Alaa Ahmed Saleh

Professor Marwa Ramadan

Comparative Literature

15 January 2024

Peaceful resistance or violent resistance?

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.

― William Faulkner, ―Essays, Speeches & Public Letters‖

Although there is a distinction between African American studies and post-colonial

studies, they both aim to abolish racial bonds. The relationship between lords and slaves in

America was very close to that between colonizers and the colonized. Bell Hooks, the black

feminist and social critic, contends that ―I believe that black experience has been and continues

to be one of internal colonialism‖ (148). The journey of African Americans from 1863 (the

Emancipation Proclamation) to the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 was not an easy one.

Abraham Lincoln‘s Emancipation Proclamation provided impermanent freedom for the blacks.

During the Reconstruction era (1863-1900), ―numerous forces, such as unfavorable court

decisions, Jim Crow laws, lynchings, and Ku Klux Klan activities, were at work to restore the

status quo in the south‖ (Evans 3).The prevalent law in the South was racial segregation.

However, the black citizens continued to strive for equal rights and for an end to racial

segregation and undeserved banishment. African American‘s struggle for their ethnic, cultural,

political, and social autonomy took different ways— some believed that the only possible way

through which they could attain their freedom was through violence, while others preferred the

peaceful path. There were two prominent figures in African-American history representing those

two opposite trends: Martin Luther King Jr., representing the non-violent approach, and Malcolm

X, representing the violent path. ―Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X are the towering

heroes of contemporary African-American culture‖ (Dyson 1).

Though both of them were leaders of the black freedom movement that began in the mid-1940s,

they did not work with the same organization.

In his quest to find a remedy for diffused segregation and injustice, king had read

a large number of books. New horizons opened before him when he attended a lecture for

Mordecai Wyatt Johnson- an American educator and pastor- about the life, philosophy, and

teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Johnson illustrated how Gandhi developed the term

satyagraha – the force of love and truth united – as a vehicle to free India from the British rule.

For Gandhi, satyagraha exceeds the term ―passive resistance‖, it is the force in practicing

non- violet strategies (Gross 15). He asserts:

I thus began to call the Indian movement Satyagraha , that is to say, the force which is

born of Truth and Love or non-violence, and gave up the use of the, phrase ‗passive

resistance‘, in connection with it (Gandhi 107).

Gandhi differentiate between passive resistance and Satyagraha in the following letter:

―I have drawn the distinction between passive resistance as understood and

practiced in the West and satyagraha before I had evolved the doctrine of

the latter to its full logical and spiritual extent. I often used ‗passive

resistance‘ and ‗satyagraha‘ as synonyms terms: but as the doctrine of satyagraha

developed, the expression ‗passive resistance‘ ceases even to be synonymous,

as passive resistance has admitted of violence as in the case of the suffragettes

and has been universally acknowledged to be a weapon of the weak.

Moreover, passive resistance does not necessarily involve complete adherence

to truth under every circumstance. Therefore, it is different from satyagraha

in three essentials: satyagraha is a weapon of strong; it admits of no violence

under any circumstance whatsoever; and it ever insists upon truth.

 I think I have now made the distinction very clear‖ (Gandhi 350).

Gandhi believed that nonviolence is the law of humanity. He distinguished Ahimsa as

―soul force‖, and wrote ―nonviolence is soul force or the power of the Godhead within us. We

become Godlike to the extent we realize nonviolence‖ (39). His philosophy was formed to free

India through ―fasts, strikes, boycotts, marches, and civil disobedience‖ (Evance 11). The

importance of spinning wheel, for example, cannot be underrated as a tool for acquiring

political emancipation in India.

