Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa

Rating:
Summary: Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa
Review: "Out of America' is a tough read.

Mr. Richburg's book has brought wails of protest from all over, in Africa certainly but from many other countries and nations as well and not the least America.

Mr. Richburg is a reporter; his book is a report of what he saw while on assignment in Africa. What he saw was appalling, the author does not sugar coat it and it rings with an awful truth. The truth is that today in Africa, black Africans are slaughtering other black Africans at a rate that is incalculable. An ongoing slaughter that is largely unreported in the mainstream media. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's refusal to blame the past for Africa's murderous appetites of today. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's courage in laying bloody Africa at the feet of today's African leaders. He makes no excuses for black leaders that treat their people like charnel.

It is this "no excuses" approach that infuriates Mr. Richburg's detractors. It is much easier to blame King Leopold, slavery, the colonialism of the British, or the Belgians than it is to look at the simple truth. What happened yesterday does not give license for the atrocities of today.

Rating:
Summary: Bill Clinton hasn't seen the real Africa
Review: Bill Clinton is telling Americans that it is "enlightened self-interest" that should motivate us to give aid to African nations. He, and every other American, should read this book. If he knew that billions of dollars are paying for the palaces of dictators who buy or murder their way through elections, would he have the courage to stop giving them money? Or would he cave in to America's civil rights leaders who share the same tribal premises as these dictators? I think we know enough about Clinton to know the answer. I cannot help but admire Richburg's integrity -- he states the truth in the midst of a political correctness that has declared his book racist in advance. He, and not Jesse Jackson and his ilk, share Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an America where men are judged, "...not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." I noticed an earlier review that derided Richburg for not suggesting a solution to Africa's problems. In his defense, I honestly think he could not see a solution. There may be a solution, but after all the death and misery he has seen, how can he be expected to have hope that it will work? I commend Mr. Richburg for this excellent and honest work. He is an example of a journalism at its best.

Rating:
Summary: Divide and Conquer
Review: Firstly, I am a Nigerian who was lived in Ghana, Nigeria, England and the US, and who has been all over Europe, Africa, Central America and to a lesser extent, Asia.

Keith Richburg does exactly what he criticises Africans for doing and having done.

Since the beginning of time, man has betrayed his brother. Anthropological evidence dictates that at the beginning it was a black man betraying his black brother. So Mr. Richburg is just the latest pawn in a game that started thousands of years ago.

The Ancient Egyptians, black people, enslaved Ancient Isrealites, black people.

African Kings (or "Chiefs" as Whites disparagingly renamed African Kings) sold other Africans to Arabs and Europeans to become slaves.

Many Africans partipated in enforcing colonial oppression, aparteid and murder against their fellow Africans all over the world.

A black man pulled the trigger on Malcom X.

Enter Keith Richburg. A black man with a white name who proudly bashes the current state of Africa without even attempting to investigate the causes. That is not to say that a murderer is not a murderer. There have been plenty of Afrcian murderers over the past 100 years, however, there have been plenty of European murderers who murdered more and who employed MOST of the African murderers to do their murderous jobs (another example of pawns in the game).

Mr Richburg claims that he considered himself African-American before he spent time in Africa but now considers himself American. Good for you sir, at least we know whose side your on. Let's face it though, you went to Africa as an American and nothing changed.

Let me just assert some facts into my analysis of this "rubbish" which has been offered up by Richburg.

Africa is not a homogenous land. Its people and their cultures are more diverse than that of any other continent, including the vastly bigger Asian continent.

African societies had systems of checks and balances that most of the time ensured a swift and just ending of the rule of a tyrant. For instance, my people - Kanem Borno - executed Kings who tried to become tyrannical. These systems of checks and balances were destroyed by European imperialists who replaced authentic Kings with bogus Kings who were hated and opposed by the people. The bogus kings were ordered to pay taxes to their Colonial masters and of course they did the job of raping the people in order to collect those taxes as well as make themselves rich. (again - Pawns in the game). Such is how the fabric of African society has been utterly destroyed over the past few centuries. The same things continues today with bogus kings (now presidents and prime ministers) raping the people of their wealth, kicking a "cut" up to their mob bosses in Europe and North America as well as facilitating the ability of European and North American companies to steal African resources and sell it back to Africans, and keeping the rest for their greedy selves.

This pseudo-democracy the WEST believes in can and will never work in Africa (not that I believe democracy exists in the west) because it is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. China is doing well because essentially they have retained their "Chinese identity" in every apsect of their society rather than importing Europeanness as their Japanese neighbours were forced to do after WWII.

