Review by Danielle Nagel
-Quey is Effia’s son and ends up feeling extreme pressure from having a white father and a Ghanian mother. The story also explores the villagers views of his sexuality, and his duty as a man of royal blood in taking over his uncle’s tribe causing him to marry out of negotiation needs to a woman from another tribe. Ness is the daughter of Esi, who was born in America onto a plantation and follows her navigation and attempted escape (where her son escapes without her and her partner) to the North and they are left behind.
-Kojo is Ness’s son that escaped but the chapter follows his navigation of running from “runaway slave” catchers that kidnap freemen and women regardless of having paperwork that define them as free (as exampled by Kojo’s wife being kidnapped and sold into slavery despite her never having been a slave). James is navigating different issues in being mixed and othered within the tribes, and ends up falling for a woman of royal blood from a warring tribe. They elope in the night and run away to a far away territory where no one knows them.
-Abena is the daughter of the eloped tribal leader’s children and is essentially cursed by her family’s lack of a name since they ran away from their tribes and have never revealed who they are. There is a man named Ohene that she wanted to marry, but due to her lack of family name and wealth, he kept putting off marrying her and wanted to make her his second wife when the crops changed. Eventually, she runs away because she is pregnant with his child but he refuses to marry her, and joins the missionary church in Kumasi. H was the child of Kojo who was sold into the coal mining industry for a petty crime, as a loophole for servitude after slavery was abolished. Eventually, he is freed but continues to work in the mines due to his skill and strength, as it allowed him to make money for his family. It explores the industrial complexes and how they took advantage of slave labor after slavery, including unsafe work conditions that frequently lead to death from tuberculosis (which is eventually how H dies).
-Akua was born in the missionary school her mother had fled to. This chapter explores how the missionaries killed her mother and adopted the idea of saving the Ghanaians from “heathenism”. Eventually, Akua leaves the missionary, and finds a husband to have three kids with. She has nightmares of fire stealing her children, and after her husband goes off to war, she sleepwalks and burns her three children. The husband saves the son, but the daughters are lost. She is exiled. Willie is the daughter of H and falls in a love with an extremely light skinned man named Robert. They have a son but have a lot of financial issues and can’t find work due to the climate in Harlem. Robert ends up leaving Willie because he is passably white and remarries and gains privilege while she is stuck in poverty.
-Carson is the son of Willie and is angry at not having a father figure. Because of this bitterness, he is aimless in life. He works in the Civil Rights Movement with the NAACP and is arrested, but always in jail or in between jobs. Eventually he quits and meets a woman who copes with the difficulties of life in Harlem by getting into dope. He has a child with this woman, but eventually cleans up after his mother tells him the truth about his father and how his father abandoned them because he got to choose a better life due to his passable skin color, while the black men and women were still under the influence of the structural power systems in place from slavery. Yaw is the surviving son of Akua, who ends up being a successful teacher. However, his scars leave him othered, lonely, and unsatisfied with his life. Eventually, he goes back to his mother to ask why and finds solace in their commonalities and scars, a partner in his servant girl whom he marries. This leads us to Marjorie and Marcus. Marcus is the son of Carson (or Sonny), and is a successful college student who is pursuing his PhD. He is in touch with his father and Willie, but cannot choose a direction for his research due to his focus being on the institutions of racism within the US. Every time he chooses a topic, he feels lost and angry at the long chain of injustices his father has educated him about. Eventually, he crosses paths with Marjorie, who is in touch with her Ghanian roots, visits her grandmother Akua frequently, and feels a connection to her. They maintain a friendship over time, but as Marcus grows more and more restless in his research, Marjorie suggests he goes to the Gold Coast Cape Castle with her. This travel helps both of them reconnect to their identity. THAT LAST SCENE IS AMAZING.
5. Touchy Areas:The most startling scenes involved Carson (Sonny) due to his drug usage in crack houses and his perspective under the influence and one scene that describes him sexually with Marcus’s mother. Despite the book being about children, the book does a good job of placing those images in the background of the text and implying what is happening instead of explicitly giving details except for that one scene towards the end of the book.
