Ghanna Must Go Essay

Hawa is the main character in this book. Though she is not the author of the story, the story is told from her perspective. Hawa was born in the 1950’s to her family in Ghana. Her stories were tape-recorded in the 1970’s. At the age of three, Hawa’s mother died, and Hawa was then passed from family member to family member to care for her. Hawa had a very distinct personality—she was very stubborn and tended to get herself trouble. When asked not to do something, she would turn around and do that very thing. Because of this, she never managed to stay with one relative for very long. At one point, she lived with her aunt who forced her to do all the work. Hawa was forced to carry heavy items to the market while her cousin taunted her. This obviously frustrated Hawa, and it resulted in her returning to live with her father. At the age of 16, Hawa was forced to

The mistreatment from her family and peasants reinforced her feelings towards people and furthered her independent thinking. Surpressing her true emotions allowed her to gain access to food and shelter by taking the beating, mistrustment, and abuse from those around her. Another key character trait involved the encounter with the blind man, Tzili’s true character was displayed, she was quick thinking by stating she was Marias daughter which allowed her to become invisible to the world. When Katrina, another prositiue who gave Tzili shelter offered her to one of her clients Tzili relied on her storng moral compass as to how to handle the situation. Since this situation occurred she left because she was not comfortable with the circumstances she was put into. This also allowed the readers to view her quality of street smarts. Throughout the novel she was brave, courageous, and intuitive; her survival depended on these characteristics and allowed her to transform into a mature and strong women by the end of the

Auntie raised Tayo and was the mother figure he lacked. She willingly accepted to take him, but only to "conceal the shame of her younger sister (29)". Auntie was always hesitant toward Tayo as he was not her real son and was also a half-breed. For Tayo, this only added to his feeling of

Believing in the polyandrous system of her culture, Zumkhet has her first child with Sonam’s older brother, Ghoka. This system is a way of acquiring and keeping land in the family name. A jealous Sonam, off for school, leaves Zumkhet in wonder about which is better: education and change or the old ways.

"Ghana Must Go" concentrates on a certain family that is going through despair and their willingness to tell it all and heals from the rough moments. Their despair and sorrow reflect loss and uncertainty in the story. The theme of loss is reflected at the beginning of the story when Kweku, a successful surgeon passes away (Selasi 1). He is a victim of uncertain factors in the story, which gives us as the audience a glimpse of one of the events in the story. The story also reflects on Fola, another character that reflects on the theme of uncertainty in the story. Fola has given up on life due to many negative factors surrounding his life. His family is facing uncertain times as his children are trying so hard to redefine themselves. His son Olu, follows in his footsteps while attempting to live a different lifestyle from him. For example, “first in childhood as athlete, then in adulthood as a physician.” (Selasi 7) there

In tribal Africa, the most important aspect of life and survival was the family. Unlike the

In Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing, discovering and exploring, the obvious and hidden, traumas and their subsequent effects on each generation is one of the most compelling parts of her highly acclaimed first novel. Set on Ghana’s Gold Coast in the 1700s, two sisters, who have never met, create generations of descendants who experience traumas continuously. Some generations experience the first hand the effects of slavery and the African slave trade, while others deal with the repercussions of belonging to a tribe of Africans that sold humans into slavery. Because the experience of trauma is continuous, the descendants of both sister, Esi and Effia, are never fully able to heal. Instead, the consequences of war, rape, kidnapping, violence and death are explored in the three hundred years since birth of the sisters. Past and current traumas shape the identities of each generation. Gysai’s narrative tells and retells the violent histories of both families in an attempt to help heal trauma that still remains imbedded in many Africans, and African Americas.

This goes to show the gravity of impact the population loss had or still has on West Africa. In Walter Rodney’s ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’ he states that “The massive loss to the African labour force was made more critical because it was composed of able-bodied young men and young women. Slave buyers preferred their victims between the ages of 15 and 35, and preferably in the early twenties; the sex ratio being about two men to one woman.” The people, or lack thereof, of West Africa found it very difficult to replenish the population, not to mention the interruption of the family structure in this part of Africa. Like most cultures, in African culture the men are the head of the household and were the chiefs of the various villages. In the absence of these men, many women found it very difficult to survive having lived as housewives and depending on men as the bread winners of the household. As a result, thre was social chaos in the Western part of Africa.

1. What are the origins of the concepts of varna and jati, and why has the varna-jati system of social organization lasted so long? What social needs did they serve, and how are these social functions addressed in our culture?

The native accepted him as one of their own, and he was no longer a stranger.

This part of the book makes someone ask themselves: If motherhood is so vital to the mental health of the African woman, why does Flora Nwapa punish the heroine, Efuru, with the malignant trauma of childlessness? The pain of infertility is inflicted in Efuru. As I have read as well, in some of the websites that I have visited dedicated to Flora Nwapa, this pain is inflicted in most of her independent and assertive women in four of her novels: Efuru and Idu, Amaka in One is Enough, and Rose in Women Are Different. When these women eventually conceive a child, it brings about a lot of

Okonkwo treated his son and daughter very differently. The child-father relationship between Okonkwo and Nwoye was a distant and strained one while Okonkwo exhibited another type of feeling towards Ezinma which is filled with care and concern. This was due to the fact that Nwoye “was already causing his father great anxiety for his incipient laziness” whereas Ezinma was thought to have the “right spirit” and “alone understood [Okonkwo’s] every mood”.

In every culture the mother is usually the one that will comfort you in the bad times and will support you and she will protect you. In the story, the mother protects her children. For example Achebe says, “ But when there is sorrow and bitterness he finds refuge in his motherland. Your mother is there to protect you” (134). After Okonkwo accidentally shoots Ezeudu sixteen year-old son, he is send to his motherland. Even though Okonkwo’s mother is not there anymore, she is still protecting him by providing a place to stay until Okonkwo’s punishment is over. Also, her kinsmen treated Okonkwo well and they gave him yam seeds to start a farm. Ilika describes the relationship between the children and mother when they get older. The children are most likely aligned to their mothers when they become adults (Ilika 85). The children are aligned with their mothers when they become adults because their mother is the one that cared for them in the childhood more than their father. In the book, Okonkwo found refuge in his motherland when he was an adult. Those are some examples why the role of the mother is very important to an igbo

The novel wrote by Ferdinand Oyono’s, titled Houseboy speaks about issues relating to colonialism and imperialism. These communications took place in Africa. The novel allows the audience to obtain some awareness as to how the people of the African culture changed, how they were trying to live, and be like their colonizers. Within this era, the book illustrates how a young African boy from Cameroon suffered cruelty and abuse in the home. The discoveries of physical abuse from his father caused the boy to run away. When Toundi ran away, he acknowledged and understood that he have to leave behind his tribal, values, and cultural ties. Toundi hopes that he never has to face his family again. He began to change his life by going into the colonial

Instead these two poor girls are from a mother, who is a washerwoman, and they do not know who and where their father is but rumor is that the father is in jail. So ideally the mothers of the children of middle minds with adult matters, children start thinking like adults.