Effia and Esi are two sisters who have never met. Beginning in ‘the musky heat of Fanteland’ on the Gold coast of Africa (present day Ghana) both sisters set off on diverging paths, one to slavery, one to marry a slave-owner.
In what is amazingly her debut novel, Yaa Gyasi evokes the horrors of human trafficking initiated by the West, but isn’t afraid to underline the complicity of African people in the slave trade. Her focus is unflinching as she follows the history of each successive branching of the sisters’ family tree, through seven generations, up to the present day. She offers us fourteen interlinked portraits of African and African-American people, struggling against the odds stacked against them, from one generation to the next.
Gyasi makes clear the roots of current power struggles in the African continent, as well as the lasting legacy of racism in contemporary USA. Through vivid characterisation, deft storytelling and convincing settings, this is a history lesson on the iniquities and repercussions of slavery that is more powerful and long-lasting than any history text.
This authoritative novel has stayed with me, and is one that I can’t recommend highly enough. It should be a set text on every A level literature syllabus.