An Examination of Getz and Clarke's Abina and the Important Men

Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History is a combination of the efforts of Trevor R. Getz, a historian, and Liz Clarke, a graphic artist illustrator, to create a novel that contains both beautiful artwork as well as historically accurate and significant information. The book centers around the life of Abina Mansah, the woman without history, who managed to first escape slavery in West Africa and then, perhaps even more impressively, took her former master to court. In fact, Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History can be perceived as a sort of illustrated history of her life and hardships, as well as her contributions to history. When reading this story, it was hard not to notice that the author, Getz, emphasized a number of points and concepts throughout the book and, perhaps more importantly, left out a great deal as well, which brings with it certain assumptions.

The first section of the book deals with the 1876 court case of Mansah, who convinced what she referred to as "the important men" that she had freedom and rights outside of her life as a slave, even though slavery had been outlawed a long time ago in the British empire. Gets emphasizes the role of the British Empire and their hypocrisy toward Mansah, considering that her owner and the "important men" (which is where the title of the book originates) to which Mansah had to plead her case to. This brought up the interesting concept by Getz that there is a large difference between stating that a people or individual is free, and actually practicing and respecting the freedom of that individual or group of people. Getz also stresses that much of the motivation for the continued enslavement of Mansah and others had profit-focused goals, as evidenced by the British allowing rich landowners like Quamina Eddoo, Mansah's slave master, to continue enslaving the population for the sole purpose of profit. Getz focuses particularly on the actual effects of these trials, as well as the actions of Mansah, on the larger scale. That is to say, he concerns himself mainly with what Mansah is changing through her actions, rather than how she herself feels about the hardships she is having to endure on account of the British. This can be seen in the quote that Mansah tells her lawyer: that her own safety was not relevant, and that being recognized and heard was far more important to her, which shows that even Mansah herself was more concerned with the "big picture" of her actions, rather than the initial ramifications of it. It could also be argued that Getz focuses largely on those who are oppressed, unprivileged, or simply have fewer rights than most, such as the young, slaves, and other groups, such as women in Africa, who do not get as much attention in the media or textbooks as Getz feels they should. Getz also focuses on recreating much of the courtroom discussion and actions that actually occurred, rather than making his own stories up or relying on hearsay.

This book contains four major parts, but the first and most important part forms what is called a "graphic history" of Mansah and her struggles. One aspect of the book that should be noted is that Getz takes many concepts that appear to be exclusive entirely to the events of the book and applies them to the modern world. For example, on many occasions, Mansah will question her current situation in a concise and thought-provoking way, such as by simply asking "Am I free?" This prompts a great deal of introspection in the reader, as the question that Mansah so eloquently asked can be applied to cultures of just about every time period or geographic location. Further evidence of this can be seen in some of the overarching themes of the book, such as human trafficking. This is significant because human trafficking is referred to by many as a sort of modern-day slavery, and by alluding to this crime so casually, as Getz does, he succeeds in drawing attention to it in the modern age. Another example of this can be seen with the book's feelings toward women's rights. While Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History is more certainly a book about slavery, oppression, and individual freedom, it is also about how freedom is not necessarily distributed evenly, especially when gender is involved. Once again, it is easy to take this concept, which, at first glance, is exclusive to this book, and apply it to the bigger picture of modern society. Women's rights is a very real issue, even today, and it is helpful for Getz to put it into perspective for a new generation of readers. Lastly, the issue of cultural autonomy is one that must be addressed. Getz focuses a great deal on how these African nations, such as Ghana, "need" British colonialism in order to survive and thrive as both a nation and a people, but the veracity of this claim, that they need the British, is debatable,, and, indeed, Getz certainly debates it. Perhaps most effectively, Getz does this by providing a rich and deep history of many African families in the region. He then contrasts this by discussing the British missions to "civilize" African nations, and how these civilization missions broke these families apart, prompting a number of stories similar to Mansah's. This all culminates into a startling glimpse into the hardships of not just one lone African ex-slave, but the African people as a whole, especially around this time period.

There is also some material that Getz, perhaps necessarily, left out of the story. In most cases, the reasons for these omissions center around the fact that the book is designed with classroom (both high school and college) use across many subjects, and some of the details about the court case, such as some of the more violent aspects about the violence inflicted against Mansah during her period as a slave. Many aspects of the court cases and, in fact, of the story itself, are also either removed entirely or abridged slightly in the interest of keeping the story as concise and accessible as possible for readers across all levels. To that end, Getz does a good job of trimming the fat, so to speak, about the story and leaving only the parts that are both thought-provoking and applicable to society on a larger scale than merely the story of one oppressed African woman.

