Thomson Gale

In the following essay, the critic gives a critical analysis of Sanchez’s work.

In addition to being an important activist, poet, playwright, professor, and a leader of the black studies movement, Sonia Sanchez has also written books for children. She introduced young people to the poetry of black English in her 1971 work It’s a New Day: Poems for Young Brothas and Sistuhs, created a moral fable for younger children in 1973’s The Adventures of Fat Head, Small Head, and Square Head, and produced a collection of short tales for children in 1979’s A Sound Investment and Other Stories. As William Pitt Root noted in Poetry magazine: ‘‘One concern [Sanchez] always comes back to is the real education of Black children.’’

Sanchez was born Wilsonia Benita Driver on September 9, 1934, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her mother died when she was very young, and she was raised by her grandmother until she too died when the author was six years old. Her father was a schoolteacher, and as a result she and her siblings spoke standard English instead of a southern or black dialect. It was not until she and her brother rejoined her father in Harlem, New York, when she was nine years old, that Sanchez learned the speech of the streets that would become so important to her poetry. Sanchez also stuttered as a child; this led her to writing, which she has done since she was very young.

Sanchez also learned about racism at a very young age. She recalled in an interview with Claudia Tate for Tate’s Black Women Writers at Work: ‘‘I also remember an aunt who spat in a bus driver’s face—that was the subject of one of my first poems—because he wanted her to get off as the bus was filling up with white people. . . . Well, my aunt would not get off the bus, so she spat, and was arrested. That was the first visual instance I can remember of encountering racism.’’ She did not leave racism behind when her family moved north, however. She told Tate that ‘‘coming north to Harlem for ‘freedom’ when I was nine presented me with a whole new racial landscape.’’ Sanchez continued, ‘‘Here was the realization of the cornerstore, where I watched white men pinch black women on their behinds. And I made a vow that nobody would ever do that to me unless I wanted him to. I continued to live in the neighborhood, went to that store as a nine-year-old child, and continued to go there as a student at Hunter College. When I was sixteen to eighteen they attempted to pinch my behind. I turned around and said, ‘Oh no you don’t.’ They knew I was serious.’’ She has been fighting racism and sexism ever since.

After graduating from Hunter College in 1955, Sanchez did postgraduate study at New York University. During the early 1960s she was an integrationist, supporting the ideas of the Congress of Racial Equality. But after listening to the ideas of Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, who believed blacks would never be truly accepted by whites in the United States, she focused more on her black heritage as something separate from white Americans. She began teaching in the San Francisco area in 1965, first on the staff of the Downtown Community School and later at San Francisco State College (now University). There she was a pioneer in developing black studies courses, including a class in black English.

In 1969, Sanchez published her first book of poetry for adults, Homecoming . She followed...

Jennifer Bussey

Bussey holds a master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She is an independent writer specializing in literature. In the following essay, she provides an overview of African dance as an important context for Sonia Sanchez’s “An Anthem.”

In most cultures, dance has an important place. In fact, the diversity of dance styles is so great that cultures can be recognized by their traditional dances, even by someone with only a passing knowledge of dance history. What is it about dance that speaks so clearly to and about a culture? In Sonia Sanchez’s “An Anthem,” the poet weaves dance and music imagery into a poem that makes strong statements against war and injustice and about the need for courage. Central to the message of the poem are the descriptions of African dance and dancers because from them comes a sense of identity, community, and roots. A study of specific African dances would require volumes, as each tribe and culture has developed its own dances over centuries. Here, African dance is discussed in general terms in order to shed light on why and how Sanchez uses it to bring energy and depth to her poem.

[CALLOUT]
In the early 2000s, modern dancers continue to learn and embrace traditional African dance, music, and costumes. African Americans committed to preserving their heritage include the cultural traditions of music and dance.

In African culture, dance has played important social, religious, symbolic, military, and occupational roles. In most cases, a dance holds a primary purpose but is carried out in such a way that secondary functions are also served. For example, a hunter’s dance may be intended to show the tribe how an animal was killed and to acknowledge the animal’s spirit, but it also showcases the athleticism and skill of the hunters who perform the dance. Similarly, a dance performed in a particular Yoruba town is meant to honor Mother Earth, but it also disparages immorality and draws sharp contrasts with its depiction of the genders.

