A new novel by Bermuda College professor and writer Angela Barry explores the roller coaster of emotions faced by people exploring their roots in Africa for the first time.

Ms Barry's first novel, 'Gorée: Point of Departure' printed by British publisher Peepal Tree Press is in stores now.

The story is about a young woman raised in England by a St. Lucian mother, who goes to Senegal to reconnect with her estranged Senegalese father who is divorced from her mother.

The book title refers to the Island of Gorée just off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, which was one of the smaller of 40 departure points along the coast for enslaved people being shipped to the Americas and has become a popular spot for tourists trying to come to grips with the African slave trade.

Of particular interest is the Maison des esclaves or House of Slaves, where slaves were kept before shipment.

"The first time I visited Gorée, I was engaged to a Senegalese man and I knew many Senegalese in Paris," said Ms Barry who is now remarried to writer Michael Gilkes. "I had been exposed to this new culture.

"I felt ready. I knew about the food. I had some understanding. I spoke French fluently. I also understood the native language to a certain extent."

She felt she was ready, but it turned out she was not ready at all.

"When I landed I knew I was in such a different place," she said. "It was a huge shock, emotionally, physically in every way it was very shocking, but life changing in a most positive way."

Ms Barry said it wasn't just that she was going to Africa for the first time, but also that she was leaving the developing world for the first time.

"I was leaving that comfort zone of the developed world," she said. "I was going to a place where there were ancient cultures that I did not understand. By the time I left I knew I was so much richer for having that trip. Even though there were still many things I wasn't coping with."

She said what was different about this new place was that it put humans, rather than material things, at its centre.

"That is a feeling that has never left me in my encounters with Africa," she said. "The human is at the centre. That is still a wonderful thing."

Over the years she visited Gorée several times. She first started to write about Gorée after a bout of food poisoning on her second visit.

"Something odd happened in the second visit (which was 17 years after the first visit)," said Ms Barry. "We visited Gorée, and then we went to the north of the country.

"We were continuing our holiday. At that point I fell ill. I ate shellfish that was off. I was delirious for a couple of days. In that state I kept thinking about Gorée and the slave house. It just kept recycling the feelings I had in that place."

After she was well again, she wrote a story about her experience called 'Gorée Revisited'.

She has read the story frequently at public readings over the years, and it was also published in the journal 'Caribbean Writer'.

"That was in a sense the beginning of my life as a writer," said Ms Barry. "It has taken me more than 30 years, but I have now written a novel about Gorée.

"It is fictional. It deals with the theme of the African Diaspora. It is about the similarities and differences between people born in Africa and people of African descent who live else where.

"Since the civil rights movement people of the African diaspora have had a longing to reconnect with Africa."

The cover features a woman with a small doorway in the background. "This doorway is in the 'Maison des Esclaves'," said Ms Barry. "The slaves would have to go down this tunnel. Beyond this tunnel would be ships that would take them out to the slaveships.

"This would be the last view they would have of Africa before they were taken away. Gorée was a place of great significance for the whole world."

Gorée is currently a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.

"What happened is now being described as the Atlantic holocaust," said Ms Barry. "Many millions of Africans died on that Atlantic crossing.

"Those that didn't die were in bondage for the next couple of centuries. It was a very grievous event in human history. This island has resonance of a great wrong that was done. You can not visit Gorée island without feeling it. I use Gorée as a kind of central metaphor image.

"But it is not just a history lesson, it is very much a story about a family."

Ms Barry said the novel has nothing directly to do with Bermuda, although she did manage to get the word 'Bermuda' in there once. "And that was a challenge," she said.

But she is currently at work on another novel that will be all about Bermuda and its various cultures.

She and her husband, Mr. Gilkes, are preparing to leave the Island for a year so that she can pursue her doctoral degree in creative writing at the University of Lancaster, in England.

A number of overseas magazines and journals will be reviewing her book including Black History magazine that will be featuring the book during October.

She will also be doing a meet- the-author session in Croydon, England.

"I am hoping to do a few more of those when I am in England," said Ms Barry. "It is exciting to be promoting the book outside of Bermuda. There is a much bigger readership there, obviously, and I am trying to tap into it. I think it has potential."

Ms Barry has previously written an anthology of short stories called: 'Endangered Species and Other Stories'.

She will be doing booksigning at the Brown and Company Bookmart on Reid Street on Saturday, from 11.30 a.m. to 2 p.m.