Memories of Childhood

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Both episodes show the childhood experience of oppression and humiliation. Zitkala-Sa faces racial and cultural suppression at a boarding school, while Bama faces caste-based discrimination. In both c…

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Zitkala-Sa was the pen name of Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, an American Indian woman born in 1876. She was a writer who began publishing articles criticising the Carlisle Indian school in 1900.

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Bama was the pen-name of a Tamil Dalit woman from a Roman Catholic family. She wrote Karukku, Sangati, and Kisumbukkaaran. The episode We Too are Human Beings is taken from Karukku.

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Karukku means palmyra leaves with serrated edges, like double-edged swords. It also puns on karu, meaning embryo or seed, so it suggests freshness and newness.

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She found the new environment cold, noisy, and unfamiliar. The strict routine, the strange language, the shoes replacing her moccasins, and the different customs made her feel lost and controlled.

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She was caught after hiding, dragged out, tied to a chair, and her thick braids were cut off with scissors. She felt deep pain because her hair had great cultural meaning in her community.

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Among her people, short hair was worn by mourners and shingled hair by cowards. Hair-cutting was therefore a sign of shame and loss of honour, so she resisted strongly.

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Judewin was Zitkala-Sa's friend at the boarding school. She knew a few words of English and warned her that the paleface woman planned to cut their hair. Her warning triggers Zitkala-Sa's protest.