NA ZAPAD!: AFROAMERIKANKE U POKRETU NA ZAPAD SADA
WESTWARD HO!: AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT TO THE AMERICAN WEST

Summary/Abstract: To contemplate any ideological and cultural phenomenon in the geographical region of the United States of America is still impossible without considering the set of grand narratives about the country’s formation and the corresponding matrices embedded therein, including the expansionist myth of the westward movement. From the first attempts to colonize North America to the modern emergence of the USA, the country’s literary and non-literary narratives have consistently reflected a gaze focused on the final frontier and the American West. This enduring and productive foundational myth forms America's geographical, ideological, and imagined spaces, which still attract the attention of historians, cultural and literary critics, and creators. Contemporary literature and culture continue to reexamine and rewrite the geographic and cultural space of the USA, striving to paint an objective and comprehensive picture of the (co)existence of its diverse cultures, races, and peoples. Until the second half of the 20th century, however, the dominant discourse on American formation and identity was largely Eurocentric, reflecting and supporting the ideological matrix of the superior white European and his culture, through which supposed civilizational values and heritage had been established and maintained. The myth of the West is a vital component of these Eurocentric narratives regarding the development of (geographical, intellectual, and imagined) America and the foundation of its idiosyncratic culture and identity. Heike Paul (2014) argues that the myth about the American West is the longestlasting identity myth (313), stemming from stories about North American settlement and the founding of the USA in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Paul identifies (136) the West as a dominant theme in American history, serving as “the locus, […], for the development of epic cultural scenarios about Americanness” (Slotkin 472 in Paul 137). It must be pointed out that in the dominant mythical narratives, the American West is not presented as a location in which expansionism was implemented or where the genocide of indigenous peoples was continuously committed. Instead, it is seen as a transformational space for individual and/or collective self-realization, an Edenic/utopian space where one’s own or communal freedom and independence can be realized by claiming land. The final frontier, the space of the American West, is perceived as a wild expanse waiting for the white man to seize, fence, domesticate and cultivate it, and to make it fruitful through hard work, thereby achieving personal economic independence and prosperity. Consequently, this space of autonomous selfrealization must be defended, even violently if necessary, against forces that threaten to reintroduce it to wild nature. Hegemonic narratives of the western frontier, therefore, project two contradictory images: one as part of the agrarian myth, which portrays the West as an idyllic paradise where (white) people find fulfillment and peace through cultivation, and the other as a place of violent encounters and the constant struggle with wilderness and savagery, ideas integral to expansionist narratives. These two images, however, are often tightly entwined, and the myth of agrarian exploitation usually serves the purpose of legitimizing the brutal violence in expansionist policies and narratives. Moreover, the portrayal of the western frontier as a free space that facilitates individual freedom, autonomy, and land ownership is an elitist myth, as nonwhite Americans are denied the same right to proprietorship, personal prosperity, and self-actualization — in it, there is no place for other cultures, races, or ethnicities, nor for all the (marginalized and disenfranchised) Others of America. Besides significantly influencing this one-sided shaping of national history and American identity, the myth of the West is a highly productive literarycultural trope and has led to the creation of numerous texts. The rich literarycultural production on the theme of longing for the West and the personal and/or collective freedom the movement towards the Western (American) frontier implies and enables gave rise to a particular literary-cultural sub-genre: the “Western.” Unfortunately, like ideological and political narratives about the West, literary and cultural phenomena often portray the frontier as a mythical place for the independence and self-realization of men, highlighting the masculine nature of this movement towards the western border – it is marked by the white man's struggle with himself, (wild) nature, and human opponents, other men. Such texts often suppress the westward migrations of marginalized social subjects (like African American women), or present them schematically, conventionally, and as functioning in support of the dominant ideological matrices. Early Western texts generally depicted Native Americans in their two binary opposed manifestations: innately benevolent, exalted, and honorable people, modeled on Rousseau’s noble savage, and a nostalgic tribute to a dying culture or, more frequently, brutal and violent primitives who, threaten the civilizational achievements of the white West, and who, therefore, had to be subjugated or eliminated. Both