Esi
Chapter Summary
In this chapter, we open with Esi who turns fifteen in the Cape Coast Castle dungeons, where she has been for the last couple weeks. She is packed in with many other women who have been captured, one of whom has recently given birth. Esi reflects on her life just a year prior to her capture, when she was still in Asanteland and the daughter of a high status Big Man. The narrative then shifts to the past, and in a flashback, Esi remembers how her father, Big Man, repeatedly told her mother Maame to hire a house girl. Maame refuses many times until the prisoners in the village grow too large in number, and Big Man insists. Maame thus goes with Esi and chooses a girl whose nickname is Abronoma, meaning Little Dove. Abronoma proves to be terrible at chores, so as Maame tries to convince Big Man to return her, he states that a slave can only taught through whipping. Maame tries to protect Abronoma, but Big Man instead assigns a test: Abronoma has to carry a bucket of water across the yard and back without spilling a drop. Abronoma carries out the task, successfully at first. At the very end, though, when she places the bucket back on the ground, she spills two drops of water. Big Man proceeds to whip Abronoma with a switch in front of the entire household.
This causes Maame to become very distraught. She takes Abronoma back inside the home and tends to her wounds. Esi attempts to soothe her mother and explains how Big Man had to whip Abronoma or else he would have looked weak to the rest of the village. However, Maame scolds Esi for saying this. Contrary to the perceptions of the villagers, she points out that strength lies in treating people equally, and that treating them as belongings is what is weakness. As Maame leaves, Abronoma tells Esi how she too was once the daughter of a Big Man and how Maame herself was once a house girl to a Fante family. Esi feels terrible over what she said and asks how she can make it up to the house girl. Abronoma tells her to get a message to her father letting him know where she is. Esi carries out the request and delivers the message to the village messenger. One night, the village is attacked and Abronoma excitedly claims that her father has come for her. As Esi begins to flee along with her family, Maame tells her she will not as she refuses to run anymore. Before Esi leaves, though, Maame gives her a black stone and tells her that her half sister has an identical one. Esi has no time to process this shocking information. She escapes into the forest and climbs a tree to hide from the enemies, but she is discovered and pelted with rocks, which causes her to fall into enemy hands.
Esi is then tied to other slaves picked up from raided villages, and is walked all the way to the Castle dungeons. She hides the rock given to her inside her cloth wrapper. Along the road, they stop by a Fante village where Chief Abeeku presents the slaves to his British associates. The British proceed to grope and molest the captured in order to “check” them. When the Fante warrior Fiifi goes to inspect Esi by untying her wrapper, she recalls the stone hidden there and spits in Fiifi’s face to stop him from finding and taking it. Fiifi hits Esi in retaliation, knocking her to the ground. She then proceeds to cry so as to distract them, and then swallows the stone so as not to lose it. In the dungeons of the Castle, because of the disease and dysentery the captives experience, Esi passes the stone in her stool. She finds her stone among the built up waste of all the captive women and decides to bury it in the ground.
Back in the present in the Castle dungeons, one night, two drunken British soldiers stumble into the dungeons and one of them takes Esi out of the dungeons and proceeds to rape her. After some time, one of the soldiers from the Fante village, known as Governor James– Effia’s husband– orders his men to round up some women from the dungeons. Esi, being among the chosen women, is escorted out. Recalling the buried stone, she attempts to turn back and retrieve it, but she is stopped and carried out along with the others. It is her final moment in the Gold Coast as she boards a ship and is sent as a slave to the New World.
Character Analysis
Esi
The main character of this chapter is Esi, the matriarch of the line of characters that ends up in the United States. She is the daughter of Maame and Big Man Asare. She describes her life in two ways: Before the Castle, where she lived till the age of 14, and After the Castle, where she spent her 15th birthday. Before the Castle, she is called a ripe mango by the villagers because she is on the right side of being spoiled but still sweet. Because of her being spoiled, Esi feels vindicated when her father reprimands her mother for making Esi work as a common girl. She also believes that her mother’s house slave, Little Dove, deserved the punishment by Big Man because of her clumsiness. Esi can be seen as naive and trusting, such as when she overhears the village saying that the punishment Little Dove received was required and needed, and also when Esi tries to befriend Little Dove, she believes that by writing a letter to Little Dove’s father about the whereabouts of Little Dove, she can gain her friendship.
