Abina And The Important Men Summary

Abina and The Important Men is a collaboration between a South African artist Liz Clarke and Trevor Getz, who is a modern African and world Historian at San Francisco State University. Getz is known in his field for his earlier work, Slavery and Reform in West Africa, which is a book about slavery and the abolition of slavery in West Africa. The most interesting thing about Getz writing in this book is it is a history about women who have no history and the more important males of society due to their mere common interest, blur these women’s stories and accusations. In this essay, Abina and The Important Men will get a thorough review of structure and analysis of text and response in regards to how I as a reader perceived the book. The comic …show more content…
It was an important case because it brought charges against one of the ‘important men” of the Gold Coast. However, because of Hutton Brew’s skilled questioning, he is able to put Abina on the defense stand about her status as a slave. Hutton Brew argues that she was in fact a free woman and the court should throw out the case. The case however results in a jury trial resulting in the acquittal of Quamina Eddoo by a jury of his peers who also were considered “important men” of Cape Coast. The Jury believed that it was against the best interest of every party that was involved and this ultimately became the reason for acquittal, as Palm Oil was a major product that helped the economy of the West African coast. The author ends the novel by explaining that history is only written by and for Important men and the story of Abina’s life is just another important story that is once again lost to time. This book shows the extent of which slavery was prevalent along the West African Gold Coast and how woven it was into everyday life and society. Abina was doing work that free women performed regularly through the entirety of her enslavement. Abina, although only threatened and not physically abused, was under the sexual satisfaction of her handlers. Life could’ve been worse for Abina however; she could’ve been a regular slave and not a house …show more content…
Getz adds his own spin on the story reconstructing the way Abina looked and talked. This book reminds me of the slave trade of women going on today in other countries. Overall this book is a great attempt at providing historical context of the Gold Coast and the problems going on during the nineteenth century. It was an excellent book to use for the History of Africa class this