This memoir tells Safiya's story of growing up in Jamaica - poor, black, and the daughter of a Rastafarian man whose own upbringing left him unfit for parenthood. His belief system in regards to women was that they needed their virtue to be protected from the white, developed world, known as Babylon, by any means possible. He essentially sequestered his three daughters away from society, and this memoir relates Safiya's upbringing in this context.

Interestingly, all of the children in the Sinclair family are immensely talented, and these talents ultimately acted as a crowbar to a different life. Safiya is a poet, and this memoir is infused with the language of poetry. This beautiful writing was both an asset to the book - - elevating it far above a story of mere trauma, and a detriment, making it a bit harder to "get into" the story. The initial few chapters are ones where you may be tempted not to continue, but the writing gets more assured and more propulsive as the book continues, leading to a satisfying conclusion.

I really liked this book. I learned so much about the Rastafarian religion that I never knew, and it was eye opening. I always just thought reggae music and a bunch of pot smoking. The treatment that her, her mother, and siblings went through at the hands of her dad was heart breaking. They all accomplished so much, and were brilliant students. I found this book fascinating.

I was hooked from the first page of Safiya Sinclair's memoir, How To Say Babylon. Babylon refers to the sinister forces of western ideology, colonialism, and Christianity.

Her father was a strict Jamaican Rastafarian which meant that his wife and daughters could not wear pants or makeup, or have friends. They were prisoners in their home. Sinclair's father felt a woman's best virtue was obedience and he ruled the household with fear, terror, and violence.

Sinclair's mother introduced her daughters to books because she taught wealthy children how to read. Books created time travel and irrefutable power. Her mother bought her a book of poetry where she learned that pain can be transformed into something beautiful. Sinclair promised herself that she would fly from the cage her father had constructed.

Sinclair's writing style is powerful and pulsating. Some of the memorable passages include:
* Terror lay dormant in our house
* The delicate dance of disremembering the bruise from the night before
* Learned how to sew their mouths shut
* Buoyed by the faintest fumes of hope
* My father sharpened the verbal tools in his arsenal
* Our household was a monsoon of chaos
* Writing felt like oxygen
* Outdreaming the confines of our small world
* There is no American dream without the American massacre

After reading How to Say Babylon, I want to read Cannibal and Catacombs, books of poetry by Sinclair.

Highly recommend!

This book is a memoir about the life of a family, community, but especially about a girl who is being raised as a Rastafarian. As we read through the memoir we are enlightened to the Rastafarian culture. Unfortunately, the very reason why the religion came into being is now part of the way this culture runs itself. Dominant male figures in one’s family rule and run how the woman and children are to behave, and use violence and mental cruelty to control.
This true story is about the way this young girl breaks free from the bondage of her culture.
This book is rich in history and very well told. It was hard to get through some of the details because I can be a sensitive reader, but if you enjoy reading about a girl who survives her trauma and becomes successful this book is for you.

★ARC review!★
This memoir was tremendously powerful.
On top of being so beautifully woven and written, it was educational about what women children and even men go through while living in a Rastafarian household. This book was incredibly heart wrenching and hard at times but was fantastic in the ultimate conclusion towards the end.
Beautiful.
★Thank you NetGalley, the opportunity to read an Advanced Copy.★

I almost didn't make it through the dark parts of this story, but I'm so glad I did. Besides being an interesting story of a life that is overcoming, the writing clearly comes from a poet.

For example, Sinclair captured the lure of returning to unhealthy relationship patterns in the description of a ghostly vision of a girl in white. The girl showed up far away, very close, or barely out of the side of her vision when she was confronted with the restrictions of her childhood. Would she resist, or give in? The girl always was waiting.

She describes her mother's fierce self-sacrificial protection this way: "She reached for that incendiary power once more, made herself a shield around her children, and put a permanent stop to this chapter of our lives." I loved that.

I worried she would end the story bitter, but I was left with a sweet taste in my mouth. Thank you, Safiya Sinclair, for sharing your story with us.

