Born in Blackness

In these times of Black Lives Matter, emboldened white-supremicists, and with European dominance descendant, Born into Blackness is a revelatory and blunt dose of historical reality. I was not fully aware of the centrality of the slave economy in Europe’s rise to global dominance. Most importantly, I was ignorant of the level of cultural, political, and economic sophistication of the African nations when the Portuguese first explored the west coast of Africa. I had some understanding of the Haitian revolution and its manifestation of the enlightenment ideals, but this book opened my eyes to the historical ripples of the revolution:… show more.

This is a magisterial and moving historical work that Black people young and old can read to redress the criminal erasure of our history from the respectful discussion of the modern world. Howard French was The New York Times bureau chief for West Africa and the Caribbean for two decades and he brings to this masterpiece the broad perspective and narrative assuredness that one would expect from such an intellectual. Born in Blackness centers West and Central African political and economic history, as well as the Black diaspora brought about by transatlantic slavery, in French’s telling of the formation of… show more.