Copper Sun: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Once a day, the women leave the cell in small groups. Guards toss buckets of water on them, and the soldiers like to rip the women’s tops to expose their breasts. Afi, the woman who befriended Amari, helps Amari get food and shows her how to look vacant, thereby escaping the notice of soldiers looking for women to rape at night. Afi’s husband and daughter died about two years ago, so Amari figures that Afi needs her as much as she needs Afi. One night, they wonder whether the gods can hear them. Afi says that the gods can see them and that they’re weeping, and she gently reminds Amari that they can’t escape from this place.

One day, all the women are brought into the center of a prison and chained at the wrists and ankles. Strange white men inspect the women like they’re animals for slaughter. One man tries to lift Amari’s upper lip, but she jerks away. He slaps her so hard that she almost falls. Afi hisses for Amari to open her mouth; terrified, Amari does. The white man pokes around in Amari’s mouth and then prods her arms, thighs, and breasts. Finally, the men seem to come to an agreement; the men who captured Amari accept cowrie shells, cloth, and gold. Then, the men push their captives through a low door. Frightened, Amari slowly crawls through. When hands pull her up and outside into the bright sunshine, she sees white sand and, for the first time, the ocean. It’s beautiful, powerful, and frightening.

Amari wonders if they’re going to throw her in the sea and notices a “house” resting far out on the water. It can’t be a boat, since boats can only hold a couple people. Amari decides the house must be a place for the dead. Men drag Amari to what looks like a goat pen with a fire burning in the middle. A Black man shoves her down and another man picks something up out of the fire and approaches Amari. Amari hears her flesh sizzle and screams as he brands her. Someone smears a salve on her wound and throws her into a different holding pen. Afi follows not long after, though she doesn’t cry when they brand her. Afi doesn’t know what happens next, but she’s heard that the ocean spills over the edge of the world and that there’s only death there.

Amari figures the white men have to have come from somewhere, and Afi agrees—whatever is on the other side of the ocean is a horrific place if the people who live there are willing to brand other people. Before the women can continue their conversation, several men are thrown into the cell. Several are the Ashanti warriors who captured Amari’s village, one is the Black man who branded her, and the last is Besa. The guards separate the men from the women. Amari wants to run to Besa, who looks defeated. The prisoners sit all day in the hot sun without water as uniformed men walk around, seemingly preparing. Amari watches, horrified, as several climb into a small boat and row to the floating house. They return with more men and chains for the prisoners.

Amari has never seen a sunset like tonight’s. The copper sun seems to bleed for the prisoners as it sinks. After dark, the captors prepare food and give generous portions to the prisoners. Afi explains that this is probably to prepare them for the journey. She hesitates before saying that they’ll go out to the “boat of death” and will never return. Amari feels a chill and doesn’t understand. Afi reminds her that they’re slaves. Amari knows this—but in her village, the slaves are respected and sometimes, their masters adopt them as extended family members. She asks if their slavery will be different, and Afi says she doesn’t know but suspects it will be horrific. Amari thinks that she can’t imagine worse than the night she was captured. She realizes that she’s glad Kwasi is dead—he’ll never have to endure any of this.