In
one of her online interviews, Gyasi responds to the question, "Where is
home for you?" with the following: "It is a complicated question.
Home right now is Oakland, California. But again I think I have known for many
years that home, for me, can never really be a place. It is this thing that you
carry inside of you, similar to these characters, particularly the
Afro-American ones who have been ripped away from their original homes and yet
have this connection to the land. Home is this little light that you carry
inside you wherever you go."
FAMILY
TREES
Effia's
Family
Cobbee Otcher: Effia’s Father
Baaba: Cobbee’s first wife, not Effia’s biological mother, but reluctantly raises Effia until she can send her away in marriage
Effia Otcher: Fante, married to James to strengthen relationship between village and white men
Fiifi: Effia’s half-brother
James Collins: Governor of Cape Coast Castle, marries Effia
Quey Collins: Fante and British son of Effia and James
Cudjo Sackee: Quey’s friend from a prominent Fante village
Nana Yaa Yeboah: eldest daughter of powerful Asante king, forced into marriage with Quey
James Richard Collins: Fante, Asante and British: Quey and Nana’s son
Amma: James’ first wife whom he doesn’t chose and doesn’t love
Akosua Mensah: Asante, James’ second wife
Abena Collins: only child of James (Unlucky) and Akosua; drowned by missionary when her daughter is a baby
Ohene Nyarko: Abena’s lover
Akua Collins: only child of Abena, raised by missionaries in Kumasi, nightmares of firewoman; becomes the Crazy Woman; lives in Edweso
Asamoah Agyekym: Akua’s Asante husband, becomes the Crippled Man
Abee and Ama: Akua’s children whom she burns to death in their sleep
Nana Serwah: Asamoah’s mother who exiles Akua
Yaw Agyekum: Akua’s son who Asamoah saves from being burned, becomes history teacher
Esther Amoah: comes to clean for Yaw and becomes his wife
Marjorie Agyekum: Daughter of Yaw and Esther
Esi's Family
Maame: Esi’s and Effia’s mother.
Big Man Asare: Esi’s father, skilled and brave Asante warrior who foolishly rushed into conflict, but realized his folly after he was rescued and earned nickname, “It takes a big man to admit his folly.”
Esi Assare: to befriend Adbronoma, Esi sends word to Abronoma’s father that his daughter is a captive. Esi is sold as a slave and raped at the Castle and sold into slavery in U.S.
Abronoma: houseslave for Maame, captive from another tribe.
Ness Stockham: Esi’s daughter, field slave to Thomas Allan Stockham in Alabama
Pinky: Mute slave girl on Stockham’s plantation
Sam: Ness’ husband chosen by the slave owners. Hung by slaveowner
Kojo Freeman: Ness and Sam’s son, taken to Baltimore by Ma Aku
Ma Aku: Asante woman who takes Kojo north in U.S.
Anna Foster: Kojo’s wife, kidnapped when pregnant and commits suicide after H is born
H Black: Kojo and Anna’s son, arrested after the Civil War and sold to work in coal mine in Alabama
Joecy: friend H met as a convict in coal mines and seeks out in Pratt City when released
Ethe Jackson: woman H met before his time as a convict and who he seeks out when released
Wille Black: daughter of H and Ethe, gifted singer, moves from Pratt City to Harlem
Robert Clifton: Willie’s husband from Pratt City who is a very light-skinned black man
Eli: poet of sorts who is transient in Willie's life
Carson “Sonny” Clifton: Willie and Robert’s child
Josephine: Willie and Eli’s child
Amani Zulema: singer and drug addict
Marcus Clifton: Son of sonny and Amani
Approximate Time Periods
Effia and Esi: 1760’s to 1780’s
Quey and Ness: 1800 to 1820’s
James and Kojo: 1820’s to 1860
Abena and H: 1860s to 1890s
Akua and Willie: 1890s to 1920s
Yaw and Sonny: 1940s to 1980s
Marjorie and Marcus: 2000’s
Questions and Topics for Discussion: Chosen from a longer list of questions
1. What perspective does the book offer on the subject of beliefs and otherness? For instance, does the book delineate between superstition and belief? Why does Ma Aku reprimand Jo after he is kicked out of church? What do the Missionary and the fetish man contribute to a dialogue on beliefs and otherness? Does the book ultimately suggest the best way to confront beliefs that are foreign to us?
