African American Book Review

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Synopsis: Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Review 1: 5 out of 5 stars, Called "A masterpiece from one of the essential sci-fi writers"
Octavia Butler's "Kindred" is a novel which fits into many literary niches. It could be seen as a milestone in both African-American literature and science fiction; it's also a novel with a lot for feminist readers and critics. But ultimately the power of this book allows it to transcend all labels. "Kindred" tells the story of Dana, a 20th century African-American woman who is married to a white man. Throughout the book Dana is mysteriously thrust back and forth in time between her world and the world of her ancestors in the 19th century. She seems to be tied to one ancestor in particular: Rufus, the white son of a slaveowning family. Part of Dana's struggle is to deal with the utterly alien world of Rufus' slaveowning culture.Butler brilliantly weaves many powerful themes into this gripping story: violence, sexual desire, race, literacy, language, law, and education. The story is peopled with well-developed characters who have complex, interconnected relationships. Butler vividly evokes how the slave system both physically brutalized blacks and psychologically warped whites.Butler's prose is lean and muscular. She grips you from the stark opening lines: "I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm." The story is richly ironic and heartbreaking. 

Review 2: 2 out of 5 stars, Called it "Good concept, but boring."
When I first started reading this book I really liked it. I liked the premise and how quickly the story was moving. But then it hit a brick wall from there. I feel as if nothing happened in this book and the story just stood still. I wanted to finish the book just to see what would happen and I was sadly disappointed when nothing really did.  The author had a good concept but fell short once it came to the telling of a good story.

Source: Amazon.com/Books

Africana History Fact of the Day

 

Robert Sengstacke Abbott (1868-1940)

African American founder, editor and publisher of the Chicago Defender.

Abbott was the son of former slaves.  He learned the publishing business from Hampton College and became a lawyer for some time after graduating from Kent College of Law.  He founded the Chicago Defender in 1905.  The paper was used as a protest against racism and became very popular in the African American community.  He used the paper as a means to fight against police brutality and other issues relevant in the black community.  On the side he was also active in many civic organizations like the Chicago Commission on Race Relations.

Africana History Fact of the Day

 

Abakuas

Secret society of African peoples who were enslaved in Cuba.

In the mid-19th century, thousands of Africans were brought against their will from territories in Nigeria to the sugar plantations of Cuba.  Though enslaved, they did not abandon many traditions of their culture that they had in Africa.  They continued to form all-male organizations that oversaw traditions in religion, music and dance.  They called these groups, Abakuas.  Today the Abakuas can be found in places like the city of Havana.  They held on to their language from the Calabar region of Nigeria called Ibo and used it to preserve the traditions of their people.

Pre-Order Legend of the Black Roses

Available now for Pre-Order

Amazon.com

eBook Cover Design

Book Cover design

Back Cover Description

The Legend of the Black Rose follows the descendants of an African Princess stolen from her homeland.  Before you make assumptions, this is more than a story of a slave.  Never before has an interesting mix of history and fantasy been spliced together in such an intricate and delicate manner.   It's a story of a forbidden love divided by ages.  A great love story of two ancestral beings driven from their homeland and doomed to wander as restless spirits.

All women are roses.  Each woman is a different kind of rose – some white, yellow, red and even black.  Each variety of rose has its beauty, but also each has its thorns – the more hatred and racism that taints the bush the greater the thorns.  During this time in an alternate world history, the black roses are being severed and slowly they are disappearing from the garden.   One act of hatred will tear one family apart, but will bring together age old lovers in the most unusual way. 

Should the Black Rose choose to be labeled in history as a slave who was stolen from her homeland or should she claim her destiny as a wise and comforting spirit destined to protect her lost and fading lineage?  Is she the slave of the Americans or the princess of the Africans?  These questions are for you, the reader, to discern.  The Black Rose series is about passionate love, hereditary pride, a fading race, and the borderline of sanity.  Follow the ancestral spirits lost and outcast from time as they determine their proper place and identity.  As you read, ask yourself who is the Black Rose?