66 pages • 2 hours read
Safiya SinclairHow to Say Babylon: A Memoir
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Safiya Sinclair’s Poetry
Safiya Sinclair is a critically acclaimed poet who graduated from the University of Virginia’s poetry MFA program. She is best known for her debut poetry collection Cannibal (2016), which was the winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. For her poetic work, Sinclair has also been awarded a prestigious Whiting Award. The selection committee noted that her poetry is “[r]ich and mythic, heavy with the legacy of family and history” and that, in her poetry, “[t]he mother […] recedes into myth, while the father erupts from the page, threatening disruption and disturbance” (“Safiya Sinclair.” Whiting Foundation). Many of the images and themes that appear in her poetry are featured in How to Say Babylon.
How to Say Babylon focuses on the beginning of Sinclair’s writing career, which allows her access to the wider world and saves her from her father’s abuse, playing into the theme of Literature as a Form of Liberation. The memoir is rich in lyrical description and imagery, as Sinclair finds poetry in the landscape around her: “[M]y mother taught me the poetry of greenery” (54), highlighting that, for Sinclair, poetry is everywhere. It is this poetic eye that allows Sinclair to bring her strict and chaotic childhood to life.
Ideological Context: The Rastafari Movement
Rastafari (sometimes called Rastafarianism) was mainly created from the influence of Marcus Garvey, who “believed in the unification of black people(s) in the Americas toward a physical return to the African continent for economic, political, and social reasons” (Williams, Emily Allen. “Rastafarians.” Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, edited by Jay Kinsbruner and Erick D. Langer, 2nd ed., vol. 5, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008, p. 495).
Many Rastafari view Haile Selassie, the former emperor of Ethiopia, as the Black Messiah, worshipping him as a divine figure. The rise of Rastafari throughout the West Indies combined this new faith with revolutionary fervor: The movement “coincided with widespread political upheaval” and “played an active part in sparking the labor uprisings of 1938 in Jamaica” (Salter, Richard C., and Ikael Tafari. “Rastafarianism.” Encyclopedia of Religion, edited by Lindsay Jones, 2nd ed., vol. 11, Macmillan Reference USA, 2005, pp. 7622-7629. Gale In Context: World History). As a result, Rastafari were ostracized to the outer margins of Jamaican society and viewed as dangerous, primarily because they advocated for “a militant belief in Black independence […] that would only be realized by breaking the shackles of colonization, and unifying the African diaspora” (9). This threatened their British colonizers, leading to multiple violent attacks on Rastas.
Most Rastafari do not follow all of the tenets of the movement, instead picking and choosing those that align with their belief system. However, the main tenets are:
“(1) Black people were exiled to the West Indies because of their moral transgressions; (2) the wicked white man is inferior to black people; 3) the Caribbean situation is hopeless; (4) Ethiopia is heaven; (5) Haile Selassie is the Living God; (6) the emperor of Ethiopia will arrange for all expatriated persons of African descent to return to their true homeland; and (7) Black people will get revenge by compelling white people to serve them” (Williams).
Many people stereotype Rastafari people as resembling Bob Marley, the most famous member of this faith community. This is partly why Sinclair wrote her memoir: to provide a more multifaceted depiction of Rastafari. While stereotypical symbols such as dreadlocks and marijuana or “ganja” are important to Rastafari, it is a much richer movement that focuses on unity and power.
Sinclair primarily focuses on how Rastafari bredren (men) treat the community’s sistren (women) in her memoir: How to Say Babylon explores how Sinclair’s father takes a strict and abusive patriarchal approach to his family. Scholars agree that Rastafari does have a history of being patriarchal. However, “women have started to play essential roles in spreading and organizing Rastafari, in producing Rastafari literature and art, and in challenging the patriarchal assumptions of the earlier leaders” (Salter).
