The Role of the Trickster Figure and Four Afro-Caribbean Meta-Tropes In the Realization of Agency

474 Pages·2014·2.89 MB·English

by  David Sebastian Cross

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Theses and Dissertations
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David Sebastian Cross
University of South Carolina
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Cross, D. S.(2013). The Role of the Trickster Figure and Four Afro-Caribbean Meta-Tropes In the
Realization of Agency by Three Slave Protagonists. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from
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The Role of the Trickster Figure and Four Afro-Caribbean Meta-Tropes
in the Realization of Agency by Three Slave Protagonists

by

David Sebastian Cross

Bachelor of Arts
Wofford College, 1996

Master of Arts in Teaching
University of South Carolina, 2001

_________________________________________________
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Comparative Literature
College of Arts and Sciences
University of South Carolina
2013
Accepted by:
Jorge Camacho, Director of Dissertation
María C. Mabrey, Committee Member
Lucile C. Charlebois, Committee Member
Stephen Sheehi, Committee Member
Matt D. Childs, Committee Member
Lacy Ford, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies
© Copyright by David Sebastian Cross, 2013
All Rights Reserved

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank dissertation director, Dr. Jorge Camacho, as well as the other
members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Maria Mabrey, Dr. Lucile Charlebois, Dr.
Stephen Sheehi, and Dr. Matt Childs for their guidance and suggestions regarding my
research and writing. I would also like to thank Ms. Deborah Wright and Ms. Georgette
Mayo of the Avery Research Center for their valuable assistance, both in finding sources
and in recommending new ones related to my topic. Finally, I would also like to thank
my parents for their encouragement and assistance throughout this long process.

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Abstract

In this dissertation, I aim to demonstrate that the figure of the trickster is a key
trope for the achievement of agency by the narrators of the three slave narratives
Autobiografía de un esclavo, “Routes in North Africa by Abú Bekr eṣ ṣiddīk” [sic], and
Biografía de un cimarrón. I also intend to show how both the realization of the trickster's
role—and the achievement of agency to which such a role is oriented—are dependent on
the use of the four Afro-Caribbean meta-tropes ndoki, nkisi, nganga, and simbi.
To demonstrate this, I plan to analyze these four meta-tropes; their
correspondence with the four master tropes—metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, irony;
their roles in the process of composing a slave narrative; and their functions in each
narrative. To underscore the relevance of trickster figures to the two cycles of meta-
tropes, I will address the correspondence between epistemological irony and certain
trickster figures including Yoruba trickster Eshu, the African-American trickster known
as the Signifying Monkey, and the culminating Afro-Caribbean meta-trope simbi. More
specifically, I will explain how each figure may be said to subsume the conflict between
ideological irony and epistemological irony, which ultimately leads to the renewal of the
cycle of tropes. I will analyze the Ifá divination system of the Yoruba religion and
explain how its communicative protocol and semiotic implications parallel the functions
of the master tropes and the narrative techniques used in slave narratives. In addition, I
hope to explain how—due to their potential for classification, alteration, perpetuation,

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and destruction—racial categories, slaves, and texts may all be said to function as tropes.
Finally, I hope to show how the protective strategies used by African diasporic
communities for the purpose of cultural preservation relate to the inherently figurative
nature of language.

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Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. iii
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ x
CHAPTER 1: Introduction and Theoretical Background ................................................. 1
1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Views on the Noble Savage and the Race-Based Justification of Slavery ..... 5
1.3 Dialogism ...................................................................................................... 24
1.4 Heteroglossia................................................................................................. 30
1.5 The Yoruba Trickster Figure ........................................................................ 36
1.6 Ndoki ............................................................................................................. 54
1.7 Nkisi .............................................................................................................. 55
1.8 Sigidi ............................................................................................................. 61
1.9 Nganga .......................................................................................................... 63
1.10 Contrasts between Nkisi and Other Meta-Tropes ....................................... 67
1.11 Simbi ........................................................................................................... 69
1.12 Coco Macaco .............................................................................................. 71
1.13 The (Metaphoric) Identity and (Metonymic) Behavior of Odus ................ 74
1.14 The Hierarchy of Metaphor and Metonymy and Its Link
to Ifá Divination ...................................................................................... 78