I couldn't get through this - it was a little all over the place and was boring me. Really unfortunate because the premise sounded super interesting. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC but this is the first one I just can't finish.

I learned a lot from reading this book and there were spots where the beauty of the writing blew me away. However, I lost some of my interest after the middle of the book and I felt like some concepts and the history of Rastafari were repeated.

This memoir is rich and dense. The author has lived a long life in a short time. The very beginning of the book was my least favorite part. However, I think it just took me a few pages to become familiar with Sinclair’s writing style which makes sense because she is a poet and I do not read poetry. The more I read the more I wanted to read. I became increasingly invested in Sinclair’s life and cannot believe what she and her family suffered through. The only thing that prevented me from giving this book 5 stars was sometimes the writing was too poetic for me. Others will love this. Nevertheless, I think I will remember this story for a long time. Also, this memoir is one that should come with a few content warnings. Sinclair is a brave and impressive woman. Her story is an important one to read.

How to Say Babylon is a powerful and poignant memoir that tells the story of Safiya Sinclair's journey towards freedom and self-discovery. Set against the backdrop of a strict Rastafarian upbringing, Sinclair's story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of language.

Sinclair's father, a volatile reggae musician and strict adherent to a rigid sect of Rastafari, imposed strict rules on his family, particularly the women. Sinclair's journey towards independence and self-discovery is a struggle against this rigid patriarchal system that sought to silence her and limit her potential.

Despite her father's strict rules, Sinclair's mother provided her with the gift of books, including poetry, which helped her find her own voice and break free. As she rebelled against her father's beliefs, clashes became inevitable, ultimately leading to violent confrontations.

Through rich lyricism and powerful language, Sinclair's memoir offers a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we know little about, while also offering a universal story of a woman finding her own power. How to Say Babylon is a must-read for anyone interested in the transformative power of language and the human spirit's resilience.

Review: A very poetic memoir. The writing is so beautiful but makes for a long story.. especially if you are not in the mood for that. Safiya’s story is interesting and heartbreaking.
Recommended For: Those who enjoy memoirs by strong women.

This memoir is a reflection of being a father's daughter. Adhering to parental expectations and hearing the voice in the back of your mind that tells you how to live. How do you respond and create your own life?

There were parts that were poetic. Most of the writing was dense. It did not quite focus on one thing at a time. It did not flow as freely as it could have. The story felt taken away from Safiya to encapsulate what she was saying. Her writing about coming to America after 9/11, a wrought time in the nation's history, will resonate.

One reason Rastafarianism came into being in 1930’s Jamaica was to resist the binaries of Western colonization – slave/master, white/black/, civilized/savage, male/female. Unfortunately, in some instances, the religious belief succumbed to the same binarism it was critical of. In her memoir, How to Say Babylon, writer Safiya Sinclair shows how, at least in her family’s case, Rastafarianism’s obsession with the evils of its opposite – Babylon -- led to its downfall. Particularly for Sinclair, it is the male/female binary that causes her so much anguish, or what she begins to refer to at the end of the memoir, as trauma.

Initially, Sinclair gives a year-by-year of account of her childhood development and that of her three siblings in a Rastafarian home in which her father dominates the lives of his wife and children. There is a strict division of labor that puts almost all domestic and child rearing responsibility on the mom. While the mom carries the weight of domestic duties, the author’s dad pursues a music career as a reggae artist. Luckily the mom takes advantage of her situation in the home and turns it to her advantage by making sure her children are stellar students. Despite the children being weighed down by the dreadlocks they are forced to wear, education becomes their means of flight to brighter horizons. But before they can take flight, they must endure years of trying to wiggle and resist within the boundaries their father sets for them – boundaries that he eventually begins to enforce with physical abuse.

Sinclair narrates her coming of age story and details the hardships she had to endure at the hands of her father before she would eventually win the scholarships and sponsorships that landed her in the U.S. as writer and professor. She shows how she, as the oldest child, was able to become a role model for not only her three younger siblings, but for her mom as well. Her story is an opportunity to see how Rastafarianism, when in the hands of patriarchal figures, can be a form of bondage for those it purports to set free.

