UnConquered Women: Mama Day

Gloria Naylor is the author of "The Women of Brewster Place," "The Men of Brewster Place," "Linden Hills," "Bailey's Cafe," and "Mama Day."

Mama Day puts me in the mind of a Sunday afternoon with the sun sitting in the middle of the sky radiating not too much but just enough heat to keep the legs warm and the iced tea cool. Mama Day is perfection. The writing is easy, breezy, and the island is beautiful. Willows Island has remained unconquered by anyone or anything. So have the women.

The protagonist, Mama Day, is African American motherhood, personified. She doesn't take any mess, doles out love and punishment simultaneously and keeps a firm hand on her kinfolk. Now Mama Day has no children of her own but she is the great-aunt of Ophelia, who is pet named Cocoa, after her father leaves and her mother dies. Between Mama Day and Abigail, Cocoa gets all the rearing she needs and a little more.

There's even a legend about Cocoa's great grandmother, Sapphira, who drove a [white] man to not only die but sign away his island to his slaves when he did. And normally, slaves can't own land. But Willow Springs is anything but normal.

This book deals with the African American tradition as it relates to herbal medicine, roots, and "doctoring" with no license. Mama Day is a healer and a seer. She is gifted in the arts of the other world and knows how to separate BS from the truth. She is quintessentially all that "Mother" is.

One of the women in the text has a husband  partner who can't stay at home. Apparently his [new] girlfriend, Ruby, has used black magic roots to make the man be with her. When the ex-woman, Frances comes to see Mama Day to see what she can do about his leaving, Mama Day gives her advice only a wise woman would proffer.

Mama Says:

A man don't leave you unless he wants to go, Frances. And if he's made up his mind to go, there ain't nothing you, me, or anybody else can do about it.


Mind you, she completely ignores Ruby having used roots to make the man desire her. Mama chalks it up to a man only doing what a man wants to do. Mama Day makes simply quotable statements like this throughout the text and I was marking pages as I read so I can remember what Mama said.

On relationships, Mama Says:


A real lady never has to get mad-- if she knows how to get even. 


I want to be like Mama, cool-headed and cool-handed, never allowing life to ruffle me.

Mama Day reminds me of a cross between Tar Baby and Krik Krak. In Tar Baby, Jadine is a spoiled model from a very small and very traditional island. She is raised by her aunt and uncle where Cocoa is raised by her grandmother and great aunt. In Tar Baby and Mama Day, both girls move to New York, this is also where Krik Krak comes in. There is one narrative called, "New York Day Women," and there is a line in the text where Dr. Buzzard mentions "day women" to George. Also, Krik Krak takes place on the Haitian side of Hispaniola. All three texts center on women and their relationships on and off their respective islands.

Each woman is unconquered as a result of the strength of the women in her legacy. Moms, grandmothers, and aunts all come together to shape the women against the oppressive effects of American society. In Tar Baby though, Jadine learns everything she knows from her aunt but she still has the same spirit.

Mama Day is a great comparison text to read before or after Tar Baby since the texts are very similar and who doesn't love an UNconquered woman?