|
Books by
Larry Ukali Johnson-Redd
My Deepest Affections Are Yours /
Journey to the Motherland
/
History
To Destiny Through Afrocentric Poetry /
Loving
Black Women
History
to Destiny Through Afrocentric Poetry
* * *
* *
Journey
to the Motherland
From San Francisco to Benin City
A novel by Larry Uklai Johnson-Redd Reviews
If you are looking for some enlightenment
read this book Journey to the Motherland: From San Francisco
to Benin City by Larry Ukali Johnson-Redd. It is a
revelation of one man's insight and involvement into the
political arena of racism towards black students in this country
and especially in the 60s and sadly to say still continues even
in today's society not only in the South but also in the West.
The struggles, hardships, and suspicions they had to endure in
order to obtain a decent education to better their lives in
comparison to their white's compatriots.
The first chapter opens with him and his wife
returning to America from the Motherland and in one solitude
moment on the plane his thoughts flash back to his youth in the
city of San Francisco where he was born.
The next three chapters tell you of his days
in junior and high school. His problems at securing a job after
graduation from university was not with its complications, even
though his credentials were impressive and impressive they were,
however, he persevered and conquered.
When both he and his wife accepted new posts
in Africa, he as a teacher and she to work with the government,
it was the most important decision any two people deeply in love
with each other could have made. For his wife, it was the best
thing that could have happened because she was returning to her
country of birth and he was going there for the first time to
his "homeland."
The description of the places and the cities
he visited and most of all the people of Africa were
awe-inspiring, one only have to close one's eyes and one can
feel, hear, and smell all the beauty and the sufferings that
make Africa the great continent she is. And suddenly one is
transplanted there.
His description of
family greetings, the meeting of old friends and the making of
new ones was something to treasure for a lifetime. While living
in Africa he gives one the feeling that one never wants to leave
once one gets there. It was as if coming home to heaven on
earth. His time spent there was the most remarkable of his life
with his wife along his side could not have completed a better
picture. Much as he loved Africa he still longed to be back home
in America where his family still lived.
--Veronica Brown, African Connection
Newspaper (March 2003)
This autobiographical Journey to the
Motherland is a 160-page novel. But I read it in less than
two days. Reading this book was an invocation of the nostalgia
to be "at home right now."
This book is written in a style that helps
the reader to be transported to Africa and be actively engaged
in the dynamic and evolving events of the moment as they unfold.
One could not help but follow the "journey" and soak
in the moments. Perhaps being a Yoruba (born in Nigeria),
familiar with the local terrain and socio-cultural
manifestations and political landscape of Nigeria; and living in
the Bay Area for over twenty-five years -- well I traveled home
periodically, I am able to understand the book better. however,
this is a book about a wonderful experience in Africa.
One thing that is clear throughout the book
is a commitment by the author Ukali Johnson-Redd, to increasing
empowerment for African people all over the world.
It behooves any one contemplating a visit to
any part of Africa to read Journey to the Motherland. A
great many brothers and sisters go to Africa without preparation
or some for of orientation. they then experience cultural shock
on arrival -- shock at the mass of black people taking care of
business; shock at the unparalleled and unqualified show of
hospitality displayed by the hosts; shock at the high level of
intellectual capacity and scholarship; shock at the fact that
people are unfazed at whether or not utilities work; and shock
at the fact that the urban and rural areas are just as any you
will find in the so=called civilized western cities.
I could not help but be thankfully amazed at
how Brother Ukali has assimilated the local lingo and nuances to
a "T." Talk about "invigilation . . ." for
proctoring a student test (p. 124); and dispensing "dongoyaro"
-- a traditional herbal extract -- as the preferred medication
for malaria (p. 144) -- that follows age-long African
understanding of traditional therapy -- and which Western
medicine refuses to celebrate. Perhaps Ukali needs to consider
sharing his experience at medical colleges here in the United
States.
Journey to the
Motherland is recommended and a definite must read by every
one who wishes to get a better understanding of Africa and
African ways, its indubitable and welcoming hospitality, and its
great culture, educational environment.
--Kola Akintola-Thomas is CEO of African
Global Institute africanglobal@yahoo.com
See also: http://www.sfbayview.com/123103/wandaspicks123103.shtml Journey to the Motherland: From San Francisco to Benin City by
Larry Ukali Johnson-Redd published by Amen-Ra Theological Seminary Press
/ 10920 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 150-9132 / Los Angeles, California
90024-6502 / Imz@lycos.com / send
$14.95 plus $3.00 for handling
For more information, contact Larry
Ukali Johnson-Redd ljredd52@aol.com
/ journeytothemotherland/index.html
* *
* * *
 |
1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
* *
* * *
|
Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in
America
By Melissa V.
Harris-Perry
According to the
author, this society has historically exerted
considerable pressure on black females to fit into one
of a handful of stereotypes, primarily, the Mammy, the
Matriarch or the Jezebel. The selfless
Mammy’s behavior is marked by a slavish devotion to
white folks’ domestic concerns, often at the expense of
those of her own family’s needs. By contrast, the
relatively-hedonistic Jezebel is a sexually-insatiable
temptress. And the Matriarch is generally thought of as
an emasculating figure who denigrates black men, ala the
characters Sapphire and Aunt Esther on the television
shows Amos and Andy and Sanford and Son, respectively.
Professor Perry
points out how the propagation of these harmful myths
have served the mainstream culture well. For instance,
the Mammy suggests that it is almost second nature for
black females to feel a maternal instinct towards
Caucasian babies.
As for the source
of the Jezebel, black women had no control over their
own bodies during slavery given that they were being
auctioned off and bred to maximize profits. Nonetheless,
it was in the interest of plantation owners to propagate
the lie that sisters were sluts inclined to mate
indiscriminately.
|
 |
* *
* * *
updated 22
February 2008
|
