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| omnipoetics:zong [2025/04/23 12:28] – [Visuals & Organization] holly | omnipoetics:zong [2025/04/23 23:53] (current) – [Historical Background] holly |
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| //Zong!// was originally published in 2008 and is comprised of six sections. "Zong! #14" and "Zong! #15" appear in the section titled Os. The names and definitions of each section are listed below. | //Zong!// was originally published in 2008 and is comprised of six sections. "Zong! #14" and "Zong! #15" appear in the section titled Os. The names and definitions of each section are listed below. |
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| * __Os__ - "bone" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) | * __Os__ - "bone" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) |
| * __Sal__ - "salt" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) | * __Sal__ - "salt" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) |
| * __Ventus__ - "wind" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) | * __Ventus__ - "wind" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) |
| * __Ration__ - "reason, in law, the short for ratio decidendi, the central reason for a legal decision" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) | * __Ration__ - "reason, in law, the short for ratio decidendi, the central reason for a legal decision" ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) |
| * __Ferrum__ - "iron" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) | * __Ferrum__ - "iron" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 183)) |
| * __Ebora__ - "underwater spirits" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 184)) | * __Ebora__ - "underwater spirits" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 184)) |
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| ===== Historical Background ===== | ===== Historical Background ===== |
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| | __The Zong Massacre__ |
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| [[https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/|The London Museum]] has an entire webpage titled “The Zong Massacre Trial.” The webpage includes details about slave ships, slavery, and the individuals involved in the legal case that took place due to the massacre. The site describes the Zong massacre as an event occurring “In 1781, [wherein] British enslavers killed 130 enslaved Africans by throwing them off the ship Zong” when a portion of the enslaved individuals became ill. ((London Museum, “The Zong Massacre Trial” and "The massacre," https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 1, para. 3)) The enslaved individuals were murdered because they were not considered to be human, and thus, their murderers hoped to be compensated by their insurance company rather than absorb the financial loss of "product." ((London Museum, “The massacre,” https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para.3)) It is important to note that the loss of human life mattered little, and the Zong massacre was a legal issue primarily due to the fact that the “claim was challenged by the insurers in a London trial.”((London Museum, “The Zong Massacre Trial," https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 4)) | [[https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/|The London Museum]] has an entire webpage titled “The Zong Massacre Trial.” The webpage includes details about slave ships, slavery, and the individuals involved in the legal case that took place due to the massacre. The site describes the Zong massacre as an event occurring “In 1781, [wherein] British enslavers killed 130 enslaved Africans by throwing them off the ship Zong” when a portion of the enslaved individuals became ill. ((London Museum, “The Zong Massacre Trial” and "The massacre," https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 1, para. 3)) The enslaved individuals were murdered because they were not considered to be human, and thus, their murderers hoped to be compensated by their insurance company rather than absorb the financial loss of "product." ((London Museum, “The massacre,” https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para.3)) It is important to note that the loss of human life mattered little, and the Zong massacre was a legal issue primarily due to the fact that the “claim was challenged by the insurers in a London trial.”((London Museum, “The Zong Massacre Trial," https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 4)) |
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| __Additional Facts from the London Museum Webpage:__ | __Additional Facts from the London Museum Webpage__ |
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| * "None of the murderers were ever prosecuted." ((London Museum, “Did the Zong Massacre help end slavery?" https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 2)) | * "None of the murderers were ever prosecuted." ((London Museum, “Did the Zong Massacre help end slavery?" https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/zong-massacre-trial/, para. 2)) |
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| For information regarding the actual legal case, Gregson v. Gilbert, click here: [[https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2860&context=ilj|Fordham International Law Journal, "B. The Zong Case," p. 447]] | For information regarding the actual legal case, //Gregson v. Gilbert//, click here: [[https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2860&context=ilj|Fordham International Law Journal, "B. The Zong Case," p. 447]] |
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| When contemplating what the poems are attempting to do, consider Philip’s assertion that “In //Zong!,// the African, transformed into a thing by the law, is re-transformed, miraculously, back into human. Through oath and through moan, through mutter, chant and babble, through babble and curse, through chortle and ululation to not-tell the story. . . ” ((Philip Zong! Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 196)) | When contemplating what the poems are attempting to do, consider Philip’s assertion that “In //Zong!,// the African, transformed into a thing by the law, is re-transformed, miraculously, back into human. Through oath and through moan, through mutter, chant and babble, through babble and curse, through chortle and ululation to not-tell the story. . . ” ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 196)) |
