Homegoing Short Summary

Homegoing is short history line about Efia and Esi who are half-sisters that never met. The article traces the history line of two distinct families that one works in the inhuman slavery trade while the other works on how to end the brutal trade. The novel is written by Yaa Gyasi, presenting the theme of discrimination, endorsement, and family. Below is the plot overview.

A Brief Overview of the Story

The novel is a storyline of a descendant of Asante woman, Maame in the 1700s. She delivered one daughter while she was enslaved in Fante Village and the second born upon escaping back to reside in Asanteland. As a result of the migration, Maame’s daughters never met.

Maame’s first daughter, Effia, is married to a British man, James Collins, who comes to the country as part of the British traders dealing in slavery. Her second child, Esi, is sold into slavery in the USA. Both Effia and Esi grew up and started their families, and their children gave them grandchildren who made the generation to continue growing.

From the lineage of Effia, there is Yaw. The story switches to adulthood, where Yaw is attracted to his housegirl Esther, with whom he falls in love. He, however, is not in good terms with the mother, Akua. He marries his house-help Esther and chose to go to see his mother back in the village. They later relocate to the United States and are blessed with a daughter, Marjorie. Marjorie grows up and develops the tendency of visiting her grandmother back in Ghana every time she’s in summer break due to their close relationship. However, Marjorie feels that she neither fits in her current country, the United States nor her ancestral country, Ghana.

In Esi’s family lineage, the story unfolds with Willie who decides to settle down in New York with her boyfriend, Robert. They get a son and name him Carson, who turns out to like being called sonny than Carson. Willie later breaks up with Robert. Carson likes ladies, something that has bored fruit of having three children with different women. Marcus is among his three sons. Marcus is determined education-wise and graduates from Stanford with a Ph.D. degree in black history. He is determined to know his family storyline, something that pushed him to know Marjorie a graduate student and a distant relative from far south in California. They plan a journey back to Ghana to visit their ancestry land together and contemplate their past and fears. Both Marcus and Marjorie enjoy together on the beach. Marjorie later gives him a necklace she inherited from her grandmother. She then welcomes him in the final reconciliation act between the two families whereby one was a pro-slavery, and the oppressed slaves.