Chapter 6, Not a Story to Pass On, Living Memory and the Slave Sublime Summary and Analysis

The idea of tradition has great power in black political discourage. It helps to assert the kinship of cultural forms that are produced from diverse black experiences. Modernity threatens the racial self so a source of stability is required. The aim of the chapter therefore tries to rethink the idea of tradition so that it is not modernity's opposite. Tradition helps to avoid the memory of slavery as slavery tried to erase tradition. The desire to remember slavery thus becomes more difficult. Blacks are urged to forget being slaves as it is an exception of the story of a great African history. Blacks ask one another to replace the image of slavery with a positive notion of...