Reflection paper #2 (Quey and Ness)

                                                                                                                                                    Nia Colon

 
                At the beginning of Quey's chapter, it seemed that he is dealing with identity issues within

himself. Quey is being confronted with dealing with his mother's side of himself by being placed in the

village that she grew up in. Sadly, Quey is not the village for a trip down memory lane but is there to help

the British maintain a relationship with Abeeku. He helps maintain this relationship by helping the British

gain slaves from the village. Quey's father used to be in the slave trade business as well and now he has to

face the dealings of his father in his mother’s village. I believe that Qeuy is experiencing dissonance

because he is dealing with confusion with his identity. If you’re placed in a situation where you are mixed

with both African and Caucasian it can be hard to live in society. This hardship is only placed on a mixed

offspring because society didn’t accept both races cohering together. Quey also is faced with the feeling

of not belonging on either side of himself. On his mother’s side, Quey visited his uncle Fiifi, the converse

about his doings in the village and that the British wanted more slaves to benefit them. Fiifi's response

was about how Quey should listen and be patient like a female bird to negotiate prices of slaves with the

British. Quey reveals how he didn’t experience birds like those in London. There is a disconnect as Quey

doesn’t seem to understand the metaphorical analogy that his uncle is trying to express to him. Quey still

is experiencing that internal fight of knowing how to value his white and black heritage within his family.

This situation is also an example of one the ‘Ten Things Everyone Should Know About Race,’ is that

both Quey and Fiifi are talking about the slave trade pricing like it is deemed as normal. They have

accepted that racism is justified as being normal as this slave trade of Africans being sold to the British is

like a normal occupation. They both express themselves in a manner that’s as if Quey is just negotiating a

raise from his boss at a normal job. However, this isn’t a normal job this is the negotiation of people’s

lives. These people have to move, work, and tend to the British due to the price in which they were

bought from out of their village. Quey eventually accepts his role as playing both sides of the fence of
being African and Caucasian. He helps with the slave trade and he protects his village by making

sacrifices that he normally probably wouldn’t make.

On to Ness part within the book is filled with a turmoil of being a slave in Alabama at the time.

The slave masters seem to be more like a hit or miss. Some masters were kind but still wanting to control

the group of Africans and some were just ruthless in the treatment of how they treated slaves. ‘The

Homecoming’ brings out a similarity in the teachings of the ‘Ten Things Everyone Should about Race’ is

that it is explained that race is a modern idea. It’s understood that the Greeks did divide people based

upon language, class (status), and religion. My main focus will be on the discrimination of the Europeans

to Africans based upon their languages. The Europeans within Alabama in ‘The Homecoming’ treated

Africans that spoke in their native language as an outsider that must be punished. Two examples of that in

the book are when Ness and her mother Esi spoke in their native language Twi their master punished both

of them by whipping them in increments of five lashes. The master gave Five lashes for Ness for every

Twi word that she spoke and five lashes for Esi when Ness wouldn’t speak because she became scared to

speak in front of the master. Another example of the discrimination due to different languages amongst

different races is with Ness and Sam. Ness was in a form of love with another Slave named Sam that she

met on the plantation she was on before being with her current master Tom Allan. Sam was punished for

refusing to learn English and was whipped for his unruly behavior. The Greeks and the Europeans in

Alabama both discriminated people of a different race from them based upon their languages. The

Europeans placed harm in the lives of Africans in America just for speaking differently. Words can’t hurt

them but the whipping and hanging cause great fear in the African’s livelihood from that point forward.

Therefore, African Americans speak English in America and most people don’t have their native

language from their heritage at all.