Someone Knows My Name

In the year 1757 Aminata and the captives reach Sullivan’s Island, just off the coast of the toubabu’s land. There the captives are placed in a barricade, where they are oiled and fed. Aminata wonders if her homelanders will come for them, but Biton tells her they will not. Biton, Fanta, Chekura, Fomba, Aminata, and others huddle together in the cold and sleep—a once intolerable act back home. A ship comes and takes the few hundred remaining captives toward land as another foul-smelling ship of captives from her homeland arrives at the island.

The toubabu’s land is a sight stranger and more crowded than anything Aminata has ever seen. Toubab and homelanders walk in all directions, and it appalls her that shackleless homelanders do not try to escape. Sacks of goods are piled in every corner; the streets and gutters are filled with waste. The captives are herded to an open space, where an auction takes place. One by one the healthy captives are taken on a platform, where they are examined. Toubabu in the crowd shout prices until the captive is taken off the platform or sold. When their turns arrive, Biton stands proudly, Chekura stumbles, and Fanta fights back until she is tied up. Aminata notices a coin on the ground similar to one she saw in the medicine man’s room and wonders what gave this ugly thing value.

Once the healthy captives are gone, the rest are lined up in a long row as toubabu grab captives by slinging ropes around them. Aminata and Fomba—glassy-eyed and mind gone—are tied to a few others. They walk all day without food and water then sleep at night. The captives call out to homelanders they come across, hoping to find a familiar face. Aminata dreams she sees her mother as a pregnant rabbit that shows her the way. When they come to a river, they are led into a canoe where the homelanders sing a song in unison. Aminata describes it as “the most mournful melody [she] had ever head, bubbling out of troubled and weary souls. […] they too must have survived the water crossing. How else could they sing like that?” (120). Aminata asks a man if he is Bamana, and he replies that his mother was from Africa—a term she is unfamiliar with. She learns that they are slaves, that the toubabu own them and are called the buckra, that captives like her are called African, and those born in toubabu land are called Negroes. He scolds her fiercely when she calls out Allaahu Akbar. Aminata and Fomba are then led off the boat by another homelander with a firestick.

Aminata and Fomba arrive at Robinson Appleby’s indigo plantation on St. Helena’s Island in 1757. When they are inspected, a weak Aminata falls to the ground. A kind, healthy slave named Georgia cares for her until she recovers. She teaches Aminata to speak both Gullah, the language the Negros speak among each other, and English, which they cannot speak in front of the buckra. Aminata spends her time aiding Georgia and traveling with her to deliver babies. After some time the Negro overseer named Mamed pulls Aminata aside, assigning her the job of cleaning the indigo vats. She learns that Mamed’s mother was African and his father was a buckra plantation owner who sold him to Master Applebee, making him more “uppity” than the rest of the slaves. Mamed takes a group of the Negros to plant indigo seeds in the farmland, singing songs led by Georgia in rhythm with their planting.

One day, when helping Georgia deliver a Fulfulde woman’s twins, Aminata asks Georgia to help her find Chekura through the fishnet—a method by which Negros communicate. Though Georgia tells her she is too young for a man, Aminata insists, saying, “We done cross the big water together” (140). Georgia is a skilled healer and teaches Aminata everything she knows, warning her to never let a buckra know how sharp she is. She gives Aminata a pox vaccine in time for the indigo harvest. The process of making indigo dye is hard work and takes many weeks, but Aminata learns the process and works hard under Georgia’s instruction. On the last day of work Aminata accidentally drops a sack of indigo mud. When Mamed grabs her arm, she cries out “Allaahu Akbar.” This startles him, and he asks her where she learned those words. Mamed shares that his mother was the daughter of a Fula chief and taught him everything she knew. He begins secretly teaching Aminata how to read and write, fulfilling her childhood dream of literacy.

After another cycle of indigo harvesting, Aminata is finally reunited with Chekura, who is now a man. He sees her differently, bringing her gifts and complimenting her. Aminata longs for these monthly visits, and though her desire grows, she doesn’t wish to lose her virginity yet: “I wanted to hold on to his voice and the sounds of my village in them” (159). Chekura doesn’t press on the matter. Master Appleby is not at the plantation often, but when he is he eyes Aminata’s body. Georgia senses this and tries her best to keep Aminata away from him, which she can only do for so long. Angered by Aminata’s secret meetings with Chekura, Master Appleby sends Georgia alone for a birth and rapes Aminata in the big house.