South Africa Books

This book is for the reader who wants the challange of a book that makes you think and come up with conclusions. It is not a cookie-cutter walk in the park novel, but rather one that makes you ask questions and ponder the story. I made my book-reading friends read this so we could share our opinions which were quite different.
This is an original, carefully researched, true slave narrative and is now among my favorite books. Share it with someone who can appreciate its deepth.

I'm probably biased in favor of this book, so don't take my word for it. Take People Magazine's. Caroline Leavitt gave it 4 stars, and described it as a "breathtaking novel," "gorgeous and tragic," and written in "rich, lyrical prose." Kirkus reviews gave it a starred review. And so did the Library Journal. The great South African writer, Antjie Krog, says that Yvette Christiansë invented a new language for the book. But it's accessible, and even compulsive reading.
As for my own estimation, Unconfessed is a deliriously beautiful work, one that manages to make the main character, Sila van den Kaap, at once pitiable and admirable. Abused by history and its mendacious masters, she is fierce but also vulnerable, terrifying in her capacity for rage and surprising in her capacity for love, humor and even laughter. This is great literature, and also a great read.

"No mother wants to know that her generations are condemned to the life she despises."" - Sila from Unconfessed

Unconfessed is the story of Sila, a slave who is sentenced to fourteen years of hard labor at South Africa's infamous Robben Island for murder of her son, Baro. Sila, captured as a youth from neighboring Mozambique, has borne a life of hardships. Freedom, promised to Sila and her children upon the death of her mistress, is swindled from her by the destruction of the will by the mistress's financially inept son. She and her children are sold back into bondage to settle gambling debts. She lands at the farm of a sadistic cruel master whose fetish is boxing/slapping slaves about the head, so fiercely that Sila becomes deaf in one ear from the beatings. When six-year old Baro embarrasses the master and his wife in front of their future in-laws by innocently implying that the master is his father, he is beaten unmercifully as an adult would be in such a manner that even the guests are appalled at the master's punishment. After the guests leave, more beatings ensue in the following days for Sila and her son. By the fourth day, Sila realizes that Baro, covered in bruises and suffering from broken bones, will never perform well enough or respond quick enough to ever please their owners. Knowing that he will be the constant target of their owner's anger and eventually will be sold away to a life of bondage, she frees her son from his earthly torment by putting a knife to his throat.

The story is told in Sila's voice via alternating memories from her childhood, servitude, trial, and prison experiences. The book's title refers to her never confessing to the crime, but cites one word (heartsore) as the rationale for her actions. Borrowing the theme from Toni Morrison's Beloved, Christianse authors a fictional tale based on proven facts. She created a character that seemed as if she could have actually existed at some point in time. She wrote the story with such convincing ken that Sila's story seems rooted in authenticity - no doubt she worked hard under extreme conditions, was repeatedly raped and sexually abused all her life, and suffered unimaginable mental stress and utmost heartbreak with the death and sale of her children.

On a personal note, I deducted a point for a couple of drawbacks. There seemed to be too many repetitive passages that did nothing to enhance or advance the established plot. Sila's soul is angry and tortured, however her extended inner monologues to express those emotions were quite numerous. The lyrical and somewhat poetic dialogues with her deceased children to calm her spirit and justify her actions were a bit protracted and sometimes read as abstract ramblings. However, I really enjoyed the history lessons contained within the book. The author cleverly folds in the inhumane conditions of Robben Island, the Dutch reaction to British anti-slavery laws, and the resistance of the indigenous Xhosa people against the Dutch. This is a notable read for historical (literary) fiction fans.

Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub
Nubian Circle Book Club

This is fascinating. This very important topic could have made for boring reading, but the author (who obviously knows the subject thoroughly and first hand) has made it quite interesting. This book will never be outdated, as it covers past events that bring to mind so many things that are going on today and, unfortunately, will be tomorrow as well. (I wonder when a truth commission will be set up for Iraq.) Authoritative yet simply worded, the book is for anyone and everyone who cares anything about the world outside the box.

The publisher has been lazy and inconsiderate in failing to post adequate information about this superb book. It is without question the single most important reference, covering the theory, the history, the practice, and future of truth commissions. It is comprehensive, clear, easy to read, and superbly documented.

