Customer Reviews

Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The author takes us on an incredible journey with the slave Ama from her life in her own village, through several captivities and to her life in South America. What is fascinating to me about this novel is that it looks at the Middle Passage through the eyes of one woman. While Ama is a fictional character, and we don't know what happed specifically to an individual slave the book makes the reader think, really think about what could happen about the march to the sea, and the perilous middle passage. Worth reading!

Brings home the ugly reality of slavery without falling into the trap of romanticising any of the white or black societies who were responsible for treating anyone who looked different, or came from another tribe, or was female, like a thing to be exploited rather than a human being.

At the start of the book Nandzi, the heroine, is looking after her little brother and is complaining to herself about the daft and inconvenient marriage practices of her tribe. But then a raiding party from another tribe attacks her home and she soon has even more serious things to worry about.

Carried off as a slave, Nandzi is not even allowed to keep her name: the title of the book, Ama, is the first of the new names imposed on her by successive owners to suit their convenience. Nandzi is given the name Ama by an African princess to whom she is given as a present and who is one of the few owners who treats her with any decency or compassion. Later a Dutchman renames her Pamela.

The first 116 pages of the book tell the story of the rapes, beatings, and injustices inflicted on the heroine by her fellow africans, and her repeated narrow escapes from being murdered: the remainder of the book tells of the sexual abuse, beatings and injustice inflicted on her by white men after the regent of the African kingdom where she has been enslaved decides to sell her to the dutch.

But through her ordeals at the hands of successive slavers both white and black, Nandzi/Ama/Pamela retains her intelligence, courage, and a love of freedom.

A number of chapters in the book begin with short factual statements which are well chosen to illustrate how the crimes against humanity in the novel reflect those in real history.

Ama is a book aimed at dispelling the racist myths that have infiltrated our Modern Society (the period from 1500 to present). It focuses on the humanity of the individual slave, rather than slavery as a whole.

Slave life becomes more real to the audience, and beyond that, very emotionally gripping. See Ama get raped and all the ones she loves killed. Every aspect of her life is so transient and depressingly fleeting.

I gave it a 3 because some of the writing is very silly and cliche, and a little longwinded, but it's definately a good read. It pegs right into the historical fiction category and contrary to the title, focuses a lot of energy and time in intra-African slave trading. This is an aspect many ignore when approaching the topic of slave trade from a US vantage.

This book will sensitize people to the plights of long ago, that Herbstein suggests contine today, as he says the story does not end...

I was required to read this book for my African history class. I really liked the book because it connected the pieces of the slave trade from Africa (Ghana) starting with how the girl got into slavery to being sold at the coast to life on the ship, finally working as a slave in the New World (Brazil). Also, it has a lot historical context/traditions (of Yoruba, Asante, and others) incorprated into the book. I think everyone should read just to understand the complexities of the slave trade b/c the book really doesn't point fingers at one group of people, it points them at everyone for what happened dealing with slavery. It does good job of dispelling the myths of slavery and enables the reader to realize the full psychological along with the physical impact of slavery.

I bought this book for my HIST 005 Introduction to Black Diaspora course at Howard University. Though everything else in the course was pretty dull, I'm glad that my instructor allowed us to choose a book to write the final essay on. This was pretty much the only exciting part of the course! Lol. Great story line, informative, and captivates the emotions!

I read this book while I was travelling in Ghana. The terminology used by the author mirrored what I was hearing while I was there. While I did not visit Elmina, I went to the Cape Coast Castle and the information provided by the tour guide could have come straight from this book.

I read Herbstein's novel just prior to departing the US for Ghana. The novel is so well written that I actually felt as if I'd been at Elmina castle and travelled the dark African night with Nandizi. Upon entering the castle at Elmina, strangely, I knew my way around. Everything was exactly as pictured in my mind's eye. I connected with the novel's protagonist and had a re-new-ed pride in the spirit of my ancestors. It is well worth struggling through the unfamiliar names to discover the familiar in the human spirit that spans the ages.