Customer Reviews

Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

Out of America is a black man's journey back to Africa as a newspaper reporter. Within the book, a myiad of political and social issues are delved into and the answers - not THE answers, to be sure, but answers as good as any other - are disturbing.

While Mr. Richburgh makes clear towards the beginning of the book that he never felt his 'blackness' was his defining characteristic, his journey in the book sours him on Africa and wipes many preconceptions out of the window. Before anyone can help Africa, he concludes, Africans need to help Africa. The descriptions of tribalism, dictatorship, factionization, and senseless murder seemingly as a way of life, are disturbing and graphic. Richburgh pulls no puches. The irony is that in the process of reading a book where the author ultimately concludes that Africa may be less 'salvagable' than we thought, it is obvious that he is not callous about this judgment, that he remains all-the-while sympathetic, and that this conclusion is one of the hardest ones the author has ever had to make (he tells us THAT much).

Many who've read Out of America denounce Richburg as an out-and-out "uncle Tom". He is a black man who realizes that he is an "american" before he's an "african-american" (as if I'm 'european-american' instead of just plain 'white'). The irony is that those who are shocked that Richburg, a black man, would DARE criticize Africa seems to prove RIchburgs ancillary point. Black leaders, intellectuals, and arm-chair diplomats have pussyfooted around Africa, ignoring abuses of 'human rights', ignoring the deadly tribalism and murder, so as to keep the image of "Africa - the glorious motherland" alive. We may, of course, criticize Europe ("the hegemonic western world") but dare we ever criticize atrocities in Zaire?! How dare we! So it is ironic that the authors point - that we must be realistic instead of untopion when dealing with Africa - is played into perfectly by those so willing to call Richburg an 'uncle tom" or a 'sellout'.

So as not to rant anymore, this book is somewhere between a personal biography, a corageous political statement, and an insider glimpse at the sheer hell international journalists go through to get the story and the shot. Don't miss it.

Has anyone, besides me, actually read this book? I've looked at review after review and thought to myself "Did I read the same book?"

Take away the politically incorrect premise, that an African-American journalist was horrified by what he saw in Sub-Sahara Africa and is grateful to be an American, a premise which is merely in the controversial 5 1/2 page Prelude, and what you have in the remaining 259 pages is one of the most intriguing, exciting, and even breathtaking adventure stories told in modern times. This stuff makes war reporting from WWI and WWII seem like nursery rhymes. If Hemingway and Churchill wanted to see and write about battles up close, they needed to go where Richburg's been. The Spanish Civil War and Boer War were tame by comparison.

Want to know what it was like in Mogadishu during the American and United Nations occupation of Somalia? It's here.

Why were the corpses of American soldiers dragged through the streets? He'll tell you.

Want to know what it was like to stand on a bridge at Rusomo Falls and watch countless Tutsi bodies drift by after being massacred in Rwanda? It's here.

What's it like to be a Belgian soldier who is told to put down his weapons to avoid a Hutu riot in Rwanda, and then to die for following that order?

Want to know what its like to be in the middle of a cholera epidemic in Zaire? It's here too.

Are you interested in the "Whys"?

For instance, why do the Hutus hate the Tutsis? How does it relate to the black experience in America? It's discussed here in frank and clear terms.

If you've ever wanted to be a foreign correspondent, or a CIA case worker, or to travel to "hot spots" around the world this is the book to read.

Richburg gets a bad rap. He gets a bad rap from reviewers and then he gets a bad rap from people who opine on the book after only reading the reviews.

This is a wonderful book---a page turner---one that won't let you go to bed at night. Read it.

"Out of America' is a tough read.

Mr. Richburg's book has brought wails of protest from all over, in Africa certainly but from many other countries and nations as well and not the least America.

Mr. Richburg is a reporter; his book is a report of what he saw while on assignment in Africa. What he saw was appalling, the author does not sugar coat it and it rings with an awful truth. The truth is that today in Africa, black Africans are slaughtering other black Africans at a rate that is incalculable. An ongoing slaughter that is largely unreported in the mainstream media. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's refusal to blame the past for Africa's murderous appetites of today. What makes the book so controversial is Mr. Richburg's courage in laying bloody Africa at the feet of today's African leaders. He makes no excuses for black leaders that treat their people like charnel.

It is this "no excuses" approach that infuriates Mr. Richburg's detractors. It is much easier to blame King Leopold, slavery, the colonialism of the British, or the Belgians than it is to look at the simple truth. What happened yesterday does not give license for the atrocities of today.

As a white South African journalist reading Keith Richburg's book, I was completely overwhelmed that a mere three years in Africa could have produced a book of this nature. Hats off the Richburg for being honest - and for having the courage to know that on both sides of the moral spectrum - liberal African Americans to white neo-Nazi fascists, he would invoke responses to his book that he would probably find distasteful in the extreme. For Black Americans, I can only assume many viewed his book as a betrayal, while for white racists it was an opportunity to crow in glee, with that familiar, I-told-you-so approach. As a South African first and foremost, and white second, it is with sadness, not joy, that I concur with many of his findings, particularly regarding the recent developments in Zimbabwe. If only the liberal black community in America would realise that in that country, and others, it is not the whites that suffer, Most generally have sufficient money to shield them from the worst or leave if they have to. But, as Richburg so vividly portrays in his book, the half billion black people in southern Africa are forever confined to peasantry, disease, ignorance, and abuse by leaders who show scant interest in democracy. Richburg was right - and I applaud him for saying so - that the mere fact that many countries in Africa have overthrown their colonial masters does not and can never give them carte blanche to persecute their own people - nor does it excuse the black leadership in America and elsewhere from its primary responsibility - the preservation of human rights and the freedoms held so dear by the American consitution. There is nothing worse than those who perpetuate crimes on their own people. The black leaders of America are accomplices to the atrocities committed by the Mobutus and Mugabes of Africa if they do not take a stand against their crimes against humanity. If they raise a unified voice against what is happening, it will have the same affect on American foreign policy as every other major lobbying group in the US. Keith Richburg, I salute you as a journalist, for having the guts to write what must have personally been a very difficult book to produce, knowing the consequences which would ensue. He lives up to the pure goal of journalism, to be informative without prejudice.

