Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Very difficult reading




"Brothers and strangers" is a scholarly book about the often tricky relations between African-Americans and Liberia, a West African republic founded by freed Black American slaves.

The subject is interesting, but unfortunately this book is too detailed and super-scholarly, attempts to deal with a dozen different subjects all at once, and often looses the red thread.

If you want to write a dissertation on Marcus Garvey's or W.E.B. Du Bois' contacts with Liberia, you probably would have to sift through brother Sundiata's magnum opus. Personally, I consider this to be one of the most difficult scholarly books I've ever attempted to read. And I have an MA, for crying out loud!

Hopefully, more accessible books on Liberia and Liberia's impact on Black America exist. Still, I give the book three stars, since I'm in general agreement with much of the contents.

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