{"id":4594,"date":"2021-05-13T13:31:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T17:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/practicalmattersjournal.ecdsdev.org\/?p=4594"},"modified":"2021-06-10T20:16:53","modified_gmt":"2021-06-11T00:16:53","slug":"lose-your-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pmcleanup.ecdsdev.org\/2021\/05\/13\/lose-your-mother\/","title":{"rendered":"Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Download PDF: Barnes RV, Lose Your Mother<\/em><\/a><\/h5>\n
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By Saidiya Hartman<\/h3>\n

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.<\/span><\/span> 270 pages. $16<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
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If you\u00a0<\/span>ever lost a home, longed for home, or sought a reconnection with a spiritual or physical home,\u00a0<\/span>Lose Your Mother<\/em>: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route<\/em> will articulate the words that may rest in your heart.\u00a0<\/span>A mixture of history of the slave trade and its ongoing effects from both sides of the Atlantic, personal memoir, and testimony, Hartman\u2019s book\u00a0<\/span>immerses us in\u00a0<\/span>the human anguish, betrayal,\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>greed<\/span>\u00a0that led to trafficking in black bodies. It also challenges us to realistically assess our conceptions of home\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>the desire<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>for belonging\u00a0<\/span>that veil realities.<\/span>\u00a0In her opening, Hartman observes, \u201cTorn from kin and community, exiled from one\u2019s country, dishonored and violated, the slave defines the position of the outsider. She is the perpetual outcast, the coerced migrant, the foreigner, the shamefaced child in the lineage.\u201d (5).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartman<\/span>, an<\/span>\u00a0English and comparative literature professor\u00a0<\/span>at Columbia University,\u00a0<\/span>interweaves\u00a0<\/span>her academic research on<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>the lost routes of the slave trade<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>with her personal search, as an American descendant of enslaved Africans, for home on the mother continent.\u00a0<\/span>Her family\u2019s encounters with racism in the Jim Crow south, their diverse perspectives on how to survive systemic racism, as well as the national story of Hurricane Katrina\u2019s exposure of racism\u2019s ongoing effects keep us focused on America\u2019s original sin<\/span>, the building of a nation on the backs of enslaved Africans and their descendants. T<\/span>hese stories also<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>speak<\/span>\u00a0openly\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>the feelings of betrayal and lack of home many Americans of the African diaspora experience.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the African side of the Atlantic, Hartman explores the history of the slave trade among Africans and the impact of European slave traders as she takes us inside holding dungeons<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>onboard\u00a0<\/span>trafficking ships<\/span>. She\u00a0<\/span>notes the diverse opinions<\/span>\u00a0of American ex<\/span>–<\/span>patriots<\/span>\u00a0on life<\/span>\u00a0in Ghana<\/span>. She also shares perspectives\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>native\u00a0<\/span>Ghanaians who view<\/span>\u00a0African-Americans\u2019 l<\/span>onging<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0for\u00a0<\/span>an African\u00a0<\/span>home as everything from sorrowful to fanciful<\/span>. Some Ghanaians even\u00a0<\/span>view it as\u00a0<\/span>ingratitude for the American lifestyle which the descendants of enslaved Africans are believed to have inherited.<\/span>\u00a0Hartman\u00a0<\/span>state<\/span>s,\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>c<\/span>hance encounters in the street made plain the difference<\/span>\u00a0between how I saw myself and how I was seen by others. In my estimation, I was the aggrieved; to others I was a privileged American and as such was required to perform regular acts of penance.\u201d (56)<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartman never lets us forget the diversity of\u00a0<\/span>perspectives\u00a0<\/span>on both sides of the Atlantic\u00a0<\/span>on the ongoing effects of slavery<\/span>. She warns of\u00a0<\/span>history\u2019s combination of fact and fiction, again depending on perspective,<\/span>\u00a0in the\u00a0<\/span>sharing\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>stories o<\/span>n<\/span>\u00a0how we came to this point on the journey.\u00a0<\/span>Referencing Foucault\u2019s musings on history\u2019s lack of \u201cprovidence or final cause,\u201d Hartman\u00a0<\/span>avers,\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span>t<\/span>he perilous conditions of the present establish the link between our age and a previous one in which freedom too was yet to be realized. The past is neither inert nor given. The stories we tell about\u00a0<\/em><\/span>what happened<\/em>\u00a0then<\/em>, the correspondences we discern between today and times past, and the ethical and political stakes of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>these stories redound in the present. If slavery feels proximate rather than remote and freedom seems increasingly elusive, this has everything to do with our own dark times\u201d (emphasis in original) (133).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Prologue, Harman explains the concept of \u201c<\/span>obruni<\/span>,\u201d which means stranger. It is a term by which she is often referred by Ghanaians and a constant reminder of her status in Ghana. She also begins sharing the stories she heard growing up about her own family\u2019s history of enslavement. Chapter one includes an overview of<\/span>\u00a0the years surrounding\u00a0<\/span>Ghana\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>independence from the British Empire.