Excessively impressed by the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence, King started reading

about Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau. He realized that adhering to the non-violent path taken

by Gandhi is the best solution to the dilemma of the black Americans. King‘s opportunity to act

came when he was elected to be the leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA),

the organization that arranged the 382-day bus boycott. ―The successful boycott resulted in a

court decision that desegregated city buses Under the guidance of the young minister, the

philosophy and tactics of Gandhi were transported from India to Montgomery, where they were

used to obtain social justice for its black citizens‖ (Evance 12). As a spokesman of the (MIA),

King called for the boycotts, strikes, and protest marches. The procedures taken by him reflect

his vision of peaceful resistance. King said- referring to Gandhi- that he became ―deeply

fascinated by his campaigns of nonviolent resistance‖ (32). On August 28, 1963, King fascinates

the world with his eloquent speech ―I Have a Dream,‖ ending it with the words ―Free at last!

Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!‖ (qtd. in Evance). The speech reached

To the White House; it had a great impact on national view, resulting in the passage of the Civil

Rights Act of 1964. Following the legacy of Gandhi, King, as a leader of the Civil Rights

Movement, succeeded to put an end to racial segregation and injustice without violence.

On the other hand, the Black Power Movement, under the supervision of Malcolm X,

called for black self-defense, racial pride, self-reliance, and instant violent action. The
strugglers of this movement replaced non- violent movements with civic rioting and violence.

Malcolm X violated the mainstream of the civil rights movement, which concentrated on

integration and assimilation. He is of the view that African Americans should resist the long-

term oppression, fight for their Freedom, and control their own destiny.― Malcolm X's theory of

violence at first shows disapproval of the inhumane treatment of the black community in

America‖ (cone 173). His legacy regards violence as a dogmatic paradigm for peace, equality,

and conflict resolution. Malcolm X consolidate the idea of self-defense consequently he asserts:

―seek peace and never be the aggressor, but if anyone attacks you, we do not teach you to turn

the other cheek‖ (Harris 313). Being accused as an extremist and racist, Malcolm X replied,

It's not a case of being anti-white or anti - Christian. Were anti-evil, anti-oppression, anti-

lynching You can't be anti - those things unless you are also anti - the oppressed and the

lynched. You can't be an anti-slavery and pro-slave master, you can't be anti-crime and

pro-criminal...what I want to know is how the white man with the blood of black people

dripping off his fingers, can have the audacity to be asking black people why do they hate

him. That takes a lot of nerves (Malcolm & Haley 56).

Malcolm X considered the non-violent approach a continuous procrastination of the solution

to African Americans‘ plight. He emphasized that if America has the right to enroll black

people and educate them on how to use violence to protect her race, then black people have

the right to take any necessary action to defend themselves against perpetuating oppression of

white Americans. For Malcolm X, violence generates violence. This axiom was reiterated by

Eyo, who says: ―the kingdom of God suffered violence and the violent person takes it by force‖

(20). Malcolm‘s bright recognition of the deteriorating conditions of the blacks and his endless

love for them, not only in America but all over the world, make him more determined to end this

mess in any possible way. In one of his speeches, Malcolm says:

 ―We declare our right on this earth, to be a man, to be a human being, to be given the

might of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to

bring by any means necessary‖ (qtd. in Foley et al. 56).

The reason behind Malcolm‘s violent approach was the great psychiatrist, Frantz Fanon.

While King adhered to the non-violent approach of Gandhi, Malcolm X cherished the violent

path suggested by Fanon. In his famous book The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon declared that

―decolonization is always a violent phenomenon‖ (27). Depending upon his experience of the

Algerian war , Fanon believed that psychiatric cure would not help with all the chaos caused

by colonialism—an ―absolute evil‖ (41). For him, violence is the best remedy for the colonized;

It helps the oppressed to get rid of their inferiority complex. While the non-violent approach

Seeks to empower the elites, Violence operates as a ―cleansing force‖ for suppressed people.

(94). Fanon believed that the process of decolonization is the replacing of a certain ―species‖

of men by another ―species‖ of men (35). Thus, there should be tangible change to the entire

structure of the society and ― tabula rasa‖ (35). He was precise when he declared that liberation

will not come at the hand of the elites, including the politicians and intellectuals. The

indispensable items for the colonized are land and bread, and they have nothing to lose in

seeking for them. Therefore, they are ready to risk their life, unlike the intellectuals (47).

