How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
Ratings16
Average rating4.5
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.
In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.
How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about. --simonandschuster.com
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How to say Babylon is a perfect mix of direct prose and poetic writing all mixed up into a beautifully told memoir.
This book was recommended to me by a friend whose book recommendations I always take a serious as gold. When I check this book out from the library, I expected it to be a similar telling of “Educated” where the writer is very direct and detailed with what they have survived and how it affects them into their adulthood. “How to Say Babylon” is much more detailed into what is expected as a Rasta woman and the history of Rastafarians.
I learned so much about Rastafari culture and the ingrained misogyny into an almost organized religion created in the confines of Jamaica. Some of it being very beautiful, the importance connected to nature, the liberation of Black people in Jamaica & the world, and creating a society of peaceful likeminded individuals. I also had no idea about the poor reputation of Rasta bredren in Jamaica and the amount of disrespect and cruelty thrown at this community of people. Like almost all sectors of religion, although well-meaning, may end up being perpetrators of their own oppression, especially towards women and their roles within these societies.
How to say, Babylon is extremely eye-opening to how seclusion and purity culture within certain “sects” of Rastafari can be extremely isolating and eventually abusive . Though the tenants taught and believed is so beautifully represented in this story, so much of what it means to be Rastafari went directly against what Sinclair wanted for her life, which was to be a poet. This story is written in a way that feels like the waves coming in and out from the shore. You wait for her to stand up, but then she has to retreat again because the waves call her back. So much of what she was ingrained to do was represent her father, and to be a part of this culture that defined her, but didn't represent her.
At the end of the book, the climax of abuse happened so quickly in terms of page count that the eventual reconciliation felt somewhat rushed to me. For Safiya, it was years of time spent away from her father learning how she felt and coming to terms with her childhood, but to the reader, it happened so quickly, I didn't feel that the emotional payoff really reflected how she felt in her life. I don't feel privy to her emotional development, but I wish that had played out a little bit differently at the end of the book.
I think this book is a great way to understand another culture and the history and beauty behind it. Sinclair's writing of Jamaica is astounding and transport you directly to the island. One of my best reads so far in 2024.
4.5!!!
It is evident that this memoir was written by a poet. The language, the prose, and the lyrical nature of the writing all serve to convey this story in a beautiful manner that reads like a sweeping family saga. Sinclair's memoir acts as a historical text of one family's upbringing within the Rastafari religion, but more than that, it tells the story of a strong, intelligent woman who has to find the power and beauty within herself and understand that every experience - good and bad - made her who she is. This is such a gorgeous memoir and it left me wanting to read more of Safiya Sinclair's writing. Highly recommend!
I'm only half kidding when I say it's a Rastafarian Educated, but that's too easy an analogy that doesn't do the language justice. Sinclair is a poet and it comes through in the absolutely gorgeous prose here. Describing her life of near poverty in Jamaica, living under the volatile whims of her father and his seemingly arbitrary adherence to Rastafarian tenets only gives you the barest of outlines. It is a truly incredible story that is both unbelievably restrained and measured while searing in its observations. Sinclair manages to extend grace to those whose actions would easily justify a scorched earth takedown. It was a bookclub selection that I wasn't sure about, but found myself grateful for the chance to experience this one.
