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.
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