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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Connection Between Heritage and Identity

Generations of Maame’s descendants either feel the link between their heritage and their identity or face uncertainty about their own identity due to their lack of knowledge about their heritage. Most of Effia’s descendants are at least somewhat aware of their heritage, as shown by the passing down of her black stone pendant. Still, each character’s identity is complicated by the family’s past. Though Quey is closest to his heritage, he struggles with his identity. Not only is Quey biracial, which makes him feel like an outsider among both British and African people, but he also has romantic feelings for his friend Cudjo. Unable to live a life he truly wants, Quey feels he has no choice but to continue with his family’s participation in the slave trade. This will continue to impact the identity of each person in his line of descendants as they grapple with how their ancestors’ actions impact who they are and how their lives play out.

The characters on Esi’s side are largely unaware of their own heritage due to the horrors of the slave trade, symbolized by the loss of Esi’s black stone pendant in the castle. This reflects the real-life cruel practice of separating enslaved families to break the connection to their heritage and culture. Except for Willie, each child in Esi’s line is separated from at least one of his or her parents, leaving them at a loss to their true culture and identity. H lives his life without a full name as his mother died before giving him one. And Sonny, abandoned by his father and frustrated by racial segregation, turns to heroin. However, once Marcus has the tools to look back on what he knows of his family’s past, he is able to more fully connect with his heritage and therefore his own place in the world.

The Effects of Generational Trauma

Both lines of Effia’s and Esi’s descendants show how difficult it is to break the cycle of generational trauma. Each has a different source of trauma: Effia’s descendants are the perpetrators of the slave trade, while Esi’s are the victims of it. Though James breaks away from his family’s dealings with the British, his progeny continued to be haunted by the sins of their ancestors even when they are unaware of these sins. This is shown by Akua’s nightmares of the fire woman, eventually leading her to unconsciously burn her family’s hut and kill her two daughters. Yaw then lives with a physical reminder of his mother’s crime.

Meanwhile, Esi’s descendants find it impossible to rise up from under the oppression of first slavery and later systemic racism. Even after slavery is abolished, H is enslaved again in the coal mines. Though he eventually makes his way to freedom, his grandson, Sonny, becomes a victim of heroin addiction. However, both lines are eventually able to break this pattern of generational trauma with the help of their families.

The Nature of Home

Every character in Homegoing grapples with the nature of what home truly means. Both Effia and Esi begin their lives feeling at home in the place they were born. However, they both learn that neither place was the true home of their mother, Maame. Maame was enslaved by Cobbe before giving birth to Effia and escaped to Asanteland, where she gave birth to Esi. After the treatment she received from Baaba, Effia does not feel at home in her own village, nor does she feel at home in the Cape Coast Castle. Her family will continue looking for where their home truly is until Akua faces and makes peace with her family’s past by returning to the coast.

Esi and many of her descendants are forcibly taken from the homes they know to be traded and sold. Even when certain characters try to make their own homes, as Kojo does in Baltimore, they are never safe from the ever-present danger of slavery and systemic racism. Sonny, who grew up without a permanent home, dedicates his early career to helping people live in better conditions. Despite the challenges, all of Esi’s descendants seem to recognize that home is made by where one’s family is. Though Marcus does not know that he and Marjorie are family, he understands this when he is able to face his fear of the water and join her in the ocean as she welcomes him home.
 

The Horrors of Colonization and Slavery

Effia’s and Esi’s lines are on the opposite sides of colonization and slavery. While Effia’s family benefits from the wealth brought by colonization and slavery, Esi’s family suffers from it. However, Homegoing shows how colonization and slavery indubitably bring harm to everyone involved. Effia’s brother, Fiifi, and the chief of her village, Abeeku Badu, welcome doing business with the British as it will bring wealth to their people. However, the British work with both the Fante and Asante people, pitting them against each other and taking members of either group as slaves.

The ultimate result is that, even if the African people working with the British gain some wealth, their culture is destroyed, their land is taken, and peace in the region becomes impossible. Even once the slave trade ends, the British slave traders are replaced by Christian missionaries, who still seek to undermine African culture. This is made evident by the drowning of Abena as a missionary attempts to baptize her, showing that they are not actually helping the African people as they claim to be. The horrors of slavery are shown as an extension of colonization, as enslaved people are forcibly removed from their families and culture and face a life of extreme violence and brutality.

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