How to Say Babylon A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair

 Book Excerpt:

"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.

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. 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 explode in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them."

Title: How to Say Babylon
Author: Safiya Sinclair
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Five
Review:
"How to Say Babylon" by Safiya Sinclair

My Sentiments:

'How to Say Babylon' was a different kind of read for me in that it was a 'poet's memoir, of a girl named Safiya Sinclair coming to age story, who was born to parents who wanted to be free of the legacies of slavery and colonialism in Jamaica.' Sinclair tells us a story of her growing up in a voiceless family in a Rastafari household, where there was abuse, control, and poverty, and from its Jamaican history, and culture, with its mythology along with being personal and political in its deliverance. This was quite an interesting story of this young girl growing up under her father's rule and with the teachings of Rastafarian as one is reading the rules 'ranged from what they could eat, to how they wore their hair and where they could go.' This was taken out by her domineering father to his wife, and four children. Was Safiya happy with these rules? Why was her father so abusive and harsh? But still, Safiya seemed to understand why he was like this. If it wasn't a Rastafarian world for their father it was 'Babylon' for his family. It was good to see that Safiya did get some love and strength from her mother in giving her books to read. This story will give one a lot to ponder over long after the read.

This is where I say you must pick up this read to see how the author brings out this memoir to the reader. Yes, I did find the reading somewhat heartbreaking and painful in some instances. But still a good read.

Thank you to Net Gallery and its publisher for the reading of this ARC.