Someone Knows My Name: A Novel

Someone Knows my Name" tells once more the story of man against man, the age-old conflict that nature's "thinking animal" cannot seem to stop brutalizing his fellows. As an abolitionist in 1805, Animata Diallo tells the story of her capture, shipment to America, and her life as a slave on three continents. Born to a midwife widely known for her knowledge of herbs and skill at"catching babies," by the time Animata is eleven years old she is also well versed in the art she learned while assisting her mother. It was in fact while just such an errand to another village, returning from a successful "baby catching" that slave traders kidnapped the girl and her mother, trussed them together, neck harnesses and ankle shackles, with a large band of others from many villages and forced them to march overland toward ships that would carry them to the new world. \ Their manacles cut through to the bone on the forced march of three months to the ships that will take them to slavery. Hundreds of the sick and dying were disconnected from the coffle and throw into the jungle to be devoured by animals and carrion along the way. During this time, Animata meets Chekura, a boy from a nearby village who is to become her companion, lover, husband, and faher of her child. In this book, we experience first hand the confusion and helplessness of the natives snatched from the only home they've ever known and taken away from their extended family communities - we also learn about the lash and the power of gunpowder carried in the "firesticks" of the captors. Lost, confused, faced with a world totally unknown, the slaves refer to fellow Africans as Homelanders and their captors as Toubabs. In these beginning pages, too, we see this brilliant and talented young girl's gift for languages, those spoken by different tribes, the slave dialect; Gullah, a polyglot language of the Carolinas; and English. Gulla and the slave dialect, a short of swahili-like combination of dialects and English, makes it possible for homelanders to communicate with one another without being understood by the buckra, Toubabs and their overseers. Although aware that this story is being told by an old woman of singular intelligence who has mastered the language and culture of her oppressors, I was often distracted by the author's description of events, animals, and topography for which I felt she would have had no vocabulary at the age of 11 or 18 or even later at age 30, etc. In the enormity of Lawrences's epic, I was able to set such distractions aside, but still in my opinion my question about the use of such terms slowed the narrative. In such cases, the frightened awe and wonder of a girl,a young woman might have been more effective. Adding to their fears, long before they could see them, the stench of death, and the bodily wastes of the living terrified the captives of what was to come. They were to live with those smells and that hell for the next six months. Author Hill describes their lot with a particularly apt metaphor: "aboard ship piled like fish in a bucket too close to move." They lived with that stench aboard ship despite the casualness with which the incurable and dead passengers were tossed overboard by the ship's crew. Later, Aminata visits that odor again, this time it emanates from the bodies thrown overboard that have washed ashore to decay on the beach. In the new world, once settled in the Carolinas on a plantation that raised and produced indigo dyes, because she was so intelligent and cruious, a kindly plantation overseer secretly teaches her to read and write and encourages her to read from his personal (hidden) library. Later, a kindly mistress teaches her acceptable pensmansh and her master taught her basic economics principles and bookkeeeping so she could keep his business and household books. Of great value in this book is the author's delineation of "community" the society in which slaves have bonded with one another, ways that denote more than simple defense against a common enemy. In that code, they perceive a difference between those whom they consider "pure" African vs. those born in captivity even though both individuals are held in bondage. The underground community formed a network they called the "fishnet" (the image of throwing a net out and catching what they could bring back). The "fishnet" supplied information from the furtherest reaches of slavery, stories of where loved ones and former villagers were held in captivity and family births and deaths. During the upheaval of the American revolution, Animata and Chekura made their way north and a break to freedom in New York. There they lived in the African tent city called Canvas Town on Manhattan Island. At the close of the revolutionary war, hundreds of former slaves had been promised passage, land, and beginning settlers' supplies in Nova Scotia as a reward for having supported the British during the war. As it turned out, the British were as treacherous as the Americans and the couple was separated and sent to different settlements. Furthermore, what awaited in Nova Scoia was no better than the country where the revolution had created the United States with words of justice and freedom but held out no such promise for its bonded citizens. Nova Scotia received slaves and indentured people, but created dual townships with blacks at the bottom rung of the ladder. There, Animata's second child, a daughter was born -- a daughter who was kidnapped by a wealthy white couple who had seemed to befriend her. Once more Aminata is alone, without husband and child. Then a young British Officer who has been struck by the sin the British have committed with their broken promise of freedom for blacks comes to Nova Scotia to organize colonies of black peole willing to resettle in Sierra Leone. For her literacy and celerical skills, Aminata is chosen to help with this work and she too joins the ship bound for Sierra Leone. There in Sierra Leone, they find themselves once more betrayed and Aminata comes to feel an overwhelming urge to return to her village. Unfortunately, only slave traders know the way. Althhough she pays the fees they ask, she doesn't completely trust them and so conceals her knowledge of the English language. A fortunate decision. On the trail, ostensibly headed for her village, she hears them discussing a plan to capture and sell her. Then, after she has escaped and made her way back to the port city, Aminata agrees to return to London to join the abolitionist movement and travel about sharing her story with others in the movement. Lawrence Hill's novel, Someone Knows My Name, is a wonderful novel, masterfully done, epic in its proportions and a scholarly masterpiece enabling the reader to see, to feel, to experience what slavery must have been like for so many on the planet. Particular pieces of the story, e.g., the settling of Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, were unknown to me. Although the book is often more reportorial than "writerly," facts, rather plainly expressed by a black woman in 1804, the sheer volume of this epic comamands us -- the cruelty, the hurt, the level of criminality carried out by huans on other human beings is near to overwhelming.

