The Africanist Identity

“Africanism – the power of illicit sexuality, chaos, madness, impropriety, anarchy, strangeness, and helplessness, hapless desire – provides a formidle field for a novel that works out the terms and maps a complete, if never formalized, aesthetics.” (Morrison, pp. 80-81)

Though “Matrix Reloaded” is a far cry from the works of Hemingway that Morrison analyzes, the Africanist identity in each is alarmingly similar. The black individual is seen as an inherently sexual being, and sexual experience between two individuals (black or not) after interacting with a black figure is particularly intense. Morpheus’ speech, which inspires Neo and Trinity to go fornicate, and moves the rest of humanity into an orgy, plays on the illicit sexuality of the Africanist identity that Morrison describes. Would the scene have the same power or make as much sense when the crowd breaks into erotic dancing if the speech was given by a white individual, or even a Latino or Asian? Though they make their sexual desires obvious when returning to Zio, it takes encouragement from a black figure to get Neo and Trinity to finally break away from the crowd.

Similarly, in Lathe of Heaven, it is Heather’s implicit “otherness,” her inherited combination of black mixed with white that fascinates Orr and influences him to find her in multiple realities. Her personality at the end, sharper, harsher, more rough and chaotic, then the grey-colored version he was married to certainly plays into the Africanist identity. Just like Morpheus, I doubt Heather would be as fascinating were her skin tone the same as the protagonist’s.