Ejemplo mde un Ensayo Abina y el Hombre Importante

World History I

10/18/2017

Book Review

Since the 1990s, studies of African slavery have taken a new direction: instead of just study about how slavery worked now they want to reveal the perspective of the slaves themselves on slave trade and exploitation. With this new objective, researchers such as Djibril .T Niane and Akosua Perbi have investigated the oral traditions about slavery through the analysis of proverbs, stories and songs. To this enthusiasm in finding new oral sources has been added, in recent years, the re-reading of well-known European sources, like stories of travelers and judicial transcripts of the colonial period, in search of the voices of the African slaves. Abina and the Important Men is part of these new studies on African slavery.

We have been studying in class about how Europe nations used slaves for their own good. Slaves took an important place in the colonies to obtain resources and goods. Europe nations became rich by the work of the slaves; they were very valuable because it was very effective in getting the job done. In other words, they were investments. In the book Abina and The Important Men by Trevor Getz we could see another perspective. Moreover, we saw how slaves were treated and we could learn how the traffic of slaves was. After the laws against slavery were applied there were still people that were in favor of slavery. In consequence, there was a lot of people that still had slaves even though was illegal. In class we were able to learn a lot about the good part, about how slavery was good for the rich people and for the progress, but by reading this book we could appreciate a different point of view of a person who is neither heard nor taken into account, victim of the system: poor.

What is good about the book?

Abina and the Important Men seek to make accessible and attractive to a wide range of non-learned readers the history of this African woman so far ignored by history. The history of Abina allows us to see the big transformations in the Gold Coast, from an economic, political, social and cultural point of view. In the studies of slavery, Abina and the Important Men allows you to think on what it means to be a slave. On one hand, the story of Abina shows the slaves not only as victims but as actors with their own initiative. On the other hand, we can realize the diversity of experiences that embraced the status of slaves in West Africa. Furthermore, the book leaves us thinking about how people, who have no importance for people with power and the system, were erased from the paper.

What is bad about the book?

We do not know if the story is true. In the first place, the author explains what difficulties the historian finds in reconstructing history of Abina that its reference is only made by this judicial transcript. At a second level of analysis, Getz asks how to deconstruct the transcript of what happened at court. What facts handled the judge? What facts reflected the speech of Abina? In a last level of analysis, the historian wonders how to reconstruct the “Truths” of Abina without constructing a different truth, which more reflects the vision of the author's world and the graphic artist.

Why was this book assigned as a reading?

It was assigned to show us another point of view of what we are learning in class. For us, it is interesting to learn more about how slaves were treated, their behavior, their work and lives, and I think it is much better when you team it by reading a comic with good content and art. Also, this book shows us a good story, in which we can introduce ourselves in the story and feet part of it.

What can we learn about this person's story?

As I said before, we can learn about another

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