In our last class, we discussed the weight of slavery as it
related to the nineteenth century. It created a system of exploitation and
objectification of people of African descent that permeated the economic and
social structures of American society. This system also produced a
paternalistic outlook from wealthy whites and slave owners that solidified
black inferiority through their insistence that slaves needed them and required
their services in order to live. As a whole, the system of slavery weighed
heavily on all areas of American life, from the very highest levels of society in
wealthy whites to the very lowest of the slaves themselves.
It is difficult, however, to confine thinking about the
weight of slavery to a specific time period because its effects are so observable
throughout the decades before the Civil War, following abolition, and even after
the Civil Rights Movement. One of the really valuable parts of reading Gyasi’s Homegoing for me has been understanding
that weight as it is carried throughout generations of a family. She shows the
way that generations of descendants, slave and free, carry the weight of
slavery throughout their lives and how it does not diminish completely, but
changes over time.
Effia and Esi are both victims of slavery firsthand. Effia
is enslaved by the slave trade itself, as she is married to someone responsible
for enslaving her people, and subject to his desires alone. Esi is enslaved
through the trade, taken from her family and trapped within a dungeon for all
of the time that we see her. They carry the suffering through their personal
experiences with the slave trade and its effects on their families and personal
identities. In the next generation, Quey bears the weight of his family’s involvement
in the slave trade in Africa in his responsibility to maintain connections and
trade with his African family. In contrast, Ness bears the suffering of
American slaves, enduring some of the greatest hardships and brutalities in the
slave system as a whole. In the next generation, James bears the guilt of his
family’s business in enslaving those he grows to have great affection for,
while Kojo suffers due to the racism and slave economy established and rooted
within American society.
While all of these examples branch from the weight of
slavery as it affected those in the nineteenth century, Gyasi does an excellent
job of showing the weight as it branches across generations and takes on
different faces depending on the position of each descendant. The book itself
highlights how the suffering established during the slave trade can be traced
to the suffering of people of African descent and those involved in the slave trade,
however directly, even today.
I agree with you in regards to the extension of slavery over history. It was interesting to hear and think about how slavery had a ripple affect throughout future generations. As you mentioned, Homegoing really brought this concept full circle for me as well. Homegoing connected the dots of how slavery has permeated throughout generations and changed over time. One of the biggest takeaways from slavery is that it was not subject to only affecting the individuals involved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but rather it affects all of us present-day.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is in Gyasi's work that we see the weight and burden of slavery passed down from generation to generation, whether upon the shoulders of those who have been captured and brought to America or those not taken from Africa. Though we see progress towards freedom made in the life of Kojo, for example, there is still gut-wrenching racism, uncertainty, and fear burdening the African and African-American during this time period. Lately, I have been pondering the weight of slavery in our modern day context. In Memphis, it can be seen in failing, underfunded, mostly-black urban school systems and sharply segregated neighborhoods, allowing wealthy whites easy access to the amenities of the city while barring blacks from the very same things, via strategically placed highways and other forms of modern day barriers that perpetuate this passing down of the weight of slavery.
ReplyDeleteHomegoing is very effective in demonstrating the pervasive nature of slavery and how it outstretches throughout families and throughout the generations. The weight of slavery did not cease with abolition, it extended far beyond and is still prevalent within the contemporary moment. I concur that Gyasi does an excellent job of demonstrating how individuals destinies are not mutually exclusive but tied to the destinies of others. Our ancestors decisions are inextricable from our personal histories. The systemic disenfranchisement of people of color is a direct product of the institution of slavery, it seems difficult for people to digest this notion. Many uneducated individuals see slavery as a thing of the past that individuals should 'move on' from, however; history weight upon the present is inseparable from the trajectory of the Nations future.
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