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simoncolumbus's review against another edition
3.5
Although an autobiography, "An African in Greenland" starts like a novel: A Togolese teenager, threatened with being inducted into an animist cult after a harrowing encounter with a snake, decides to follow his dream and travel to Greenland. The book describes his journey there - via Ghana, Senegal, France, Germany, and Denmark, often staying for years about which we don't learn very much except that the traveller has a knack for languages and the ability to charm people into putting him up - and his stay, for one and a half years, in Greenland.
The story of a Togolese boy - man, by the time he arrives - making his way to Greenland makes for a timely read exactly because it is, still, so unusual. Today, it seems, Africans feature as travellers in Western media and imagination only as migrants and refugees. This traveller is nothing of the sort: he is pulled only by his extraordinary curiosity. In that, his account - even if things may have changed in Greenland - is a fascinating counternarrative to how we usually come to see African travellers.
Indeed, Kpomassie is in many ways more reminiscent of an adventurer of times gone by than of an ethnographer, occasional academic references notwithstanding. He lives off of infrequent checks sent by a wealthy benefactor he met during his journey in France, knocks on doors fully expecting to be put up rent free (and gets quite indignant when, once, he is refused), and sleeps around (including with the wife of one of his hosts). At the same time, he writes with deep empathy for the people he meets, and so the reader is also left with an impression of generous, but often troubled people.
The story of a Togolese boy - man, by the time he arrives - making his way to Greenland makes for a timely read exactly because it is, still, so unusual. Today, it seems, Africans feature as travellers in Western media and imagination only as migrants and refugees. This traveller is nothing of the sort: he is pulled only by his extraordinary curiosity. In that, his account - even if things may have changed in Greenland - is a fascinating counternarrative to how we usually come to see African travellers.
Indeed, Kpomassie is in many ways more reminiscent of an adventurer of times gone by than of an ethnographer, occasional academic references notwithstanding. He lives off of infrequent checks sent by a wealthy benefactor he met during his journey in France, knocks on doors fully expecting to be put up rent free (and gets quite indignant when, once, he is refused), and sleeps around (including with the wife of one of his hosts). At the same time, he writes with deep empathy for the people he meets, and so the reader is also left with an impression of generous, but often troubled people.
nuthatch's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Alcoholism, and Colonisation
nielskuijpers98's review against another edition
3.0
3,4*. An interesting story about an adventurous young African man who embarks on a trip from Togo to Greenland.
It's an interesting story for sure and I enjoyed learning about two cultures that I didn't know anything about prior to reading this book. Unfortunately, it's too factual in my opinion. It could've done with some less description of eating seal blubber.
"So thick were the flakes, you'd have said that all the white birds in the world were shredding their feathers"
It's an interesting story for sure and I enjoyed learning about two cultures that I didn't know anything about prior to reading this book. Unfortunately, it's too factual in my opinion. It could've done with some less description of eating seal blubber.
"So thick were the flakes, you'd have said that all the white birds in the world were shredding their feathers"
rubywaitweg's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
kiramke's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Fantastic.
Pleased to find this gem of ethnography and travel. Such an interesting and compelling mind, and above all story. But it is also interesting to step back and think about how most of our stories of culture are filtered through a European viewpoint first, and interesting to see that mind outside of the main narrative - though of course colonialism is present in both cases, and still doing its thing. Really enjoyed the reflections and interpretations and connections made.
Pleased to find this gem of ethnography and travel. Such an interesting and compelling mind, and above all story. But it is also interesting to step back and think about how most of our stories of culture are filtered through a European viewpoint first, and interesting to see that mind outside of the main narrative - though of course colonialism is present in both cases, and still doing its thing. Really enjoyed the reflections and interpretations and connections made.