Lose Your Mother

A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route

By: Saidiya Hartman

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson

In Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman traces the history of the Atlantic slave trade by recounting a journey she took along a slave route in Ghana. Following the trail of captives from the hinterland to the Atlantic coast, she reckons with the blank slate of her own genealogy and vividly dramatizes the effects of slavery on three centuries of African and African American history.

The slave, Hartman observes, is a stranger-torn from family, home, and country. To lose your mother is to be severed from your kin, to forget your past, and to inhabit the world as an outsider. There are no known survivors of Hartman's lineage, no relatives in Ghana whom she came hoping to find. She is a stranger in search of strangers, and this fact leads her into intimate engagements with the people she encounters along the way and with figures from the past whose lives were shattered and transformed by the slave trade. Written in prose that is fresh, insightful, and deeply affecting, Lose Your Mother is a "landmark text" (Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams).

©2007 Saidiya Hartman (P)2021 Tantor

Beautiful story, with depth and meaning

This is a wonderful account of person, trying to find herself in the world. My only issue was with the narrators attempt at a Ghanaian accent lol im a Ghanaian man, and let me tell you that was not it. It was more akin to a weak Caribbean accent. Other than that the story was brilliant!

A Generous Journey

Saidiya Hartman unravels complex histories, challenging memories, and desires for freedom, for another social order. Her account is relatable, onerous, vulnerable, and generous as it takes the reader to many places and time periods. Beautiful written, this amazing blend of poignant memoir and informative historical text is a must read/listen to for everyone, who studies slavery, racism, colonialism, and memory.
Regarding the performance- Great narrator as well. I especially appreciated the altered voices to designate speakers.

Amazing way to take on a complicated subject

I super enjoyed how this book really dug into the history of slavery as it was a practice in Ghana. It really set some foundation to the experience that they are having versus the experience that we are having in America. Amazing summed up the sense of searching for something that possibly will never found. Inspired me to create really introspective artwork around similar themes.

Great Discourse

Great mixture of ethnography and theory for Black Studies. Forces the reading to think if they should “lose their mother”. Also a fan of the reader!

A great book.

The narrator is excellent except while reciting in the various accents she tried. This does not take away from this very important story/book.