Lose Your Mother therefore constantly seeks to negotiate between Ghanaian cultural memories—the ethnic property of the Ghanaians—and Hartman’s own cosmopolitan mobility that, in turn, seeks an insertion into this and other memories. Her memory work, the essay demonstrates, is fraught with ironies due to the complicated nature of her own mobility. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route is a memoir of an African American woman coming to terms with similar–and distinct–issues from her unique perspective. I’ve heard from many African Americans that they often feel a sense of homelessness. For centuries black people have been treated as if America is not truly their home. Ironically, upon traveling to Africa, searching for connections
