How To Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair

This is a story of growing up, one that centers on power and control--as all to often happens, when you have no control outside your home, you run an oppressive regime within it, and as a woman, she was demeaned, beaten, and repressed. The author grew up in Jamaica, first-born to young parents who looked to the Rastafarian faith as an antidote to corruption, racism and political posturing on an island where luxury hotels claimed the best beaches and fenced them off from ordinary people, while employing reggae musicians to entertain their wealthy guests. She and her siblings lived in near poverty, cut off from their extended family, and her father became ever more strict and violent. He forbade them to cut their hair, eat meat or go beyond the gate, lecturing them on "Babylon", representing the west and western ideas, and his very personal and militant version of Rastafari aggravating already hostile public attitudes to the ganga-smoking, polygamous, anti-establishment religion. His children felt they were walking on eggshells and dreaded the hours he spent at home. So this is the story of getting out, escaping the oppressor, and for her, how poetry made that possible. It is a difficult read, but beautifully and unflinchingly written.