This section of our webpage is intended to explain certain concepts, symbols and influences that are present in "Daughters of the Dust" but may not be familiar to our readers. Scroll or click below to see an explanation of the following in terms of the film:"Salt Water People"
Ibo Landing
Haagar Peazant
Roots
"hoo doo"
"Yellow Mary"
Magical Realism
"Salt Water People"
Africans who were taken from their homeland on the transatlantic slave trade via large clipper ships. "Salt Water" references the fact that these people crossed the Altantic Ocean.Click the "Back" button on your browser to return to the previous page
Ibo Landing
The Peazant's home settlement. It takes its name from a tribe in Nigeria. The film tells the story of an entire slave ship full of members of the Ibo tribe who landed on the island where the Peazants currently live.Click the "Back" button on your browser to return to the previous page
Haagar
One of the main characters and the film's antagonist, she is the granddaughter-in-law of Nana Peazant who is the matriarch of the family. She is very skeptical of the voodoo that Nana practices and she is eager
to go to the mainland and leave Nana behind without a second thought.Haagar's name may refer to the biblical character of Hagar, the Egyptian serving-maid of Abraham's wife Sarai. When his wife was unable to bear children, she permitted Abraham to have a child, Ishmael, with Hagar. However, Hagar became proud and began to be disobedient to Sarai, to the point of attempting to take her place as Abraham's rightful wife. As a result of her behavior, she was expelled from Abraham's house and community. She eventually returned to Egypt, where she found a wife for her son and became the mother of another race.
According to Bible Bulletin Board, Hagar's name translates from Egyptian as "fugutive" or "immigrant."
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Roots
This is a term encapsulating one's heritage, culture and family history. It is a reflective look at the past to discern where one has geographically and culturally come from. For African and African American culture, your roots must be remembered and respected.It is also useful to know that Roots is the title of an influential book by Alex Haley. Written in 1980, it chronicles the struggles of a slave named Kunta Kinte and follows his lineage from slavery in the pre-Civil War era all the way to the author. Like "Daughters of the Dust," this novel illustrates that although one may be removed from slavery or from Africa by generations, that distance is nevertheless small if family heritage is preserved.
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"hoo doo"
Voodoo magic that is practiced particularly by Nana Peazant and, to some extent, the superstitions believed by the other family members. Haagar's calling it "hoo doo mess" is likely a derogatory and disrespectful act, considering that she rejects the rest of the family's ways.Click the "Back" button on your browser to return to the previous page
"Yellow Mary"
The significance of the word yellow is attributed to Mary's skin color. Compared to her other family members, Mary is a lighter shade of black. They call her yellow because she is closer to being white in skin tone and can therefore assimilate herself in a white world better than a darker skinned black could. "Yellow" was often used to describe the color of mulattos; hence Mary may be part white."Yellow" may also refer to Mary's being "ruined" by her time as a prostitute in Cuba. Yellow has the connotation of something soiled or unclean; Haagar refers to Mary upon her arival as a "ruint woman." Viola Peazant also makes the wistful remark, "All that yellow wasted!" This indicates that Mary was likely envied for her lighter color, and scorned because she did not use it to "pass" as white or become more integrated into mainstream soceity; instead she has retreated even farther from it, by living the deviant life of a prostitute.
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Magical Realism
Magical realism is often regarded as a regional trend, restricted to the Latin American writers who popularized it as a literary form. However, it has shown to be an international movement with a wide-ranging history and a significant influence among the literatures of the world. It is a term to describe the incorporation of superstition,
voodoo and magic into everyday life. Its influences on "Daughters of the Dust" are evident in the scenes in which the Unborn Child plays tricks on Mr. Snead by appearing on his camera lens, and where Eli walks on the water near Ibo Landing.Click the "Back" button on your browser to return to the previous page