Wait a second. Has Richburg ever visited Washington DC? Surely he must have noticed how violent a place it was while it was averaging 600 murders a year in the 1990s despite a population of less than 600,000. With stats like that, you may be safer living in a similar sized city in Columbia, which is in the midst of a three-way civil war. Don't forget that the vast majority of the murders in DC were committed by and against black americans. Ditto Gary, Indiana, East St. Louis, and Baltimore to name but a few, So I guess the problems are genetic rather than Geographical, eh?

My understanding of this is simple. Poverty, starvation, mass death and hopelessness promote the devaluation of human life. Nowhere is poverty, starvation, mass death and hopelessness more concentrated than in Africa. In America, it is concentrated in black inner city ghettos. Who created the situation where black people all over the world are poor, starving, and dying like flies? Africans weren't poor, starving or dying like flies 150 years ago, before Europeans conquered our lands. If you claim they were, at least find some evidence to back up that claim.

Furthermore, whose tribal wars have resulted in more deaths, those in Africa or those in Europe? Since the advent of European Colonialism in Africa, European tribal conflicts include the Crimean war, the Franco-Prussian War, Austro-Prussian Wars, Austro-Italian/Balkan Wars, The Balkan Wars, WWI, WWII, The Jewish/Slavic/Gypsy holocaust, the Spanish Civil War, the Cold War (i.e. Russia vs America - includes the Korean War, Vietnamese War, Afghan-Russian war, South and Central American wars, Angolan war etc.) to name a few. Together, these European tribal conflicts have killed over 100 million people. Add that to the 50-100 million Africans killed by the European slave trade; the 20-50 million native inhabitants of the "new world" killed by Europeans; the slaughter of aborigines, mauris, tazmanians, fijians, samoans etc., British drugging millions of Chinese with Opium and the slaughter of dozens of millions of people in Asia by Europeans. Compare this to the number of people killed by Africans in African tribal conflicts...

Rating:
Summary: Buy and Read this book !!
Review: I will try to describe the book not comment on it. Here are the words written by Keith Richburg himself in the Prelude pages of the book :

"I was in Africa watching the bloated bodies of black Africans cascading over a waterfall. And that's when ...I thank God my ancestor survived that voyage.
Does that sound shocking ? Does it sound almost like a justification for the terrible crime of slavery ? Does it sound like this black man has forgotten his African roots ? Of course it does, all that and more. And that is precisely why I have tried to keep this emotion buried so deep for so long, and why it PAINS me so now to put these words in print, for all the world to see.
BUT I'M TIRED OF LYING. And I'm tired of all the ignorance and hypocrisy and the double standards I hear and read about Africa,MUCH OF IT FROM PEOPLE WHO'VE NEVER BEEN THERE, let alone spent three years walking around amid the corpses.
But first,let me put one thing plainly so that I'm not misunderstood :I AM NOT MAKING A DEFENSE OF SLAVERY.
And Africa-Mother Africa- is often held up as some kind of black Valhalla, where the descendants of slaves would be welcomed back and where black men and women can walk in true dignity.
Sorry, but I've been there. I've had an AK-47 rammed up my nose, I've talked to machete-wielding Hutu militiamen with the blood of their latest victims splattered across their T-shirts.I've seen a cholera epidemic in Zaire, a famine in Somalia, a civil war in Liberia.I've seen cities bombed to near rubble, and other cities reduced to rubble, because their leaders let them rot and decay while they spirited away billions of dollars-yes,billions-into overseas bank accounts.
I've ALSO seen heroism,honor,and dignity in Africa...But even with all the good I've found here, MY PERCEPTIONS have been hopelessly skewed by the bad.
SO EXCUSE ME IF I SOUND CYNICAL,JADED.I'm beaten down, and I'll admit it.And it's Africa that has made me this way.I FEEL FOR HER SUFFERING ...Thank God my ancestor got out, because,now,I am not one(refugee)of them."

End of quotation. Apart from the prelude the 1997 book edition contains ten chapters and an Index, all in about 252 pages.

I love the book and welcome more of the same from the author.

