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What are ways "The Deep River" by Bessie Head relates to the theme of identity? Include both personal and cultural identity issues in your discussion.

In some ways, this story pits personal or individual identity against cultural or communal identity.Long ago, the Talaote tribe "lived without faces," meaning people lived without personal identity, having only tribal or cultural identity. They were content to have their identity be represented by their chief.  Everyone followed the chief's orders, acting as one, accepting "this regimental leveling out of their individual souls" until, one day, conflict came and "the people awoke and showed their individual faces." It is when conflict arrives that we see how individuals can suddenly begin to privilege personal identity over cultural identity; or, perhaps, the emerging importance of personal identity over cultural identity is the cause of the conflict itself?


When Sebembele, the oldest son of the now-dead chief Monemapee, admits that he had an affair with his father's most junior bride, Rankwana, this causes conflict. The affair resulted in Sebembele fathering Rankwana's son, who he refuses to give up. Some tribe members feel he should be able to keep Rankwana as a wife, while others think a man who is so influenced by a woman is unfit to rule. Sebembele is unable to make up his mind, so his brothers choose for him, sending Rankwana away to be married to another man. When Sebembele learns of his brothers' actions, he goes to Rankwana's new home to retrieve her and their son; they walk through the village as one and seem prepared to leave the tribe together when something remarkable happens. Sebembele's supporters are so impressed with his actions that they feel "the time had come for them to offer up their individual faces to the face of this ruler." Sebembele's camp packs up and leaves the tribe, adopting a new name and trading their old cultural identity for a new one.


This story seems to suggest that cultural identity can only successfully take the place of individual identity until the individual begins to chafe under it. If one's identity comes into conflict with one's cultural identity, then personal identity automatically becomes more important, as the people are unwilling to live "without faces" when they disagree with their rulers or the rules. 

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