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Books : We Won't Budge: An African Exile in the World |
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 920
EAN: 9780465017102
ISBN: 046501710X
Label: Basic Civitas Books
Manufacturer: Basic Civitas Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: August 19, 2004
Publisher: Basic Civitas Books
Sales Rank: 529126
Studio: Basic Civitas Books
Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Thirty years after leaving his native Mali, Manthia Diawara has a home in New York City, and more than a few acclaimed publications to his name. Still, he cannot shake the memories of his birth country-or of his first place of self-imposed exile: the heady streets of 1960s Paris. In this bittersweet memoir, Diawara recounts a year spent looking at how the assimilation process shapes the lives and dreams of immigrants everywhere. From the nightclubs of Bamako, to the cafes of Boulevard Montparnasse, to the black neighborhoods of 1970s Washington, D.C., this important and original book shatters many cherished notions about experiencing race in the world today. At turns humorous and harrowing, beautifully written and shrewdly argued, it offers an unsentimental view of African traditions at the same time that it confronts America's most deeply ingrained prejudices.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
Having read Professor Diawara's "IN SEARCH OF AFRICA" and been struck by his outspokenness, I was left with a puzzling question. How could he rail in that book against racism and exploitation in the West, while also taking African societies to task for failing to get on board with modernity? I'm used to views advocating that Africans be encouraged to respect their own traditions, to "be themselves"; the notion that certain aspects of Africans' cultural identity are holding them back is provocative, especially coming from an African intellectual like Diawara.
He elaborates on this seeming contradiction more fully in "WE WON'T BUDGE," while fulminating at length on the very divergent meanings of difference in French and American societies. His focus is modern migration, which he analyzes through his own experience as a young migrant in Paris and then in Washington in the 1970s, then again in Paris (now as a tenured professor and visiting researcher) at the turn of the millennium. Through his remembered interactions in all these settings with friends and family, with policemen and poets, with bureaucrats and bosses, he helps the reader come to grips with the meaning of exile.
"Exile" is an apt word for Diawara's life: like James Baldwin, or even Hemingway, it's something he's chosen, rather than something forced upon him. He's neither a refugee nor a labor migrant looking only to support his family back home. In fact he's severed many of the bonds that ... Read More
Rating:  -
Professor Diawara in this book speaks directly to what seems to be a generation of multicultural, intellectual nomads who are knowledgeable about numerous world cultures but not truly comfortable in any of them. His voyage to New York, beginning in Bamako and stopping for a time in Paris, is an interesting one and raises serious questions about the ever-kinetic lives of Africans who must shuttle between the Continent, London, New York, Paris and the other major cities of their colonizers in an unceasing uphill battle whose sole goal is a better standard of living.
His discussions of the culture clash between West Africans and the French are also salient and will seem familiar to anyone living in one of the world's multi-culti magnet cities. It is through his descriptions that we learn that we are all, in many ways, dealing with the same problems of modernity and negotiating the distance at which two cultures can peacefully coexist.
Rating: -
I have always enjoyed looking at life through another's eyes and now I have been able to do it from an international perspective. The title "We Won't Budge" does not give away the true meaning behind the text. It is just enough to invite the reader to pick it up and explore all that it has to offer. Diawara takes you on a journey of personal and intellectual moments that impact his life and the way he sees the world. It's a very honest and brave reflection of one's self. I am glad that he has decided to share his experience with world.
Rating: -
I stumbled across this book by chance and debated for a while whether or not I should buy the hardback edition or wait till it came out in paperback. Thankfully I spent the money and have no regrets - only shame that I even debated whether to get it or not! This is a wonderfully written book and one that should appeal to a wide audience. For readers who are longing for a book that is hard to put down - this is your book. For readers who are interested in learning more about Africa, Africans, France and America - this is your book. For readers who interested in issues of race, identity and belonging- this is your book. For all global souls and Africans who are dying to see parts of their world and experiences described on paper - you must buy this book. It's a rare gem that made me laugh and want to cry. I highly recommend it.
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