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Un couple panafricain: Miriam Makeba et Stokely Carmichael en Guinée
160 pages, Paperback
Published April 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 13, 2025
n’est pas encore arrivé le jour où cette maison d’édition publie un mauvais livre
May 2, 2025
Un livre sur le passage oublié mais tellement important du couple Makeba-Carmichael en Guinée. Ouvrage majeur sur le panafricanisme et l’anticolonialisme des années 60-70, qui résonnent encore auj. À mettre dans les mains de tous.tes 👏
July 2, 2025
2.5 stars (and it's a hard one! I want to give it 3, but I need the author to really hear my critiques)
This is a hard book to review because what I liked about the book, I REALLY liked and what I disliked about the book was honestly.... yikes...
Let's start with the obvious (for me!). I am really sick to death of the Ahmed Sékou Touré "bloody dictator" narrative. Genuinely. Here's the reason why it's actually de facto illegal to publish anything positive about Ahmed Sékou Touré in France (or the US academy) without this giant caveat that's like, "but also we must remember that he was a brutal oppressive dictator that killed a bunch of people..." It's because he lived. That's the reason. The west could not reverse him and now you actually have to assasinate his character if you write anything publishable about him. People always ask the question of why Thomas Sankara did not act on the information he received about Blaise Compaoré plotting his eminent murder. You know? That story where Sankara is all like "If Blaise is trying to kill me then it's already too late." Well let's for a second imagine Sankara didn't do that. He would be blasted and demonized like Sékou Touré. The west honestly leaves the legacies of Sankara and Lumumba alone for the most part. They focus their energy on demonizing the ones they couldn't kill like Sékou Touré and Fidel Castro. Basically as an African revolutionary you have two options in this world: accept to be killed after a few years in power even if it means setting back the revolution by several decades and die with your legacy INTACT or eliminate your opponents before they eliminate you and protect the revolution then die with your reputation destroyed by the powerful. Sékou Touré made his choice and I STAND BY IT.
The other thing that really pisses me off about this book is that it uses the term "African American," like constantly and relentlessly, including to refer to Kwame Ture and it does not ONCE acknowledge that he vehemently rejected the term... like what? This is a book about Kwame Ture the PAN-AFRICANIST, about his years and his ideological positions in Conakry. HOW can you justify calling him "African American?" Literally please go listen to any of his speeches, but especially this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcl3...
I don't even like how often the author calls him Stokely Carmichael. Like to be fair, there's a shift at the end where as the author delves progressively more and more into his Pan-African politics she acknowledges his name, Kwame Ture, but like put some respect on KT's name please. We don't call Malcolm X "Malcolm Little," that's egregious and I just feel like especially on a book about KT's time in Conakry, he should be referred to properly.
I just really wish Elara Bertho had talked to members and former members of the A-APRP who struggled alongside Kwame Ture. She would have learned SO much and gotten so much out of it and they're out there. Imani Umoja out in Bissau would have been a wonderful reference. Bob Brown, Baba Mukasa Dada (who struggled with him since the days of SNCC), John Trimble out in Azania/ South Africa, Akubundu Amazu-- just to name a handful. Sekou Mbacke just passed away very recently (may he rest in power), but he would have been a good reference. I feel like the stuff about the A-APRP was very incomplete and it's true that the party CAN be overly US-focused, but it doesn't help when you also ignore the history of the chapters in Ghana and the Gambia and other places in the book and when you downplay or ignore the relationship with the PAIGC (mentioned in passing), PAC of Azania, PANAFU of Sierra Leone, ZANU PF (mentioned in passing) etc. I guess that would veer off topic for a book that's really about Conakry, but if you're going to emphasize so much of the A-APRP's activities in the US then it makes sense to talk about the breadth of its history in Africa too.
Now for what I liked, and honestly, there was quite a bit that I really appreciated here too. Despite the book taking the anti-Sékou Touré line, the book still gives him way more flowers than the typical academic work published during today's times. Tbh, reading between the lines here really made me understand what an incredible man and leader he was. I especially loved the focus on the cultural revolution. Those sections of the book felt so immerse. It helps that I have an LP of Guinée an XII and that I was spinning the record while reading. But seriously, I loved the revolutionary ambience of Conakry and I genuinely learned so much about it. I loved reading about revolutionary artists and intellectuals like Sembene Ousmane and Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Abdou Moumouni coming to Conakry. This book made me even fonder of Miriam Makeba and I look forward to listening to more of her Conakry recordings. I also entirely agree with the author that it's time to write about African cities as these important sites of cosmopolitan, intellectual, and radical/ militant exchange. I entirely agree that this obession with the history of New York, London, and Paris is way over done. Accra, Conakry, Algiers, Dar es Salaam were important revolutionary hubs. Give me more of that.
Finally- there's one glaring inaccuracy in one of the author's citations. That image, the "banner" on page 111 is NOT from 1980 LOL. That's a recent image that served as a Facebook image. It was created recently. I know that for a fact because I pitched the idea of the creation of this image to the A-APRP a few years ago. I was not alive in 1980. I wasn't involved in or with the A-APRP until 2020. So yeah, that's a new image.
Please talk to members (or former members) of the A-APRP. Genuinely. You don't have to agree with them. Just listen to the elders in the party, because agree or disagree with their ideological principles and positions, they know this history VERY well. It is their history. They were there. And there are hundreds of these elders out there.
