Published in 2015, The Coming is the fifth novel by African-American author Dr. Daniel Black. While Black's previous novels focused largely on the Black experience in rural Southern and Midwestern America (drawing from his own background and upbringing), The Coming focuses on the experience of enslaved Africans taken from their homeland and forced to make the journey on the infamous Middle Passage from West Africa to the West Indies in the 16th century.
The Coming explores the characters' lives before enslavement and features African individuals from numerous tribes and cultures rather than treating them as a homogenous collective; however, according to Adele Newson-Horst of World Literature Today, "the story is told from the second-person plural perspective in keeping with traditional African cosmological impulses to celebrate the community." This is one of many ways in which the novel draws inspiration from African oral traditions.
The novel--and particularly its ending--are written to make Black readers feel a genuine connection to their African ancestors despite the present-day cultural divide between African-Americans, Africans, West Indians, and other Black communities. According to Anyabwile Love of A Gathering Together, Black "wants the reader to understand that it was because our ancestors survived that hope endures. They survived and lived long enough for a transmission of cultural norms to be passed on" and "The Coming is a communing with our Eegun [Yoruba term for ancestors]; both our bloodline and our common pool of ancestors. Black stands as witness to testify to the endurance of their efforts."
Black's work is influenced by his background in African American Studies and his studies with Sonia Sanchez, a leader of the Black Arts Movement. He is currently a professor of African American Studies at Clark Atlanta University and founder of the Ndugu-Nzinga Rites of Passage Nation, whose "mission is to promote knowledge about African traditions, culture, ceremonies, and symbols."