| ===== Key Names ===== | ===== Key Names ===== |
| * __Zong__ - "The name of the ship was the Zorg, meaning 'care' in Dutch. An error was made when the name was repainted" ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 208)) | * __Zong__ - "The name of the ship was the Zorg, meaning 'care' in Dutch. An error was made when the name was repainted" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 208)) |
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| * __Setaey Adamu Boateng__ - Ellen Howley, in the article “The sea and memory: Poetic reconsiderations of the Zong massacre,” writes that this name refers to a “fictional African co-author” ((Howley, Ellen. "The sea and memory: Poetic reconsiderations of the Zong massacre," The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 57, no. 2, p. 348)) | * __Setaey Adamu Boateng__ - Ellen Howley, in the article “The sea and memory: Poetic reconsiderations of the Zong massacre,” writes that this name refers to a “fictional African co-author” ((Howley, Ellen. "The sea and memory: Poetic reconsiderations of the Zong massacre," The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 57, no. 2, p. 348)) |
| * __Nkrumah Ato, Nobanzi, Oduneye, Opa, Fagbulu, Akilah, Falope, Ouma, Weke, Jubade, Nompumelelo, Okulaja, Ekisola, Abike, Arike__ - | * __Nkrumah Ato, Nobanzi, Oduneye, Opa, Fagbulu, Akilah, Falope, Ouma, Weke, Jubade, Nompumelelo, Okulaja, Ekisola, Abike, Arike__ - |
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| In the article, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” the author Laurie R. Lambert describes witnessing M. NourbSe Philip perform “Zong! #15,” noting the “improvisatory elements, including the repetition of certain lines from the printed text of the poem and references to contemporary events involving the denial of black life.” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108)) Lambert goes on to explain that “At two crucial junctures in the poem Philip lists a series of African names, //as if invoking the names of the Zong’s victims//,” and when researching the //Zong//, Philip described “develop[ing] a need to know the names of the murdered,” but being unable to because “The African men, women, and children on board the //Zong// were stripped of all specificity, including their names” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108; emphasis added)) ((Philip //Zong!// Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 194)) Thus, readers can assume that Philip added the names to honor the dead. Importantly, Lambert notes that “At this particular performance [the one she attended], Philip added the names of 'Trayvon Eric Mike' to the litany of the dead, acknowledging the murders of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown, African American men whose deaths generated outrage across black communities in the US.” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108; emphasis added)) | In the article, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” the author Laurie R. Lambert describes witnessing M. NourbSe Philip perform “Zong! #15,” noting the “improvisatory elements, including the repetition of certain lines from the printed text of the poem and references to contemporary events involving the denial of black life.” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108)) Specifically, Lambert goes on to explain that “At two crucial junctures in the poem Philip list[ed] a series of African names, //as if invoking the names of the Zong’s victims//,” which is significant because when researching the //Zong//, Philip described “develop[ing] a need to know the names of the murdered,” but being unable to because “The African men, women, and children on board the //Zong// were stripped of all specificity, including their names” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108; emphasis added)) ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 194)) Thus, readers can assume that, in both print and oral performance, Philip added the names to honor the dead. Importantly, Lambert points out that “At this particular performance [the one she attended], Philip added the names of 'Trayvon Eric Mike' to the litany of the dead, acknowledging the murders of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown, African American men whose deaths generated outrage across black communities in the US.” ((Lambert, “Poetics of Reparation in M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!” Globalizing the Province: Rethinking Place and Scale, vol. 10, no. 1, 2008, p. 108; emphasis added)) |
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| ===== Author's Own Words ===== | ===== Author's Own Words ===== |
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| Based on the background information that Philips provides her readers (see the section titled //Notanda// in the full-length poetry collection) regarding her writing process, it seems pretty evident that the poems are complex, purposeful pieces of writing. As a result, when readers attempt to decipher and interpret the poems, there are a few quotes directly from the author that should be taken into consideration: | Based on the background information that Philip provides her readers (see the section titled //Notanda// in the full-length poetry collection) regarding her writing process, it seems pretty evident that the poems are complex, purposeful pieces of writing. As a result, when readers attempt to decipher and interpret the poems, there are a few quotes directly from the author that should be taken into consideration: |
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| <blockquote>“What did, in fact, happen on the Zong? Can we, some two hundred years later, ever really know? Should we? These are the questions I confront. Although presented with the ‘complete’ text of the case, the reader does not ever know it, since the complete story does not exist. It never did. All that remains are the legal texts and documents of those who were themselves intimately connected to, and involved in, a system that permitted the murder of the Africans on board the Zong.” ((Philip Zong! Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 196))</blockquote> | <blockquote>“What did, in fact, happen on the Zong? Can we, some two hundred years later, ever really know? Should we? These are the questions I confront. Although presented with the ‘complete’ text of the case, the reader does not ever know it, since the complete story does not exist. It never did. All that remains are the legal texts and documents of those who were themselves intimately connected to, and involved in, a system that permitted the murder of the Africans on board the Zong.” ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 196))</blockquote> |
