Home Going – Yaa Gyasi

Genre: Fiction

Setting: Ghana, United Kingdom

Pages: 320 pages

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Triggers: Death, slavery, brutality

‘…This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others. Those who were there in the olden days, they told stories to the children so that the children would know, so that the children would tell stories to their children. And so on, and so on.

But now, we come upon the problem of conflicting stories… We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So, when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was 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 imperfect picture.’

– Home Going, Yaa Gyasi

***

Reading Home Going definitely gave me the feels of watching Harriet but from a much closer perspective of engaging with the characters. Set mostly in the homesteads of the Fante and Asante in the Gold Coast Castle, Yaa Gyasi brilliantly narrates the story of slavery, colonialism, and emigration of families to the United Kingdom. Dating as far back as 1764 from the generation of Maame, Cobbe Otcher and Big Man Asare; to the present-day, Yaa Gyasi explores stories of each generation from each lineage soaring through tribal wars, slave trade, intermarriages, loss, love, forgiveness to mention but a few to create a wholesome history and ancestry.

I loved how beautifully Yaa portrays the history of her people through fictional characters in a very stimulating and thought-provoking read. It definitely had me thinking of how much ground would be covered in preserving our African history and cultures through generations, by writers across the continent exploring this mode of narration.

If you’ve read this masterpiece, do let me know what your thoughts were in the comment section.

Cheers.