Homegoing

Effia’s story is the first in Homegoing, beginning around 1762. She is the daughter of Cobbe Otcher and Maame. Effia is born in a Fante village and abandoned by Maame to be raised by Baaba, Cobbe’s abusive wife. Effia, nicknamed “Effia the Beauty,” is known for her beauty and is initially set to marry Abeeku, but through Baaba’s scheming, she is instead married to an Englishman named James Collins. At the end of “Effia,” she is pregnant with Quey when she learns that she is the daughter of Maame and not Baaba.

Effia is one of the few characters to reappear multiple times in Homegoing: The reader meets her as a girl in “Effia,” as a mother in “Quey,” and as a grandmother in “James.” In the novel, Effia begins as a naive and abused girl, but her life improves once she marries James, an English officer overseeing the Cape Coast slave trade. He treats her well, and they seem to love each other, but she is lonely in the Castle and aware that her comfort is directly connected to the suffering of fellow Africans. Likewise, she carries the trauma of her years in the village, where she refuses to return, even after Baaba is dead. As a mother, Effia is loving and supportive of Quey but is undermined by her husband, James, who sends him away to England for an education. As a grandmother, she tells her grandson James Richard Collins he can “make a new way” with his life (107), which is the encouragement he needs to break free of his family’s violent legacy.

Esi’s story is split into two experiences: memories of her childhood and her traumatic experience as a slave in the dungeon of Cape Castle. Esi is born to an Asante tribe, sometime not long after her half-sister Effia, in the second half of the 18th century. Her childhood is easy and joyful; growing up in an Asante village, she is the child of Maame and Big Man Asare, the village chief. In her naivete, she helps their captured slave Abronoma communicate with her village; doing so allows Abronoma to lead her father to their village and ultimately results in Esi’s capture and sale to slave traders.

As a slave, Esi passes through Effia’s Fante village and is sold to the English by Abeeku. Her experience in captivity is miserable, and she momentarily escapes reality through her memories and the stories of fellow captors. Her happy childhood has been replaced by the hell of captivity, in which she is raped by an English soldier and then chosen by James Collins to be sent to the United States on a slave ship. In “Ness,” the reader learns that Esi becomes a slave in Mississippi and has one daughter, Ness, who remembers Esi being called “Frownie” by the other slaves. In Ness’s memories Esi is “solid and strong” (71), with a heart like “gray rock” and a “hardness of spirit” (71). Ness’s transformation from happy, naive child to stoic, hardened woman tracks the trauma of her enslaved experience and separation from her family, which she passes along to her daughter.

Quey is born to Effia and James Collins around 1779 and grows up in and around Cape Castle. Quey’s primary struggle is with his mixed identity and place as an outsider. As a child, he does not see his father very often but has a close relationship with Effia, who is a loving mother. Quey dislikes the slave trade, preferring his post as a writer and accountant in the Castle to participating directly in handling enslaved people. However, he is brought into the fold by the machinations of his uncle Fiifi, who sees the political advantage of putting an English-Fante descendant as the next chief. In many ways, Quey’s life is beyond his control, and he submits to the powers around him.

Being of mixed race, Quey does not have many friends until he meets Cudjo, a boy from a local village. Quey and Cudjo’s friendship plays an important role in Quey’s embracing his African identity, and it also sparks an awareness of his homosexual attraction to Cudjo. Quey’s name sounds similar to “queer,” and his queerness, both in sexuality and in his difference as a mixed-race child, leaves him vulnerable to social structures and the powerful around him. While his attraction to Cudjo is acceptable in Cudjo’s village, it is not in English culture, here represented by his father. Despite himself, Quey “still wanted ardently to please” his father (63), and this desire to please drives him to reject Cudjo’s invitations and accept his role as a “Big Man,” his arranged marriage, and a central role in the slave trade he abhors. 