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| <blockquote>“I turned instead to the law: certain, objective, and predictable, it would cut through the emotions like a laser to seal off vessels oozing sad-ness, anger, and despair. I yield to a simple but profound curiousity — about the sea, a captain, the sailors, and a ship. About a ‘cargo.’ And the story that must tell itself.” ((Philip Zong! Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 191))</blockquote> | <blockquote>“I turned instead to the law: certain, objective, and predictable, it would cut through the emotions like a laser to seal off vessels oozing sad-ness, anger, and despair. I yield to a simple but profound curiousity — about the sea, a captain, the sailors, and a ship. About a ‘cargo.’ And the story that must tell itself.” ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 191))</blockquote> |
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| <blockquote>“My intent is to use the text of the legal decision as a word store; to lock myself into | <blockquote>“My intent is to use the text of the legal decision as a word store; to lock myself into |
| this particular and peculiar discursive landscape in the belief that the story of these African men, women, and children thrown overboard in an attempt to collect insur-ance monies, the story that can only be told by not telling, is locked in this text. In the many silences within the Silence of the text. I would lock myself in this text in the same way men, women, and children were locked in the holds of the slave ship Zong.” ((Philip Zong! Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 191))</blockquote> | this particular and peculiar discursive landscape in the belief that the story of these African men, women, and children thrown overboard in an attempt to collect insur-ance monies, the story that can only be told by not telling, is locked in this text. In the many silences within the Silence of the text. I would lock myself in this text in the same way men, women, and children were locked in the holds of the slave ship Zong.” ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 191))</blockquote> |
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| <blockquote>“In the discomfort and disturbance created by the poetic text, I am forced to make meaning from apparently disparate elements —in so doing I implicate myself. The risk — of contamination — lies in piecing together the story that cannot be told. And since we have to work to complete the events, we all become implicated in, if not contaminated by, this activity.” ((Philip Zong! Weslyan University Press, 2008. p. 198))</blockquote> | <blockquote>“In the discomfort and disturbance created by the poetic text, I am forced to make meaning from apparently disparate elements —in so doing I implicate myself. The risk — of contamination — lies in piecing together the story that cannot be told. And since we have to work to complete the events, we all become implicated in, if not contaminated by, this activity.” ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 198))</blockquote> |
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| __Space__ | __Space__ |
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| When we look at how words are placed on the page, we may be confused by the layout, but Philips has an explanation for why there is so much blank “space” in the poems: "//Some – all the poems – need a great deal of space around them – as if there is too much cramping around them, as if they need to breathe…//" ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 194)) | When we look at how words are placed on the page, we may be confused by the layout, but Philip has an explanation for why there is so much blank “space” in the poems: "//Some – all the poems – need a great deal of space around them – as if there is too much cramping around them, as if they need to breathe…//" ((Philip, //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 194)) |
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| * Note that the layout of the poems is extremely important to Philip. When commenting on a translation of //Zong!// that was completed without Philip's knowledge, Philip emphasizes the importance of her poetry's layout, writing, "...the translator, Renata Morresi, failed to respect the foundational and organizing principle of Zong!, which is that no word or cluster of words can come directly below another: each word, fragment or word cluster is seeking the space above to breathe as those massacred 240 years ago this November were not able to breathe. It is this restraint and conceptual rigour that gives the work its distinctive shape." ((Philps, "Outline of Events Related to the Unauthorized Translation of Zong! as told by the author Setaey Adamu Boateng by Renata Morresi and Benway Series Press," https://www.nourbese.com/2021/10/11/, para. 4)) | * Note that the layout of the poems is extremely important to Philip. When commenting on a translation of //Zong!// that was completed without Philip's knowledge, Philip emphasized the importance of her poetry's layout, writing, "...the translator, Renata Morresi, failed to respect the foundational and organizing principle of Zong!, which is that no word or cluster of words can come directly below another: each word, fragment or word cluster is seeking the space above to breathe as those massacred 240 years ago this November were not able to breathe. It is this restraint and conceptual rigour that gives the work its distinctive shape." ((Philip, "Outline of Events Related to the Unauthorized Translation of Zong! as told by the author Setaey Adamu Boateng by Renata Morresi and Benway Series Press," https://www.nourbese.com/2021/10/11/, para. 4)) |