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1.15 Catachresis and Its Relevance to Metaphor, Metonymy,
and Ifá Divination ................................................................................... 81
1.16 Overlap between Messenger and Message ................................................. 86
1.17 Doubling ..................................................................................................... 87
1.18 Tropological Interpretation of Ifá Signs ..................................................... 92
1.19 Interpretation of Odus in Terms of Semiotic Power and Abstraction ........ 94
1.20 The Double Nature of Meji (Eji) ................................................................ 96
1.21 Indeterminacy ............................................................................................. 99
1.22 Orality vs. Writing .................................................................................... 106
CHAPTER 2: Juan Francisco Manzano: From Signifier to Signified,
and Back Again ................................................................................................. 112
2.1 Manzano's Acquisition of Literacy ............................................................. 112
2.2 Manzano's Racial Indeterminacy and Cultural Assimilation ...................... 125
2.3 The Residual ............................................................................................... 143
2.4 Manzano's Role as Messenger .................................................................... 150
2.5 Ambivalence ............................................................................................... 164
2.6 Interpolated Stories within the Broader Narrative ...................................... 168
2.7 Metatextual Commentary in Manzano’s Writing ....................................... 185
2.8 Agency and Truth Claim ............................................................................. 187
2.9 Epistemological Irony and Its Relation to the Meta-Tropes……………...196
CHAPTER 3: Abū Bakr eṣ Ṣadīq: A Signifier Masquerading as a Signified............... 200
3.1 The Arabic Autobiographical Tradition ...................................................... 201
3.2 The Role of Slavery in the Process of Cultural Assimilation ..................... 209
3.3 Matrices of Belonging: Patronage, Detachment, and Re-attachment ......... 215

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3.4 Slave-Owning Slaves and Slaves Who Wielded Power over Free People . 218
3.5 Rhetorical Parallels of Slave-Owning Slaves ............................................ .225
3.6 Syncretism of Islamic and Yoruba Traditions in Africa ............................. 230
3.7 Syncretism of Islamic and Yoruba Traditions in the Caribbean ................. 231
3.8 Syncretism of Islamic and Yoruba Traditions in the Ottoman Empire ...... 232
3.9 Enhancing the Credibility of Abū Bekr's Account ..................................... 237
3.10 The Transformative Function of Abū Bekr’s Account ............................. 243
3.11 The Yoruba Ritual as a Metaphor for Transformation ............................. 252
3.12 Journey as a Metaphor for Transformation ............................................... 254
3.13 Trickster Figures among Muslim Slaves in the Americas ........................ 259
3.14 Jihād, Islamic Revivalism, and Their Relation to the Meta-Tropes……..275
3.15 Parallels of the Nkisi Fetish in the Muslim Tradition ............................... 284
3.16 The Symbolic Function of Literacy among Muslim Slaves ..................... 288
3.17 Literacy as a Form of Àshe—The Power to Make Things Happen .......... 291
3.18 Degrees of Agency and Their Dependence on Tricksters and Tropes ...... 300
CHAPTER 4: Esteban Montejo: Inveterate Signifiers and the
Guardianship of the Sign .................................................................................. 313
4.1 The Use of African Rhetorical Devices as a Means of Cultural Survival .. 313
4.2 Ndoki ........................................................................................................... 315
4.3 Nkisi ............................................................................................................ 318
4.4 Nganga ........................................................................................................ 322
4.5 Trickster Figures and the Use of Literal and Figurative Language ............ 325
4.6 The Interplay of Different Levels of Discourse .......................................... 327

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4.7 Dialogue between Narrator and Amanuensis ............................................. 334
4.8 Transfers of Content and Form between Emissors and Recipients ............ 342
4.9 The Noble Savage ....................................................................................... 347
4.10 Orality vs. Literacy ................................................................................... 349
4.11 Rememoration ........................................................................................... 354
4.12 The Role of Nkisi in Rememoration ......................................................... 358
4.13 Perceptions of Testimonial Literature and Biografía's
Placement within it .............................................................................. 359
4.14 The Role of a Testimonial ......................................................................... 360
4.15 Barnet's Adaptation of Montejo's Nkisi .................................................... 363
4.16 Montejo's Shaping of His Own Nkisi ........................................................ 369
4.17 The Trickster's Role in the Acquisition of Agency ................................... 374
4.18 Interpolated Stories within the Broader Narrative .................................... 389
4.19 Achieving Agency by Controlling the Inscription of the Word ............... 392
CHAPTER 5: Conclusion ............................................................................................. 397
5.1 Methods of Racial Classification and Their Rhetorical Parallels ............... 398
5.2 Slave-Owning Slaves, Odus, and the Semiotic Power of a Text ................ 406
5.3 Invocations, Recitations, Initiations, Responses: How They
Empower a Text .................................................................................. 412
5.4 Death and Reanimation: Evaluating Empowerment of
Narratives via Tropes .......................................................................... 427
5.5 From Death to Life and from Concealment to Revelation ......................... 434
WORKS CITED ........................................................................................................... 450

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