Homegoing was a gut-wrenching story of love and loss over generations. Effie and Essie are half-sisters, born several years and hundreds of miles apart in Ghana. Effie, the beautiful daughter of a powerful Fanti village man is married off to a British white slave trader after her step-mother cuts off her opportunity to marry the village chief. Essie, is equally beautiful and lives in an Ashanti village and after she takes pity on the slave girl working in her home - delivering a message to the girl's father - the village is raided and Essie is sold into slavery, right under the very feet of her sister.
We then follow the varying lines of their decedents. Effie to Quay to James to Abena to Akua to Yaw to Marjorie in Ghana. Essie to Ness to Kojo to H to Willie to Sonny to Marcus in America. These varying generations have their own struggles and heartbreaks. The American line of descendants is perhaps the hardest to bear because their struggles are not their own as slavery dominates the early generations and cripples the later.
The story explores what is possibly passed down from our ancestors and how do our lineages inform and lead us to who we will be.
Incredibly well written and extremely powerful, I am so glad to have read this book.
4/5 Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment