Homegoing is a powerful novel about two family lineages over seven generations. Beautifully written, Yea Gyasi takes us to Ghana in the late 1700’s when the British slave trade is at its height. Effia the Beauty is married to the British Governor, James Collins, in order to further trade relations between Effia’s Fante village and the British. Only after she is married, does she hear the cries of people in the Cape Coast Castle dungeons and realizes her people are trading slaves for European goods.
Unbeknownst to Effia, she has a half-sister, Esi, who passed through those dungeons while she lived above them. Esi was captured in raid of her village and is shipped to America where she passes through several different slaveowners.
Gyasi follows the generations of these families chapter by chapter. Each chapter tells the story of a son or daughter in the next generation: Effia’s family in Ghana and Esi’s family in American. Each generation faces the challenges that define that era. She is just as harsh on the Ghanians that participated in the slave trade of their neighbors as she is of the American slaveholders and treatment of blacks up to today.
Gyasi’s structure of the book allowed her to cover hundreds of years in 300 pages. She is able to transition each chapter from one generation to the next while creating characters with depth and emotion. We root for each of them.
Gyasi was born in Ghana but her family came to America when she was two (her father in a professor) and the book was inspired by a trip she took back to Ghana in 2009 at age 20. I wonder if her character of Marjorie drew on that personal experience. Homegoing is Yea Gyasi’s first novel and it received numerous accolades.
I learned a lot about Ghana the country, as well as their role in the slave trade. Which I knew on some level but it was shocking to hear how easily villages would capture people and trade them for material goods.
This would make an excellent book group discussion. I highly recommend it. She also wrote a second novel, Transcendent Kingdom, published in 2020.
Happy Reading!
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