Even the most casual observers may notice that dances often draw distinctions among tribal members based on age, status, occupation, or gender. Dances often give different segments of the tribe an opportunity to express themselves in ways that are suited to their age or gender. Dances for older members are generally slower and more elegant; dances for young women are often flowing and feminine; and dances for midlife men are often energetic and forceful. Some tribes even use dance to signal transitions from one age group to another, which is especially important when youths are admitted to adulthood. In these cases, dances often indicate readiness and desirability for marriage or serve as an initiation into a new social group. Dances for young men serve a secondary purpose of providing exercise and conditioning to keep them in shape for fighting and hunting. Dances also function to separate by status, as leadership within the tribe can be identified within certain dances. Dance can affirm leadership, show loyalty to leaders, and honor past leaders of the tribe.

Dance and religion are closely intertwined in African cultures as a way to create union between the body and the spirit. Dances are used as an extension of religious powers when they are performed to cast out evil spirits, call on fertility gods, and demand discipline in purification rituals. Dancers who perform in rituals are trained for many years, often beginning very young. In some cases, as in the worship of Shango (who is mentioned by Sanchez in “An Anthem”), dances represent the worshippers being overtaken by the spirit of the deity. Other qualities of dances to Shango are expressed in Sanchez’s poem. Yoruba priests express Shango’s thunderous rage by rhythmic and rapid pounding on drums, rolling their shoulders, and stomping their feet. Related to religious ceremonies are other ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. These are accompanied by dances traditional within each society. Wedding dances are celebratory and symbolic, while funeral dances are performed to complete burial, provide comfort, and honor the dead and the dead person’s legacy.

Military dances can be performed to relate ancestral history, recall great heroes of the tribe, and honor the military, in general. They also energize the warriors as they prepare for battle, generate a strong sense of camaraderie among them, and give the tribe an opportunity to express admiration and gratitude to them. The demanding dances require physical fitness, thus showing the warriors’ strength while providing exercise. Similarly, other male groups dance together to commemorate success in harvest, hunting, or building. These dances present stylized movements specific to the group’s role, such as casting nets or growing crops.

Numerous dances are known as masquerades because they involve masks of some kind worn by some or all of the participants. This is relevant to “An Anthem” because the refrain, “give me courage so I can spread / it over my face and mouth.” These words describe courage as something that covers the speaker’s face like a mask. In masquerades, a dancer is often chosen (and his identity kept secret) to represent the deity by wearing a mask or cloth over his head and face. Other dances involve performers wearing masks to represent animals, spirits, or qualities. Masks, like dance movements, can be highly symbolic. A mask of an animal might just represent the animal in the context of a hunt or a story, or it may symbolize a quality such as power, strength, or status. Some of the dances feature masks so heavy that the dancer can barely move at all while wearing them. This is intended to strip the dancer of freedom and encourage purification and discipline.

The central role of dance in African cultures is evident in its continuation among slave groups in the Americas. In fact, slave groups often created new dances in traditional styles to represent their experience as slaves. Because slaves were assimilated into their new cultures, their dances became blends of the traditional African styles and the new styles they learned in the Americas. The extent of this blend depended on how large the slave group was (larger groups had more success in preserving the original dances than smaller ones) and how often new slaves from Africa were added. Interesting to the context of this essay, West African societies such as the Yoruba (indirectly referred to in Sanchez’s poem through the allusion to Shango) were the sources of the dominant dance styles.

Music accompanies dance, and African music has a distinct quality. Drums and other instruments that are pounded or scraped are common across African cultures. Often dancers’ costumes include rattles on the costumes themselves or on straps worn around the ankles. All of these instruments reinforce the importance of rhythm in African dance. In some areas, instruments such as flutes and horns are used.

In the early 2000s, modern dancers continue to learn and embrace traditional African dance, music, and costumes. African Americans committed to preserving their heritage include the cultural traditions of music and dance. These dances include those of Africa as well as those of slave ancestors. Notable choreographers in this area include Katherine Dunham, Alvin Ailey, and Talley Beatty. The preservation of dance is not limited to performance, however, as proven by Sanchez. With her energetic descriptions of “ceremonial breaths” and “shaking hips,” Sanchez brings life to “An Anthem.” She describes a community that runs, sees, and laughs loudly. But she cautions that they are more than cultural elements like music, horns, color, drums, and dance. Still, through cultural unity, she believes that with courage, she and the other protesters can stare down “madmen” war makers and bring justice to a world that desperately needs it.

Source: Jennifer Bussey, Critical Essay on “An Anthem,” in Poetry for Students, Thomson Gale, 2007.