num_pages: 352
description: With echoes of Educated and Born a Crime  How to Say Babylon is the stunning story of the authors struggle to break free of her rigid Rastafarian upbringing ruled by her fathers strict patriarchal views and repressive control of her childhood to find her own voice as a woman and poet.Throughout her childhood Safiya Sinclairs 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 womans 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. Safiyas 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 fathers 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 Safiyas voice grows lyrically and poetically a collision course is set between them.How to Say Babylon is Sinclairs 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.
language: English
title: How to Say Babylon: A Memoir
publisher: Simon & Schuster