Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0674004086, Paperback)

With unending images of cultural backwardness and tribal wars saturating Western airwaves, the continent of Africa remains the most misunderstood region on Earth. That's why Guinean American Manthia Diawara's evenhanded and empirical look at the past, present, and future of West Africa is such a godsend.

Diawara--a film instructor at New York University--traveled to his native land in 1996 on a double mission: while making a documentary on the life of the Guinean freedom fighter and dictator Sekou Toure, he also set out to find a childhood friend. He is able to see Guinea with a nostalgia that doesn't turn a blind eye to the nation's faults, pointing out what needs to be done without falling prey to "Afro-pessimism." In one heartfelt passage, recalling his upbringing in revolutionary Guinea, Diawara writes: "My life began when the new nations were born, in the late 1950s. We had been full of hope then, determined to change Africa, to catch up quickly with the modern world, to show that black people could use their culture and civilization, as other people did, to lead them into modernity."

But, as Diawara relates throughout the book, that didn't happen. He painfully recounts how he and his family were forced to leave Guinea and how the country sank into a Marxist-oriented dictatorial nightmare. While not overlooking the horrible historical impact of the slave trade and European colonialism, Diawara also blames internal corruption and dangerous African ethnic customs, like female genital mutilation, for his country's underdevelopment. Ultimately, however, he remains confident that this people will one day ascend to their full political, economic, and cultural potential: "Our desire to be modernized has been awakened, and it cannot be denied. Women want liberation from traditional oppression; we all want access to education and material wealth; and we are tired of being ignored by the world." --Eugene Holley Jr.