ISP Blog Post #6

When examining The Book Of Negroes from a post colonial perspective it becomes clear that this theory reveals the most about the novel. The story revolves around two dominating colonies, America and Europe, which are the more powerful group, introducing their identity and values to the less dominant colony, in this case, Africa. This type of interaction includes cultural, national, ethnic, and social relations which are gender, class, and race based. Racism is inherent to the structures of a colonial society, and leads to oppression and brutality of the people in the lands being colonized.

An example of this when Amanita taken from her village in Bayo and has to adapt to the culture of the westernized world which is now her life. Amanita lives in the westernized world for most of her life and even when she returns to Africa she still lives under the rule of westernized people.

For all of Amanita’s life, she was rejected because of her skin colour. Most white people did not like the Negroes and they had no trouble hiding it. The whites only saw Negroes for what could be of use to them. Amanita had skills that white people exploited. For example Amanita helped write down Negroes names in a book that gave them passage to “free land”. The men that recruited Amanita, disappeared one day and did not keep their promise to her, to provide her passage to Nova Scotia. Clearly, these men thought less of her as a human being. They used Amanita, with no intention of honouring their word. Analyzing The Book Of Negroes from post colonial perspective reveals all of the struggles that Amanita had to go through in a westernized world.

ISP Blog Post #5

After finishing The Book Of Negroes, I decided to analyze the novel using an archetypal  perspective. Amanita is the hero of the story since she helps so many people throughout her travels, by teaching others to read and write which was not common. I think that Georgia or Amanita's mother are classified as 'The Great Mothers' since they were always the strong mother role in Amanita's life. Amanita's mother taught her how to catch babies and was always there for her when she was young. Georgia took on the motherly role when Amanita arrived at the plantation and taught her how things were done around there. The wise old man would be Daddy Moses because everyone listens to what he has to say and he can always calm the crowd and give them something to think about. Appleby being the fox because he was a mean man who thought he could do whatever he wanted with his slaves because he was their owner. Amanita learned a lot from these people and who she was a person. As a reader I can think of people in my life and classify them as a archetypal characters in a way.

Amanita is the obvious protagonist and you can really see that shift of innocence to an experienced woman. Amanita grows up in a familiar village called Bayo living under the shelter of her parents. Amanita pulled her own weight helping her parents but was protected from the dangers of outside her village. When she was taken she described herself as a free Muslim that these men could not take her away because she was free. Here she was innocent, she wasn't old or experienced enough to realize that being free born meant nothing for people who are getting paid. At the end of the book you can tell that she is older and has learned a lot from the Americans and British. Her experiences through slavery made her the person she is today.

Amanita has dealt with her fair share of danger being a negro. When she was first taken her mother and father rebelled against the slave trappers and they were killed. From there on Amanita had to be smart she knew she could not beat the men with weapons because she could not win. Amanita watched a young girl captured by a wild animal, she had to make sure that the danger would not happen to her. Dangerous situations occurred to Amanita quiet frequently and at the plantation she had to be careful not to cause mistakes or she would be punished. Amanita had to survive times with disease, no food, water, clothes, or shelter in harsh weather conditions. Danger was always around the corner for Amanita but she survived to tell her story.

The reunion home for Amanita is not the one she excepted. She was in her home country but still a far ways to get to her village which she could not get out of her mind. The archetypal characters make the story more relatable to readers such as myself because we have never lived through slavery. The hero, wise man, trickster, and mother roles show how everyone's life is not always easy but whenever we fall down we get back up. Everyone has troubles in life just like Amanita we just have to learn from how we dealt with the troubles in order to live life to the fullest.   



   



   

ISP Blog Post #4

As I analyze The Book Of Negroes from a post-colonial view, I see more of how the western world of classes is displayed in the novel. England is and still a developed nation when The Book Of Negroes was wrote, they included a rich white person that thought they were more superior to the blacks which is what is shown in The Book Of Negroes.

White people maintaining control over the black population displays how England is classified as being a "first-world" nation and Africa being a "third-world" nation. White people who owned her tossed Amanita from place to place. She was sold into slavery like many of the black population around her. Solomon Lindo says, "Exactly why I purchased you, I knew you would catch on fast. I saw intelligence in your eyes and I wanted to lift you up" (Hill 201). Against all odds Amanita became smart she learned to read and write which was not common for a black person because they were too busy working for their owners to learn that kind of stuff. Amanita is a woman and women had a lower social class then men and anyone who wasn't of European background was the lowest on the totem pole. Life wasn't easy for Amanita in a Westernized world considering she was treated badly by many whites. 

Personal and cultural identity is a huge part of Amanita's life that was changed. Her cultural identity that consisted of praying, her own African language, dances, food, clothing, and way of life was stripped from her own back. Amanita had to learn the ways of the westernized world, which included using money, which Amanita said, "Lindo explained that I could either barter for an object, or pay with copper, silver, or gold coins. This confused me. It made no sense to me that someone would prefer to be paid with a useless metal coin than with five chickens or a tierce of corn"(Hill 202). The white owners had no sympathy for personal identity of slaves. White owners almost never sat down to ask about there slaves past lives, because all the cared for was the work.

This text reveals how much the Africans that came to the westernized world have changed since being in Africa. The Africans that are in Sierra Leone question the new arrivals and cannot tell if Amanita was born in Africa or not. This is because Amanita had completely left her old life in order to be able to fit into the western world. Amanita had to change the clothes she wore, the food she ate, and how she talked. The cultural diffusion into the western world caused Amanita to be like a European. 

Amanita will never be completely free from white people now that she was in their culture and they will always be among her in Sierra Leone. The whites help the Negroes by sending food and supplies. The Negroes rely on the British to send them their supplies. Amanita is back in her homeland but she can still not escape her life with the whites. The British are the ones who govern them and will always be around. 

The dominant culture is always the one who will take over. In this case it is western culture. This is shown from Amanita, she is an Africa free born but was still taken and put in the westernized world were she became accustomed to their styles. When she is returned to Africa she is still assimilated in that culture and her homeland is affected by the westernized world.