12 Feb / 47 by Walter Mosley
February marks African American Heritage Month. Do you know where your books are? I’ve been picking up older, missed titles the last couple of weeks, and discovering some unique treasures, especially those that highlight unusual or lesser-known historical experiences. Stay tuned for more …
Mega-bestselling author Walter Mosley, best known for his ongoing Easy Rawlins mystery series, has the only sci-fi slavery narrative for younger reader I’ve ever read. [The late MacArthur “Genius” writer Octavia Butler’s Kindred features a young Los Angelean who time-travels from 1976 to 19th-century Maryland and meets her white and slave ancestors; the book’s intended audience is adults.] If anyone knows of other such titles, please do share!
Perhaps in a nod to Kindred‘s protagonist, Mosley’s narrator, too, has time-traveling abilities. In the contemporary “Preface” which opens the book, the “I” promises a story of his boyhood back in 1832; he reveals he hasn’t aged in the 170-plus years since, although he insists “this is no whopper I’m telling.”
For those who prefer to listen to the ‘telling,’ make sure to pick up the late great Ossie Davis’ extraordinary recording; it’s truly a rare aural gift.
On the Corinthian Plantation in Georgia, young “Forty-seven” has been purposefully, lovingly underfed by Big Mama Flore, the only mother he’s ever known, in order to keep him away from the backbreaking work of the cotton fields for as long as possible. But at 14, he’s branded his lifelong number (by another slave, made crippled and cruel by his suffering) and sent to live in the “man-slaves’ cabin” where the exhausted men are chained every night to prevent escape. He is befriended by a charming, eloquent, mysterious runaway who calls himself Tall John. Surely an incarnation of the African American folk hero, “High John the Conqueror,” the new slave’s fantastic stories about “beyond Africa” are nearly impossible to believe, but Tall John continually empowers Forty-seven with the resounding refrain, “‘Neither nigger nor master be.'” Tall John reveals that Forty-seven is destined to free his people and save the world … with the help of otherworldly prophecies, energy, tools, and even “an extremely powerful craft called the Sun Ship.”
Magic, tall tales, and space travel aside, Mosley ironically, tragically reminds, “Slavery might be the most unbelievable part of this whole story but I assure you – it really happened.”
Tidbit: Take a look at that number. Surely it speaks loudly of many, many other stories: the avenging, historical 47 rōnin; the destructive power of AK-47s; the hipster ’47 Brand of clothing; the country code for Norway (bet you didn’t know that one). Pomona College has quite the historical relationship with the random number, which spread far into Star Trek‘s ‘where no man has gone before,’ thanks to a 1979 Pomona alum. Throughout the virtual world, rest assured that The 47 Society exists to keep track of 47 sightings. Mosley’s 47 undoubtedly joins lofty company indeed.
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2005