Science, Technology and Development ISSN : 0950-0707

Disastrous Impact of Colonization and Slavery upon the characters in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing : An Evolutionary Perspective

Priyadharshini N1., Shobia R2. M.A., M.Phil.,

M.Phil English, [email protected]

Assistant Professor, [email protected]

PG and Research Department of English

Theivanai Ammal College for Women (Autonomous)

Villupuram- 605 401, Tamilnadu, India.

Abstract

This paper explores the evolution and extension of Colonization and Slavery both in and in America and to trace how it alters things very subtly over a long span of time. Homegoing (2016), is a multi-generational debut novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi, which follows the stories of the descendents of two half-sisters Effia and Esi for seven generations nearly four centuries. Though decolonization and abolition of slavery took place many years ago, still its dark legacy continues to have a nefarious impact upon the native Ghanaians as well as African-Americans residing in America today. This paper mainly focuses on how the past influences the present and how the impact of colonization and slavery creates vast changes and affects the lives of those who involved and get affected by it over generations and how they cope up with it in everyday life.

Key Words: Evolution, Extension, Colonization, Slavery, Multi – generational, Descendants, Decolonization , Dark legacy.

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Disastrous Impact of Colonization and Slavery upon the characters in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing: An Evolutionary Perspective

Homegoing follows the descendants of an Asante woman named Maame, who was once captured in Fanteland in an endemic war and was taken as a house slave by Cobbe Otcher. He rapes her and eventually Maame gives birth to Effia, and on the very night Maame abandons the baby near Cobbe’s compound and escapes to her native Asanteland. In Asanteland she marries Kwame Asare with whom she gives birth to Esi. Effia is married to James Collins, Who was the British governor of Cape Coast Castle, in the Chapel and she is asked to recite words which she didn’t even understand. Here Gyasi puts forth the idea of Christianity as an extension of Colonization. When James took Effia a tour of a castle she notices breeze coming up from the holes in the floor and she hears a faint crying sound. When she enquires about this to James, he says there are people down there in the dungeon. Though Effia knows that things’ going on in the dungeon is morally wrong she remains silent as she is completely powerless to stop something that is beyond her control.

These British men always mentions their local wives as ‘wenches’ and ‘wife’ is a word which they reserved only for their British wives, which shows the deep rooted racist attitude of Britishers as they always considered their British wives superior to that of their Fante wives. When Effia has trouble in getting pregnant, Aidoo, her Fante friend at Castle gives her some strange roots and asks Effia to hide it under their bed before consummating. When James discovers it out, he utters, “Now Effia, I don’t want any Voodoo or black magic in this place. My men can’t hear that I let my wench place strange roots under the bed. It’s not Christian.” (23). Collins by using the phrase ‘not Christian’ to mean ‘not good’ which exhibits his deep rooted racist thought that his religion is superior to that of the native religion. Eccoah, Fante wife of British soldier complains that her husband cannot pronounce her name, so he calls her as Emily. Britishers use of English names instead of their native names indicates how they rob these women’s sense of identity and cultural heritage.

Esi was the daughter of Big Man Asare and Maame in Asanteland, later she was captured as a slave in an endemic war. Maame who was once a house slave is now free and owns her own house slave whereas Esi who was a Big Man’s daughter has now turned into slave it shows how slavery is widespread and universal and how it shifts positions of people who comes in contact with it and thereby makes it difficult to eradicate. Esi had been sent to the women’s dungeon of Cape Coast Castle where they endure immeasurable agonies.

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Harriet Jacobs in her autobiography describes the condition of enslaved women as, “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women. Superadded to the burden common to all, they have wrongs, and sufferings, and mortifications peculiarly their own” (100). Esi is taken by one of the soldier to his quarters and she was raped by him. After he finishes, “He looked at her like her body was his shame” (48). This shows how white soldiers take advantage of the enslaved black women simply because of their gender and race.

Quey, son of Effia and James Collins, was a lonely child. Quey expresses his discomfort as being biracial which is a result of Colonization as, “He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father’s whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast” (56). As biracial children are product of colonization, this implies how it creates insecure feeling and trouble in socializing with others normally.

