Across Continent and Generations

Fading Family History in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing

Abstract

This essay explores the transmission and disruption of family history among enslaved individuals and their descendants in Yaa Gyasi’s multigenerational novel Homegoing (2016). Focusing on Esi’s lineage, whose members are transported from their homeland to the United States through the transatlantic slave trade, this study examines how slavery and its legacies not only erase personal and familial history but also complicate the descendants’ attempts to reclaim a sense of identity and belonging, leaving many generations disconnected from their ancestral roots. This analysis first investigates the role of communicative memory in preserving family history for enslaved individuals and their descendants, despite the forced separations that impede the transmission of heritage from one generation to the next, thereby severing a crucial link to the family’s roots. The second part of the essay addresses how the devastating impact of slavery and its legacies further disrupt the transmission of family history, leaving many characters adrift. The analysis then considers how historical knowledge and symbolic acts, such as journeys to historically significant sites, serve as alternative means for reconnecting with lost heritage, offering some relief from the genealogical alienation imposed by slavery, even when family history remains irretrievable.