By instilling in the natives the notion of racial hierarchies, colonialism became

dependent on violence of the mind too. (33). Violence, then, is not considered to be a

senseless act, but as a tool freeing the soul, body, and mind. Fanon loathes the non-violet path

and contends that ―violence is the only language understood by the colonizer‖ (66). However,

the person can hold a gun against a landlord, but not the Indo-US Nuclear Deal (Gopeal 125).

Therefore, it is hard for people in the modern era to adopt a violet approach in their quest for

freedom. From the foregoing, it became clear that although King and Malcolm X on the one

hand and Gandhi and Fanon on the other have some similarities, such as a desire to regain
 the pre- colonial self, it is obvious that violence did not create the wide- ranging structural
change.

In this paper those two methods of resistance are applied to two plays: Amiri Baraka‘s

The Slave (1964) and August Wilson‘s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (1988). Those two plays

revolve around the blacks‘ struggle in contemporary American society in search for their

freedom and identity. In the first play, The Slave, Amiri Baraka adopted the violent method

of resistance suggested by Malcolm X. In turn, August Wilson adopted the peaceful method

of resistance proposed by King.

The Slave is a two-act play performed in 1964. It is set in a family home in 1960's

America, a time of a colossal conflict between the whites and the blacks over the current

Status quo. The play tackles the problem of the black people and their adoption of the violent

method of resistance. The main character of the play is an African American man called Walker

Vessels. Vessels has changed from a promising poet and writer to a revolutionary character. His

unexpected visit to his ex-wife, Grace, with her white husband, Easley was to confront them

and to take his two daughters. Throughout the play, Easley was killed by Vessels, and the two

daughters were killed with their mother due to violent explosion. In this play, Baraka, as an

African American artist, decided to escape from the drawing room model, which is what

Vessels‘s poetry attempted to be and is undermined by Easley, who called it ―the poetry of ritual

Drama‖ (slave 53). Throughout the play, the reader can trace the barbaric, gross, and violent

attitude of Vessels. The structure of the play is like the sun and the moon (circular). The play

starts and ends with Vessels dressed as an old field slave. This circular structure imply that

nothing has changed. His attempt to break the chains of slavery through action was ineffectual.

Vessles is of the view that ―the act itself has some place in the world . .. it makes some place for

itself." (Slave 47). Vessels fought, cursed, and killed to feel the sense of freedom, but to no avail.

He killed Easley, saying: ―You just die quietly and stupidly as niggers do‖
(slave 53). He declares in the prologue that he and his followers ―are liars and murderers. We

invent death for others‖ (slave 17). Vessels insists to kill Easley and Grace because he regards

them as symbols ―of the white world around [him] but also as embodiments of his white Western

perspectives, those perspectives that inhibit his racial pride by encouraging self-hatred.‖

(Brown147). While Vessels has decided to marry Grace to satisfy his feeling of inferiority, Grace

has accepted to prove that not all the whites are tough. But Grace could not bear his incessant,

savage behavior and got divorced:

Grace: Walker. You were preaching the murder of white people.

Walker, I was, am white. What do you think was going?

through my mind every time you were at some rally or

meeting whose sole purpose was to bring about the

destruction of the white race? (slave 44)

Vessles‘s excessive drink of alcohol has great significance; it helps him to be courageous and

ready for violence. When Grace asked him about his newest writings, Vessles told her that

―it has changed to Yeats‖ (slave 25). Vessles may be referring to Yeats because this poet

Believed that poems could serve a political function, as well as directing and educating crowds.

Vessles believes that the blacks themselves should fight for their issue:

The Western white man had fortified the most impressive

Characteristic of his culture… the idealism of rational liberalism…

and that only the black man in the West could restore that

quality to Western culture. (slave 35)

In the play, the protagonist is not only enslaved by the white society, but he is also enslaved

by his hatred toward them:

My country, 'tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty. Well, let‘s say

Liberty and ignorant vomiting professors (slave 26)….

 I hated you when I wanted you (slave 38).

Despite his great love for the daughters, Vessles failed to get the because they died in the

explosion.

The two plays of Baraka and Wilson reflect what they have experienced. The milieu in

which they live affects their literature. They lived in a milieu in which the whites degraded, and

oppressed, captured the blacks as servants. However, Baraka‘s play The slave highlights the

futility of violent resistance. On the other hand, Wilson‘s play Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

displays different kinds of peaceful resistance presented by a group of African Americans.

The play tackles the lives of African-Americans in a Pittsburgh boarding house in the early 20th

century. It presents the struggle of the characters to rebuild their identity as free human beings

of sincere and definite worth. The play mainly concentrate on how Herald Loomis, a spiritually

deformed black American, acquires his sense of self-worth and approved his past as well as

his cultural roots. After four years of searching for his wife, Loomis trip ends at Seth Holly‘s

boarding house. The boarding house is a place where African Americans can feel a sense of

togetherness and connection in regard to their past. It refers to the transient phase in the lives of

the blacks before attaining their complete freedom. As Sandra L Richards points out:

The play dramatizes the various wanderings of a group African

Americans in search of place where they can feel at home in the world

that is in search of an economic, social and cultural environment that

will enable their agency. Taking temporary refugee in a Pittsburgh boardinghouse,

they share fragmented memories of family members

before seemingly being propelled by desires for adventure, love or

single minded purpose to journey further. (01)

Loomis thinks that he is searching for his wife, but Bynum, a rootworker, lets him know

that he is searching for his song- the true identity and his Africanness that have been forgotten as
a result of his seven years enslavement by Joe Turner:

Bynum: Now he‘s got you bound up to where you can‘t sing your own song

couldn‘t sing it them seven years ‘cause you was afraid he would

snatch it from you. But you still got it. You just forgot how to sing it

(Joe Turner’s 70).

Almost all the characters of the play are searching for someone or something. Loomis, his

wife; Bynum, his shiny man; and Molly, Mattie, and Jeremy, their lovers. Their quest for their

lost companions is really a search for their lost identity. The search for identity in the play is

focused on Loomis. After spending seven years in Joe Turner‘s cage of slavery, Loomis roams

the streets, searching for anyone that may give him any hint about himself. At the end of the play

he tells his wife:

I just been waiting to look on your face to say my good-bye. That good-bye

got so big at times, seem like it was gonna swallow me up. Now that I see your face I

can say my good-bye and make my own world (Joe Turner‘s 82).

Wilson says about Loomis:

He is at time possessed. A man driven not by the Hellhounds that

seemingly bay at his hills, but by his search for a world that speaks to

something about himself. He is unable to harmonize the forces that

swirl around him and seeks to recreate the world into one that contains

his image (216).

Being separated from his wife, his daughter and his identity, Loomis says that all he needs is

a ―starting place in the world.‖ His experience represents that of all African Americans in

America: taken from their lands, enslaved by the whites and have had to come to terms with

what had happened to them. The characters in the boarding house are proud of themselves

as an African people in America. By performing the Juba dance together-except Loomis-they

stress their uniqueness and identity. While they were dancing, they mentioned the name of the

Holy Ghost. Their mentioning stimulates Loomis to have a dream, and Bynum guides him

Through it:

Bynum: What you done seen Herald Loomis?

Loomis: I done seen bones rise up out of the water. Ride up and walk

across the water. Bones walking on top of the water.

Bynum: Tell me about them bones, Herald Loomis. Tell me what you

see.

Loomis: They got flesh on them! Just like you and me. They black just

like you and me. Ain‘t no difference (Joe Turner’s 51).