depictions were used equally to legitimize the white population’s genocidal actions and cruel violence against the Native Americans. Neo-westerns often replace American native figures with white characters and focus on sanitized border conflicts between bandits and law enforcement or corrupt government instruments and a lone righteous hero fighting for common justice and the absolute good (Paul 336–344). Figures of women rarely appear in these westward movement narratives; in the myths and literary and cultural texts about the final frontier, women are in the background; their role is mainly passive, and they are confined to the domestic interiors of the West. In the grand narratives of the making of the American West, these disenfranchised American Others mainly served as background decor for the heroic struggles and painstaking civilizing efforts of white men. It was not until the beginning of the 1980s that the stereotyping hegemonic myths, historiography, and iconography of the West began to be significantly revised to admit new, more complete and objective interpretations, a shift that was partly the result of the increasing penetration of feminist thought and activism in academic and scientific spaces.28 Conversely, socio-historical events and documents demand a reexamination of these hegemonic myths and narratives. The Federal Settlement Act of 1860 and the end of the American Civil War in 1865 prompted significant African American migrations in the late 1870s, as this population sought salvation from the yoke of racism in the area of the western border. Among the Black population settling in the West, many African American women found a space to enjoy their fundamental human rights freely. Racist violence in the South escalated in the 1870s, especially after the withdrawal of federal troops, who had provided at least a semblance of security and protection to the AfricanAmerican population. The increased terror and lynchings after the failure of the Reconstruction project in 1877 encouraged African Americans from the South to migrate west, including to Kansas. Charismatic leader Benjamin Pap Singleton and journalist and activist Ida B. Wells significantly influenced the migration of the Southern black population to the American Midwest. In 1892, after the lynching of three black citizens (including her friend Thomas Moss) in Memphis, this black activist exposed the root causes of terror for African Americans in the South and asserted that there was “only one thing left to do [— to] save our money and leave a town which will neither protect our lives and property nor give us a fair trial in the courts …” (Wells in McMurry 135–136). Some ten years before Wells’s columns, Benjamin Pap Singleton had founded the Edgefield Real Estate and Homestead Association, which enabled the first group of approximately a hundred migrants from Nashville to settle in newly established black landowning communities in Baxter Springs (1877) and Dunlop County (1878), Kansas, thereby promoting autonomy and equality for Black people in the racist South (Reeves, “Singleton, Benjamin ‘Pap’”). Singleton’s pamphlets, leaflets, and rallies, promoting Kansas as a promised land and a paradise for Black Americans, unquestionably contributed to the first wave of African American migration to the West. Nicodemus, the oldest and longest-lasting black landowners’ settlement in Kansas, was established independently of Singleton by six African American entrepreneurs from Topeka. Within two years, 500 to 700 African Americans from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi had settled in Nicodemus (National Park Service, “Nicodemus Kansas”). In 1879, the “Exodus of 1879,” or the “Great Migration,” brought many impoverished and disenfranchised African Americans from the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to the state, transforming the prairie demographic. Although not all achieved personal self-realization or economic independence, many appreciated the West as a place to live free from the racial persecutions and terror that characterized the American South (see Arrington, “Exodusters”). This revisionist narrative about westward movement and the conquest of the American frontier, while informative, still contains elements of the agrarian myth, and projects the image of the West as a place of personal and collective liberation. Additionally, such narratives focus on the collective, and conceal individual data on the migration of African American women and their active role in the movement. To counter this, Pearl Cleage’s dramatic text, evocatively entitled Flyin’ West (1992), vividly portrays the westward migration and settlement of Black American women. This paper examines the depiction of African American women in the conquest of the western border and life on the frontier in Cleage’s play. It challenges schematic portrayals of movements towards the American West in history, literature and culture by analyzing the motif of life on the frontier. The paper’s author aims to contribute to the challenge of prior stereotypical and one-sided depictions by foregrounding African American women, whose presence in the West is rarely mentioned in official narratives. Preceding the playtext is an author’s note about the dramatic narrative’s historical background, which signals the direction of the play and emphasizes that among those who migrated westward during the late nineteenth century