John Wideman's "Damballah" takes place back in a time where men used to buy the lives and souls of other men with just money out of their pockets. Culture, religion, and the families of these slaves meant nothing to their captures. As long as these "niggers" got their work done, then the master was happy, since this reassured him that he got his money's worth. The master of the plantation in "Damballah" gets a lot more than he bargained for with the purchase of a slave named Orion. Orion is much different than any of the other slaves on the plantation. This idea is apparent to the reader right from the beginning. Orion is, as Aunt Lissy describes, "...a crazy nigger. One of them wild African niggers act like he fresh off the boat." Orion has refused to speak English and he has also refused to accept Christianity. He has done all of this simply because he wants to desperately hold on to his escaping culture. He views his insubordination as the only way to hold on to this culture and history that he can feel slipping away. In the opening paragraph, Orion's frustration is shown when he feels that he has never learned the "proper" way to fish. He knows that he's African, and he should fish like his fellow Africans do back home. However, after being stolen by the white man, he was denied the right to learn this style. It is small things like this that upset Orion. He doesn't complain about hard work, or poor conditions, or a mean master. Instead of being upset about what he faces in the new world, he is upset about what he left behind in his old world.
             The other slaves, however, view his behavior as both crazy and upsetting. These slaves are more racist than their master since they have dislike for white men and they also have dislike for people like Orion. Even though Orion shares a common bond with these other slaves in his heritage, they loo...