A review by ladislara
She Would Be King by Wayétu Moore

adventurous dark hopeful

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 The period is the early 1800s.

Gbessa is a cursed girl, living in the village of Lai in West Africa. June Dey is the surviving baby of two enslaved Africans on a plantation in Virginia, North America. Norman Aragon is the mixed child of a fugitive Maroon slave and a British colonizer in Jamaica. Each one of them possesses strange supernatural abilities, and destiny leads them to meet in the settlement of Monrovia, in what would become Liberia.

Those are the characters that the author, Wayétu Moore, decided to create to illustrate the incredible story of the foundation of Liberia, the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule.

I had heard about Haiti, the first Black Republic, but never knew about Liberia’s history until now. The country was founded by former American slaves who bought land in West Africa with the goal of establishing a new country. This was mainly done through an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS), composed mainly of White Americans who believed that the men and women recently freed from slavery in the United States could not be integrated into American society and should be sent back to Africa.

It’s not clear if the ACS had completely good intentions or if their acts were based on even more racist theories, but the book doesn’t shy away from this controversy.

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