"In the early 19th century, Zacharias is introduced to his mother in Portuguese Brazil. The two have not met for many years because they are both enslaved, held separate by different masters. At first Zacharias is repelled by Ama. She is old and blind, ugly to his eyes, and she calls him by an un-Christian name, Kwame Zumbi. Zacharias, a clerk for the United Kingdom consul, wonders whether she can actually be his mother.
"Only after Ama asks him to write down her life does Zacharias begin to understand. Ama was stolen from her African village as a young woman and has been passed from one master to another. She has been raped, lashed, had one eye torn out, and has been treated kindly and promised her freedom only to see it denied. Ama has loved two men and seen both of them brutally slain, and she has had her infant son taken from her arms. In short, Ama's life echoes the experience of at least twenty million Africans who were forced into slavery.
"Brave Music is intended for readers 16 and over. This book is not a pleasant read, but it is a horrific and compelling message from all of our pasts which must not be forgotten."
The Historical Novels Review
"With the huge cast and constantly switching viewpoints, along with the details of horrifying brutality, this will be best for older teens, who will get the bitter irony of the Christian conversion of the heathens: what does salvation mean for slaves?"
Booklist, American Library Association.
"This is a powerful and thought-provoking novel, which offers remarkable insights into one of the darkest chapters in human history. South African author Manu Herbstein was awarded the 2002 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and in Brave Music of a Distant Drum, Herbstein re-imagines Ama's story for a younger, North American audience."
Recommended: Four stars out of four. Reviewer: Linda Quirk, Assistant Special Collections Librarian at the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library at the University of Alberta.
"Gr 9 Up-This novel portrays the difficult and heroic life of a slave from her capture in Africa to her horrifying journey across the Atlantic and her life on a European plantation in Brazil. An insightful and, at times, heartbreaking read."--Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI School Library Journal,
"Good, even great at times, generally useful! This book tells a terrible story, and the fact that the story is told by a mother to her son simply makes it more terrible... an important story, one that we would all do well to know more about."
Margaret Mackey, Resource Links
Gr 9 Up—This novel portrays the difficult and heroic life of a slave from her capture in Africa to her horrifying journey across the Atlantic and her life on a European plantation in Brazil. Elderly, nearly blind, and dying, Ama has led both a privileged and a tormented life, and she wishes to record her life story for her estranged son, Zacharias, who naively believes that his important position will be his ticket out of slavery. He is a clerk and scribe for the Consul of the United Kingdom and arrogantly expects the promise of his freedom to be fulfilled by the wife of his employer. Summoned to his mother's deathbed, he learns the truth about their family history. By the end of his visit, mother and son come to understand each other, and Zacharias resolves to pass on his mother's story to his daughter. Though this edition of the adult novel Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade (E-reads, 2000) has been toned down for young adult audiences, the author does not shy away from realism, gruesomeness, and candor, including graphic portrayals of rape, beatings, and other atrocities. The story unfolds from alternating perspectives with Ama narrating most of the book. An insightful and, at times, heartbreaking read.—Rita Soltan, Youth Services Consultant, West Bloomfield, MI
Clearly still aiming to shock, Herbstein recasts but does not tone down his debut novel, originally published for adult audiences as Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade (2001). Punctuating her narrative with rapes (some of which are explicitly described) and other atrocities, from forced cannibalism to a flogging that leaves her scarred and one-eyed, blind old Ama relates her life's hard story to her increasingly disturbed son Zacharias. He, though still enslaved, had been raised in a white official's household and forced to suppress memories of his earliest years on the Bahian engenho (sugar plantation). Writing in terse, simple language, the Ghana-born author zigzags between points of view--injecting notes of irony (the slave ship that carries Ama to Brazil is named The Love of Liberty, for instance) and acidly matter-of-fact indictments of the brutality and hypocrisy of white slaveholding Christians. Callously ordered away just as his mother is dying, by the end Zacharias sheds his self-righteous naiveté, returns to calling himself by his birth name Kwame Zumbi and vows to share his true heritage with his own young daughter. Readers will be moved as much by Ama's intelligence and unwavering sense of self respect as by her hideous experiences. The agenda is never less than obvious, but it's a powerful tale nonetheless. (map, cast list, glossary) (Historical fiction. 15 & up)
