Abina And The Important Men Analysis

The book Abina and the Important Men is a graphic history about an African woman named Abina during 1876 in the Gold Coast of West Africa. During the 1700s Asante was a powerful state that had control over gold trade and slave trade around the region. In the 1850s and 1860s the British ran into conflicts with Asante kings because they were not willing to step down and let the British take over. This plays a large importance in the difficulty the courtroom experiences when attempting to rule a slave owner guilty, as the British do not want cause problems with slave owners. Abina was a slave during the time period that was given to Quamina Eddoo for a short period of time. Although she understood herself as being a slave therefore she decided to run away from her “master” Eddoo to the Cape Coast. When she arrived she connects with a man named James Davis who represents her in court against Eddo. Getz and Clarke focus on telling the story of Abina outside of a courtroom transcript in order to shine light on the silence that continued to oppress Abina after the court ruled Quamina Eddoo …show more content…
I found the approach of using a graphic history much more engaging with an audience than the transcript that was presented in Part II of the book. Although I believe the style Getz used could have taken away from the authenticity of the transcript, because it felt as if I was being drug away from the main point of the story. He included the transcript and the historical context, which helped fill many of the blank understandings of the relationships of the Asante societies. I it found interesting that the judge, William Melton did not understand the cultural aspects of the case he was ruling. This is important because James Brew, who represented Eddoo, used tactics in order to confuse both Abina as well as