Becoming Ebony

Recapturing the celebratory voice of Africa in poems that are both contemporary and traditional, Liberian-born Patricia Jabbeh Wesley weaves lyrical storytelling with oral history and images of Africa and America, revealing powerful insights about the relationship between strength and tragedy-and finding reason to celebrate even in the presence of war, difficulties, and death. Rooted in myths that can be traced to the Grebo tradition, Becoming Ebony portrays Liberian-born Wesley's experiences of village talk and civil war as well as her experiences of the pain of her mother's death and the difficulties of rearing a family away from home in the United States, and explores the questions of living in the African Diaspora. Turning on the African proverb of "e;the wandering child"e; and the metaphor of the ebony tree-which is beautiful in life and death- these poems delve into issues of human suffering and survival, plainly and beautifully chronicling what happens "e;after the sap is gone."e;