Galica - Podcast (ENGL 173)

In this podcast episode, titled "The Diaspora and Beyond," the host, Faith, explores the themes of heritage and identity in Yaa Gyasi's novel, Homegoing. Gyasi uses a chapter format to tell the story of different family lines separated by the African diaspora, highlighting the effects of colonialism and slavery on identity. The novel shows how language and religion were used to strip characters of their identity and perpetuate cultural superiority. The impact of these forced changes to identity continues for generations. Despite the negative effects, the novel also explores the potential for unity and the creation of a new identity within the African diaspora. 🎵Outro Music🎵 🎵Outro Music🎵 Hi, my name is Faith, and I'm your host today. In this podcast, The Diaspora and Beyond, an exploration into heritage and identity, we will seek to explore possible answers to these questions. To do so, I will reference Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing and Mamta Kerketa's commentary on Gyasi's novel in their article, Cultural Transition and Identity Issues as Part of Colonial Narrative, and Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Gyasi structures her novel in a chapter format that alternates between different family lines. The novel begins in the Gold Coast of Africa, present-day Ghana during the height of the slave trade. The lines of lineage separate during the very beginning, when Esi, Afia's sister, is captured into slavery and brought to America, while Afia remains in Africa. Gyasi uses this structure to illuminate the full effects of the African diaspora with the geographic severance of the family tree by also focusing on critical historical moments like the colonial presence in Africa and the American slavery institution and its crippling impacts that were felt for generations. Although the institutions themselves have largely become things of the past, Gyasi's novel demonstrates the long-lasting impacts of colonialism and slavery in regards to identity. Concluding in the present day, Homegoing shows how colonialism and slavery not only changed the lives of people living in the Gold Coast during the 17th century, but also the lives of those spread throughout the diaspora today. Additionally, she highlights the intimate relationship between identity and heritage by showing how colonialism and slavery forcibly altered identities and reproduced those changes in subsequent generations. As a result of this intimate relationship between identity and heritage, the changes to identity forced upon people by colonialism and slavery persist for generations to come. Two of the main aspects of identity that were challenged by slavery and colonialism that Gyasi highlights are attacks on native language and religion in contrast with the normal European and American ways. In order to enforce these normal ways, these institutions originally exercised forced assimilation through sheer force, but have more recently taken covert forms. Let's start by diving right into language. In Homegoing, we see a close relationship between language and culture. In Kerketa's article, they quote Yogi Thiong'o in their work, Decolonizing the Mind, The Politics of Language in African Literature, who claims that, Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world, perpetuating the argument that language is an essential aspect to one's identity. In Homegoing, institutions like slavery and colonialism attempt to strip the characters of their identity through the vessel of language. One particular example of this comes from Essie and Ness's experiences in America. As Essie raised her daughter, Ness, on the plantation, she spoke to her in Twi, so much so that Ness never truly got used to hearing Black people speak English. However, Ness was robbed of this connection to her Ghanaian identity through a brutal imposition of force when Essie was caught speaking Twi and her master had given Essie five lashings for every Twi word that Ness spoke, leaving Ness afraid to speak. This assertion of the supposed superiority of English over Twi not only takes away a piece of Ness and Essie's identity, but also robs Ness of a connection to her heritage and knowing a language of a place she will never truly know. Additionally, this connection between heritage and identity is further perpetuated in the way that their master punished Essie, Ness's mother, for her supposed wrongdoing in an attempt to punish them both in a cruel way. These ways of chipping away at identity continue for generations, reproduced through heritage. In fact, this all tracks to the end of the novel in Marjorie's chapter. Although not perpetuated through the vessel of force, the sense of cultural elitism remains. During her childhood, Marjorie visits her grandmother in Ghana, who instructs her to speak Twi. However, her parents began to speak to her in Twi and only allowed her to respond to them in English after a teacher wrote home asking if she knew any English, even suggesting she be put into special education classes. The teacher's assumption that Marjorie did not know English because she was from another country and speaks a different language at home demonstrates the way that English has been asserted as superior over native languages like Twi throughout the novel and even had that covert intent of stripping people of their identity. These attempts to strip people of their identity are so powerful because the relationship between heritage and identity, which has the power to reproduce these acts long after these formal institutions have waned, highlighting its relevance in society today. Another form of the imposition of a cultural superiority comes in the form of religion. As noted by Carkezza, Christianity served as an extension of colonization, which was a force that pervaded with the presence of the colonists. The earliest examples of this come with Afiya's wedding to James Collins in a chapel where a clergyman asked her to repeat words she did not mean in a language she did not understand. Not only do we see the language piece, but also the Christianity piece to this puzzle, that colonization continued to take pieces away from the natives. James further demonstrates this idea of Christian superiority in his remarks when he discovers the roots that Afiya placed beneath their bed for fertility. He immediately rejects anything of that nature, calling it voodoo and black magic. James rejects the roots on the notion that they are not Christian, which he uses as a way to mean not good. Chiasi's use of these words to show the negative connotation that the Europeans associated with them demonstrates the prejudiced and superior views held by the colonists. This idea of one way being good and another way being bad further highlights the sense of cultural superiority that many colonizers had and used to justify their despicable acts. The deadly ramifications of these beliefs come in Abana and Akua's chapters. The missionary frequently calls Akua a sinner and a heathen, saying that she was just like her mother. This emphasizes the prejudiced beliefs held by the missionaries, who supposedly came to save the heathens. The irony and tragedy from this comes from the way that the missionary killed Abana when he tried to baptize her. Additionally, this perpetuates the link between heritage and identity because Abana's daughter, Akua, was then left to be raised by the missionary under the religion that had led to her mother's death. Despite all of this, it is also worth noting, as explained by Kerketa, that as generations progressed, Christianity, which was ruthlessly forced on the natives in Africa and severed the links with their heritage, offered them a hope in America as a part of African-American culture. Willie serves as an example of this as she finally decides to sing in the church choir, which promoted a sense of empowerment by joining the movement that sought to create a new African-American culture through church, music, and the arts. As demonstrated by Chiasi's homegoing, institutions like slavery and colonialism perpetuated cultural superiority, dominating over native identity. These acts of domination proved to be catastrophic and damaging in many cases. The intimate relationship between identity and heritage reproduced these forced changes to identity, persisting throughout generations. Examples of these brutal impositions of cultural superiority exist throughout homegoing, as Chiasi focuses on key historical events. Additionally, Chiasi's alternating pattern between lines of lineage allows readers to see a broader scope of the diaspora. So, to respond to Robertson's claim that identity is just waiting to be explored and shared, this cannot always be done. The ripple effects of colonialism and slavery still exist today, leaving many in the diaspora without knowledge of where their family came from. However, as alluded to by Chiasi's ending, the unification of African and African-American identities have the ability to bridge a gap and enable them to create their own new identity to pass along for future generations. Thank you for watching!