“The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.” –Akan Proverb
This magn“The family is like the forest: if you are outside it is dense; if you are inside you see that each tree has its own position.” –Akan Proverb
This magnificent sweeping tale of eight generations gives a broad look and much insight into the history of slavery and the slave trade. The writing is incredible! Each chapter focuses upon a family member and is so richly described, containing so much history, emotion and conflict that each could theoretically be further developed into a novel of its own.
Homegoing begins in Cape Coast, Africa in which is modern day Ghana. Cobbe has a child with a house girl, who we know as Maame. Effia, the daughter, is raised as Baaba’s (Cobbe’s first wife’s) daughter. This house slave ends up free by marrying an Asante and has a second daughter Esi who ends up kidnapped by the Fantes and sold into slavery. For a brief time period, Esi lives in the basement of the castle with the other slaves while her half-sister, Effia is above, married to James, one of the slave traders. Both Esi and Effia have the necklaces handed down to them by their mother, until Esi’s is lost as her ancestry and heritage is stolen from her by being sent to America as a slave. The novel begins with Effia’s and Esi’s stories and continues through generations upon generation of their offspring.
The book has two parts. The first half reads like a fable. It is vibrant with the culture of the African people. The story-telling is itself true to the culture of these people, full of their belief systems. For me, the magic of the book lies in this first half. It is fascinating to learn about the Asantes and Fantes, their beliefs, and the warring that occurs between them. The second half becomes more straight forward in its manner of relating the stories of the characters, as we get closer to modern day.
I listened to this novel and the audio version is amazing! I also obtained a physical copy of this book afterwards so I could refer back to spellings of names of characters.
The most important theme running through this book is that of slavery and what it did to these people, effectively cutting off their ancestry, their heritage, making them a different people from Africans. Marjorie, in chapter 14, does not feel African-American, because she was born in Ghana. This was reminiscent, for me, of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s Americanah in this respect. However, it is the in-between period which becomes so illuminated and shocking when viewed over eight generations. Gyasi depicts a beautifully functioning African culture that becomes fractured by the slave trade. The horrors of slavery and it’s aftermath are put in perspective with this broadly sweeping novel. We are still dealing with the aftermath today, and Gyasi bravely posits the question of where will it end.
Even though each chapter reads as a short story, Gyasi, does a beautiful job of weaving themes through the story, connecting them in so many ways. Gyasi tackles so many subjects within this novel that it is impossible to enumerate them all in a quick review. I’ve touched on many within the discussion questions. Suffice it to say, this is an incredible read, and I recommend it to everyone! I am amazed that this is a debut novel by such a young author!
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