Books are Powerful

I just finished reading Homecoming by Yaa Gyasi. (This is a book for adults – not young readers.)

It is profound.

What an epic journey she set about, writing this. I am blown away by the years of work it must have required. The end result is worth every bit of that time, every bit of that sweat. Because the end result is a powerful book that will be read and re-read for years to come. It will be discussed and dissected for decades. And for good cause.

The book’s description, from Amazon:

The unforgettable New York Times best seller begins with the story of two half-sisters, separated by forces beyond their control: one sold into slavery, the other married to a British slaver. Written with tremendous sweep and power, Homegoing traces the generations of family who follow, as their destinies lead them through two continents and three hundred years of history, each life indeliably drawn, as the legacy of slavery is fully revealed in light of the present day.

Effia and Esi are born into different villages in eighteenth-century Ghana. Effia is married off to an Englishman and lives in comfort in the palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle. Unbeknownst to Effia, her sister, Esi, is imprisoned beneath her in the castle’s dungeons, sold with thousands of others into the Gold Coast’s booming slave trade, and shipped off to America, where her children and grandchildren will be raised in slavery. One thread of Homegoing follows Effia’s descendants through centuries of warfare in Ghana, as the Fante and Asante nations wrestle with the slave trade and British colonization. The other thread follows Esi and her children into America. From the plantations of the South to the Civil War and the Great Migration, from the coal mines of Pratt City, Alabama, to the jazz clubs and dope houses of twentieth-century Harlem, right up through the present day, Homegoing makes history visceral, and captures, with singular and stunning immediacy, how the memory of captivity came to be inscribed in the soul of a nation.

I felt blown away and so inspired when I finally closed that last page. This lengthy read is worth all the page-turns. And though it’s quite often a dark tale, the reader is left with hope at the end.

My husband told me to read this. He listened to the audiobook (I can’t imagine doing that – without the family tree guide at the beginning. I would have been lost.)

To anyone who questions the need for Affirmative Action in this day and age: I would say, please read this book. Allow it to open your mind and help shape your views about that subject even more.