Customer Reviews

Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid

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A beautifully written memoir that takes you from late 60s Minnesota to late 80s "end of apartheid" South Africa, and then to the 00s in California's "progressive" Bay Area through the eyes of the exceedingly dynamic academic and activist Frank Wilderson III. Wilderson weaves a tale that explores hisinner torments, social struggles, family battles, and challenging relationships with amazing insight, biting political criticism, humor, poetry, and, above all, honesty. Inspired by Assata Shakur's memoirs, Wilderson's book is a poignant trek through the ongoing evolution of a post-60s era black radical and a modern-day visionary. Highly recommended!

Racism doesn't die a sudden death. It's a concept that's tough, vengeful, and bitter. "Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid" is a story of race and the shifting attitudes of two countries. Frank B. Wilderson has in his life lived in two countries notorious for its cruel treatment of some of its own citizens solely for the color of their skin - The United States and South Africa. Drawing his ideas and views, Wilderson constructs a very highly readable piece of work, that will enlighten as well as entertain. Written as a response to Nelson Mandela "Incognegro" is a pivotal piece of writing for those studying race in today's world.

Uhhh, buy the book, do it, now.

From being an intelligence operative in a network of anti-apartheid armed struggle in South Africa to reflections on middle school days forming a human sign of "OFF THE PIGS!!!" to the National Guard's invasion of Berkley to launching a sustained and insightful critique of the operation of white privilege/supremacy in the academy, Frank Wilderson has written a ridiculously fly memoir that I feel incredibly grateful to have gotten my hands on.

For your own sake, please, purchase this amazing piece of writing immediately.

Frank Wilderson paints a picture of an American citizen that is often forgotten about either accidentally or intentionaly, because they represent a view that is taken as anathema to being "American". Wilderson explains how black anger, rage, and frustration as well as an attraction to communism of the Maoist or Leninist variety comes about. He is middle class, black, Ivy educated, and also unhappy, unfulfilled, angry, tired, and sceptical. His experience moved from a hatred of America to a hatred of South Africa and what they have become but he presents far more questions than answers about how this happens and why as well as how to possibly fix the problems associated on two sides of the ocean for blacks be they Americans or Africans; Pharoh for blacks may be on both sides of the sea. I recommend this book especially to the white conservative Christian reader and to the very liberal white reader that seeks to understand the black experience in America at home and abroad and the influence that global capitalism and political pragmatism and compromise can have on those that are marginalized in any society.

This book deserves to be right up there with the classics. It is beautifully written and painfully honest about the vulnerabilities and impossibilities of being a black man in contemporary America. At the same time, Wilderson tells a fascinating story of his time spent in South Africa and on the inside of the ANC, intertwined with reflections on his life back in the States. Speaking as a white woman, it's not often that we get such an intimate and forthright accounting of the inner racial turmoil our country generates and perpetuates for African-Americans. This book is a must-read for anybody who wants to better understand the racial havoc that is America.

I've just finished reading this book through once, and I couldn't put it down. I feel like I need to read it again and underline things and mark pages.

I'm a white male Baby Boomer, six years older than the author. I was a hippie and a "revolutionary" in the 1960s, and still am to an extent, yet I was never a revolutionary in the way that Frank Wilderson was (is?) a revolutionary. I've also never had to walk in his racial shoes, which essentially proves his point about black positionality.

The dude has had some amazing experiences, both in South Africa and in America, and has lived to tell about them with remarkable insight and candor. While I disagree (only slightly) with his politics, I can't help but respect and admire his perspicacity, his accessibility as a writer, his emotional vulnerability, and his ability to perceive and/or inject humor into the most outrageous of circumstances. While his anger is all too evident, what ultimately comes across is Mr. Wilderson's humanity.

If you're a black reader, I imagine you'll find yourself frequently nodding in recognition at many of the experiences Wilderson relates, and admiring his skill at exploring what is a deeply complex and conflicting topic, that of "race". If you're a white reader - one who has grown beyond such cliched thinking as "_I_ never owned slaves!" and "Why are they STILL angry? What do they want NOW?" - you may yet learn a little something about why "liberal" is not necessarily a positive term, and why it's still extremely difficult, 150 years after the Civil War and 50 years after the various civil rights acts, for blacks and whites, in America and elsewhere, to have and maintain intimate, symbiotic relationships. You'll also learn a great deal more than you knew before about the political and psychological nuances of trans-apartheid South Africa. You may even re-think your cathedralization (one of Wilderson's favorite words) of Nelson Mandela just a bit.

Whatever kind of reader you are, I guarantee that you'll come away with something positive and enlightening from "Incognegro". And though Frank Wilderson may want to kick my white ass, after reading his memoir I want to give him a great big old bear hug and exclaim, "My brother!"