Summary

Kojo – The narrative shifts back to America, the first few paragraphs revealing that Kojo and the woman he calls Ma Aku now live in Baltimore, Maryland. Narration also reveals that Kojo (called Jo) is old enough to be working on the docks in a job that Ma Aku says has something evil about it: “… freed Negroes … building up the things that had brought them to America in the first place, the very things that had tried to drag them under” (111). Finally, narration describes Jo’s home and family life: his wife Anna (a freed slave) and their seven children, their names starting with the first seven letters of the alphabet, with an eighth on the way and nicknamed “H.”

One day, after working a full shift on the docks (narration referring to Jo’s experience using powerful fire to heat the pitch used...