2. Evaluate the treatment and role of women in the novel. What role does marriage play within the cultures represented in the novel and how are the women treated as a result? Likewise, what significance does fertility and motherhood have for the women and how does it influence their treatment? In the chapter entitled “Effia,” what does Adwoa tell Effia that her coupling with James is really about? In its depiction of the collective experiences of the female characters, what does the book seem to reveal about womanhood? How different would you say the treatment and role of women is today? Discuss.
3. Analyze the structure of the book. Why do you think the author assigned a chapter to each of the major characters? What points of view are represented therein? Does any single point of view seem to stand out among the rest or do you believe that the author presented a balanced point of view? Explain. Although each chapter is distinct, what do the stories have in common when considered collectively? How might your interpretation of the book differ if the author had chosen to tell the story from a single point of view?
4. Consider the setting of the book. What time periods are represented and what places are adopted as settings? Why do you think that the author chose these particular settings? What subjects and themes are illuminated via these particular choices? How does the extensive scope of the book help to unify these themes and create a cohesive treatment of the subjects therein?
5. Why does Akosua Mensah insist to James, “I will be my own nation” (99)? What role do patriotism, heritage, and tradition play in contributing to the injustices, prejudices, and violence depicted in the book? Which other characters seem to share Akosua’s point of view?
6. Explore the theme of complicity. What are some examples of complicity found in the novel? Who is complicit in the slave trade? Where do most of the slaves come from and who trades them? Who does Abena’s father say is ultimately responsible (142)? Do you agree with him? Explain why or why not.
7. Examine the relationships between parents and children in the book. How would you characterize these relationships? Do the children seem to understand their parents and have good relationships with them and vice versa? Do the characters’ views of their parents change or evolve as they grow up? How do the characters’ relationships with their parents influence the way that they raise their own children?
8. What significance does naming have in the book? Why do some of the characters have to change or give up their names? Likewise, what do the characters’ nicknames reveal both about them and about those who give or repeat these names? What does this dialogue ultimately suggest about the power of language and naming?
9. Sonny says that the problem in America “wasn’t segregation but the fact that you could not, in fact, segregate” (244)? What does he mean by this? What does Sonny say that he is forced to feel because of segregation? Which of the other characters experience these same feelings and hardships? Does there seem to be any progress as the story goes on? If so, how is progress achieved? Alternatively, what stymies and slows progress in this area?
10. Consider the book’s treatment of colonialism and imperialism. In the chapter entitled “Esi” at the start of the book, what does Esi’s mother tell her daughter that weakness and strength really are? How does her definition of weakness and strength correspond to the dialogue about colonialism and imperialism that runs throughout the book? Discuss how this dialogue expands into a deeper conversation about freedom and human rights. Have the issues surrounding colonialism, imperialism, freedom, and human rights featured in the book been resolved today or do they linger? If they remain, does the book ultimately offer any suggestions or advice as to how this might be remedied?
Cobbee Otcher: Effia’s Father
Baaba: Cobbee’s first wife, not Effia’s biological mother, but reluctantly raises Effia until she can send her away in marriage
Effia Otcher: Fante, married to James to strengthen relationship between village and white men
Fiifi: Effia’s half-brother
James Collins: Governor of Cape Coast Castle, marries Effia
Quey Collins: Fante and British son of Effia and James
Cudjo Sackee: Quey’s friend from a prominent Fante village
Nana Yaa Yeboah: eldest daughter of powerful Asante king, forced into marriage with Quey
James Richard Collins: Fante, Asante and British: Quey and Nana’s son
Amma: James’ first wife whom he doesn’t chose and doesn’t love
Akosua Mensah: Asante, James’ second wife
Abena Collins: only child of James (Unlucky) and Akosua; drowned by missionary when her daughter is a baby
Ohene Nyarko: Abena’s lover
Akua Collins: only child of Abena, raised by missionaries in Kumasi, nightmares of firewoman; becomes the Crazy Woman; lives in Edweso
Asamoah Agyekym: Akua’s Asante husband, becomes the Crippled Man
Abee and Ama: Akua’s children whom she burns to death in their sleep
Nana Serwah: Asamoah’s mother who exiles Akua
Yaw Agyekum: Akua’s son who Asamoah saves from being burned, becomes history teacher
Esther Amoah: comes to clean for Yaw and becomes his wife
Marjorie Agyekum: Daughter of Yaw and Esther
Esi's Family
Maame: Esi’s and Effia’s mother.
