Culture: Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi

[ CITATION Hom \l 2067 ] [ CITATION Hom1 \l 2067 ]

1. After reading the back cover. What do you think the author, Yaa Gyasi, means when she
writes: “The consequences of their fate reverberate* through the generations that follow
from the Gold Coast of Africa to the plantations of Mississippi.”

What is happening to them, the people that are sold into slavery, will have consequences in

the future to the Africans that are left behind (and their countries) as well as to those living in

the United States.

*to reverberate: (weerklinken)

2. List of characters:

Effia: She is a black woman, she is married to James.

James: He is a white man, he is the governor of Cape Coast Castle.

Quay: He is the son of James and Effia.

Adwoa: She is a young black woman from Effia’s village who is also married to a white man.

Yaw: He is a black man. He is a history teacher.

The Asante: The Asante are a tribe in Ghana.

3. Vocabulary:

to reverberate: weerklinken

a strand: een streng

to expose: blootstellen
to peer: turen
fertility: vruchtbaarheid
a wench: een wicht
stern: streng
to grow wary: iets beu worden
a lullaby: een slaaplied
to bear the weight: een gewicht dragen

a dungeon: een kerker

to ascribe: toeschrijven
to trade: verhandelen
tribal: tribaal
to haunt: kwellen

4. For the next part of the lesson the class will be divided into three expert groups. We’ve
highlighted three main topics of the book. Each group gets ten minutes to read an excerpt of
the book and do some research about their given topic and answer the questions below.
Group one answers the questions about colonisation, group two answers the questions
about slavery, racism, oppression and segregation and group three answers the questions
about heritage and identity.
 GROUP ONE: COLONISATION

1. Read the text and answer the questions.

Once they had finished, Effia lay with her head on James’s shoulder.

“What is that?” James asked, turning his head. They had moved the bed so that now three strands of
the root were exposed.

“Nothing,” Effia said.

James jumped up and peered underneath the bed. “What is it, Effia?” he asked again, his voice more
forceful than she had ever heard before.

“It’s nothing. A root that Adwoa gave me. For fertility.”

His lips formed a thin line. “Now, Effia, I don’t want any voodoo or black magic in this place. My men
can’t hear that I let my wench place strange roots under the bed. It’s not Christian.”

Effia heard him say this before. Christian. That was why they had been married in the chapel by the
stern man in black who shook his head every time when he looked at her. He’d spoken before, too, of
the “voodoo” he thought all Africans participated in. She could not tell him the fables of Anansi the
spider or stories that the old people from her village used to tell her without his growing wary. Since
moving to the Castle, she'd discovered that only the white men talked of “black magic”. As though
magic had a colour. Effia had seen a traveling witch who carried a snake around her neck and
shoulders. This woman had a son. She’d sung lullabies to him at night and held his hands and kept
him fed, same as anyone else. There was nothing dark about her.

The need to call this thing “good” and this thing “bad”, this thing “white” and this thing “black”, was
an impulse that Effia did not understand. In her village, everything was everything. Everything bore
the weight of everything else. (page 23) [ CITATION Yaa16 \l 2067 ]

a. Why is James angry when he finds out about “the root” underneath the bed?

James is angry because the root symbolizes the religion of the African people. Referred to by

the white man as ‘black magic’ or ‘voodoo’.

b. After reading the text, what do you think was the colonials point of view regarding the
customs of the indigenous people?

The colonials thought not much of the customs of the indigenous people. They thought it

was something that needed to be kept within bounds at best.

2. Scan the QR-codes and answer the questions.

[ CITATION Gra \l 2067 ] [ CITATION Col12 \l 2067 ]

a. Why were the British so eager to colonise Africa?

Africa had a lot of valuable resources such as gold, ivory, salt and rubber (also in Congo!). The

British were interested in these resources because they could use them for trade and to

produce and manufacture goods in their factories at home.

b. Which African countries did the British colonise? Colour and name them on the map below.

[CITATION Dec \l 2067 ]

 GROUP TWO: SLAVERY, RACISM, OPPRESSION AND SEGGREGATION

1. Read the text and answer the questions.

After the first day in the Castle, James never spoke to  Effia  about the slaves they kept in the dungeon,
but he spoke to her often about beasts. That was what the Asantes trafficked most here. Beasts.
Monkeys and chimpanzees, even a few leopards. Birds like the king crowns and parrots […] the bird
that had feathers so beautiful it seemed to be set apart from the rest. […]

[…] She wondered what such a bird would be worth, because in the Castle all beasts were ascribed
worth. She had seen James look at a king crown brought in by one of their Asante traders and declare
it was worth four pounds. What about the human beast? How much was he worth?  Effia  had known,
of course, that there were people in the dungeons. People who spoke a different dialect than her,
people who had been captured in tribal wars, even people who had been stolen, but she had never
thought of where they went from there. She had never thought of what James must think every time
he saw them. If he went into the dungeons and saw women who reminded him of her, who looked
like her and smelled like her. If he came back to her haunted by what he saw. […] (page25)[ CITATION
Yaa16 \l 2067 ]

a. Does Effia think that to the white man, there is much difference between beasts and
Africans? Explain.

No, she does not. She thinks that to the white man Africans are something that can be

bought and sold. Just like monkeys, leopards and parrots.

b. Where were the captured people held, before they were shipped to the western world?