This book has special meaning for me, at the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction about global issues and national security and prosperity issues, because on the basis of real-life experience and reinforced by the 600+ books I have reviewed in just the past four years, I have become convinced that the US public must demand two Truth & Reconciliation Commissions if we are to reach the next century in any kind of good order: one must focus on the ills that America has bestowed on the world through its Cold War years (see Derek Leebaert, The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World as well as--among many others--Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project), its support of 44+ dictators world-wide (see Ambassador Mark Palmer's Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025), and our predatory immoral capitalism (Cf. Perkins Confessions of an Economic Hit Man' Greider The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy and Prestowitz, Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions.

EDIT of 11 Dec 07: There are *so* many other books I have reviewed that could be listed here. The sad thing is that in 8 years Bush-Cheney, with the total abdication of Congress and the media, have led an apathetic nation into ruin.

We also need an internal Truth & Reconciliation Commission that could usefully start with the treasonous, treacherous, immoral, and disgraceful failure of local, state, and federal government in the preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina, and go backwards from there to explore not only our abuse of minorities, but our abuse of the working poor (see Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America David Shipler, The Working Poor: Invisible in America and then go from there to the pernicious deliberate looting of the Commonwealth by a combination of military-industrial, pharmaceutical, and energy special interests; corrupt Congressmen, and a Wall Street that thrives on laundering drug money and picking the pockets of the middle class (Cf . Michael Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil)

Most interesting to me, although not mentioned in this book, if one Goggles for truth and reconciliation USA one discoveres the Greensboro North Carolina Truth and Reconciliation endeavor, to explore past human rights abuses through slavery and related themes. This is a proven process that is clearly relevant to all countries, and especially to the 900-lb gorilla called America. The growing gap between rich and poor is the moral equivalent of global genocide and ecocide. If the rich wish to see their future generations survive, they had better start thinking about this important alternative to popular justice.

It is in this very American context that we can conclude that not only is this book at least as important to every American as it is to the rest of the world, but that the 9-11 Commission was a cover-up, a farce, that failed to engage the people, failed to discover all that could be known, and failed to hold anyone accountable.

I am most impressed by the diligence, scope, and coherence of this book. This is an extraordinary examination, based on global travel, deep research, and penetrating personal insight that is graceful and low-key, into the role of truth commissions, the great difficulties that accompany the creation and maintenance of such commissions, and the long-term implications of a successful outcome.

On page 23, after discussing the new emerging field of "transitional justice" the author declares that it "is certain that more countries will be turning to official truth-seeking in the coming years." As we review books like Jonathan Schell's The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People and Why They Hate Us: September 11, 2001...and Justice For Non and many others, two things are clear: 1) the dictators are not long for this world--I give them twelve years at the most; and 2) it is not just "dictatorships" that need commissions, but also those democracies that are fraudulent, among which I would include the United States of America (see my review of Jimmy Carter's new book, and the books recommended there, including Peter Peterson's Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It).

The author is to be commended for blending a reference work that concisely and clearly covers the 21 existing truth commissions at the time of the first writing as well as the 12 emergent between the hard copy and the new soft copy, and that brings out the reasons, the lessons, the benefits, and the costs. The most important benefit is mentioned on page 135, in which the author discusses the importance of honoring the past and overcoming what some call the conspiracy of silence. I would refer readers to Robert Parry's Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' as well as Larry Beinhart, Fog Facts: Searching for Truth in the Land of Spin, and of course the recent classic, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq. The list goes on.

The book has a practical side as well, identifying key factors in whether a truth commission will succeed or fail, chief among which is whether they get an adequate staff and budget, and whether there is a good process of engaging the public in defining the goals and the process.

The appendices and the index are quite professional, and overall this is a world-class reference work of enormous value to the possibilities of using transitional justice to achieve sustainable peace around the world.