Big Man Asare: Esi’s father, skilled and brave Asante warrior who foolishly rushed into conflict, but realized his folly after he was rescued and earned nickname, “It takes a big man to admit his folly.”
Esi Assare: to befriend Adbronoma, Esi sends word to Abronoma’s father that his daughter is a captive. Esi is sold as a slave and raped at the Castle and sold into slavery in U.S.
Abronoma: houseslave for Maame, captive from another tribe.
Ness Stockham: Esi’s daughter, field slave to Thomas Allan Stockham in Alabama
Pinky: Mute slave girl on Stockham’s plantation
Sam: Ness’ husband chosen by the slave owners. Hung by slaveowner
Kojo Freeman: Ness and Sam’s son, taken to Baltimore by Ma Aku
Ma Aku: Asante woman who takes Kojo north in U.S.
Anna Foster: Kojo’s wife, kidnapped when pregnant and commits suicide after H is born
H Black: Kojo and Anna’s son, arrested after the Civil War and sold to work in coal mine in Alabama
Joecy: friend H met as a convict in coal mines and seeks out in Pratt City when released
Ethe Jackson: woman H met before his time as a convict and who he seeks out when released
Wille Black: daughter of H and Ethe, gifted singer, moves from Pratt City to Harlem
Robert Clifton: Willie’s husband from Pratt City who is a very light-skinned black man
Eli: poet of sorts who is transient in Willie's life
Carson “Sonny” Clifton: Willie and Robert’s child
Josephine: Willie and Eli’s child
Amani Zulema: singer and drug addict
Marcus Clifton: Son of sonny and Amani
Approximate Time Periods
Effia and Esi: 1760’s to 1780’s
Quey and Ness: 1800 to 1820’s
James and Kojo: 1820’s to 1860
Abena and H: 1860s to 1890s
Akua and Willie: 1890s to 1920s
Yaw and Sonny: 1940s to 1980s
Marjorie and Marcus: 2000’s
Questions and Topics for Discussion: Chosen from a longer list of questions
1. What perspective does the book offer on the subject of beliefs and otherness? For instance, does the book delineate between superstition and belief? Why does Ma Aku reprimand Jo after he is kicked out of church? What do the Missionary and the fetish man contribute to a dialogue on beliefs and otherness? Does the book ultimately suggest the best way to confront beliefs that are foreign to us?
2. Evaluate the treatment and role of women in the novel. What role does marriage play within the cultures represented in the novel and how are the women treated as a result? Likewise, what significance does fertility and motherhood have for the women and how does it influence their treatment? In the chapter entitled “Effia,” what does Adwoa tell Effia that her coupling with James is really about? In its depiction of the collective experiences of the female characters, what does the book seem to reveal about womanhood? How different would you say the treatment and role of women is today? Discuss.
3. Analyze the structure of the book. Why do you think the author assigned a chapter to each of the major characters? What points of view are represented therein? Does any single point of view seem to stand out among the rest or do you believe that the author presented a balanced point of view? Explain. Although each chapter is distinct, what do the stories have in common when considered collectively? How might your interpretation of the book differ if the author had chosen to tell the story from a single point of view?
4. Consider the setting of the book. What time periods are represented and what places are adopted as settings? Why do you think that the author chose these particular settings? What subjects and themes are illuminated via these particular choices? How does the extensive scope of the book help to unify these themes and create a cohesive treatment of the subjects therein?
5. Why does Akosua Mensah insist to James, “I will be my own nation” (99)? What role do patriotism, heritage, and tradition play in contributing to the injustices, prejudices, and violence depicted in the book? Which other characters seem to share Akosua’s point of view?
6. Explore the theme of complicity. What are some examples of complicity found in the novel? Who is complicit in the slave trade? Where do most of the slaves come from and who trades them? Who does Abena’s father say is ultimately responsible (142)? Do you agree with him? Explain why or why not.
7. Examine the relationships between parents and children in the book. How would you characterize these relationships? Do the children seem to understand their parents and have good relationships with them and vice versa? Do the characters’ views of their parents change or evolve as they grow up? How do the characters’ relationships with their parents influence the way that they raise their own children?
