The Book of Negroes or Someone knows my name

Let me say upfront that the Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill, is the winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book in 2008; and my overall view is that it is an ambitious piece, written in a meticulous way, and with admirable story telling skills and about a subject needs telling. I would recommend it.


It did take me a while to finish though, because my enthusiasm waxed and waned – and here is why:

While apparently historically accurate, as evidenced from the referenced material – which can be checked; in over four “books” it covers life in Africa and the middle passage; slavery in the Carolinas and east coast; life of freed slaves in Nova Scotia and return to Freetown, Sierra Leone. The primary plot device that allows us to move from one space to another is that Aminata Diallo is writing her life story, which she is documenting for the abolitionist movement in the UK.

In trying to cover several aspects of the slave narrative however, the author, Lawrence Hill, perhaps reaches beyond what is plausible in one too many instances. For example, the story of capture and the middle passage provides a rich understanding of the absolute inhumane treatment of Africans; but this is seen ostensibly through the eyes of an eleven year old girl. Some of her observations are altogether too adult, and seem more as a means of putting forward the authors’ and historical views on the slave trade – rather than inhabiting the character of a child whose world has been torn asunder. Similarly, the narration of life on the slave plantation while brutal and nasty uses questionable plot devices that see Aminata rapidly learning English, reading and writing, and moving on to becoming a bookkeeper to allow us to move into the world of the slave owner in the South.

Mr. Hill also inserts a curious scene of homosexual activity during the middle passage – for which there is not further mention over the course of the next 300 pages – the characters pretty much disappear. One can only assume that it is designed to make the oft made point by activists that such practice is not an import to Africa, but existed prior to the advent of Europeans or others. A better treatment of the subject would have perhaps been more useful than the random incident.

In marrying fiction with historical facts, the book tended towards a self conscious and in some places, contrived, narrative designed to educate on the issues of slavery; the abolitionist movement; African homeopathy and a broad range of other topics that is at once engrossing, but at the same time seemingly too much to rest on the story of one woman’s life. While I enjoyed The Book of Negroes (otherwise published as Someone Knows My Name), I was at times irritated by the authors need to include so much.

Lastly, the plot seems one written in a way that could easily translate into a television mini-series – very much reminiscent of Roots and others of that genre. While this is not a negative, it does present some characters that appear one dimensional, who burst on to the scene and then disappear in a very facile manner.

So in the end, I felt more as though I had taken a whirlwind journey by an able curator through the history of slavery; rather than read an intimate narrative of one woman's singular journey through what was a collective experience. Someone Knows My Name: A Novel