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savaging's review against another edition
5.0
This book is profoundly beautiful. Hartman reckons with the historical slave trade within Africa, the fissures of pan-African belief, and the impossibility of 'going home.' It's history, but it's also extremely raw and personal.
I'd love to hear from other historians of the slave trade whether they think Hartman is too hard on black Africans. Some of her conclusions feel tied up in a profound sense of loneliness that makes her harshly skeptical of anyone who attempts to bridge the gap and connect with her. But also: isn't it simply realistic to believe that welcoming the diaspora back with platitudes of pan-Africanism is just a tourism hustle for most? In the growing rift she experiences with the African scholars she travels with, I felt some sympathy for their side -- this privileged U.S. citizen keeps centering herself and blaming others. But I also really believe in Hartman's rejection of easy and ignorant calls to unity that gloss over histories of exploitation.
And through it all, my overwhelming feeling is gratitude that Hartman did this work and wrote this book -- and took the time to write with such beauty, care, honesty in the face of unspeakable horror.
I'd love to hear from other historians of the slave trade whether they think Hartman is too hard on black Africans. Some of her conclusions feel tied up in a profound sense of loneliness that makes her harshly skeptical of anyone who attempts to bridge the gap and connect with her. But also: isn't it simply realistic to believe that welcoming the diaspora back with platitudes of pan-Africanism is just a tourism hustle for most? In the growing rift she experiences with the African scholars she travels with, I felt some sympathy for their side -- this privileged U.S. citizen keeps centering herself and blaming others. But I also really believe in Hartman's rejection of easy and ignorant calls to unity that gloss over histories of exploitation.
And through it all, my overwhelming feeling is gratitude that Hartman did this work and wrote this book -- and took the time to write with such beauty, care, honesty in the face of unspeakable horror.
jeninmotion's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
I am not sure this is a great book to do as an audiobook, because a lot of the time, it felt like a lot of words to say "Yes, it's complicated but...Ghana is mid." And sure, it's actually important for Black Americans to be able to say that, to be able to talk about how Africans can be shitty and weird to Black folks whose ancestors were taken and enslaved, but it kind of moved around in ways that ended up being hard to follow while listening to it.
cseibs's review against another edition
4.0
This book was frustrating, in large part because the author was so frustrated, so I can't actually consider that a bad quality. It was a book that made me deeply uncomfortable but I needed it too, I needed to feel the author's sense of being unsettled and lost. I hate to day it is an "important" book because that itself feels trite but it's the kind of book I want to press into the hands of everyone I know because I think they all must read it or else miss out on something essential.