One admiral inclusion by Getz is a portrayal of the complexity of the situation. That is to say, although slavery had been outlawed in the Gold Coast for years, it was not quite as simple as that. There was still a booming palm oil market, of which Mansah played an important part, and there were a large number of wealthy businessmen (perhaps the important men to which Mansah was referring) who were willing to take immoral and illegal measures to see that this business, and many others, was not interrupted, despite the consequences. Furthermore, Getz understands that the story of Mansah is not a solitary one. He uses the specific example of Mansah's tale to show the readers how often this type of exploitation occurred, even after it had been supposedly outlawed. Getz also explores some of the more complex issues of the story by showing the dichotomy that Mansah faced between keeping quiet and enduring slavery, or speaking up and being persecuted, but eventually attaining freedom. Further, Getz shows the second tough decision that Mansah had to undertake in the form of her decision to have her former employer prosecuted, rather than simply go into hiding or escape to some other part of the country where slavery was not as prevalent.

Another interesting dichotomy introduced by Getz is the concept of short-term vs. long-term victory. Although this was touched upon with the decision of Mansah to attempt to see her employers prosecuted (which is the long-term goal) rather than simply escape (which is the short-term goal), Getz brings this theme to fruition several times within the book. Most notably, it is seen in the climax of the book, with Mansah ultimately losing her court case against her former slavers. This is not the end, of course, since Getz acts as the catalyst for a (extremely) long-term victory by uncovering the story of Mansah and, thanks to the efforts of Clarke and Getz, dispersing it to readers all across the world, allowing millions to experience the case through her own eyes. In that respect, the book gives the reader themselves the opportunity to act as a sort of archive for her story, as the main theme of the book seems to be that any sort of oppression or atrocity can be overcome with the right amount of togetherness and awareness about the issue.

Lastly, Getz makes an effort to stress the importance of long-term history and how even events that might seem insignificant, given their age, can, in fact, continue to have great repercussions. Getz does this by portraying Mansah as a sort of "forgotten victim," and portraying her as a relatively normal woman who was simply caught up in a bad situation and forced to make the best out of it. This helps to show that history, in a sense, can happen to anyone. Getz even goes so far as to allow the reader access to the court documents he originally used to create the story, which allows the reader to see the events firsthand and understand just how common Mansah's situation really was. It should be mentioned that Mansah herself did not drastically change the system, but merely that she serves as an excellent example of how those like her were oppressed yet managed to rise up against their slavers and ultimately defeat them, as evidenced by the general lack of slavery in the world today, especially in Great Britain, which frequently turned a blind eye to Mansah's suffering.

Although Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History provides an extremely fleshed out interpretation of Mansah's court case, there are, due to the nature of the story, simply some things that Getz saw fit to leave out. For example, since Mansah could neither read nor speak English, Getz, along with others who were present during her court case, had to do a bit of interpretation of their own in order to convey the emotions, thoughts, and ideas that Mansah was expressing at the time. This represents just one of a few ways in which Getz had to invent some of his own inserts into the story for the sake of readability, as well as historical accuracy. These contrasts can be seen in the "Historical Context" section of the book, which provides insight into topics such as The British Civilizing Mission (which was mentioned earlier), The Atlantic Slave Trade and Abolition, and, quite simply, Slavery in the Gold Coast, where the majority of the book takes place. This section is where Getz expresses to the reader the importance of being both historically accurate (he stresses that Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History is most certainly not historical fiction, but non-fiction), and easy-to-read, which Getz considers to be another high priority given the diverse readership of the book.

While Getz certainly was tasked with a difficult proposition: maintaining both historical accuracy, telling a story, and, at the same time, retelling a story so that it can be absorbed by readers of many different levels and backgrounds, Getz managed to knock it out of the park with Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History. His account of the struggles and subsequent fighting back of Mansah manages to be both moving and true to the events that actually transpired, as evidenced by looking at the documents of the court cases that are available on Getz's website. While Mansah did, ultimately, lose her court case, the impact that the case had across the landscapes of both Africa and Great Britain was profound, since the plight of Mansah was far too important to restrict to one simple court case, doomed to be forgotten. Thanks to the efforts of Getz, the story of Adina Mansah will be able to be retold and understood by all readers who wish to experience firsthand the struggles of a woman who was oppressed because of both race and gender.

Work Cited

Getz, Trevor R., and Liz Clarke. Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History. Oxford University Press, 2012.