The Coming: A Novel

I wish I could say that I loved this book, but that would be a lie. This book infuriated me beyond reason and disgusted me out of my mind. That proves however, that the author did EXACTLY what he was supposed to do. This isn't a "feel-good" book because this isn't a feel-good topic. The graphic depictions of the horrors of slavery were difficult to deal with, and the author refuses to allow you to turn away. Despite being fictionalized, I think this is probably one of the better (better meaning more thorough) stories about the Middle Passage that I've read. I applaud the author for tacking this subject and letting us know that "It was the coming that was bad."

This is an important novel. A historical novel. A work of art. It is a fictionalized telling of Africans journey from the motherland to what eventually becomes Charleston, USA. The story is told from the perspective of "we" and is delivered in story form. It's a haunting telling of what "we" experienced from a typical trans-Atlantic trip from Africa to the shores of America. It's just one trip that is used to describe what is supposed to be representative of all such journeys. He tells what "we" went through in the holds of these evil vessels. He tells the story over the course of crossing the Atlantic and then arriving on these shores and being held in stalls awaiting a buyer.

The way the book is arranged works very well. The prose is mostly poetic and is most necessary to deliver this tale of woe and devilment. If you ever asked the question, what did the enslavement process look like, feel like? What were "we" thinking? Daniel Black attempts to answer these questions. And although this is a work of fiction, many of the transgressions against the body and soul of Africans have been well documented. The book forces you to wonder what choices would you have made if you were stuffed like a sardine in the hold of a ship? How would you have handled being placed on an auction block, completely naked for all to see and being examined like an animal?

"But if we all died, wouldn’t they be undisputed victors? How would we redeem ourselves if everyone went with Death? Our options were few and inglorious. We wrestled, on land and sea, with Life and Death, wanting neither completely but needing both inherently. We decided silently, in the stillness of the stall, that both choices carried honor. Both held the integrity of our people. The job of the living was to resurrect the dead; the job of the dead was to invigorate the living. They were complimentary existences. What elders had taught was true—Life and Death are twins of the same mother. Now we understood."

There are nuggets of information related to African culture and there are an abundance of pearls of wisdom, African proverbs. Daniel Black is trying to paint a picture of the impact the enslaving process had on an individual. What must they have been thinking? One day you're Ashanti or Yoruba and 90 days later, "We were no longer simply the Fon, the Ibo, the Hausa, the Yoruba, the Ewe. We were something other than the Ashanti, the Fante, The Fulani, the Serere, and the Mende. Something new, some combination of them all, some blending of culture and spirit our elders wouldn’t have recognized. We were a different people now, with roots in every place we had trod. We were one tree, with branches reaching in every possible direction and leaves sprouting abundantly. We were one river, flowing together, yet having started as brooks and streams unnamed. In the midst of incomprehensible trauma, our specific identities had merged into a larger collective Self, and thus we survived what should’ve been our demise."

A story to be shared with all those who ever imagined the unimaginable.

I intended to read this book over an expanded period of time. Read a little here. Read a little there. So much for that.
In a short time I had gone from a free human enjoying all that I needed to a chained human, marched out of my homeland, sitting and laying in vomit and stench, on vessels I had never seen on a body of water that was unfamiliar. I felt the abandonment of God as well as the inhumaness of man. I smelled the fecal matter and dead bodies from the hold of the ship and the sting of the whip. I was reminded of lessons not learned and messages not heard.
Bottom line, this was a good read. One that made me feel like I was suffocating. Not because I could not breathe. But because this book literally took my breath away. But through it all, even though I knew the outcome would not be good, I could not wait til the end so I could feel the beginning of The Coming that would be a beginning all unto itself and a road home.

I love, love this novel. I did not know what to expect. I could not put it down, yet I needed to put it down as it was causing all sorts of emotions. I could truly hear the Ancestors speaking. Well done.

This was a beautiful well written and versed novel by Daniel Black. This novel depicted an explicit description of The Middle Passage (Africans shipped to the New World across the Atlantic to the colonies where they would be sold as part of The Atlantic Slave Trade). The novel describes the horrific humiliation and degrading conditions the African captives suffered and endured at the hands of the White captors. The African captives were a group of dignified people, with some being royalty in their native homeland. They were a proud group of people and during The Middle Passage, some were willing to sacrifice their lives and transition to the after life, rather than be ridiculed and humiliated at the hands of their White captors. This novel was so engrossing and thought provoking, and some parts were so gut wrenching and difficult to read, but this is true history and makes the African-American race truly appreciate our history and heritage, and acknowledge the pain, torture, suffering and many sacrifices our ancestors endured, so that we might have a perspective place and many opportunities in today's society, even though race relations in America today are some of the worse since the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Daniel Black, please continue to keep telling the African-American historical true stories in that true voice, that only you can!!