8. What significance does naming have in the book? Why do some of the characters have to change or give up their names? Likewise, what do the characters’ nicknames reveal both about them and about those who give or repeat these names? What does this dialogue ultimately suggest about the power of language and naming?
9. Sonny says that the problem in America “wasn’t segregation but the fact that you could not, in fact, segregate” (244)? What does he mean by this? What does Sonny say that he is forced to feel because of segregation? Which of the other characters experience these same feelings and hardships? Does there seem to be any progress as the story goes on? If so, how is progress achieved? Alternatively, what stymies and slows progress in this area?
10. Consider the book’s treatment of colonialism and imperialism. In the chapter entitled “Esi” at the start of the book, what does Esi’s mother tell her daughter that weakness and strength really are? How does her definition of weakness and strength correspond to the dialogue about colonialism and imperialism that runs throughout the book? Discuss how this dialogue expands into a deeper conversation about freedom and human rights. Have the issues surrounding colonialism, imperialism, freedom, and human rights featured in the book been resolved today or do they linger? If they remain, does the book ultimately offer any suggestions or advice as to how this might be remedied?
More Discussion Questions:
1.
Discuss
the theme of fire throughout the book.
2.
Discuss
the meaning of family and ancestry, knowing where you come from in this
book.
3.
How are
women treated within different cultures in this novel?
4.
Discuss
the importance of scars as a theme in this book. Does the author believe
that scars can be inherited or passed down from one generation to the next?
5.
Who was
your favorite character and why? Which chapter did you like best?
6.
Discuss
the meaning of obroni and the effect this word had on people.
7.
What do
you think the meaning of the title “Homegoing” is?
8.
What
effect do the British have on Africa as slave traders? as missionaries?
9.
Discuss
the theme of rape in the book. Both Ese’s mame and Ese are raped as
slaves.
10.
Discuss
the theme of power and the various places it is found: in Effia’s beauty,
in Kujo’s physical strength, in James’ lineage…
11.
Discuss
the character of Quey and how his father deals with his apparent homosexuality.
12.
How is
race perceived differently in different locations? Africa, the south vs.
the north?
13.
How is
race defined in different ways within the novel? By skin color, by
speech?
14.
What is
the role of religion and belief systems within this novel?
15.
Discuss
the quotes mentioned above and their relevance to the novel and it’s themes.
16.
Yaw is a
teacher of history. What does he teach his students about the learning of
history? How is the theme of storytelling important within this chapter
as well as throughout the novel?
17.
Discuss
the figure of Akua. Crazy woman or sage woman? Is it a matter of
interpretation?
Summary
Homegoing follows the lives of half-sisters, Effia and Esi, born
unknown to one another in 18th-century West Africa. Slavery binds their blood,
its legacy inscribed on their descendants over three centuries of African and
African-American experience.
Effia is born in Fanteland on the night of a terrible fire;
considered cursed, she is married off to the governor of the nearby British
colony. She lives well at Cape Coast Castle, the huge British fort and slave
port. Effia learns that her real birth mother was an Asante woman enslaved by
her father, who escaped during the fire. (We later learn that her name is
Maaman. After her escape, she married an Asante leader and bore a second
daughter: Esi.) As the British inflame tribal rivalries, Fante and Asante raid
one another capturing prisoners to sell to the whites.
Effia's son Quey continues his father's slave trade, advising the
Fante leaders, Badu and Fiifi (Quey's uncle). Ever-hungry for gold and glory,
they rashly kidnap the Asante king's daughter and Quey must marry her to avert
war with the Asante. Their unhappy marriage convinces their son, James, to
reject the slave trade. He runs away with an Asante woman. The star-crossed
lovers flee deep into Asanteland, eking out a living as farmers. Abena, their
daughter, blames her parents' nameless past for her lack of suitors. Shamed by
a lover's final rejection, she runs away to a mission to give birth to her
daughter, Akua.
Abused for years by the priest, at sixteen Akua escapes the
mission to marry Asamoah, an Asante warrior; soon they have two young
daughters. The British exile the Asante king. As the enraged Asante nation
rises up to do battle, Akua has terrible visions of a fire-woman; they worsen
over the months Asamoah is away at war. Angry over Akua's screaming nightmares,
her mother-in-law locks her up without food or water. Asamoah, badly wounded,
returns a week later. She is saved, but imprisonment has shattered her mind.