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| While Philip wrote with intentionality, at least one choice regarding the layout was a result of a random technology issue as Philip's printer malfunctioned, and "the first two or three pages [were] superimposed on each other." ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 206)) | While Philip wrote with intentionality, at least one choice regarding the layout was a result of a random technology issue as Philip's printer malfunctioned, and "the first two or three pages [were] superimposed on each other." ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 206)) |
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| | __The Position of the Names__ |
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| | The names listed in “Zong! #14” and “Zong! #15” are smaller than the main text and positioned similar to the way footnotes are in Word documents. Eva C. Karpinski comments on this arrangement in the article, “Moving the Bones: Multilingual Plasticity in Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s //Zong!//” to suggest that the “Yoruba names emerge in the liminal space of the margin, in the footnotes, visually ‘floating’ under the water or below the deck of the ship” ((Karpinski, Eva C. “Moving the Bones: Multilingual Plasticity in Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!,” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 45, no. 4, 2018, p. 640)) |
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| __Word Choice __ | __Word Choice __ |
| There are moments in //Zong!// wherein the words might not make sense, or the author's intention behind the use of certain words is unclear. According to Philip, “Clusters of words sometimes have meaning, often do not — words are broken into and open to make non-sense or no sense at all, which, in turn, becomes a code for another submerged meaning. Words break into sound, return to their initial and originary phonic sound — grunts, plosives, labials" ((Philip //Zong!//Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 205)) Philip concludes this train of thought, asking "— is this, perhaps, how language might have sounded at the beginning of time?” ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 205)) | There are moments in //Zong!// wherein the words might not make sense, or the author's intention behind the use of certain words is unclear. According to Philip, “Clusters of words sometimes have meaning, often do not — words are broken into and open to make non-sense or no sense at all, which, in turn, becomes a code for another submerged meaning. Words break into sound, return to their initial and originary phonic sound — grunts, plosives, labials" ((Philip //Zong!//Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 205)) Philip concludes this train of thought, asking "— is this, perhaps, how language might have sounded at the beginning of time?” ((Philip //Zong!// Wesleyan University Press, 2008. p. 205)) |
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| __The Position of the Names__ | |
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| The names listed in “Zong! #14” and “Zong! #15” are smaller than the main text and positioned similar to the way footnotes are in Word documents. Eva C. Karpinski comments on this arrangement in the article, “Moving the Bones: Multilingual Plasticity in Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s //Zong!//” to suggest that the “Yoruba names emerge in the liminal space of the margin, in the footnotes, visually ‘floating’ under the water or below the deck of the ship” ((Karpinski, Eva C. “Moving the Bones: Multilingual Plasticity in Marlene NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!,” Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, vol. 45, no. 4, 2018, p. 640)) | |
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| ===== Themes ===== | ===== Themes ===== |
| __Resistance__ | __Resistance__ |
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| One of the strongest themes in Zong! #14 and Zong! #15 is resistance. M. NourbeSe Philip uses poetry to fight back against how enslaved people were treated—as objects, not as human beings. By using phrases like “the subject in property” and “ratio of murder,” she shows how the legal system tried to hide violence using cold, technical words. The way the poem is written—scattered, broken, and full of space—is also a form of resistance. It doesn’t follow the usual rules of writing or storytelling. That is on purpose. Philip refuses to tell the story the way history books or legal papers do. She creates her own language of resistance to show pain, injustice, and protest. | One of the strongest themes in Zong! #14 and Zong! #15 is resistance. M. NourbeSe Philip uses poetry to fight back against how enslaved people were treated—as objects, not as human beings. By using phrases like “the subject in property” and “ratio of murder,” she shows how the legal system tried to hide violence using cold, technical words. The way the poem is written—scattered, broken, and full of space—is also a form of resistance. It doesn’t follow the usual rules of writing or storytelling. That is on purpose. Philip refuses to tell the story the way history books or legal papers do. She creates her own language of resistance to show pain, injustice, and protest. Philip refuses to tell the story in the way that history books or court records might. Instead, she writes outside those systems, creating a poetic language that exposes injustice and protests the silence that followed. |
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| __Memory and Forgetting__ | __Memory and Forgetting__ |
| https://smallaxe.net/sxsalon/reviews/zong-transformation-language-sacred-space | https://smallaxe.net/sxsalon/reviews/zong-transformation-language-sacred-space |
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| | Philip, M. N. (2021, October 11). Outline of Events Related to the Unauthorized Translation of Zong! as told by the author Setaey Adamu Boateng by Renata Morresi and Benway Series Press. Retrieved from https://www.nourbese.com/2021/10/11/ |
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| For those who want to know more about Antônio de Castro Alves: | For those who want to know more about Antônio de Castro Alves: |
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| Castro Alves from Brazil is a poem written by Paulo Neruda, imagining a dialogue between both poets. See [[https://allpoetry.com/Castro-Alves-From-Brazil|here]] | Castro Alves from Brazil is a poem written by Paulo Neruda, imagining a dialogue between both poets. See [[https://allpoetry.com/Castro-Alves-From-Brazil|here]] |
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| | {{tag>[oral poem]}} |