Priscilla Hayner is, very likely, the world's most expert writer on 'truth commissions'. This book is a follow-up on the article '15 Truth Commissions', published in the Human Rights Quarterly, which was the first systematic review of the issue up to the mid-1990s. This book deals with dozens of examples up to 1999. Hayner describes how truth commissions are being established.How they operate under very different mandates, e.g. on presidential order, by parliamentary decision, under U.N. auspices, or as a judicial commission of enquiry. How some commissions deal with a large pattern of abuses, such as in Soutth Africa, and others have been concerned with selected violations only, such as the 'disappearances' which were the subject matter of the Argentine commission. How these commissions report, or do not report, on their findings. How commissions are concerned with, or show less than the necessary concern for, the victims. Much of Hayners observations are based on interviews with those directly involved in these commissions. The book has a couple of very useful appendices, where one can compare the mandate, membership, dates, operations, findings, and other characteristics. A few points of criticism are due too. Hayner's book may be the first of its scope, but it is not really, contrary to what is said in the Introduction, the first on the subject. A more serious point is that Hayner deals with these commissions rather as a standard concept. In fact, the commissions have shown wide divergencies and quite a few, if not the majority, may after all be considered less than an outright success. Hayner's optimism about future commissions may be somewhat misleading. It seems at present not at all sure that there is a sound future for truth commissions, the more so as the issue of national and international trials for those responsible has gained prominence in recent years.

This richly illustrated book is a fascinating look at the various traditional black cultures in South Africa. The photographer spent time with different tribal peoples, experiencing their day-to-day lives. His magnificent photographs allow us a glimpse into these vanishing worlds as they adapt to modern, urban influences. For travellers interested in meeting people and armchair anthropologists, this is an indispensable read.

This review applies equally to three of Peter Magubane's very similar books, "Vanishing Cultures of South Africa," published in 1998, "African Renaissance" published two years later in 2002 and "Ceremonies," published in 2003.

These books are almost unconscionably similar, with many photos in the second book either outright recycled from the first book or pictures taken in the same photo-shoots as the ones in the first book--sometimes of the very same people, in photos apparently shot moments apart. The first book is organized by tribe, while the latter is organized by categories such as dress, rites, arts, homesteads, etc. Nevertheless the books are largely the same, covering the same material, same people, with the same or similar pictures.

One can get the impression somebody just wanted to make a fast buck. In fact, a third book by Magubane, published a year later and titled "Ceremonies" seems to be almost entirely reprints from both of the prior books--with no warning to the prospective purchaser! There exist still more books by this guy, but these are the only three I bought, so I don't know exactly how thin he spreads his work. As for these three, I should have bought only one of them (if any), and will return at least "Ceremonies."

As for their content, you have to be aware that these pictures, taken in well-developed South Africa, depict tribal lifestyles and rituals that hark back to the past--remaining only in a modern context of revival and preservation of the old traditional ways. People dress up for them, in other words. You'll see costumes that look neat and clean and store-bought, and some evidence of modernity in the background (buildings, shirts and ties). You'd buy one of these books to see how the modern culture chooses to embrace some form of ritual (cultural heritage) from the past in the hope of informing today's culture in positive ways.

If you want to see and learn about African tribal cultures that still exists today as they have for hundreds of years (the "dressing up" is still every-day attire), then you must look elsewhere (such as, for example, the amazing books on Ethiopia's Omo Valley, by Silvester, Giansanti, Beckwith & Fisher, etc.).

Three stars might be too many for these works that are a repeated rehashing of previous works, almost identical, apparrently just to make another buck off unsuspecting customers. Shame.

When this book was first published, here in South Africa its promotion was good. I decided this was my type of book, so I went shopping. None of the bookshops that I usually use had it and so I placed an order at a couple of the stores (explaining I also had another order somewhere else.

It really was worth waiting for, the photography is outstanding. There is also enough information for people who do not live in Africa - just to wet their taste buds

South Africa has had plenty of problems in the past but when I see a book like this, I am very honoured as I know these tribes, they are colourful and very proud.

see time-europe issue dated june 12 for a review i've written already

"War of Words" is the story of a courageous reporter and a brave newspaper in apartheid-era South Africa. After joining the Rand Daily Mail in 1958, author Benjamin Pogrund broadened the newspaper's coverage of "African affairs," reporting on facets of black South African life given short shrift by most "mainstream" newspapers.

It was no easy task to report the news while constrained by numerous, ever-expanding, secrecy laws. While the South Africa portrayed in this book was no Soviet Union - English-language newspapers, the Rand Daily Mail in particular, were able to criticize apartheid in the strongest terms - the expanding web of press restrictions prevented journalists from fully informing the public of what it needed to know. Perhaps the most interesting section of the book is the description of the Mail's attempt to report on horrifying conditions in South Africa's prisons, reportage which caused Pogrund to face criminal charges for violation of the Prisons Act. This type of reporting (and editing, by Laurence Gandar) took guts.