Rating:
Summary: Buy and Read this book !!
Review: I will try to describe the book not comment on it. Here are the words written by Keith Richburg himself in the Prelude pages of the book :

"I was in Africa watching the bloated bodies of black Africans cascading over a waterfall. And that's when ...I thank God my ancestor survived that voyage.
Does that sound shocking ? Does it sound almost like a justification for the terrible crime of slavery ? Does it sound like this black man has forgotten his African roots ? Of course it does, all that and more. And that is precisely why I have tried to keep this emotion buried so deep for so long, and why it PAINS me so now to put these words in print, for all the world to see.
BUT I'M TIRED OF LYING. And I'm tired of all the ignorance and hypocrisy and the double standards I hear and read about Africa,MUCH OF IT FROM PEOPLE WHO'VE NEVER BEEN THERE, let alone spent three years walking around amid the corpses.
But first,let me put one thing plainly so that I'm not misunderstood :I AM NOT MAKING A DEFENSE OF SLAVERY.
And Africa-Mother Africa- is often held up as some kind of black Valhalla, where the descendants of slaves would be welcomed back and where black men and women can walk in true dignity.
Sorry, but I've been there. I've had an AK-47 rammed up my nose, I've talked to machete-wielding Hutu militiamen with the blood of their latest victims splattered across their T-shirts.I've seen a cholera epidemic in Zaire, a famine in Somalia, a civil war in Liberia.I've seen cities bombed to near rubble, and other cities reduced to rubble, because their leaders let them rot and decay while they spirited away billions of dollars-yes,billions-into overseas bank accounts.
I've ALSO seen heroism,honor,and dignity in Africa...But even with all the good I've found here, MY PERCEPTIONS have been hopelessly skewed by the bad.
SO EXCUSE ME IF I SOUND CYNICAL,JADED.I'm beaten down, and I'll admit it.And it's Africa that has made me this way.I FEEL FOR HER SUFFERING ...Thank God my ancestor got out, because,now,I am not one(refugee)of them."

End of quotation. Apart from the prelude the 1997 book edition contains ten chapters and an Index, all in about 252 pages.

I love the book and welcome more of the same from the author.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but where are Africa's women?
Review: I'm a white American who was quite impressed with Richburg's account. While many reviewers write valid criticisms of _Out of America_, I've noticed that an awful lot of the negative reviews use words like "Uncle Tom," "oreo," "self-hating," "chained slave," and the like. One reviewer who merely stated she wished she'd thrown the book into the trash before reading it is a fan of Johnnie Cochran and the "misunderstood" Al Sharpton. I can't say I give much credence to the opinions of people who think playing the race card is an honorable way to conduct oneself in politics.

I missed out on most of the media hoopla when _Out of America_ was released, but I do recall how scandalized the _Boston Globe_'s book reviewer was at Richburg's gladness that his ancestors were taken forcibly out of Africa -- so scandalized that he couldn't, or more likely wouldn't, acknowledge that Richburg wrestled with nearly unbearable emotional turmoil before he could admit the gladness even to himself. Nor could the reviewer hear Richburg's belief in the work ethic, in the value of helping oneself, and that culture and the values it imparts do indeed matter to one's lot in life as anything more than fodder for the far right. Of course, that's typical of the _Globe_.

The reason I give this book only three stars is that Richburg gives the plight of African women extremely short shrift. While this might strike some as political correctness of the most short-sighted kind, consider these facts:

-- African women do a disproportionately large share of the labor on their continent, even when one considers that women in general do much of the world's menial labor. They carry water, tend animals, grow crops, and, of course, care for their children -- work that many African men scorn, but that enables their families to survive, as squalid as that survival might be. In recent years, small-business loans given specifically to "Third World" women, rather than their husbands, have allowed them to rise admirably to the challenges of capitalism, and have brought increased health and prosperity to their families. Many such women are African, and had Richburg spotlighted them at all, it might have provided a little balance to all the soul-shattering tragedy he records.

-- While an entire chapter is devoted to AIDS and the sexual practices of Africans, Richburg never mentions the extremely high birth rate and, partly due to the woefully inadequate infrastructure, the high maternal mortality rate. Nor is there mention of the efforts of family-planning organizations, both Western and African, to set some limits on the population explosion -- efforts opposed by African men, who often tie their masculinity to how many children they can father; by tribal elders, who seem to consider liberation for women an unwanted Western cultural intrusion; and by conservative Westerners who oppose birth control and abortion for religious reasons.

-- Perhaps worst of all, while an entire page near the end of the book is devoted to the forced circumcisions of adult males, Richburg NEVER once mentions the widespread practices of clitoridectomy, "infibulation" (sewing the labia shut so that blood and urine may exit but nothing may enter), and other forms of female genital mutilation, all done for the purpose of "preserving the chastity" of young girls. Feminists worldwide have long fought to have these barbaric practices classified as human-rights violations, and are now backed by many who, to be blunt, didn't care much one way or the other about the horrors inflicted upon Muslim women until September 11th. You won't learn that from reading _Out of America_, however.

