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POLITICAL VOICE OF MAYA ANGELOU IN I KNOW WHY THE CAGED
BIRD SINGS
Sima JALAL KAMALI *
With the publication of her first volume of autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in
1969, Maya Angelou was introduced to the literary world. She has made a career out of the
expansion of her autobiographical series and devoted her literary career to developing this medium
with the final volume of the series, A Song Flung up to Heaven published in 2002.
Critics such as Henry Louis Gates Jr. have praised her for this rare accomplishment, which he
believes is rooted in the rich African American tradition of treating autobiography as an important
and essential medium of expression. 1 Gates explains the reason for the popularity of this medium
between African American writers: "Through autobiography, these writers could, at once, shape a
public 'self' in language, and protest the degradation of their ethnic group by the multiple forms of
American racism." 2 Therefore, Angelou's life experiences have become the canvas for representing
the collective experience of her people and raising awareness against the racist conditions they have
to endure.
Although I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was written and published in 1969, a critical period in
African American history, the political narrative of the autobiography has been neglected. Its
publication coincided with the end of the Civil Rights movement, the emergence of the Black Power
Movement and the revival of Black Feminism. However, the reception of Angelou's autobiography
has mainly concentrated on her representation of the multidimensional identity of Black women and
giving voice to their suppressed issues and struggles, which can be seen in the works of critics such as
Joanne Braxton and Mary Jane Lupton. However, her political voice, which is influenced by the social,
political, and historical circumstances of the controversial period of 1960s, has not gotten the same
attention from critics of black political autobiography.
In the works of critics, Kenneth Mostern and V. P. Franklin, the contribution of prominent African
American writers to this field such as W.E. B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Malcolm X and Angela Davis,
has been investigated. Their research builds on the findings of pioneer critics in the field of African
American autobiography such as William Andrews, Stephen Butterfield, and Sidonie Smith. However,
Angelou's autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is not mentioned or referred to in these
monographs, which raises the question of the criteria these anthologies on political autobiographies
use to include or exclude a certain work.
In order to answer the above question, it is necessary to define autobiographies written with
political intention. Mary F. Brewer describes the main purpose of writing political autobiography by
minority groups as giving "voice to the 'real' experiences of the working class, ethnic minorities,
women, migrants and lesbians and gays – all those who have been rendered silent as a result of
racism, colonialism, hetero/sexism, or other forms of prejudice and exploitation." 3 She continues to
state that the perspective of these writers is "the 'other' side to histories either previously untold, or
already told but misrepresented and distorted." 4 She further explains that these life narratives are
not recorded because of their unique personal experiences but "rather because they presuppose a
group identity and solidarity in order to validate and preserve belief systems and cultural practices
that are under stress." 5 As a result, these narratives are described as "counter‐hegemonic" by Brewer
and can be considered as a branch of "resistance writing." 6 African American political autobiography
follows this pattern to the extent that "an individual's story can be made to register as typical of
many stories in the larger community." 7 Critics and prominent writers such as James Olney, Toni
Morrison, and bell hooks have also pointed out the connection between the individual and the group
in political autobiographies written by African Americans and how "personal ambitions and
accomplishments" are expressed through "community expressions." 8
*
University of Sussex School of History, Art History and Philosophy Centre for American Studies