Privacy & Its Ritual Functions, PART I

Ntozake Shange’s 1982 novel Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo chronicles the lives of three sisters and their widowed mother in Charleston, South Carolina. Sassafrass, the eldest, is a weaver; Cypress is a dancer; and Indigo, the youngest, is “a star child, [who] walks between worlds.” While both older sisters have left home to pursue careers and relationships, Indigo remains under the tutelage and watchful eyes of her elderly lady friends and her mother, Hilda Effania. Shange depicts Indigo as an otherworldly and fearless child, always “talkin’ wit the unreal [and] movin’ to an understandin’ of other worlds.” Geechee[1] magic constantly compels Indigo, much to the chagrin of her mother, who fears Indigo's sensuality will be used against her.

For Hilda Effania, Indigo’s danger is two-fold: she will not only face threats on account of her burgeoning woman-ness; Indigo will also face trouble from those who perceive her Geechee nature. Geechees are the legendary children of African immigrants and Native Americans who married during the early history of the Atlantic slave trade. During this period, the Native Americans were still strong and independent enough to offer the Africans substantial protections against European colonizers. This history of resistance and independence has meant that the offspring of this politico-conjugal union is notoriously considered exceedingly prideful. Additionally, the Geechees are considered some of the strangest Blacks because of their legendarily magical ways. For her mother, Indigo’s Geechee-ness is another factor that could incite an “offender’s” anger against her, as the star child cannot stifle her magical nature. 

Recipes, letters, and ritual texts by the sisters and mother frequently interrupt the narrative, thereby communicating the richness as well as the perils of their life cycle events. My favorite ritual, “To Rid Oneself of the Scent of Evil,” was created by Indigo following her rape[i] at the hands of the owner or the local drugstore, Mr. Turner.

Indigo’s predilection for “make-believe” and “elemental magic[2]” is precisely why she is able to recognize the potentially debilitating effects of her sexual assault and, by herself, undertake the ritual measures to ward them off, thereby proactively healing herself. While her social community strongly informs her foundation of knowledge and ways of being, Indigo must ultimately assume personal responsibility for her ritual practice for the sake of her own moral and spiritual development. In doing so, she reaffirms her right to this legendary magic as well as the necessity of personal and spontaneous ritual construction[3] to address unexpected and often violent conflict.

In its unabashed reverence for ritual, Shange’s narrative raises several themes: The transformative power of magic; the devotee’s need for particular, or personal, ritual practices, evinced by Indigo’s ritual of affliction; and the orientation towards the personal versus that of the communal, manifested specifically in intergenerational conflict. Shange’s novel illuminates how magic and ritual function to name and explain the experiences of Black women.

In Beginnings in Ritual Studies, Ronald Grimes offers: “Magic refers to any element of pragmatic, ritual work. If a ritual not only has meaning, but also ‘works,’ it is magical.” Almost a decade later, Tom Driver elaborates on Grimes’ theory, in The Magic of Ritual, to explain the transformative potential of ritual. Ritual creativity compels practitioners to directly address oppositional structures of society, with the aim of altering some part of the world with their works. Thus, the practitioner stands in contradistinction to society as well as a part of it, effectively changing the ordinary reality of social interaction. The practical yet transformative characteristics of magic are salient in Indigo’s ritual construction.

Personal, spontaneous ritual construction is imperative for taking responsibility for one’s personal development and maintaining agency. 

The confessional mode is “existential and life-urgent” in that it requires practitioners to “perform their becoming,” thereby taking responsibility for their transformation. This mode of ritual is “highly personal” because it is often “concerned with identity and self-disclosure.” 

These observations speak to a tension between the personal and the communal in that the former addresses specific and urgent individual concerns in a way the latter cannot.

Ritual studies scholar Victor Turner discusses personal and communal conflict in his essay on liminality, “Betwixt and Between.” He argues that during the liminal, or transition period, the neophyte, or initiate, is compelled to reflect on structures of power. So, according to Turner’s theory, the intergenerational conflict Indigo experiences with her mother and elderly lady friends is an organic symptom of the life cycle, which personal rituals can mediate as they transform both the practitioner and the world she inhabits. Following her rape, Indigo enters a liminal period in which she enacts her spontaneous ritual.

---

[1]“The Geechees are the legendary children of African and American India marriages that occurred early in the Atlantic slave trade history, when the Indians were still strong enough to offer runaway slaves protection. As legendary figures, these children are noted for their fierce invincibility and fighting spirit in the struggle for freedom” (Thompson-Cager 595).

[2] “Elemental magic” refers to aspects of the natural world that allow one to be creative and productive (Thompson-Cager 600).

[3] A spontaneous, personal ritual construction is a ritual practice that is not bound to traditional praxis. Rather, it stems from the practitioner’s creativity in order to redress sudden, unexpected cosmic disorder.

---

[i] While Indigo never names the experiences as such, I believe Shange implies Indigo’s rape through the narrative style of the scene. I’m open to a discussion with all you Shange die-hards.