Sharon Brown, Executive Assistant, UFIC
Our very own Sharon Brown, Executive Assistant at the International Center and avid book blogger, wrote a insightful book review for UF’s African Studies Quarterly. Sharon is a book blogger and has her own website on great and interesting reads. BookThrasher
Sharon reviewed the book entitled Black is the Journey, Africana the Name. It was written by Maboula Soumahoro in 2022, and published by
Polity Press. 103 pp.
Excerpts of Sharon's Review:
"First published in France in 2020, Black is the Journey, Africana the Name is a scholarly
examination of race, identity, and homeland. Professor Soumahoro asks what it means to be a Black African French woman, born in Paris to a mother from the Ivory Coast. She takes the reader on her journey from the French Hexagon (metropolitan France) to America and back, sharing her questions, thoughts, interactions, and realizations. The book is part-memoir, part-academic investigation, and wholly compelling."
"Soumahoro begins with herself, “a daughter of the French Hexagon and Atlantic” (p. 1).
Her active and creative mind is immediately on display as she examines the importance oflanguage to identity: “French is my mother tongue though it is not my mother’s tongue” (p. 18). This is the first of many clever plays on words in her book and it is a pleasure to follow along with her as she thinks out loud and connects herself and her place within the African diaspora."
"When Soumahoro came to the US as an exchange student, “everything was upended…both personally and intellectually” (p. 42). She explains that her courses “amounted to a veritable feast. They inspired a real intellectual awakening, a genuine initiation” (p. 43). But imagine her shock at returning to France with the credits and thesis to receive her post-graduate degree, only to be accused of racism and told that her thesis would not be accepted because “…the notion of Black nationalism did not exist” (p. 43). She was dumbstruck. She explains that racism “…is rarely spoken of in France. Yet—and this is crucial—it is felt every time” (p. 47)."
"In her third and final chapter, “The Hexagon: An Ambiguous Adventure,” Soumahoro
turns to French rap to expand on her thoughts. This reviewer recently attended a lecture on Eko Fresh, the German rapper. The role of rap and hip hop in pushing boundaries, and challenging convention and the status-quo cannot be ignored. Rappers take on issues like immigration, identity, and culture in a way that transcends any academic approach."
To read the entire review, please visit
this link to African Studies Quarterly | Volume 21, Issue 4|July 2023.