Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An intergenerational novel about descendants of two half-sisters born in 18th century Ghana, one who remains in Africa and one who is taken as a slave to America. Effia the Beauty marries the English governor of the Cape Coast Castle, the center of a British slaving operation. Their descendants are mixed race, and bear the burden of not fitting completely in either culture, as well as carrying the sins of their grandfather. Effia’s half-sister Esi is locked up in the dungeons of the same Castle, before being enslaved in the American South. Each chapter alternates between descendants of the two family lines, both men and women. In the process the reader learns of slave-hunting in Africa, the wars between the Fante and the Asante, and ultimately the British. In tandem, we learn of the horrors of slavery in America, of attempts to escape, the flight to northern cities like New York and Boston, and the varied ways that former slaves and their descendants have been locked out of the larger society, through segregation, racial bias, drug addiction and poverty, and the continued enslavement of black men after the Civil War through forced prison labor. One of the most poignant sections is the story of H, a powerful black man who is arrested on trumped up charges, then forced to labor in a coal mine in Alabama for a decade. Stronger than most, he survives, to settle in a coal mining town and continue the only vocation he knows, despite the specter of black lung. The characters in this novel are driven by broken memory, dissatisfaction and longing to seek their true selves. They alternately escape from suffocating circumstances --like James, who was born into an African royal family; or are torn apart by their family heritage -- like Akua, who cannot sleep for fear of the firewoman who appears in her dreams, leading to devastating consequences. Themes of fire and water run throughout the book, attending those who stay in Africa and those who cross the water to America, until both come together at the end. This symbolism at times seems somewhat forced, but ultimately unifies the novel and gives it a visionary quality. Published to acclaim in 2016, this novel resonates strongly with our current concerns about racial inequity and injustice. The past truly is still with us!



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