6. Related Titles: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
7. Music: “This is America” by Childish Gambino, “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar, “Changes” by 2Pac
Poems: “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
Classic Works: “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
8.Evaluation: This book captures beautifully the impact of slavery on identity, and also highlights some of the major struggles that African Americans face uniquely in not being able to trace their ancestrial lines. It is also informational regarding such historical injustices as the tribal slave sales, slavery in America, Freemen slave hunters, the Civil Rights Movement, prison work camps, Incarceration, dope and drugs as escapism, and most recently police brutality. I think analyzing the book with a colonialistic lens and identifying the specific impacts that came from colonization of Ghana in order to take advantage of the tribal wars could help students understand why it is still important to study slavery. I am actually planning to try to get this approved within my district so that I can teach it within the American Literature canon in order to focus on intersectionality with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah novel that touches on similar themes. I love the writing style, and how it transitions from generation to generation every two chapters. I think the interconnectedness blends nicely with the fresh perspective and jump in time you get with each new generation. You still see and recognize the characters from previous chapters, but you get to see them at different ages and how they’ve changed and analyze what impacted them the most in making those changes. It is also a powerful novel to pull in historical research and have students expand on the fictionalized historical accounts given in the books and give more meaning to what was occuring with the characters. What was most impressive was the necklace as a symbol. Esi loses the necklace given to her by her mother, while Effia keeps hers and passes it down to her children. This is symbolic because in the end, you see how Marjorie is grounded in knowing where she came from in a way that Marcus lacks because his ancestors were sold into slavery. It took me a second skim through to realize the impact that lack of ancestry had on Esi’s line, but it is such a powerful lesson that when you rob people of where they come from, it is easier to get lost. So much of what people say about slavery is that its impact is over, but this book serves as a beautiful reminder that the actions of our own ancestors have created shockwaves that still exist for those whose were stolen from the land they identified with and that caused them to not be given the roots that ground us when we start to lack direction. Marjoirie’s family has traceable roots in Ghana, where she was the first one to come to America. This contrasts richly with Marcus’s family whose first ancestor covered in the book is taken and forced into coming to America.
Tags for Book Lists:
African (Ghanian) American author suitable for high school
Favorite book for YA
Historical Fiction book suitable for 7-12
- Title: Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi, 978-1-101-97106-2, First Vintage Books Edition, 2017, YGN Books, 300 pp, $16.00
- Genre: Historical Fiction
- Characters:The book focuses on over fifteen charcaters from the generations of a family in Ghana whose daughters (Esi & Effia) are initially broken apart as children due to the slave trade off the Gold Cape Coast and follows their children’s journey, their children’s children’s journey, and so on, until the two children within the eighth generation meet in California at the present day and return to Ghana together. Each chapter alternates between one of the children from the next generation, showing you the differences in their lives, as Effia stays in Ghana due to her father’s prestigious tribal role in selling slaves to the British and Dutch traders in the Cape Coast Castle while Esi is sold into slavery and taken to the American plantations. The two characters also focused on the most are Marjorie and Marcus, the two who end up meeting in the present day, unaware of their intertwined ancestry but feel a connection to Ghana and return to find what they felt like they had been missing (especially Marcus due to his lack of identity due to the slave trade).
- The plot is complex, as it runs in parallel tracks through a large expanse of time.
-Quey is Effia’s son and ends up feeling extreme pressure from having a white father and a Ghanian mother. The story also explores the villagers views of his sexuality, and his duty as a man of royal blood in taking over his uncle’s tribe causing him to marry out of negotiation needs to a woman from another tribe. Ness is the daughter of Esi, who was born in America onto a plantation and follows her navigation and attempted escape (where her son escapes without her and her partner) to the North and they are left behind.
-Kojo is Ness’s son that escaped but the chapter follows his navigation of running from “runaway slave” catchers that kidnap freemen and women regardless of having paperwork that define them as free (as exampled by Kojo’s wife being kidnapped and sold into slavery despite her never having been a slave). James is navigating different issues in being mixed and othered within the tribes, and ends up falling for a woman of royal blood from a warring tribe. They elope in the night and run away to a far away territory where no one knows them.
-Abena is the daughter of the eloped tribal leader’s children and is essentially cursed by her family’s lack of a name since they ran away from their tribes and have never revealed who they are. There is a man named Ohene that she wanted to marry, but due to her lack of family name and wealth, he kept putting off marrying her and wanted to make her his second wife when the crops changed. Eventually, she runs away because she is pregnant with his child but he refuses to marry her, and joins the missionary church in Kumasi. H was the child of Kojo who was sold into the coal mining industry for a petty crime, as a loophole for servitude after slavery was abolished. Eventually, he is freed but continues to work in the mines due to his skill and strength, as it allowed him to make money for his family. It explores the industrial complexes and how they took advantage of slave labor after slavery, including unsafe work conditions that frequently lead to death from tuberculosis (which is eventually how H dies).
