Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook246 pages5 hours
The Hundred Wells of Salaga
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
()
Unavailable in your country
Unavailable in your country
About this ebook
Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the 19th century.
Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga is a story of courage, forgiveness, love and freedom. Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, it offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.
Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga is a story of courage, forgiveness, love and freedom. Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, it offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.
Unavailable
Author
Ayesha Harruna Attah
Ayesha Harruna Attah grew up in Accra, Ghana and was educated at Mount Holyoke College, Columbia University, and New York University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Asymptote Magazine, and the 2010 Caine Prize Writers' Anthology. Attah is an Instituto Sacatar Fellow and was awarded the 2016 Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship for nonfiction. She lives in Senegal.
Related to The Hundred Wells of Salaga
Related ebooks
Beyond The River: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Whispering Trees Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Men Don't Cry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun (Shortlisted for the Goldsmith Prize) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Marriage: Let’s Tell This Story Properly Short Story Singles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPiece & Pieces Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiscretion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnbury Our Dead with Song Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne for Sorrow, Two for Joy: Winner of the Diverse Book Award 2023 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mrs. Shaw: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing to the Beat of the Drum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Man Who Is Not A Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen We Speak of Nothing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Do You Dance When You Walk? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSweet Mercy: The Marula Heights Romance Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Trouble Sleeps Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWho Will Catch Us As We Fall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Stone Virgins: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Angel's Demise: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ready Reference Treatise: The Joys of Motherhood Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFertile Imagination and Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Murky Waters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Broken People's Playlist: Stories (from Songs) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Coat of Many Colours Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Born in Chains: The Diary of an Angry 'Born-Free' Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLooking For Something Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Uncertainty of Hope Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Season of Crimson Blossoms Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Day I Fell Off My Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Fiction For You
Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5East of Eden (Original Classic Editions) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Carnegie's Maid: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hallowe'en Party: Inspiration for the 20th Century Studios Major Motion Picture A Haunting in Venice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light Between Oceans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Count of Monte Cristo Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sold on a Monday: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Euphoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rules of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Tender Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5That Bonesetter Woman: the new feelgood novel from the author of The Smallest Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unsheltered: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Island of Sea Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hang the Moon: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I, Claudius Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Hundred Wells of Salaga
Rating: 3.1666666666666665 out of 5 stars
3/5
15 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A unique perspective on slavery - from its source in Ghana and the presence of British & German imperialists who support it economically, but also from the local tribes who form alliances and sell out their rivals and enemies. This is all conveyed through the lives of 2 young women: Aminah whose village is raided - she loses her family and becomes a slave - though not sent overseas. Instead she serves a local tribe which features Wurche another young woman, who is the daughter of the tribal king. She longs for power and action in her role, rather than the path of wife that is ordained for her. When she and Aminah meet each has something to learn and gain from the other. Wurche felt a little contrived in her role, but the book broadens history so well, it was worth the read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Aminah lives in a small village on the trade route of the caravans from Timbuktu: her life is torn apart when she and her three siblings are captured by slave traders who destroy her village and take her far to the south. Wurche is a princess of the Gonja people, frustrated that as a daughter she is not allowed to play the part in politics that her brothers are encouraged to do. Both come together in this tale of late nineteenth century Ghana where rival factions struggle for the throne of Salaga, against the backdrop of encroachment by the European powers of Britain, France and Germany.I found the background to this story very interesting indeed, based as it is on a real historical period between 1892 and 1897, and focusing on the African perspective rather than that of the European colonisers. Despite the events of the book being very many years after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, Salaga's slave market is still active, the hundred wells referred to in the title being where the slaves are washed before sale. And the author doesn't shy away from making her characters suitably complicit in its continued operation. Where this novel does fall down however, is in the characterisation, and its ability to generate emotional impact. The different characters come over as oddly flat and too similar, and despite what should be the horror of some of the events depicted, the author doesn't seem to be able to recreate that horror or the emotional response of her characters in her writing.So while I'm glad I read the book, I'm not sure that I'll be searching out anything else by the same author.