More African Literature

If you haven’t been lately, hop over to Black Looks. There’s a link to a great photo essay on modern Nigeria. No long vistas of savanna with antelope here. Instead, you’ll find great contemporary fabric printed with camcorders and cell phones. Also, a nice discussion of a new book, Ekow Eshun’s Black Gold of the Sun. Eshun was born in England in 1968 and the book recounts his journey to Africa where he was not recognized as an African but seemed white.

I love V. S. Naipaul's splenetic accounts of England and India, James Baldwin's bewildered disconnect from Africa (and his equally bewildered sense of deep connection to Ingmar Bergman, whom he visited in Stockholm, and, as you know, Andrea Levy. I bet I'll like Eshun's book. I'll let you know.

(Eshun’s book is also reviewed here and here.)