Author Greg Pasciuto visits Morning Show Oct. 26th to discuss article “The Flying Africans: Returning Home in African American Folklore.”
October 24, 2023October 24, 2023
Newburyport, MA
Greg Pasciuto, independent researcher and writer, will visit the show this week to discuss his article, “The Flying Africans: Returning Home in African American Folklore.”
Pasciuto will talk about the origins, spread, and impact of the folktale, “The People Could Fly.” This moving folktale recounts how enslaved Africans used magic words to invoke the power of flight to escape the brutal conditions of slavery.
According to the folktale, flight was a power Africans originally possessed in their homelands, but had to leave behind once captured and forced into the crowded and dismal conditions of the Middle Passage across the Atlantic, because their wings would not fit on the cramped ships that transported them into slavery.
To cope with their tragic ordeals, Pasciuto says, “enslaved Africans and their descendants often turned to religion and folktales for solace. These stories spoke to the hopes and dreams of their narrators and audiences. From here, the legend of the Flying Africans was born.”
Pasciuto will also discuss the folktale’s impact on two contemporary literary works, Toni Morrison’ “Song of Solomon,” and Jamaican author Kei Miller’s 2016 book, “Augustown.”
To read Pasciuto’s article, go to www.thecollector.com/author/greg-pasciuto. To read the folktale, see Virginia Hamilton’s picture book, “The People Could Fly,” with illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon.
