“Daughters of the Dust,” by Julie Dash is a film rich with symbolism and
meaning. The film is set in Ibo Landing where the ancestors of enslaved Africans
were said to have walked across the water in an attempt to return to their
homeland. The Peazant family gathered on a day in 1920 in order to prepare for a
journey across the water from their secluded home to the mainland, and to
mainstream American society. I had to watch the movie several times before I was
able to identify the many themes that Dash has chosen to weave together in this
“artsy” film presentation. Of the many symbols that appear throughout the
film, I have found one of the simplest to be the most profound. Throughout the
film, Julie Dash uses the Color of the clothes to represent the connection or
disconnection that exists between the characters and their African ancestry. In
this paper, I will focus on the colors that Julie Dash has assigned to the
clothing worn by the female characters in the film. The first character that I
will discuss is Nana Peazant. Nana Peazant is the oldest female in the Peazant
family. She is the member of the family who is most in touch with the family
ancestry and she is replete with the blood memory of her African culture and
tradition. She is rooted in the old ways, engages in ancient forms of ritual and
perpetuates their culture. Throughout the film, she serves as a central figure
and a strong matriarch. She councils the younger generation, shares of her
knowledge with them, and tries her best to convey to them the importance of
remembering and recognizing where they come from. The color of her dress and the
skin of her hands are a deep purplish blue color from indigo dye. The dye has
permeated her skin and serves as a permanent reminder of plantation life, a time
where she was made to use indigo to dye materials with her bare hands. The color
of her clothing is symbolic of her position within the family. The color of her
hands is significant because as her hands retain the color of the dye, she
retains the traditions handed down to her by the ancestors before her. The
majority of the older women in the film are dressed in white. Many of their
dresses are adorned with purple belts, sashes, and scarves. These women are
wearing natural hairstyles and they are depicted in the film teaching the
children games and preparing foods that are particular to the Gullah culture. As
the deep indigo color of the dress worn by Nana Peazant can symbolize her
powerful ties to the past; the small touches of purple that are found in the
outfits of these women, can suggest that they are removed from the past and
moving toward a more “modern” existence. Eula, Iona, and the younger
children are dressed in all white. They are two and three generations removed
from slavery and the plantation experience. They are even farther removed from
Africa. The only knowledge that many of the children will carry with them is the
history and the tradition that is handed down to them by their parents. Nana
Peazant’s daughter Viola is a devout follower of the Christian religion. She
is very willing to distance herself from the traditional practices of her
African ancestors; she considers them primitive. Viola is eager to have her
family join her on the mainland and she is clearly shaken when her mother wraps
roots around the bible and asks that her children take a part of her wherever
they go. The clothes worn by Viola are different from the clothes worn by the
other women, in that; they are not associated in any way with her African
culture. She wears a long black skirt and is very conservatively dressed. Her
hair is worn in a style that is pinned up to emulate the styles worn by the
White women on the mainland. The appearance of viola is very important because
it symbolizes her desire to separate herself from her ancestry and to reach
toward an existence that is more White. Throughout the majority of the film,
Yellow Mary is wearing a dress that is pale yellow or off white. I believe that
the color of her dress is being used by Julie Dash to symbolize her impurity.
Although it is not stated clearly within the film, the inference is made that
Yellow Mary has engaged in some behavior that many of the women on Ibo Landing
consider unacceptable. In the book, the reader is informed that she has been
involved in prostitution. Yellow Mary has been away from Ibo Landing for some
time. She has made a life for herself away from her family and her ancestors.
She returned to the Island to assist her family members in their journey to the
mainland. The character of Yellow Mary is presented in the film as worldly and
hardened. She speaks with authority and her laughter is harsh. The first time
that she is presented as vulnerable is when she shares a moment with her elder,
Nana Peazant. Yellow Mary seeks refuge in Ibo Landing, and decides to stay
behind. A friend accompanies Yellow Mary on her trip to Ibo Landing. In the
film, the viewer is not presented with much information about the friend or
about the nature of their relationship. Without information, about Yellow
Mary’s friend, to guide the viewer, her appearance becomes very significant.
She is the closest in appearance to a white woman that we find in the film, and
she is wearing a bright yellow dress. Yellow Mary is wearing a dress that has an
off white or yellow hue symbolizing her tainted moral character. Her friend’s
bright yellow dress may infer that she is damaged morally, or that there is a
greater separation between her and her African roots. When the family bonds
together to take part in a ritual honoring the wishes of their eldest female
ancestor, Yellow Mary’s friend finds the situation to be unbearable and runs
away. The entire story is told from the point of view of the unborn child of
Eula Peasant. This child is an innocent, and like her mother, she wears all
white. The difference between this child and the other children that were
described earlier is that she would have the benefit of growing up on Ibo
Landing with the influence of Nana Peazant and the presence of her ancestors.
Julie Dash gives the viewer evidence of this by showing that the unborn child
has the markings of indigo on her finger. The symbolism behind the colors of the
clothing that were assigned to the female characters in “Daughters of the
Dust,” by Julie Dash Was a very important aspect of the film. I feel that she
was very successful in using color to create a continuity between the identities
of the female characters and their connection with their ancestry, or in a few
cases, their disconnection with it.