Esi's life After the Castle is described as miserable and disgusting. Miserable because she is living as an unknown and disgusting because all of the captured women are filled into one dungeon. Furthermore, the dungeon is filled with feces, urine, and every other kind of illness. Her life becomes more depressing when a soldier takes her and rapes her. She is later sent to the Americas on a slave ship.
Maame
She is Esi's mother and the third wife of Big Man Asare. She is very gentle and kind to her daughter and her house slave. She has a fear of fire and forests, which we later find out is because she caused a fire in a village and had to hide in the forest for days before she was found by Big Man Asare. She marries Big Man Asare because he found her very beautiful. She is a key character because she is the matriarch of the two lines– Effia’s and Esi’s.
Big Man Asare (Kwame Asare)
He is Esi’s father and the husband of Maame. He is described as a strong warrior of the Asante village. He gained the title of Big Man after being humbled and confessing his mistakes regarding a rash decision that he made during a village raid.
Afua
A captured slave in the dungeon. She gives birth in the dungeon and her baby is later taken away from her by the Castle guards. It is revealed that she was sold by her village chief because of conceiving her baby before marriage. The day after her baby is taken away, it is found that she has committed suicide by holding her breath when sleeping.
Tansi
Another captured slave in the dungeon. She and Esi were both captured together and sold to the Gold Coast Castle. Tansi is a believer of the Akan folktales and superstitions. She is described as “a hardy and ugly woman” (36), with a thick body.
Kwaku Agyei
An Asante warrior who keeps Kwame Asare from making rash decisions during a raid.
Abronoma (Little Dove)
A house slave for Maame. She is described as being weak and clumsy. However, after getting lashed, she learns to keep her emotions in. She plays a big role in manipulating Esi into writing a letter to Little Dove’s father. Little Dove achieves this manipulation by making Esi aware that her mother too was a servant. She thus makes Esi feel that the only way to gain Little Dove’s friendship is to write the letter. After getting confirmation that the letter was sent, Abronoma becomes smug and bold.
Castle Soldier
A soldier at the Cape Coast Castle. He and his friend – another soldier – come into the dungeon where the slaves are held and take Esi and one other girl. He molests and then rapes Esi.
Major Themes and Symbols
Stone
The identical stone bestowed upon both Effia and Esi from Maame is a symbol of their connected heritage. Effia holds on to her pendant even after leaving her tribe, but in Esi’s case, she loses it the day she is chosen to board the ship. Esi losing the stone the day she is forever taken away from her home is a reflection of the loss of her roots. Being literally uprooted from the land in which she is born, she no longer has a physical connection to her home. As Esi loses that connection to her heritage, so will all her descendants after her. Esi’s loss of the stone symbolizes how many captured and enslaved people lose that connection to their homes and so do their descendents. From that initial uprooting, there will always remain a rupture because of that displacement.
Bodies
The motif of bodies represents the dehumanization of Esi and the other slaves throughout the chapter. During the handover taking place in the Fante village, the captured slaves are sexually molested under the guise of inspection. Similarly, when Esi arrives at the Castle dungeons, she is stuffed into the dungeon with other women piled on top of her. All of them packed together and lying on top of each other’s waste. This treatment shows the complete lack of humanity with which the British soldiers treated the slaves. In the eyes of their captors, they are naught but products. The slaves’ only worth is not in who they are but in how much is paid for them.
Masculinity
Masculinity is an important theme in defining the male characters. During a meeting to discuss the benefits and disadvantages of attacking a neighboring village, Kwame Asare, before being named Big Man, rallies the men to battle by asking all those hesitant if they are weak. All of the men vehemently deny this and join the unwise fight to prove otherwise. The very idea of weakness pushed the men to act aggressively, even at the cost of rationality and caution. Traits such as aggression and keenness to fight are associated with being a mighty warrior. A strong warrior, or Big Man, is one of the highest positions a male can attain in the village short of being Chief. In this case, masculinity is associated with a warrior and leader who encourages traits of aggression. Similarly, when Abronoma fails the test to prove her skill, Big Man took a switch to her back publicly so as to assert his position as household discipliner. Esi claims that had he not, everyone would have seen him as weak. Any mercy or forgiveness is only seen as weakness. Furthermore, forgiveness would have been regarded as emasculating because gentleness and passivity are more feminine traits. These traits also clash with the warrior characteristics the men try to attain.
