African in Greenland (Polish Edition) (Hardcover)

~ Tete-Michel Kpomassie (Author) "NOT AWAKE yet, is he?..." (more)
Key Phrases: frozen fjord, fur trousers, first tub, Far North, Johan Dorf, Robert Mattaaq (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A chance encounter with a picture book about Greenland inspires the young Tete-Michel Kpomassie to embark on a life-changing journey that would last ten years. Leaving his native Togo, he travels to the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mauritania, Paris, and Copenhagen before reaching his ultimate destination. The author's distinctly African voice and perspective create a narrative that is refreshingly free of Western assumptions and prejudices. Readers witness innumerable culture clashes between the African and Inuit cultures, as well as occasional surprising similarities. A New York Times Notable Book. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 298 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1st edition (June 30, 1983)
• Language: Polish
• ISBN-10: 0151055890
• ISBN-13: 978-0151055890
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,004,146 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Togo to Thule (almost)--a fine book by a good writer, September 17, 2003

By	woburnmusicfan (Woburn, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An African in Greenland (New York Review Books Classics) (Paperback)

When author Kpomassie was a teenager in his native Togo in the '50s, he nearly died in a fall, and was pledged by his father to become a priest of the python cult that cured him. While looking for a way around this future, he happened upon a book about Greenland and became obsessed with the idea of moving there and becoming a hunter. Over the course of several years, Kpomassie worked his way across West Africa and Europe before arriving in Greenland in the early '60s. He was possibly the first African to visit Greenland, and was the first black person most of the Greenlanders had ever seen. He became a minor celebrity ("I've heard about you on the radio since you arrived in the south"), as the locals, particularly children and young women, swarmed around the exotic stranger. As he made his way up the coast of west Greenland, he stopped in several towns, where he was invariably taken into someone's home as a guest and treated to fine delicacies like seal blubber and mattak (beluga whale skin).

Kpomassie is an excellent observer, and this book is as good an introduction to Greenlandic culture as Gretel Ehrlich's "This Cold Heaven". Kpomassie is a much more straightforward writer than Ehrlich, and this book therefore makes an easier read. The reader gets to learn about two exotic cultures: Kpomassie's tales of his upbringing in the Mina tribe of Togo is as interesting as his travels in Greenland.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fascinating story of a true 20th century adventure, December 11, 1999

By	Robert S. Newman "Bob Newman" (Marblehead, Massachusetts USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: An African in Greenland (Ulverscroft Large Print Series) (Hardcover)

Modern times mean modern means. Our contemporary adventurers always tote an amazing array of technology with them, or they rely on the backup of millions of dollars worth of equipment. Heading off to the stars eventually will involve the work of thousands of people. We always knew where the first balloonists around the world were, even their altitude. The Vikings never had that advantage, nor did the explorers of the Amazon nor the Micronesians as they sailed across the vast Pacific. Here is a story of a real, one-man adventure that started in the 1960s. A teenager in Togo, West Africa, Kpomassie grew up in an African village family. After a close encounter with a python, he was destined to become a priest in the traditional religion. His destiny was changed, though, the day he found a book on Greenland in a Christian bookshop. Utterly fascinated, he determined to travel to the far north to live with the Eskimos himself. This volume is the wonderful story of how he did it. It took eight years of effort to work his way across Africa to France, then ultimately, to Denmark from where he embarked on a ship to Greenland. Most of the book tells of how he lived, worked, hunted, found romance, ate and drank with the denizens of the frozen north, all told with an African perspective. "...the way we were stuffing ourselves with food and swapping stories reminded me so much of Africa..." (p.118) If "white man looks at the natives and pities them" is not your bag, then this is the perfect antidote. Kpomassie blends in so well, he thinks of staying there for the rest of his life, even learns to eat raw whale meat that splintered like ice in his mouth. You will never find another book like this. Buy it !

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wow!, August 17, 2002

By	Joelle Morris (Evian, France) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: An African in Greenland (Ulverscroft Large Print Series) (Hardcover)

Kpomassie refreshingly reveals without a trace of romanticisme the widly different world of the Inuits. From espisodes of intense companionship to loneliness, exhalation and revultion, our African traveler describes a frigid landscape populated with a very colorful culture and personalities. Extreemly engaging Tbetbe-Michel Kpomassie's courageous personality charms us and the world he describes.