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Books by Kola Boof
Nile
River Woman (Poems, Feb. 10, 2004) /
Long Train to the Redeeming
Sin-Stories About African Women
(April 6, 2004)
Flesh and the Devil: A Novel
(May 11, 2004) /
Diary of a Lost Girl
(2007)
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Bio-Sketch
Sudanese
born novelist, poet and freedom fighter, Kola Boof lives under
government protection in the United States because of death
threats made against her life by the government of Sudan and
other Arab Muslim fundamentalist groups.
"I am an American citizen. I came to America in 1980 when
my Black American parents adopted me and brought me from London
to Washington, D.C. I was born on the Nile River in Omdurman,
Sudan...I believe in March of 1969. I have prepared a Chronology
of my life that reveals for the very first time ever...my real
birth name, my father's real name and other facts about my
life."
However, in the interest of protecting my relatives who still
live in Sudan (several of Kola Boof's uncles in Kom Ombo, Egypt
were beaten and jailed simply for being related to her)...and in
protecting my new Black American relatives in Washington, D.C. .
. . there
is much that I cannot reveal at this time. Truly, I don't want
to mention what High School attended . . . when perhaps my
Sister and her children live only 3 blocks from that school.
Just imagine how easy it would be for Jihad to hurt or kill my
loved ones...in lieu of catching me and my own children. The
police authorities have instructed me not to give vital
information about my life and my past to members of the
press--or people who might only be "claiming" to be
press...they warned me against giving my passport to the
media...because one such mistake could result in my murder and
the murder of my children."
"I am a Black women's writer, I have been a published
author now for five years. My books have been sold in 8
countries and originated in Arabic. My biggest fan base in
London. My admirers are usually Black women, Black Academics and
homosexuals. My books first began appearing here in America in
Nov. 2001, which is the same time that I became an internet
presence . . ."—more bio
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Kola
Boof: The African American Literature Book Club
(AALBC.com)
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Table
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"TOPLESS" in America!
Ms. Boof states that her decision to be topless on the back of her books
has been the most painful source of criticism in her life, both
professionally and personally...IN HER OWN WORDS: "I am topless to honor
my mother and my grandmother. I am topless to pay homage to all the
centuries upon centuries of AUTHENTIC African women who revered the bare
breast just as Christians revere the crucifix. It's no different than
that, to me. I am proud to be from those BLACK, topless spirit women who
created and sustained the natural world. But then there's another
reason.
"I prefer my own African image to a Eurocentric one, so being
topless is also a rebuke against the tragic image of Michael Jackson's
white flesh—and it's my rejection of the image of Lil' Kim's blond,
blue-eyed insult. It hurts me that Black American women have not
supported me in my decision—I feel BETRAYED that they haven't. But,
of course, they are Americans and I notice that most of the opinions that
they have are the ones that Europeans gave them. So I try to be
understanding."
www.kolaboof.com/
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Review of
Long Train to the Redeeming
Sin-Stories About African Women
Kola
Boof,
a respected literary writer, is a rising "womanist" sage. She has become
very popular with Black American women readers, particularly Afrocentric
women. To her surprise, Boof has become extraordinarily popular with
Black male readers. "That was the biggest shock…that so many Black men
embraced me, wrote to me, acknowledged and supported my work. That
really stunned me."
She began her career
in 1997 with her stunning poetry collection, Every Little Bit Hurts.
Boof courted feminist readers, and has taken up the civil rights
campaign of African lesbians and saying out loud, "I'm not a
lesbian or bisexual…but if I could've been I would've been. I would
love to be free from my obsession with men. I would have chosen being a
lesbian if I could have chosen it."
"In the tradition
of Alice Walker, Ntzoke Shange, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison…Kola
Boof's debut short story collection,
Long Train to the Redeeming
Sin-Stories About African Women…is turning out to be more than
just a notable fiction book with good reviews. It's becoming a social
echo. A stone thrown at the windows of Black women around the
world…that wakes them up! Here-let the critics tell you about it:
"This is dangerous writing in its rawest form…a treasured
discovery."—Jaqueline Jones LaMon, author of In the Arms of
One Who Loves
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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Escape from Slavery: The True Story
of My Ten Years in Captivity and My
Journey to Freedom in America
By
Francis Bok
Slave: My True Story
By
Mende Nazer
Alek: My Life from Sudanese Refugee to
International Supermodel
By
Alek Wek
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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.
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The Last Holiday: A Memoir
By Gil Scott Heron
Shortly after we republished The Vulture and The Nigger Factory, Gil started to tell me about The Last Holiday, an account he was writing of a multi-city tour that he ended up doing with Stevie Wonder in late 1980 and early 1981. Originally Bob Marley was meant to be playing the tour that Stevie Wonder had conceived as a way of trying to force legislation to make Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday. At the time, Marley was dying of cancer, so Gil was asked to do the first six dates. He ended up doing all 41. And Dr King's birthday ended up becoming a national holiday ("The Last Holiday because America can't afford to have another national holiday"), but Gil always felt that Stevie never got the recognition he deserved and that his story needed to be told. The first chapters of this book were given to me in New York when Gil was living in the Chelsea Hotel. Among the pages was a chapter called Deadline that recounts the night they played Oakland, California, 8 December; it was also the night that John Lennon was murdered. Gil uses Lennon's violent end as a brilliant parallel to Dr King's assassination and as a biting commentary on the constraints that sometimes lead to newspapers getting things wrong. —Jamie Byng, Guardian / Gil_reads_"Deadline" (audio) / Gil Scott-Heron
& His Music Gil Scott
Heron Blue Collar
Remember Gil Scott- Heron |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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