Although the book does not emphasize the personal life of the author, one nugget seemed to encapsulate what it must have been like to live in the South Africa of that time: Pogrund refers to having had to overcome "the nervous habit of glancing over our shoulders - the hallmark of South Africans . . ." Other books have also alluded to the strange atmosphere of a society where no one knows who is working for which security agency - and the Mail was apparently infiltrated with various spies. On that note, one of the most fascinating characters to make an appearance here is Hendrik van den Bergh, head of the Bureau for State Security (BOSS), which apparently had microphones in the Mail's offices. (van den Bergh also appears in "Rivonia's Children," the outstanding book about the sabotage trial in which Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison, and is the star of "Inside BOSS, South Africa's Secret Service." Both are also worth reading and will give different perspectives on the same era.)

I have only two minor criticism of this book. First, Pogrund's evident shock at the "Muldergate" information scandal jars. Was it really such a surprise that a government which controlled the radio network would also seek surreptitiously to own a newspaper? To this American reader, Muldergate comes across as minor league. To be fair, however, the scandal was significant enough at the time to take down the Vorster government.

Second, Pogrund sometimes tells us more than we needed to know about feuds between Saan (South African Associated Newspapers) management and the Mail editorial staff. Yet, because this is a history of the Mail as much as the memoirs of Pogrund, some of that "inside baseball" was necessary - and the background did help to explain the machinations behind Saan's decision to close the Mail in 1985. The closure of the Mail, possibly as the result of a television channel deal by Saan with then-President P.W. Botha, left Pogrund "drained of energy and spirit."

This book is an unfailingly honest story of a brave journalist. Despite the criticisms above, I believe the book has earned 5 stars as a comprehensive, readable account of journalism under and against apartheid. I highly recommend it.

When the author began his career as a young reporter in the 1950s, the Rand Daily Mail was emerging as South Africa's leading newspaper. As the "African affairs reporter" he brought the words of black leaders like Robert Sobukwe & Nelson Mandela to the country & to the world.

If you've ever wondered about the history of South Africa & how apartheid grew; who were its villains & who its heroes you must pick up a copy of War of Words for it is also about the life & death of a newspaper, of freedom of speech as well as a memoir of minute increments of courage & endless years of determined resignation.

If you've ever wondered what living under unbridled racism was like read this book. It is strong stuff, rather like watching a sandstorm heading toward you, smothering out the light, turning everyone crazy until it too passes & there's a chance at a better tomorrow.

A fascinating, well-written & informative memoir from inside the belly of the beast as seen by one reporter who kept himself close to the fire.

The Afrikaner nation in South Africa is the most often maligned, least studied people on Earth. Most Westerners hear the name and go into thought free reaction mode. "They're bad, I want to know nothing." This is a great disservice to the Afrikaners and the various other nations who live with them. To hear Peter Jenninngs, Tom Brokaw, et al talk it would seem that the Afrikaners sprung fully formed as haters from the bare ground one day and have been a blight ever since. Nothing is further from the truth. If any people had known the oppression and hardship that the Afrikaners endured under the British and then became magnanimous and nice afterward, I would like to see them. This book gives one an understanding of the formative events that make up the Boer character, without excusing the many evils of Apartheid. Without a thorough understanding of these many tragic events, there is no understanding of South Africa.

wonderful little book that tells the long tale of the white man in south africa and his endurance and his legacy as well as his barbarism, but mostly his culture. A very insightful book that gives a whirlwind tour through the history of the Afrikaners and their settlement as a Dutch colony to thier persectution by the English, and their war with the Zulus as they fled the British on the Great Trek. An honest portrayel that shows these people to be neither villian nor heroes but products of their circumstance of being threatened from both sides, by the imperial English and the numerious Black Africans, they became hardened and in western eyes, cruel. The book is outdated but worth the read if you can find it.

