Aminah

Aminah is one of the novel’s two heroines. The character is inspired by the author’s great-great-grandmother, whose name and life story are unknown save for the fact that she was sold into slavery. When the novel begins, Aminah is about 15 years old. She spends her time daydreaming, wishing to avoid marriage and become a shoemaker like her father, Baba. She shares a hut with her grandmother, Eeyah, and lives among her twin sisters (Husseina and Hassana), her half-brother (Issa), her mother (Na), and her father’s second wife (Issa-Na). She is from a family that resisted converting to Islam. They pray to the African god Otienu. Aminah sells food to migrating Islamic caravans as they make pit stops in Botu and takes care of her younger siblings.

One night, she is kidnapped from her home by slave raiders, and Botu is burned to the ground in...