Scan barcode
avisreadsandreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, and War
Minor: Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy
alealejandre's review against another edition
5.0
very interesting. thought provoking and incredibly complex but handles all the complexities of saidiya’s journey with tracing africa’s history with the atlantic slave trade very very well. i enjoyed this book a lot. a lot of her voice as a writer comes through, and reading it was enjoyable when she would make little anecdotes about her personal experiences / make connections.
galaxys's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Love that it’s her narrative as she is traveling and doing her research. I’ve never learned so much so fast and felt so understood. Thanks for the introduction to Afro pessimism
jasmineisntblue's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book! I was sometimes bogged down by the chunks of historical narratives and did not always like her tone. However, the text is so well written that even when the narrative seemed long, I still enjoyed the text overall.
Key themes: African diaspora, home, identity
Key themes: African diaspora, home, identity
ambero's review
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
hard book to review, mostly because i loved wayaward lives so much and sadiya hartman is such an important person in how i view history/myself in relation to it and the role of a writer and critical fabulation is honestly incredible so hard to say bad things about this and not necessarily that i have many bad things to say (altho like halfway through reading it i found out that lena is also reading it and she had critiques which i think then meant that i was reading it with a more critical eye which isn't necessarily bad but difference from the reverence for sadiya that i initially went into reading it with). anyway, with that big disclaimer out of the way
and also a smaller disclaimer that i've been grieving my mother (emma) lots while reading this so that also shaped the lesense with which i read this.
some bits of it flawed me / i found really interesting 'how do you write about an encounter with nothing' for example is a q that inspired a piece of my art and that will probs stay with me forever.
the bit where she talked about slavery and shit and thomas more's utopia and gold and shit was v interesting bc of my current interest in waste. the whole book was interesting in that regard because she's trying to unearth africa's shit/ the story that nations don't want to remember
interesting how she was sutiating the west not wanting to remember and african countries not wanting to remember (unless remembering could be used in a way to generate tourism) - hadn't considered that before, maybe because i'd never looked into how slavery is treated/thought of on the continent + as far as i know my family (at least on my mum's side, not sure if lui is african-american or is a nigerian that moved to america) has never been enslaved so i have a different relationship with that.
interesting the rebellion that was of the wealthy people wanting to end slavery (st johns?) not so that everyone would be free but so that they could go back to being in charge
useful to have someone critiquing the african rulers/great tribes that existed pre-conolnial africa and the idea that it's not like everyone was free before colonialism (similarlily i guess to how it's not like everyone was free in the west pre captialism)
the bit about cowrie shells made me wonder if the people wearing them as a trend know that they represent the value of a life (and how the currency then was only used by the west for trading in people and they thought of it as worthless and wouldn't accept it as payment for anything)
she does acknowledge the difference between african enslavement and the atlantic slave trade + how west benefitted differently e.g. any 'benefits' any africans got from trading in people was short lived
like that she ended on the fortress town and the lengths people took to avoid being captured and defend themselves.
didn't like how she largely described most africans as profiteering/uncaring
really enjoyed the bit about darkness and what that enabled her to actually see --> made me think about the time in cuba when we saw the couple in the inflatable bath outside on an alleyway. thinking about what it means to have a life better lived on the streets because it's cooler than your house.
her critique of reparations is interesting even if i'm not actually sure whether or not i agree with it. it's along the lines of saying that petitioning for reparations acknowledges that the state has more power than the people and that it the power is shared it could also be taken away again which is true but also western countries materially/long-term benefitted from the trade of enslaved people and therefore reparations would, even if it doesn't necessarily strip them of any power, mean that African countries would have some more money and while that doesn't undo the harm /solve everything it would be beneficial to people who could benefit from that money (although admittedly corruption means it's not that clear that money would actually go where it's needed but that alone isn't a good enough reason for there to not be reparations). like yes the ultimate goal is abolition and revolution but even that wouldn't actually literally undo the harm??
and also a smaller disclaimer that i've been grieving my mother (emma) lots while reading this so that also shaped the lesense with which i read this.
some bits of it flawed me / i found really interesting 'how do you write about an encounter with nothing' for example is a q that inspired a piece of my art and that will probs stay with me forever.
the bit where she talked about slavery and shit and thomas more's utopia and gold and shit was v interesting bc of my current interest in waste. the whole book was interesting in that regard because she's trying to unearth africa's shit/ the story that nations don't want to remember
interesting how she was sutiating the west not wanting to remember and african countries not wanting to remember (unless remembering could be used in a way to generate tourism) - hadn't considered that before, maybe because i'd never looked into how slavery is treated/thought of on the continent + as far as i know my family (at least on my mum's side, not sure if lui is african-american or is a nigerian that moved to america) has never been enslaved so i have a different relationship with that.
interesting the rebellion that was of the wealthy people wanting to end slavery (st johns?) not so that everyone would be free but so that they could go back to being in charge
useful to have someone critiquing the african rulers/great tribes that existed pre-conolnial africa and the idea that it's not like everyone was free before colonialism (similarlily i guess to how it's not like everyone was free in the west pre captialism)
the bit about cowrie shells made me wonder if the people wearing them as a trend know that they represent the value of a life (and how the currency then was only used by the west for trading in people and they thought of it as worthless and wouldn't accept it as payment for anything)
she does acknowledge the difference between african enslavement and the atlantic slave trade + how west benefitted differently e.g. any 'benefits' any africans got from trading in people was short lived
like that she ended on the fortress town and the lengths people took to avoid being captured and defend themselves.
didn't like how she largely described most africans as profiteering/uncaring
really enjoyed the bit about darkness and what that enabled her to actually see --> made me think about the time in cuba when we saw the couple in the inflatable bath outside on an alleyway. thinking about what it means to have a life better lived on the streets because it's cooler than your house.
her critique of reparations is interesting even if i'm not actually sure whether or not i agree with it. it's along the lines of saying that petitioning for reparations acknowledges that the state has more power than the people and that it the power is shared it could also be taken away again which is true but also western countries materially/long-term benefitted from the trade of enslaved people and therefore reparations would, even if it doesn't necessarily strip them of any power, mean that African countries would have some more money and while that doesn't undo the harm /solve everything it would be beneficial to people who could benefit from that money (although admittedly corruption means it's not that clear that money would actually go where it's needed but that alone isn't a good enough reason for there to not be reparations). like yes the ultimate goal is abolition and revolution but even that wouldn't actually literally undo the harm??