on baba george and walt disneys song of the south: dat old zip a de do dah

zip a de do dah, zip a de ay
my o my what a wonderful day

saw on black commentator that
walt disney was going to bring out
song of the south on its upcoming 60th anniversary

that there were legions of fans
black and white asking for it

so the mouse decided to do it again
black commentator of course was incensed
but as an artist i think i will have to come
down on the side of anticensorship on this one

first thing i did was go get some confirmation
from the source they used, this guy jim hill
who covers disney cause i found it hard to believe
that disney was going to bring it back out
after all the controversy it has raised

i for one dont plan to buy a copy
though it will be tempting because i loved song of the south
as a kid, but then i liked tarzan too

all i remembered of song of the south though was the animation
an the song, zip a de do dah, zip a de ay, my o my what a wonderful day
still like that song, but i hate the movie

and would love to see the animation of brer rabbit and them again
characters who are still if not more important to me as
an african american storyteller and novelist

they were the first body of african american literature
and as a storyteller i love the brer rabbit tales
and as a novelist in the griotic tradition i love them also

in fact they play a significant part in my latest novel
rest for the weary

and since this is the only depiction of them in film
one day some years ago i went looking
for a copy of song of the south and ended
up reading about it and was appalled
when i read about the live action parts of it
and ending up deciding i didnt want it after all

its mostly about kindly old loyal uncle remus taking care of
the little white master, or rather ex master
because it was during reconstruction i believe
though disney sets it in some surreal
'united states of georgia' based on some vague
for of eternal slavery

plenty of loyal happy darkies
singing and dancing for the master

and the climax is when their masters tell
the youngmaster he cant hang out w/uncle remus
no more and uncle remus, devastated and damn near crying
exiles himself until he is reunited with his dear dear master

whats really deep is that i didnt remember any of this
must have just blocked it out, even then as a very young child
all i remembered was the animated parts

but when i realized just how much of a glorification
of the southern mythology of happy darkies
and kindly masters it was, i decided that was too much
antebellum trash to deal with just to get to the good parts

it was like i had been betrayed somehow
like walt disney had taken my blues and gone

about how they took something fine and true of black culture
and made it into pure cultural poison

(not that it wasnt reflective of the era, reminded me of those blackcrows in dumbo, or the zootsuited wolves in mightymouse, or daffyduck for that matter, dont get me started on what we had to endure when i was a kid . . ).

but disney had help, they used the works of joel chandler harris
a journalist who used the stories his parents slaves had told him
when he was a kid

being such a big fan of brer rabbit i once researched the history
of the brer rabbit corpus and found that the original storyteller
was believed to be one uncle george

joel chandler was a journalist who took the stories he
heard uncle george (lets call him baba george why dont we) tell,
made up a composite of his idea of a good and loyal slave
and named his composite uncle remus

joel chandler was operating out of two reconstruction contexts
he wrote in atlanta right after the civil war and was part of an organized effort
by white atlanta to get the newly freed slaves to both miss the good old days
and to act how white atlanta felt that good newly freed blacks should, ie subservient
and still loyal to the old plantation class

it also came out of a period journalistic tradition of giving advice
and social commentary through colorful regional character narratives

consequently chandlers brer rabbit body of work has a questionable slant
but the power of the tales shine through in spite of him

it is the first african american body of literature
(along with the slave narratives) and when im telling stories as
part of my performance work i always do some brer rabbit
(a little bit of selfmarketing there, i sing and dance w/the best of them)

this baba george was clearly one of the master storytellers of all times and i try to give him his denied props in this book george hunt and i are doing called babageorge and the oral tradition - an illustrated book for both children and adults

and i would love to see those old animations but when i saw how they were contexted in song of the south i just couldnt sit thru it and im not going to pay good money to see it now either

even beyond the offensive content, it is one of the most tedious and boring films ever done, it was much too much work to get to the good parts even if the live action segments werent offensive - and they most certainly were

but then im a big fan of the amos and andy tv show
(got some treasured amos and andy tapes i hunted down)
and they also got yanked for being offensive, but in that case i dont agree
i do love me some amos and andy and the kingfish too

and consider myself a member in good standing
of the mystic knights of the sea

so i got to come down on the side of anticensorship on song of the south too
you can see if it you want but dont expect me to support it

what disney ought to do is redo the damned thing
it would make a helluva animated movie done with a modern sensibility
(even as is SOS will probably generate some interesting dialogue
my understanding is they are going to try to frame it in a lot of dvd extras,
this is going to be interesting)

in the meantime im trying to reclaim brer rabbit and
put that and other afroam folklore in a new context

part of my mission with this novel is to reclaim our literary history
and reforge our folklore into an instrument suitable to our 21st century condition

in rest for the weary my conjureman lives in a riverside park
that im trying to define as an african american holyground
the riverside community that harbors the park is peopled
with folk from african american folklore

(as a kid back in memphis i grew up alongside the river and that riverbluff park was my playground,
but i didnt realize how mythic that was until i started writing about it)

my conjureman is tucept jubilation highjohn
and based on the mythwork of highjohn the conqueror

i also got john henry and pollyanne, i got frankie and johnny
and i got stagolee and billy lyons and a mess of such folk

i also got brer rabbit and them living in that park
cause that park is a hole in the wall where anything goes
where fantasy and reality interface (including scenes from other afroam novels)
it is a delta crossroads - a delta holyground

my neighborhood conjureman is a storyteller in the realworld
and his first intro of brer rabbit is as a story but then they show up as real characters

most folk know of brer rabbit and the tar baby, it is the most well known
but the intro story highjohn tells of brer rabbit is probably my favorite
hes telling it at an annual juneteenth celebration in the park:

"How many of you know, Highjohn ask a gaggle of spellbound kids from the neighborhood, that Brer Rabbit and his crew live in the Park here. Anklebells jangling, Highjohn walks to the edge of the stage and sits down among them. He drops his voice like it is a secret between him and them. That’s why I live here he told them because they tell me things I couldnt get nowhere else. Now the Rabbit and them, they wary of humanfolk but sometimes late at night I settle back and close my eyes and act like Im sleeping see and soon enough old Brer Rabbit he come peeping in the door and when he see me sleeping like that he call the rest of them in and they commence to partying right there in my front room. Brer Rabbit he pull out he bluesharp and Bear he play the bones and Sister Coon she play she guitar bigger than she and Brer and Sister Fox commence to kicking up their heels and sometimes I get in the spirit and I forget myself and I open my eyes and the music stop and they all hide away till I remember to close my eyes again."

Comments

[christina]

This is my first time seeing your blog and I appreciate it as there is no one I really have to discuss my hoodoo spiritism with. Anyway just wanted to give you some props and let you know I'll be around.