This is one of those books that is "unputdownable". It was listed by Essence as one of those must read books by African writers. I must say that Yaa Gyasi did not disappoint. Homegoing starts with an Akan proverb:- "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." This book is about a family - two trees from the same Matriach - spanning seven generations through slavery, segregation, abolition, colonialism, broken dreams, everyday things and perhaps triumphs. It is actually many short stories all woven into one.
Some things struck me.
Yaw - one of the characters -tells his students "When you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice is suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too. From there you begin to get a clearer, yet still imperfect story". This might sound philosophical but it really has been the way I have viewed life i.e. that the story of the hunt (told from the hunters perspective)glorifies the bravery of the hunter while suppressing the courage of the hunted So for example when we study Lake Victoria, Lake Turkana, Lake Albert, Victoria falls, we must always ask ourselves if there were other names before then. It is not even just about history. When I listen to CNN repeat a narrative over and over again, I need to ask myself whose story is being suppressed in order that that particular CNN story is heard over ; over again and ultimately etched into my mind as the only true story. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie likes to remind us, there is danger (untruthfullness) in a one-sided story.
Ekua tells her son that Evil begets evil. This reminds me of the verse in the Bible that the sins of the father are visited upon the sons upto the 7th generation. Christians have spoken of generational curses. Of things that happen in our lives which are a result of things that happened long ago - things that we know not off but nonetheless follow the bloodline. How can he who was born in the 7th generation understand and know what happened in the first generation that continues to affect his life? How can Marjorie comprehend her dread for fire and Marcus his fear for water bodies? Why does Ekua dream vividly about an ancestor she never knew? This is a spiritual dilemma but one which cannot be wished away. Sometimes we find answers with the fetish priest while at other times with Allah or YWHW. What the author doesn't tell us - since it's not in her place to tell is how to break the power of these things upon us.
The book is generally a sad book. It lacks the usual romance of tales that makes us forget about the vicissitudes of life. However it is also a story of resilience. Maame's two bloodlines of the family survive to the 7th generation. From Asante to Stanford. All growing apart through two distinct lines and meeting up at Stanford. Like most female writers, the women in the lines are stronger than the men. The male characters in the book are "weaker" than their female counterparts. I guess this is because Yaa might have a feminist streak in her. Or perhaps because the Ghanaian in her is generally used to strong characters like the Yaa Asentewaa. Yaa tells the story of the Queen mother - Yaa Asantewaa- with pride. As the men were all too afraid to fight the white man, it was Yaa Asantewaa who said if the men wouldn't fight, then the women would. It was she who led the men to war.
It is rather difficult to love the depiction of the white man in the book as these depictions are not flattering. Be it the Government officers, Slavers or Missionaries. The role of the missionary has been discussed at length by the African elite and writers. The jury is still out as to whether the missionaries were a tool of subjugation used by the slave master or whether they were propelled by an intrinsic desire to save the souls of the natives. Perhaps both are true. In the USA, where part of the story is cast, the slave owners, the segregationists, the miners or even the students are depicted negatively. You cannot but loath their characters. Is this the victim mentality of the African or just that there are many things that have never truly been discussed? I remember having rasied an issue at the workplace on the treatment of a colleague and being asked - in response - whether my concern was fuelled by a victim mentality. I was taken aback as I had never considered myself a victim but never pursued the matter further. The "abolition" of slave trade is discussed in the book with cynicism. The writer ponders whether the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade was triggered by humane insticts or that the slaver had come up with another way to enslave people. The book holds that slavery was no longer a beneficial enterprise given that monopoly capital could get a better deal by having the same people work in the coal mines of Alabama at very poor wages or as convicts without having to be responsible for their well being. It goes without saying that being a slave master was expensive and created a moral dilemna. Ultimately one could achieve the same or even better bottom line with free men. One could enslave people with heroin and create a dependency from which there was no return. Criminalise heroin and get the same convicts working in the mines as cheap labour. It was the same difference really. Cocoa - farmed at source - became a better commodity for economic benefit than dealing in people.
Lastly, what I like is the comment by Amani Zulema. Wishing for something like Marcus Garvey is sometimes unhelpful. This is your now... you better get used to it. Pining for a different situation is unnecessary because oftentimes we cannot alter the cards that we have been dealt. We just play them the best we can. Is this resignation to one's fate fatalistic or simply being realistic? . It reminds me of Chinua Achebe'
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