My Latest Discovery Why Are We So Blest? By Ayi Kwei Armah

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Recommended: Racial identities in recitatif by toni morrison

Being born and raised in Ukraine I have never experience racism in my life until I came to the United States. In the land of freedom I 've witnessed inequality the most, and not only towards African - Americans, I felt people being racist towards me, despite my so-called “white” look . As a student in the City College I was fortunate to take such courses as African Literature, Harlem Renaissance, African - American Detective Fiction and Toni Morrison class, that helped me understand the problem of racism considerably better. The new, undoubtedly interesting and challenging course, Advanced Topics in Anglophone Literature, gives me a chance to explore in depths the struggles of African ex-colonies after they gained their independence. My latest discovery Why Are We So Blest? by Ayi Kwei Armah is the beautifully written novel that not only discusses the complexity and enormity of Africa’s problems, but brings into the light the topic of racism. The scholar Derek Wright in his studies claims that the book is a racist novel that depicts “fictional” racist “white man” perceptions towards “black people.” After analyzing the novel I have to disagree with the scholar.
Indeed, Armah points out the fictional “white people” impressions and ideas about Africans that circulate in “white” world. Nevertheless, one can not call a statement being racist if the people who made it actually believe in it. To begin with, the author adverts to the reader that one of the well known myth about African man is his overpowering sexuality and the size of his penis. Every woman desires to have a piece of Modin, one of the main characters of the novel, because he is young, naive, passionate man who want 's “to make love.” Mr. Jefferson states that “in everyt...

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...d and upset, because it doesn 't give an answer on how to solve any of the problems mentioned above. Furthermore, it indicates that in today 's world it is simply impossible to find a solution, because racism and all its myths are deeply imbedded in people 's minds. One might suggest that Ayi Kwei Armah sees the world only in two colors, black and white, but I believe that the book shows a lot of different shades of gray. The first time Solo met Modin and Aimee, he “had noticed the contrast they made – one black, the other white. ..Two people, so different, yet so willfully assimilated...Here was an acute case of love” (56). Unfortunately, there was no love in their relationship, at least on Aimee 's part. But the idea of true love gives me hope – perhaps not everything is lost; if only people stop hating and judging each other, and if only the “true love” existed.

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