African Son
By (author) William J. Hemminger
Not available to order
Publication date:
26 April 2012Length of book:
104 pagesPublisher
UPAISBN-13: 9780761858447
African Son is a record of the author’s many trips to Africa—as a Peace Corps volunteer, Fulbright scholar, teacher, and traveler—over the course of thirty years. These personal essays range from sympathetic descriptions of village life in Senegal and Cameroon to detailed accounts of the rich physical and natural worlds in Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Madagascar to a mock-curriculum vitae for a Cameroonian man whose skill-set is surprisingly extensive. A work of creative non-fiction, African Son describes individual and, later, family experiences in a number of African locations, from villages to major urban centers and from desert to thick, tropical forest.
African Son is one of the best travelogues written about African. Its fifteen insightful, well-written, and well-organized essays tackle important social, cultural, and philosophical issues such as social inequities, cultural differences, man and nature, death, and spirituality. The book skillfully blends honesty and realism: the author’s feelings and attitudes towards the people and the land, as well as his scathing satire of human flaws. These exciting essays are ‘objective writing’ that depicts Africa—its merits and demerits—as well as the Westerners’ encounter with the continent. African Son is a great contribution to travel literature, African literature, and nature writing.