Chapter Summary

Quey is the son of Effia and James. His mother Effia is Fante and his father James is from England. He grows up in a hut that his father built near the Castle. This castle is an important landmark where the slave trade was taking place. Because Quey is of mixed race, he grows up feeling different than the other kids around him and does not have friends in his early childhood. Thus, Quey is raised as an only child and spends most of his time with his mother Effia, while his father James is immersed in his work in the slave trading business. 

As Quey grows older and his father passes away, we learn that he too is now working in the slave trading business. His job is to overlook the operations associated with trading slaves with the British. Because he is dealing with numbers and logistics, it makes it easy for Quey to forget that he is trading real people. One day, Quey meets up with his uncle Fiifi to discuss trade agreements. Quey is eager to get the business going as he believes this will push the British colonizers to leave his village. However, his uncle Fiifi seems to dismiss any business talk from Quey. Eventually, his uncle Fiifi explains that he will not do any business unless he gets a good price for his trade. The slave trading business is highly competitive as many nations such as the Dutch and the Portuguese were willing to pay high prices to buy slaves. While discussing this during a meal, Quey opens up a letter he received from someone named Cudjo. The letter brings back memories of Quey’s childhood, and, following what becomes a pattern in the novel, we learn about who Cudjo is in a long flashback. 

As mentioned earlier, Quey spent most of his early childhood with no friends, until he met Cudjo. Cudjo is the son of James’ business partner, chief of a prominent Fante Village. Quey was pleased to finally have a close friend in his life. They grow up together, and Quey often visits Cudjo in his village. A key moment in one of these visits is when the boys spot two snails that they decide to race. Cudjo, though the stronger of the two boys, ends up with the slower snail who wins the race. They name Kudjo’s “stupid” snail Richard, and thus Richard becomes a private joke amongst the two. Though it is not explicit, Cudjo and Quey begin to experience something beyond friendship. The two begin to fall in love, and Quey worries that he will lose Cudjo.

A few years later, when they are just about fourteen years old, Quey and Cudjo wrestle on the terrace of the Castle, where the cannons are. When Cudjo is on top, they share a brief moment of intimacy, but James, Quey’s father, witnesses this, and abruptly orders Quey to get up and leave. It is clear that James is worried about the love that may develop between his son and Cudjo, so he sends him away to London. The present moment in the chapter is when Quey returns to his mother’s village, which is when he receives the letter from Cudjo. 

For the rest of the chapter, Quey avoids replying to Cudjo’s letter. As Quey is getting ready for an important mission planned by his uncle Fiifi, he notices his uncle speaking with one of the chiefs. To Quey’s surprise, the chief is his old friend Cudjo. Quey approaches Cudjo and recognizes him from his voice. Cudjo tells Quey that he is married and that he is welcome in the village any time. Quey wonders about his place in the village, and frustratingly thinks about whether Cudjo will build a hut for him like his other wives. He dismisses the thought. 

Quey then leaves to go on the mission with his uncle Fifi. Though he doesn’t know the objective of the mission, his uncle ends up capturing some Asantes, including the Asante princess Nana Yaa. He learns that Fiifi had planned for him to marry Nana Yaa to strengthen political alliances, and so Quey does. 

Character Analysis 

Quey

A tall, skinny, boy who is lonely with nothing but his mother, his books, his castle and the beach to keep company. Quey is was born in 1779 and was raised among white people in Cape Coast. He was educated in Britain, and though he hated his father, he found that wanted to please him and feel that he belonged. The very first friend he made was Cudjo, with whom he falls in love. 

Cudjo Sackee

Cudjo, the son of a chief of a prominent Fante village who was Abeeka Badu’s biggest competitor. Cudjo is described as a strong, muscular man who is known, near and far, for never losing a wrestling match, even against the British. He was Quey’s first friend and it appears that he too is in love with Quey. 

James Collins

Quey’s father. A skinny and tall Bristish soldier who was powerful. He comes from Liverpool, where his family were slave ship builders. 

Abeeku Badu

Asante chief in Omanhin.

Baaba

Effia’s and Fiifi’s mother. Quey’s maternal grandmother. 

Timothy Hightower

British Officer 

Fiifi

A powerful, muscular man and Quey's maternal uncle. To him, Quey was the closest thing to a first born nephew since he does not have any sisters. He would therefore leave everything he has built to Quey. 

Effia

Quey’s mother, known all her life as the beauty of her village, as well as for being the most patient mother around. She learned to read and write in the first year of her son Quey’s life, and taught him Fante as well as English. He would hear her speak in one language but respond to her with English. 

Cobbe Otcher

Effia and Fiifi’s father. Quey’s maternal grandfather. 

Richard

The name Cudjo gives his snail, which lost the race. He chooses a British name on purpose, drawing an analogy between the stupidity of the snail and the British. Cudjo also calls the British evil. 

Kwame

The name Cudjo gives Quey’s snail, who won the snail race. Like with the name Richard, the Akan name given to the winning snail draws an analogy between them and the snail– not only victorious but also good. 

