57 pages • 1-hour read
Afterlives
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Symbols & Motifs
Lives Rebuilt
The rebuilding of lives is a motif that runs throughout the novel. Although there is no real reference to life-after-death or any endorsement of religious beliefs in the book, the title Afterlives refers to how each of the main characters moves through a time of real trauma, following which they emerge and rebuild their lives in meaningful ways. Hamza is the epitome of this. A desperately wounded, unhoused war veteran, he shows up before Nassor’s desk and asks for a job. In time, Hamza will become Nassor’s most prized workman—honorable, confident, and insightful. Hamza’s second life takes him far away from his childhood as an enslaved youth who ran away from his enslaver and joined the military.
This motif repeats in many characters. The older Ilyas, who runs away from his dying parents, returns to his ancestral village and rescues his sister from virtual slavery. The younger Ilyas, once relieved of the unnatural voices that tormented him, advances in his abilities to the point he can travel to Germany and hunt down his namesake uncle. Asha, bereft of her parents and left to the mercy of a capricious uncle, builds a tender relationship with the unexpected husband who accepts her as she is. Afiya, beaten by her uncle, finds that the man of her dreams has drawn near and clandestinely pursues him. The novel presents the long view of life through this motif, implying that encountering life-changing troubles sets the stage for our greater triumphs that lie ahead.
The Natural World
The natural world often functions as a useful symbol for the emotional states and situations of the characters. This is especially important in the experiences of Hamza. When arriving by boat at night in the seaport of Tanga, the ocean is simply too rough to land; thus, the ship and sailors remain in the water through the night rather than coming ashore. The troubled sea in this case symbolizes the turbulent world Hamza will disembark into. When wounded and lying near death, Hamza hears the sound of predators in the jungle, followed by the wild crying of their prey being torn apart. This symbolizes Hamza’s helpless physical condition and the panic he feels. Lying in front of the door to Nassor’s lumberyard, Hamza watches the furtive movements of feral cats coming to stare at him, then skitter away—the anxious, homeless cats symbolize what Hamza feels.
Unspoken Similarities
There are many similarities shared by the characters, creating a motif of shared humanity. A striking example is that many of the main characters, though comparatively young, are all orphaned: Asha, Afiya, Khalifa, and Hamza. All of the novel’s main characters also experience a profound sense of longing at some point or another. Afiya yearns to know the whereabouts of her brother, Ilyas. Khalifa misses his parents who died, not having seen them for the previous three years. Asha wants to have a child and cannot. As colonized people, the Tanzanians also experience widespread economic and political hardships through living under colonial regimes, creating both individual and collective trauma that the characters have to grapple with in their own way. These shared experiences are a potential source of empathy and connection between people when recognized and shared, which reflects the theme of Understanding and Misunderstanding in Human Connection in the novel.
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