Switch
The switch is first introduced in Homegoing in the chapter titled “Esi”, when her father Big Man uses it to punish the house girl Abronoma after her mother complains of her incompetency with the household tasks. It comes to symbolize the oppression faced by Esi’s line of descendants throughout the book, foreshadowing the use of whips by slave owners in the plantations and coal mines of America. The beatings and whippings, justified as a means to teach a lesson and keep the slaves obedient, represents the imbalance of power between the two parties. As the chapter progresses, we see the switch or the whip recur during instances of establishing dominance, albeit unreasonably and unnecessarily. Maame, once a slave herself, is compelled to use her own switch on the house girl in order to reinstate her role within the house. Later on, Big Man uses it despite Abronoma’s success at the task assigned to her, for he must live up to his word in order to maintain the respect he holds in the village. Finally, the soldier who rapes Esi at the dungeon uses it as a means to threaten her when she refuses water, a supposed act of kindness before the impending violation. Once again, the whip symbolizes the control he holds over her.
Fire
Fire is a motif mentioned several times in the chapter titled “Esi.” Depicted with both positive and negative connotations, and with its repeated presence throughout the book, the element comes to symbolize Essia’s line of descendants over the years. In this chapter, fire is something of which Maame is wary and fearful. We see this as she scolds Esi, often telling her to “Be careful of fire. Know when to use it and when to stay cold.” (33). Together with her mention later in the chapter when the enemies come to their village, as she exclaims “No more fire.” (42), these instances nod back to the fire Maame set ablaze after Effia’s birth which allowed her to escape life as a slave.
Ships
The motif of ships is prevalent throughout the novel and symbolizes the uprooting of Esi’s line of descendants. As the vessel taking them away from their their home, the ship sentences Esi to a life of slavery and oppression, ultimately leading to a change if not loss of identity. As the story progresses, we see erasure in Esi’s line, and a cycle of struggles passed down the generations. Due to the circumstances faced by the parent, the child’s fate is nearly sealed or at least somewhat restricted in their abilities to escape the hardships.
Forest
In the chapter titled “Esi,” the forest symbolizes the unity and strength of the village. As Esi’s father tells her, “the forest was so dense it was like a shield, impenetrable to their enemies.” (31). It imparts a sense of protection for the village, particularly Esi who runs to the woods as she seeks shelter from the incoming raiders. When she is captured, however, the forest, for all the familiarity it offered to Esi as a child, safe in her village, now becomes an element of loss and misplacement, as she “studied the lines on those palms” when her hands are tied in front of her (43). This refers back to her father, who says “he and the other warriors knew the forest better than they knew the lines of their own palms” (32).
Motherhood
Motherhood is a consistent theme throughout the chapter titled “Esi”, shown through a joyful lens as well as a sorrowful one. Esi and Maame share a very close and loving relationship, from the moment she is born until they are separated during the attack on their village. Her mother’s refusal to “set baby Esi down” (31) and her fear of “what could happen” (31) during the feast celebrating Esi’s birth foreshadow the bond they will come to share throughout Esi’s life. Their closeness also reflects on Maame’s loss of Effia, who she never came to know and had to leave behind. She seemed, in a way, trying to make up for the sense of incompleteness she feels as a result. The more somber depictions of motherhood are evident in the instance of the newborn baby and its mother, who Esi encounters while in the dungeons at Cape Castle. Here, although motherhood is expected to bring joy and be pleasant, the trials of their captivity outweigh such luxuries and instead render the sense of motherhood down to survival. This is reminiscent of Maame’s separation from Effia, which should have been a momentous aspect of their lives but instead leaves both feeling incomplete as a result of the circumstances and their survival.
