Leisure Reading

Powerful Memoir

How to Say Babylon

by Safiya Sinclair

With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime, How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the author’s struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing, ruled by her father’s strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood, to find her own voice as a woman and poet.

Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity, in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience.

In an effort to keep Babylon outside the gate, he forbade almost everything. In place of pants, the women in her family were made to wear long skirts and dresses to cover their arms and legs, head wraps to cover their hair, no make-up, no jewelry, no opinions, no friends. Safiya’s mother, while loyal to her father, nonetheless gave Safiya and her siblings the gift of books, including poetry, to which Safiya latched on for dear life. And as Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence. As Safiya’s voice grows, lyrically and poetically, a collision course is set between them.

How to Say Babylon is Sinclair’s reckoning with the culture that initially nourished but ultimately sought to silence her; it is her reckoning with patriarchy and tradition, and the legacy of colonialism in Jamaica. Rich in lyricism and language only a poet could evoke, How to Say Babylon is both a universal story of a woman finding her own power and a unique glimpse into a rarefied world we may know how to name, Rastafari, but one we know little about.'*

Review by Emily Homolka - Special Collections Reference Librarian

The official summary of this book introduces it as a mix between “Educated” by Tara Westhoff, a memoir about the author’s experience growing up in a fundamentalist Mormon household, and Trevor Noah’s “Born a Crime,” where the author shares about growing up in the end of apartheid South Africa. Having read and loved both books, I was excited to read this and then delighted to find that “How to Say Babylon” is a masterpiece all on its own!

I love a memoir that allows me to learn about the author’s life as well as the culture and society that they grew up in. I knew very little about the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica before reading this book, and learning about it through Safiya Sinclair’s unique perspective as a woman in a traditional Rastafarian family was a fascinating way to be introduced. In this memoir, Safiya Sinclair includes an overview of the origin of Rastafarian as both a political and religious movement and frequently touches on the continued legacy of colonialism in Jamaica throughout the book, making me want to learn more about the history of her home. Safiya’s relationship with her father as the embodiment of strict, patriarchal Rastafarian beliefs in Jamaica is also central to the book and I cheered when she finally breaks free and finds her own path forward.

This book was heart-wrenching, inspiring, and beautifully written. The author is a poet as well as a writer, and it shows in her narrative prose sharing how she broke free from the influence of her strict, Rastafarian father and found freedom through writing and education. Although the book can be a heavy read, Safiya’s journey is worth it!

Trigger warnings: Child and physical abuse

You can find this book in the Pendergrass Library Leisure Reading Collection. Check it out and let us know what you think of the book! Make sure to tag your responses on social media with #utksharedshelf so we can see what you think! 

* Book Description and image provided by Goodreads