Abstract

This paper offers an interpretation of the changes in Black identity during the last century. By drawing on psychological literature and cultural artefacts, changing understandings of Blackness are read as different narrative forms. The shift from ‘Negro’ to ‘Black’ is presented as a shift from tragicto romanticnarrative, while the ‘African’ narrative that now occupies the centre stage of Black identity represents a satiricalstory. It is suggested that with a growing awareness of being both Black and ‘something else’, the apparent opposing themes in performing Blackness can be resolved by enacting a comedynarrative. There is some evidence that the comedy narrative is present but it has yet to gain ascendancy.