Stories
The chapter entitled “Esi” features repeated occurrences of storytelling, which serves as a source of comfort and kinship between storyteller and listener. Although the stories told vary, some being more joyful and others more disheartening, these shared instances are always welcomed. We first come across Esi’s appetite for such moments after witnessing the troubling sight of a newborn baby being snatched from its mother in the grueling conditions of the dungeons where slaves were imprisoned. Esi asks, “Tansi, tell me a story, please,” (29). With the description of how “Esi begged,” a sense of desperation is conveyed as Esi searches for some positivity amidst the terrors she endures as a captured slave.
Another instance where we see her fondness for stories comes when she asks her father about the story of how he came to be a Big Man, as “Esi had her father tell it to her every night for a whole month” (33). Her eagerness in hearing the story repeatedly establishes the love she has towards her father, which is further strengthened when “Esi nodded, proud despite what she had seen her father do” (38). This comes after he whips Abronoma, the house girl. She justifies her father’s actions as part of his duties of being a Big Man, harkning back to her reveling in the story that humanized his accomplishment.
Finally, we see Esi’s curiosity to know more about her mother as she pesters Abronoma for more information about her mother’s past. While the story Abronoma tells her about how “[her] mother was once a slave for a Fante family…” (38) is melancholic, Esi feels more connected to her mother and yearns to know her better through it. Gyasi writes of how Esi “looked at her mother” (39), and the observations she came to realize after learning of her past. Additionally, through this instance, Esi also tries to form a better bond with Abronoma, as “in the months that followed, Esi tried to befriend Abronoma” (39). The matter of Maame’s past returns when the village is raided and she reveals the truth of Esi’s sister to her before sending her off to escape the enemy with the black stone identical to the one she left for Effia.
Key Quotations
Hell was a place for remembering, each beautiful moment passed through the mind's eye until it fell to the ground like a rotten mango, perfectly useless, uselessly perfect. (28)
Symbolism using mangos, “rotting” metaphorically using hell as a phenomenon of things in this case mangoes, falling “ rotting” like how people rot.
Afua resumed her crying, but it was as though no one heard. These tears were a matter of routine. They came for all of the women. They dropped until the clay below them turned to mud. (29)
The concept of if you fell in a forest would anyone hear it, is implied about crying being unheard, being echoed as part of a routine.
The mud walls of the dungeon made all time equal. There was no sunlight. Darkness was day and night and everything in between. (30)
Being in a dark place makes time stand still without access to light, this could also be a metaphor for depression not telling day from night, where time is lost.
Esi learned to split her life into Before the Castle and Now. Before the Castle, she was the daughter of Big Man and his third wife, Maame. Now she was dust. Before the Castle, she was the prettiest girl in the village. Now she was thin air. (31)
Esi went from being seen by everyone to being completely invisible, turning into a flick of dust that can’t be counted or seen.
The swine of the northern village are walking about life like kings. All around Asante people will say, it is the northerners who stole guns from the British. It is the northerners who are the most powerful warriors in all of the Gold Coast. (32)
Stealing from the British made the Northern villagers be able to act like kings, and to retrieve their strength and pride in front of other villages they had to steal it back.
“So many people will praise our enemies in the north, but will they not still praise us as well? We have been the strongest village for decades, no one has been able to break through the forest and challenge us… So will you have us wait until the northern snake slithers its way into our fields and steals our women?”...turning their heads from one to the other in order to see which gift would win: wisdom or strength. “I only say, let us not be too hasty. Lest we appear weak in the process. (32)
The question of choosing between pride and starting a war, there is wisdom in strength, there is wisdom in patience, choosing wisdom over haste.
Think before you act, think before you speak (33)
Feels like something that was echoed in her from the days she used to be a house girl, the days she used to be a slave, she impulsively said it to the daughter she raised disappointed in her mistreatment of the house girl.
Their feet moved with the lightness of the leaves on the forest ground. (33)
Metaphorically using leaves in reference to feet.
Darkness glinting from the gap between his front teeth. (34)
Could signify the darkness within him, the darkness of the things he could say, the darkness of men.
Her eyes were brimming with tears. Even the bucket on her head seemed to be crying, condensation working it’s way down the outside of it. (37)
Her crying, the heavy shaky bucket on her head is described as crying as well.
