A well-known West African proverb states: “Only when lions have historians will hunters stop being heroes.”
After reading A Treasury of African-American Christmas Stories,
there is no doubt that Temple University Historian Bettye
Collier-Thomas, who compiled and edited the book, has taken this maxim
to heart. As the “lions’ historian,” she unveils entirely new insight
into nineteenth century African American life and lore. We must remain
indebted to her for the rare blend of scholarship and narrative that
she brings to this project.
Although A Treasury of African-American Christmas Stories has
arrived just in time for holiday giving, its timelessness and
“family-friendly” contents ensure that readers will return to this
first-ever collection of Christmas stories written by African Americans
throughout the year. The volume is carefully crafted with enchanting
and informative stories brimming with new and enlightening literary,
historical, and cultural content. Whether conjuring images of
ante-bellum or post-bellum life, these tales highlight the loves,
hopes, aspirations, holiday traditions, family values, spirituality,
and fears common to those times.
In her “Introduction,” the author speculates that readers may be
surprised to find that well-known journalists, activists, and national
leaders such as Ida B. Wells Barnett, T. Thomas Fortune, Alice Moore
Dunbar-Nelson, and others wrote fiction.
“It was their commitment to address the pressing issues confronting
the African American community and their high level of responsibility
to positive race relations that encouraged them to use as many mediums
as possible to get their messages across,” she writes.
By inserting brilliantly crafted, highly readable, and
exceptionally informative headnotes at the beginning of each story,
Collier-Thomas has done much the same thing. Each story begins with a
biographical profile and contextual notes particular to the locale,
people, traditions and concerns of the times. in this way, the stories
take on far greater meaning. One can not only appreciate the lyrical
and narrative strengths of the stories, but can simultaneously learn
far more about issues of concern to African Americans a century ago.
The technique employed by Collier-Thomas and the authors whose
works she has collected is in the oldest of the West African
story-telling traditions. Noting that the concept of “art for art’s
sake” was outside of the cultural constructs of most West African
communities, Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe has often observed that
the writer — like the griot before him — approached his subject
assuming an obligation to educate and entertain.
