Generational curses and Affects

 Vantasia Franklin

Ms. Harris 

ENGL2016-44378

17 November 2022

                                              Generational Curses and Affects 

Will generational curses ever end? Generational curses are a sin or ancestral faults passed down from generation to generation. African Americans have these curses because they were unable to make a change. They were hanged because of their actions when they tried to make a difference. When will we stop giving them what they want? They like to see us divided because together, we conquer, and that is what they fear the most. For years, African Americans have been torn down mentally, emotionally, and physically. African Americans feel less than others. They were physically abused by whites. They tore them apart from their families and would beat them constantly just because they felt like it. Slavery had an emotional effect because they wake up in the same position, not being able to move on in life, and always looking over their shoulders wondering if they will make it to the next day. African Americans were used for their benefit. Women were mostly used for hoeing and cooking, and if you were light enough and pretty, you could live inside the plantation home. Men were beaten constantly, and they were needed because of their strength, “Enslaved men performed labors that ranged from building houses to plowing field.” Everything they had to endure was passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays, fathers are never around to take care of their kids, so this leaves moms to be single parents. This is a generational curse because fathers were torn apart from their kids so that is what they are used to (not being around). Mothers instilled in their minds that they must do everything for their husbands. For example, they think that they should always cook for their husbands, and that they should always be served first. They also think that they should clean after them. 

The book Homegoing gives some great examples of generational curses. In the first chapter, Effia was born into the world with Chaos. A fire had started and destroyed everything that she would’ve known. The fire was tearing down anything that was in its path, leaving them nothing but sorrow. Effia's father states, "He knew then that the memory of the fire that burned, then fled, would haunt him, his children, and his children’s children for as long as the line continued”. He left his own family to save himself from the fire instead of being their protector, which is a father's role to his wife and child. A parent abandoning their child is not the only way to cause a generational curse. In the novel Equiano, he was taken from his people and used as cargo. This is a generational curse because his family has the trauma of him being taken and this could cause issues within his family and make them not trust anyone. This will make them look over their shoulders every day, wondering if they would ever get taken. Equiano states, "I considered that trial and disappointments are sometimes for our good, and I thought God might perhaps have permitted this to teach me wisdom.” Although Equiano had been through a lot, he always had hope.

 

 

 

 

Gyasi, Y. (2022). Homegoing. Penguin Books.

Equiano, O. (2013). The interesting narrative of the life of olaudah equiano. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139583657

 

 

 

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