Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond [Hardcover]

Ekow Eshun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 6, 2006

Intimate and beautifully written, Black Gold of the Sun is a compelling memoir that chronicles a man’s journey to his ancestral home and to the hidden keeps of his heritage.

In 2001, at the age of thirty-three, Ekow Eshun–born in London to African-born parents–embarks on a trip to Ghana in search of his roots, and in this rich narrative he evokes both the physical and emotional aspects of his travels. Eshun makes his way to Accra, Ghana’s cosmopolitan capital city; to the storied slave forts of Elmina; to the historic warrior kingdom of Asante. He reflects on earlier pilgrims who followed the same path–W. E. B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Malcolm X–and on the millions of slaves shipped to the West from the Ghanaian coast. He recalls the racially charged years of his youth, and he considers the paradoxes and possibilities in contemporary Britain for someone like himself. Finally, he uncovers a long-held secret about his lineage that will compel him to question everything he knows about himself and about where he comes from.

Written with exquisite particularity of place and mind, and with rare immediacy and candor, Black Gold of the Sun tells a story of identity, belonging, and unexpected hope.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Eshun, an African-British author and the artistic director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, ventures from his home to Ghana to explore his heritage. By his early 30s, Eshun still cannot adequately answer the question put to him since his school days in Queensbury: "Where are you from?" He has never felt welcome in England, where his father, a Ghanaian government official, moved the family in 1974. Eshun's memoir focuses on his April 2002 trip to Ghana, on the African Gold Coast, so-called because of the vast stores of gold the Europeans extracted. In fact, the author comes to the painful realization that his ancestral country colluded intimately in the African slave trade, and his own ancestors, both the white Dutchman Joseph de Graft and de Graft's mixed-race son, were slave traders. Eshun carries a frozen idea of provincial Ghana from living there briefly in his youth, and his trip proves an awkward, self-scrutinizing attempt at reconciling the reality of the modern country, built on slavery and scarred by discrepancies in class. Eshun elegantly incorporates stories of previous notable travelers such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Richard Wright—along with an occasional illustration by Ofili. (June)
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From Booklist

Eshun, the son of Ghanaian nationals, was born and raised in London after a coup prevented his parents from returning to Ghana. Feeling that something was lacking in an environment he felt was occasionally hostile and often marginalizing, in 2001, at the age of 33, he journeyed home. In this narrative, Eshun searches for his roots and deeply within himself and discovers that estrangement is not restricted to his adopted homeland. For in his ancestral land, he finds family roots on both sides of the slave trade and the presence in Ghana of an apparent universal hip-hop culture that appears transferable to London or New York with all its material superficiality. He draws parallels between his African journey and that of W. E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, and Richard Wright. Within the contemporary context of the African diaspora, Eshun's work reflects commonalities detected by those who never left Africa as well as the differences recognized by those who have. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (June 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375424180
• ISBN-13: 978-0375424182
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,316,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Courageous Passage To Belonging!, June 24, 2006

By 

Books2Mention Magazine "Editor" (Atlanta, Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond (Hardcover)

Ekow Eshun embarks upon an enlightening search for his identity and true heritage in Black Gold Of The Sun, Searching For Home in Africa and Beyond. Revealing a rich history between Africa and Europe and the practice of slave trading. Exposing some truths about his ancestors that will instead produce more questions for him to ponder.

Eshun was born in London to parents from Ghana. His father was once a Ghanaian Diplomat who migrated with his family to make a life in London. Eshun along with his parents and siblings returned to live in Ghana for three years and eventually made London their permanent home in 1974.

Eshun begins his journey to Ghana with the anticipation of being able to connect with his roots and find the answers to questions that have gone unanswered for far to long. As he begins his quest he revisits relatives and memories from his childhood. Memories of a past that was filled with racial connotations that he intentionally wanted to forget; yet had to relive in order to find solace.

In the end he comes to the realization that returning to his homeland will not provide the closure he hoped for but is the catalyst to helping him achieve the freedom and knowledge to fully understand that his past does not determine his destination in life.

