Hannah W Amissah-Arthur

This research explores the various forms of wounds and scars in the contemporary Ghanaian slave literature. It focuses on the metaphorical wounds as well as the psychological, physical and spiritual manifestations of enslavement. Although there have been several scholarly engagements with the Transatlantic slave trade in Ghanaian literature, the discussion on wounds and healing has not received the deserved attention. Joseph Baiden’s Seeds of Slavery (2018), Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing (2016), Manu Herbstein’s Ama (2016) and Brave Music of a Distant Drum (2011), were purposefully selected for in depth analysis and critique of the subject. Applying trauma and healing theories, this research aims at projecting, and challenging, issues that emanate from the texts in a bid to chart the intellectual pathway between the Transatlantic Slave Trade on the Ghanaian as well as the African as a whole.