How Should Justice be Obtained?

          Throughout the novel The Truth About Awiti by CP Patrick, the one thing that all readers can undoubtedly agree on is how Awiti leads a life of immense pain and horror. When she is just barely an adult, Awiti loses her entire family and village to the slave trade, she is soon manipulated into immortality, and then becomes the main witness to the indescribable horrors of which slavery and oppression create. 

           A common thread between the different stories is the idea of how the spirits of past enslaved African Americans are unrestful and are in search of revenge for both their death and the horrors committed against their people. On the other spectrum, the enslaved find that there is peace in death and many spirits no longer desire to be involved in avenging their deaths, but rather, trying to find solace in their afterlife. 

           In Awiti’s search for revenge, she is often battled by her desire to have peace. She finds solitude in fleeting moments but is always led back to her anger and passion to make the plantation owners pay for the pain they inflicted. By the end of the book, I felt that Awiti should release her anger and allow the societal change to occur naturally and then she would be able to rest and find her peace. However, I still could not help but sympathize and understand her never-ending wrath. Awiti’s immortality allowed her to see centuries of segregation and oppression of her people, and no mortal can truly understand the continuous momentum that continued to push her forward in enacting revenge. It is with all the lives that Awiti has lived that she is unable to ultimately find eternal solitude and is predestined to continue seeking revenge as long as the transnational racial prejudice and minority oppression continue to occur. 

           Awiti’s campaign for vengeance is one that ends up hurting the innocent more than the individuals that she is truly targeting. As mentioned in chapter 28, Awiti believes that the African Americans killed are happy to sacrifice their lives for the greater good, but it is brought to question, is Awiti still on the side of the greater good if she is destroying the homes and lives of blameless people? This question is dependent on the individual, how deeply should revenge go back and at what point is it more effective to not use hard power to inflict change but rather soft power to change the minds and perceptions of those who are the problem? I believe that in a current world where there are a constant minority and oppression of beliefs or races, coercion cannot be used to instill timeless change but instead knowledge and awareness is the path to make an impact and better the world.