Hell, Damnation and Loss: Black Suffering exemplified at the hands of European Christians in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing
Black suffering describes the unique, overt and covert continued forms of violence that Black individuals are subject to on a daily basis. Philosopher and Professor Laurence Thomas contextualizes this suffering in Vessels of American Evil: American Slavery and the Holocaust. Thomas states that “Suffering, death, and poverty—the consequences of racism—conditioned how these oppressed peoples experienced the world, how they created meaning from an existence introduced to the world as nothing.” As Black people, our experiences and struggles are shaped by the unique form of suffering being Black entails. Black suffering exemplifies itself in the systems of religion at the hands of Europeans in the Middle Passage and its afterlife. Historically, it is known that the Church had an active hand and financial investment in the global slave trade. The British, with the support of the Anglican Church, helped to traffic, brutalize and convert native Africans throughout the globe. This fact is reflected in the entirety of Homegoing.
With the development of the slave trade and its subsequent offspring in West Africa and the Americas, manifestations of Black suffering were irreparably altered. The introduction and indoctrination of Christianity in the Middle Passage and chattel slavery offered European enslavers moral justification for brutalizing enslaved Africans while simultaneously unbarring the bounds of Black suffering to a new realm. Homegoing, written by Yaa Gyasi, is a neo slave fiction novel that examines cathartic narratives of a family split across generations and the Diaspora. Throughout the novel, readers are given snapshots into each character's personally pivotal moments centered around historical events and movements . Gyasi explores a plethora of themes centered around the diasporic Black experience. Although it's not at the forefront, Homegoing regularly makes use of Christian iconography and history to highlight the intersection of Black suffering at the hands of European Christians. Homegoing peruses the connection between Black suffering in the form of alienation, commodification of the Black body, femicide and religious violence at the hands of European Christians.
Homegoing is a rife with examples of the brutality of European Christians in the colonization of West Africa and the Americas and its subsequent effects on the Black family tree. Some may say that neo-slave narratives cannot be exemplified and accurately represented through fiction. Although the characters of Homegoing are fictitious, the narratives presented could very likely reflect a reality lived by enslaved Africans and their ancestors. Gyasi informs the novel with genuine historical events to create a sense of reality for readers that makes the story more tangible. The appeal of Homegoing is fostered in the historical plausibility of these scenarios.
Gyasi exemplifies the transactional and alienating aspect of Black suffering that was born of the mingling of European Christians and native African union in the Gold Coast. In the first chapter of Homegoing, readers are introduced to Efia, the daughter of a notable Fante tribesman. It is noted that while Effia is the daughter of a notable village chief, her maternal figure holds no kinship or any of the wives he has. This establishes a sense of disconnect or alienation between Effia and the community she inhabits. Knowing this, readers are able to gather that there is a sense of otherness when other characters address Effia.
From the start of the chapter, readers are given vivid and detailed descriptions of Esi's body and the changes she experiences as she grows in relation to her womanhood. Gyasi writes that Esi ``matter were only made worse by Effiia's blossoming beauty" and that Effia' s family benefitted from Efiia's "burgeoning womanhood' 'in the form of gifts and goods (Gyasi 5). Her existence was commodified as her body developed. This focus on Effia's development in relation to her sexual worth exemplifies the transactional nature of Effia's existence. Effia ages in the chapter as readers are introduced to the white slave traders and their business happenings with Fante tribes and leaders. Her existence was commodified as her body developed. It is important to understand that interracial unions in Gold Coast Ghana were very common. Oftentimes, ethnic tribes in Ghana would offer their daughters to European traders as a show of goodwill. Pernille Ipsen, professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin encountered the same phenomena. In her study “The Christened Mulatresses”: Euro-African Families in a Slave-Trading Town”, Ipsen explains that these unions were only possible because of the economic and social implications. Ipsen states “The social world of Gold Coast trading communities was fundamen- tally shaped by the slave trade (Figure I).”
