Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind

Rating:
Summary: Good, but needs work
Review: I picked this book up as a curiosity, to see what myths there are concerning Africa and if I might harbor a few of my own. For the most part, its successful in stating the many fabrications about the continent, the people on it, and how it all started. These points not withstanding, Mistaking Africa lacked much. To begin with, the author loses his objectivety in many points which seem to point to a tendency to placate rather than teach. In an effort to make the book non-controversial, he doesn't touch African history, glosses over modern racism involving black culture, and makes unsupportable assumptions as to African American views concerning Africa. He is a fence straddler and fence straddling leads to poor scholarship. He debunks some myths, but leaves enough to still make the subject seem inferior. I would suggest before reading this book, read more on Afican history. Introduction to African Civilizations is an excellent primer. Keim makes parts of this book laughable, such as when he does go briefly into history. He talks of the first people to populate the earth. He does state that they began in Africa, but says that they were not black Africans, but a very light people. This is one part of the book that he should state is opinion, since he doesn't give a resource for that particular information. As I stated earlier, please read up on African history before reading this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but needs work
Review: I picked this book up as a curiosity, to see what myths there are concerning Africa and if I might harbor a few of my own. For the most part, its successful in stating the many fabrications about the continent, the people on it, and how it all started. These points not withstanding, Mistaking Africa lacked much. To begin with, the author loses his objectivety in many points which seem to point to a tendency to placate rather than teach. In an effort to make the book non-controversial, he doesn't touch African history, glosses over modern racism involving black culture, and makes unsupportable assumptions as to African American views concerning Africa. He is a fence straddler and fence straddling leads to poor scholarship. He debunks some myths, but leaves enough to still make the subject seem inferior. I would suggest before reading this book, read more on Afican history. Introduction to African Civilizations is an excellent primer. Keim makes parts of this book laughable, such as when he does go briefly into history. He talks of the first people to populate the earth. He does state that they began in Africa, but says that they were not black Africans, but a very light people. This is one part of the book that he should state is opinion, since he doesn't give a resource for that particular information. As I stated earlier, please read up on African history before reading this book.