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Astrid Roemer’s “The Inheritance of My Father: A Story for Listening” comments on the

issues of family ties, identity and belonging in relation to hybridization. Roemer’s

purpose involves the highlighting of the relationship between finding one’s identity and

finding one’s voice. He achieves this by allowing the readers to embark on a journey of

self-discovery with the child narrator Bonkoro, who changes from a docile, almost

voiceless “child” before the summer vacation to a renewed, confident and articulate

“adult” at the end of her vacation. This short story is a unified and coherent production

since several aspects of Roemer’s craft testify to the intimate interrelation of finding

one’s identity and one’s voice. In “The Inheritance of My Father: A Story for Listening”,

Roemer emphasizes the theme of self-discovery and identity through his craft and this

contributes to the unity and coherence of the short story.

In “The Inheritance of my Father: A Story for Listening”, Roemer incorporates two

narrative perspectives namely the limited third person and the first person narrative

perspective. These narrative perspectives alternate throughout the story and aid in its

dramatic effect. The limited third person narrative perspective can easily be identified

since it is written in italics. This narrative perspective introduces and orients the reader to

the subsequent first person narrative perspective. In turn, the first person narrative can be

viewed as an embedded narrative. Thus, a play-like or theatre performance quality is

produced with the use of these two narrative perspectives, where the limited third person

narration functions as the primary narrative voice and the first person narration functions

as the actual performance. Roemer’s choice of narrative structure is unconventional and

as such it stimulates the reader’s interests and contributes to the enjoyment of the story.

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Furthermore, the first person narrative gives the limited perspective of a twelve year

old hybrid girl named Bonkoro. Roemer’s use of child narration allows for a fresh

perspective of events as seen through the innocent eyes of young girl. Her curiosity – “I

began to think about everything, about who my parents were…” (Brown and Wickham

349) – is understandable as well as her identity crisis – “I began to think… about what I

am, about who we are together” (349). Although this child narrator presents only her

interpretation of events and there is no distinct dialogue, Roemer reflects the thoughts and

words of other characters in Bonkoro’s narration. For instance, the lines “My mother was

the first to give in: I was allowed to go with or without my father to the birthday of my

Grandma. She would stay home. She did not want to run the risk of being treated like an

undesirable stranger in his country by his family” (352) appear to reflect the words of

Bonkoro’s mother.

Moreover, Roemer’s use of a first person narrative, which seems to function as a live

performance before a reading audience, sensitizes the reader to the oral quality of the

story. Even the latter half of the title – “A Story for Listening” – orients the reader to a

story that is meant to be heard. The opening limited third person narrator informs the

reading audience that a child is about “to speak out loud” (348). This is fitting since it

adds to the unity and coherence within the story. The conversational quality of the

narrative is evident in phrases such as “you know” (349), “listen” (355), “as they say”

(355), “as a joke, of course” (357). Also, certain utterances may be viewed as part of

Bonkoro’s idiolect. These include “Ach” (357) and “bah!” (350) as well as reduplicated

words such as “Ach-ach” (354, 356, 360), “everything-everything” (355), and “further-

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further”, “sweet-sweet”, “always-always”, “never-never” (360) used at the end of the

story possibly to show emphasis.

Added to this, Roemer’s craft still proves to be unified and coherent as he links the

oral quality of the story to Bonkoro’s struggle to find a sense of identity and belonging

and by extension, her voice. Note that Bonkoro decides not to complain to her parents

about what happens to her on the streets because the same “nasty words that people yell

at [her] in the street” (350) are the same words she hears her parents calling each other.

Consequently, home is not a place of refuge for her. While home should offer security

and comfort, it instead contributes to the suppression of Bonkoro’s voice.

Also, it must be noted that one of the major causes of Bonkoro’s inner conflict is her

ignorance of her parent’s identity leading to confusion in establishing her own. When she

considers her parent’s identity, her identity and their identity in totality, she states “Often

it makes me sick. It is as if I have to throw up but cannot” (349-350). Bonkoro’s

suppression of her feelings seems to create an inner turmoil causing her to feel ill. Added

to this, when Bonkoro says “I had never seen him (father) naked” (349), this comment

goes beyond her father’s physical nakedness and reflects her ignorance of her real father

coupled with her father’s concealment of his true self from her.

Additionally, when Bonkoro leaves her motherland and is about to go to her

fatherland, she continues to be inarticulate. Notice that it is her eyes and hand that speak

and not her voice – “Goodbye Mom, my eyes said, while my hand grasped my father’s –

come along Dad!” (352). Even when she attempts to use her voice to express herself,

she finds difficulty. For instance, after she witnessed her father dancing with a woman,

she wanted to call her mother but pukes instead. Also, after this incident she cries and

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when her father promises her “…all kinds of things…” (354) she gags again. Bonkoro

seems to find difficulty expressing herself and instead cries and pukes. The act of crying

and puking represents a release of all that is bottled inside and suppressed through

inarticulation. Later on, she nods in agreement at the instructions the adults give her

concerning her health and when she tries to talk to her Grandma she is silenced – “But as

soon as I started to talk about her son, she would silence me” (357).

