Manjani [Paperback]

Freedom Speaks Diaspora (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2008

Manjani Jackson is a mouthy New York teenager who is ready for a Black revolution. When tragedy lands her at an all white school, she must defend her people's honor, but in doing so, she ends up on the run. Manjani lands at the one place she thought she could call home, Black Nationalist Academy. But as a souljah-in-training, she sees a different side of the revolution. As more of who she really is unfolds, her loyalty and intentions are questioned, allies become enemies, and the consequences of forbidden love spiral out of control. Manjani must rely on spirituality and self-determination to become the warrior "the people" need her to be.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Freedom Speaks Diaspora's new book, Manjani, has to be the best urban novel I've read in the last 3 years. It's fresh, intelligent, raw, honest, intelligent, and deeply critical - certainly not the normal rubbish a book reviewer gets bombarded with on a regular basis. Manjani is a literary powerhouse, everybody's protest novel, and a classic tribute to what Columbia University Professor Ann Douglass calls "the oldest American story of all, the [girl] sets out on life, on [her] adventures." Hold your fist up; this is Manjani!

Manjani Jackson is an unusually gifted child with the intellectual prowess of an untapped genius, the pubescent disposition uncommon in most young girls (mostly complacent and content), possessed of some mystic ability to visit with the dead. Manjani is clearly not your average girl. Jaded by cynicism, with a festering disdain for "puppies", Manjani begins the novel on a poetic note of lyrical brilliance - a prologue which speaks directly to the first chapter of Dubois's Souls of Black Folks:

[citation omitted]

Manjani is pro-black, reads black books, quotes black authors, and loves black revolutionaries. Yet, underneath this brash exterior is another story that makes Manjani much more relatable to the things we see every day and know all too well. Manjani's mother is crazy, and her father is a washed-up has-been, turncoat, and has another family elsewhere. Before long, Manjani realizes that the life she thought was real has been nothing more than a fistful of lies and deceptions. To escape the madness, Manjani runs into the protective confines of a revolutionary college that trains young men and women to become revolutionaries. This is where Manjani gets her real lesson in life and finds out that the revolution had been televised, and is now more a façade than a possibility. In this following lengthy passage, FSD gives a profound critique on the current Black Revolution, and the state of the Black America:

[citation omitted]

This philosophical exchange between Manjani and her roommates makes her realize that her revolutionary struggle is internal and personal. In the end, Manjani is able to break free from life's constraints to realize her full (individual) potential. FSD leaves no stone unturned as she tackles everything from teenage-sex, drugs, religion, race, class, gender, and homosexuality. I highly recommend this book, and I think it should be a required reading in urban school districts.

--Push Nevahda for Urban Book Source, August 2009

Manjani would be considered, by many, to be a brat. She says whatever she is thinking, and sometimes says it in a brusque manner. She feels it is her duty to wake up her dormant brothers and sisters to life as an African American in the United States. One day tragedy strikes her family and realizing their neighbors are no help, her father moves Manjani and her small brother to another neighborhood. Manjani's mother, ripped apart emotionally by the destruction of her life, lands in a mental institution.

Manjani ends up in a mostly white school and the only other person there, who might be like her, shuns her. Manjani is not happy and she talks herself into plenty of trouble. She joins a group of revolutionaries and things get even worse for her. At the Black Nationalist Academy she really begins to find out about life. She starts to question her sexuality, family secrets are exposed and her comrades turn against her. What will become of Manjani?

MANJANI by Freedom Speaks Diaspora is an interesting look into the life and times of African Americans in an environment that is not always welcoming, not even by other African Americans. The characters are developed so that even the unpleasant characters are understandable. It is a revolutionary work well worth reading.

--Alice Holman of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers, Nov 18, 2008

From the Author

"I wrote this book to fill the need for stories about today's black souljahs working the streets, rocking the red, black, and green, because there are so many of them out there, but they're not adequately represented in our books. They're always the strangely militant side character in a novel; never the hero or star! And like Manjani, I know what it's like to want to make change, without realizing that it requires discipline, political study, and hard work that involves other people (you sometimes don't like), which can be difficult. Not to mention the family and sexual identity issues that sometimes get in the way.

I hope Manjani will help people see that we cannot reach the levels of power we want to achieve through selective unity. People must make change the way THEY were born to make it, rather than the way they think looks cool. Manjani offers entertainment, sex, drama, food for thought, and great conversation. What else could you possibly want in a book? I think I've covered everything!"

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sun Cycle Publishing (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979432227
• ISBN-13: 978-0979432224
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,350,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Freedom Speaks Diaspora is an author, mentor, and poet. She has opened for Def Poetry Jam on Broadway at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, appeared on Robert Townsend's "Spoken" on The Black Family Channel, performed at "Girls in the Night" during Atlanta's Black Pride, lectured and performed at dozens of colleges and universities and taught creative writing and publishing courses at College of Coastal Georgia. Diaspora has worked as a freelance writer for The Florida Times-Union's River City News and River Bend Review, her work has been published in The African Journal of New Poetry, and other fiction has been published under other names. Her debut novel, Manjani, blends Black Studies with Urban Fiction, for a unique style of edu-tainment. Diaspora is alumni of Mercy College in New York, and her academic background is in English and Behavioral Science with a Specialization in Community Health.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read April 13, 2010

By A. Williams

Format:Kindle Edition

Great read into an alternate world full of love and hate for more than the obvious. Join Manjani as she grows, adapts and in the end accepts the world around her. To enjoy this novel you have to leave your preconceptions on the kitchen counter and open your eyes and soul. If you do that then you will more than enjoy Manjani!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Manjani January 17, 2010

By Latoya Lindsey

Format:Paperback

Revolutionary. Trouble maker. Confident. Obnoxious. Informed. Misguided. Enlightened. Shadowed.

"Manjani Jackson is a mouthy New York teenager who believes her life purpose is to lead her 'deaf, dumb, and blind' brothers and sistahs into The Revolution."

Freedom Speaks Diaspora has written a novel about what it does - and does not - mean to be a Revolutionary. Set in 1996, "Manjani" is the story of an (often misunderstood) young sistah who is trying to find her place in The Struggle. Family secrets, loss of friends, questions about her sexuality, and political agendas dog her steps from start to finish. She learns on her journey the true definitions of struggle, leadership, birth right, and power. At turns amusing, thought-provoking and awe-inspiring, "Manjani" is a story of discovery and consciousness as seen through the eyes of a self-proclaimed "warrior of The People."

I grant this book 5 out of 5 stars. Buy it, borrow it, but please don't steal it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book, very enjoyable June 27, 2009

By A. Harper

Format:Paperback

I am really enjoying this book. I cracked up when Manjani straight forwardly asks white characters, "Tell me about White Power." I lost it when her new found friend Hollis did something very funny during her father's poetry reading (I won't give it away). Engaging book. I was reminded of how I felt in the 90s as the only black girl attending an all white school and all the anger I had inside of me... and my unproductive way of channeling it. I like that the character is 17 years old. There aren't many books out there in which it is fictional account of a young black women dealing with the issues of sex, sexuality, racism, class, etc. Thanks Freedom for sharing this with us.