Opinion: What Zora Neale Hurston’s Best-Seller Taught This African About Slavery

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July 4th, 2018

George Mwinnyaa on his visit to the slave castle at Cape Coast in his homeland of Ghana. The door leads to the cells where captives who were resistant were held prior to being sent over the ocean as slaves.

Leslie Mwinnyaa

July Fourth is a day when America celebrates its independence.

But this July Fourth, I am reflecting on another part of the American experience — the enslavement of my fellow Africans. That’s because I have just finished reading Barracoon, the book in which Zora Neale Hurston presents the story of Cudjo Lewis, who was on the last ship that brought slaves across the Atlantic. It took 60 years for her book to be published. Now it is a best-seller.

I was born and grew up in Ghana. I have long had many questions about slavery. Barracoon answers some of those questions — but not all of them.

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