An African American's Africa Experience

A colleague of mine in my BYU doctoral program, Sylvia Finlayson, brought to my attention during a conversation we were having a book called Out of America by Keith B. Richburg written in 1997. Even though I have not read the whole book, yet, I did read a review of the book by Wolf Roder. The contents of this "blog post" are based on that review.

Richburg has been a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post and has won several awards for his international reporting. From 1991-4 he was assigned to Africa and based in Nairobi. Being an African-American who had grown up in Detroit and knowing what it means to be Black in America Richburg was filled with excitement to be able to return to the land of his forefathers.

Although Richburg was hopeful that he would find much good in Africa, but as he "covers the coups, the wars, the massacres, from Liberia to Somalia, he comes to cherish his America heritage more and more." Even though remembrances of the atrocities of the slave trade are painful to recall, Richburg contemplates on what his life might have been like in Africa if the slave trade had not occurred. He comes to realize that he could be one of those anonymous bodies dumped into a mass grave.

Because of Richburg's Africa experience he comes to the conclusion that "he can only bless those unsung ancestors of his who survived capture, the middle passage, and the auction block to become Americans."

My personal comment: In spite of America's dark history as well as the racism and prejudice that continues today, the greatest hope for all people to eventually enjoy true freedom and rights lies within the borders of the United States of America.

Reference
Roder, Wolf (1997). Retrieved February 22, 2008 from the World Wide Web, www.unc.edu/~ottotwoRoderreview.html