Nana Yaa

The important first daughter of the Asante king, used as a valuable political bargaining tool.

Osei Bonsu

The Asante king who commanded respect from the queen of England for his influence on the Gold Coast. Nana Yaa’s father. 

Major Themes and Symbols

Motherly Love

Quey was close with his mother Effia as she made the effort to treat him well and raise him well. She did not want him to suffer the childhood she had because her own mother abandoned her and her stepmother abused her. Other mothers around her said that, because she did not beat her son, he would grow up not learning anything and being spoiled. They were wrong as Quey was smart and learned a lot.

Sense of Alienation and Belonging

Quey grows up as a biracial child, and does not fit in either his mother’s or his father’s cultures. He goes to school in England at fourteen, but he learns his mother’s language in his early years near the Castle. He finds he is constantly stuck between two worlds because he is trying to assimilate to the customs of his village. Moreover, he feels alienated because he is confused by his desires that he knows his society does not tolerate. Lastly, Quey feels ailented because he continues to be involved in slave trade of his own people, though he internally does not approve of it. 

Slavery and Responsibility

Slavery is a major part of Quey’s work life, and the book highlights how involved the Fantes and Asantes were in the trade, complicating the question of responsibility. Indeed, Quey works in it, but because he deals with numbers, he grows numb to the fact that he is trading people. He continues to partake in it only because he thinks he would make his father proud. 

Romantic Love

The theme of romantic love, rather than familial or maternal, is a key aspect in the chapter on Quey. Although it is not mentioned explicitly, there is a connection and love between Quey and Cudjo. It is important to acknowledge that the kind of love that exists between Quey and Cudjo is forbidden and not socially accepted.

Richard

In this chapter, a mere snail race ends up being a motif throughout this entire chapter. Richard is the name Cudjo gives the snail who lost the race, and he gave him a British name referring to highlighting the evil of the latter. Richard then becomes a private joke between Cudjo and Quey, and they use it to refer to anything, good or bad, that happens. Later, Quey gives his son Richard as a middle name. 

The Castle

The Castle near the hut where Quey grew up is where slave trading business would happen. Though his father lived there, Quey did not, and thus it is a physical marker of his alienation from his father and his father’s culture. Although the castle stored human slaves, giving it oppressive connotations, Quey grew up not really understanding the brutality of what lies beneath the Castle. He therefore sees the castle as a landmark that represents home. Later, it comes to represent the place where Quey is expected to repress his feelings for Cudjo.

Blood

Blood is a prominent theme throughout the book. In previous chapters, blood indicates a girl has become a woman and is now ready to marry. However, in this chapter, blood is both victory and oppression. Quey imagines the slaves bleeding, but when Fiifi is gashed, it is a sign that he successfully kidnapped Nana Yaa. 

The Bush

The bush is a symbol that refers to how the villages in the Gold Coast are heavily surrounded by foliage, forest, and trees. Though it has negative connotations for the Europeans, the Akans in this chapter see it as their domain over which they are sovereign. For Quey, it represents the need to survive. At the end of the chapter, Yaa Gyasi mentions how people of the Bush survive by means of “all or none.”

Key Quotations

Stronger men than these have been brought down by too much drink. (52)

Although Quey is not related to Uncle Fiifi by maternal blood, which is the more important blood line among the Fantes, his Uncle displays a strong connection with him and sparingly advises him. In this quote, Uncle Fifi warns Quey not to drink too much as he could become too drunk and forget his senses. This quote has an indirect meaning as well. Fifi is implying that Quey should not indulge in life too much and get too distracted so that he remains strong for what is to come (the mission). 

Trade had increased so much, and the methods of gathering slaves had become so reckless, that many of the tribes had taken to marking their children’s faces so that they would be distinguishable. (62)

The oppressive system of slavery was so lucrative that more and more people were being kidnapped. As such, tribes all over the Gold Coast started marking their children’s faces so they could identify them if they were captured.

He knew that he was one of the half-caste children of the Castle, and, like the other half-caste children, he could not fully claim either half of himself, neither his father’s whiteness nor his mother’s blackness. Neither England nor the Gold Coast. (55)

Quey had these thoughts after Cudjo had compared his skin color to his, claiming that Quey was not like Cudjo. Half-cast is an offensive term used to define people who are of mixed race; although it is now derogatory and out of use, the term was used commonly in the period of the novel. This quotation shows Quey’s uncertainty with his identity. Where does he belong? How does he define who he is when both his father and mother’s cultures do not acknowledge him as their own? Quey cannot fully claim that he is a white man or a black man, and the middle ground, the half-caste, seem to be looked down upon by both sides. 

Quey, this village must conduct its business like that female bird. You want to pay more for slaves, pay more, but know that the Dutch will also pay more, and the Portugese and even the pirates will pay more too. (52)

Quey’s uncle, Fiifi, used this metaphor after Quey kept pestering him about the slave trade. Fiifi is telling Quey that his way of doing business is like the female bird who stays quiet while the two male birds take turns singing, each time getting louder until they cannot sing anymore. This is when the female bird makes her claim on which of the two male birds she chose. The reason Fiifi used this metaphor to compare it with the slave trade business is because the British, for  whom Quey was working, were not the only ones who were buying and willing to pay for slaves. The Dutch, the Portugues, and the pirates were all offering money, and so though the slave trade was abolished, slaving will continue.  

