The Rastafarian movement aspired to free black people to take pride in being themselves in an petulant world. Unfortunately, as Safiya Sinclair here portrays, those ideals themselves sometimes led to oppressive circumstances, especially towards women and towards the curious-at-heart. She grew up in Jamaica to a musician-father who tried to seclude his family from the rest of the world (termed “Babylon”). He pressed education, but the determination and exposures Sinclair learned in school pushed her to fight against his patriarchal structures. She did so in earnest, and this eventually led her to study and work in the United States (termed “Foreign”). It also led her to break with the strictures of her upbringing, though this remains a part of her.
As an adult, Sinclair is an acclaimed, well-awarded poet, and that love for images and expression carries through in this book. She evoked deep emotional responses from me while I read this book, especially around themes of patriarchal control. The middle of the book can be depressing with ubiquitous hardships, but in the conclusion, she teaches us how to heal. Though always eloquent, I didn’t find in my reading that this book was any good – until the end. And that’s just how great books are.
Indeed, though about the Rastafarian religion, her insights transcend this one group and pierce deeply into the human condition. We are all born with fathers and mothers. They shape us. They mold us… even when we don’t like it. In this memoir, Sinclair teaches us what it means to truly be ourselves. Her peace with herself despite an utterly hostile world shows us how to find our peace with ourselves when we reach safety.
Warning: This book does contain abuse, emotional violence, and physical violence. It certainly triggered many memories buried in me. I’m not sure any reader can work through this narrative unmoved. Therein lies its power. By plumbing the depths of how our experiences molded us, they show us afresh what it means to be human and what our human hearts truly speak. Sinclair transforms us all from being the abused, perhaps on the way towards abusing others, into exquisite poets. That sense of healing and personal confidence is why you should read this book and continue through these hard words.
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
By Safiya Sinclair
Copyright (c) 2023
37 Ink
ISBN13 9781982132330
Page Count: 352
Genre: Autobiography/memoir
Sponsored link to www.amazon.com