It wasn’t until my writing stalled that I realized Arika was too fierce to realistically survive the cruelty of prewar America. For them, having a place in history is comparable to having a place in heaven.Īrika’s story was originally set in the antebellum South. Arika’s people, the Kongos, have an innate sense of the importance of telling their stories to a Record Keeper before they die. At the same time, I wanted to acknowledge how racism played a role in robbing us of our oral history. Oral tradition is rich and dynamic, and I wanted to honor it. Access to education has always been limited by racism, and so African-Americans have a long tradition of using oral mediums to store and transmit our history. In making her a Record Keeper, I gave her a historically significant and honored position in African-American culture. How does your novel address the creation of history?Īrika’s role in her society is to preserve her people’s history.
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