This is a hard book to review because what I liked about the book, I REALLY liked and what I disliked about the book was honestly.... yikes...
Let's start with the obvious (for me!). I am really sick to death of the Ahmed Sékou Touré "bloody dictator" narrative. Genuinely. Here's the reason why it's actually de facto illegal to publish anything positive about Ahmed Sékou Touré in France (or the US academy) without this giant caveat that's like, "but also we must remember that he was a brutal oppressive dictator that killed a bunch of people..." It's because he lived. That's the reason. The west could not reverse him and now you actually have to assasinate his character if you write anything publishable about him. People always ask the question of why Thomas Sankara did not act on the information he received about Blaise Compaoré plotting his eminent murder. You know? That story where Sankara is all like "If Blaise is trying to kill me then it's already too late." Well let's for a second imagine Sankara didn't do that. He would be blasted and demonized like Sékou Touré. The west honestly leaves the legacies of Sankara and Lumumba alone for the most part. They focus their energy on demonizing the ones they couldn't kill like Sékou Touré and Fidel Castro. Basically as an African revolutionary you have two options in this world: accept to be killed after a few years in power even if it means setting back the revolution by several decades and die with your legacy INTACT or eliminate your opponents before they eliminate you and protect the revolution then die with your reputation destroyed by the powerful. Sékou Touré made his choice and I STAND BY IT.
The other thing that really pisses me off about this book is that it uses the term "African American," like constantly and relentlessly, including to refer to Kwame Ture and it does not ONCE acknowledge that he vehemently rejected the term... like what? This is a book about Kwame Ture the PAN-AFRICANIST, about his years and his ideological positions in Conakry. HOW can you justify calling him "African American?" Literally please go listen to any of his speeches, but especially this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGcl3...
I don't even like how often the author calls him Stokely Carmichael. Like to be fair, there's a shift at the end where as the author delves progressively more and more into his Pan-African politics she acknowledges his name, Kwame Ture, but like put some respect on KT's name please. We don't call Malcolm X "Malcolm Little," that's egregious and I just feel like especially on a book about KT's time in Conakry, he should be referred to properly.
I just really wish Elara Bertho had talked to members and former members of the A-APRP who struggled alongside Kwame Ture. She would have learned SO much and gotten so much out of it and they're out there. Imani Umoja out in Bissau would have been a wonderful reference. Bob Brown, Baba Mukasa Dada (who struggled with him since the days of SNCC), John Trimble out in Azania/ South Africa, Akubundu Amazu-- just to name a handful. Sekou Mbacke just passed away very recently (may he rest in power), but he would have been a good reference. I feel like the stuff about the A-APRP was very incomplete and it's true that the party CAN be overly US-focused, but it doesn't help when you also ignore the history of the chapters in Ghana and the Gambia and other places in the book and when you downplay or ignore the relationship with the PAIGC (mentioned in passing), PAC of Azania, PANAFU of Sierra Leone, ZANU PF (mentioned in passing) etc. I guess that would veer off topic for a book that's really about Conakry, but if you're going to emphasize so much of the A-APRP's activities in the US then it makes sense to talk about the breadth of its history in Africa too.
Now for what I liked, and honestly, there was quite a bit that I really appreciated here too. Despite the book taking the anti-Sékou Touré line, the book still gives him way more flowers than the typical academic work published during today's times. Tbh, reading between the lines here really made me understand what an incredible man and leader he was. I especially loved the focus on the cultural revolution. Those sections of the book felt so immerse. It helps that I have an LP of Guinée an XII and that I was spinning the record while reading. But seriously, I loved the revolutionary ambience of Conakry and I genuinely learned so much about it. I loved reading about revolutionary artists and intellectuals like Sembene Ousmane and Joseph Ki-Zerbo and Abdou Moumouni coming to Conakry. This book made me even fonder of Miriam Makeba and I look forward to listening to more of her Conakry recordings. I also entirely agree with the author that it's time to write about African cities as these important sites of cosmopolitan, intellectual, and radical/ militant exchange. I entirely agree that this obession with the history of New York, London, and Paris is way over done. Accra, Conakry, Algiers, Dar es Salaam were important revolutionary hubs. Give me more of that.
Finally- there's one glaring inaccuracy in one of the author's citations. That image, the "banner" on page 111 is NOT from 1980 LOL. That's a recent image that served as a Facebook image. It was created recently. I know that for a fact because I pitched the idea of the creation of this image to the A-APRP a few years ago. I was not alive in 1980. I wasn't involved in or with the A-APRP until 2020. So yeah, that's a new image.
Please talk to members (or former members) of the A-APRP. Genuinely. You don't have to agree with them. Just listen to the elders in the party, because agree or disagree with their ideological principles and positions, they know this history VERY well. It is their history. They were there. And there are hundreds of these elders out there.
December 24, 2025
Une belle découverte sur un pan de vie de l artiste et militante sud-africaine, Miriam Makeba, ainsi que sur l'influence de Conakry sur l'activisme panafricain des années 60 à la fin du siècle. Approche de trop peu la politique de Sekou Touré d'alors.
A tous ceux et celles qui s'intéressent à une vision du monde non occidento-centrée.
A tous ceux et celles qui s'intéressent à une vision du monde non occidento-centrée.
May 10, 2025
Court et dense un livre passionnant sur une part de la vie de ses deux illustres figures
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews