The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois

Some novels you read, some novels you live; and some novels make time stop, make the rest of the world pale in comparison, and dominate your imagination and psyche as if holding you in a trance. For me, The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, written by Honorée Fannone Jeffers and published in 2021 is such a novel. A historical fiction book set in the U.S.A., it is a story about Ailey Pearl Garfield, her family, her matrilineal ancestors, their lives, their struggles. Ailey is a Black woman of mixed heritage, whose life throughout childhood, teenage, and adulthood is depicted as a girl living through and coming to terms with her identity and experiences as a Black woman growing up in the North, but spending vacations in a fictional town of Chicasetta in the Deep South. The novel, divided into several parts, alternates between narrations of Ailey’s (and her family’s) life in the 20th century, and narrations of her ancestors’ lives (called “Songs”) in the 19th century, interspersed with quotes from Du Bois’s works.
It starts with the story of Micco Cornell, a Native American man who strays away from his traditions through greed for private property and trust in White colonisers. Due to this, he ends up giving away his daughter to Samuel Pinchard, a White man he befriends and takes into his trust. As the story proceeds, we find out that Samuel Pinchard is one of the vilest characters found in fiction, a coloniser, slave-owner, pedophile, criminal, and a coward. As his wealth and land grow, he gathers a posse of slaves including Aggie, Pop George, Nick (his son), his wife Tess, and daughters Eliza Two and Rabbit. Eventually, Nick manages to run away, leaving his daughters to create their own legacy, which leads to astounding turns further in the novel.
Eliza Two, a direct ancestor of the Garfields, brings us back to Ailey. Ailey’s two most prominent influences are her elder sister Lydia Claire Garfield, and her great uncle Jason Thomas Freeman, who she calls Uncle Root. For Ailey, Lydia is her safe haven, who is more than a soulmate to her. They share an unbreakable bond, often reading the works of female Black authors together. Uncle Root is a distinguished professor of history, a rock in her life who plays an influential role in her personal and intellectual development. One of his constant refrains is about the ideologies of W. E. B. Du Bois, an American sociologist who wrote about race and civil rights. Ailey lives and learns a lot throughout the book: the stories of her ancestors, the history of her land, the struggles of her race, and the women who made her family.
Through Ailey, we observe the race and gender dynamics in America. The author seldom gives a direct social commentary, instead, it is subtly embedded into the experiences of the characters. Race works in myriad ways, where slaves in the 19th century are treated brutally, and Black and Brown people in the 20th century are treated brutally too, albeit in a subtle manner. A constant refrain in the Garfield family is how Black people need to stick together, even when some of her family members are White, with racism being perpetuated even within Black people themselves. In her majorly Black college, her classmates oftentimes have weak race consciousness, due to patriarchal notions of the students. While her father, uncle, and grandfather display problematic behaviours, she has strong women in her life (her mother and sisters), who along with Uncle Root, mould her understanding of gender power structures and her interactions with them. Even when she is verbally against the problems of patriarchy, she has difficulty standing up against the abuse she faces, which can be seen as a result of her familial upbringing. As readers, we see the struggles of Black and Native American people. Micco and his Native American ancestors fall victim to colonialism, doubly so when imperial ideological forces make him and others mentally subjected to reverence for Western practices. The entire socio-ecological system of Pinchard, his family, and slaves, is unable to object to or resist Pinchard’s brutality or pedophilic practices, and nevertheless, Aggie, Pop George, Nick, Tess, Eliza Two, and Rabbit manage to form a beautiful and nurturing family, struggling to keep their legacy and values alive in the destructive environment. Even though Pinchard is reviled, and even though the struggles and beauties of the oppressed are highlighted, the author tells the stories of both sides, where truth rises above all.
For me, this novel is overwhelming, not only because it was so heartbreaking and inspiring, but also because Jeffers’ writing drips with spectacular nuance and rhythm, which makes one feel that they’re experiencing not just a story; but every note, every beat in Ailey’s songs, her family’s songs, her ancestors’ songs. Even though the complex connections and plotlines in the book are a bit hard to follow, the stories all flow into one another and form a symphony that resonates through the social landscape of America. This is helped by the “Songs” of the ancestors that precede Ailey’s stories, where Jeffers keeps both narratives vivid in the reader’s mind. Ailey’s growth in the novel transforms her into the person who carries the souls of her ancestors and her journeys. I would recommend this novel to people interested in historical fiction, feminism, Native American and Black history, and family sagas; and also to anybody who wants to taste the indelible realms of stories. This novel reclaims the narrative of oppression and struggle, which are often told through the pen of the oppressor, which makes it another treasure in the trove of resistance and intersectional literature.
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois are songs that will forever echo in my heart.