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by Manthia Diawara (Author)
In this deeply personal and unflinchingly honest exploration of what it means to be African, Manthia Diawara recounts the bittersweet experience of an expatriate who no longer lives life as an "African" yet is the object of others' fantasies and fears about people of the dark continent. Comparing his fortunes in America with those of his cousins in Paris, Diawara assesses the way tradition and community give meaning to their lives, despite the ugliness of modern French attitudes toward Africans. At the same time, he confronts the trauma experienced by Africans in America such as Amadou Diallo. Diawara's experience of life as an African and an African American yields fresh and stunning insights about race, ethnic identity, immigration, and assimilation in the modern globalized world. This important and original book will shatter many cherished notions about what it means to experience race as an African in the world today. Beautifully written and shrewdly argued, its unsentimental view of African culture and traditions, as well as its debunking of the idealized promise of an unracialized life abroad, is certain to ignite debate.
Author Biography
Manthia Diawara is the Director of the Africana Studies Program and the Institute of African American Affairs at New York University, where he is also a Professor of Comparative Literature and Cinema Studies. He is the editor of several books on black culture and history, including Black Genius (with Walter Mosley and Clyde Taylor), and the author of African Cinema and In Search of Africa. He lives in New York City.