Richburg, I would say, seems quaintly unaware that women have any sexuality apart from that which strictly services men. On one page he briefly mentions with shocked disapproval European women who frequent an African beach (perhaps a nude one, though I don't recall exactly) to pick up black men, and piously intones -- this is a paraphrase -- that he has no idea what they could be thinking. Uh, Keith, you think maybe they just want to get laid? You *do* realize that many women *enjoy* sex rather than just tolerate it, right?

To add insult to injury, Richburg seldom mentions any woman, either Western or African, at all in his book unless it's with a reference to her looks. In fact, his only specific mention of African women is the Miss Kenya beauty contest, and how African men tend to "like their meat white." No mention of how ordinary African women, light or dark, might aspire to being something more than cuts of meat for male delectation. And Richburg seems incapable of mentioning even his female professional colleagues without some words indicating how attractive he finds them: they're "beautiful," "fiery-haired," "a quite striking woman, really," and "a strikingly tall, dark-skinned beauty." He uses nearly no descriptors at all when introducing his male colleagues.

Again, much of this probably sounds like rank political correctness to most reviewers who have read _Out of America_, but I'm far from P.C. myself, and I consider it a quite valid criticism that Richburg never considered the plights specific to more than half of the inhabitants of the continent. (Incidentally, I emailed him several years ago with these comments, but he never replied.)

Let me reiterate, however, that leaving this aside, it is a solidly reported book that raises many painful, and overdue, questions about both black and white Westerners' views of and relationships to Africa.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Story, Shallow Analysis
Review: Keith writes an interesting story. As a Kenyan in particular and African I was more than interested to hear an African-American's - sorry - a black-American's, perspective of Africa and Kenya in particular.

Most of his narratives and experiences appear to be authentic and plausible though not particularly representative. It is perfectly possible to spend a lifetime in say Kenya without ever encountering some of the experiences he claims to have seen on a routine basis. On the other hand his experiences may necessarily be different given that as a journalist he has to look for stories that will make headlines. In any case his few explanations are shallow and patently subjective. Keith Richburg clearly dislikes Africa. That however is not a good enough argument to support his conclusions.

It is difficult to agree with his explanation and maintain any semblance of objectivity. He casually exonerates nay praises the historical crimes of slavery and the holocaust for the simple reason that "good" things came of them. Why he chooses to see Africa's current problems in a different light betrays the pessimism and inferioirity complex he has apparently nurtured for a good part of his life about Africans and by extension - at the risk of offending him - his own kind. In any case I disagree that one can excuse a crime against humanity in the name of posterity. The violence that has happened in Africa and elsewhere can never be justified along those lines.

I totally agree with him from my own experiences that the African-American culture and experience is vastly different from most of the African cultures. Even then, I dont see that as a problem with Pan-African ties. Most informed people are not as deluded about the similarity in cultures as Keith was before setting foot in Africa. This is perfectly understandable given that his only experience of being black was in America, Europe and Asia. How was he to know?

Having spent the greater part of my life in Nairobi, Kenya I found Keith's naration while plausible a bit exaggerated. No quarrel with that as this may just be in the line of journalism. However he decontextualizes atrocious violence and crime in Nairobi to support his underlying and misleading message that the African is a doomed species. It does not take much imagination to portray comparable violence in the inner cities in the same light. There is a lot that is indeed wrong with Africa. Runaway corruption, large-scale violence and a general breakdown of the rule of law in unacceptably vast swaths of the continent. We can choose to ignore how this state of affairs came to be and simply blame the African's "love of wallowing in misery". I beg to differ. Keith's offering gives an interesting insight into the demons in his mind that he has had a life-long fight with.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Story, Shallow Analysis
Review: Keith writes an interesting story. As a Kenyan in particular and African I was more than interested to hear an African-American's - sorry - a black-American's, perspective of Africa and Kenya in particular.

Most of his narratives and experiences appear to be authentic and plausible though not particularly representative. It is perfectly possible to spend a lifetime in say Kenya without ever encountering some of the experiences he claims to have seen on a routine basis. On the other hand his experiences may necessarily be different given that as a journalist he has to look for stories that will make headlines. In any case his few explanations are shallow and patently subjective. Keith Richburg clearly dislikes Africa. That however is not a good enough argument to support his conclusions.

It is difficult to agree with his explanation and maintain any semblance of objectivity. He casually exonerates nay praises the historical crimes of slavery and the holocaust for the simple reason that "good" things came of them. Why he chooses to see Africa's current problems in a different light betrays the pessimism and inferioirity complex he has apparently nurtured for a good part of his life about Africans and by extension - at the risk of offending him - his own kind. In any case I disagree that one can excuse a crime against humanity in the name of posterity. The violence that has happened in Africa and elsewhere can never be justified along those lines.

