The Mask - a poem by Maya Angelou
Here is The Mask - a poem by Maya Angelou. Please note that this poem is an adaptation of the poem by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, "We wear the mask".
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Maya Angelou
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The Mask - a poem by Maya Angelou
We wear the mask that grins and lies.
It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes.
This debt we pay to human guile
With torn and bleeding hearts . . .
We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties.
Why should the world think otherwise
In counting all our tears and sighs.
Nay let them only see us while
We wear the mask.
We smile but oh my God
Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise
And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing . . .
The clay is vile beneath our feet
And long the mile
But let the world think otherwise.
We wear the mask.
When I think about myself
I almost laugh myself to death.
My life has been one great big joke!
A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke.
I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke
When I think about myself.
Seventy years in these folks’ world
The child I works for calls me girl
I say “HA! HA! HA! Yes ma’am!”
For workin’s sake
I’m too proud to bend and
Too poor to break
So . . . I laugh! Until my stomach ache
When I think about myself.
My folks can make me split my side
I laugh so hard, HA! HA! I nearly died
The tales they tell sound just like lying
They grow the fruit but eat the rind.
Hmm huh! I laugh uhuh huh huh . . .
Until I start to cry when I think about myself
And my folks and the children.
My fathers sit on benches,
Their flesh count every plank,
The slats leave dents of darkness
Deep in their withered flank.
And they gnarled like broken candles,
All waxed and burned profound.
They say, but sugar, it was our submission
that made your world go round.
There in those pleated faces
I see the auction block
The chains and slavery’s coffles
The whip and lash and stock.
My fathers speak in voices
That shred my fact and sound
They say, but sugar, it was our submission
that made your world go round.
They laugh to conceal their crying,
They shuffle through their dreams
They stepped ’n fetched a country
And wrote the blues in screams.
I understand their meaning,
It could an did derive
From living on the edge of death
They kept my race alive
By wearing the mask! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Watch Maya deliver the poem
Who was Maya Angelou
This woman was a cultural phenomenon and exceptional author and speaker. "Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in 1928. It wasn't until 1970, when she was 41, that she became an author" (( https://time.com/123113/in-memoriam-celebrating-the-life-of-poet-maya-angelou/)). Before becoming an author, she was a singer and dancer. She used to perform in night clubs and later, with a theatre company. Plus, she got to tour about 22 countries in the 1950s. That is a great achievement in and of itself but as a woman of colour in the Jim Crow era, that was beyond phenomenal. Time.com have a whole archive dedicated to her. You can find it here: https://time.com/123113/in-memoriam-celebrating-the-life-of-poet-maya-angelou/
She won three Grammy's for her spoken word work. She published works such as, I know why the caged bird sings and Even the stars look lonesome (( https://www.blackenterprise.com/top-10-works-of-maya-angelou/#:~:text=This%20book%20contains%20all%20of,On%20the%20Pulse%20of%20Morning.)). And my all time favourite, Still I rise. Maya was also part of the cast of Roots.
What I learnt from The Mask - a poem by Maya Angelou
Firstly, as the poem says, we wear a mask. Although I know that everyone wears a mask, I believe that the biggest mask that we are beginning to see fall off, is the mask of equality. We pretend that we are equal or maybe we hope that we are equal but we are not. And I as a black woman from Africa have experienced this seemingly ubiquitous inequality. From having to jump through hoops to get jobs in Europe, to feeling unsafe in my own continent - the world is unsafe. And I would have been even less equal if I was a disabled, from a poor family and LGBTQIA.
However, I like many other women of colour, wear a mask. Firstly, I make sure I am the best performer in everything that I do lest I get accused of being lazy and genetically inferior in my IQ by certain scientists. Secondly, I smile the brightest in every room I enter so I don't look unapproachable. Thirdly, I shrink myself so others won't feel intimidated.
And even as people make cutting prejudice and stereotyping remarks such as "your hair is so sassy", "you are not very black", I smile and continue to wear my mask. Of course you might say, but we all struggle Lorraine. Yet I ask, have you ever struggled because of your skin colour? Have you ever gone on a night out only to be refused entry on sight? Not because you are inappropriately dressed or drunk and disorderly but because the security guard has the right to refuse you entry. And they don't even have to tell you why. So you are left asking yourself, what is it about my appearance that made him turn me away?
What you should take away from this poem
Allow us, black people, to tell you our stories without feeling offended or accused
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.
Maya ANgelou
We need your compassion, not your critical analysis and criticism
We smile but oh my God
Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise
Maya Angelou
This is a heart issue more than a mind issue. We need your compassion. We have suffered in silence but we can't bear it anymore.
Rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Cry with those who are crying
Romans 12:15 (ISV)
...But if you want to rationalise...
Think about it, in the 1950s Jim Crow laws were still in place. Segregation was acceptable. And in the 1990s in South Africa, segregation was the law, white supremacy ruled. So don't tell a black person that slavery was abolished in the 1800s. And that they should just get on with it and stop making excuses. You are far more intelligent than that. If you can theorise about alien invasions and the possible terror of a zombie apocalypse, surely you can empathise with black people as well. I posit that colonialism to my African ancestors was somewhat similar to an alien invasion.
The invasion*
I posit that colonialism to my African ancestors was somewhat similar to an alien invasion
You are going about your business when one fateful day a 'being' as pale as can be comes into your land. Shocked but excited by this new 'being' in your presence, you allow them to dwell in your land. But lo and behold, this 'being' which by now you have realised is a person just like you, wants to take your land from you. Instead of asking you for a little piece however, he fights you for it. Not only that, he forces you to become his possession, a slave. Then he strips you of all your humanity for years. And he takes all your wealth and possessions. Separates you from your wife and children. But then just as suddenly as this all had began, he suddenly cuts you loose, because it's a bad look to own another human being.
So you are clueless about how to do life outside of slavery. But you are optimistic about your new found freedom. Only it's short lived. Because that same person, a few generations later is adamant to make your life a living hell. He believes you are beneath him. Less than human. And should not live the good life that he lives. He makes laws, very clever laws that keep the farcade of his innocence in tact.
And maybe you ask, what's that got to do with me? I didn't do anything. I agree, you personally didn't do anything. And I would hate for you my brother to feel personally responsible for your ancestors' evil. But in expressing my pain, I never said you were to blame. What I do say however is, let's not deny history. Let's face it. Together. So we can work our way to true equality. We are tired of wearing a mask, aren't you?
Thank you so much for reading, The Mask - a poem by Maya Angelou.
Feature of the week
The colour of someone's skin does not make them inherently evil. Our white friends who support us, love us and stand with us truly, are not just allies. They are our brothers and sisters. Let's open up our hearts and allow love, forgiveness and grace to wash our friendships.
P.S. The invasion is the retelling of the history of colonialism and slavery in the West combined. It alludes to the history of South Africa and the USA.
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