-Akua was born in the missionary school her mother had fled to. This chapter explores how the missionaries killed her mother and adopted the idea of saving the Ghanaians from “heathenism”. Eventually, Akua leaves the missionary, and finds a husband to have three kids with. She has nightmares of fire stealing her children, and after her husband goes off to war, she sleepwalks and burns her three children. The husband saves the son, but the daughters are lost. She is exiled. Willie is the daughter of H and falls in a love with an extremely light skinned man named Robert. They have a son but have a lot of financial issues and can’t find work due to the climate in Harlem. Robert ends up leaving Willie because he is passably white and remarries and gains privilege while she is stuck in poverty.
-Carson is the son of Willie and is angry at not having a father figure. Because of this bitterness, he is aimless in life. He works in the Civil Rights Movement with the NAACP and is arrested, but always in jail or in between jobs. Eventually he quits and meets a woman who copes with the difficulties of life in Harlem by getting into dope. He has a child with this woman, but eventually cleans up after his mother tells him the truth about his father and how his father abandoned them because he got to choose a better life due to his passable skin color, while the black men and women were still under the influence of the structural power systems in place from slavery. Yaw is the surviving son of Akua, who ends up being a successful teacher. However, his scars leave him othered, lonely, and unsatisfied with his life. Eventually, he goes back to his mother to ask why and finds solace in their commonalities and scars, a partner in his servant girl whom he marries. This leads us to Marjorie and Marcus. Marcus is the son of Carson (or Sonny), and is a successful college student who is pursuing his PhD. He is in touch with his father and Willie, but cannot choose a direction for his research due to his focus being on the institutions of racism within the US. Every time he chooses a topic, he feels lost and angry at the long chain of injustices his father has educated him about. Eventually, he crosses paths with Marjorie, who is in touch with her Ghanian roots, visits her grandmother Akua frequently, and feels a connection to her. They maintain a friendship over time, but as Marcus grows more and more restless in his research, Marjorie suggests he goes to the Gold Coast Cape Castle with her. This travel helps both of them reconnect to their identity. THAT LAST SCENE IS AMAZING.
5. Touchy Areas:The most startling scenes involved Carson (Sonny) due to his drug usage in crack houses and his perspective under the influence and one scene that describes him sexually with Marcus’s mother. Despite the book being about children, the book does a good job of placing those images in the background of the text and implying what is happening instead of explicitly giving details except for that one scene towards the end of the book.
6. Related Titles: The Old Drift by Namwali Serpell, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, The New Jim Crow:Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
7. Music: “This is America” by Childish Gambino, “Alright” by Kendrick Lamar, “Changes” by 2Pac
Poems: “A Dream Deferred” by Langston Hughes
Classic Works: “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
8.Evaluation: This book captures beautifully the impact of slavery on identity, and also highlights some of the major struggles that African Americans face uniquely in not being able to trace their ancestrial lines. It is also informational regarding such historical injustices as the tribal slave sales, slavery in America, Freemen slave hunters, the Civil Rights Movement, prison work camps, Incarceration, dope and drugs as escapism, and most recently police brutality. I think analyzing the book with a colonialistic lens and identifying the specific impacts that came from colonization of Ghana in order to take advantage of the tribal wars could help students understand why it is still important to study slavery. I am actually planning to try to get this approved within my district so that I can teach it within the American Literature canon in order to focus on intersectionality with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah novel that touches on similar themes. I love the writing style, and how it transitions from generation to generation every two chapters. I think the interconnectedness blends nicely with the fresh perspective and jump in time you get with each new generation. You still see and recognize the characters from previous chapters, but you get to see them at different ages and how they’ve changed and analyze what impacted them the most in making those changes. It is also a powerful novel to pull in historical research and have students expand on the fictionalized historical accounts given in the books and give more meaning to what was occuring with the characters. What was most impressive was the necklace as a symbol. Esi loses the necklace given to her by her mother, while Effia keeps hers and passes it down to her children. This is symbolic because in the end, you see how Marjorie is grounded in knowing where she came from in a way that Marcus lacks because his ancestors were sold into slavery. It took me a second skim through to realize the impact that lack of ancestry had on Esi’s line, but it is such a powerful lesson that when you rob people of where they come from, it is easier to get lost. So much of what people say about slavery is that its impact is over, but this book serves as a beautiful reminder that the actions of our own ancestors have created shockwaves that still exist for those whose were stolen from the land they identified with and that caused them to not be given the roots that ground us when we start to lack direction. Marjoirie’s family has traceable roots in Ghana, where she was the first one to come to America. This contrasts richly with Marcus’s family whose first ancestor covered in the book is taken and forced into coming to America.
Tags for Book Lists:
African (Ghanian) American author suitable for high school
Favorite book for YA
Historical Fiction book suitable for 7-12
