Someone Knows My Name

Chapter 2 takes the reader to Aminata’s hometown of Bayo in the years after 1745. Aminata’s father is a Muslim Fulbe jeweler and her mother an expert Bamana midwife. Her parents were never meant to meet, and she loves how their story defied the impossible. Though not born a Muslim, her mother earns the village’s trust by the time Aminata is born. As a child Aminata learns to plant maize and millet, and assists her mother in delivering babies. Though literacy is discouraged for women, she loves learning to read and write in Arabic and wishes for her father to cultivate her mind. Stories of men being stolen by invaders circulate the village, which doesn’t concern Aminata—she believes that no Muslim would hold another freeborn Muslim in captivity.

In Bayo there is a kind, gentle woloso—a captive owned by the village chief—named Fomba, who is often teased by the children. Fomba doesn’t mind any offense and acts strangely, tilting his head to the side and playing with ashes. He never fully grasps the village’s work techniques, so he is allowed to hunt. Fanta—the chief’s youngest wife—often mistreats Fomba and dislikes Aminata. When Aminata slips into Fanta’s house to play with a prized metal bucket, Fanta pops the side of her head for entering her house. When Aminata’s father carries her on his shoulders, Fanta comments that he is spoiling her.

One fateful day, Aminata travels to a nearby village with her mother and Fomba for a birth. The village women request that they stay overnight because strange men had been spotted lately, but Aminata’s mother insists on returning home. On the way back to Bayo, a group of men intercept and attack them. Aminata’s mother stands up to the men but is bashed on the head and dies. As Aminata is dragged away with Fomba, she sees her village burning and her father being dragged out, and calls to him. Despite being tied, he walks upright and tall, slides his hands free, retaliates, and calls out Aminata’s name. Aminata notices a gun—an “unusual, long, rectangular stick” (26) that explodes fire—which kills her father. In shock, she cannot fathom how the strongest man in Bayo died so easily. As Aminata is led away with the rest of the captives, she thinks of what her ba and fa would have told her to do and continues walking.

For three months the captors march Aminata and the rest of the captives past several villages, taking more captives at every stop. Aminata is shocked to see that rather than aiding the captives, villagers simply trade with the captors. The captors humiliate the captives by stripping them of their clothes, leaving them nothing to cover their private parts. Among the captives are Fomba and a pregnant Fanta. A young captor named Chekura takes interest in Aminata, eyeing her and at times bringing her food and drink.

Though Fanta treats Aminata harshly at first, she later starts looking after her. Each time Aminata tries to pray, the captors strike her, and she eventually gives up trying. Chekura becomes friendly with Aminata, aiding her often. At one stop, when village boys taunt the captives and throw stones and rotting fruit peels, Chekura cleans Aminata’s leg wound. When Aminata experiences menstruation for the first time, Chekura brings women from a village to aid her. They wash her, feed her, and give her a cloth—an act of kindness that Aminata is grateful for. At Aminata’s request, Chekura brings shea butter to rub into Fomba’s cracked feet. At first Fanta protests, but she gives in when Chekura rubs it into her feet as well. At another stop a baboon snatches the four-year-old daughter of a captive. The father runs after the baboon and returns with her body. That night the man jumps off a tree and kills himself. Though the father was allowed to bury his daughter, the captors do not acknowledge his suicide and leave his body to rot. The captives step over rotting bodies daily.

As they near their destination, Aminata sees a toubabu—a white man—for the first time and asks Chekura if he is a “man or an evil spirit” (44). Chekura tells her that he has come from “across the big water” (44) and advises her to not look directly at or speak to him. A new captive—a heavily pregnant woman named Sanu—is brought to them, and Aminata helps her give birth. The toubabu is surprised by her expertise, and Sanu names her daughter after Aminata. When led to the shore for the first time, Aminata is in awe of the ocean, as the “water expanded into eternity” like it had “taken over the world” (49). Chekura tells her that not once has a man taken to sea returned home. Aminata promises that she will return one day. The captives are taken to a wharf, where they are locked in pens and branded above their breasts. The next morning the captives are taken to a ship. When prodded onto a long plank, Aminata turns back to see her homeland one last time, observing the mountain’s lionlike profile powerless in the distance.

Aboard the slave ship, an orange-haired toubab physically examines the captives. When he learns that Aminata is fluent in both Fulfulde and Bamanakan, the captors use her translation skills to communicate with Fomba, Fanta, and others. The toubab—a medicine man—asks if Aminata is the one who delivered Sanu’s baby. He makes an agreement with Aminata: “You help me, and I help you” (62). He takes Aminata down to where the male captives are kept; men lie naked and chained up to their ankles in waste and blood. They cry out for water, food, air, and light. Biton, the ex-chief of Sama, tells Aminata he has heard of her. With the authority of a father he asks her to come back and report to him. Aminata also finds Chekura, who is full of shame for bringing Aminata to this fate. He asks Aminata to repeat his name, saying, “Someone knows my name. Seeing you makes me want to live” (66). All the men in the hold begin calling out their names and villages.

After being allowed to wash, eat, and drink, Aminata is taken through the male compartment to report any dead men. She is then led to the medicine man’s private room, where he teaches her words in English. The medicine man introduces himself as Tom and points to Aminata, naming her “Mary.” He has a pet bird that speaks English, and when Aminata tries to eat its food he gives her fruit. When he tries to sleep with her, she responds with anger and sternness, causing him to retreat and pray. Aminata is allowed to move freely on the deck but is expected in the medicine man’s room by night to care for his bird. Aminata brings information to Chief Biton, who decides that they will attack the toubabs and their chief when Fanta has her baby.

On the fateful day that Fanta goes into labor, Aminata takes her to the medicine man’s room, where Fanta reveals that her husband—Bayo’s chief—planned on taking Aminata as his next wife. After her son is born, she takes the medicine man’s knife and murders his bird. Though the toubab expect the men to dance and sing as they often do, the captives instead attack the toubabs. Dozens of captors—including the medicine man—and captives are murdered, and many jump overboard. In a craze, Fanta slits her newborn’s throat and throws Sanu’s baby into the deep—after which Sanu follows suit. For the rest of the two-month journey, the captives are kept shackled. When they are brought to the deck, Aminata spots land in the distance. Chekura consoles Aminata, saying, “We still live, Aminata of Bayo. We have crossed the water. We have survived” (93).