I totally agree with him from my own experiences that the African-American culture and experience is vastly different from most of the African cultures. Even then, I dont see that as a problem with Pan-African ties. Most informed people are not as deluded about the similarity in cultures as Keith was before setting foot in Africa. This is perfectly understandable given that his only experience of being black was in America, Europe and Asia. How was he to know?

Having spent the greater part of my life in Nairobi, Kenya I found Keith's naration while plausible a bit exaggerated. No quarrel with that as this may just be in the line of journalism. However he decontextualizes atrocious violence and crime in Nairobi to support his underlying and misleading message that the African is a doomed species. It does not take much imagination to portray comparable violence in the inner cities in the same light. There is a lot that is indeed wrong with Africa. Runaway corruption, large-scale violence and a general breakdown of the rule of law in unacceptably vast swaths of the continent. We can choose to ignore how this state of affairs came to be and simply blame the African's "love of wallowing in misery". I beg to differ. Keith's offering gives an interesting insight into the demons in his mind that he has had a life-long fight with.

Rating:
Summary: Mr. Richburg has written a true story, but the truth hurts!!
Review: Mr. Richburg did not make up his story, he has written an eye-witness account. We may be disturbed and dissapointed by his interepretation, but it ought to awaken us to the greed, corruption, injustice, abuse, and other wicked acts that have been the lot of us -Africans- since 1957. That examples of Africa's human-made problems can be found elsewhere does not nullify the book's thesis: African leaders behave like merecenaries whose corrupt and tyrannical disposition have ruined the beautiful continent. Rawlings, Abacha, Moi, Obote, Mugabe, etc., etc., are vampires who have sucked the life blood out Africa. Mr. Richburg's only shortcoming is that he was so romantic about Africa, as are many Africam-Americans. Africa is indeed a land of beauty, but it also a land of deprivation and misery, much of it due to our inhumane leaders. Indeed for every Richburg, there are at least three Africans in the diaspora who leave Africa with less frustrations and better hope for the future. But we can only "hope" for a better future unless we are honest about our present shortcomings. "Out Of America" will not add to the underdevelopment of Africa, nor will it curtail the flow of tourists to Africa. However, if the problems the book raises are not addressed and redressed, a lot of Africans will continue to leave Africa for greener pastures, thereby leading to further and deepening problems for Africa. IT IS TIME FOR OUR LEADERS-- SUCH AS THEY ARE TO WAKE UP! At least the Afrikaners bequeathed to Mandela a better, more prosperous country that they found it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most honest books, regardless of stance!
Review: Out of America is a black man's journey back to Africa as a newspaper reporter. Within the book, a myiad of political and social issues are delved into and the answers - not THE answers, to be sure, but answers as good as any other - are disturbing.

While Mr. Richburgh makes clear towards the beginning of the book that he never felt his 'blackness' was his defining characteristic, his journey in the book sours him on Africa and wipes many preconceptions out of the window. Before anyone can help Africa, he concludes, Africans need to help Africa. The descriptions of tribalism, dictatorship, factionization, and senseless murder seemingly as a way of life, are disturbing and graphic. Richburgh pulls no puches. The irony is that in the process of reading a book where the author ultimately concludes that Africa may be less 'salvagable' than we thought, it is obvious that he is not callous about this judgment, that he remains all-the-while sympathetic, and that this conclusion is one of the hardest ones the author has ever had to make (he tells us THAT much).

Many who've read Out of America denounce Richburg as an out-and-out "uncle Tom". He is a black man who realizes that he is an "american" before he's an "african-american" (as if I'm 'european-american' instead of just plain 'white'). The irony is that those who are shocked that Richburg, a black man, would DARE criticize Africa seems to prove RIchburgs ancillary point. Black leaders, intellectuals, and arm-chair diplomats have pussyfooted around Africa, ignoring abuses of 'human rights', ignoring the deadly tribalism and murder, so as to keep the image of "Africa - the glorious motherland" alive. We may, of course, criticize Europe ("the hegemonic western world") but dare we ever criticize atrocities in Zaire?! How dare we! So it is ironic that the authors point - that we must be realistic instead of untopion when dealing with Africa - is played into perfectly by those so willing to call Richburg an 'uncle tom" or a 'sellout'.

So as not to rant anymore, this book is somewhere between a personal biography, a corageous political statement, and an insider glimpse at the sheer hell international journalists go through to get the story and the shot. Don't miss it.