The Africans: A Triple Heritage

An excellent resource for anyone studying African-American culture. I also recommend the VHS video series, The African aired sometime ago by PBS. You may be able to find copies at your local library or online.

The Africans, both the documentary and books are an amazing timeless collection. Its starts a critical conversation that every child of Africa in the diaspora should engage in, if mother Africa is to ever regain her glory. Africa is a deep and complex continent, a challenge that Ali Mazrui had was to try to consolidate the issues in page limits, and airtime limits which he did impeccably. He picked Islam, Christianity and Traditional African Religions as pivotal points for his discussion. And this pivot served its purpose perfectly but any mature reader should take it as such. I first watched the documentary series in 1986 when I was only 16 years old, in my native country Malawi at my parent's insistence. I was young, impressionable and just like any African youth caught up in the so-called glitter wonders of the West. So I understood some parts of it, but now that I am older, living in the West, watching them again was a centering experience. Its a great intellectual piece of work but most of all, for an African growing and search for answers, its a treasure. He is truly an admirable son of Africa.

ITS A TRUE PICTURE OF WHAT AFRICA IS ALL ABOUT. AT THE TIME OF MAKING THE BBC SERIES IT SHOWED HOW AFRICANS WERE BEING EXPLOITED BY THEIR FORMER COLONIAL MASTERS. A HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING TO ALL THOSE THAT HAVE A NAIVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT AFRICA.ALI AL AMIN MAZRUI IS JUST NOW BEING ACKNOWLEDGE BY HIS MOTHER LAND KENYA. MOI FEARED HIM KIBAKI ADMIRES HIM.