In The Truth About Awiti, Awiti uses her powers of nature to confront and destroy communities of hate and symbols of slavery throughout North America. This campaign of violence and destruction was never intended to end with peace. Awiti’s campaign for vengeance will never end as long as the mistreatment of African Americans people in our society continues. With her immortality, Awiti is able to witness the continuing oppression of her people throughout the centuries, without any true progress being made. While legislation has been passed to free slaves, outlaw segregation, and eventually prevent racial discrimination, new forms of injustice have popped up just as quickly as they can be destroyed. Today’s new face of injustice being police brutality, racial profiling, and a resurgence of racist rhetoric with the institution of a certain administration into office. The author ensures that Awiti is never able to find peace because in reality for African Americans in America it doesn’t exist in its most simple forms.
Stuck in the body and mind of a teenager, Awiti is never able to let go of her pain and is unable to find lasting peace within herself. In Chapter 20, Awiti has a more personal connection to her campaign than any other chapter. The Montaudoin family serves as a surrogate of her own family, and those that she lost in the very early stages of her life. In seeking revenge, Awiti leaves the Montaudoin parents as barren emotionally as Awiti felt when her siblings and parents were taken away. In this reversal of roles, Awiti punishes the Montaudoin family for their role in the slave trade and now wealth and privilege built upon the backs of millions of slaves. This chapter was pivotal in that it showed the shift in Awiti’s mental state and ideological beliefs. Instead of seeking revenge for those who had personally tainted the lives of slaves, she took out her anger and hatred on innocent children who knew nothing of their family's shameful past. Past this point, Awiti’s campaign served another purpose, rather than to avenge those who had been harmed in the past, Awiti now endangered the lives of anyone in her path.
Awiti now truly believed herself to be the ultimate authority and sacrificed thousands of African American lives to simply inflict pain on past symbols of slavery. Awiti’s new ideological beliefs reminded me of Japanese kamikaze bombers or modern-day jihadists who believe that others are ready to sacrifice themselves for the good of the cause. This mentality is shown in the final chapter as Awiti says, “I can end that. I can help people get to the afterlife. A place of peace. No more suffering”. In her stunted emotional growth, Awiti is unable to realize that people would rather stay alive and endure the hardships of life and everyday discrimination rather than face death. There is more to life than what Awiti can see including, love, family, and a sense of belonging. But in Awiti’s newfound sense of justice, nothing is worth more than the destruction and death she creates. Awiti’s actions can be compared to those aforementioned jihadists who like Awiti believe that they are avenging those who have been killed by western greed. In transnational arguments today, many parallels can be drawn between extremist groups and the rise of martyrdom in propaganda. Awiti’s referral to the afterlife in the final chapter is similar to that of basic jihadist beliefs of sacrifice in battle and honor in the afterlife. This new ideology that Awiti has adopted goes beyond simple revenge and turns into a dangerous propaganda campaign of self-sacrifice.
Your comparison of Awiti to modern-day jihadists is very interesting. Awiti, like jihadist groups, is full of anger after centuries of injustice but rather than making institutional changes, she seeks out vengeance through violence. However, considering jihadists, do they have the power to make institutional changes? The regions within the Middle East where there is greater jihadist activity are often poorer and have greater economic disparity. When corruption comes into play, the situation worsens- people lose both political and economic power. This is not to say that violence is the only option, but through the lens of a disempowered Middle Easterner, it may appear that way. Additionally, there are five cultural features that foster terrorism (according to social psychologist Geert Hofstede's research). Countries with less long-term orientation (meaning that they focus on the past/present instead of the future) have greater respect for tradition and may foster terrorist activity. I think that perhaps because Awiti is immortal and appears to lack long-term orientation, she has developed terrorist tendencies. The solution is not just about institutional, nonviolent change rather than destruction, but also about society's behaviors and attitudes.
ReplyDeleteYour observation that the Montaudoin family appears to serve as a surrogate of Awiti’s family and the family members that she lost earlier in her life is superb. I concur with your discernment of commonalities between Awiti’s family and the Montaudoins – both are impacted by arbitrary bereavement and deprivation.
ReplyDeleteWith her emphases on what she views as noble death and the allure of the afterlife, Awiti does seem to taking cues from a jihadist playbook. Jihadists who conduct suicide attacks often take an indiscriminate approach to terrorism, even if such attacks disproportionately harm members of the umma, the body politic of Muslims. Awiti unleashes her vengeance even when it harms more individuals from the African diaspora than it does Caucasians.
I think that the idea of martyrdom to serve propagandistic aims has been persistent throughout recorded history and will continue to be, for better or worse.