Harriet Tubman: Slave, Spy, Suffragett

An icon of American courage and freedom, Harriet Tubman was born into slavery. In 1849, she managed to escape. Instead of only looking out for herself she returned, helping to rescue family members and friends through the Underground Railroad to Pennsylvania. She never lost a passenger, earning her the nickname of Moses.

During the Civil War Harriet worked as a spy, scout and nurse for the Union government. She was also the first women to lead an armed expedition which liberated over 700 slaves in South Carolina. After the war ended Harriet continued to work as a humanitarian and activist in her local community of Auburn.

A feminist before feminism, she was an active member of the suffragette movement, travelling all over the USA to speak about women’s right to vote. At the National Federation of Afro-American Women she was a keynote speaker for their first ever meeting. Even though Harriet lived the last years of her life in relative poverty, she never stopped fighting for what she believed in.

Sophia French

 

Langston Hughes: Creator of Jazz Poetry

With such an extensive list of titles to his name, Langston Hughes (1902-67) has deservedly earned a mention in this week’s issue. Known as American poet, social activist, novelist, columnist and dramatist, Hughes is both a distinguished literary figure and champion of the African American identity.

Perhaps most notable is Hughes’ influential contribution to the ‘Harlem Renaissance’ – a movement spanning the 1920s and described as the “rebirth of African American Arts”. Throughout the period, Hughes promoted African American pride and defended an ethnic image of dignity and self-confidence.

His determination to highlight racial consciousness permeates through his many works and accounts for his advocacy of the “New Negro” – a popularized term referring to the younger black artists whom Hughes claimed expressed their “individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame”. Hughes is also accredited with the creation of “Jazz Poetry” – a fresh, unique art form that featured purely African American voices therefore intentionally differentiating itself from the work of white poets.

Grace Ellerby

 

Tsitsi Dangarembga: Critic of Colonialism

Tsitsi Dangarembga, a Zimbabwean author, is famous for her perceptive eye and subtle criticism of both Zimbabweans and European colonisers in her debut novel, Nervous Conditions, which won her the commonwealth writers’ prize. Its sensitive exploration of the effect of colonial rule had upon small Zimbabwean family units, particularly girls and women who had to negotiate the dual challenges of both colonialism and the patriarchal Zimbabwean culture. As a young girl, Dangarembga was educated in a missionary school in Zimbabwe, which provided her with the experiences that she would draw upon in her novel Nervous Conditions.

Her refusal to shy away from challenging subjects is epitomised in Dangarembga’s first foray into film, Everyone’s Child (released in 1996), which explores the lives of four orphans who lost their parents to AIDS. Recently, Dangarembga has spoken at TEDx in Harare, and employed her observant, distinctive style to criticise Zimbabwe’s current issues with greed – by using a metaphor that included her pet cat and extra-terrestrial cockroaches.

Esther Marshall & Zoe Delahunty-Light