Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

by Saidiya Hartman

Book Overview

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman traces the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey she took along a slave route in Ghana. Following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, she reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy and vividly dramatizes the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history.

The slave, Hartman observes, is a stranger--torn from...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374531153
• ISBN13: 9780374531157
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Completing the puzzle

I'm an indigenious Black. Finally the truth is told. The pieces suppled and the puzzle completed.

THE PAIN OF REJECTION

This is a story of rejection of those of us forced into slavery by force and not by choice, by those who ancestors were in colluson with the eurpeans. This is also a realization that what is the most important is the acceptance of being a stanger in a strange stilen land as european america, but also to know that one cannot go back home as what we were, but how we are now. Knowing that wherever we (Africans) are i n the world, one thing is for sure, we are and will always be part on Mother Africa, and the spirit of our Mother will always accept her lost childrens.,

Extraordinarily Insightful and Eloquent

A deeply moving combination of history, personal memoir and deep reflection,particularly on the heroic and aspirational legacy of slavery as seen by this wonderful writer.

Spectacular

Saidiya Hartman takes us on a journey that is intense, tough and thoroughly rewarding. Impressively, she learned as much about herself as she did about the past she sought, even more. The beauty of going with her on this journey is that the reader has the same magnificent opportunity, hypnotically led by the author, to ponder and to gain personal insight perhaps too long submerged.

Roots 2.0

What "Roots" was to the Boomer Generation, "Lose Your Mother" could and should be to the Generation Next. Saidiay Hartman's writing styles fits perfectly for a generation that longs for and loves narrative, story, and first-hand journal accounts. However, no one should thus assume that Hartman's writing lacks research credibility for she brilliantly weaves both rousing narrative and copious research to portray a powerful picture of one of history's ugliest stories: Middle Passage. She provides a fresh account of ancient wounds. Hartman's book can and should make a renewed contribution to the healing of past hurts which still linger deep. Her passionate style and scholarly depth can help a nation move beyond suffering to healing hope. Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.