Today White farmers are being murdered in the thousands by Black Africans. White Afrikaners are being persecuted and massacred and the Black government does nothing. Not so different then what has happaned in Zimbabwe. This book tells the history of the white tribe of Africa. These people were not colonists but natives having migrated to Africa hundreds and hundreds of years ago(before the Zulu migrated to SOuth Africa). These people were forced into undue suffering under the British and suffered in the first concentration camps. THis book tells the story of Aparthied. And it helps to preserve the heritage of a unique people, living in a unique land. When we are older the whites of SOuth Africa will only be a memory, long since butchered and raped by their Black neighboors, they will suffer the fates of whites who have lived in ANgola and Zimbabwe and Uganda. The truth about the situation is that the current Black government has done little to protect the nations minority populations(Indian and White and Chinese) and they are just as intolerant, if not more so, then the whites who were in power previously.
This book is dated but it is an essential read for anyone who has been fed up with the view of S. Africa that all Whites are bad and all Blacks are noble. The truth lies in the middle and this book tells the other hald of the story.

As a graduate of a South African university in the late 50ies, but cocooned in the relative calm of University of Cape Town Medical School and now long since an emigrant to USA, Dr. Shears book was to me a fascinating historical eye-opener.

The volatile sequence of events with the tightrope walking faculty at Wits University, Dr. Shear in the forefront, acting as mediators between agitating and rioting students and the reigning apartheid regime, makes for exciting reading between carefully documented historical facts.

In addition to aficionados of racial political history, alumni(ae) of S. African Universities in particular, will find this book very interesting reading

A remarkable, authoritative and very personal insight into some aspects of the apartheid era. As one reads one feels increasingly 'involved' - and filled with admiration for those who (like the author) had to cope with the situation.

All young people should read this book to better understand the climate of opinion which all political change must challenge. Whether the civil rights struggle in the U.S., the anti-Vietnam war movement, or the apartheid battles at WITS, the important development from the initial gentle questioning of the issue to the later struggle against the most bigoted opposition has been delineated in exciting and encompassing terms. A worthy read.

"The World is a Ghetto: Race and Democracy since World War II" attempts to explore why and how racial discrimination is not only present today, but one of the world's leading problems. The author, Howard Winant (professor of sociology at Temple University), is a powerful social activist and who's family were Holocaust refugees. Winant fills his book with both his determination and extensive research to support his cases of why racial injustice is still a major issue today and how it came to be. Race is placed into a context that must be examined through labor processes, democracy, and economic influences. Through this, Winant is able to describe we view ourselves and how residents the world views each other.

The book breaks up into two main parts. The first is created to help the reader understand the comings of race and how it has been molded to the form it exists today. This part of the book is more sociology then history. The second part focuses on four main case studies; the United States, South Africa, Brazil, and Europe. These case studies have a strong focus on post World War II history, but does make reference to earlier times were needed. In each of the case studies, Winant sets the stage for each country/region, explores the major "break's" how, what, when, and why, and finally attempts to understand where these stories may lead.

There is a strong trend through the book for Winant to tell the reader what he is going to do, do it, then tell the reader what he did. This writing also quotes as well as references to a lot of previous author's works. The book can be extremely thick at time, philosophical and language wise. You may want to read a dictionary along with this.

This book is for anyone bothered by the hard questions about race: Why is race both invisible and so evident in the large and small details of our lives? How did racism become, in only several recent decades, morally and culturally repugnant, but at the same time we seem unable to deal with or recognize its obvious effects? How have we come to entrust leaders with the decision whether equality has gone "too far" who opposed it from it's beginnings (such as the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who opposed the Brown v. Board of Education decision integrating the schools)? Why do we look at racial issues and history so provincially, rather than taking a much more revealing global focus?

Winant explains all this and more. It's a must read for anyone who cares about race, equality or democracy.

I bought this book because I was having trouble with the current race scene in the U.S. Too many black people locked up, too much racial inequality, too many cops killing blacks. Winant puts racism in a historical and international context I had not thought of before. This book shows why the world is in a new stage of racial (and racist) history now, both in America and elsewhere. Destined to be a classic!

Michael Mullin has done an impressive, one of most serious jobs on Slave Acculturation and Resistance 1736-1831 periode. Anyone doing serious work in this field cannot miss this reference

In Africa in America, Michael Mullin attempts to link the level of assimilation among American slaves with the forms of resistance they displayed. While he does not believe that assimilation into white culture actually made slaves more or less likely to rebel, Mullin argues that the nature of their resistance to slavery was heavily influenced by how much of their native African culture they retained. To prove his theory, Mullin contrasts Caribbean slave culture, which was much less influenced by European practices, with slave societies in the American South, where African traditions were minimalized.
To do so, he relies primarily on sources such as plantation records, travelers' accounts, and contemporary newspapers, as well as a variety of secondary sources. Unfortunately, while these sources are perhaps well suited for understanding black culture in the Caribbean, they do not provide much information on slave culture in the Chesapeake and Carolinas, which leads Mullin to make incorrect assumptions that undermine the validity of his comparison.

