Haven’t yet gotten into the Grace in Africa trilogy?
Now is your chance. Today and tomorrow, January 12 and 13, book 1–The Call of Zulina–is free on Kindle.
Archive for the ‘The Call of Zulina’ Category
Meet Rene Mbongo~
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Most people skip a book’s dedication, so let me quote the first half of it:
My appreciation to my dear friend Rene Mbongo who first took me to Goree Island in Senegal and stood with silent dignity as I walked through the horrible reality of one of the launching point for millions upon millions of slaves shipped to the plantations of the New World, including the United States of America. The fictitious Zulina is modeled after the slave house there.
Thank you, Rene. For everything.
What Would Grace Say?
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010“I read an article about sex slavery that made me so mad,” a reader by the name of Jolie wrote. “The whole time I read it I kept wondering, What would Grace Winslow do?”
Ah, Jolie, what an insightful question.
Yes, yes, I am well aware that Grace Winslow is a fictional character. Hey, I’m the one who developed her! But she has done what many other fictional characters insist on doing–she’s burrowed out a very real life for herself.
As some of you know, I “met” Grace’s parents while I was researching my book on the life of John Newton, author of the hymn “Amazing Grace” (Once Blind: The Life of John Newton). A greedy English slaver and his numbingly cruel African wife kept John enslaved for most of a year. He barely survived. As I wrote that book, I kept wondering: “If those two had had a daughter, who would she be? African or English? Slave or slaver?” That was the moment of Grace’s conception.
Of course, a dollop of myself went into her too. Although I wouldn’t begin to compare my life with hers–not by a long shot!–I did struggle with the anxiety of having one foot in each of two worlds and not feeling I belonged in either.
Because Grace lived in West Africa, I did something else: I went there twice to walk her land. I ran my hand over her sacred baobab tree. I felt the haunting heat of the harmattan wind that whipped her. I saw the villages with their thatched roof huts and goat pens. And I wept over the remnants of destruction left by slavers.
Yes, it was I who gave Grace Winslow her voice, but then she rose up and began to speak words of her own.
Thank you, Jolie, for asking about her thoughts. You gave me an idea, in fact. In response to you, we will periodically be hearing from Grace in pieces entitled GRACE WOULD SAY…
Stay tuned!
“The moment when a character does or says something you hadn’t thought about. At that moment he’s alive and you leave him to it.”
Graham Greene
It Started at Goree Island~
Friday, September 10th, 2010On my first trip through Goree Island–the restored slave-holding fortress off the coast of Senegal, West Africa–I was struck dumb at the sight of baby-sized manacles bolted to the walls. I didn’t have to ask their purpose.
When I started writing the Grace in Africa historical fiction trilogy, people asked me: “Why write about slavery? Why dredge up that painful past and stir up old anger and guilt?”
Because ignoring the past isn’t the same as laying it to rest.
“Well,” they would invariably say, ”thank God the days of slavery are behind us.”
Oh, but those days aren’t behind us. And right there is why I write about slavery. It’s been two hundred years since Britian passed its first laws barring slave ships, holds packed with captives in chains and manacles, from sailing freely across the Atlantic. Yet today three times as many people around the world live as slaves as back then. That’s an increase from four million to twelve million people. (UNICEF’s conservative estimate. Other organizations cite a number twice that high.)
Today slavery is called by other names: sex trafficking, perhaps… or bonded laborers… or child labor. But the fact is, whenever people are owned as property, are bought and sold, are locked up and held against their will, or are physically abused to force them to work harder, they are slaves.
The “door of no return,” through which captives were led to the slave ships, still stands on Goree Island. It’s a grim reminder of finality for African captives; never again would their feet touch their homeland.
But perhaps it can also serve as a reminder of another fact of history: Not everyone was pro-slavery. Even though abolition could well mean a financial blow to their economy. Nor did everyone sit quietly and sigh, “I’m just one person. What can I do?” During the 18th and the 19th centuries, the untiring efforts of abolitionists forced the wretched slave trade to end.
Today, the “door of no return” reminds us that the job is not yet done. There’s still plenty of work for 21st century abolitionists.
A perfect time for Grace in Africa!
“You may choose to look the other way, but you can never again say, ‘I did not know.’”
~William Wilberforce~
