chilocco History Project, August 2, 2019.

Douglas, Crystal. “A Look at the Chilocco Indian School.” The Kaw Nation: People of the Southwind. Fife, Ari. “At one former Native American School in Oklahoma, honoring the dead now falls to alumni.” The Frontier, July 21, 2021.

Daffodils in Cornwall, England. Photo courtesy the National Trust.

1910s African American Poem

A Rainy Day

By Lottie Burrell Dixon

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Arthur Dove. *Rain.* Twigs and rubber cement on metal and glass, 1924, Avalon Fund. Public Domain.

Outside I hear the dashing rain
Fall full against the window pane.
On such a day, the fire aglow,
An easy chair, a book or so,–
What more would I that fortune bring?
Yet hark! I hear a step–a ring– 
And close to heart and hearth I fold
My friend, who guessed my wish untold.
For other joys I do not pray,
Content am I this rainy day.

DIXON, LOTTIE BURReLL. “A RAINY DAY.” THE CRISIS, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1914): 274.

Contexts

Dixon’s “A Rainy Day” also appeared in 1916 in American Cookery, a monthly journal published in New York.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

dashing: That dashes; that beats violently against something; splashing.