The chapter “Quey” takes place around 1799, when Quey, the son of Effia and James Collins, is about 20 years old. As the chapter opens, he is in Effia’s village contemplating a message he has received from “and old friend” named Cudjo (50), the thought of whom is keeping him awake. He thinks of his life: born and raised in Cape Coast Castle, educated in England, and initially a junior officer before he was assigned as a liaison to the slave trade with Effia’s village. He resents this post, feeling no kinship with his maternal relatives, and sees it as “a kind of punishment” (51).

Quey goes to see his uncle Fiifi; while his mother’s strength came from her beauty and his father from his family’s pedigree (as wealthy slave ship builders in Liverpool), for Quey, Fiifi embodies a natural masculine strength that “came from his body, from the fact that he looked like he could take anything he wanted” (51). Not for the first time, Quey tries to convince his uncle to trade their slaves exclusively with the company he represents. Fiifi brings his attention to colorful two birds singing “a discordant song” for an unseen female bird (52).