How are women treated throughout the book Homegoing?

Throughout the novel, female characters are marginalized, victimized, demoralized,

oppressed, and subjected to sexual violence. Patriarchal societies in both Ghana and the
United States keep women in a state of subordination.

What is the significance of the title Homegoing?

The title, Homegoing, has a dual meaning. It is drawn from an African American belief that
death allowed an enslaved person's soul to travel back to its home in Africa. In this novel the
word also refers to the physical return of two characters to the country of their ancestors.

How does Yaa Gyasi use names to help establish identity or loss of identity in Homegoing?

The novel uses names to show characters' connection to their own heritage and identity.
Several of the characters on Esi's side choose their own nicknames, perhaps trying to assert
their identity with no knowledge of their heritage. Esi gave her son, Kojo, an African name,
trying to keep him connected to her culture.
In a world where heritage and identity are being ripped from people based on their race,
often a name is all they have to either remember their parents or assert who they are.

What is the importance of language for the characters in Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi?

Language helps characters assert their identity and connect with their heritage, plays key roles
in their integration into new cultures, and serves as an instrument of oppression. The overall
role of language includes the importance of voice and storytelling as elements of power. For
the enslaved Africans of diverse origins who are taken to America, their efforts to retain their
original languages are often frustrated, and the slaveholders force them to communicate in
English. Ironically, English also becomes the common means by which enslaved people
communicate with other Africans.

Why does Akosua Mensah insist to James: "I will be my own nation"?

She explains to James that her own brothers were taken into slavery. She admits, though, that
her people would do the same and that slavery is an evil perpetrated by several nations. To be
true to her beliefs, she tells James, "I will be my own nation."

What role do patriotism and tradition play in contributing to the injustices and prejudices
depicted in the book?

One of the motifs of the book is racism. How are the characters affected by it? Compare its
effect on Effia and on Esi’s descendants.

Each character in Homegoing suffers from racist beliefs or institutions at some point in their
lives, as these strongholds are used to perpetuate colonization and slavery. This motif reveals
how even those such as Effia’s family, who are considered privileged, are not safe from the
societal scourge of racism. Esi’s descendants suffer more brutally from racism, as they are
subjected to slavery. However, Effia’s descendants also experience racism even if a bit more
subtly at the hands of the British colonizers. This is shown by James Collins’s ridiculing Effia’s
fertility ritual as “voodoo” and “black magic,” asserting his own culture’s superiority. The fact
that even the relatively privileged are made to feel inferior due to their race shows how the
British and Americans, hungry for money and power, use race to keep themselves in charge.

How is the theme of family explored in Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi?

Family is of the utmost importance to each character in Homegoing. Each chapter is told from
a different character’s point of view, though they all have at least one family member in
common: Maame. No matter who they are or where they go, this common lineage ties them
together. Throughout the novel, family is what motivates each character to keep going. Even
when parents are forced to separate from their children, they often do so in the hopes of
giving their child a better life, as in the case of Ness and Kojo. Success and happiness are often
rooted in a stable family, as shown by Kojo’s family before his wife is abducted. Reconnecting
with family is often what allows each character to feel fulfilled, as is the case with H, Sonny,
and Yaw. As many of the characters find, home may not necessarily be a place they can always
return to but the place where their family is.