DEADLINE FOR ALL PANEL PROPOSALS: APRIL 4, 2025

Name/Organization: Dr. Sarah Olutola, Lakehead University
Contact email: solutola@lakeheadu.ca

Working Title: To Blanch an Ethiop: A Masque of Blackness and Beauty

The Background: Ben Jonson’s The Masque of Blackness (1605)

Two chariots meet upon an ocean storm. The first rider: Oceanus, with his blue flesh, horned gray head, and sea green robe, the Greek god of all the earth’s waters. The second: Oceanus’s son Niger, the African god of the Niger River. But Niger is not alone. With him are his twelve daughters, African nymphs of the Niger who have become quite distressed of late.

Niger confesses that although his daughters had once been considered beautiful, the moon goddess Aethiopia has informed them that white skin is now the pinnacle of beauty. To attain such beauty, they must find a country whose name ends in ‘tania.’ There, the Great Sun will blanch their brown skin and turn them pale. What is this wondrous country of which the moon goddess speaks?

Coming to Niger’s aid, Oceanus and Aethiopia answer the riddle: Why it is Brittania, a land otherwise known as Albion. If the twelve African nymphs, the Daughters of Niger, come to this land and bathe in the king’s light, they will turn white and attain the beauty they so desire. Upon hearing the answer to their plight, the twelve Daughters of Niger celebrate with a dance.

This is the synopsis of The Masque of Blackness, a play by playwright and poet Ben Jonson in 1605, Shakespeare’s contemporary. The short play, or ‘masque,’ was written at the request of Queen Anne of Denmark and performed for King James I just two months after Shakespeare’s Othello. Queen Anne and her ladies-in-waiting played the roles of the Daughters of Niger, blackening their bodies and disguising themselves as Africans. This was a controversial act back then, not because of the racist underpinnings of the practice we now call blackface, but because of the transgressive act of a woman (especially a queen), playing a theatrical role on stage—and particularly a role that called for the blackening of her ‘fair’ skin. The point of the play was to celebrate the notion of white British sovereignty at a critical historical juncture when King James I, Britain’s ‘sun’ was beginning to form and fortify the British Empire.

True Beauty: Writers Speak Back

I propose an anthology of twelve short stories, each appropriate for Young Adult (YA) audiences, each following one Daughter of Niger, and each exposing, exploring, and challenging Eurocentric beauty standards. The central setup of our anthology is the same as Ben Jonson’s masque imagines it. Niger, with his nymph daughters in tow, meets the titan Oceanus. There, upon the storming waters, they learn of the country Britannia, the white lands of which the moon goddess spoke. Encouraged by the moon goddess, their father Niger, and their grandfather Oceanus, they swim to Brittania to become ‘white’ and attain ‘true beauty.’

And this is where the story changes.

Upon reaching the shores of Brittania, in the dark of night, two gates stand before them on the sandy beach: one obsidian black and the other pearl white. The moon goddess gives them choice. Go through the black gate and keep your skin. Go through the white gate and achieve ‘white beauty.’

Whichever door they cross through, they will end up in early 17th century Europe, during the reign of King James I. How does your chosen African nymph navigate a new life in Albion? Anything goes: despair, revenge, assimilation, romance, hatred, rebellion, escape, and even
murder.

The Daughters of Niger:

Euphoris (originally played by Queen Anne)
Aglaia
Diaphane
Eucampse
Ocyte
Kathare
Notis
Psychrote
Glycyte
Malacia
Baryte
Periphere

Submission Guidelines:

Interested participants should submit two documents (.docx or .pdf) by April 4th:

1) A CV or a list of publications with your contact information
2) A second document that includes a 1-2 paragraph story summary (no more than 250 words), a short author bio (no more than 100 words) and a completed short story (between 5000-7000 words). This document must be labelled as “ETHIOP ANTHOLOGY 2025, STORY TITLE.”

Email submissions and cover sheet to Dr. Sarah Olutola at solutola@lakeheadu.ca with the email subject “To Blanch an Ethiop Anthology: Submission.” Preference will be given to authors who identify as Black. Please note that not all submissions will be selected for the anthology. You will be notified of the editor’s decision by April 30th.

Please contact Dr. Sarah Olutola with any questions.