Homegoing By Yaa Gyasi

The fulfillment and satisfaction that comes along with knowing you can feel safe and loved by someone or something proves to be one of the pillars of humanity today, as everyone yearns for a sense of belonging or even the faintest sense of self. The novel Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi tells the story of two sisters separated by the beast that is slavery, and follows their descendents through centuries of lineage as they struggle with the racial pressures imposed by American society, and the cultural expectations imposed from the Fante tribe in Ghana. Through the juxtaposing viewpoints, the importance of home and a sense of belonging is emphasized. In the historical fiction novel Homegoing, Gyasi develops connected characters that always yearn for

Apart from their lack of cultural identity, these characters in particular do not have people around them to serve as a figurative home. When Esi is abducted from her Asante village, she is left with faint memories of her mother and tribe back home. All she has to remind her that she once belonged is her mother’s stone, which she is unable to carry with her when the white soldier takes her out of the dungeon. Esi “flung herself to the ground and started to dig…soon all that she could feel instead of dirt in her steadily moving hands was air and more air” (Gyasi 49), displaying her desire to remain connected to her familial roots. The determination Esi has to find that stone, to keep her sense of personal identity is raw and extremely strong. Unfortunately she is unable to capture it before it is too late, serving as the ultimate impetus for her descendants' feeling of longing. Similarly, Esi’s grandson Kojo is left searching for a home in America. Though he physically has a home, he yearns for paternal and maternal nurturing. Kojo’s parents, Sam and Ness (Esi’s daughter) sacrifice their freedom for Kojo’s freedom, as they distract white slave owners to allow Kojo and Ma Aku to flee into the free part of America. Though Jo has Ma Aku to serve as his primary maternal figure, he constantly yearns for the connection by blood that he never really had with his biological parents, as he only knew them from “the stories Ma Aku told him… stories and nothing more” (Gyasi 112). He lacks a sense of familial identity, which fuels him to be the loving, supportive father and husband that he is to his wife and children. The parallels between Jo and Esi demonstrate that through the initial separation of Esi from her home, it caused a generational sense of estrangement and isolation, regardless of the people around them. Blood can not be replaced, and the importance of family in the Asante