Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Discussion #2 pg. 29-54 Feb 7

Discussion Leader-Aidan Hull

Questions:

1. What do you think of her child hood?
2. Did you like it when Aminata started observing gender roles in the village?
3. How did it make you feel when the writer started writing about the kidnapping?
4. Whats your opinion on how Aminata through out the book choses life by staying in line and not disrespecting her captors.
5. With one word summaries what you have read so far in the Book of Negros?

Illuminator-Harkirn Mangat

Quotes (five):


1. “The next morning, between first light and sunrise, I tired again to pray. But another captor struck me with the rod. The next night, after another thrashing, I gave up the prayers.” (Pg. 33) 



This shows Aminata trying to do her prayers but each time she tries the captors hit her and stops her from continuing on. I think the captors do this to stop her from being whom she is, to make her into noting but a captive  She has already lost her family and community, all that is left is her culture and slowly that is being taken away too.



2.”I felt so much better, and safer, with my privates covered.” (Pg. 40)


The beginning of the chapter Aminata is striped of all her clothing, which makes her feel embarrassed and humiliated. So when these two ladies give her a blue cloth to wrap around herself it becomes one less thing to worry about.  Walking around naked with nothing to wear made her feel different but covered she does not feel so much like a captive.  

3.”That is no longer a man. “  “ “It’s just skin and bones,” she said. Think of a goat. It’s just a body.” “ (Pg.42)

In this quote Fanta is trying to calm down Aminata by telling her that the dead man she stepped on is nothing to be afraid of by comparing it to a dead goat “It’s just a body”.  This quote shows the worth of the people that die which, was non at all they were just released from their coffles and left to rot on the path that they walked.

4.” Inside out pen, homelander women who were clothed and cold-eyed dragged one female captive to a corner, where toubabu and homelander men stood asiting with metal devices heating over glowing embers. I turned away, but heard the women screaming as if someone had torn off her arm. “ (Pg. 52)

In this quote it relates to the first chapter when Aminata talks of a mark on her chest. This quote tells of how she received it from the Homelander and toubabu.  The mark was the symbol GO that I am not to sure what it means yet.

5. “ To gaze onto another person’s face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity, and to assert your own.” (Pg. 29)

This quote means to find the similarity between you and the person that you are making eye contact with. In the book Aminata makes eye contact with one of the captors who is brutally hurting a captive, but they meet their eyes so peacefully. The actions that one does, does not affect who they are. 


Word Wizard-Rika Wong


 1. Coffle
Page #- 37
Paragraph#- 4
Phrase from the text (context): "Finally, in exchange for copper manillas and salt, the captors took a man and yoked him to the last person in the coffee."
Definition and/or meaning in context: A chain or line of animals, prisoners or slaves tied together.

2. Tam-tam Drums
Page #- 37
Paragraph#- 3
Phrase from the text (context): I heard the beating of tam-tam drums, saw buzzards circling lazily in the sky and caught the smell of goat meat riding in the breeze, but there was no rescue.
Definition and/or meaning in context: A type of drum used for ceremonial and religious occasions. Also mainly used by cultures in forested areas for the purpose of long distance communication.

3. Buzzards
Page #- 37
Paragraph#- 3
Phrase from the text (context): I heard the beating of tam-tam drums, saw buzzards circling lazily in the sky and caught the smell of goat meat riding in the breeze, but there was no rescue.
Definition and/or meaning in context: Large vulture-like birds of prey, often seen flying in wide circles.

4. Yoke
Page #- 40
Paragraph#- 3
Phrase from the text (context): "The yokes were bound fast at the back of our necks, and no amount of tugging could get me free, or accomplish anything other than to rub my skin raw."
Definition and/or meaning in context: A frame usually attached to the necks and shoulders of two animals in order to keep them together and/or drag a heavy load. 

5. Woloso
Page #- 38
Paragraph#- 1
Phrase from the text (context): But if we had seen men, women and children, yoked and forced to march like woloso, only worse, I hoped that we would have fought for them and freed them. 
Definition and/or meaning in context: A house-born African slave or a person who is born into slavery.

*All definitions were retrieved from Merriam Webster 

Stagecrafter-Anisha Sangha


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