She had a long and adventurous life, even
though she described it as ‘one great big joke, a dance that walked and a song
that spoke’. At different points in her life she was a dancer, a singer, a film
and television producer, television director, actor, playwright, actress and professor,
but she was immortalised by her poetry and seven autobiographies which were all
bestsellers. Maya Angelou did not live for awards but she had several famous and prestigious
ones coming her way including the Grammy. She did not have a regular education
but received over 30 honorary doctoral degrees and taught at universities
across the USA. In February 2011, she was awarded the ‘Presidential Medal of
Freedom’, America’s highest civilian honour. Angelou is remembered as a
remarkable Renaissance woman who became the voice of millions of women across
the globe.
From a young African girl who suffered a
childhood of hurtful discrimination and sexual abuse, she made a long and tumultuous
journey. She overcame all that to become a voice of inspiration through her
books and talks. She was respected as a spokesperson of black people and women,
and her works have been considered a defence of Black culture. Her inspiring
words influenced the life choices of many and resound with young people world
over when she says, “My mission in life is not merely to survive but to thrive;
and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humour and some style.”
Her first autobiography I Know Why the
Caged Bird Sings (1969) is a coming-of-age story that illustrates how
strength of character and a love of literature can help overcome racism and
trauma. The book begins when three-year-old Maya and her older brother are sent
to Stamps, Arkansas, to live with their grandmother and ends when Maya becomes
a mother at the age of 16. In the course of Caged Bird, Maya transforms from a
victim of racism with an inferiority complex into a self-possessed, dignified
young woman capable of responding to prejudice. Six other autobiographies
followed, each beginning from where the last one had left off.
In 1993 Angelou gave a moving reading of
her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's presidential
inauguration, an occasion that gave her wide recognition. The poem's themes are
change, inclusion, responsibility, and role of both the President and the
citizenry in establishing economic security.
Her poems usually cover themes of humanity,
peace and the ability within each individual to be humane and empathetic.
Sample the following one that talks of hope and faith that one day humanity
will wake up and see its folly in the hell that it has created on earth through
violence, war and violation of nature’s laws. That day will come as long as
believers continue to cherish the dream and work for it.
A Brave and Startling Truth
We, this people, on a small and lonely
planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent
suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show
of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed
clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular
sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have
ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our
shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of
truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of
peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious
perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into
Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother
Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on
the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and
kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and
the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of
peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting
planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from
the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such
healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor
divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating
body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of
this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Maya Angelou
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