The missionaries arrived bringing a new religion, a new order, a new direction for many. Many fled their homes, many were forced to leave. I was unaware of the extent of the internal wars fought between tribes, the hierarchy that existed and how the arrival of the white man on the shores of the Gold Coast set off a ripple that still reverberates through families.

My knowledge of African history was vague to say the least before I read Homegoing. As slaves fought for their rights, the question is asked if a black man can ever be free. Once these poor slaves entered America, they were auctioned off to the highest bidder and many sent to work in the cotton-fields, with no chance of freedom and little chance of survival.įollowing their descendants from the Gold Coast of Africa, as English colonialism spread, to the American Civil war, the reader is taken on a journey so intense it almost feels hard to breath at times.Įach chapter has it’s own story to tell, sweeping through portions of history that were disturbing and just so sad. These women were treated in the most heinous and appalling manner, as the fighting tribes of the Asante and Fante, took them prisoners, selling them off to the white man to be trafficked to America on ships that were no more than sailing coffins. Darkness was day and night and everything in between, Sometimes there were so many bodies stacked into the women’s dungeon that they all had to lie, stomach down, so that women could be stacked on top of them.’ ‘The mud walls of the dungeon made all time equal. The descriptions are harrowing as Gyasi describes the treatment allotted slaves.

Tragic circumstances lead them to leading two very, very different upbringings and having a ripple effect that would impact the lives of generations over the next three hundred years.Įffia marries a white slave trader and Esi is sold into slavery. Homegoing has it’s roots in the slave trade of the 1800’s where two sisters Effia and Esi grow up without any knowledge of each other. The research is evident in every page turned. Born in Ghana and raised in Alabama, Yaa Gyasi has very obviously put her all into this novel. Homegoing is the remarkable debut from Yaa Gyasi.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi