 January/February 2003
Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk Tales From The Gulf Coast by Zora Neale Hurston
It was said from those that knew her best, that African-American folklore was Zora Neale Hurston’s first love. The ability to manifest in, and excel within the margins of her own people…swapping lies, telling tales, and giving unique meaning to life from the backhand side. Thus, if any part of her legacy is to prevail, one should pay close attention to this side of her that I feel truly helped to define her writing style.
No doubt, the genesis of it all goes back to her Eatonville, Florida roots sitting on the porch of the neighborhood story listening to the older men adhere to the aforementioned. Subsequently as a Barnard student of Anthropology under the guidance of Franz Boaz, she embarked in 1927 on a two-year effort to collect samples of African-American folklore. This sets the stage for Negro Tales From The Gulf States, which can boast of an interesting evolution. This is a book written by Zora that was almost an afterthought, until recently discovered after lying in obscurity for nearly 30 years. All of this time, it was stored in a basement at Columbia University, and 20 more at the Smithsonian before coming to light at the urging of the author’s estate and others.
What we have here in borrowing Zora’s own words – “authenticity to preserve the tale-tellers way of speaking…savoring the boiled-down juice of human living”. The book is well written and organized by subject. Read it and revel in how the author used and presented vernacular that would be recognized today as Ebonics…everyday idiomatic expressionism. You will witness improvisational wordplay and given an apt explanation of how these folktales were collected, lost, found, and examined for the deep significance they hold today.
These lost southern tales are brought to life by Zora’s commanding use of syntax mixed with a sense of urgency. Most of them are infused with humorous stories making a point that we can all identify with. She makes it pointedly clear that folktales were a direct link to our ancestral background, and served a purpose. I marveled at how she was able to use stories made famous by others in how they were reworked and related from a black point of view, giving them a special cross-cultural ring. For instance, to the story of a woman who promises the devil that she will break up a marriage in exchange for a pair of shoes, or how she gives reasons why God gave women keys to the bedroom, the kitchen, and the cradle. You will die laughing, and you will definitely be amused by the punch lines and the Zora penchant for comedic timing.
If there’s a reason to want to understand folktales told from the mind of this unique storyteller, you’d want to be enlightened in digesting this type of wit that the author seem to make timeless. In accumulating this body of work, Hurston clearly placed as much emphasis on imagination as on truism. Often she got both. With all the other offering of late alluding to Zora Neale Hurston, you might as well add this book to your collection. You won’t regret it!
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