Evidently, Bonkoro finds difficulty vocally expressing her concerns. Nevertheless, she

gains temporal relief through her dreams. Roemer skilfully links her experience and

desires to her dreams. The girl in Bonkoro’s dreams reflects the way Bonkoro perceives

her own existence. “She has no name – she has no family” (350-1) just as Bonkoro

perceives that she herself has no identity or belonging. The reader is informed that her

Grandma calls her “my half-breed” (348) and that her mother’s family fuss about “how

brown [she is] and how blond [she is] becoming” (350). Bonkoro is also called both

White and African racial insults namely “honky” and “nigger” respectively. There also

seems to be a distance between Bonkoro and her parents. She not only decides “never to

complain to them” (350) but she also refers to them once as “the people” – “I look

carefully at the people who are my parents…” (350) – reflecting a lack of intimacy in

their relationship. The inner conflict of self-identity and belonging is thus reflected in

Bonkoro’s dream.

In addition, just as the girl in the dream reflects Bonkoro’s inner struggle, she also

reflects her desires. Before the reader is informed of Bonkoro’s reoccurring dream, she

states that she had “longed for a mother…[with] skin so dark” (350) so she would not

have fears of the sun burning her. Notably, the sun in the country of her dreams “is so

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close that everyone can touch it” (350). The girl in the dream does not fear the sun and

this may reflect Bonkoro’s desire to overcome her fear of the sun burning her, a desire

coupled with another desire to have dark skin. The closeness of the sun to the country

may also be an indication that the girl in the dream is dark skinned since she is unaffected

by the sun. Notice also that the girl in the dream is well liked – “Boys daydreamed about

her. Men stayed in love with her. Girls wanted to know her” (351). Bonkoro’s desire to

be accepted is understandable. The people in the street reject her and her mother’s family

fuss over her appearance.

Added to this, self-expression is another one of Bonkoro’s desires that is released in

her dream. Notably, “the girl had a voice!” (351). Roemer employs an exclamation mark

here to express the intensity of emotion associated with someone who has no voice and is

able to attain one through the imagination. The attainment of a voice seems to be a

victory since it is Bonkoro’s own goal achieved in her dream. Interestingly, the girl in

the dream changes into a mountain and screams releasing “hundreds of butterflies” at

times or “loads of mud” (351). The scream represents the magnitude and intensity of the

release. Bonkoro has suppressed so much that when she finally gets an avenue to release

her unexpressed feelings, it is released powerfully. The links among particular events

namely, the mountain bursting out loads of mud, Bonkoro’s “hope that some day [she]

will puke so much that the whole table and [her parents’] faces will be covered with the

mess” (350) and Bonkoro actually puking later on in her fatherland, contribute to the

unity and coherence in the story and help to develop the concern of a need for release and

self-expression which is essentially a need for a voice.

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Ultimately, Bonkoro achieves her goal for a voice or self-expression. Her vocal

relation of her experience proves that she has indeed acquired a voice. Also, Roemer

skilfully allows her to tape record her voice as she relates her experience. This not just

solidifies the concern of acquiring a voice, but also and probably more importantly,

suggests to the reader that Bonkoro’s voice is precious enough to be preserved as a gift.

Markedly, at the end of her tape recording, the limited third person narrator states that she

“begins to cry out loud” (361) reflecting a full release of all that is suppressed. Roemer

competently pulls together the latter part of the title, Bonkoro’s experience, her dreams

and her tape recorded narrative to produce a unified and coherent short story as he

develops the concern of inarticulation as it relates to finding one’s voice.

Also, there seems to be an opposition between two worlds within Roemer’s short

story. It is this opposition that adds to the tension within Bonkoro. The opposition

between her parents’ worlds and consequently the oppositions within her own world, is

seen in sentences such as “Mama kept getting redder and redder, and Papa turned blacker

and blacker” (349), “how brown I am, and how blond I am becoming” (350) and the

description of her fingers as “gold-brown” (358). The physical description of her parents

solidifies this opposition. Her father’s skin is described as “almost black” (349) whilst

her mother is described as having “blond hair and grey eyes and a voice that sounds just

like that of people who are not black” (350). Also, the instruments Bonkoro uses during

the intervals between her story including “the flute” (350) and the “apinti-drum” (368)

contrast in terms of their origin. Added to this, is the poster of Michael Jackson,

Madonna and Prince standing in contrast to the “postcard of an Aucaner woman” (356).

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Even more, the mental confusion generated by this conflict, causes Bonkoro to long to

experience her father’s world which she has been deprived of. She is deprived of the

truth surrounding his departure from the land of his birth. As such, she dreams of going

to her father’s country and longs to meet her Grandma who she knows only through

letters, phone calls and a framed picture. It is her deprivation of her father’s culture, her

familiarity with her mother’s, the acceptance and importance she senses from her

Grandma, and the resemblance her Grandma acknowledges between her and her father,

that gives her initial preference for her father’s culture. Hence, she states “I am ashamed

to be the child of a woman with blond hair and grey eyes and a voice that sounds just like

that of people who are not black” (350).

