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The Black Experience in the 20th Century: An Autobiography and Meditation
The Black Experience in the 20th Century An Autobiography and Meditation Author:Peter Abrahams "Peter Abrahams is an African writer, a writer of the world, who opened up in his natal country, South Africa, a path of exploration for us, the writers who have followed the trail he bravely blazed."--Nadine Gordimer "When will we get over the deep psychic and emotional damage done by the racial experience? When will the scars heal and disa... more »ppear? What can we do to hasten the process?" --Peter Abrahams Born in 1919 in South Africa, Peter Abrahams (author of the now classic Mine Boy) has lived and written both in fiction and nonfiction about the needs and problems of non-white people throughout his life. His autobiography is a meditation on DuBois' "problem of the colour line" and the quest for an integrated identity--challenges which face people of color in first and third- world countries. How can black or brown people overcome the ravages of racism and achieve the personal strength of a Marcus Garvey? How can they overcome what Abrahams calls "mental slavery." In London and later Paris, while launching his career as a writer and his life as husband and father, Abrahams knew and worked with many of the leading black artists and political activists of his time, including W.E.B. DuBois, George Padmore, Tom Mboya, Julius Nyere, Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Norman Manley, among others. He offers brilliant vignettes and characterization of these and other "coloured" thinkers and activists.« less