Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi

Homegoing

By Yaa Gyasi

 

(Tansley Reads Rating: 55%)

Icebreaker

Set up four stations labelled by Element (Fire, Air, Water, Earth).  Tell each person to go to the appropriate element based on their Zodiac Sign.  Discuss what the characteristics of their signs are.  Leader reads what the characteristics of the Elements are to see how close everyone was.

 

Questions

 

1.  The title of the book is Homegoing. How does a homegoing differ from a homecoming?

 

2.  Why did Baaba resent Efia so much?

                     

3.  How do the characters’ relationships with their parents influence the way that they raise their own children?

 

4.  How does the novel explore the ways slavery causes harm within the African cultures?

 

5. Many of the characters bear scars: from whips, from fire, from needle tracks, from psychological damage.  Can scars be inherited or passed down from one generation to the next?

 

6.  Yaw is a teacher of history.  What does he teach his students about the learning of history?  How is storytelling important throughout the novel?

                     

7.  Discuss the figure of Akua.  Is she a crazy woman or sage woman?  Or is it a matter of interpretation?

 

8.  What significance do names carry throughout the novel? (Consider James Richard Collins who is later called “Unlucky,” the character known only as “H,” Carson who becomes “Sonny,” and Akua who is labeled Crazy Woman.) Why was H not given a proper name?

9.  Both Effie and Esi are given a “black stone, glimmering with gold” from the mother they share, Maame. What does the black stone represent as it is passed down to future generations? Why does Marjorie give her stone to Marcus at the end, and what is the meaning of that gesture?

10.  Was there any one character in the book whose storyline was interesting enough/deserving of to be the central figure of a future novel? Who?

           

 14:  Quick round: What did you think of the book? Is there anything you want to discuss that we missed.

Info that we found useful:

Approximate Time Periods

Effia and Esi: 1760’s to 1780’s

Quey and Ness: 1800 to 1820’s

James and Kojo: 1820’s to 1860

Abena and H: 1860s to 1890s

Akua and Willie: 1890s to 1920s

Yaw and Sonny : 1940s to 1980s

Marjorie and Marcus: 2000’s

Major Characters

We found it helpful to keep in mind the ancestors of each title character. Most of these are shown as a family tree in print and Kindle versions.  They are grouped by direct descendants and names in bold are title characters from the chapters.

Effia's Family

Cobbee Otcher: Effia’s Father

Baaba: Cobbee’s first wife, not Effia’s biological mother, but reluctantly raises Effia until she can send her away in marriage

Effia Otcher: Fante, married to James to strengthen relationship between village and white men

Fiifi: Effia’s half-brother

James Collins: Governor of Cape Coast Castle, marries Effia

Quey Collins: Fante and British son of Effia and James

Cudjo Sackee: Quey’s friend from a prominent Fante village

Nana Yaa Yeboah: eldest daughter of powerful Asante king, forced into marriage with Quey

James Richard Collins: Fante, Asante and British: Quey and Nana’s son

Amma: James’ first wife whom he doesn’t chose and doesn’t love

Akosua Mensah: Asante, James’ second wife

Abena Collins: only child of James (Unlucky) and Akosua; drowned by missionary when her daughter is a baby

Ohene Nyarko: Abena’s lover

Akua Collins: only child of Abena, raised by missionaries in Kumasi, nightmares of firewoman; becomes the Crazy Woman; lives in Edweso

Asamoah Agyekym: Akua’s Asante husband, becomes the Crippled Man

Abee and Ama: Akua’s children whom she burns to death in their sleep

Nana Serwah: Asamoah’s mother who exiles Akua

Yaw Agyekum: Akua’s son who Asamoah saves from being burned, becomes history teacher

Esther Amoah: comes to clean for Yaw and becomes his wife

Marjorie Agyekum: Daughter of Yaw and Esther

 

Esi's Family

Maame: Esi’s and Effia’s mother.
Big Man Asare: Esi’s father, skilled and brave Asante warrior who foolishly rushed into conflict, but realized his folly after he was rescued and earned nickname, “It takes a big man to admit his folly.”

Esi Assare: to befriend Adbronoma, Esi sends word to Abronoma’s father that his daughter is a captive. Esi is sold as a slave and raped at the Castle and sold into slavery in U.S.

Abronoma: houseslave for Maame, captive from another tribe.

Ness Stockham: Esi’s daughter, field slave to Thomas Allan Stockham in Alabama

Pinky: Mute slave girl on Stockham’s plantation

Sam: Ness’ husband chosen by the slave owners. Hung by slaveowner

Kojo Freeman: Ness and Sam’s son, taken to Baltimore by Ma Aku

Ma Aku: Asante woman who takes Kojo north in U.S.

Anna Foster: Kojo’s wife, kidnapped when pregnant and commits suicide after H is born

H Black: Kojo and Anna’s son, arrested after the Civil War and sold to work in coal mine in Alabama

Joecy: friend H met as a convict in coal mines and seeks out in Pratt City when released

Ethe Jackson: woman H met before his time as a convict and who he seeks out when released

Wille Black: daughter of H and Ethe, gifted singer, moves from Pratt City to Harlem

Robert Clifton: Willie’s husband from Pratt City who is a very light-skinned black man
Eli: poet of sorts who is transient in Willie's life

Carson “Sonny” Clifton: Willie and Robert’s child

Josephine: Willie and Eli’s child
Amani Zulema: singer and drug addict

Marcus Clifton: Son of sonny and Amani