A Theme of Oppression in Yaa Gyasi’s 'Homegoing'

There are different forms of oppression in this world. Many young people now complain that they have no freedom, complain that they are too busy, and complain that there is no private space. No more time to do what you like. But when I think about it, many people have even become slaves to other people. They don’t have time to do their own things. They must follow the path of others’ lives. This is a greater oppression. In Homegoing, oppression has become one of the most worthwhile issues to discuss, and the most thought-provoking question.

Racial oppression is very important and obvious in this book. Usually when we discuss racial repression, discrimination, priority may be the issue we are discussing, but the name can also reflect the issue of racial suppression. An example is Millicent the half cast born to an African mother and a white man, “Millicent’s mother had been given a new name by her white husband” (Gyasi 9). The British replaced the maiden name of the woman with the surname of the husband she marries to associate her with the new family. The statement “His father had seven other sons who could carry on the Otcher-Collins legacy. He wanted to be a man without a name” by James is proof of the family importance attached to the title (Gyasi 104). To him, it meant he had to sacrifice to maintain the legacy while living without it would make him free to follow his heart. For this African woman, she could have chosen not to accept this, but since it was a white man, she had to do this. Lost he “original meaning”. In the basic form, names describe an individual among many people. James Richard Collins’s father said “Will he not still be a prince to our people and to the whites too? I have given him a powerful name” when he was asked why he gave his son three British names (Gyasi 90). To him, they were a label for his son, and he concentrated on finding him a powerful one regardless of the social balance he was expected to adapt. This primary purpose of a title becomes essential for the Africans in slavery where they had to remember people they meet. When Ma Aka escaped with Kojo, she called him Freeman because he was no longer a slave, so it told his story. He observes that many freed slaves used the same name because they had no other identity except former slaves. When he had his children, he gives them names that signify the alphabet order until they got to expect H and the letter stuck to him as a noun. Through Kojo, the perspective of a name as a personal identity is elaborated. When Mr. Matheson says to him “Taking away your name is the first step” Jo does not ask what that means because he relates to the implication that slavery took away their identity (Gyasi 118). Another example is when Ethel gets angry at H for calling her another woman’s name reminding her of her losses, she says “…My freedom. My family. My body. And now I can’t even own my name?”. A person’s name defines them because it is the reference used to talk about them and represents all their qualities and experiences. This is the biggest psychological stress when you can’t use your name like normal.

In the book, many stereotypes of black people to white people can also explain the additional influence of oppression. “besides, if we go to the white man for school, we will just learn the way the white man wants us to learn. We will come back and build the country the white man wants us to build. One that continues to serve them. We will never free” (Gyasi 223). The education of white people is not bad. Any nation has a good thing we can learn from them. For example, good education, a good environment is essential. The idea of Yaw in the book is a good example of stereotypes. In his impression, whites only do wrong things. They only persecute blacks and intensify their invasion of other territories. But in fact, this is not really right. The whites did bad things in the past, but he can just go to the white school to study hard, learn good experiences and help improve their lives. There is one more sentence in this part that deserves our deep thought. “We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth”. Only the winners have the chance write history. This is a good metaphor. Just like Africans and whites, only the people who are in upper hand have the right to speak. The underlying African people have no chance to tell the story of their version.

Different forms of oppression can give people different feelings, mental oppression, ethnic oppression and physical oppression. But every kind of oppression will have a huge impact, and some even have a cross-century influence. So when we mention it, not only think about it in one way, cut in from multiple points and get the most realistic facts from “more people’s mouths”. In this book, oppression is a good thing for whites, and even become a matter of course. But for blacks, it is a scar that they can never erase. 

Works Cited

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