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A review by savaging
Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman
5.0
This book is profoundly beautiful. Hartman reckons with the historical slave trade within Africa, the fissures of pan-African belief, and the impossibility of 'going home.' It's history, but it's also extremely raw and personal.
I'd love to hear from other historians of the slave trade whether they think Hartman is too hard on black Africans. Some of her conclusions feel tied up in a profound sense of loneliness that makes her harshly skeptical of anyone who attempts to bridge the gap and connect with her. But also: isn't it simply realistic to believe that welcoming the diaspora back with platitudes of pan-Africanism is just a tourism hustle for most? In the growing rift she experiences with the African scholars she travels with, I felt some sympathy for their side -- this privileged U.S. citizen keeps centering herself and blaming others. But I also really believe in Hartman's rejection of easy and ignorant calls to unity that gloss over histories of exploitation.
And through it all, my overwhelming feeling is gratitude that Hartman did this work and wrote this book -- and took the time to write with such beauty, care, honesty in the face of unspeakable horror.
I'd love to hear from other historians of the slave trade whether they think Hartman is too hard on black Africans. Some of her conclusions feel tied up in a profound sense of loneliness that makes her harshly skeptical of anyone who attempts to bridge the gap and connect with her. But also: isn't it simply realistic to believe that welcoming the diaspora back with platitudes of pan-Africanism is just a tourism hustle for most? In the growing rift she experiences with the African scholars she travels with, I felt some sympathy for their side -- this privileged U.S. citizen keeps centering herself and blaming others. But I also really believe in Hartman's rejection of easy and ignorant calls to unity that gloss over histories of exploitation.
And through it all, my overwhelming feeling is gratitude that Hartman did this work and wrote this book -- and took the time to write with such beauty, care, honesty in the face of unspeakable horror.