The Dieke and Hughes’s manifesto for aspiring folks in <i>The Big Sea</i> and <i>Not Without Laughter</i>

Abstract

It is very fascinating that the young Langston Hughes (Poet Laureate of African-Americans and a veritable leader of the Harlem Renaissance Movement) was taught and mentored by a Nigerian, Miss Dieke, in his High School days In Cleveland, Ohio. Tellingly, it is Langston Hughes who would later proceed to Lincoln University, Pennsylvania,USA, where he would meet with, impact and rub minds with Nnamdi Azikiwe (the first President of Nigeria), Kwame Nkrumah (the first President of Ghana) and Thurgood Marshall (the first African-American Justice of the United States Supreme Court) who also attended the Lincoln University. Poignantly, Langston Hughes also authored the famous manifesto for African Writing, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.” This essay essentially explores the rich influence on Langston Hughes of the teachings and mentorship of Miss Dieke and other teachers who lay the foundation of the education that propelled Hughes to become the veritable scholar and intellectual that he became.