Two Souls, One Blood: Examining Identity Fragmentation in the African American Experience through Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing

Abstract

Emerging from colonial displacements, the African diaspora uncovers the rich and complicated patterns of a long history of migration that was shaped by centuries of colonial influence and oppression. Far beyond the mere physical dislocation of populations, the African diaspora emphasizes the long-term social, cultural and mainly psychological effects of colonial systems on identity, memory and resistance beyond geographic boundaries. Its main and interconnected themes revolve around the lasting quest for identity, belonging amidst displacement, cultural hybridity and multigenerational trauma reflecting the complex experiences of people of African descent living outside the continent. Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing serves as an excellent case in point. The novel profoundly examines the persistent influences of colonialism and the African diaspora, thereby securing its position in the literary canons of Postcolonial and African diaspora studies. This research paper seeks to examine Yaa Gyasi’s novel Homegoing through a postcolonial lens. It takes as its chief concern to illuminate that the African American diasporic experience is one of fragmentation and is marked by a rupture of identity. What is more, the divide is not simply physical but it also manifests as a deep psychological wound for individuals who seek to navigate their African roots with their adopted American or European reality represented by the new order. Gyasi eloquently illustrates this conflict, passed down through various generations, through her successful selection of characters that are not portrayed as whole selves but rather as two souls, a condition that arises as a result of their arduous efforts to reconcile their past with their present.