Ness is born into slavery, probably around 1786. She is the daughter of Esi and the English man who raped Esi in the Cape Castle, and she grew up by her mother’s side until she was sold to another plantation at a young age. When the reader meets Ness, she is depicted as beautiful but reserved and stoic, like her mother. She has a soft spot for the little girl Pinky, whom she protects from harm to her own detriment. Ness does not know anything of her African heritage—only that her mother spoke to her in Twi. Her connection to her ancestry is completely lost.

Ness does not make friends easily, and in part this is because of her tragic history at the plantation she only refers to as “Hell.” Despite her emotional defenses, she grows to love Sam, the man she married against her will, and she loves her son Kojo enough to risk running away. However, both of them are taken from her during their escape attempt, one carried to freedom, the other hanged to death. This loss creates a distance and disorientation for Ness, whose transformation from hopeless to hopeful only slides back into resignation as she ominously awaits the punishment of her new master. The character of Ness demonstrates how a lifetime of trauma can be inherited and perpetuated, with bitter losses and abuse numbing a person into compliance after they’ve given up any hope for happiness. Nonetheless, she remains a caretaker through the chapter, diligently accepting her punishment for protecting Pinky.

James is born around 1807 to Quey Collins, tribal leader and “Big Man,” and Nana Yaa, an Asante princess. He is 17 and on the threshold of his adult life, being gradually brought into the family business and betrothed to a village girl. However, he is intelligent and a keen observer—he can see that his parents’ marriage is an unhappy arrangement for political purposes, while their position is based on the survival of the slave trade, of which he wants no part. While he is being pushed in that direction, and he would gain much privilege from it, James desires something else.

Falling in love with a peasant girl at his grandfather’s funeral gives James the motivation to finally leave his family and those obligations behind for a life he considers more honorable. He struggles with this decision, seeking advice from the village witch and his grandmother Effia before he can figure out how to leave them behind. James seizes the right opportunity and leave his family by faking his own death, becoming reborn as a peasant farmer who loves his wife, free of his family’s legacy.

However, in “Abena,” the reader meets James as an old man, now referred to as “Unlucky,” since his farm has not thrived for decades, and his anonymity works against Abena’s marriage chances. Still, James takes pride in his choice until the end of his life, considering himself lucky even for his failures, saying, “every season I feel lucky to have this land, to do this honorable work, not the shameful work of my family” (153). Despite the break from his family, he finally relents and passes on the black and gold necklace to Abena, telling her about Effia and some details of his life.

Kojo is the son of Ness and Sam. Born around 1811, he escaped to freedom with Ma Aku when he was around one year old. Kojo works as a ship builder in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1850, where he lives with Ma Aku, his wife, Anna, and their seven children (with an eighth on the way). Kojo is motivated to protect his family from the changing laws that begin to threaten their freedom. He is also happiest when he is creating and building, seeing these activities as an important aspect of his freedom—to work for himself and create skillfully.

Since Kojo is a runaway slave, he is fearful that the authorities will one day catch up to him and force him back to his master. This fear has hung over his life since his earliest memories, and ironically, it is one of the reasons he refuses to move his family farther north—some part of him wants to push back and stay rooted in Baltimore. When Anna is kidnapped and sold into slavery, his family and professional lives fall apart, and he finds himself alone and isolated, in his own sort of hell. 

In the 1870s, Abena Collins is the adult daughter of James Richard Collins and Akosua Mensah. She is past her prime marrying years and probably considered cursed by the village; since she is known as “Unlucky’s daughter,” no man will marry her. Abena’s story is underlined by a theme of infertility—like her father’s farm that will not produce, Abena cannot find a marriage partner, and her life is fruitless in a sense. Similar to her parents, who had her later in life, Abena does not become pregnant with Akua until she is past 30 years old.

Abena’s life is one of parallel fates, for while she lives the life of a poor farmer’s daughter, she could have rightfully been Asante royalty, living in Kumasi. When she becomes pregnant with Akua by Ohene Nyarko, rather than wait for him forever, she instead chooses a life among the missionaries in Kumasi, rejecting both the path of royalty and that of poverty. Abena is a character severely limited by her circumstances, lacking the family origins her father hides from her, and lacking the practical resources necessary to attract a viable suitor. She makes the most of what choices she can independently pursue in the 1870s, which amount to Christian charity at the missionary school. Abena’s life and her freedom are cut short by an overzealous missionary who drowns her during a baptism after she refuses his teachings.

H is the son of Kojo Freeman and Anna, born into slavery in 1850. He never knows his parents, as Anna kills herself before he is born (by emergency cesarian) and Kojo never learns the fate of his infant son. His name is H because that is what Anna called him before he died—like his family origins, severed by his kidnapping, H’s name and identity are incomplete for much of his story.

Like his grandfather Sam, H is described in animalistic terms: He is angry, he can fight three to four men at once, he is certain he could bend or break his jail cell bars, and he seems to have superhuman strength in the mines. His nickname is “Two-Shovel H” because he was able to shovel two loads in one day, though it nearly killed him. While H is exceptionally strong, he is also smart and passionate and fair—his nickname also signifies a moment of compassion for a fellow prisoner who collapsed under the strain.

H’s journey is one of a man maturing under extremely difficult circumstances, making it out of the mines alive, and then choosing to use the skill he learned to earn himself a living and start a family. He learns to take the reckless anger of his youth and transform it into patient strategy as part of a union. In reuniting with Ethe, he also leaves behind his irresponsible, cheating ways to start a loving family with a woman he has regretted losing for more than 10 years. H’s story is one of long, patient transformation.

Akua Collins was born around 1880 and is the daughter of Abena and Ohene Nyarko. She grows up an orphan, not knowing her mother, who is killed by the missionary when she is only about a year old, nor her father. Akua grows up in the Christian missionary school, where she learns English and Christian theology, but she often turns to the village fetish man for answers and guidance. She marries Asamoah and escapes the school, but her mental health begins to decline after she witnesses the gruesome death of a White traveler in their village.

Akua’s story is one tinged with the supernatural and mental health struggles, as she seems to straddle reality and fantasy. The narrative often overlays her dreams and visions of fire as Akua’s mental health degrades through the chapter. She loves her children and family, but her dreams of the firewoman are so haunting that she kills her two daughters in a fire while sleepwalking. From that point on, Akua is not entirely in control of her life: Her remaining son, Yaw, is taken from her and sent to school, while she spends most of her life on the outskirts of Edweso after Asamoah dies and until Yaw returns to her.

Akua, like Effia, is one of the few characters the reader sees as a young woman, an old woman, and a centenarian. What is her weakness in her youth becomes her strength once she is reunited with Yaw and becomes a grandmother to Marjorie—her dreams of the firewoman gives her precious access to the family history and legacy, otherwise lost after generations of separation. By the end of Homegoing, Akua has lived a century, she has healed and reconciled herself to the messages of the firewoman, and she provides strength, a home, and knowledge of her family’s legacy to Marjorie.

Willie is born sometime at the end of the 19th century in Pratt City, Alabama, to H and Ethe. She has a sister, Hazel, and they grow up in an integrated city, which would have been exceptional for the early 20th century. Willie is known for her exceptional singing voice and has been performing since she was 10 years old. She loves the spotlight and has a fiery, ambitious spirit, like her father, H. She also has a strength of will that keeps her afloat when the men in her life abandon her with her children.

Unlike her husband, Robert Clifton, Willie is strong and bold; she knows her talent and can take the lead, but she is so impaired by her circumstances as a dark-skinned woman in Harlem that she can never achieve her dreams of singing jazz. Instead, she works cleaning jobs to support her family and finds a place in her church, where she can sing and be part of a community. Her role as an ambitious young singer evolves over the last chapters of Homegoing: To mature and be happy she must learn to let go of Robert and these elements out of her control. In doing so, she must compromise her dreams, but she is able to embrace a different life, one that is made in the image of her childhood with her beloved father, and one that is focused on the family she loves rather than her ambition.

Willie, like Akua and Effia, represents the importance of the matriarch in the family, helping to guide each generation and remember their inheritance of the family’s history. In “Sonny,” she has become a concerned mother trying to lead her son back onto the right path and keep her family together. In “Marcus,” Willie has become the glue that now protects and keeps their family together, even with Marcus living across the country. While her early life is characterized by loneliness, her later life is fuller and rooted in her faith and family. 

Yaw is born in 1900 to Akua Collins and Asamoah Agyekum, just after the Asante loss in the War of the Golden Stool. He is an intellectual and a teacher of African children in a Christian school, and he writes about African independence, hoping to influence a movement of self-governance, and his book later becomes a success. His teachings focus on history and the importance of hearing all stories rather than the dominant narratives, echoing a dominant theme of “Yaw.”

Yaw bears a burn scar on one side of his face, a remnant of the night Akua killed his two sisters and almost killed him as well. Due to this trauma and his leaving the village at six years old, Yaw is estranged from Akua for most of his life. Ironically, his youth is like Akua’s: He grows up in a school like an orphan, often relying on the generosity of others.

Because of his scar, Yaw has avoided trying to find a wife for nearly 50 years, so he is blindsided by his love for Esther, his house maid. With Esther in his life, he opens up to experiences, to using his body and getting out of his head. She encourages him to reunite with his mother, which allows him to face difficult emotions and memories, but also to transform in a positive way, particularly when he hears her story. He marries Esther and moves Akua to the coast, staying in contact with her even when he becomes a professor in Alabama. Yaw and Ester have Marjorie when he is almost 70 years old, and he prioritizes his relationship with his aging mother until her death, bringing Marjorie to Africa to see her every summer. 

Born in the early 1920s, Sonny has little memory of his father, Robert, and spends most of his youth resenting his mother, Willie, for his father’s absence. He has turned much of his anger into activism: He works for the NAACP, marches in civil rights protests, reads broadly, and is often arrested for his efforts. Sonny has multiple children by a few different women, but he does not take responsibility for them, instead focusing on his activism.

Sonny meets Amani Zulema at a time where he is feeling discouraged by the progress of the movement, and he falls into addiction. His obsession with her is like his love for heroin personified—slow and mysterious, musical and enchanting, but ultimately toxic and addicting. Like many men of his time in Harlem, he uses heroin to numb his pain and disappointment, unable to cope with the slow pace of change for Black people in the late 1950s. However, Sonny is able to take control of his life again when Willie finally shares with him the story of his father. By the end of Homegoing, Sonny is a loving and responsible father to Marcus, in therapy for his addiction, running his life according to a strict schedule, and working in a respectable job. His pride for his son is palpable, and he has educated Marcus on the reality of the Black experience in America, teaching him many of the things overlooked in school curriculums. 

Born around 1969, Marjorie is the daughter of Yaw and Esther. She is African by birth, but she grows up in Alabama, where her father teaches at the university. Marjorie’s life is seen in two parts: In “Marjorie,” she is an outsider trying to better understand her African identity and make an American one, while in “Marcus,” she is a young woman who is sure of herself and guiding Marcus towards better self-knowledge.

Marjorie’s journey is one of accepting the unique qualities of the self and coming home to the family where she belongs. Her struggle as a teenager is with feeling like an outsider in America—she is not accepted into White or Black social groups, and her brief romance with Graham only shows her how different she is when he is able to assimilate easily. Her relationship with Akua is paramount, however, and by the end of her chapter she has found comfort in her family and in the messages Akua has shared with her from the firewoman.

While the reader does not get Marjorie’s perspective in “Marcus,” it is clear their friendship provides deep comfort to her as well. She makes the emotionally difficult journey back to Ghana years after Akua has died, introducing Marcus to this very personal part of her world. In the end, she welcomes him to her family, tying Effia’s necklace to his neck in a reenactment of her summer ritual with Akua. Marjorie’s transformation is one of coming home to herself, to Africa, and to Marcus, reuniting the two sides of the family after seven generations of isolation.