How to Say Babylon

A Memoir

By: Safiya Sinclair

Narrated by: Safiya Sinclair

Length: 16 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick!

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.

©2022 Safiya Sinclair (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

Powerful

A beautifully written memoir that keeps your attention so gracefully you forget you aren’t sitting next to Safiya.

I cared, I wept, I learned a lot too.

The author’s words and narration were exquisite, melodic, poetic. The story is powerful, meaningful and important.

Powerful Story

A really great book. I was first introduced to Safiya’s work at Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica, so I was really excited when I came across this book. She poured her heart and soul into this book. I experienced all the emotions listening to her story, anger, happiness, sadness. Really powerful story.

Powerful, at times hit too close to home.

Beautifully written and read. Learned much about Rasta beliefs. Vividly portrays women’s centuries old burdens and challenge to be heard.

Beautiful!

Wonderful Audible listen! A memoir that powerfully resonates with anyone healing from difficult familial relationships!

loved it!

beautifully written and read! a lesson in the power of family, self and forgiveness!

Powerful story

This book is a description of the difficult life of a human being that was controlled by a father that considered himself a god and shielded his family from the world. The writer describes the inner strength that enabled her to grow and escape her past. Freedom with her actions and escape with memory of the past.

Beautiful delivery

A beautiful but sometimes harsh story of family and art and love of nature. Sometimes the author can take away from the story as narrator. But not this time. Enjoy!!

A work of provocative literary artistry rooted in reality

Safiya’s story has fueled a hope in me that freedom from an oppressive existence can be attained.

A beautiful memoir

The author takes you on a journey of her life and forces us to deal with our own realities through her story. She bares her soul and shows us that vulnerability and truth are the real markets of strength and resilience. A must read for people who love words.