Raisin in the Sun - Lorraine Hansberry [25]
BENEATHA (To encourage WALTER, thoroughly caught up with this side of him) OCOMOGOSIAY, FLAMING SPEAR!
WALTER THE LION IS WAKING … OWIMOWEH! (He pulls his shirt open and leaps up on the table and gestures with his spear)
BENEATHA OWIMOWEH!
WALTER (On the table, very far gone, his eyes pure glass sheets. He sees what we cannot, that he is a leader of his people, a great chief, a descendant of Chaka, and that the hour to march has come) Listen, my black brothers—
BENEATHA OCOMOGOSIAY!
WALTER —Do you hear the waters rushing against the shores of the coastlands—
BENEATHA OCOMOGOSIAY!
WALTER —Do you hear the screeching of the cocks in yonder hills beyond where the chiefs meet in council for the coming of the mighty war—
BENEATHA OCOMOGOSIAY!
(And now the lighting shifts subtly to suggest the world of WALTER’S imagination, and the mood shifts from pure comedy. It is the inner WALTER speaking: the Southside chauffeur has assumed an unexpected majesty)
WALTER —Do you hear the beating of the wings of the birds flying low over the mountains and the low places of our land—
BENEATHA OCOMOGOSIAY!
WALTER —Do you hear the singing of the women, singing the war songs of our fathers to the babies in the great houses? Singing the sweet war songs! (The doorbell rings) OH, DO YOU HEAR, MY BLACK BROTHERS!
BENEATHA (Completely gone) We hear you, Flaming Spear—
(RUTH shuts off the phonograph and opens the door. GEORGE MURCHISON enters)
WALTER Telling us to prepare for the GREATNESS OF THE TIME! (Lights back to normal. He turns and sees GEORGE) Black Brother!
(He extends his hand for the fraternal clasp)
GEORGE Black Brother, hell!
RUTH (Having had enough, and embarrassed for the family) Beneatha, you got company—what’s the matter with you? Walter Lee Younger, get down off that table and stop acting like a fool …
(WALTER comes down off the table suddenly and makes a quick exit to the bathroom)
RUTH He’s had a little to drink … I don’t know what her excuse is.
GEORGE (To BENEATHA) Look honey, we’re going to the theatre—we’re not going to be in it … so go change, huh?
(BENEATHA looks at him and slowly, ceremoniously, lifts her hands and pulls off the headdress. Her hair is close-cropped and unstraightened. GEORGE freezes mid-sentence and RUTH’S eyes all but fan out of her head)
GEORGE What in the name of—
RUTH (Touching BENEATHA’S hair) Girl, you done lost your natural mind!? Look at your head!
GEORGE What have you done to your head—I mean your hair!
BENEATHA Nothing—except cut it off.
RUTH Now that’s the truth—it’s what ain’t been done to it! You expect this boy to go out with you with your head all nappy like that?
BENEATHA (Looking at GEORGE) That’s up to George. If he’s ashamed of his heritage—
GEORGE Oh, don’t be so proud of yourself, Bennie—just because you look eccentric.
BENEATHA How can something that’s natural be eccentric?
GEORGE That’s what being eccentric means—being natural. Get dressed.
BENEATHA I don’t like that, George.
RUTH Why must you and your brother make an argument out of everything people say?
BENEATHA Because I hate assimilationist Negroes!
RUTH Will somebody please tell me what assimila-who ever means!
GEORGE Oh, it’s just a college girl’s way of calling people Uncle Toms—but that isn’t what it means at all.
RUTH Well, what does it mean?
BENEATHA (Cutting GEORGE off and staring at him as she replies to RUTH) It means someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself completely in the dominant, and in this case oppressive culture!
GEORGE Oh, dear, dear, dear! Here we go! A lecture on the African past! On our Great West African Heritage! In one second we will hear all about the great Ashanti empires; the great Songhay civilizations; and the great sculpture of Bénin—and then some poetry in the Bantu— and the whole monologue will end with the word heritage! (Nastily)