Furthermore, Bonkoro also identifies with her father at the end of the story for both

their hearts return to the land of their birth. The minister’s reading of “the story of the

prodigal son” (360) is therefore fitting. Bonkoro’s father has a renewed appreciation and

a feeling of contentment in the country of his birth after twenty years of departure.

Similarly, Bonkoro begins to feel “more and more alone” (360) in her fatherland and her

heart returns to her place of birth, her motherland, with a deeper sense of appreciation.

Both father and daughter are torn apart at the beginning of the story and this tension is

reconciled in the end.

Notably, Bonkoro inherits her father’s bony and thin legs – “his legs are bony and

thin, just like mine” (349). Interestingly, this resemblance links to the journeys of self-

identification and renewal that they both undertake, as their hearts return to the place of

their birth and their prodigality expires. Consequently, Bonkoro has inherited much more

than physical attributes and material belongings from her father. On the other hand,

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though she has followed his footsteps, she differs from her father as she decides to

preserve her father’s family inheritance and like her mother, give her heart and body to a

black person. Even if she suffers her whole long life, she intends to join herself with

“someone of the original African race” (360) unlike her father who chose to marry a

woman from another country and race.

It must also be noted that the journey motif is a reoccurring image throughout the

story. Roemer employs this device possibly to emphasize Bonkoro’s journey “from a

child into an adult” (359) which includes her journey of self-discovery and her search for

identity. Her flight from her motherland to her fatherland, her decision to pretend to be a

pilot “taking off, flying-flying, descending, from country to country, touching the earth

and slicing the sky – north, south, east, west” (352), her mention that “everything-

everything had disturbed the intimacy with which [her] father and [herself] had begun

[their] journey” (355), all give rise to the journey motif. Roemer’s craft again proves to

be effective as it unifies the concern of the journey of self-discovery and identity.

Evidently, Bonkoro’s attitude towards her mother changes by the end of the short

story. By the end of her summer vacation at her fatherland, her appreciation for her

mother is heightened – “My thoughts of my mother were like crumbs of happiness that I

stepped on with my own shoes as if they were firecrackers” (360). She realises what she

and her mother has in common – “all my heart and all my body would belong to a black

person – just like you Mama, Amen!” (360).

In the end, Bonkoro resolves her apparent identity crisis and wins the struggle for self-

discovery. It is her mother’s voice that helps to unlock her own voice. Notice that when

she feeds her mother’s words – “My darling whatever you may experience in your

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fatherland, do not forget that there is also a woman who has given you a motherland!”

(355) – into her consciousness, she seems to gain clarity and understanding. After

Bonkoro hears her mother’s voice she states “I hear my mother’s voice clearly and I see

my father’s face clearly and I wonder why we still have not gone to Grandma’s” (355).

This marks the beginning of the transformation of her internal landscape. Although she is

in her fatherland, she remembers her mother and remains connected to her. The bond

between them which was alluded to in the sentence “Never had I spent a summer without

her (mother)” (352) is confirmed when Bonkoro states “I sent a postcard to my mother

with a noble title in front my name – as a joke of course!” (357).

Moreover, later on when Bonkoro states “Far too often I was thinking about my

mother and how she would really have enjoyed this – just like me, she was crazy about

the wilderness. Finally I realised what had brought her and my father together…” (357),

the progression in her journey of self-discovery is evident. She continues to gain

revelation of who her parents are and who she is. As the secret of the plantation is

revealed, Bonkoro admits that “it was a command that changed [her] from a child into an

adult, from one moment to the next” (358-9). The change in her internal landscape and

the resulting growth continues as hidden truths begin to unravel including when her

“Papa [begins] to talk about his youth” (359).

In the end, Bonkoro admits that she is “chased by [her] own words” (360) marking the

end of this leg of her journey of self-discovery. Her internal landscape is altered by the

experience in her fatherland, followed by a renewed gratitude for her motherland. While

she receives the gift of an inheritance from her father, her mother offers her the gift of her

preserved voice possibly representative of her identity. It is Bonkoro’s acceptance of

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these two gifts that helps her in the process of self-discovery. The title is therefore

unified since the former part “The inheritance of my Father” comments on her experience

in her fatherland whilst the latter part “A Story for Listening” reflects the preserved gift

of a voice that both she and her mother give each other. At the end of the story, Bonkoro

has an inheritance from her father and the story for listening not only reflects the release

of her voice, but also a gift given in return to her mother who willingly shared her voice.

In conclusion, Roemer’s craft in “The Inheritance of my Father: A Story for

Listening” unifies the theme of self-discovery and identity. He skilfully employs the title,

narrative perspective and events within Bonkoro’s story to solidify the relationship

between finding one’s identity and one’s voice. All in all, Roemer’s craft proves to be

successful since he captures and expresses his purpose with competence in this unified

and coherent short story.

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Works Cited

Roemer, Astrid. “The Inheritance of my Father: A Story for Listening.” The Oxford

Book of Caribbean Short Stories. Ed. Steward Brown and John Wickham. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2001. 348-361.

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