Black Girl In Search Of God Themes

Djanet Sears’ 2002 play, Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God uses diasporic aesthetics in its exploration of themes including the search for a home, and the reclamation of land.

Before detailing the play and its uses of themes and mechanics, its context of creation must first be examined. Born Janet Sears, at the age of 15, she changed her name Djanet after visiting an African town of the same name (Brown-Guillory). Thus, Sears says that through her name she signals a connection to Africa and her heritage (ibid). Sears, whom Rick Knowles refers to as the “matriarch of African Canadian Theatre,” founded the AfriCanadian Playwrights Festival in 1997, and is editor of one of the first anthologies of Canadian plays. (Knowles.) Her previous
The story centres around a young South African girl literally looking for God in the wilderness and finding multiple philosophical versions of Him. Sears said, in an interview with Matt Buntin, that she believes the story is not about a black girl, and, “as writers we are influenced by our foundations and we ought to respond to them. In my case this is especially important given that a lot of my foundational literature is not from a Black female perspective.” In her writing process for Adventures, Sears said that she tried to separate and individuate her self from her conscious and subconscious influences, while also respecting them, acknowledging that they’ve shaped her and her works
Throughout the play, Abendingo constantly refers to how the land was given to his people by the British for fighting bravely in the war of 1812, before that, it was Ojibwe territory. As Abendingo is preoccupied by his own struggles, that his land and culture are being taken away from him, he neglects to think of the Ojibwe and how their land and culture were taken away from them by the British. What was the name of Negro Creek before it was Negro Creek? Chances are we will never know that because it was written out of history. According to Abendingo, it was the British’ not the Ojibwe’s decision to grant the land. Here, Sears challenges the common narrative of the home for even for members of the diaspora who have accepted and embraced Canada. She describes the rewriting of history that occurs not just for African Canadians, but Aboriginals and all those oppressed, highlighting the universal theme of the loss of land and culture at the hand of the