This is a great book about modern day Africa - well sub-saharan Africa, as Richburg doesn't spend much time in Egypt or other northern African countries. Told from the perspective of a black American who is grateful that he was not born in the madness of Africa. At first I thought, well of course he has a dim view of the continent - he is hanging around all the trouble spots - Somalia, Rwanda, Congo, etc. But as the book progresses, he goes almost everywhere and talks about the government of almost every sub-saharan African country. And they are all pretty horrible governments and there are all kinds of atrocities and corruption going on. Despite, or possibly because of, billions of dollars in aid and debt forgiveness, Africa's economy is not growing, but shrinking, due to AIDS, corruption, and racial and tribal violence. Richburg's point of view is refreshingly honest and critical. Why do western aid donors tolerate such corruption and lip-service to democracy when the evidence of Big Man politics is everywhere? Great, fast read for anyone interested in the problems of modern day Africa.

Out of America is courageous, real and honest. Richburg doesn't beat around the bush about what he saw and what he felt while working as a foreign correspondent in Africa. While the book is a personal memoir, it gives the reader a good understanding of Africa today from the best vantagepoint that any one person could ever ask for.

In one chapter the author compares African countries to Southeast Asian countries, both fresh out of colonialism, both with many ethnic groups, both battling corruption. Why then do the Asian countries flourish while African countries, rich in natural resources, languish? Being the objective journalist that he is Richburg doesn't offer his opinion but does present the opinions of others including some prominent African leaders. After sifting through the worn out excuses and clichés, some of the more thoughtful answers are surprising and thought provoking.

I read this book while working as an expat in Zambia. I can identify with many of the author's observations and feelings. The only disappointment was Richburg's acceptance of the common liberal view of South African whites, even though he only spent a few weeks in RSA. His analysis of the rest of southern Africa is objective and real. Out of America is highly recommended reading for anyone whose interest in Africa goes beyond game parks and waterfalls.

This outstanding book by a black American journalist for The Washington Post recounts the emotional and spiritual awakening of the author upon his fateful visit to his ancestral home, Africa. He vividly recounts his adventurers and journalistic travails on the Dark Continent, and finds he belongs happily and unregretfully in America. He thanks Providence for the fact his ancestors were brought to America, even as slaves, so that he could be born a free man in America. One of the most poignant scenes in the book sums it up. In shock, he sees countless numbers of black corpses floating down a river in Rwanda. He states, as politically incorrect as it may be, "There but by the grace of God, go I." The book is a must read for everyone, particularly those who want to supplant America for a Utopian paradise that has never existed in Africa or elsewhere - not even in socialism, communism, or any form of collectivism.

Miguel A. Faria, Jr., M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Sentinel of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)

I read this book when it first came out. It is a fascinating, gripping and honest portrayal of the author's experiences in Africa. Some of the images it painted in my mind are still with me, such as the scene of the bodies flowing down the river from the upstream genocide.

Africa is a big enough and important enough place that everyone should read this book to get a dose of the reality that is Africa.

I noticed a strange thing with the few critics that did not like this book. Every single one of them resort to psycho analyzing the author. They theorize that he is traumatized and not in his right mind, or he is suffering from self hatred and self doubt and that, more than his actual experiences, explains the book. To me it is certainly ok to dispute or disagree with an author if you don't like his book, but is it necessary to attack his mental health if you dont't like what he reports? It reminds me of the tactics of the Soviet Union where dissenters were declared mentally ill and put into institutions. What is it about all these folks who are offended about his reporting on conditions in Africa that make them want to attack the author's mental health? One of the reviewers even went so far as to call him a "murderer" and "traitor". One reviwer who even claimed to have been a friend in college used the mental health approach to undermine his work. Some friend!
When I read the book I saw a brilliant reporter at work and detected not a hint of mental illness or psychosis. Read the negative reviews for yourself and help me get a grip on this strange approach to critisizing this book....I've never seen anything quite like it....at least not since the decline of the Soviet Union. Is this a new trend?

As a born and bread African, now living in the US, I can relate to Keith's writings in full. It is quite astonishing how little one knows about Africa until it is experienced first hand. His descriptions of chaos, lack of order and violance in Africa is earily brought to light in this astonishing book. Do you want to know the truth about Africa? Read this book!!!!

Bill Clinton is telling Americans that it is "enlightened self-interest" that should motivate us to give aid to African nations. He, and every other American, should read this book. If he knew that billions of dollars are paying for the palaces of dictators who buy or murder their way through elections, would he have the courage to stop giving them money? Or would he cave in to America's civil rights leaders who share the same tribal premises as these dictators? I think we know enough about Clinton to know the answer. I cannot help but admire Richburg's integrity -- he states the truth in the midst of a political correctness that has declared his book racist in advance. He, and not Jesse Jackson and his ilk, share Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of an America where men are judged, "...not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." I noticed an earlier review that derided Richburg for not suggesting a solution to Africa's problems. In his defense, I honestly think he could not see a solution. There may be a solution, but after all the death and misery he has seen, how can he be expected to have hope that it will work? I commend Mr. Richburg for this excellent and honest work. He is an example of a journalism at its best.