Reflections on Race Relations: A Personal Odyssey

The author looks at race relations when he was growing up in Africa and his experiences in the United States. He grew up when his home country was under white minority rule. He later lived for many years in another country, the United States, that was also dominated by whites. He examines similarities between the two white-dominated societies and looks at how life was for non-whites in his home country during those years. It is a work of comparative analysis in terms of race relations and draws heavily on the author's personal experience. He not only addresses the subject from a personal perspective but also in the broader context of society as a whole. A lot of what he has written is based on what he has observed and experienced through the years, amounting to a personal journey through life in colonial Africa and in the United States. He also looks at his life with African Americans including those who were members of an organisation that sponsored African students to study in the United States. He was one of those sponsored by the organisation. His reflections on race relations have been partly shaped by the existence of racism in the United States as a major problem in contemporary times. The malignancy of racism in the United States was underscored by massive protests across the country by people of all races - the largest since the civil rights movement - following the brutal murder of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in May 2020, an execution that sent shock waves round the globe where there were also protests in many countries in support of racial equality in America; protests the author says could have been the beginning of the second civil rights movement. Never before had so many whites in every city and every state participated in such demonstrations alongside blacks demanding racial justice. And never before had such demonstrations been organised and carried on, on sustained basis, throughout the country for several months.The status of black people in the United States with whom he interacted for many years, prospects for racial harmony and reconciliation and the quest for racial justice are some of the subjects he has addressed in the book, drawing on his experiences as someone who has firsthand knowledge of the subject because of what he went through when he was growing up as a colonial subject in Africa and when he lived in the United States as someone who was not spared the agony and the anguish of being a victim of racism.It is an odyssey that is reflected in the lives of many other people, making the book more than just an account of the experiences of the author alone. It is a reflection of other lives as well, especially of those whose collective identity is also shared by the author.