<\/span>\u00a0In chapter two, Hartman visits the Elmina slave castle<\/span>, which was built by the Portuguese in 1482. She shares stories\u00a0<\/span>of\u00a0<\/span>Elmina\u2019s emergence as a major slave market and of the torture that would be its progeny. Hartman\u2019s family history\u00a0<\/span>is prominent in chapter three along with the beginnings\u00a0<\/span>in 1700\u00a0<\/span>of the Dutch dominance of the Gold Coast trade in human flesh. As Hartman describes the modern-day tourist trappings of the castle in chapter four, she interweaves stories of\u00a0<\/span>enslaved people seeking a way to return home through slave revolts.<\/span>\u00a0A<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>brief focus on African-Americans or \u201cThe Tribe of the Middle Passage\u201d as Hartman titles chapter five<\/span>\u00a0precedes two of<\/span>\u00a0the book<\/span>\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>most heart-wrenching chapters. Chapter<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>six\u00a0<\/span>describes in detail\u00a0<\/span>the conditions of enslavement in the castle\u2019s dungeons<\/span>. Chapter seven relays\u00a0<\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0unimaginably brutal death of a young woman on board the slave ship Recovery, for which its captain was tried for murder.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In chapter eight, Hartman addresses the\u00a0<\/span>spiritual and other\u00a0<\/span>ways in which\u00a0<\/span>slavers sought to tear the\u00a0<\/span>enslaved\u00a0<\/span>from memories of or longing for home. She also explores the ways in which Ghanaian governments have moved from trying to disassociate the country with the slave trade to embracing the tourism dollars that come with welcoming the\u00a0<\/span>obruni<\/span>\u00a0\u201chome.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span>fter a brief<\/span>\u00a0story in chapter nine arising from Hartman\u2019s experience with Ghanaian power outages<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>she\u00a0<\/span>journey<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0to\u00a0<\/span>Salaga<\/span>, north of Accra, in chapter\u00a0<\/span>ten<\/span>. Titled \u201cThe Famished Road,\u201d the chapter<\/span>\u00a0takes us back as 18<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0and 19<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0century travelers on the\u00a0<\/span>roads that led captured Africans\u00a0<\/span>from what is now Nigeria and Burkina Faso to the\u00a0<\/span>Salaga<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>slavemarket<\/span>. \u201c<\/span>Salaga<\/span>\u00a0was the grand emporium of the kingdom of\u00a0<\/span>Gonja<\/span>\u00a0and the crossroads of a traffic in slaves, which traversed the Sahara and extended as far south as the Atlantic coast. The trans-Saharan, transatlantic, and African trade all fed upon the northern territories of Ghana.\u201d (181).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Chapter eleven\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>brief discussion of blood cowries, which were shells used<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to purchase individuals from African traders, connects the economic motivations of the slave trade on both sides of the Atlantic with subsequent economic\u00a0<\/span>devestation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>in\u00a0<\/span>parts of Africa. It also serves\u00a0<\/span>as\u00a0<\/span>a bridge to connect Hartman\u2019s earlier\u00a0<\/span>Salaga<\/span>\u00a0journey with her later return as part of a research group in chapter twelve. The research group consists primarily of Africans and Hartman\u2019s interactions with them explores the isolation and otherness that can exist for African-Americans as ones connected to, yet distinct from,\u00a0<\/span>colleagues of African nations, especially when addressing issues of slavery.<\/span>\u00a0Hartman observes that \u201con the really bad days, I felt like a monster in a cage with a sign warning, \u2018Danger, Snarling Negro. Keep Away.\u2019 And my colleagues did\u2026. Most of my colleagues didn\u2019t experience slavery as a wound, at least they feigned that they didn\u2019t. A terrible history had not begun for them in 1492 that had yet to end. And if they believed this was the case, they refused to admit it.\u201d (215).<\/span>\u00a0Hartman closes the chapter and the book with the group\u2019s trip to\u00a0<\/span>Gwolu<\/span>, a community whose ancestors had run from slave-trading African states. Hartman\u2019s description of their journey and survival brings forth thoughts of the Exodus, of migrants today, and of myriad ways humans yearn for freedom. She reflects,<\/span>\u00a0\u201cThe bridge between the people of\u00a0<\/span>Gwolu<\/span>\u00a0and me wasn\u2019t what we had suffered or what we had endured but the aspirations that fueled flight and the yearning for freedom<\/span>.\u201d (<\/span>234).<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hartman\u2019s work provides a treasure\u00a0<\/span>trove<\/span>\u00a0f<\/span>or preachers seeking way<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0to explore the concept<\/span>\u00a0of and\u00a0<\/span>intr<\/span>i<\/span>cacies<\/span>\u00a0in defining\u00a0<\/span>home\u00a0<\/span>in the minds of a people, whether in\u00a0<\/span>15<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0Century Ghana, 21<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0Century America, or the biblical lands of\u00a0<\/span>ancient Egypt<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>first-century Palestine<\/span>. Her work\u00a0<\/span>also abounds with treasure f<\/span>or pastors and educators seeking an engaging novel in which to add particularity to discussions of racism that often lose site of the individual lives it continually haunts.<\/span>\u00a0We cannot leave\u00a0<\/span>Lose Your Mother<\/span>\u00a0without raising questions about home for ourselves, our spiritual communities, and the physical spaces we inhabit.<\/span>\u00a0We cannot leave this work without<\/span>\u00a0feeling the pains of the past while joining the ongoing yearnings for legacies, nations, and freedoms, we can call our own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Download PDF: Barnes RV, Lose Your Mother By Saidiya Hartman New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 270 pages. $16 If you\u00a0ever lost a home, longed for home, or sought a reconnection with a spiritual or physical home,\u00a0Lose Your Mother:<\/p>\n

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