And along with the need to write, she also developed a need to draw.
It has always been my way to sort through my feelings by writing. That is my reason for writing and assembling this book. In order for me to understand who I am, I must begin to understand who she was. But I must try because I need to understand myself, and she is part of me. And now that she’s dead, I’m not even sure I ever will. I’ve never trusted her, though, never understood how she could be the way she was-so focused, and yet so misguided, there for all the world, but never there for me.
But instead, I’ve hated her, feared her, needed her. I have wanted to love her and to believe that what happened between her and me wasn’t her fault. To those who loved her or hated her, she was simply “Olamina.” Her legal name was Lauren Oya Olamina Bankole. And she needed large events to manipulate. In spite of all her protests and denials, she’s always needed devoted, obedient followers-disciples-who would listen to her and believe everything she told them. I think that would please her, if she could know about it. As she searches for answers about her own past, she also struggles to reconcile with the legacy of a mother caught between her duty to her chosen family and her calling to lead humankind into a better future. Years later, Asha Vere reads the journals of a mother she never knew, Lauren Olamina. The fledgling community provides refuge for outcasts facing persecution after the election of an ultra-conservative president who vows to “make America great again.” In an increasingly divided and dangerous nation, Lauren’s subversive colony–a minority religious faction led by a young black woman–becomes a target for President Jarret’s reign of terror and oppression. In 2032, Lauren Olamina has survived the destruction of her home and family, and realized her vision of a peaceful community in northern California based on her newly founded faith, Earthseed. Originally published in 1998, this shockingly prescient novel’s timely message of hope and resistance in the face of fanaticism is more relevant than ever.
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