Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade
by Manu Herbstein
Summary
“I am a human being; I am a woman; I am a black woman; I am an African. Once I was free; then I was captured and became a slave; but inside me, I have never been a slave, inside me here and here, I am still a free woman.” In the course of four hundred years some twelve million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic to serve European settlers and their descendants. Only the barest fragments of their stories have survived. Manu Herbstein’s ambitious, meticulously researched and moving novel sets out to recreate one of these lives.
Excerpt
There was a puff of dust on the horizon.
Nandzi peered through the heat haze with narrowed eyes, and wondered what it might be. Then Nowu, on her back, whimpered, distracting her attention. She took his weight with one hand and tucked in the end of her cloth with the other. Nowu was her youngest brother but one. He was four. The previous day the elders had made the customary incisions on his face. That morning he had been feverish. Tabitsha, their mother, had made an infusion of roots to dress the wounds and for him to drink.
Then, at noon, they had heard the sound of distant drums, announcing the long-expected death of Sekwadzim, Tabitsha’s father. The household had assembled quickly, all twelve of them, and soon Tigen, her father, was leading them across the plain.
Nandzi had been left behind to take care of Nowu.
She twisted her head and glanced over her shoulder. His eyelids were drooping but he was not yet asleep. She felt his forehead. He was still very warm. She sang a lullaby and danced him gently up and down in time with the song. Then she quickened her pace as she crossed to the deep shade under the mango tree which stood by Tabitsha’s door.
It was unusual for Nandzi to be left alone in the compound. Indeed, she could not recall that it had ever happened before.
Read on at http://www.ama.africatoday.com/chapter1.htm
Reviews
"An engrossing and powerful story of a woman of courage, intelligence, and strength"—India Edghill, The Historical Novels Review
"A book written with tremendous moral passion about a monstrous episode in human history"—The Right Reverend Bishop Richard Holloway
"[A] panoramic story, with its vividly realised characters and heroic action"—Africa Book Centre, London
Author's Biography
Born and educated in Cape Town, Manu Herbstein holds dual South African and Ghanaian citizenship. His novel, Ama, a Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, won the 2002 Commonwealth Writers Prize for the Best First Book.