I have been taking my time to read through Zora Neale Hurston's work. I find her work and her depiction of Black Folks during her lifetime to be very calming, frustrating, and reflective. Often times, her work makes me feel like I am connecting with relics of the past and convening with my ancestors. I guess that's a gift that she possessed because she was an anthropologist.

While reading Barracoon, I couldn't help but to weep for Cudjo. To have the knowledge of two worlds (Africa and the slave trade) was difficult to read. Also, how those worlds affected him in more ways that the pages could express. There were so many sayings that really touched me. Especially when he was talking about the death of someone close to him and that "when the earth eats it doesn't give back." As I sit here I keep thinking of that quote. As a person who is immersed in different indigenous ways of knowing, I challenge that statement and say, "yes mother earth gives back, mother earth is reciprocal." But if I was use the saying in the context of the text, once your dead body is in the ground, you don't come back. On the other hand, as a person who believes in spirits, I believe in souls and the soul is here rather unseen and/or in our memories.

As the interviews with Cudjo continued, I kept thinking "wow, Zora is really asking a lot of this man." She asked a lot of him, specifically in regards to him reliving the most broken pieces of himself. He told her some hard truths and repeatedly talked about how "lonely" he was and how "everyone left him." His entire journey put some many things in perspective for me. This book was an African slave to America testament of survival and sheer will.