affecting tea party interest Because Ruth is overwhelmed by her own concerns (mainly, that she might be pregnant), she becomes annoyed and therefore sarcastic when Walter tries to involve her in his conversation about the lives of wealthy whites. Ruth "affects" or "puts on" a tea party voice, purposely sounding pretentious in order to make Walter leave her alone.
always in his voice there is a quality of indictment a description of Walter, who has grown increasingly accusatory about the bleakness of his financial future.
Ashanti Beneatha's reference to the Ashanti people, along with George Murchison's references to the Songhay Empire, Benin, and the Bantu language, shows that Hansberry herself had some knowledge of the African continent and its culture. Because her uncle, Leo Hansberry, was a professor of African history at Howard University and, perhaps, because one of his students was Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence, Hansberry's major geographical focus here appears to be on the history of Ghana, known prior to its independence as "The Gold Coast." The Ashanti, originally a part of present-day Ghana, were people within the Ghana Empire whose ascendancy was based on the iron and gold found within this wealthy country. By 1180, however, a group of rival tribes united as the nation of Mali, ravaged Ghana, and put an end to its empire. The new Mali Empire, larger and more wealthy that the former empire of Ghana, reached from the Atlantic Ocean to the Niger River and north to the Sahara Desert. The rulers of Mali established the Muslim religion that had come out of Arabia and was sweeping throughout Africa. Mali's most well-known king, Mansa Musa, advanced his civilization to a point of such great wealth that when he made his pilgrimage to Mecca, he spent more than a hundred camel-loads of gold on his holy trip. Perhaps, because of such abuses by its kings, Mali, once one of the world's great trading nations, was eventually conquered by the neighboring kingdom of Songhai (Songhay).
Bantu The Bantu language is the tongue common to the peoples of Africa who live below the equator. There are many languages and tribes among the Bantu people — thus, the Bantu are one of the many native African groups who speak one of the Bantu languages. Bantu is the largest language family and Swahili (which consists of Bantu and Arabic) is the most widely spoken.
behind the bureau A bureau is a piece of furniture that was usually kept in the bedroom and used for storing clothing. A dresser, in contrast, is a short piece of bedroom furniture that has drawer space, a large mirror, and a small stool or chair where one might sit in order to put on makeup. The bureau is the taller piece of bedroom furniture, containing only drawer space for clothing. Objects placed on top of the bureau often landed behind it, which, because of its size and weight, was often a difficult piece of furniture to move.
