ghana

homegoing

by Yaa Gyasi

Before I read HOMEGOING, I heard it described by lots of readers as ambitious, and it is.

The story opens in Ghana in the eighteenth century then travels across one ocean, two continents, three centuries, and fourteen points of view to Haarlem, and back to Ghana. The story is launched by two half-sisters, who never meet one another, and whose lives take very different paths. Effia’s moves into relative comfort married to the White, British Governor James Collins, who works at the Cape Coast Castle overseeing the transport of slaves to the Americas. Esi, her mother’s second daughter with another man, is captured by an enemy tribe, stolen from her home, and brought to the Castle as a slave.

HOMEGOING was apparently inspired by a visit Gyasi made to Ghana, where she visited the Cape Coast Castle and was shocked by the history of slavery in the region, and the devastating details of how slaves were kept and treated in the dungeons there. One of the saddest details for me, among many horrifying details, was when James Collins visits the dungeons and encounters Esi, his wife’s unknown half-sister. There’s a moment of recognition—both women are beautiful, born to a woman known for her beauty—and he pauses. “Finally, Governor James came to Esi. He looked at her carefully, then blinked his eyes and shook his head. He looked at her again, and then began checking her body as he had the others… He gave her a pitying look, as though he understood, but Esi wondered if he could.” He selects her for the boat and she’s led out of the dungeon. “Before Esi left, the one called Governor looked at her and smiled. It was a kind smile, pitying yet true. But for the rest of her life Esi would see a smile on a white face and remember … how white men smiling just meant more evil was coming with the next wave.” One black woman’s life is stolen at the whim of a white man, the same white man who has chosen to build a life with her black half-sister. The random tragedy of this choice, two parallel lives diverging, one into horror, one into relative safety, was heartbreaking.

The impact of slavery is felt in both Africa and North America. In Africa, the Ghanaians involved in the slave trade sell their souls for wealth and a tenuous freedom that is never guaranteed and they’re always at war to maintain. “… they told everyone in the Castle that the slave trade was abolished and that we could not sell our slaves to America anymore, but did that stop the tribes from selling? Did that make the British leave?… There’s more at stake here than just slavery, my brother. It’s a question of who will own the land, the people, the power. You cannot stick a knife in a goat and then say, Now I will remove my knife slowly, so let things be easy and clean, let there be no mess. There will always be blood.”

As the story continues into North America, Gyasi demonstrates through each new perspective the generational impact of slavery and the illusion of freedom that followed abolition.

The story is tied up in quite a neat bow at then end, but a happy ending was welcome and felt deserved after all the trauma. It’s a beautiful book and one of those works of fiction that feels important.