You want to know what weakness is? Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you, strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves. (38)
Esi used to think that if she expressed the thoughts she and everyone else was supposedly assuming it wouldn’t matter, however her mother had to teach her that strength could be going against the crowd, standing up for what is right not what is considered normal.
My father too is a Big Man, and now look at what I am. Look at what your mother was… your mother was once a slave for a Fante family. She was raped by her master because he too was a big man and big men can do what they please, lest they appear weak… you are not your mother’s first daughter. (38)
Abronoma shows Esi that just because she was the daughter of the Big Man, doesn’t secure her for life, Abronoma herself is the daughter of a Big Man and she ends up being a house girl. She also told her about her mothers past, which clarifies her mothers humble treatment of the girl.
In my village we have a saying about separated sisters. They are like a woman and her reflection, doomed to stay on opposite sides of the pond.
Northerners, they are not even people. They are the dirt that begs for spit…all Esi could picture was her own mother behind the dull metal of the cages. Her own mother, huddled with a sister she would never know…Esi tried to befriend Abronoma. Her heart has started to ache for the little bird who had now perfected her role as house girl. Since the beating, no crumb was dropped, no water spilled. (39)
A sister she never knew about, an uncertain future, her mothers painful past. Abronoma a house girl described as a bird, who can almost be described with broken wings, perfected her new role in life after a life of luxe.
The moon was full, as large as the rock of terror that was sitting in Esi’s gut…Esi’s feet split open and blood sweeped out painting the leaves she left behind. Ahead of her, the bloody leaves of others. (43)
Descriptive phrases to depict pain and misery in a rushed situation. Pain and suffering like Esi never knew.
They shouted until their voices grew hoarse from the words. Nothing but silence greeted them. (45)
Spoke as loud as they could, until they lost their voices, yet had a loud silence in the no response.
They were white men, the first Esi had ever seen, she could not match their skin to any tree or nut or mud of clay that she had ever encountered. (45)
The only shaded Esi knew how to describe didn't even fit the shade of skin she was seeing for the first time.
He looked horrified, disgusted with her. As though he were the one who had something taken from him. As though he were the one who had been violated. (48)
The one taking, acted like he was the one who had something taken from him, the person who horrified her acts as though he was the one who had the right to be horrified.
How white men smiling just meant more evil was coming with the next wave. (48)
White men being nice depicted that pain and deception was to follow.
Historical Context & Additional Resources
Various forms of slavery had long been prevalent in a range of North and West African societies, with slave routes developed across the Sahara desert and the Nile. However, the slavery systems differed in treatment and use from the transatlantic slave trade. The transatlantic slave trade racialized slavery and was employed by European nations for the purposes of plantation production (Keren, 983).
The arrival of European traders transformed the nature of the slave trade in that first, it increased demand that resulted in a small trade development between the West Coast communities and the foreign traders. Early Europeans traded in a variety of goods along with human slaves. The traded slaves are captured in conflicts between major empires or kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai (Nelson, 89). The earliest captured slaves are used for labor and domestic positions in Spain and Portugal, then later on in the Atlantic islands of Madeira, the Canary Islands, and São Tomé. With the Europeans settled in the Americas, and the development of New World sugar plantations, the small trade developed into a great transatlantic business (Transatlantic Slave Trade, 7).
While some communities resisted, the possibility of trading with Europeans for new goods was a valuable opportunity. Among the offered goods were textiles, fire arms, and iron wares. Thus many coastal societies benefited from the trading (Keren, 984). With the assistance of certain west coast tribes acting as middlemen (such as the Fantes), European traders collaborated with local tradesmen who had access to large quantities of captured slaves. With this insider source, they were able to acquire slaves more easily and in larger amounts than before (Transatlantic Slave Trade, 9).
The European traders also formed alliances with warring tribes and provided them with weaponry. The tribes raided rival villages, captured slaves, and traded them. These slaver communities, such as the Asante and Dahomey, became powerful kingdoms in the 18th century and dominated the interior slave trade within their respective territories (Transatlantic Slave Trade, 9).