ISP Blog Post #6

  The Book of Negroes had multiple views that assisted you in understanding the story better, as well as making necessary connections. For me, analyzing from the post-colonial viewpoint was the most beneficial. This view was one of my last ways of analyzing, but after doing the analyzing made me realize that it was the best way to interpret Aminata’s story. Post-colonialism shows the time line of a powerful nation impeding on a local group, and then details how that local group is taken from their practiced lifestyle and exposed to the powerful nations dominant lifestyle. It then shows you how this change can drastically, and terminally affect the local group. Aminata is an obvious example of this, as she was taken from her home village; Bayo. Then exposed to a completely different lifestyle for a long period of time,a nd whens he tried to go back to her homeland ways, found it very difficult.

The post-colonialism view helped me realize how difficult it truly was for Aminata. She spent a majority of her life being rejected and ridiculed for everything she did. She was used for her skills, and that was it. The white peoples he felt she could trust did not care about her unless she was putting something on the table for them. For example, her ability to speak multiple languages got her a special helper position on the journey to America, her reading and writing allowed her to be recognized as a little more than just a useless slave. Yet, even once Aminata has returned to her homeland, she continues to be ridiculed and told that she has been changed by the white people, and feels like she no longer belongs there.

Aminata was never fully accepted for herself. Even once she returned to her village, she was not accepted. With the post-colonialism view I saw that Aminata and all the  other slaves, were so deeply changed by the Toubab’s. They faced rejection no matter where they went. Fatima also makes this very apparent to her, he views her as a changed African and thats all. Aminata is a changed African, yet she tries so desperately to get back to where she came from, just so she could feel like she was finally ‘home’.

Fatima and the other slave traders that assist slaves in returning to their homeland, are great examples of people who reject Aminata. In their opinion, Aminata and any ‘true’ Africans should view the Nova Scotia Africans differently. They are not true Africans. Because Aminata does not view these people as such, she also gets rejected. The slave traders make it obvious that because of her race, she is not safe no matter where she goes. This is apparent in the fact that she is lucky enough to get by being taken back into slavery one more time before she returns home. Post-colonialism makes it much easier to see that the white people, no matter what they may say, do not accept the Africans, they are property to the. Unless they have something to offer, they are no use to them either.

Blog Post #5 - Post Colonialism

While there are multiple possible criticisms one could apply to The Book Of Negroes, a main one  that strikes me as an important one, is the post colonialism criticism. Throughout this book there are multiple examples of this. Starting with the most obvious, American people versus the African American people.  African Americans were taken from their homelands and forced to work overseas as slaves for American citizens. They were forced out of their religions, beliefs or ways of life, in order to fit in to America's views on how people should be and act. A deeper example of this was Aminata's lack of rights to have a family. Being prohibited to marry Chekura, and having her child taken from her show the extent of oppression between the two groups. As well as her forced religion change, taking away her right to pray or practice muslim religion, and forcing her to dress a certain way.

Another issue was when Aminata did return to her homeland, it was not like she remembered. She had been exposed to the American lifestyle for so long that returning to her life that seized years and years previous, was incredibly different. People from her homeland did not even believe that she was once from there. When a Aminata tries to prove that she was, in fact born in Bayo, she is greeted back with "You have the face of someone born in this land, but you come with the toubab. You are a toubab with the black face." (Hill, 2007, p. 551) This shows how different salves became when they were forced from their raised lifestyles, and how difficult it would have been to return to said lifestyles after the length of time they spent under American control.

Even when they start to feel like they are no longer influenced by another minority, they find themselves still feeling like they are not free. When they all return back to Sierra Leone, they depend heavily on the aid from British colonies. But as Britain begins to minimize their aid that they send, people in the country start to realize that they are still not living freely. They still depend on the governing and assistance from another country. 

Though the most obvious example of post colonialism is the enslave African Americans at the hands of Americans, there is also issues between the British's power over America. As post colonialism can simply be described as a dominant cultures imposition on a local culture, impacting the local culture forever due to the long term exposure of the dominant culture, this is apparent in British versus American issue. Americans felt as though they were "slaves" to the British colonies, they complain heavily about it throughout the novel, which is strange considering their entire culture at this time was based around the slave trade of African Americans. However, because black people were considered to be significantly lower than white people on the social levels, this hypocrisy was not clear to the Americans at this time. In conclusion, a war eventually concluded Britain's ties to America, and America was no longer under British colony rule.

Blog Post #4 - The Book Of Negroes

The Book Of Negroes is a riveting story focused on a young, African girl who is ripped from the life she knows, and goes through many different experiences which overall affect her, and the readers. Along with the Feminist Criticism Theory, I believe that the Reader Response Theory could also be applied to this novel. Reader response is how I am impacted or interact with the story, because of how I interpret it. I think this applies to the story well, because I believe it is really important to the author to give a realistic feel that allows readers to understand and hopefully have a connection with the characters, or with the storyline.

 This novel is such a great story, the adventure never ends, and though many things that happened during this time are difficult to comprehend, its definitely easy to relate with the main character. Aminata is an intelligent, caring, sassy, brave girl, among the many words that describe her.  I can relate with the way she acts towards people. She speaks her mind, and doesn't care who hears it, and to an extent, I also do this. She likes people to know what she is feeling, and has difficulty finding a filter, which in many cases has benefited her. Aminata has so much sympathy for people, she cares so deeply for her friends that she cannot stand to see them down. This I can connect with. I am like this with only my closest friends, because they’re moods generally have an affect on mine, so like Aminata, if they're sad, I’m sad. She has an incredible amount of drive and determination, its amazing! She goes through so much throughout this story, she witnesses deaths of her loved ones, she has her child taken from her and sold while she slept, she has been a victim to so much loss. This is what is so amazing about her, she can take these situations and use them to keep her going, to keep her set on finding her way back home, and to the arms of her child, and Chekura. I can connect with her on a much lower level, as I personally have never been exposed to anything such as she. 

Seeing movies such as The Boy In The Striped Pajamas, The Help, or even Hairspray gives me a glimpse of what it was like when equality was not something that society saw of importance. This book is just a different story, in an earlier time, showing the same idea. Having an initial idea of how these individuals were treated because of discriminatory reasons, helps me connect deeper to the story and to the way the characters in the novel were treated. In this day in age, few people can look at stories, and the history of these times and say that there was nothing wrong with the way these people were treated. It is very apparent in the novel that these slaves saw the world equally. Though they were threatened by their owners, they still did not view them, or treat them with the disrespect that they received. 

Having initial knowledge allows me to connect with characters like Aminata even further. All these other stories I have learned about gives me and even bigger picture of the way Aminata lived and how she felt. It truly is a disgrace to the human race, in my opinion. But reading this book, hearing this story, also makes me realize how far we have come from that place. There will always be issues of racism. Especially now with all these issues of white police officers against African American individuals, it is always going to be a headline on our news channels, or on our newspapers. But considering where we were as a society 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago, I think things have changed for the best. This makes me feel optimistic when reading this book, because though these characters, and millions of other individuals had to go through this, the realization has hit. Equality is of utmost importance. Nothing like this will happen to any individual at the hands of North America, European, or for the most part, any country in the world, again.