Rethinking the Concept of Double Consciousness in Du Bois’ The Souls of Black Folks (1903)

Summary

In an essay titled “Of our spiritual strivings”, W.E.B. Du Bois coined and elaborated the concept of “double consciousness” to refer to the ambiguity of being black and American. The ambivalence and unstable identities suggested by the term imply living a life characterised by seemingly irreconcilable dualities. On the one hand, blacks are entitled to become Americans because the slave labour they were forced to provide created the material and economic basis of modern America. On the other hand, the black people who created the wealth of the American nation find themselves marginalised or occupying low-paying jobs, leading to the condition of double consciousness being seen as a hindrance to the progress of the black race. In the American South, before the emancipation of slaves, black people were raped, racially segregated, lynched, and denied equal opportunities. Du Bois explains the ruthless experiences that the Negroes endured because of double consciousness as he asserts that the feeling of both belonging and not belonging to America often sent black people to court; thus, false gods invoking false means of salvation. At times blacks felt ashamed of themselves. Du Bois perceives the evil experiences endured by black people as concretised in the musical form of the Negro Spirituals. An analysis of selected songs suggests that these songs are the most beautiful expression of human experience because the songs manifest an awareness of the self that is more than the two-ness implied in the concept of double consciousness. The paradox indicated above confirms double consciousness as on one level a source of evil experiences of the Negroes, and on another, positive level, the condition that enabled them to fashion new discourses of resistances in order to express their desire to escape slavery. This article uses Gilroy’s notion of the ambiguity of modernity in fashioning identities of the Black Atlantic in order to rethink the idea of double consciousness, and at the same time amplify the multiple ways in which black people experienced slavery in America.

Opsomming

In ʼn essay getiteld “Of our spiritual Strivings” het W.E.B. Du Bois die konsep van “dubbele bewussyn” geskep en uitgebou om te verwys na die dubbelsinnigheid daar- van om swart en Amerikaans te wees. Die teenstrydigheid en onstabiele identiteite wat deur die term gesuggereer word, impliseer dat ʼn lewe gelei word wat deur oënskynlik onversoenbare dualiteite gekenmerk word. Aan die een kant is swart- mense daarop geregtig om Amerikaners te word omdat die slawe-arbeid wat hulle gedwing is om te verrig, die materiële en ekonomiese basis van die hedendaagse Amerika gevorm het. Aan die ander kant is die einste swartmense wat die welvaart van die Amerikaanse nasie geskep het, gemarginaliseer of in laagbesoldigde poste geplaas, en dit veroorsaak dat die toestand van dubbele bewussyn beskou word as ʼn struikelblok in die vooruitgang van die swart ras. In die Amerikaanse Suide, voor die emansipasie van slawe, is swartmense ontvoer, geskei op grond van ras, gelynch, en gelyke geleenthede ontneem. Du Bois verduidelik die wrede ervarings wat die Negers verduur het as gevolg van dubbele bewussyn, wanneer hy aanvoer dat die gevoel van beide tot Amerika behoort en nie behoort nie, dikwels swartmense hof toe gestuur het; valse gode wat valse vorme van redding oproep. Swartes het hulle met tye geskaam. Du Bois bemerk die bose ervarings wat deur swartmense verduur word as gekonkretiseer in die musikale vorm van die Neger-geestelikes. ʼn Ontleding van uitgesoekte liedere toon dat hierdie liedere die heel mooiste vorm van menslike uitdrukking is, omdat die liedere ʼn bewussyn van die self openbaar wat meer is as die “twee-heid” wat in die konsep van dubbele bewussyn geïmpliseer word. Die paradoks wat hier bo aangedui word, bevestig dubbele bewussyn as, op een valk, ʼn bron van bose ervarings van die Negers, en op ʼn ander, positiewe vlak, die toestand wat hulle in staat gestel het om nuwe diskoerse van weerstand te vorm om sodoende uitdrukking te gee aan hul begeerte om van slawerny te ontsnap. Hierdie artikel gebruik Gilroy se idee van die dubbelsinnigheid van moderniteit in die vorming van identiteite van die Swart Atlantiese as heroorweging van die idee van dubbele bewussyn, en terselfdertyd versterking van die veelvuldige maniere waarop swartmense slawerny in Amerika ervaar het.