They console one another and conceive a son, Yaw. Tragically, just after Yaw's
birth Akua is "possessed" by the fire-woman and sets fire to her
children. Only Yaw survives. Asamoah defends her, telling the villagers she
must live to raise his son.
Badly scarred, Yaw is a reserved, scholarly, and kind. He marries
late in life and dotes on his daughter Marjorie. She spends many summers with
her "crazy" grandmother Akua, who has gradually recovered her senses
(and been granted some forgiveness by Yaw). Inspired by Akua's old stories,
Marjorie becomes a gifted writer. She meets a fellow grad student named Marcus
and they visit Cape Coast Castle together. Unaware of their distant blood ties,
they bring Effia and Esi's stories full circle.
Meanwhile, Esi grows up in Asanteland. A Fante girl, captured and
enslaved as their house-girl, is the one that tells Esi her own mother was a
slave in Fanteland. Contrite, Esi innocently agrees to send a secret message to
the girl's father. Fante warriors arrive, and Esi is soon imprisoned as
"cargo" in the dungeons of the very fort where Effia lives. She is
raped by a soldier and shipped to America for sale. Esi's daughter Ness endures
all the horrors of slavery. Resolving that her son Kojo will be free, she
sacrifices herself to ensure his escape.
In Baltimore, "Jo" lives free under faked papers. His
wife Anna's are real, but that matters little after the Fugitive Slave Act
passes: Anna, pregnant, is kidnapped and sold as a slave. Their son H, born a
slave, becomes a coal miner after the Civil War. Active in the labor unions, H
brings his daughter Willie to sing the national anthem at union meetings. There
she meets Robert Carson, the lightest-skinned black man she has ever seen. They
marry and move to Harlem, where Willie looks forward to singing in jazz clubs.
While Club owners tell Willie she's "too black" to be onstage, Robert
eagerly embraces his ability to pass as white. The conflict drives them apart.
Willie struggles to raise their son Carson alone, but finds renewed joy singing
in her church's choir.
Carson (aka "Sonny") grows up angry over the injustices
blacks still face at every turn. As a housing rep for the NAACP in Harlem, he
is frequently jailed for his activism. Increasingly demoralized, Sonny turns to
drugs. His involvement with a sultry but self-destructive jazz singer produces
a child, Marcus. Marcus is a PhD student at Stanford when he spots a
fascinating young woman named Marjorie. In the final chapter, he and Marjorie
travel to Ghana together. A sense of promise hangs in the air as they splash in
the ocean beside Cape Coast Castle.
Quotes
Following are just a few of the many phrases
Gyasi shares that reflect the many themes. The ones we reflected upon are
highlighted.
Belief and Religion
“god, a being who himself was made up of three but who allowed men
to marry only one.”
Chapter: Effia
“‘The white man’s god is just like the white man. He thinks he is
the only god, just like the white man thinks he is the only man. But the only
reason he is god instead of Nyame or Chukwu or whoever is because we let him
be. We do not fight him. We do not even question him.’”
Chapter: Kojo
“Prayer was not a sacred or holy thing. It was not spoken plainly,
in Twi or English. It need not be performed on the knees or with folded palms.
For Akua, prayer was a frenzied chant, a language for those desires of the
heart that even the mind did not recognize were there.”
Chapter: Akua
“Forgiveness, they shouted, all the while committing their wrongs.
When he was younger, Yaw wondered why they did not preach that the people
should avoid wrongdoing altogether.”
Chapter: Yaw
History and Stories
“Ancestors, whole histories, came with the act, but so did sins
and curses.”
Chapter: Effia
“The British were no longer selling slaves to America, but slavery
had not ended, and his father did not seem to think that it would end. They
would just trade one type of shackles for another, trade physical ones that
wrapped around wrists and ankles for the invisible ones that wrapped around the
mind.”
Chapter: James
“The Asante had power from capturing slaves. The Fante had
protection from trading them. If the girl could not shake his hands, then
surely she could never touch own."
Chapter: James
“History is storytelling”
Chapter: Yaw
“We believe the one who has the power. He is the one who gets to
write the story. So when you study history, you must always ask yourself, Whose
story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come
forth?”