this is going to be a long review because there are so many amazing things to mention, so bear with me...the history embedded in the story, the capturing of native Africans, forced to trek across their country and travel across the ocean in terrifying conditions to be sold into slavery, was meticulously researched and detailed. though a work of fiction, the book absolutely provided both a history lesson and a great read, and even though i was familiar with much of the historical context, there was still so much that i learned. for example, i was mostly unaware of the African and British involvement in the slave trade. i also had no idea that so many slaves were able to gain their "freedom" through British escort to Canada, or that some were eventually able to return to Africa in freedom, again supported by the British. these aspects of the history are less talked about within the landscape of slavery, but are certainly not any less important. through Aminata, we see the vastness of that history and the far reaches of its impacts."Some say that I was uncommonly beautiful, but I wouldn't wish beauty on any woman who has not her own freedom, and who chooses not the hands that claim her."the scope of characters and plot really served to draw me in as a reader. Aminata is introduced to us as a free, black elderly woman, a survivor of slavery, recounting her story to help put an end to both the slave trade and slavery as a whole. in this way, we know very early in the novel that hers will be a story of immense struggles and small triumphs, because if nothing else, she is still alive to tell it."This is my name. This is who I am. This is how I got here."the absolutely raw and vivid immersion style of writing really provoked a visceral response for me and never let up. Aminata is a complex character and narrator, stubborn and strong, compassionate and giving, and she seemed so very human that it was easy to forget that she was a fictional character (and one written by a man no less). i was actually surprised by the complexity of her various relationships with her owners and employers and though i liked some more than others, was simply surprised that i "liked" any of them at all. the supporting characters were all equally human, particularly Chekura and Georgia for me, and i found myself in tears several times throughout the book, sharing in every emotion, joyous, hopeful and often aching with sadness.the writing style, in many ways, mimics the oral tradition of Africa and helps to suspend the reader in the native African culture, particularly early in the novel. simple effectual phrasings, such as giving a child's age in number of rains, or time in number of moons, and distance in stone throws helped to provide the cultural context framing the entire narrative. additionally, by removing us from the familiar context of our own cultures and re-presenting it to us from Aminata's view, we see, for example, a white man, in an entirely new way."He didn't have much of a backside, and he walked like an elephant. Thump, thump, thump. His heels struck the earth with the rudeness of a falling tree.this provided both comic relief and a sense of tragedy, depending on the situations, but always served to create the necessary imagery to invoke an emotional response."as expected, this is a story of immense suffering, for the individuals impacted by the slaves. Hill does an amazing job of providing the story in balance, showing the failings of both the native Africans who enslaved their own people, the British and American captors that transported the slaves in the most abhorrent conditions imaginable, and the American and Canadian political systems that perpetuated the trade of human lives. that story, all true, is not for the faint of heart and Hill doesn't step away, or try to shield the reader from the graphic details of the filth, disease, abuse, and massive amounts of death."The stars were brilliant that night, and the cicadas were crying in endless song. If the sky was so perfect, why was the earth all wrong?"but, as i mentioned, the novel brings balance and every amount of suffering is outweighed and often overshadowed by beauty and hope. even among the brutality and suffering of being captured, Aminata was able to utilize what her parents had given her in the time that she had with them before she was made a slave. she often recalled their wisdom, their faces and voices, to keep her strong and allow her to survive. she loved deeply, vulnerably, and reading about it was more than just words on a page, it was an experience.lastly, i just want to comment on the title The Book of Negroes. this actually didn't mean anything to me until after i'd read the book. i was completely unaware of the historical book with the same title and received an entire education about it and felt rather enlightened by it all. that said, after having read the book, i LOVE the title Someone Knows My Name and i get a little choked up just thinking about it. the names of the various characters still echo in my mind and the significance of the story lingers with them.so, if it isn't glaringly obvious, i LOVED this book and think it should be required reading. it is both meaningful and lovely, and that is a rare and beautiful thing.

Compelling and engrossing. The heroine was brave, and believable, the embodiment of many African girls kidnapped and enslaved. Hard to read and hard to put down. Such courage, tenacity and wisdom.Nancy T.

I love this book! It was full of so much life and unfortunately suffering and death. It drew out my anger toward mankind as well as my love for the people who had to endure such harsh treatment. Lawrence Hill does a fabulous job making this story come alive.

Das Buch ist super und sehr berührend!Allerdings habe ich ein neues Buch bestellt/bezahlt und ein offensichtlich gebrauchtes Buch bekommen. Es war nicht mal verpackt. 👎🏻