25 Discussion Questions for Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (With Analysis) | Chapterly Blog
Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing is a staggering debut novel that traces two parallel family lines across seven generations, from eighteenth-century Ghana through the slave trade and into modern-day America and Africa. Homegoing discussion questions push readers to confront how the legacy of slavery echoes across centuries, how trauma is inherited even when its origin is forgotten, and what it means to search for home when history has severed you from it. Whether your book club is exploring the African diaspora, multigenerational fiction, or the enduring consequences of the slave trade, these questions are designed to generate powerful and necessary conversation. The novel begins with two half-sisters who never know each other: Effia, who marries a British slave trader and lives in Cape Coast Castle, and Esi, who is imprisoned in the dungeons below the same castle before being shipped to America. Each subsequent chapter follows a descendant of one sister, alternating between the African and American lines, until the two branches converge in the present day. These 25 questions are organized by theme. Homegoing Discussion Questions: Slavery, Colonialism, and Their Legacies Gyasi's structural conceit -- one chapter per generation, alternating between an African line and an American line descended from two...