The Binding Ties of Womanhood
Am I my sister’s keeper? This question and more are explored in The Hundred Wells of Salaga which is a historical fiction novel written by Ayesha Harruna Attah. It tells the story of two vastly different women in precolonial Ghana during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Wurche, an ambitious princess who longs to be more active in the political happenings of her father’s court; and Aminah, a young, naive village girl whose life is shattered when she is kidnapped by raiders and ultimately becomes the personal slave of Wurche.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It was set during a time period that I was not familiar with and so it prompted me to do some more historical research. Yes I knew about the Scramble for Africa, but the battles and events that led up to Europe’s imperialism over Africa is not one that I have seen too often in fiction and literature. Plus I appreciated the fact that the plot was not your typical slave story. After Aminah is kidnapped and sold, I thought she would end up on a slave ship headed to America. But no, she remains in Ghana and her story becomes intertwined with Wurche’s. So to get a POV from characters that remained in Africa during this climactic time was refreshing and new to me.
I also thought this novel had amazing character development. But it is the relationship between Aminah and Wurche that is the true gem of this novel for me. Take for instance this scene from the novel after Wurche and Aminah fall in love with the same man written from Wurche’s perspective:
“She’s not for sale. And if you carry on like this, she will be….[OMITTED]...With that last statement, Wurche had unleashed on him all her buried frustrations, her rage, her confusion- a flood of emotions that annoyed her. She wasn’t proud of having bought Aminah, especially at a time when she’d been wrestling with the concept of owning people. Nor was she proud of threatening to send Aminah south. But mostly, she was unsettled by the sudden thought of life without Aminah. Aminah anchored her.”
I had to sit and reflect for a moment after reading that. Now Wurche is a very headstrong woman and so it was interesting to me to see how highly she regarded Aminah in that moment. She comes to see her as family but yet she owns her and she struggles with that. While on the flip side, Aminah desires nothing more than her freedom and is very resentful of Wurche at different points in the novel. But yet and still, there is this pause that comes over Aminah and keeps her bonded to Wurche too. We see this play out when she makes a decision against running away after she gets an opportunity. So the two women definitely keep each other at arms length for their varying and personal reasons - but they also understand and save each other too in many different ways. Man, their relationship was a joy to read and that is my only critique of the novel - it took too damn long for them to meet. The novel is nearly two-thirds of the way through before their paths intersect. Nonetheless, I sympathized greatly with both women and the complexity of their relationship was just beautifully explored by the author and it remains with me still even though I am done reading the novel. I love when a book does that. So yea go ahead and read this novel. You won't be disappointed that you did.
Rating: 4/5
