“What you cannot hear, Quey, is the third bird. She is quiet, quiet, listening to the male birds get louder and louder and louder still. And when they have sung their voices out, then and only then will she speak up...Quey, this village must conduct its business like that female bird." (p.60) (Simile)
Fiifi uses this metaphor to explain the way his tribe, the Fante, intends to let the various European trading companies battle for their business in slaves and natural resources. The comparison of the Fante and the European trading companies to birds shows the Akan people's connection to nature in their way of life and thought. The quote also demonstrates how valuable slaves were and the power that the Akan tribes were able to exert over the Europeans during the period before the British took control of the Gold Coast.
"Evil is like a shadow. It follows you.” (p.70) (Simile)
Effia tells her son Quey this when she finds out that he will be returning to her village to do business for the British. Evil or curses being linked to places, objects, and people is a theme throughout Homegoing, and Effia's descendants seem especially affected. By comparing evil to a shadow, Effia also highlights the way evil can be subjectively perceived by others, such as in the lives of Abena and Yaw.
"Tonight, you must be like an animal when he comes into the room. A lioness. She mates with her lion and he thinks the moment is about him when it is really about her, her children, her posterity." (p.27) (Simile)
This quote, like the quote spoken by Fiifi about competing male birds, again poses Akan and Europeans in opposition and likens the Akan person in question to the female animal. In this case, Adwoa encourages Effia to behave like a lioness in the bedroom in order to get pregnant and not be sent back to her village. Using a comparison to a lioness stresses Effia's power in her relationship, though objectively she has been treated as a resource to be traded much like her sister who is sold to the British as a slave.
"Her stomach jutted out, soft and fleshy, its own kind of fruit." (p.32) (Simile)
Effia becomes pregnant with Quey in the spring, around the same time that the fruit trees near the Cape Coast Castle began to drop ripe mangoes. Effia sees a similarity in the large, ripe fruit and her own growing stomach, linking herself to nature. Referencing the seasons also helps the reader track Effia's age and the progress of time overall, which is important because the author does not directly reference years and specific historical events until later in the book.
"Northerners, they are not even people. They are the dirt that begs for spit." (p.45) (Metaphor)
In times of war, groups will often liken their opposition to non-human animals or objects. This strengthens feelings of difference between the groups and allows leaders, fighters, and civilians alike to tolerate and justify violence against the other group. In this quote, Esi remembers how an Asante man compared the Fante to dirt to show how little he cared for their lives and feelings and encourage Esi to do the same. This had the desired effect, and Esi began to spit on Fante captives when she saw them, just as the elder had shown her. Therefore, the power of such rhetoric in influencing people, especially young people, is evidenced in this part of the story.