This first time author does a commendable job depicting his memoir with great fluency. Ekow Eshun vividly chronicles his personal journey taking readers along on this courageous passage to belonging.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for Children of Immigrants, December 31, 2007

By 

Ana, Amina, & April "The Sisters Garcia" (Atlanta, GA/ Guadalajara, MX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond (Vintage) (Paperback)

Ekow Eshun's book offers so many insights to children of immigrants that seem almost universal wisdom. More than once I stopped to read and re-read the words on the page, stunned that Eshun was able to articulate something I, as a Mexican-American, felt all of my life. His experiences in Ghana are intriguing and eye-opening, and he has a way of explaining the things we all feel but just have never been able to say.

Here is an example of one of my favorite quotes, to illustrate my point. It is from a scene where Ekow is a teenager, and his family is having a party. The adults are having a ball, while the younger cousins just kind of look on. Eshun observes:
"Our parents had their rituals and dance steps. They knew where they were from. By contrast all that connected us was distance from Ghana. Born in Britain, it seemed to us that we were the adults. We bore the pressure of growing up in a strange country while our parents played on the grass like children."

Brilliant! It's so simply stated, yet so powerful. We recommend this to anyone, but children of immigrants/migrants NEED to read this book!

(Review by Amina Garcia)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Identity - Where am i from?, August 16, 2007

By 

Big Sistah Patty (USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in Africa and Beyond (Vintage) (Paperback)

I give this book a 4 star because I felt I gained something by reading it. Though I am an African American, I could really relate to most of his experiences, accept being isolated from my culture.

I smiled to myself when a character called African American tourists "ugly people" or something to that affect. The character laments about our superiority complex when in Ghana and claiming to be more African then the African, yet we behave like ugly Americans when we don't get 1st world service. There is much truth to that.

However, from personal experiences, the service and the attitudes of the Africans can be really awful when they are dealing with other black people. It sometimes appears they resent our presence. Yet when an Oyinbo or Burenyi comes around they grovel and fawn like toothy hyenas and step on your head to service them with a smile. I guess it is that inferiority complex and viewing whites as superior to them. This is just my opinion. Please no hate notes.

I was also amused about the author's experience in visiting an African Christian church. Those are some scary places. I have attended a few just for curiosity. What an incredible scam and the believers are very cult like.

But most importantly, this book speaks to belonging and knowing where you came from. I have had such experiences in Africa. However, I was never one of those seeking to find "home." I have always been pretty confident that I am a woman of African descent, an amalgamation of various ethnic Africans, born and raised in the US. What I discovered most about my travels to the African continent is that I am an American. There is no one more American than the African Americans.

The "Big Man" phenomenon is so accurate. African societies are very caste oriented, and everyone has a desperate need to feel superior and look down their noses at others. Many of them have this over inflated sense of self. Ekow description of the bank manager screaming at him like a child because he came into the bank out of the rain is accurate. The bank manager's response when he realized that the author had a non-Ghanaian accent that he back downs and grovels, realizing that this must be his superior, simply because he is a westerner. I have had this experience too. It is very strange and disturbing.

Ekow spoke of W.E. Dubois's theory of "double consciousness" of being born into a white world. Yes, all people of African descent have this gift of double consciousness. It is survival technique when born in the west. It allows us to maneuver in our intimate world and with those outside of that world. I can't recall the author's name, but she referred to it as switching. We have double faces. We wear the mask as Paul Lawrence Dunbar alluded to. It is a permanent part of our wardrobe. We take it off and put it back on when the need arises.

Ekow went to Ghana to find out where he is from. However, I am not sure of what his conclusion was. He had some serious emotional issues about his identity. In Ghana he also is an outsider with another aspect of the double consciousness. His roots are in the soil of Ghana, yet his heart and mind is in Britain, the west. He is only a generation removed, yet he feels alienated in Britain and Ghana. Imagine people of African descent who are generations removed from Africa. The question is can you ever go back "home" as they say? I say home is where your heart is and the people you love and the society you relate to and feel most comfortable. Can you go and visit and experience the land of the ancestors? Absolutely! Some of us can even pick our western lives and go and live there. Why note? The Europeans and Asians are living there.

I believe that this book is a good read for anyone of African descent, and those who want to know what it is like to go to an African country and realized you are a foreigner. However, I am a foreigner among familar looking faces, faces of people that I know and family members. I don't mind being a foreigner. Because a native can go a little way up the road in his country and be considered a foreigner. I could relate much to many of Ekow's experiences.