Haywards Heath Study Guide

Aminatta Forna was born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to Doctor Mohamed Sorie Forna, a Sierra Leonean man, and Maureen Christison, a Scottish woman. During her childhood, Forna’s family lived in Sierra Leone where her father worked as a physician and politician, but when her parents divorced, she and her two siblings moved to the UK with their mother for a time. Eventually, her father gained custody, and he and the children returned to Sierra Leone. Due to Sierra Leone’s chaotic and corrupt political state, Forna’s father was the victim of a political execution. His second wife brought his children out of the country to live in England. There, Forna studied law at University College London. She went on to work as a reporter and documentarian, focusing on African life. She went on to write many novels and now works as a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

Although its presence is rather subtle in “Haywards Heath,” Forna’s story is undoubtedly influenced by Western colonialism and imperialism in Africa, along with the Black Rights Movement of the 1960s. From the 15th century to the 19th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved African people to the Americas and Europe. Later, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Western powers vied for imperial control over parts of Africa. This slave trade and subsequent movement of imperialism led to deep trauma in the African population and displaced many African peoples (in “Haywards Heath,” Attila mentions this subject as his area of expertise). The fight for racial equality lasted long after such imperialism lessened, however. From 1954 to 1968, civil rights activists fought against racial segregation, discrimination, and voter disqualification across the country. While laws were put in place that lessened legal discrimination, racism persisted, and the Black power movement, largely formed based on Malcolm X’s ideologies, rose in protest of the lack of true justice. Despite these movements and the many steps made towards progress, racial gaps still exist in income, education, and criminal justice.

Much of Forna’s work revolves around similar themes as “Haywards Heath,” such as interpersonal relationships, memory, and cultural histories. Her novel Happiness is one such work, exploring the relationship between an American woman and Ghanaian man who meet each other by chance in London and develop a strong bond over the course of the story. Other than Forna’s work, many contemporary authors also tackle similar themes. Alice Munro’s short story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” follows a husband in the aftermath of his wife’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis; Munro explores the ways aging and disease affects the husband and wife individually as well as how it affects their relationship. Additionally, Wallace Stegner’s The Spectator Bird follows a protagonist returning to a significant place in his past (just as Attila does in “Haywards Heath”) in order to come to terms with a part of his history. Finally, Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow follows an African American woman as she reconciles with her husband’s death as well as her ancestry, sharing Forna’s exploration of race and cultural identity.