Chapter: Yaw
“the problem with America wasn’t segregation but the fact that you
could not, in fact, segregate.
Chapter: Sonny
Self-preservation
"You can learn anything when you have to learn it. You could
learn to fly if it meant you would live another day."
Chapter: Esi
“Now that she had a plan, a hope for a way out, she felt emboldened.”
Chapter: Akua
“Eat or be eater. Capture of be captured. Marry for protection.”
Chapter: Quey
“’But if we do not like the person we have learned to be, should we just sit in front of our fufu, doing nothing? I think, James, that maybe it is possible to make a new way.”
Chapter: James
“No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.”
Chapter: Yaw
“Not the being lost, but the being found.”
Chapter: Marcus
Chapter: Esi
“Now that she had a plan, a hope for a way out, she felt emboldened.”
Chapter: Akua
“Eat or be eater. Capture of be captured. Marry for protection.”
Chapter: Quey
“’But if we do not like the person we have learned to be, should we just sit in front of our fufu, doing nothing? I think, James, that maybe it is possible to make a new way.”
Chapter: James
“No one forgets that they were once captive, even if they are now free.”
Chapter: Yaw
“Not the being lost, but the being found.”
Chapter: Marcus
Personal History
“Tell a lie long enough and it will turn to truth.”
Chapter: Kojo
"There should be no room in your life for regret. If in the moment of doing you felt clarity, you felt certainty, then why feel regret later?"
Chapter Abena
“playing his strange game of student/teacher, heathen/savior, but with Assamoah she saw that maybe her life could be something different from what she had always imagined it would be.”
Chapter: Abena
“How can I tell you the story of your scar without first telling you the story of my dreams? And how do I talk about my dreams without talking about my family? Our family?”
Chapter: Kojo
"There should be no room in your life for regret. If in the moment of doing you felt clarity, you felt certainty, then why feel regret later?"
Chapter Abena
“playing his strange game of student/teacher, heathen/savior, but with Assamoah she saw that maybe her life could be something different from what she had always imagined it would be.”
Chapter: Abena
“How can I tell you the story of your scar without first telling you the story of my dreams? And how do I talk about my dreams without talking about my family? Our family?”
Chapter: Yaw
“When they were living they had not known where they came from,
and so dead, they did not know how to get to dry land. I put you in here
so that if your spirit ever wandered, you would know where home was… It was
their summer ritual, her grandmother reminding her how to come home.”
Chapter: Marjorie
“How could he talk about Great-Grandpa H’s story without also
talking about his grandma Willie and the missions of other black people who had
migrated north, fleeing Jim Crow? And if he mentioned the Great Migration, he’d
have to talk about the citities that took that flock in. He’d have to talk
about Harlem…”
Chapter: Marcus
“… the feeling of time, of having been a part of something that
stretched so far back, was so impossibly large, that it was easy to forget that
she, and he, and everyone else, existed in it—not apart from it, but inside of
it.”
Chapter: Marcus
“Marcus was an accumulation of these times. That was the point.”
Chapter: Marcus
Chapter: Marcus
Assessing Others
You can only decide a wicked man by what he does.
Chapter: Akua
“‘People think they are coming to me for advice,’ Mampanyin said, ‘but really, they come to me for permission. If you want to do something, do it.”
Chapter: James
“Willie smiled at Robert, and it wasn’t until that smile that she realized she forgave him. She felt like the smile had opened a valve, like the pressure of anger and sadness and confusion and loss was shooting out of her, in the sky and away.”
Chapter: Willie
Chapter: Akua
“‘People think they are coming to me for advice,’ Mampanyin said, ‘but really, they come to me for permission. If you want to do something, do it.”
Chapter: James
“Willie smiled at Robert, and it wasn’t until that smile that she realized she forgave him. She felt like the smile had opened a valve, like the pressure of anger and sadness and confusion and loss was shooting out of her, in the sky and away.”
Chapter: Willie
In
one of her online interviews, Gyasi responds to the question, "Where is
home for you?" with the following: "It is a complicated question.
Home right now is Oakland, California. But again I think I have known for many
years that home, for me, can never really be a place. It is this thing that you
carry inside of you, similar to these characters, particularly the
Afro-American ones who have been ripped away from their original homes and yet
have this connection to the land. Home is this little light that you carry
inside you wherever you go."
