Aishah Rahman (1936–2014)

Aishah Rahman’s story begins in her infancy, when her mother, infected with tuberculosis, goes into a sanitarium and must place her in a foster home. It ends when, at 18, she stands in a courtroom, giving up her son, a bastard borne of a bastard, whispering in his ear her blessings and hopes that he will land with a good family. In between, we learn of the Harlem of the 1940s and 1950s, where the neighborhood is divided between black West Indians and black Americans, the latter isolating themselves in groups according to their native states: Georgia, Virginia, Mississippi, Alabama. Rahman is a sublime writer, and her narrative of surviving a childhood of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of a foster mother is honest and compelling.… (mehr)