This is a well-written memoir that grabbed me because a main "character," the Rastafarian religion, was something I knew nothing about. Using poetic words and stunning sentences, the author describes her childhood and adolescence in Jamaica, ruled by a strict Rastafarian father who controlled her life and grew more authoritarian and paranoid as she approached womanhood. Safiya and her siblings grew up largely in isolation because their father was worried about their contamination from outside influences, and their mother, a loving presence, was under his influence. But all the children were highly intelligent, a source of pride to the whole family, and, eventually, a means of escape for all three female siblings. We watch Safiya nurture her love for poetry and literature, become the student of an old poet, and begin developing her own opinions. The climax, a long time coming, still manages to surprise through its power. The author put her heart and soul into this book, which describes happy memories as well as periods of despair, and when she finally finds her voice, one feels like applauding.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster & NetGalley for this advanced copy.

This is a well-written memoir that grabbed me because a main "character," the Rastafarian religion, was something I knew nothing about. Using poetic words and stunning sentences, the author describes her childhood and adolescence in Jamaica, ruled by a strict Rastafarian father who controlled her life and grew more authoritarian and paranoid as she approached womanhood. Safiya and her siblings grew up largely in isolation because their father was worried about their contamination from outside influences, and their mother, a loving presence, was under his influence. But all the children were highly intelligent, a source of pride to the whole family, and, eventually, a means of escape for all three female siblings. We watch Safiya nurture her love for poetry and literature, become the student of an old poet, and begin developing her own opinions. The climax, a long time coming, still manages to surprise through its power. The author put her heart and soul into this book, which describes happy memories as well as periods of despair, and when she finally finds her voice, one feels like applauding.

Poetic and empowering. All about finding your voice even when the people who are supposed to love you most try to silence you. I love the way is like reading the synopsis of an album. The authors poetic writing style brings life to the words on the page.

The only thing I new about Rastafari before reading this book was music, dreadlocks, multicolored hats, and Bob Marley. Safiya Sinclair changed all of that.

How to Say Babylon will take the reader through the arrival of the black God Haile Selassie to Jamaica, and how this one man started a small revolution on that island. Hailed by many as the man who will level the playing field for back Jamaicans and restore what was taken from them, he was the impetus behind the Rasta movement. Safiya's father grabbed onto this movement with both hands and took his partner and children into a life created day to day depending on his moods, wants, and needs. Trying to keep the corruption of Babylon (the corrupt and immoral influences of the Western world) away from his family, he demanded his family live under his every tightening strict rules.

Safiya's mother was the one thing between these rules and the education and advancement of her children. Only when Safiya had the opportunity to visit America and judge for herself did the world open for her.

Take this fascinating, historical ride with Safiya Sinclair as she shares her story with her readers.

I was primed to love this memoir and it didn’t disappoint. My father was from Jamaica and it was my favorite place as a kid. The author conveys what it’s like to live on the island, but also the challenges of both growing up Rasta in a hostile culture and the patriarchy of Rastafarian society itself, both of which I knew little about.

The author makes use of small, vivid details that are unforgettable - the shoeless boy whose father burns holes in acquired shoes and his skin, the run-down houses in certain parts of the island,

It’s a story of trauma, as well as the road to rising above it, to forgiveness, and to art and creativity. Or more accurately, through art and creativity. In that, it echoes my own journey and the author conveys hers with honesty and grace. She writes a lovely, sometimes painful, roadmap to recovery.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster.

I found this memoir to be an in-your-face telling of a life lived in the Rastafarian culture and of how one young lady persevered to break the bonds of her father while surviving, and eventually thriving in the Foreign (American)) culture.

This book did not interest me enough to finish it, unfortunately. Although the topic of a young woman escaping the familiar and religions bonds of her parents (primarily her father's) obsession with Rastifarianism), the theme of a the book was somewhat hackneyed for me. I have read many bios and memoirs dealing with similar topics, and this one was not compelling enough for me to finish the read. This is unfortunate because the topic of Rastifarianism is somewhat interesting to me.