Natives Abroad: In the Midst of Myth and Miracle

Natives Abroad is a soulful, lyrical memoir of the post-independence years when modernity was taking firm root in West Africa told by a young, adventurous Ph.D. researcher from Harlem. This is a book of traveler’s tales recounting his adventures in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivôire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, and Togo.At its heart Native’s Abroad is a conversation between cultures about identity in the midst of myth, miracle, legend and dream. It is written within the intersection of journalism, scholarship, and good storytelling, often wryly humorous.The author first went to the Ivory Coast to do research for his dissertation in international education, but he’d built his writing chops long before that as a newspaper reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune, the New York Post and as an editor for the Mexico City News.Natives Abroad combines a journalist’s narrative skills and clarity with the contextual perspective of a scholar. This is no dry, academic treatise on Africa, but an intensely personal travelogue and journal of an African-American man opening himself up to the full experience of the continent. Read more