Introduction to Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi
Brief Summary
Homegoing is a historical novel written by Ghanian-American author, Yaa Gyasi. It is set in Ghana and the United States, spanning over three-hundred years and seven generations. Throughout the three centuries, Gyasi writes about important historic events such as the of the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade, the American Civil War, the Heroin Crisis, the Jazz Age, the Mining Boom, the Anglo-Ashanti war, and more. The novel focuses on two tribes, the Fantes and the Asantes, members of the Akan people, whose characters descend from the same person.
History of the Akan people
The Akan people consisted of several tribes such as the Ashanti, Fante, Akwamu, Agona, Wassa, Kwahu, Ahanta, Akuapem, Akyem, and Bono. Each tribe had its own territory but there was still conflict over land and resources. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to encounter the Akan people. For the most part, the “Portugues remained in their forts which were distanced from indigenous people,'' but they still tried to form relations with the Akan people (Konadu, 59). The Portuguese would sometimes involve themselves in Akan conflicts in an attempt to form relations. The Fante tribe eventually settled in Elmina (Edina), the Portuguese colony in the central coastal region that was under the protection of the Dutch and Portuguese (Konadu, 59). Konadu writes that “the nature of European rivalry and attempts to gain trade leverage with Akan societies shaped (and were shaped by) alliances and conflicts among coastal and inland polities themselves, and some sought direct trade relations through European sovereigns” (69). The European rivalry created a larger division between the Akan tribes. The economy of the Fantes relied heavily on trading slaves and by the eighteenth century, the Fante tribe was a key trade factor between the golden coast and the Asantes, as well as the other Akan tribes.
People of status did not need to fear enslavement; however, sometimes families of status would send women of their own to marry a European man while receiving a bride price in return. It was thus common for Europeans to marry Fante or Asante women in order to have children. These children would be sent to England to get educated, return to the Coast to be employed by the British to be traders in their slave business (Holsey, 31). Other children of European and African parentage would train to become missionaries in order to spread Christianity to the native African tribes (Konadu, 67). According to Konadu, these children had no interaction with the native people outside the forts and castles they were born into, so they did not know how to communicate with them which made the European’s mission to spread Christianity through these children unsuccessful.
The History of the Castle
In the seventeenth century, the Europeans built castles and forts across Ghana to develop their business of slave trade. Several European powers were fighting to claim a place in Oguaa, known as Cape Coast today, “because of its strategic position on a cape jutting out into the sea;” this location made trading across the Atlantic easier (Holsey, 30). The castle was built by the Swedes in the 1650s after receiving land from the Fetu king, and they named it Fort Carolusburg. It was then in the hands of the Dutch, but in 1664, was taken over by the British, who renamed it Cape Coast Castle (Holsey, 30). Cape Coast Castle became the British headquarters of the slave trade business while the Dutch established their headquarters in Elmina, another town in the south coast of Ghana. The British, who had Cape Coast under their rule, created allies with the Fante Coalition while Elmina, which was under Dutch rule, was allied with the Asantes (Holsey, 31).