My name is Temiloluwa Alagbe, and I am a 19-year-old Nigerian American. Since my childhood, I have had a profound interest in literature and writing, and I aspire to become a writer someday. Writing is my medium to understand the world around me, be it through stories, poems, or essays. I believe that expressing my thoughts and emotions through writing helps me articulate myself better than speaking. Writing is one of the most powerful tools we have for sharing our experiences and perspectives with the world.
After studying various sociological theories regarding racial disparities and finding inspiration from influential writers such as Maya Angelou, I created four poems that express my experiences as a Black woman living in America. These poems also serve as a connection between literature and known sociological perspectives. They touch on common themes related to Blackness, non-American culture, and origin, illustrating how my intersectionality as an African living in America and the general perception of what it means to be a Black woman in the United States has shaped my experience.
During the creation of my poetry, I drew inspiration from sociological and feminist theories.
Master of Reflection
To see or to be seen
As carefully as I can be pictured
Marked in the third line of the census
Yes, you the black one
Because you are caught in your looking-glass
Clinging tight to your identification
Split into two pieces
since Uncle Sam only accepts one
Who smears red, white, and blue...
One who pictures the dream
dangled in front of them
As the greatest allusion
But through the looking glass
Is the one your nation
Darts their eyes from
Since their skin resembles a homeland
claimed unproper
And their name is three thousand syllables
For one tongue.
Made proud in tight locks
To carry their own weight
And smile for the diversity photos
With frowns within
Because they are the masters of their reflections
W.E.B DuBois coined the term "double consciousness theory" in his article "Strivings of The Negro People." In this theory, he defines it as a sense of always viewing oneself through the eyes of others and measuring one's soul based on a world that looks on in contempt and pity. In my work, "Master of Reflection," I used a mirror as a central figure. Typically, our reflections are how others see us, but in this piece, I narrate how the person described appears differently. The speaker addresses an unknown Black individual who is not whole, but rather composed of two halves: one American and the other solely black. While American is a nationality, it can differ from the culture that Black people have created for themselves. Patriotism can be a source of conflict within the Black community because why be proud of a country that despises their existence? In the second stanza, the phrase "the looking glass" is an anthropomorphic reference to Lewis Caroll's tale Alice In Wonderland, symbolizing an opposite world. In this context, the Looking Glass is the embodiment of Black culture that the dominant Western culture does not accept. I also found inspiration in Paul Dunbar's poem "We Wear The Mask" and Maya Angelou's adaptation, "The Mask".
Miss Africana
The gestures made through her hands
Command the attention of any space
Highlights the essence of her honor
Madame Africana
Her fingers glide and weave through her tresses
With such eloquent figuration
To accent her crown, fawn gold
The sun blesses her complexion
Shining her melanin, such divine radiance
To be carried within her descendants
The mother of nations
Despite the sultry weather
The mother’s thumbs caress
the cheeks of her crying children
Collecting their tears to be poured into rivers
Washing away life’s obscenities
Babies wrapped on her aching back
In adire cloth crafted by her grandmas
Dusting her aching palms
Lulling little Miss Africana to an hour-long rest
I have written a free-verse poem as a tribute to the African culture, particularly the Nigerian culture. In this poem, I have employed the symbol interactionism theory developed by the philosophy professor, George Herbert Mead, and sociologist, Henry Blumer, in the early 1900s. According to this theory, culture is shaped through symbols and social matters such as language or human interaction. I have used symbols such as hands to represent my Nigerian culture, emphasizing the significance of these symbols in shaping the culture.
As an ode to African mothers, I wrote this poem called "Miss Africana." The poem portrays the familial bond between a mother and her child. However, it also embodies the connotations of cultural practices through the symbolic interactionism theory. I chose to use hands as the primary symbol in the poem because Africans tend to be very "hands-on," particularly when it comes to raising children. The crown is a symbol that can have multiple interpretations, such as royalty or wealth. In this case, I used it as a colloquialism for the mother's hair, which dates back to the 1970s black power movement. To counter the insensitive view of Afro-textured hair as "nappy" or "untamed," black people started using the term "crown" to uplift our appearance, saying that we come from royalty and must wear our crowns with pride. The depiction of "carrying babies on mothers' backs, wrapped in adire cloth" serves as a visual representation of what Nigerian motherhood looks like and is one of many cultural practices.
