Brother in the Bush: An African American's Search for Self in East Africa [Paperback]

John Slaughter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2005

Brother in the Bush is a coming-of-awareness memoir of what the experience of Africa can mean for a 21st-century African American. John Slaughter, a successful stockbroker, has “made it” as a black man in America, but his life is full of constant reminders of how violently fragile existence here really is. Not long after his Baltimore townhouse is invaded—and Slaughter confronts, shoots, and kills the intruder with his shotgun—he embarks on a series of trips to Africa that unfold over almost a decade. Along the way he discovers a way of life that transforms and deepens his identity as an African American. Seduced and humbled by the contrasting realities, beauties and dangers he discovers in East Africa, Slaughter encounters different ways of life that begin to change his conceptions of life’s purpose and meaning. Slaughter’s vivid, blunt, and erudite narrative voice moves back and forth from his past growing up in the sixties and seventies to the present-tense of his journeys. Brother in the Bush unearths, probes and assesses the truths that Africa helps teach Slaughter about his life—and all of our lives—here in today’s America.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Slaughter recounts his 1993 killing of an intruder in his Baltimore row house and how that set him on a path of spiritual awakening while on safari in East Africa. An African-American, Slaughter feels aggrieved and shortchanged by the state of race relations in America. In Africa, he finds peace: "This communal society is content to get along... they could teach me much." Yet Slaughter fails to offer fresh insight or place his experience in any kind of economic context. Back home, Slaughter, a successful stockbroker who made his first trip to Africa at 38, will park his "dark-green Land Rover Discovery" at his farmhouse in western Maryland, pull off his "mud-soaked Wellingtons," light a cigar and start "puffing out rings and watching them cartwheel slowly towards the ceiling." Ignoring the abject poverty and brutal violence that is everyday life for many Africans and not reflecting on his own place of privilege—his father was president of the University of Maryland—Slaughter fails to distance himself from places like "Dik-Dik, the luxury Swiss lodge" in East Africa. Instead of getting into the real lives of Africans, this memoir/travelogue instead comes off as a cynical promotional brochure for Slaughter's new business: leading safaris in Africa. Agent, Jim Trupin. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

After fatally shooting a black drug-addicted intruder in his Baltimore row house, Slaughter struggled to find peace and serenity. His successful career as a stockbroker was in a slump, and he was generally disillusioned with the frenetic and materialistic pace of life in America and its poisonous race relations. Slaughter traveled to East Africa on safari in hope of clearing his mind and found true respite and a new perspective on life. In a series of trips over the course of a decade, acting as a guide in East Africa, Slaughter slowly rebuilds his conceptions of life and reexamines his attitudes on what it means to be of African descent. In the African bush, he found a quieter rhythm to life and an appreciation for relationships, both of which eluded him in the U.S. This is a beautifully written, riveting memoir of self-examination that provides an awareness of the troubled history of race that began with the African slave trade. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 135 pages
• Publisher: Agate Bolden (May 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932841083
• ISBN-13: 978-1932841084
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,630,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Walk in another man's shoes, April 5, 2005

By 

H. Macdonald (Duluth, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brother in the Bush: An African American's Search for Self in East Africa (Paperback)

A compeling story that allows one to get a glimpse into the life of a black man. While I was initially shocked at the feelings of hostility and anger expressed in the book, I came to understand that I was getting a glimpse of what it was like to walk in another man's - a black man's - shoes. The author also paints a vivid portrait of Africa. All in all an eye opening read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, compelling must read!, December 31, 2005

By 

Debora Ricks "Book Lover" (Baltimore, Maryland United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brother in the Bush: An African American's Search for Self in East Africa (Paperback)

If you appreciate books that enlighten, educate, and excite all of the fives senses, then Brother in the Bush is for you. Slaughter's well crafted words--so descriptive, compelling, and refreshingly candid--dance across the pages, happily carrying the reader with them to the very last page. His handling of issues of race, East Africa, and his family is done so with respect, confidence, and wit. I am a voracious reader and this is by far one of the most gratifying reads that I have had this year. I can't wait to hear more from this brilliant and talented writer.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The eyes that travel, see!, July 23, 2005

By 

Bradley Black "Society of Learned Minds" (Gainesville, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Brother in the Bush: An African American's Search for Self in East Africa (Paperback)

Dr. Slaughter was genius in his delivery of his thoughts, emotions, and actions as he gives you a look thoruygh his eyes on the African American's experience in Africa. He also breaks out the box in his interaction with his "Brothers" of Africa, and presents the Africans with honesty. He expresses is inner feelings of lost, anger,love and fullfillment.