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not_another_ana's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.0
After more than nineteen years, my father still could not see me. To him, nothing I wrote would ever matter. Poetry was the voice I had forged because for so long I had been voiceless; I had written every word because I wanted him to hear me. Now I knew he never would.
I find it tricky to cast judgement on a memoir. How can I sit here and judge what happens when it's not just plot but someone's actual life and experience, it feels voyeuristic. At the same time the author is handing me their life on a platter, is asking me to come and see and experience. In How to Say Babylon Safiya Sinclair presents us the story of her life growing up in Jamaica under the control of a domineering abusive father who used Rastafarianism to control and terrorize the family. We're taken on this journey to her childhood, her struggles and how she persevered and became an award winning poet. She also explains what Rastafarianism is, how it got started, what are the practices and beliefs, and how that affected her.
I could not put this down, I read it in four days. The prose is beautiful and fluid, you could probably infer her background as a poet. If you don't enjoy purple prose, this might not be a good fit for you, for me it worked because I felt like I was right there in her head with her as the events happened. And boy did things happen to her, this is a book that deals with such complex and heart wrenching abuse. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, spiritual abuse, at times it felt so heavy and anxiety inducing. I was at a roller coaster right before the drop, or a balloon inflating with no sign of stopping and then... Well the drop didn't happen, the balloon never popped.
That was my only real issue with the book. The pacing brught us to this dazzling height only to gently let us down. To me it felt like perhaps she could have waited to write this memoir, there were a lot of painful memories she had to face and put to paper and the more recent ones just didn't come across as robust as the past. By this I mean I felt like she's too close to the point in time where her book ends to have been able to pull it apart and analyze it, process it. There's a lot of silence at the end, like the story was cherry-picked in some spots.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Bullying, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Cursing
alexhaydon's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
5.0
A memoir that demonstrates how a poet's words are their lifeline. The anchor amidst turbulence that is awaiting its moment of tranquility. Sinclair's writing and character are forces to be reckoned with and her story is so simultaneously sharp and tender. Whilst there isn't so much a sense of urgency in her need to tell this story, it is clear that it is a necessary work, an emergence of a voice that has been trying to articulate the moments that have led up to this place of hope.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
solenodon's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Racism, Bullying, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, and Misogyny
Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Suicide, and Colonisation
Minor: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Miscarriage
readingelli's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Domestic abuse, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual assault
mochimustreads's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse
your_true_shelf's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Drug use, Infidelity, Death of parent, Violence, Racism, and Colonisation
Minor: Animal death
imalahakhund's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Not sure if it's the proper word to use but I kind of seem to have a thing for books about dysfunctional families. After "enjoying" Educated by Tara Westover and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, this new memoir is about a Jamaican woman raised under a strick Rastafarian Father. I may have come across the word or may have heard some song of Bob Marley (prominent follower of the religion) at some point but I'll be honest before reading the goodreads description I didn't even know that Rastafari was a religion and also supposedly claimed to be an Abrahamic one.
People generally associate Dreadlocks, Cannabis and Reggae music with the community but Rastafari beliefs or Rastology, are based on specific reading of Bible and was developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. According to their beliefs God is referred to as Jah, Emperor Haile Selassie. There are three main sects of Rastafari, the Mansion of Nyabinghi, The Twelve Tribes of Israel and The Bobo Shanti, ranging on a full spectrum from the most conservative militantly Pan-Africanist group, believing in Haile Selassie as reincarnation of God or Black Messiah on earth and the prophecized Black Emperor of Ethiopia, believing in Black unification, liberation, and repatriation to Ethiopia to a more liberal Rastafari sect, welcoming wayward uptown Jamaican youth and white foreigners as members; they eat meat and believe in Jesus Christ to a more closed off, conservative group, adhering to Jewish Mosaic Laws from the Old Testament, including observing Sabbath, and special separation laws for menstruating women. Rastafari also have a spiritual concept of Livity, that is the righteous living, have specific dietary religious regulations called Ital (strict vegetarian diet free from additives, chemicals and meat), and have concepts of Babylon and Zion with the belief that Black African Diaspora are exiles living in Babylon, a term which applies to Western Society. For Rasta people, European colonialism and capitalism and Christianity are regarded as manifestation of Babylon, while police and soldiers are viewed as it's agents.
