April 2, 2017 Tamie

 Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Books

I had titled this post Book Review : Homegoing.

But I changed it. I’ve never done a book review before. I’m not that into reviews, I don’t really know how to do one, like if there’s a proper format for reviews and I  would somehow fall short. So I left the title of the post just with the title of the book. 

I can’t remember where I first saw this book. It’s either on instagram or twitter. What attracted me was the colours on the cover. And then I realized it was an African book. My desire to read it doubled.  Then I came across a tweet on World book day. 

 Have you read any of the books In the pic above? 

So jes laikdat I got Homegoing and another book. I knew of the two Homegoing was going to be my first read. I hadn’t even read the blurb. I just sha believed it would be a great read. It was when I was half way gone I went to read the blurb. 
It was a story of two sisters who didn’t know themselves or knew they existed (at least on one’s part),  who never met and the generations that they went on to produce. One remained in Africa and the other was taken to America-slave trade. 

Each chapter was the story of someone from one sisters lineage. The history is so strong. Ghanian/African history precolonization. It told tales of the slave trade both in Africa and on the American soil. I had/have never really understood the slave story from the Africa angle,and I got to catch a glimpse of it. 

The resilience of the human and African spirit was recurring throughout  the book. 

Most of the time I was left wishing I could unite the whole ‘Maame’ offshoots. I was feeling for them for all the gaps most of them had about their history, about their parents,  their ancestors. It made me wonder and think how far the average African American of today has come. 

The Characters: It was hard not to feel some bonding with each main character. Some kindred spirit kinda thing. Not cos I can understand what they went through but for the simple fact that I’m African.

It was hard to have a favorite character.  It was also always hard to let go of one character and move on the the next. I wanted to hold on and find out; so what did she now do?, so what happened? so did he do this? 

 In all Effia and Esi (the sisters)  held special places in my heart. 

I exercised self control not to finish the book in one day….so I can also face my academic reads too. 

The end seemed like it had all “unknowingly ” come to a full circle. 

I laved it. Was a cool read. An emotional history lesson.

Tuale for the Author. Wehdone Ma 👏 👏 

What books have you read recently? Or currently reading? Or is on you to be read list? 
Bubbles of Love 💞💕💞💕

Tamie. 

PS: I’ve always wanted to visit Ghana. This book now makes me really really want to.