Homegoing

We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story, too. (p226)

In Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi brings suppressed voices to life by following the lineage of two half-sisters born in eighteenth-century Ghana. The sisters never meet, and their lives take very different paths: one marries a British officer involved in the slave trade, and remains in Africa. The other is caught, imprisoned in the British officier’s dungeon, and sent to America to live in slavery.

Slavery’s legacy has profound effects on the eight show more generations that follow. Those remaining in Africa are still touched by the slave trade, and by war and the oppressive effects of Colonialism. The descendants of slaves experience generations of racism and oppression and struggle to survive in a culture where they are constantly at a disadvantage.

The novel’s structure, essentially a collection of linked short stories, works very well. Each chapter covers one person in the lineage, in chronological order from one generation to the next. Even though there are huge gaps in time between generations, there are also connections, making the narrative feel seamless. The result is a rich tapestry of voices heard all too infrequently in literature -- illuminating and highly recommended. show less

The malevolent influence of the slave trade on Africans is the theme of this accomplished novel in short stories. It begins with two beautiful half-sisters, who, as fate would have it, end up on opposite sides of the evil enterprise. One marries a British slaver (as a "wench" wife); the other is taken as a prisoner of war and sold into slavery. Their Ghanaian and American descendants struggle with various forms of brokenness, from loneliness to insanity, imprisonment and addiction. The ever-present specter of racism haunts them as well.

I don't usually like the "novel in short stories" form, but I found this a beautifully-written, moving and cohesive collection. In its blending of realistic and fantastical elements, it is something like show more a fairy tale. Highly recommended. show less

Homegoing chronicles the diverging family fortunes of two half-sisters in Ghana in painstaking, often excruciating detail, from the 18th century through to the present day.

One sister, Effia, is the oldest child of Cobbe, a member of the Fante tribe, and his first wife, Baaba. As she grows up, Effia doesn't understand why her mother doesn't love her. It is not until much later that she learns she is actually the child of her father's rape of an Asante housegirl named Maame. The house girl ran away the night Effia was born, getting lost in the chaos and confusion of a forest fire she deliberately set. Baaba's hatred of being forced to raise Effia results in a scheme to marry her off to a white man, one of the English colonials who occupy show more Cape Coast Castle, where captured Africans are taken and held until being sent to America to be used and abused as unpaid slave labor.

Esi was born to Maame and "Big Man," an Asante tribal chief who marries her when she arrives in his village after fleeing from the fire. Esi learns as a teenager about the circumstances of her mother's life, and scarcely has time to absorb this new knowledge before their village is raided by Fante warriors, who capture many of the villagers and hold them prisoner before selling them to the English soldiers. Esi and the others are taken to Cape Coast Castle to await their deportation to North America. Neither she, living in the castle's dudgeon, or her sister, married to the white man who now commands the castle, have any idea of the other's presence.

Alternating chapters introduce us to successive generations of Effia's and Esi's families. The stark contrast in the fortunes of their descendants — one family maintaining authority and power in Africa while the other is tossed and battered through slavery in America and the ongoing inequality that persists throughout — can make for difficult reading. At the same time, it's an effective way to convey that the African diaspora that came about via the slave trade is not a monolith. As Tolstoy reminded us in Anna Karenina, unhappy families are each unhappy in their own way. None of the characters profiled in the book has been well-served by their encounter with the slave trade, regardless of which side they were on.

I was grateful for the genealogy chart at the beginning of the book. Each chapter was so searing in its emotional weight that I found it difficult to read more than one at a sitting, meaning that I was constantly having to remind myself of who the various characters were and where in the timeline they lived. There is nothing light or playful to break the impact of Effia's and Esi's stories, which is hard on the reader but perhaps not inappropriate. If they could live it, the least we can do is read about it, I would guess is the rationale.

I'm having a hard time thinking of who I would recommend this book to, despite the brutal beauty of Gyasi's prose, as in this description of Esi's state of mind during her time in the slave dungeon:

Hell was a place of remembering, each beautiful moment passed through the mind's eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango; perfectly useless, uselessly perfect. show less

This novel spans 300 years and examines two branches of a Ghanaian family, one who remains in Ghana and one who ends up in America. Effia and Esi are two half sisters who have never met and who live on opposite sides of the country. Effia is forced to marry a slave captain and lives fairly comfortably in Cape Coast Castle, where slaves are housed in filth and squalor in the dungeons below. Esi is one of those slaves and is eventually shipped to America and sold there. The book follows their offspring through several generations and is a series of standalone chapters set during different times. Even though the chapters can stand on their own, they are also part of the larger narrative.

Each story could be it's own book because you want to show more know more about each and every character. The connecting stories cover everything from the slave trade and British colonization in Ghana to Southern plantations, convict labor camps, and Harlem dope houses. The author did a wonderful job of showing the legacy of slavery and how it affects the descendants, even through multiple generations.

The characters are stunning and their stories emotional. It's both powerful and thought provoking. This is the debut of a gifted new writer and I highly recommend it. show less

Gyasi describes a multi-generational history of the slaves during the Gold Coast slave trade beginning in the late 1700's by the British, following the families all the way to the year 2000 in the U.S. Gyasi focuses on two sisters and their extended families, one of whom marries a British soldier and remains in Africa living a life of luxury, another who is seized from a tribe where her father is royalty and taken by boat to the U.S. in despicable conditions. Gyasi shows how other Gold Coast tribes participate in the slave trade, and highlights how the British take Ghanan wives and treat them well, two things I did not know before. The real strength of the book is in showing how many of the captured slaves were descendants of Ghanan show more royalty and were accustomed to being treated as such in their own villages. To be sold as slaves and put on boats in deplorable conditions, subject to rape and torture had to tear the soul right out of them. Many were infamous warriors feared by other tribes, whipped into submission by their captors. Their children inherit their anger forcing change in the United States, but not as soon as we thought. Gyasi peppers the book with Ghanan mysticism placing great weight on dreams and totems, and questioning Christianity. Her book begs the question of whether a whole culture's debasement and accompanying fear and hatred can be inherited by future generations along with memories of a different way of life in a different country. This is an eye-opening book and a beautiful and disturbing story. show less

“No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.”

A beautifully written family saga spanning multiple generations. It’s a difficult read that neither sugarcoats nor exploits.

Effia and Esi are half-sisters born into different tribes in Ghana, destined never to meet. Effia is married off to an Englishman so her family can profit from the slave trade. Her descendants mostly remain in Ghana. Esi is one of many Africans who is sold as a slave and ends up in America.

As we move through the generations of each sister’s family, we get glimpses of how one generation’s traumas and triumphs influence the next.

One of the best books I’ve read so far this year.

Spanning from eighteenth-century Ghana to present-day America, Homegoing tells the stories of two Ghanaian sisters, one of whom marries an Englishman and lives in comfort while the other is sold as a slave, and their descendants. Each chapter focuses on a single individual, and each chapter has its own narrative arc, reading like a complete story. But each chapter also relates to the previous ones, finishing the stories that have come before it. The result is a book that tells a vast story in a very intimate way, making clear the ways in which we are all a product of the stories that have come before us. The book is also beautifully written. Here is one of my favorite quotes:

"Old Lady said that only bodies died. Spirits wandered. They show more found Asamando, or they didn't. They stayed with their descendants to guide them through life, to comfort them, sometimes to scare them into waking from their fog of unloving, unloving." show less