They were held in dungeons. In Cape Coast Castle. (pictures)

[ CITATION Liv20 \l 2067 ]

2. Scan the QR-codes and answer the questions below.

[ CITATION Hak12 \l 2067 ] [ CITATION Bid09 \l 2067 ]

a. How many people were approximately captured, enslaved and transported from Africa to
America from the 16th century on?

About eleven million people were transported from Africa to America from the 16 th century

until the end of slavery in 1865.

b. Was the slave trade solely in the hands of the white man or were there also Africans
involved?

Africans sometimes became slaves as punishment for a crime or as payment for a debt or by

being captured as prisoner of war. They were then traded for goods. It was big business for

rulers or wealthy merchants.

c. What do you think is happening in the video?

Slaves are being auctioned and sold to the highest bidder.

[CITATION Emp14 \l 2067 ]

 GROUP THREE: HERITAGE AND IDENTITY

1. Read the text and answer the questions.

[…] Yaw shuffled his papers. He had come to his classroom on the weekend before the start of the
second term to think; perhaps write. He stared at the title of his book, ‘Let the Africans own Africa’.
He had written two hundred pages and thrown out nearly as many. Now even the title offended him.
[…] (page 222)

[…] I’m too old to go to America now. Too old for revolution, too. Besides, if we go to the white man
for school, we will just learn the way the white man wants us to learn. We will come back and build
the country the white man wants us to build. One that continues to serve them. We will never be free.
[…] (page 223)

[…]“This is the problem of history. We cannot know that which we were not there to see and hear and
experience for ourselves. We must rely upon the words of others. Those who were there in the olden
days, they told stories to the children so that the children would know, so that the children could tell
stories to their children. […]” (page 226) 

[…] “I wanted answers, so I went back to the missionary school to ask about my mother’s family. The
Missionary told me that he had burned all of my mother’s belongings, but he lied. He had kept one
thing for himself.[…]” (cfr. an African necklace) (page 241)[ CITATION Yaa16 \l 2067 ]

a. What do you think Yaw meant by naming his book ‘Let the Africans own Africa’?

By naming his book that way he expresses the feeling that it is time for Africans to rule their

own countries and to take control of their own heritage.

b. Explain why Yaw says that they will never be free.

He thinks that they will never be free because even if they go back to Africa and rebuild their

countries, they will do it the way the western countries have taught them. It will seem as

they are free, but they won’t be free. It will not be their way.

c. How do you think that African artifacts got to our museums if you read the last part of the

text?

White men, even missionaries, stole those works of art and sold them to museums.
2. Scan the QR-codes and answer the questions below.

[CITATION Bri \l 2067 ] [ CITATION Phi21 \l 2067 ]

a. When were the Benin bronzes stolen in Africa?

They were stolen in 1897 by British soldiers.

b. Which countries are talking about sending them back?

The UK, The US and Germany.

c. Which museum has the single largest collection of Benin bronzes?

The British Museum holds the single largest collection of Benin bronzes.

d. Why do you think it is important to give those works of art back? Discuss.

Because they were stolen. It is not our heritage.

e. Do you think Belgium has stolen works of art? Discuss.

Belgium has indeed a lot of stolen African art. Most of it can be found in the Africa Museum

in Tervuren.
 [ CITATION Ben \l 2067 ]

Sources

Adi, H. (2012, October 5). Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Opgehaald van BBC History:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml

Benin Bronzes. (sd). Opgehaald van The British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-

us/british-museum-story/objects-news/benin-bronzes

Bid Em In. (2009, September 22). Opgehaald van Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=Tu3j7rPscpY&t=1s

Colonialism's Impact on Africa. (2012, April 24). Opgehaald van Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhnG8JbBegA

Decolonisation of Africa. (sd). Opgehaald van Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonisation_of_Africa

Empire of Cotton. (2014, December 31). Opgehaald van The New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/04/books/review/empire-of-cotton-by-sven-
beckert.html

Graham Hardin, E. R. (sd). British Colonization of Africa. Opgehaald van Esri:

https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?
appid=e8f24a9c56404e67b209dfcdfb37bc82

Gyasi, Y. (2016). Homegoing. New York: YNG Books, Inc.

Homegoing. (sd). Opgehaald van Text Book Centre:

https://textbookcentre.com/catalogue/homegoing_21292/

Homegoing Paperback – May 2, 2017. (sd). Opgehaald van Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Homegoing-Yaa-Gyasi/dp/1101971061

Liverpool’s Slave Trade Legacy. (2020, March 3). Opgehaald van History today:
https://www.historytoday.com/history-matters/liverpool%E2%80%99s-slave-trade-legacy

Noah, T. (2018, December 2018). The Debate Over Europe’s Stolen African Art | The Daily Show.
Opgehaald van Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOlmXQihow8

Olterman, P. (2021, March 23). Berlin's plan to return Benin bronzes piles pressure on UK museums.
Opgehaald van The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/23/berlins-plan-to-return-benin-
bronzes-piles-pressure-on-uk-museums

Reuters. (2021, March 25). British university to return Benin Bronze to Nigeria 'within weeks'.
Opgehaald van CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/25/africa/aberdeen-return-nigeria-
benin-bronze-intl/index.html