The Traumatic Effects of Human Trafficking in The Book of Negros Essay Sample

Intergenerational trauma (sometimes referred to as trans- or multigenerational trauma), resonates strongly. The mistreatment of African people during this time was so horrific that it carries into today’s society, with social activism being extremely prevalent in the news and social media. Even though Amanita’s struggle was fictional, thousands of people went through extremely similar experiences and were scarred for life. The Transatlantic Slave trade in Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negros was a chilling portrayal of the life of a victim of slave trafficking, and it gives an in-depth perspective on the events that occurred from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The trauma produced by slave trading is so deeply damaging to the human psyche that it changed the way generations think and are treated in society. 

Terror management theory, a theory developed by Jeff Greenberg, Sheldon Solomon, and Tom Pyszczynski, is based around the earlier work of anthropologist Ernest Becker in his book The Denial of Death. Simplified, the key concept surrounds the idea that everything humans do is essentially an act to avoid death, and find ways to cope with the idea of death. This can be applied to many instances of the novel. “Fanta brought out the knife from the medicine man’s room, placed a hand over the baby’s face and jerked up his chin. She dug the tip of the knife into the baby’s neck and ripped his throat open. Then she pulled the blue cloth over him, stood and heaved him overboard.” (Hill, 90) This quote displays perfectly and shockingly Becker’s theory in this story. To kill her child is to prevent him from experiencing a life of agony, sacrificing her sanity by having to live with this fact for the rest of her life. The act of preventing a life is both selfish and selfless, on one hand preventing all of the horrors to come, but also preventing all of life's experiences. This is why this theory fits into The Book of Negros, it is the ultimate showcase of the human condition. 

The toubabus, which is the Central and West African name for a person of European descent ("white people"), are the captors of the residents of Bayo and other villages. This theory applies interestingly as well to the captor-turned-slave literator John Clarkson. “One of the key concepts for understanding man’s urge to heroism is the idea of “narcissism.” (Becker, 2) Of course, John Clarkson’s actions, sending the formerly enslaved people home and to a new colony called Freetown are well-intentioned. In doing so, he is soothing his ego and guilt towards doing something he knows is completely morally wrong. However, the execution of the plan to return them is questionable due to the circumstances the formerly enslaved people have to deal with, making his mission redundant. They have all experienced similar situations, but they are from different backgrounds. “I was born in the village of Bayo, to Mamadu Diallo the jeweller and Sira Kulibali the midwife. I would still be there, but I was stolen away." Fatima turned away from me. "One yard for the oranges, please. Story time is over." (Hill, 395) This rift created by the attempt to bring all of the formerly enslaved people together is an awkward and minuscule attempt at fixing something unfixable. Enduring the conditions they were exposed to when they were captured is a textbook trigger for potential Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which would be one of the most common mental health-related diagnoses. John Clarkson’s relationship with Aminata is based on her skills in reading and writing, and while they do discuss frequently throughout their time together, it rarely consists of Aminata sharing her experiences. This creates an unspoken barrier and makes it difficult to form a relationship deeper than her skills which were often associated with a eurocentric influence.

After reading this novel and analyzing it using a lens that highlights the intentions and behaviours behind the events which caused such a tidal wave of psychological and socio-economic damage. The magnitude of the Transatlantic Slave trade is practically indescribable. The effects are still being felt today, across the United States, highlighted recently by the Black Lives Matter movement. The history of black people in America is brutal, from slavery to segregation and the fallout from both. Processing the trauma from these events will take generations to come, requiring people to find ways to repair the effects with laws and appropriate education and social culture.