{"id":176474432,"date":"2017-06-27T00:20:43","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T05:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/?p=176474432"},"modified":"2017-06-27T00:20:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T05:20:43","slug":"interview-yaa-gyasi-slavery-is-on-peoples-minds-it-affects-us-still","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kalamu.com\/neogriot\/2017\/06\/27\/interview-yaa-gyasi-slavery-is-on-peoples-minds-it-affects-us-still\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW: Yaa Gyasi: \u2018Slavery is on people\u2019s minds. It affects us still\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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8 January 2017<\/p><\/div>\n

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Yaa Gyasi: <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

\u2018Slavery is on <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

people\u2019s minds. <\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

It affects us still\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Homegoing author on exploring
\nher Ghanaian roots, being an immigrant
\nin the US, and whether trauma
\ncan be imprinted on our DNA<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Yaa<\/a>

Yaa Gyasi: \u2018Home can never really be a place. It is this thing that you carry inside of you.\u2019 Photograph: Gabriela Hasbun\/Redux\/Eyevine<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\nBy Kate Kellaway<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yaa Gyasi<\/a>\u2019s debut novel, Homegoing<\/em><\/a>, is an astonishing epic set in Ghana and the United States, about the legacy of slavery through generations. It attracted a seven-figure advance and has been described as \u201chypnotic\u201d and \u201cbrilliant\u201d, and its 26-year-old author as\u00a0\u201cstirringly gifted\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Why trace your story through the generations?<\/strong> <\/span>
\nI began Homegoing<\/em> in 2009 after a trip to Ghana\u2019s Cape Coast Castle [where slaves were incarcerated]. The tour guide told us that British soldiers who lived and worked in the castle often married local women \u2013 something I didn\u2019t know. I wanted to juxtapose two women \u2013 a soldier\u2019s wife with a slave. I thought the novel would be traditionally structured, set in the present, with flashbacks to the 18th century. But the longer I worked, the more interested I became in being able to watch time as it moved, watch slavery and colonialism and their effects \u2013 I wanted to see the through-line.<\/span><\/p>\n

How did the dungeons make you feel?<\/strong> <\/span>
\nI was devastated. I felt immense rage. The dungeons still smell after hundreds of years. There was grime on the walls and a tiny air hole at the top. When they closed the door, there was no light. Hundreds of people were kept there for three months at a time before being sent God knew where. The terror they must have felt \u2013 not knowing what was to become of them. You can imagine and you cannot possibly imagine.<\/span><\/p>\n

The subject of slavery has produced outstanding work from Toni Morrison<\/a>\u2019s novel Beloved<\/em> to Steve McQueen\u2019s film 12 Years a Slave<\/em><\/a>\u2026<\/strong> <\/span>
\nAnd this year alone, in America, there has been The Underground Railroad<\/em><\/a> by Colson Whitehead and Grace<\/em> by Natashia De\u00f3n. Slavery is something we have not gotten over, it is on people\u2019s minds and it affects us still.<\/span><\/p>\n