FIRST blog post (1/4 of novel)

Okay, wow! Where do I even start with this book!? For one, I never want to set it down. I think my favourite part about this book so far is the narration by Aminata, the main character. It starts out when she is old, and helping the abolitionists to end slavery for good. Then it goes back to her life in the village which she remembers very well. I love trying to figure out what she is referring to through her perspective, but then.. it gets bad, real bad! She is captured by people and put into a coffle. She watches both her parents die, and her village burned down! At the time she is only eleven, but this makes the story even better somehow. She is a very intelligent eleven year old, and it is so interesting to try to figure out what she means when she describes a fire stick (gun) or a white person (Tubab). One thing I am most definitely struggling with is dealing with how horrific the circumstances these West Africans are dealing with, but the way that Aminita talks about everything makes it innocent, and well PG. haha

I think my favourite quote is one found at the beginning of the book; “Let me begin with a caveat to any and all who finds these pages. Do not trust large bodies of water and do not cross them. If you, dear reader, are of African hue and find yourself led toward water with vanishing shores, seize your freedom by any means necessary. And cultivate distrust with the colour pink. Pink is taken as the colour of innocence, the colour of childhood, but as it spills across the water in the light of the dying sun, do not fall into its pretty path. There, right underneath, lies a bottomless graveyard of children, mothers, and men. I shudder to imagine all the Africans rocking in the deep. Every time I have sailed the seas, I have had the sense of gliding over the unburied.” I think the reason that this one is my favourite quote is because it immediately shows not only who the character of Aminata is, but a strong sense of the effect her life has had on her, and how haunted she still is. I love “Pink is taken as the colour of innocence, of childhood, but as it spills across the water in the light of the dying sun, do not fall into its pretty path.” The thing that is great is the fact that this is the way she speaks through the whole thing. You can hear the wisdom in her words, but when she is talking of her past as a child you can tell the difference, you can see the years shed off as she goes back to the accounts of her life.

I think the reason I love this book so much is because I immediately fell in love with the main character, Aminata. She is so strong, intelligent, and independent and boy is she ever stubborn! When she is told to do something she doesn’t just submit like most girls would, especially her age. When she is beaten she does not give the satisfaction of screaming, and she uses her gifts of “baby catching” to help expectant mothers along the way. In Aminata’s old age she reminds me very much of my great Aunt Dot (Dorothy) in Ireland, only the African version. I remember listening to her tell me stories about her childhood, and working in the factory instead of being educated so she could help support the household. When I was but seven years of age my mother was diagnosed with an Aracnoid cyst on the left temporal-lobe of her brain. She was stuck with epilepsy and had to have surgery. She was a single mother and I had three younger siblings, the twins being just months old. Although they were only my half-siblings I was forced to care for the younger pups she whelped. I never thought of them as half-siblings though. I learned how to cook and clean at a young age, and I knew how to take care of the kids, and my mother. We didn’t want my siblings to be taken, so we managed to work it out. When I was 14 we moved to Goderich, and I got a job at a gas station. Although I kept some of my money for myself, I didn’t mind helping out with groceries considering my mother could only afford so much on disability for five people. My mother has now had a total of 9 major brain surgeries, and she is still kickin’ and I wouldn’t want my life to have been any other way because it made me who I am. I can’t wait to be an old woman of experience like Aminata and teach my children and grandchildren the ways of life, and making it easier. I have always been a very independent young girl, and now woman and I strive to continue to be such. I am so excited to continue this book and hear more about the journey that Aminata took!

I think I know what will happen next in the book, but it scares me slightly. Aminata has been trying to gather information from the Caucasians to tell a chief from a neighbouring village who is also on the ship. Since Aminata could speak some Arabic, and new more than one native tongue she was able to communicate with the captors. The medicine man with whom she bunks has been teaching her their language and the slaves plan to revolt, but I have a terrible feeling about it! I can’t wait to read more, and I would highly recommend so far that every one read this brilliant piece of art by Lawrence Hill!