Ness, daughter of Esi, now works at Thomas Allan Stockham’s Alabama plantation. Ness thinks that it is odd to hear black people talking English. Esi has spoken to Ness only in Twi until her master caught her and whipped her for speaking in Twi. Esi receives five lashes for Ness’s each Twi word, and when Ness was afraid to speak, for Ness’s each minute silence her master gave her five lashes until she cried “My goodness!”(71). Before she called Ness as Maame named after her mother, after this terrible incident she begin to call her as Ness, a shortened form of goodness. Gyasi here portrays the extension of racism which acts as a spine of slavery, the white master not only claim that English is superior to Twi, he also robs their family heritage and African identity through violence and power.

Ness, before working in Tom Allan’s plantation, worked in a plantation which she merely calls as Hell and its master Devil. Devil, married Ness to her newly bought Slave named Sam, who she doesn’t even know. Sam is large, well-built, aggressive who fought with fellow slaves, spitted on the overseer and refused to speak English so to tame the untamable Sam, Devil married Ness to Sam without her concern to make him calm. According to Paul Lovejoy, “A peculiar feature of slavery was this absolute lack of choice on the part of slaves. Their total subordination to the whims of their master meant that slaves could be assigned any task in society or economy” (5). Ness and Sam decided to escape Hell as they planned to provide a better life for their son Kojo. In their attempt they were caught, but Ness saves Kojo by sending him with Ma Aku, one who helped for them to escape, before being caught. Devil took both of them to Hell and before all the slaves, he stripes them

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naked and whips Esi brutally which earns her everlasting scars and Sam was hanged to death in front of her. Lydia Maria Child, comments on the pathetic condition of slaves during slavery era as follows, “They are allowed to have no conscientious scruples, no sense of shame, no regard for the feeling of husband, or parent: they must be entirely subservient to the will of their owner on pain of being whipped as near unto death as will comfort with his interest or quite to death if it suits his pleasure” (278).

Quey with his parents James and Nana Yaa went to attend the funeral of his grandfather, the Asante King, they stay at David’s home, who studied with Quey in England. David questions whether British plans to abolish slavery for which Quey replies, “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”(93). Quey’s explanation state that nothing in history just disappears; it always leaves its foot prints on its upcoming generations. James separates himself from his family and settles in a village with his wife as he doesn’t want to involve in slave trade.

Kojo, son of Sam and Ness, works in a ship, whenever a boat gets robbed, Kojo and black men were the first to be enquired by the police. Though Jo has escaped slavery, racism still prevails there and torments him in his everyday life. Kojo marries Anna, with her he has seven children, and now she is pregnant with baby H. As Fugitive slave act passes it led to the Great Migration and Anna was kidnapped and sold as a slave which represents that how law was used in a cunning way to enslave a person who was legally free. Thus the disastrous impact of slavery is evident here as it robs Kojo’s mother, father and later his wife from him and creates an everlasting pain of loss in him.

Abena, daughter of James and Akosua, was twenty five year old spinster, as her father’s crops always failed people rejects her considering that she is not worthy of the bride price. When went to Kumasi with her childhood friend Ohene Nyarko, with whom she has affair now, there at Kumasi she meets a white man who informs her that they are trying to build church there, he asks her to find them when she needs them. Though slave trade ended, British stills remains there to spread Christianity which is an extension of Colonization. As people begin to starve due to bad harvest, Ohene Nyarko went to Osu and came back with Cocoa seeds which gave a rich yield. Here introduction of cocoa bean which later became a major Ghanaian export and it states that to get rid of profitable system like colonization is

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very difficult. Ohene broke his promise to marry , who is already pregnant with his baby. So Abena leaves the village and sets out for missionary church in Kumasi.

