![]() ![]() ![]() And so I think I was kind of constantly interacting, I guess, with really what the legacy of slavery is. The irony of that wasn't lost on me.Īnd then, you know, you drive 20 minutes out in any direction and Alabama is Alabama. coming from a country, Ghana, that had a role in slavery, and then ending up in a place where slavery is still so strongly felt. She tells NPR's Scott Simon, "Had I not grown up in Alabama, I don't know that I would have ever written this book." Gyasi, 26, was born in Ghana but grew up in Huntsville, Ala. Homegoing follows each family line from Ghana to America, then through the Civil War, the coal mines of Alabama and the jazz clubs of Harlem to the present day. Her sister Esi winds up right below her, imprisoned in the cruel squalor of the castle's dungeon, and is sold into slavery in America. Effia is married off to an Englishman (though the British soldiers call their local women "wenches" instead of wives) and she goes to live in the regal comfort of the Cape Coast Castle, which is also used to hold slaves before they were sent across the Atlantic. Half-sisters Effia and Esi were born in different villages in 18th-century Ghana. ![]() Yaa Gyasi's highly anticipated debut novel, Homegoing, follows two branches of a family tree as it grows over three centuries. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Homegoing Author Yaa Gyasi ![]()
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