A review by sarful
Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" by Zora Neale Hurston
4.0
Absolutely fascinating story of Cudjo (Kossula)’s life from Nigeria as a captive, to the US as a slave, to an African trying to live his life and have his family. So much of this was heartbreaking as he recounts his life and capture by the neighboring tribe in Africa. How greed and apathy towards human life led to his and countless other Africans’ lives by Africans and by whites.
Cudjo is more of a refugee than anything else. He dearly wishes to go home, but the cost is too high. He joins with other Africans to form a home of Africa in America. He’s not an American, doesn’t identify as, nor do black Americans treat him and his family as such. Which tells of prejudice by black Americans, but it’s never addressed by Hurston. He is a refugee and it’s a story I’ve never read before, as this is not a slave narrative and has no political objective.
Hurston sets out to tell the story, through his own words, of the last black cargo. She wants to preserve the history of African Americans and she does with this account. It’s not thorough, but it’s concise. We don’t have the stories of all those who were stolen, enslaved and “freed” without a cent to call their own. Yet, with this, we can glean an idea of this one man who lived and in it we have a voice, a face and a name to the experience so disgusting in US history of slavery.
Definitely worth the read.
Cudjo is more of a refugee than anything else. He dearly wishes to go home, but the cost is too high. He joins with other Africans to form a home of Africa in America. He’s not an American, doesn’t identify as, nor do black Americans treat him and his family as such. Which tells of prejudice by black Americans, but it’s never addressed by Hurston. He is a refugee and it’s a story I’ve never read before, as this is not a slave narrative and has no political objective.
Hurston sets out to tell the story, through his own words, of the last black cargo. She wants to preserve the history of African Americans and she does with this account. It’s not thorough, but it’s concise. We don’t have the stories of all those who were stolen, enslaved and “freed” without a cent to call their own. Yet, with this, we can glean an idea of this one man who lived and in it we have a voice, a face and a name to the experience so disgusting in US history of slavery.
Definitely worth the read.