Contrary to popular perception, Rastafarian people are a persecuted minority in Jamaica, prohibited from roaming around beaches and resorts lest they spoil the image of the touristy sights by their unpleasant and unkempt appearances. Up until the 1960s, the anti-Rastafarian sentiments were so prevalent among the government and police that when a group of Rastas refused to relinquish the farmlands they lived on to government seizure, Alexander Bustamante, the white prime minister then, ordered the military to “Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive!” This triggered a devastating military operation where Rasta communes were burned island-wide in a weekend of terror, where more than 150 Rastas were dragged from their homes, imprisoned, and tortured, and an unknown number of Rastas were killed. Also search Coral Garden Massacre. The Rastafari, though shunned and outcast by their own people, became the living mascots and main cultural export of Jamaican tourism, with barely any profit to the Rasta community, their spiritual reggae music diluted and commercialized for the foreign masses while they were themselves painfully maligned at home.
As a teenager Safiya's father founded the Rastafari community after being let down by his own neglected, abusive upbringing and met Safiya's mother, who also had her own set of familial traumas and both had four kids between them, three daughters and a son, they however did not get married ever, because the Rastafari don't believe in marriage. Safiya's father was a reggae musician and guitarist who at some point had his own band but after being exploited and facing discrimination, started playing at these resorts for foreigners. Both of her parents, and particularly her mother prioritized education. Her mother taught her kids at home and simultaneously organized a teaching program to bring some additional income at home alongwith providing free education to the more underprivileged kids. At first you find yourself relating to the strong anti-colonial and anti-capitalist stance of Rastafari people but then after you read about the repressive attitudes of the some members of the community, particularly towards it's female members, you are forced to see it differently. As time went on, Safiya's father became plagued with a deep insecurity at his inability to properly provide for his family, paranoid from the outer world and corrupt forces of Baldheads and Babylon, he became increasingly obsessed with righteousness and purity of his children, particularly his daughters. The children were prohibited from befriending the other kids at school and girls were forbidden to wear jewellery, makeup, pants. Overtime harsh words transformed into physical abuse. While her father grew militant in his ways, her mother was mostly passive and nonconfrontational, her recurrent attitude was smoking a spliff everytime something odd happened at home, sometimes even in the face of abuse and cheating. Safiya had always been acutely aware of her different family since a very young age, this sense built around by bullying by her peers or her own curious nature or being secluded from the outside world, or a mixture of everthing, Safiya grew up to be quite different and opposite to her father and in turn had to bear the brunt of his words and physical violence. She gradually grew estranged from her community and detached and detestful of her father, to esacpe his world, she sought refuge in poetry and writings and went on to win awards and scholarships. While her mother finally came around and stood up for her, Safiya eventually severed her ties with the Rastafari community and symbolically cut off her dreadlocks at the age of nineteen years which she had been wearing for over a decade.
The memoir though interesting and well-written, it was way too long and repetitive for me, it could be probably cut 100 pages short. It was fascinating reading about this relatively unknown community but it wasn't as mind-blowing to me as the other two memoirs I have mentioned above. The books has strong themes of physical abuse, suicidal ideation and self-harm so beware of triggers.
People generally associate Dreadlocks, Cannabis and Reggae music with the community but Rastafari beliefs or Rastology, are based on specific reading of Bible and was developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. According to their beliefs God is referred to as Jah, Emperor Haile Selassie. There are three main sects of Rastafari, the Mansion of Nyabinghi, The Twelve Tribes of Israel and The Bobo Shanti, ranging on a full spectrum from the most conservative militantly Pan-Africanist group, believing in Haile Selassie as reincarnation of God or Black Messiah on earth and the prophecized Black Emperor of Ethiopia, believing in Black unification, liberation, and repatriation to Ethiopia to a more liberal Rastafari sect, welcoming wayward uptown Jamaican youth and white foreigners as members; they eat meat and believe in Jesus Christ to a more closed off, conservative group, adhering to Jewish Mosaic Laws from the Old Testament, including observing Sabbath, and special separation laws for menstruating women. Rastafari also have a spiritual concept of Livity, that is the righteous living, have specific dietary religious regulations called Ital (strict vegetarian diet free from additives, chemicals and meat), and have concepts of Babylon and Zion with the belief that Black African Diaspora are exiles living in Babylon, a term which applies to Western Society. For Rasta people, European colonialism and capitalism and Christianity are regarded as manifestation of Babylon, while police and soldiers are viewed as it's agents.
