Aminata
Idenity
“Chekura was dead. Mamadu was dead. May had been gone for five years… I missed all three of my loved ones so terribly that my body, it seemed, was half missing.” (p. 370)
Minorities less than human
Name changed to Meena
"a nation that said all men were created equal, but kept my people in chain" (311)
Struggle
"I lived in terror that the captors would beat us, boil us, and eat us, but they began with humiliation: they tore the clothes off our backs" ( 29).
Slavery
“Too late. He’s sold. Only got me five pounds” (184)
Sold into slavery at age of eleven
Literary theory
Colonialism
Family
Aminata's parents
Manadua, and May (Aminata's Kids)
Racism
“You talk real fancy for a nigger,” (252)
"'we don't serve niggers" (313)
Symbols
Boat
Entrapment
“locked inside this pen” ( 93)
Africa
Freedom
Books
Knowdlege
Dedicated
"It was hard work, but i showed him that I learned fast and would do the job well. I had no wish to anger him"
Intelligent
"I have never seen someone from Africa learn so fast."
Other Characters
Chekura
Compassionate
"that evening Chekura brought a calabash of water and some soap made from shea nuts, and offered to help clean the wound on my thigh". (Hill 38) "
Appleby
Evil
Setting
1745-1805
Nova Scotia
“The pain of my losses never really went away. The limbs had been severed, and they would forever after be missing. But I kept going. Somehow, I just kept going" (351)”
South Carolina
British Colony
Slave Ship
Bayo Africa
“It’s not about whether it will do me good. It’s that I want to go home.” (418)