ABSTRACT
In his book Africa in Chaos George Ayittey tells how Keith Richburg, the AfricanAmerican journalist, appalled by the Rwandan and other African crises, was tormented emotionally and moved to write Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. Ayittey recounts the events at a book launch in Virginia, where Richburg, ‘concluded that he was glad to be an “American” and the designation “AfricanAmerican” was meaningless – devoid of content. Perhaps the slave traders did him a favour by shipping his ancestors out of Africa in slave ships for America’ (1998: xiii). As one would expect, the audience, which Ayittey reports was about forty per cent black, did not share Richburg’s sentiments. Ayittey also notes his own disgust at the images of the Rwandan genocide: ‘I could say that one television scene probably did more to smash my African dignity and pride than 200 years of colonialism, but non-African blacks would probably misinterpret that statement’ (ibid.: xiv, my emphasis).
