Historiography in "Beginnings: Malcolm" by Amiri Baraka

Abstract

This article discusses Aimiri Baraka‘s concern with the history of black people in his poem "Beginnings: Malcolm". The writers try to shed some light on the way Baraka's historiography challenges the white supremecist discourses through a rewriting of the African American past that blurs the boundaries of myth and history, fact and fiction, in a postmodern manner. It is argued that through the use of the central African myth of Esu/Elegba and drawing on traditions of Christianity and Western literature/culture, Baraka‘s poem offers an uncanny insight into the past.