Day 9 - Toni Cade Bambara
“As a culture worker who belongs to an oppressed people my job is to make revolution irresistible.”
Toni Cade Bambara
Born Miltona Mirkin Cade, Toni Cade Bambara was a Black author, documentary filmmaker, social activist and college professor. However, she was known best for being a “culture worker,” believing that the artist's job is determined always by the community that she serves.
Driven by this assignment, Toni Cade immersed herself in recording, sifting and organizing information on the developing cases of Atlanta’s missing and murdered children between 1979 and 1982. Horrified with how the media delivered these stories, Toni Cade filled her journals with how the Black community of Atlanta coped with this tragedy.
She galvanized street people to organize patrols. These patrols monitored the media and ensured the dissemination of valid information. During this time, the Atlanta Black community mistrusted the police, media and politicians who had misread, mishandled and exploited the Atlanta Missing Children tragedy. From her community work came her posthumously published novel, Those Bones Are Not My Child. It would be another Toni - author, editor and long-time friend, Toni Morrison, who would ensure that Toni Cade’s work was completed and published.
Understanding the power of her platform and voice, Toni Cade served as an honest and trustworthy storyteller for the Black community during the Atlanta child murders era.
I first came to Toni Cade’s work upon the recommendation of a sistah-librarian. It was in “The Salt Eaters” that I met Velma Henry, a political activist fighting for her life after suffering from a nervous breakdown, Minnie Ransom a spiritual healer that asks the resonating question that drives the book’s message, and, Old Wife.
To be honest, being fresh out of college, I wasn’t ready for it; its depth. Then, “The Salt Eaters” was too much of a mature book, and I’d not yet dealt with the fatigue of revolutionary work. But, live in America long enough, and, one determines quickly the burden of a “culture worker.” When I revisited Toni Cade’s work sometime later, its meaning, I understood well. Or, rather, how its meaning applied to me.
Being well is so important for Black women, especially in these times. It’s not just a physical wellness, but also a mental wellness. Self-care is nothing trite, or simple, or cute. Self-care for Black women is revolutionary! It may involve removing masks (UGH!) and addressing certain personal issues, asking the tough questions and receiving tough responses…but, it’s wellness that leads to wholeness. Revolution can only be irresistible and life-changing when we’re well … whole.
Re/DISCOVER Toni Cade Bambara’s work, “The Salt Eaters,” but be prepared to do the work.
“Are you sure, sweetheart, that you want to be well? …
Just so’s you’re sure, sweetheart, and ready to be healed,
cause wholeness is no trifling matter.
A lot of weight when you’re well.”