AFRICA TO ME: Person to Person

by Emily Hahn ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 12, 1964

Writing with her usual facility, Miss Hahn has brought together her experiences on the subcontinent and produced a book full of the flavor of Africa today. She has lost none of her flair for initiating adventures and she excels at describing the minutiae of life. The bulk of the book concerns the Africanization of the former British dependencies, after an opening chapter which describes the mysterious disappearance of a Dutch gentlewoman in the Sahara Desert in 1869. Interlaced with palatable portions of history are impressions of the Independence celebrations in Nigeria, a journey upcountry to Jos and visits to Kenya, Tanganyika, the Rhodesias, Nyasaland, South Africa and Zanzibar. Four chapters of the book appeared previously in The New Yorker and, by reporting conversations in the style favored by that magazine, Miss Hahn makes vivid and explicit the resentment felt by the European elements, when confronted with the apparent ""ingratitude"" of the Africans for all the ""progress"" their countries have made under imperial tutelage. She is at her best describing the social dialogue between White Man (or Woman) and African in the new situation and conveys the distillation of politeness and hypocrisy which hangs in the atmosphere at mixed gatherings. It's rather a depressing picture, really, which Miss Hahn's levity only partially offsets.

Pub Date: June 12, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION