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Critical Lens Essay - Homegoing
Critical Lens Essay - Homegoing
Colleen Green
English III
June 7, 2017
span of the novel, colonialism negatively affects the characters, such as being biracial, changes
African culture, such as their language and beliefs, and shifts the way they behave, like inciting
Quey, is born to Fante woman and a British colonizer. Because of his mixed race and his
lighter skin, Quey feels like he doesnt belong, he could not fully claim either half of himself
(Gyasi 56). His son, James, is condemned by his village because he has white blood running
through him; they believe hes unlucky and cursed. There is a sense ambivalence towards their
own selves because of their blood. With white blood come status, power, and money, however,
they are also part of a family that works in slave trading and with that comes remorse and guilt
Through their colonization, the British disrupt sacred items, heighten rivalries between
different tribes, and continue to fight for control over the land. In order to gain more slaves to
sell, the British incite tribal wars because captives would be sold to them for trading. One
character, James, describes the tension between the Asantes and the Fantes as a pot already full
to the brim (Gyasi 89). The white man justs adds fire to the pot, causing worry about it boiling
over again and again. The problems the British added to the hostility between the Asantes and
the Fantes caused them to be a war for many years after. Even after slavery had been abolished
and the British no longer sold slaves to America, slavery in the Gold Coast had not really ended;
it came to light in a different way, they would just trade one type of shackles for another, trade
physical ones that wrapped around the wrists and ankles for the invisible ones that wrapped
around the mind (Gyasi 93). These people wouldnt be free, not for a while, because of Britain's
colonization and hunger for land. As the British fought wars for land, they demanded sacred
items in exchange for captives so that the people would give in. In one instance, a British
governor ordered the Asante people to give him the Golden Stool, a stool that contained the soul
of the Asante nation that no one was allowed to sit in - not even the king, for him to sit on or give
to the queen. The Asante people feared for themselves after that, for if a white man took the
Golden Stool, the spirit of the Asante would surely die, and that they could not bear (Gyasi 182).
In order to gain land and power, the British were stealing the actual spirit of the people.
The British began to settle down after profit could no longer be made from slavery.
Although there is hostility between the natives and the colonizers, for instance they burned a
white man for being white, there is a shift in their language and beliefs, there is cultural
hybridity. Churches start popping up and the children are taught English in school. The churches
encouraged Christianity and believing in God. The Missionary, who raised one of the characters,
Akua, constantly tells her shes a sinner, that she must believe in God. He thinks, all people on
the black continent must give up their heathenism and turn to God. Be thankful that the British
are here to show you how to live a good and moral life (Gyasi 184). In his eyes the British are
right and know how to live the best life while following God. He believes they should give up all
their old customs and put their faith in God. The Missionary shows his distaste for the fetish man
who is described as someone who had not given up praying to the ancestors or dancing or
collecting plants and rocks and bones and blood with which to make his fetish offerings. He had
not been baptized (Gyasi 181). In short, he held onto ancient traditions and customs and he was
shunned for that, he was wicked. In schools they only teach English, for convenience mostly.
Yaw, a history teacher, tries argue about teaching regional tongues but was laughed off, theres
too many languages. Yaw is all about independence and freedom from Britain, he doesnt want
to further his schooling in England or America because, if we go to the white man for school,
we will just learn the way the white man wants us to learn. We will come back and build the
country the white man wants us to build. One that continues to serve them. We will never be
free (Gyasi 223). Yaw does not want what the white man is offering, he wants the Asante to be