H, son of Kojo and Anna, gets arrested and imprisoned nine years for his uncommitted crime of studying a white woman. When H tells his cell mate that he didn’t do anything his cellmate utters, “Don’t matter if you was or wasn’t. All they gotta do is say you was. That’s all they gotta do. You think cuz you all big and muscled up, you safe? Naw, dem white folks can’t stand the sight of you. Walkin’ round free as can be” (158). Though slavery and American Civil War ended, the racism and prejudice based on skin color prevails. H is arrested and punished merely based on his skin color. In Convict leasing system H is sold for nineteen dollars a month, this system is an extension of slavery, where the convicts are sold to the state, and then they had to work for free in perilous conditions for sentenced years. The convicts in the coal mines are mostly black, and they rarely see white man getting arrested. H finishes his sentence, he moves to Pratt City, a town made up ex-convicts; there he stays with Joecy, an ex-con who worked with H in mines. Joecy was very proud that his son Lil Joecy who knows to read and write. Here Gyasi marks the generational progress as most slaves didn’t know to read and write, they often considered reading and writing as their intellectual freedom.

Akua, daughter of Abena and Ohene Nyarko, was brought up in the missionary. The missionary often called her as a sinner and heathen, and he gave her five lashes and asking her to repent for her sins. Here Gyasi portrays how colonizers continue to exploit the natives in the name of religion and the colonizers often believe that it was their responsibility to save the heathens. Akua then leaves the missionary and marries Asamoah, who lost his leg in an endemic war. She has trouble sleeping as she always dreamt of a fire woman with two babies. One night she sets fire to her hut in sleep-walk which kills her two daughters and permanently scars baby Yaw’s face. Her dream denotes the curse received due to her family’s participation in slave trade.

Willie, daughter of H and Esther, who aspires to be a Jazz singer but never gets an opportunity to shine because of her skin color. In her auditions they reject her saying, “Too dark…Jazzing’s is only for light girls” (209). Whereas her husband Robert Clifton easily finds jobs as he is light skinned this shows how racism gets embedded in society blocking the every single opportunities of blacks residing there merely on the basis of their skin color. Robert and Willie’s marriage life is shattered, as Robert passes the white and he marries a

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white woman and leads a better life. Here Gyasi shows that, African- Americans like Robert need to give up their black identity to blend easily with native Americans.

Yaw, son of Akua and Asamoah, who works as a history teacher in Roman Catholic school, which again stands as a direct product of colonization. Yaa’s scarred face keeps himself from getting married as people thought that it is contagious. Yaw defines history as story-telling and further describes it as, “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 is 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 still imperfect, picture” (226-227). Here Gyasi describes how history can be biased as it hides the wrong doings of the colonizers, as they were the one in power to write what had happened.

Sonny, son of Willie and Robert Clifton, often desires to return to Africa and he considers Segregation laws will lead to state- approved racism. Though the laws claim to build equality between blacks and whites, Sonny believes it is not possible with segregation policy Willie tells him, “White men get a choice. They get to choose they job, choose they house. They get to make black babies, then disappear into air….White men get to choose for black men too. Used to sell ’em; now they just send ’em to prison…” (262). Gyasi here brings forth the power distinction between the black and white men in the society.

Marjorie, daughter of Yaw and Esther who was the last descendant of Effia, and Marcus, son of Sonny and Amani who was the last descendant of Esi become friends and Marjorie helps Marcus to overcome his fear of water, which denotes the fear of being separated from one’s family, culture and heritage as many slaves are transported via water in slave ships. Marjorie’s help to Marcus represents her hope to take steps to erase the injustice done to his family by her family unknowingly. Gyasi through Homegoing presents how slavery and colonization has its long reaching impact even today between white people and people of color which can be erased by creating proper awareness among public regarding one’s race, ethnicity and culture and thereby eliminating race related stereotypes and prejudices. Education is the essential weapon which equalizes the power distinctions between the white and people of color by raising the status and power of so far segregated and suppressed group and thereby leading them towards the more optimistic future.

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Works Cited

Child, Lydia Maria . An Appeal in Favour of the Class of Americans called Africans. Stanford; Stanford UP, 2001. Print.

Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing . Uk: Penguin Books, 2016. Print.

Jacobs, Harriet Ann. Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl. Ed. Lydia Maria Child. US: Harvard UP , 2009 . Print.

Lovejoy, Paul E. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. 3rd ed. US: Cambridge UP, 2011. Print.

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