To: Valin
This article is excellent and truly sad, for two reasons. First, there is the image of a brutal Africa that haunts him. That despite the rays of hope that are evident to him, it is overcast by the blood drenched inhumanity that surrounds him.
Secondly, it is sad because it is also a personal story of a denial and loss. He searches for an ancestral beacon that extends beyond slavery, for something far more noble than chains and the bartering of human life, for a continent and a people that would show to him an ancestral nobility beyond that which he has experienced as an American. But the images of violence and brutality haunt him when he closes his eyes and he realizes that this is not the Africa of his hearts imagining. His pain is evident as he turns his back on it. That for him to concede that the pain of slavery led to a far nobler existence for black Americans, compared to the children of Africa today, was heart wrenching. He shows this well in his excellent writing.
Thanks Valin. This article was a great read and I'm going to go out and find this man's book. He is a most excellent writer.
To: All
212 posted on
03/01/2004 3:47:25 AM PST by
backhoe
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