Olugbenga- Jebutu 1 Feranmi Olugbenga- Jebutu Critical response # 6 Summary: the passage Asserting the Right to Be covers Blacks

as they struggle for independence. The passage doesnt start from the usual spot of just going from slavery to freedom but it actually expands on how the process of freedom even if it was only physical was achieved. The process doesnt seem as straight forward as the history books usually make abolishment seem. The phases mentioned in the passage show the history of resistance and revolts that Blacks have had in the struggle for their freedom. In the section called Formed Revolts and Autonomous Space the history of maroons are explained and examples of revolts, wars and accomplishments made by maroons are given. One example of the maroons would be that of Jamaica in which an African infused culture was made. The sections Everyday- Everyway Resistance and Facing the Enemy gives an idea to the kind of rebellion that was happening during slavery time. The section shows not only the big one that many are aware of but also the small and many times over looked rebellion such as slowing down process and ruining machinery. The latter of the sections goes to talk about the rebellions such as the fight for Haitis independence. This section also covers the abolishment of slavery of all the countries that were involved in this process in the Western Hemisphere Games People Play goes on to give an account of some of the advancements that blacks made after the abolishment of slavery such as in America where there were black senators and governors elected during the reconstruction era. The section, Freedom Tease, is about the setbacks Blacks encountered after they gained their freedom especially that of American Blacks who had to go back to picking cotton after being freed because of financial problems. The article also talks about things like Black Codes which were the predecessor to Jim Crowe laws.

Olugbenga- Jebutu 2 Evaluation: the passage is well put together in the fact that even though each section has a specific topic there are infusions of other things that correlate with the subject added also. An example would be in the section Everyday- Everyway Resistance there is the topic of slave women and sexuality. Many know and or have heard about Black women getting raped by their owners and overseers but the passage also goes on to talk about how some women slept with the overseer, owner or who ever so that they could secure a better future or better living conditions for themselves and or their family. Yet the way that the article was able to interweave that part into small resistances because of the idea of how some people didnt resist made sense even though it was obvious. A connection that I made while reading the passage was in the idea of suicide as resistance. In Things Fall Apart we learned that suicide is a cowards way and looked at with dishonor yet as the book mentions there are stories of people who went back to Africa by going into the sea or flying back. The article explains that things must have been really bad for people who culturally believed that suicide is one of the lowest ways to die actually killing themselves in that manner. It made me start to think about these slaves not in the jaded way that many refer to slaves since weve become so accustomed to hearing about the abuse that we start to have apathy towards the subject. While reading that part in the passage I started to understand the amount of helplessness that these people were feeling just as I started to understand Okonkwos helplessness as his way of life started to slip away with what he probably perceived as heathens. A thing that stood out to me and made me take a look at my surrounding was the section on family. In the African culture and the Black culture family is very important and having that connection to someone is extremely important but I never understood the extent of how

Olugbenga- Jebutu 3 important this connection was until this week. I was explaining to my friend, Ashli about my class and then I was expanding on my observation that she and I called people who had no blood relations to us things like uncle, play cousin, fake mom and such. I asked her why it was that she called her mothers best friend her aunt and all of the best friends children her cousins. She looked at me blankly and asked what else she would call them. I never noticed how family oriented African Americans and Africans were. We have this need of connection that makes us get defensive when a connection as silly as being play cousin gets questioned. A thing that I want to look into is maroons because the passage expanded on the subject but I have so many things that I still want to know about. Its odd to think about a kind of village of runaway slaves and Blacks just living near plantations where they have family members residing. In all the years that I had to learn about slavery and Black history in school things like maroons were never mentioned but they were the forerunners when it came to rebellion. Ive learned about rebellions like the New York rebellion and Nat Turners rebellion and as I got higher in school we dabbled somewhat into things like the Seminole Wars yet while we were learning about those subjects and even told about how slaves ran away to Florida things like the maroons were never mentioned. Im curious on how they operated not only as a group but also in relation with neighboring Natives and such