Amady Gum's narrative begins with a brief but dense description of his family:

"This is to show what brought me from my native home.

"I was born in Goree, my mother was born in Joloff & my father in Salum. On what I hear from them, was, that they come in Goree when they were young, but that they were slaves there. My father behaves himself very well towards his master, at last his master gave him free, my mother also was with his master & her brother come from Joloff & wanted to pay for his freedom but her master won’t because he love her very much. So she live in Goree until she grow, the first child she got was a boy but we were not one father, at last she born four children & I was the youngest of all, when my mother died."

Gum immediately locates his origins within the culturally diverse milieu of Goree island. His account is revealing, despite its brevity. The fact that his parents were enslaved as children and lived their entire lives on Goree is a reminder that the slave population was a stable element within society. The different experiences of his parents highlights the gendered aspect of slavery: his father was able to earn his freedom, but his mother was unable to presumably because of her greater reproductive value.

Postwar, rediscovered

The recent death of Tony Judt inspired me to return to Postwar, his masterful history of Europe since 1945. What I remembered from reading it before was its excellent coverage of Europe at the end of the second World War - easily the best thing I have read about the war and its costs in years.

But I never made it much past the 1950s, if memory serves me correctly. So it is illuminating to dip into some of the later chapters - on the differences between the different Easten bloc regimes, on the fall of Communism, and on the origins and problems of European union.

This is simply one of those indispensable books that provides context and a sense of narrative to already-familiar events. In its scope and balance - it moves from east to west, and from country to country with ease - it reminds me of nothing so much as Diarmaid MacCulloch's The Reformation.