Previous Next

Effia is Maame’s older daughter, born on the night a fire raged from Fanteland to Asanteland. Effia believes her real mother to be Baaba, who has unrestrained contempt for Effia. Effia is excited to marry the village’s next chief, Abeeku Badu, and so is confused when Baaba instructs her to keep her menstruation a secret. However, once Effia is sent to be married to British governor James Collins, Effia understands that she has no true allies in her home village. Though Effia and James have an affectionate marriage, Effia struggles to feel truly at home in the Cape Coast Castle. She is horrified at the thought of the kidnapped people being kept in the dungeon. However, as a woman, she knows she has no power to change their circumstances, or her own for that matter. This lack of power causes Effia to be at least somewhat complicit in the slave trade, even living in the castle while her own half-sister is imprisoned below her. This involvement, unwilling and unconscious as it is, will haunt Effia’s descendants for generations to come.

Effia is grateful to be among other Fante women at the Cape Coast Castle, though she is made to feel inferior by her husband when using rituals that are new to him, such as roots meant to enhance fertility. Effia is also not considered James’s true wife, as he has a wife and children at home in England. Though Effia cannot voice her thoughts, she wonders why African practices, such as taking multiple wives, are seen as less civilized than British practices. Effia’s conflict of identity is further complicated when she learns that her true mother was an enslaved girl who escaped after giving birth to her. Effia was born of an enslaved woman and grows to be part of the system that enslaves people. Effia makes sure to pass down the black stone pendant left for her by Maame, which will serve as a reminder of both her descendants’ heritage and the crimes committed by their ancestors.

Previous section Character List Next section Esi

Take a Study Break