Book: She Would be King
Author: Wayétu Moore
Country: Liberia ✨
Format: e-book
Pages: 312
Publication: 2018
The period is the early 1800s.
Gbessa is a cursed girl, living in the village of Lai in West Africa. June Dey is the surviving baby of two enslaved Africans on a plantation in Virginia, North America. Norman Aragon is the mixed child of a fugitive Maroon slave and a British colonizer in Jamaica. Each one of them possesses strange supernatural abilities, and destiny leads them to meet in the settlement of Monrovia, in what would become Liberia.
Those are the characters that the author, Wayétu Moore, decided to create to illustrate the incredible story of the foundation of Liberia, the only Black state in Africa never subjected to colonial rule.
I had heard about Haiti, the first Black Republic, but never knew about Liberia’s history until now. The country was founded by former American slaves who bought land in West Africa with the goal of establishing a new country. This was mainly done through an organization called the American Colonization Society (ACS), composed mainly of White Americans who believed that the men and women recently freed from slavery in the United States could not be integrated into American society and should be sent back to Africa.
It’s not clear if the ACS had completely good intentions or if their acts were based on even more racist theories, but the book doesn’t shy away from this controversy.
“They either finally got to feeling bad for what they done, or they got too many of us and want to send some back,” the man said.
She Would be King
“Second one sound right. Nobody ask me if I want to go, he murmured (…)
Some colored folk say White folks don’t want us working with them and all around them like we started to be, that’s why they want us all back to Africa – so bad. Plus, I tell ’em White folks in the free colony, too, making sure everything go right and they say, ‘If it’s free, why White folks got to be there?’”
The author also doesn’t run from the violence of slavery either, so you should be prepared for some physical, sexual and psychological abuse stories. But this is more than a violent retelling. Moore gives her characters the power to resist, using their unique powers and the magical elements embedded in the book.
Neither is this a clean story about good versus bad. If you have been following my blogs you know I’m all for the shades of gray and the nuance of complex realities. And here the author gives us lots of gray areas to play with.
“She winced, immediately realizing how bitter her decision had made the man who she considered her lover, who just as quickly as she exhaled shifted into the role of her owner, her master, her purchaser.”
She Would be King
Many of the characters escaped slavery and are committed to starting a new society in Monrovia, a settlement that would become the capital of Liberia. But that doesn’t mean that everything is flowers in this new place. Societal division, exploration, class hierarchies and prejudice are still present, even among the different black groups that still need to defend themselves from the permanent danger of captivity.
Differences between the American settlers, native villagers and other Africans who emigrated to Liberia are part of the real story of the country, and those divisions persisted until at least very recently. The country was devastated by a civil war in the 1980s and the instability lasted until the early 2000s. In 2005 they made history again by electing the first female president of the African continent, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. For her work establishing a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and maintaining peace, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011.
“’Do not sleep, for Monrovia and her story have just begun. Yes, Monrovia will be the vanguard of Africa’s resurrection. Her hairs will touch the lightning and she will protect and guide us all.
She Would be King
We must- we must-build Monrovia!’”
Despite the peace, Liberia remains one of the poorest countries in the world, with an average income for its citizens of US$755 per year. They’ve made significant progress in Life Expectancy and Child Mortality trends, but life is still very hard in the only African nation that escaped slavery. It reminds me of Haiti, which remains one of the poorest nations in the Americas, after becoming the first Black republic in history. Turns out that becoming symbols of Black resistance in the world was not the best for business in the 19th century.
“’I doubt other countries would trade to a colony of Negroes. Look at what is happening to Haiti. They are the first Black republic and already so poor from governments refusing to trade with them.’”
She Would be King
We owe these countries a lot and their stories should be shared more often. If I hadn’t been looking for African literature I would never have known the history of Liberia. We all should know it. Especially in countries like Brazil, with 50% of its population identifying as Black or Brown, where we don’t learn enough about African history, home of the ancestors of at least half of the population. Instead, we spend 90% of our time in history class learning about the Greeks, the Romans and King Arthur. And yes, these stories are important too, (and I have a sweet spot for Greek mythology), but can we get a better ratio here? It’s not like these facts are hard to access.
I’m not going to dive into the polemics of racial studies in schools, I don’t know enough about this topic. But every time I get out of my way and learn a remarkable fact about African history, it makes me sad that so many of us are missing this learning opportunity.
I hope you were able to learn a bit from this post. If you want to read more African literature, here’s a list of some of my favourite books from that continent. I also recommend you to check legends from African Mythology, they’re fascinating. I’m still trying to find a good book about this topic in English, I’ll post here when I do.
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