Because Caribbean planters were so outnumbered by their slaves, they were much more likely than Southern masters to become intimately acquainted with their slaves, and include their observations of black culture in chronicles of plantation life. This results in the impression that African traditions were actually more prevalent among slaves in that region, whereas in actuality the practices of Southern slaves were simply less likely to be recorded in the writings of their masters. Subsequent studies by Robert Olwell and Phillip Morgan show that African traditions were retained by Carolina slaves, and to a lesser degree by Virginians. While Mullin may ultimately be correct in his assertion that Caribbean slaves were less assimilated, this characterization cannot be proven with his limited sources. For example, Mullin assumes that because Southern planters did not write lengthily about independent slave production and marketing, slaves did not enjoy a large role in local markets. A study of Charleston newspapers and legal proceedings would have shown otherwise.

Africa in America is therefore not of much use as a comparative study, but Mullin's observations on Caribbean slave culture and resistance may be treated independently. Here Mullin finds that slaves retained much more of their African heritage than previously thought by historians who believed that the traumas of the middle passage had a debilitating affect on native culture. Rather, newly arrived Africans immediately sought assistance in running away from seasoned tribal kinsman, often joining maroon communities. Those who did not immediately flee established societies similar to those they had left in Africa within the plantation community, and were likely to resist by wandering off for short periods, rather than in any organized rebellion. Only when slaves began to organize through Christian churches did they begin to plot the large-scale rebellions that would eventually win them freedom. Even in making this argument, however, Mullin is undermined by his lack of organization and tendency to jump around between time periods and places, making causality difficult to determine. Ultimately then, Africa in America is useful for its information on black Caribbean cultural and religious traditions, but little more.

Written in the twilight years of apartheid, this book conveys some of the spirit of black South Africans as they struggled against a cruel dictatorship. Erlmann surveys the field from 1890 to 1990.

In going through his descriptions of the people, one has to wonder. In a different and better period, some of the musicians and actors might have become world famous. The comparison to African-American singers is inevitable. Yet for most of the performers that Erlmann mentions, only fragments of memory and aging photos and LPs remain.

African Stars, if you are interested in the development of twentieth century Zulu performance practice, is an excellent starting point. Additionally, it stands out as the most accessible book by Veit Erlmann that I've read to date (Music Modernity and the Global Imagination, and Nightsong are both great, but very dense works).

Erlmann in this book focuses on the development of Zulu popular styles in Natal (that is to say, minstrelsey, ragtime, isicathamiya) in the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century. Erlmann is particularly successful in bringing to light the remarkably blurred distinctions between the social classes and also the rural/urban dichotomy within Natal. This blurring helps to give rise to these styles, Erlmann argues.

Additionally, the depth of research present in this book is phenominal. Erlmann really is able to bring these various figures to life with exceedingly well-documented points on their lives.

My only complaint is minor, and it involves the timeframe. I simply would have liked the book's scope to add ten years to the end date of its range. But again, minor.

All in all, it's a great book to read, and a pretty accessible one at that.

I liked this book and Abdias had a lot of great ideas on improving conditions for people of African descent. I would say that he is a mix of Malcom-X and DuBois in his thinking. Many Brazilian say that his big error was pushing for too many changes too fast! Abdias actually taught at several universities in the US while in exile. I think that it may come as a surprise to many that he never learned how to speak English and his wife had to translate his lectures as he spoke. Also surprising is that his wife is a white American woman.

Imagine if Amiri Baraka or Nathan Mccall were Brazilian: you'd have Abdias do Nascimento. Do Nascimento argues that the portrayal of Brazil as this race-mixing paradise is a racist myth meant to deny how much the country owes to African people and influences. It's a strong tail about African pride. Many people that argue for integration and miscegenation will be turned off by this book, but hopefully they will find it a provocative read as well. This book really gave me an idea of how pan-Africanism is global. If you're an angry Black person like myself, then you are really going to like this book.