“As they sat at tea in Tiergarten, under the black tall trees, Matthew’s story came pouring out:” (DuBois 8).
Over tea, Matthew tells his story to the Princess. Tea often seems to bring people together, and its soothing warmth encourages storytelling. The origins of tea are not concrete, but legend says that the first cup of tea can be traced back to 2737 BC in China. Emperor Shen Nung was drinking a cup of hot water when a few leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant blew into his cup. Voila, the first cup of tea was created. Other legends exist as well. Some speak of tea as first being used as a medicated beverage in the Shang Dynasty, and other myths say that the first tea bushes were grown from the torn eyelids of the founder of Chan Buddhism. Either way, tea originates from Asia and has always been associated with status, even today. It is therefore interesting that the first meeting of Matthew and the Princess involves the drinking of tea. Matthew, a black immigrant from America, and an actual royalty of African descent are drinking tea, a symbol of status, in a white country that has a horrifyingly racist and discriminatory past. In this scene, the symbol of tea serves to connect Africa with Asia in a European setting.
DuBois, W.E.B. Dark Princess: A Romance. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Teabox. “History of Tea.” UK Tea & Infusions Association, 20 Apr. 2017, www.tea.co.uk/history-of-tea.
I appreciate this comment because I feel like it really highlights tea’s versatility and how it occupies many spheres of our existence. With tea being used as remedies in medicine, to aid in the consumption of psychedelics to speak to spirits, to being boycotted as a mechanism for sovereign divestment, I think tea is something that is so intrinsically human, regardless of the region from which it originated.
I think it was great that you not only spoke about the origin of tea, but also how it has been associated with high society up to today. As we recall, before this scene in Dark Princess, the princess was treated as subhuman by a white person trying to flirt with her. Perhaps her drinking tea afterwards was not only to calm her nerves, but also to reinforce her status. Not necessarily to prove to Matthew, but to remind herself of who she is.