I said in a social media post that anyone who attempts to write a think piece on the importance of Toni Morrison and her work would fall short. A fellow writer agreed with me, that to encapsulate the legacy of Toni Morrison through words, through any language is impossible because Toni Morrison is words, she is language.
To read her words is nothing short of a spiritual experience. Even as I type I feel extremely inadequate to talk about how Song of Solomon made me feel in university. Yet, I do remember what my lecturer Alan Marshall said before we started the book. People will say Toni Morrison is the greatest living black writer, but she isn’t; she is the greatest living writer. It is somewhat ironic that for a woman who centred her blackness in her stories, it is, in fact, her blackness that may rob her of the accolade she deserves the most. Yet, we know Toni would not care, because she did not care about the white gaze. Toni didn’t care if the white gaze saw her, or her work and it is probably why so many black women can only describe Toni’s work as a spiritual because it is meant for us unapologetically.