We Were Tribes
All were tribes
Divided but all cloaked in furs
sentimental to our Identities
Now remanents of our ancestry.
Along with Benin bronzes, ivory-
and figurative clay
Some kept, most stolen-
To be displayed far off their soil.
From the great scatter
The motherland split tenfold
And the cries of torn families
were heard twenty fold-
Those taken could never be returned
Because the leathered men with guns
looked at their melanated form,
A sea of thick lips and strong noses-
And said "this is meant to be"
Their countries saw wealth-
Our wealth, in gold and diamonds
Yet we were not human to them-
Nonetheless rock or stone.
So ships departed
With their mouths trapped
in iron masks
Each their own linguist
Beyond the stretched seas
Those taken were unaware
Their noses and skin could scare-
be commodified yet torn
From the outside and within
But could those at home see
The great reduction in familiar faces
Day after the next?
To a few hundred years
All separated beyond tribes
For new homes let-
the Europe tongue spread beyond lineage-
For the next came abolition, revolutions-
Freedom yet to be completed.
birthing new names
folding like paper over generations
So the next know their tribes.
"We Were Tribes" is a poem that reflects the racial formation theory put forth by Michael Omi and Howard Winant. This theory asserts that race is a social construct, shaped by economic and political forces. In the poem, I have applied this theory to highlight how slavery, as a dehumanizing practice, formed the identity of the black race during that time period. Omi and Winant's book, "Racial Formation in The United States," introduced this theory and emphasized how race as a social identity can change over time, making it a significant viewpoint in sociology.
This poem delves into the impact of colonization on people of African descent and highlights the continental divide it created. European colonizers ravaged distant parts of the world with the aim of becoming a dominant power, but prior to this, Africa did not have distinct countries, only territories. Our ancestors were not concerned with race, but rather tribalism, and the concept of race was fabricated by Europeans to justify their alleged superiority. The poem is a stream of consciousness for me as I reflect on the history of African colonization and the slave trade. As black people, we are all connected to one place, one continent.
Dear Patriarchy
Don’t dare summon me to move
Or clink your glass to your group’s careless cheers
My silhouette lurks near-
Evoking your fears.
Your orbs will gaze and shall remain shaken
Fear my presence, untaken.
Don’t dare cut off my words
As they roll off my tongue
I’ll tie them, to stretch afar like a tightrope
And urge your arrogance to journey across-
next- I fly
Did my discourse sweep the floor
where the remains of your prattle lie?
Don’t dare question my intelligence
With my light so lustrous
too radiant for one so prejudice
Go back and squeeze through the tight crevices of the earth
With shrill voices bellowing
to cease your stubbornness.
Don’t dare let your fingers dance
Across my epidermis
in places no man’s hands should wander
To strip one’s innocence.
Dear patriarchy,
Do you really hold the power?
It seems it’s the golden hour
The woman envelopes you.
You may seal the deal with a kiss
Not with bliss-
To miss.
Dear Patriarchy was my spoken word piece that highlighted the extent of a male-dominated world. Throughout history, men have always had the upper hand in the realms of economics, politics, and society, which led to the emergence of the suffrage and feminist movements. However, the rights of black women were not considered, which is where the concepts of womanism and intersectionality come into play. Womanism, a movement and theory created by author and poet Alice Walker, recognizes that race, class, and gender are all factors that impact a woman's experience. This aligns with intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, which emphasizes how individuals experience different levels of oppression based on their identity.
As a group, black women face unique challenges based on race, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status.
I wrote the poem as a form of conversation to express the idea that the patriarchy is not only a system that aims to belittle us, but also to take away our worth. The first lines of each stanza highlight what is unacceptable, even when no one is willing to listen.