Stranger in the Village

A compilation of accounts of foreign travel by African Americans includes the works of James Baldwin, Angela Davis, and Langston Hughes

This exceptionally rich collection brings together memoirs, excerpts from books and diaries, pamphlets, personal letters and lectures written by African Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries about their travels. Griffin, an assistant professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, and Fish, an assistant professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College, include pieces by missionaries (Zilpha Shaw), explorers (Matthew Henson), authors (James Baldwin), activists (Angela Davis) and statesmen (Ralph J. Bunche) who voyage to such places as Africa, Russia, the Caribbean and India. The well-chosen selections depict journeys undertaken for various reasons. Of special interest are Robert Campbell's 1859 analysis of African slavery, Martin Luther King Jr.'s impressions of India and poet June Jordan's visit to the Bahamas, where she encountered the exploitation of the black staff at the hotel where she stayed.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Griffin (English, Pennsylvania State Univ.) and Fish (English, CCNY) have teamed to compile and edit an interesting and entertainingly disparate group of writings by well-known and not-so-well-known African Americans who have journeyed abroad. The various texts included are uneven in tone and quality, as they should be to reflect the historical period (1824-1997), the circumstances of the sojourn, the obstacles encountered, and each writer's pre- and post-trip perspectives. Divided into seven sections, each richly introduced, the book ranges from missionary and activist work in the 19th century to forays into the "motherland" of Africa, from Langston Hughes on Mexico to Booker T. Washington on Italy. This title is much different in scope and perspective from Wayne C. Robinson's African-American Travel Guide (LJ 1/98). An index for this title would have been helpful for finding events, locations, and topics. Public, high school, and college libraries should seriously consider this groundbreaking title for their travel, literature, history and or African American studies sections.?Scott R. Johnson, Meridian Community Coll. Lib., MS
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.