In Act II, Scene 1, when Beneatha defines an "assimilationist Negro" as being "someone who is willing to give up his own culture and submerge himself completely in the dominant . . . oppressive culture," George Murchison responds immediately with, "Here we go! A lecture on the African past! On our Great West African Heritage! In one second we will hear all about the great Ashanti empires; the great Songhay civilizations and the great sculpture of Benin and then some poetry in the Bantu. . . . Let's face it, baby, your heritage is nothing but a bunch of raggedy-assed spirituals and some grass huts."
In response to George's self-deprecating sarcasm about the historical achievements of black people, Beneatha screams at him from another room: "the Ashanti were performing surgical operations when the English — were still tatooing themselves with blue dragons." It is clear that whatever George knows about Africa's past great civilizations has been learned through his association with Beneatha.
Note that when Beneatha's African suitor, Asagai, is on his way to the Younger apartment, Beneatha gives her mother a hasty briefmg on African history, coaching her mother in conversational protocol. She tells Mama that Asagai is from Nigeria, which Mama immediately confuses with Liberia. After correcting her, Beneatha begs Mama not to make stereotypical comments about Africans and tells her that the only thing that most people seem to know about Africa has been learned from Tarzan movies. Beneatha berates those missionaries who, like Mama, are more concerned with changing the African's religion than in overthrowing colonial rule.
