The Heart of a Woman

Mendinah gains a reputation among African diplomatic circles as a “home-breaking harlot” (242), and the previously friendly and welcoming group of wives grows hostile. Mendinah accosts Angelou one evening at a party, telling her that Make has been frantically pursuing her, claiming that he is doing so because his wife wishes to offer her employment at the magazine office. Angelou is humiliated and angry. Though Angelou realizes Mendinah is in a vulnerable position, she nonetheless responds harshly, calling the girl “ignorant” and “a tramp” (244). When she challenges Make, he denies even knowing Mendinah. Angelou decides that the time has come to drop the obedient wife act and return to her independence as a Black woman.

That evening, Make attempts to justify his behavior by claiming his “Africanness.” Angelou has grown cynical about these arguments. When he argues that they should stay together so that Guy will have an African role model, her position against him hardens, vowing not to let Make teach this behavior to her son. She proceeds to speculate that the myth of the “sexually rapacious” Black man was originally propagated by white people since they grew jealous of African American sexuality when they found it was the only thing slavery was unable to repress. After Make’s monologue concludes, Angelou announces that she plans to leave him.

The next day, Angelou receives a phone call from Banti, asking her to come to an assembly at her house. When Angelou arrives, she finds her husband and about 20 other people of various African nationalities. She is told that there is to be a “palaver” to discuss and weigh up their situation. During the palaver, two teams argue on behalf of the two parties while everyone asks questions. Angelou is dismayed to see that Banti, Kebi, and other close friends will be arguing for her husband while she is to be defended by a mostly male group of strangers. She responds to questions and states her case with bluntness and sexually explicit language, asserting her Black American culture against the behavioral norms for African women. Against her expectations, the palaver concludes in her favor, but those present ask if she will give Make one more chance and stay six months longer. She agrees and a celebration ensues.

As an American, Angelou encounters a great deal of hostility in Egypt as the Cuban missile crisis unfolds. She notes the irony of the fact that she, a Black woman, is being held accountable for the actions of white men far away: “I didn’t have the language to explain that being a black American was qualitatively different from being an American” (255).

Her relationship with Make remains loveless, and she grows increasingly dependent on her friendships with Banti and Kebi. At the end of the agreed six-month period, she approaches Joe, Banti’s husband, and announces her intention to leave Egypt and enroll Guy at the University of Ghana. She asks for help finding a job, and he offers her a post at the Liberian Department of Information.

As they fly across the Sahara, Guy holds Angelou’s hand and dries her tears. He assumes she is crying because of her ended relationship, but she is actually thinking about the history of enslavement and how it lies at the root of so many of the ills facing Black people in the United States. When they arrive in Accra, Angelou is immediately impressed to see Black African officers and airline pilots walking around in their smart uniforms. She reflects ironically on how different this is from the situation in the United States, where Black airport personnel would only hold menial roles. She feels increasingly pleased with her decision to encourage Guy to study in Ghana, since here he will be able to grow and develop intellectually without experiencing racial discrimination.

Angelou and Guy spend their first evening in Ghana at the home of Walter Nthia, an associate of Make who has organized a welcome gathering of South Africans and Black Americans residing in Ghana. Angelou and Guy both enjoy the evening although Angelou grows irritated by the extent to which her teenage son is assertively participating in adult conversations. When two of the guests, Richard and Ellen, invite them both to a picnic the next day, Angelou refuses, implicitly on behalf of both, but Guy pipes up saying, “Mother has spoken for herself” (260) and that he, instead, wishes to go.

The next day, Angelou grows increasingly uneasy when the group is late returning from the picnic. She is informed that Guy is driving Richard and Ellen’s car, because Richard has had too much to drink. When Ellen arrives, she is in tears and has blood on her face and in her hair. Guy has been hit by a truck and seriously injured. Angelou rushes to the hospital and is overwhelmed to see her son laid out on a gurney. She reflects on their history together, considering how her whole adult life has centered on her son.

At the end of the chapter, she learns that Guy’s neck is broken in three places. Contrary to the doctor’s advice, Angelou rushes to be with her son, observing that, throughout Guy’s rather turbulent life, his “only certitude” has lain “in the knowledge that Mom, effective or not, was never too far away” (267).

Angelou describes how she comes to love the city of Accra as Guy’s health improves. She decides to cancel her move to Liberia and stay in Ghana while Guy recovers, so she needs to look for alternative employment. She is introduced to the female poet, Efua Sutherland, who finds her a post on the administrative staff of the university. When Angelou tries to express her gratitude, Efua responds, “Sister, I am a mother, too” (269).

When she tries to enroll her son at the University of Ghana, he is initially rejected due to differences in the school system. After a great deal of campaigning by his mother, the board agrees to let him take a three-part test. When she asks Guy how the test has gone, she is furious to discover that he has been highly critical of a book by a member of the faculty selection committee, Conor Cruise O’Brien. Angelou hurries to the Senior Common Room, hoping to placate the professor, but is surprised to hear from O’Brien that he is pleased with how the exam has gone: “We want minds like that in the university” (271). Bemused, Angelou reflects that she doesn’t understand the opposite sex, especially when they are white.

The book closes with Guy moving out of Angelou’s house to live in the residence halls. Angelou remarks that this will be the first time she has ever lived alone. As Guy leaves, she expects to feel destitute and bereft but instead feels curiously positive about the future. The first “perfectly formed and promising” thought is “At last, I’ll be able to eat the whole breast of a roast chicken by myself” (272).