I can honestly say, this book has literally changed my life and my perspective on life. As a matter of fact, it is so powerful, so potent (and poignant) and so inspiring, that I feel extremely blessed as well as somewhat shame. As so eloquently stated in the book, we are decedents of people who survived and endured so that their future progeny can have a [better] life. Oh, what sacrifice! As the Holy Scriptures say, Life more abundantly. The perspective I've could not help to gather from this awesome masterpiece is that we owe a great debt to our ancestors that is not difficult to repay. The debt? To live an abundant life. Because many of us whom have been living below our potential, for whatever reason (i.e. drugs, gangs, black-on-black homicide, poor education, dysfunctional families, etc.) do not understand--or care to understand--that we are descents of great people. The repayment process? Utilize and maximize the freedoms, the blessings and opportunities to construct the life that was meant for us and to accept nothing less; then bless all of it forward to the next generation. In other words, we reflect to remember and learn, we live full throttle because of our blessings, gifts and talents, and we pay it forward because of our obligation and love. Daniel Black has poetically and rhythmically scribed the horrid inception of African American slavery and the introduction of African slavery to the Americas. This descriptive and narrative account of the events aboard this one ship and beyond has caused me to personally feel that I am not living to my full potential. In my humblest opinion, every person whom comes in contact with this book will have no choice but to reflect on their own life. Daniel has not only caused me to realize how grateful I am, but also how much potential within me and my inherent obligation to pour into and uplift others. I have no doubt that this book will be a literary laureate for 2016.

Wow where can I start ......... I think I will write a book on this page just to leave a comment it’s deep and the visuals are powerful and makes you tremble just to read about acts perpetrated by people calling themselves humans and actually not knowing we are all one but because of misconceptions and not knowing about a culture and people and also the root and the beginning of all this started with Religion when a group of people said just because of someone’s color of skin they are regarded as non humans and can be wiped out because they feel no pain or have no God and also to us Africans as the Wolof man said in the book on page 106 he said we have been captured because we were divided and we had fought each other on the ship and back home for reasons we thought legitimate but seemed silly and unimportant e.g like going to war over territorial rights and hunting lands or the bride price of women thought priceless or killing someone for stealing a harvest or we have even killed because of perceived disrespect also inside job some of our people collaborated with the enemy because our captors didn’t know about us to destroy us so easily and they couldn’t have subdued hundreds of warriors unless they knew where they would be prior to the attack and when we went to retrieve our weapons they were not there someone must have told them because they were hidden in a secret place just for an ambush like this and more importantly our strength was divided......I will end with this we were people of extraordinarily achievements.....men and women of triumphant courage......OUR STRENGTH IS OUR UNITY and lastly about music they were making music and letting their chains and cuffs sing...... our propensity for melody had accompanied us through the entire jorney and even in BONDAGE we would make our shackles sing ....they could bind us but they could not extract the rythym from our souls we would not all die we could heal our spirits we could create a new self in a new land we said in our hearts every time we played those chains and we made them sing each night until we reached our destination .✊🏿

An amazing read. I could not put the book down.

I typically read at east two books a week and have been doing so for more than 55 years. I can't recall ever being as deeply affected by a novel as I was by this one. I already knew, and have often taught to my students, many of the facts about the Middle Passage and slavery related in the book, and I knew quite a bit of the history of Africa, so there were few surprises in terms of historical information. If one didn't know all this, I think the book would be overwhelmingly horrific. In any case, it will make anyone with any sensitivity cry and rage at the horrors recounted. It is also filled with passages of lyrical beauty and And it does a lot to credibly explain the psychological, philosophical, and spiritual impacts on the Africans who were abducted, tortured mercilessly, and forced into slavery. But these aspects of the book are not what touched me so deeply. The most moving aspect of the book for me was the way Black emphasizes the life-sustaining power of the newly enslaved people's belief in collectivism and altruistic love for each other. This is not a book about how terrible the white people who enslaved Africans were. Anyone with any awareness already knows that they truly were evil. This is a book about the courage and love the enslaved developed and shared under the worst possible conditions. As the book often emphasizes, what they wanted most was to be seen with respect. Denied it at the time from anyone outside their small group of survivors, they are finally getting it now.

A powerful read of what our ancestors must have endured during the maafa. This book should be required reading for everyone but most especially people of African descent.