Negroes fighting other Negroes is not a challenge. Put a savage against a white man, then you’ll see. (58)

This is quoted by one the white soldiers in the castle. It is said to aggravate Cudjo and challenge him to wrestle a white man. He refers a black people as savages, to be derogatory and provoking. It also shows how the British perceived themselves as “civilized” and therefore superior. Thus, they believe themselves to be immune to losing a fight against any of the Akans. Moreover, the white soldier is talking from boredom and thinks such a challenge would be entertaining. 

Quey’s father had tried to forbid the match, saying that it was uncivilized, but the soldiers were bored and restless. Uncivilized fun was exactly what they craved. (58)

Adding on to the previous quotation, this signifies that the white soldiers were looking to cause trouble because they felt it was entertaining to have a white man fight against a black man. The soliders thought it would be a comedy to witness a negro fight against a white man.Furthermore, Quey’s father wanted to stop the match as it would cause problems for everyone.

In England he’d gotten to see the way black people lived in white countries, Indians and Africans who were packed twenty or more to a room, who ate the slop the pigs left behind, who coughed and coughed endlessly, all together, a symphony of sickness. He knew the dangers that waited across the Atlantic, but he knew too the danger in himself. (60) 

Quey had told his uncle Fiffi that he should have stayed in London because it was safer to which his uncle responded that the work of the British is “the most dangerous of all” even though they have slaves working for them. Quey knew the living conditions in London, he was aware that it was not safe, that he would receive treatment of an African in a white country. But he thought the dangers he would face in London would protect him from the dangers within himself; the danger of feeling attraction towards his male best friend Cudjo. 

Why had Fiifi told Cudjo that Quey wasn’t married? Had Cudjo asked? How could Quey be welcomed in Cudjo’s village? Would he live in the chief’s compound? In his own hut, like a third wife? Or would he be in a hut on the edge of the village, alone? (63)

Quey’s series of distressed questions and thoughts occur after seeing Cudjo for the first time since he was sent to London. Quey was overthinking what his uncle had told Cudjo about him not being married as well as what Cudjo told him about visiting his village. It seems like Quey was not sure where his relationship with his childhood friend stood after all these years apart. The last moment they shared was intimate so were they still friends? Lovers? Acquaintances with friendly tribal relations? Quey did not know, and it seemed like he did not want to know as he did not approach Cudjo after that encounter. 

Historical Context & Additional Resources

The Castle and the Slave Trade in Early 1800’s

Yaa Gyasi’s chapter on Quey briefly mentions “the Castle”. This Castle in fact has much historical context and is a landmark in Ghana even today. In a blog post called “Cape Coast Castle (1652- )”, Roth notes that the castle was constructed in 1652 on the coastline of Ghana. This castle was a marker for the major trading between Ghana and the European nations. Later in the 18th century, the castle served as a site for the slave trading business with the British. 

Historian and director of the African Studies Center at the University of Calfornia, Apter highlights the brutal functioning of the castle was to lock away and store slaves in poor living conditions. In the The American Historical Review journal, Apter (2017) highlights the “slave holes”, as described by the British were covered in human waste, had no ventilation and no windows. As a consequence, the African slaves were denied basic human rights when they were locked up in the dungeons of the castle. 

Today, the castle is considered a world heritage site by UNESCO. Moreover, the castle is a major tourist site in Ghana and visited by school children to learn about the historical events that happened at the castle. 

The Development of the Slave Trade  

Ineke van Kessel documents how The Dutch had a long history of trading with Ghana, which can be traced back to the 16th century . The Dutch traded their goods such as alcohol, metals and guns with Ghana. Moreover, Ghana imported gold and slaves to the Dutch during those times. However, Postma (1972) notes that trading business with the Dutch declined after the conflict with the Portuguese who were also involved in the slave trade. Moreover, Oldfield (2021), a historian in slavery, indicates in his article “Abolition of the slave trade and slavery in Britain“ that the British colonies took over the slave trade from these nations between the 17th and 18th centuries. 

The Asante Kingdom

In the chapter on Quey, Osei Bonsu is briefly mentioned. He was the historical chief of the Asante Kingdom. A professor of African History, McCaskie (2014) documents how successful Bonsu was as a warlord and managed to withhold a centralized state for his kingdom. The Asante kingdom was heavily involved in trading their gold with the Europeans. Academic historian Quintana (2010) addresses how the Asante empire valued gold mines to the point they made it royal property. Unfortunately, as Quintana (2010) documents, the Asante empire faced constant conflict with the British and were at war often. However, Oxford professor of African History, Miles Larmer, highlights that the Gold Coast eventually gained independence in 1957 and was free of British colonization. That is when the country became a nation called Ghana. 

Works Cited

Additional Resources