Christine Gabrièlle

Can I tell you a secret? I scrolled through all 2,189 posts on Safiya Sinclair’s IG page, seeking a glimpse of the people whose trauma I’d just peered into.

Sinclair’s memoir was fantastic. Other adjectives include…

Magnificent. Heartbreaking. Terrifying. Pitiful.
Enraging. Hopeful. Loving. Honest. Critical. Poetic.

The imagery is vivid and the language is musical in a lot of ways. But what else would you expect from a poet?

Still, I couldn’t accurately visualize the people whose lives I was reading about, which is why I needed to scroll through her IG. The story felt incomplete in my mind without the images of their faces. With fiction, I can form whatever image I want to, but I wanted the truth of their persons to accompany the truth of their lives (this small fragment of it, anyway).

Throughout the reading of her story, I had so much hope for Safiya. I felt for her, was sad for her… I wanted to smack her father upside his head because WHAT?!

Safiya’s father was passionate about his beliefs in a way that was completely detrimental to his family. Oppressive. Still, Safiya and her siblings seemed to thrive despite it all. Her mother as well.

I learned a lot more about Rastafari than I had previously known through my reading of this memoir (and my subsequent Google searches)—particularly about its origins, male-dominated structure, lifestyle restrictions, and how individuals can shape any of it to suite their own sensibilities. I was also reminded how volatile religion can get when the rules are shaped and manipulated on an individual basis to suite the narrative in one’s mind.

It is incredible that despite all the trauma, Safiya continued to seek reconciliation and healing with her father (I cannot say I would’ve done the same under similar circumstances).

I can understand the desire to run completely in the opposite direction of the cage you were raised in as well as the compulsion to keep returning to it; of shedding every possible thing that reminds you of the oppression/trauma you experienced and yet remaining tethered to its source. It’s difficult to erase someone you love so much—someone whose opinion you still value despite the harm they’ve caused. And it’s incredible how by setting herself free, she freed all of the women in her family.

The memoir wasn’t entirely about her relationship with her father, though; it was about her journey to becoming a celebrated writer—her journey to save herself.

And it was well worth the read.

How to Say Babylon is scheduled for release in August. Pre-order it or wait until you can get it from your local library. Either way, I suggest reading it.

♥