Truth and Reconciliation: Ten Books That Explore South Africa’s Identity
In 1996, I lived in South Africa and bore witness to testimony given during the Truth and Reconciliation’s Amnesty Hearings. I was a law...
Finding Africa in Harlem: Displacement and Belonging in Claude McKay’s Home to Harlem
One of the most striking things about Home to Harlem is that no one seems to be at home in Harlem. Not Jake, the...
How Black and White America Reacted to Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By the time I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings hit shelves in the first days of 1970, buzz about the memoir had been...
The Unsolved Tale of a British Slave Ship’s Uprising and Shipwreck
In April 1769, a petite British vessel sailing westward along the southern coast of Hispaniola made...
Out of Africa: Discovering Our Shared Human Family, From Toumai to Turkana Boy
As the youthful museum attendant diligently unlocked the door I was full of excitement. I was about to meet a superstar—albeit one who had...