Contrary to popular perception, Rastafarian people are a persecuted minority in Jamaica, prohibited from roaming around beaches and resorts lest they spoil the image of the touristy sights by their unpleasant and unkempt appearances. Up until the 1960s, the anti-Rastafarian sentiments were so prevalent among the government and police that when a group of Rastas refused to relinquish the farmlands they lived on to government seizure, Alexander Bustamante, the white prime minister then, ordered the military to “Bring in all Rastas, dead or alive!” This triggered a devastating military operation where Rasta communes were burned island-wide in a weekend of terror, where more than 150 Rastas were dragged from their homes, imprisoned, and tortured, and an unknown number of Rastas were killed. Also search Coral Garden Massacre. The Rastafari, though shunned and outcast by their own people, became the living mascots and main cultural export of Jamaican tourism, with barely any profit to the Rasta community, their spiritual reggae music diluted and commercialized for the foreign masses while they were themselves painfully maligned at home.
As a teenager Safiya's father founded the Rastafari community after being let down by his own neglected, abusive upbringing and met Safiya's mother, who also had her own set of familial traumas and both had four kids between them, three daughters and a son, they however did not get married ever, because the Rastafari don't believe in marriage. Safiya's father was a reggae musician and guitarist who at some point had his own band but after being exploited and facing discrimination, started playing at these resorts for foreigners. Both of her parents, and particularly her mother prioritized education. Her mother taught her kids at home and simultaneously organized a teaching program to bring some additional income at home alongwith providing free education to the more underprivileged kids. At first you find yourself relating to the strong anti-colonial and anti-capitalist stance of Rastafari people but then after you read about the repressive attitudes of the some members of the community, particularly towards it's female members, you are forced to see it differently. As time went on, Safiya's father became plagued with a deep insecurity at his inability to properly provide for his family, paranoid from the outer world and corrupt forces of Baldheads and Babylon, he became increasingly obsessed with righteousness and purity of his children, particularly his daughters. The children were prohibited from befriending the other kids at school and girls were forbidden to wear jewellery, makeup, pants. Overtime harsh words transformed into physical abuse. While her father grew militant in his ways, her mother was mostly passive and nonconfrontational, her recurrent attitude was smoking a spliff everytime something odd happened at home, sometimes even in the face of abuse and cheating. Safiya had always been acutely aware of her different family since a very young age, this sense built around by bullying by her peers or her own curious nature or being secluded from the outside world, or a mixture of everthing, Safiya grew up to be quite different and opposite to her father and in turn had to bear the brunt of his words and physical violence. She gradually grew estranged from her community and detached and detestful of her father, to esacpe his world, she sought refuge in poetry and writings and went on to win awards and scholarships. While her mother finally came around and stood up for her, Safiya eventually severed her ties with the Rastafari community and symbolically cut off her dreadlocks at the age of nineteen years which she had been wearing for over a decade.
The memoir though interesting and well-written, it was way too long and repetitive for me, it could be probably cut 100 pages short. It was fascinating reading about this relatively unknown community but it wasn't as mind-blowing to me as the other two memoirs I have mentioned above. The books has strong themes of physical abuse, suicidal ideation and self-harm so beware of triggers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Domestic abuse
cnlarge's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Drug use, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
nat008's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I couldn't give this book anythink less than 5 stars. An incredibly emotional memoir by a Jamaican poet recounting her strict childhood, and how she came to be the woman she is today. Her writing was lyrical and moving, all of her memories so visceral and real to the reader. Safiya Sinclair describes her life under her father's strict rule, often labelling her home life as the 'Sinclair cult'. I was particularly moved by her ending thoughts, how she grew to understand her father's frustration of the world, while still holding him accountable for all the hurt he has caused.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual harassment
mamadonna's review against another edition
5.0
Pure poetry meets challenging family dysfunction and abuse. I loved the book and the authors reading of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry