Also, the communication patterns of the enslaved stemmed from their creativity and will to survive – in most states in which slavery was legal, slaves were not allowed to learn to read. It consisted of an impressive communication style that was rich in allusion, metaphor, and imagery and prolific in the use of body language and other nonverbal nuances. This oral tradition is, in fact, one of the cultural vestiges that Africans transported to America. The enslaved communicated their hopes, fears and ideas through story and song. Yet, despite efforts to suppress, if not fully destroy, elements of African culture, many enslaved people were able to maintain a shared and unifying element of their oral tradition. During the devastation of enslavement, African peoples were intermingled and forced to abandon their homeland, indigenous languages, native rituals and traditions. It began on the continent of Africa where African nations developed around a worldview that was predicated on a very sophisticated religious practice and an impressive communication style.
The oral storytelling tradition is as ancient as civilization. These stories became the substance for Chéri’s musical, Gun & Powder, as she weaved the various scenarios, interpretations and perspectives of her great-great-aunts’ lives into one cohesive story.
When members of Angelica Chéri’s family told her stories about her great-great-aunts Mary and Martha Clarke, two African American women who passed for White and were believed to have been outlaws in post-emancipation Texas, she became heir to a rich and powerful tradition in African American culture – oral storytelling.
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