These bones are indispensible part of the blacks experience in America. They are symbols of

the African slaves who were cast into the ocean during their strenuous journey to America.

However, these bones are resurrected in form of bodies with flesh and spirit. With the guidance

of Bynum, Loomis knows that he must connect his spirit with the spirits of the forefathers in

order to find and free his African American spirit. Once his spirit integrates with the spirits of the

ancestors, he will find his African self:

Loomis: I‘m laying there, waiting.

Bynum: What you waiting on, Herald Loomis?

Loomis: I‘m waiting on the breath to get into my body (Joe Turner’s 52).

Bynum wants him to share his own pride in what it meant to be an African American. However,

Loomis does not have sufficient strength to stand up and find his true self; he cannot rise or even

reconcile with the past. The vision has a strong impact on him but does not free his soul

completely as he says:

―My legs won‘t stand up! My legs won‘t stand up‖ ( Joe Turner‘s 53).
Loomis rediscovers his African self when he has met his wife, Martha. Martha makes a vain

Attempt to use the lamb‘s blood to atone for Loomis‘s sins. But Loomis decides to atone for

himself by slashing his chest and using his own blood to clean himself, ―I can bleed for myself‖

(Joe Turner’s 85). After that incident, Loomis discovers his true African self; he has found his

song, the song of self- sufficiency and says, ―I‘m standing. My legs stood up! I‘m standing

now!‖ (Joe Turner‘s). He has found his African American identity after accepting his African

one. At that time, Bynum realizes that his searching process has also come to

an end. Bynum says, ―Herald Loomis, you shining! You shining like a new money!‖ (Joe

Turner’s 86). Then, he binds Zonia, Loomis‘s daughter, to her mother, Martha.

On the other hand, Mattie Campbell is searching for her lover, Jack Carper, Who has

recently left her alone. She comes to Bynum to bind her to Carper, but Bynum tells her that

some people are not supposed to come back. Mattie remains in the boarding house, where she

starts talking to Jeremy (a guitarist). Jeremy promises her to be her companion, but he has

quickly run away with Molly Cunningham. Bertha advises her that ―no man want a woman

with a troubled mind. You get all that trouble of your mind and just when it look like you ain‘t

never gonna find what you want […] you look up and it‘s standing right there. That‘s how I met

my Seth. You gonna look up one day and find everything you want standing right in front of

you‖ (Joe Turner 71). At the end of the play, she runs after Loomis after accepting ‗the

responsibility of his own presence in the world.‘ And it is clear that she has solved her

proplem of finding a companion and becomes emotionally self- sufficient.

The two opposites in the play are Seth and Jeremy. Seth is an independent,

hardworking man, who has many ways to get money: he makes pots and pans, works for Mr.

Olowski, and manages the boarding house. In turn, Jeremy does not possess enough money to

maintain his dignity. Unlike Loomis who needs to be self- sufficient, Jeremy needs to be

economically self- sufficient.

The only white character in the play is Rutherford Selig. Selig is a peddler, who provides raw

materials to Seth and sells the finished products. The relationship between Selig and Seth is the

same as that between the whites and the blacks; the whites provide the stuff, and the blacks toil.

This relationship clarifies the status of the blacks in the early 20th century; Selig‘s father and

grandfather, off-stage white characters, accentuate this nonequivalent relationship. Another

off-stage white character is Joe Turner, who enslaves black men and forces them to work for

him. Those white characters provide the evidence of the capital-labor relationship between

the whites and the blacks.

The characters in Wilson‘s play manage to attain their identity through self-knowledge and

self-empowerment. When they grasp their African identity tightly, they can be really free.

This peaceful method of resistance succeeds in fulfilling the needs of the characters, while the

violent method of resistance, embraced by vessels, is in vain. In Cairo, June 2009, Barack

Obama gave a speech regarding this issue. He says:

―Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed. For

centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the

humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It

was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America‘s

founding … It‘s a story with a simple truth: that violence is a dead end.‖
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