We see this fact repeated in Effia's first introduction to the white man. European traders were given wives as a show of goodwill from African tribesmen and the tribesmen secured financial buffs in the form of goods like "fabric, millet, and gold" (Gyasi 6). This is furthered in the scene where Effia meets and marries her future spouse and slave trader, James Collins. In the scene, Effia is herded to a church to marry Collins. Gyasi writes "There was a chapel on the ground level, and she and James Collins were married by a clergyman who had asked Effia to repeat words she didnt mean in a language she didn’t understand"(Gyasi 16). Because Effia's existence is commodified as she physically develops her commodification is seemingly ratified by her union with Collins. Effia has no agency over marrying James Collins. Additionally, this illustrates the subtlety of European Christian violence. Effia was brought to a church with an ordained clergyman to ratify a union with her as an unknowing participant.
Gyasi's repeated pattern of highlighting the role of Christianity in Black suffering is even more evident in the chapter titled Ness. Ness is a first generation African American, born into slavery. Gyasi characterizes Ness as a woman “too pretty to be a field nigger” and othered by the other enslaved people on the plantation.
As a slave, Ness has endured beatings that left her with scars that "rounded the hills of her shoulders, and traveled the full, proud length of her back" because of her troublesome and defiant nature. (Gyasi 74).
To comprehend and connect Gyasis' depiction of Hell, it is critical to understand the Christian theological interpretation of Hell. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church defines Hell as “the place of the departed…which came to denote the divinely ordained place of punishment” and “being cast into a lake which burneth beneath them”. The Devil is regarded as the personification of evil who rebelled against God.
This chapter outlines the hierarchical structure of a plantation using Christian ideology. The white overseer is given the title of “The master of Hell, the Devil himself” (Gyasi 80) . Ness describes Hell as "a place where she learned how to be a good field hand" indicating that the reality she lived was one she had to conform to. Ness has scars traveling the length of her body because of her “troublesome” behavior.
The most overt instance of Black suffering can be found in the death of Akua’s mother. While other examples have been more subtle, this chapter highlights the stark physical violence of European Christian missionaries against Black Africans in colonized spaces.
Akua’s mother speaks to a larger story of violence perpetrated by European Christians as a means of control and conversion. Akua was raised in a church by European missionaries. Her childhood describes the spiritual and cultural confusion she felt at the teachings of the church and her own Blackness. Akua’s mother, Abena was drowned to death by a missionary at a church where she sought refuge during her pregnancy. Readers learn that Akua was murdered by the Missionary because she refused to be baptized and he “wanted her to repent” (Gyasi 189). This speaks to the imposing nature of European Christians in their conversion of native Africans. Abena refused to conform and convert and as a result she was murdered. This left Akua without any idea of her identity and origins. Additionally, the absence of her mother and proximity to the white missionaries left Akua alienated and alone.
Homegoing uses these instances of violence and alienation to highlight the between a Black suffering and imperial Christianity at the hands of European Christians. Christian iconography and imagery have been invoked by artists and literary wordsmiths to explore a number of ideas. Gyasi uses these symbols and instances to further explore the possibility of narratives within the Middle Passage and its subsequent manifestations.
Works Cited
Walvin, James (2008) "Slavery, the Slave Trade and the Churches," Quaker Studies: Vol. 12 : Iss. 2 , Article 3.
Cannon, Katie Geneva. “Christian Imperialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 24, no. 1, 2008, pp. 127–134., https://doi.org/10.2979/fsr.2008.24.1.127.
Pernille Ipsen. “‘The Christened Mulatresses’: Euro-African Families in a Slave-Trading Town.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 70, no. 2, Apr. 2013, p. 371., https://doi.org/10.5309/willmaryquar.70.2.0371.
McCurry, Jeffrey (2006). "Why the Devil Fell: A Lesson in Spiritual Theology From Aquinas's 'Summa Theologiae'". New Blackfriars. 87 (1010): 380–395. doi:10.1111/j.0028-4289.2006.00155.x.
Thomas, Laurence. Vessels of Evil: American Slavery and the Holocaust. Temple University Press, 1993.