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PEOPLE REMEMBER
by Ibi Zoboi
Illustrated by Loveis Wise
Like storytelling, memory can open a pathway to freedom. As Joan Didion wrote in “The White Album”, “We tell ourselves stories to live.” In an often illogical, chaotic world, narratives can be a means of salvation or survival. They may help us grasp what Didion calls the “changing phantasmagoria” of human experience. But what if the identity of a community is intertwined with the unfathomable atrocities of human bondage?
In “The People Remember,” picture book based on a young adult novel by 2017 National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi “American Street” and African-American history, illustrated by Loveis Wise, begins with the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But Zoboi and Wise don’t sensationalize violence or roll in sadness. The collaboration focuses on Black resilience, a cultural heritage strong enough to break the curse of generations of trauma. Guided by Kwanzaa’s seven principles (unity; self-determination; collective work and responsibility; collaborative economy; purpose; creativity and faith), Zoboi’s narrative explores both the burden and power of collective consciousness.
The book begins “in wartime” with the capture and enslavement of Africans across the continent. Zoboi names the various nation-states of the diaspora (“Ashanti and Fulani, the Mali Empire, Hausa and Ibo, as well as Congo, Yoruba and Akan, Songhai Empire, Dahomey, Mende and Fon”), and the “people” of chiefs and kings “bind them” He describes how they sell to white men who are forcing them to “ropes”. She touches on the horrors of the journey across the ocean and states that “some, maybe, just maybe… their mother,” the water spirit, jumped into the lap of Mami Wata.
Wise’s illustrations give a mythological meaning to Zoboi’s lyric text. A particularly effective spread leads a Black woman to another Black woman and a braided girl through the death of a blue velvet night. A softening crescent glows with soft yellow light, drawing attention to the constellations above. The accompanying text to Zoboi discusses “The North Star was freedom” when slavery tore families apart, and Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner “leaded the way.” Image and words work in harmony to highlight the limitless potential of the human spirit. Later publications highlight the innovation and creativity of Black pioneers in the arts.
As Zoboi moves further in the timeline of American history, he rejects the belief that Blackness stems from pain and focuses on the sacred sanctuary of the community. “All these people from different African nations had to learn a single common language and create a culture that combined their memories of their African home with new traditions that allowed them to survive and thrive,” explains the author in a note paired with education. back matter. Those at the younger end of the book’s target age group will appreciate Wise’s illustrations more than the text’s lectures, but all ages should enjoy the cadence and rhythm of Zoboi’s lines.
“People Remember” provides an overview of the birth and evolution of African-American culture, but is not intended to be a definitive tribute. Survival is partly the result of adaptation, of metamorphosis. For Zoboi, remembering is honoring both the wisdom of the dead and the gospel of the living.
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