were single women (traveling without the protection of family or men), and a considerable number of African Americans, of whom many were female. This fictional work primarily positions itself as a corrective to the dominant Eurocentric narratives of the West and thereby revises the racial and gender myths of white male supremacy. Second, it snatches the migration of African American women from oblivion and highlights their (pro)active role in the process. The historical events that motivate the plot of this and Cleage’s other plays are reminders of the complexity of African American historiography, including episodes, some of which are unknown even to the broader African American population, that have been deliberately suppressed and neglected. As Lisa Anderson points out, additional efforts must be made to foreground such important details, make them public, and re-introduce them into the collective and personal history and memory (33). In its two acts and eleven skillfully interwoven scenes, Flyin’ West depicts the struggles of American black women on the western frontier in Nicodemus at the end of 1898. The play features six African American characters of both genders and different ages. The Dove sisters are the only dramatis personae who were born free after the abolition of slavery. At the same time, Sophie Washington and Frank Charles are tangible, undeniable proof of sexual exploitation and the abuse of enslaved Black women—their fathers were white landowners, slave owners and rapists. Sophie’s identity is closely tied to the black community. At the same time, Frank renounces his black origins and expresses intolerance and hatred towards African Americans (including himself) – he is the character of a tragic mulatto. Cleage’s play, set in a decisive time and place and portrays complex personae, delves into the story of family violence but is not simply about the protagonist’s silent suffering. It also depicts the oldest black landowning community’s struggle for survival, a collective effort by African Americans from both waves of southern migration. The piece readily draws its structure from melodrama. It includes sensationalist intrigues and twists before culminating in a closing scene with a formulaic and predictable happy ending in which the symbol of absolute good triumphs over that of ultimate evil. The play also presents narratives about enslavement and images of the African American movement to the West. The audience learns of the cruel living conditions and physical, sexual and economic abuse to which Miss Leah, her family and her community were subjected during and just after slavery; Parish recounts his escape from slavery and highlights the positive role of Mexicans and the Seminole in his life; and particularly poignant are the fragments of the arduous life of mixed-race woman Sophie during slavery, in the aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation, and immediately before the Exodus of 1879. These narratives preserve the black community’s history and record its endurance, in which Fannie Dove’s chronicle of black life in Nicodemus assists. Life is dangerous and difficult in Nicodemus and requires sacrifice. Sophie, a selfsufficient, rugged, and brave woman, is shown persistently and actively struggling to preserve her life, personal independence, and this free piece of Black Heaven; unlike the other women in the drama, her personal appurtenance includes a rifle, boots and dark, gender neutral clothing. The Midwest is depicted as a utopian space, marked by complete freedom and security, despite the painstaking work and commitment required. Nicodemus is the promised Garden of Eden for the African American. In it, the freedom and independence of Black women are prominently featured, and the settlement and its arable land, which the women own and live on, enable their complete and final transformation. The leitmotif of Cleage’s play is the movement to the West, as told by different characters who discuss their respective experiences and echo the collective historiography of black westward migration. The narratives allow individual and disparate perspectives to be heard among the collective; finally, these fragments fit tightly together like pieces of a puzzle to create a master narrative. Sophie and the Dove sisters’ migration to the West ends with an intimate ritual promise to fight for their place with strength, courage, mutual respect, and love. For Sophie, Fannie, and Minnie, and their future descendants, movement toward the frontier is the movement toward a mythical land of liberation and revelation, and the West itself is a place they can finally call home, in whose shelter they feel safe, accessible and able to express the hidden parts of their characters fully. It must be concluded that with its depiction of different aspects of the lives of its protagonists in Nicodemus at the end of the nineteenth century, Flyin’ West challenges Eurocentric and phallocentric narratives on the westward movement. It highlights the epic struggle of African American women on the Western frontier and provides specific insight into the collective history of African American migrations through intimate narratives of the individual movements of diverse (male and female) characters to the West. In this way, the play also serves as a necessary corrective to official one-sided whitedominated narratives.

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