Copper Sun

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006

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Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part One: Amari

Chapter 1 Summary: Amari and Besa

The story opens with Kwasi (Amari’s younger brother) climbing a coconut tree to look a giraffe in the eye. From the height, he sees Besa coming their way. Besa catches up with Amari to ask her how her day was, and the two exchange affectionate words with each other. Besa can’t stay long, however, because he has “seen strangers in the forest…[that] have the skin color of goat’s milk.” (4) When Amari tells her mother of the strangers that Besa saw, her mother says, “we must welcome our guests, then, Amari. We would never judge people simply by how they looked—that would be uncivilized…Let us prepare for a celebration.” The elders of the town, including Amari’s father, make preparations for their guests.

Chapter 2 Summary: Strangers and Death

As the newcomers arrive in their community (Ziavi, Ghana) “everyone in the village came out of their houses to see the astonishing sight—pale, unhealthy-looking men who carried large bundles and unusual-looking sticks as they marched into the centre of the village. In spite of the welcoming greetings and looks of excitement on the faces of the villagers, the strangers did not smile. They smelled of danger” (7). Amir describes one of the strange men as having “eyes the color of the sky,” and it makes her shudder (7). They are also in the company of the Ashanti tribe, “men of her own land” (7). Once welcomed to the village by the village elders, the visitors offer gifts. After the presentation of the storytelling, the drummers begin, and Amari watches Besa’s drumming skill. Nearly everyone joins in dancing: “All spoke to the spirits with their joyous movements.” (11)

As the dancers continue, a shot rings out and hits the Chief square in the chest. It comes from “one of the unusual weapon sticks the strangers carried” (12). As people try to flee, Amari sees an Ashanti warrior club down a mother with a baby. In horror, Amari watches as her father is stabbed, and her mother’s head is smashed against a rock. Kwasi finds Amari and tells her to run, and they flee into the jungle. “Birds and monkeys above them cried out in alarm, but their noise could not cover the screams of the slaughter of her people” (13). While running through the trees, Kwasi is speared though the body and dies in Amari’s arms. “No one spoke. No on wept. They were defeated” (14).

Chapter 3 Summary: Sorrow and Shackles

“The charred and bloodied bodies of relatives remained where they had fallen, with no one to perform rites for burials, no one to say the prayers for the dead” (15). The white men put neck irons onto their captives and chain them all together in preparation for their long walk to Cape Coast.

Some days into their shackled walk, Kwadzo tries speaking to one of the Ashanti guards. She asks them why they are corroborating with the white men, and he tells them he will “be greatly rewarded” (19). When Tirza, one of the six shackled with Amari admits to her that she wants to give up, that she “would rather die than be enslaved like this,” Amari tells her “as long as [they] have life [they] have hope” (19). Tirza admits she has no dreams left, and she dies the next day.

Chapters 1-3 Analysis

The novel opens with the poem “Heritage” by Countee Cullen, which is where the title of the novel comes from: “What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea.” The copper sun becomes a totem for Amari to look at different times throughout her journey. This first portion of the novel is essential to establishing the setting of the tragedy. Draper is sure to set up Amari’s love for her home in Ziavi: “The path, hard-packed from thousands of bare feet that had trod on it for decades, was flanked on both sides by fat, fruit-laden mango trees, the sweet smell of which always seemed to welcome her home” (2). Even the initial excitement that comes when the white men arrive is enthusiastic: “the air was fragrant with hope and possibility” (6). However, all of this hopeful expectation is in stark juxtaposition to how things eventually end up for Amari and her people. Despite the horror that Amari sees, she expresses an unwavering hope after they are shackled with each other that “as long as [they] have life [they] have hope” (19). This idea, that hope is what keeps life going, is one of Draper’s central themes in the story. It is most noted when Tirza dies after admitting she has no dreams left. In other words, Draper seems to be suggesting that without hope then there is no life. It is this hope that keeps Amari alive throughout her harrowing journey.