Madame Neilsen: A Missionary to Visionary Matriarch in Lorraine Hansberry's Le Blancs

Les Blancs, a play about African liberation is the most important work by Lorraine Hansberry. She was a leading light of the future generation, a woman who refused to be restrained by the categories of race and gender. While analyzing the role of matriarch in Les Blancs, it is evident that not only black African matriarch encourages liberation but also a woman with the racial difference also possesses the traits of black womanhood. Madame Neilsen, a white settler in the utopian land of Zatambe, is the white surrogate mother of Tshembe, the principal character of the play, sacrifices her life in the war taken up by the blacks against the colonialist. The civil war has taken the life of the surrogate mother Madam Neilsen. This visionary white matriarch irrespective of race assumes the traits of a black matriarch and lives up to their expectations.Keywords: Lorraine Hansberry, Le Blancs, Missionary, Education, sacrifice, visionary matriarch