You’re Not a Country, Africa!

by Pius Adesanmi

In this ground-breaking collection of essays, Pius Adesanmi tries to unravel what Africa means to him as an African and to all those who inhabit this continent of extremes. This question has exercised some of the finest African minds of the twentieth century, but pan-Africanism, Negritude, nationalism, decolonization, and all the other projects through which Africans have sought to restore their humanity have failed to solve it. Criss-crossing the continent, Adesanmi attempts to make meaning of this question for the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Essays, African Literature

246 pages

First published November 30, 2001

About the author

Pius Adesanmi was a Nigerian-born Canadian professor, writer, literary critic, satirist, and columnist.

Reviews

[Kier Scrivener · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can I say this is one of the most thought provoking books I ever read. It is one that has to be digested and thought about. I don't think my thoughts could ever be summed up in a review.

But I more than highly recommend reading this book.

[Marcus Goncalves · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is thought provoking, but a bit out of date by now (2010), as much has happened since it’s publication. No reflection on the author though. I got my hands on it a bit late. Great insights on the continent, although I do not agree with everything in it.

[Molebatsi · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a great book on Africa in general and Nigeria in particular.

[Gina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I began this book amused (a whole story about the bitter humor of African fans of a racist white country singer!) and ended up confused. The tenor throughout this series of short essays is pretty light throughout, but gets much more exhortative in the last half. It might just be that this work was intended for a different audience (I've read Things Fall Apart but don't remember it well and don't know enough about Chinua Achebe's other work to grasp his writing as an easy cultural shorthand the way Shakespeare might be in the U.S./U.K.). There's an essay about him rejecting the imposition of specificity on his African identity, but a lot of essays decry the state of Nigeria specifically.

There were some weird moments, ranging from the cringe-worthy (the implication that General Tso's chicken is part of China's cultural heritage as distinct from the West, the whole essay written from the perspective of Sarah Barthes addressing the authors of a feminist collection that includes no African feminists [why take on the voice of a woman to do this???]) to the troubing (the poverty tour he took in the black Deep South, mentioned in 2! essays with nary a story from anyone he met, even after decrying the dehumanizing perspective of white America).

[Cinthia Nallely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me fue difícil entender del todo este libro, no sólo por la barrera del idioma, sino (y sobre todo) por la falta de contexto. Así, pude constatar la distancia que hay entre América Latina y África, una distancia que además de espacial es cultural y epistémica. Sabemos todo lo que pasa en Estados Unidos y Europa, pero que no nos pregunten de África ¿qué país es ese? Justamente este libro busca eso, desmontar la idea generalizada que tenemos sobre África y reconocer el legado colonial que remanesce en el continente.

Este conjunto de ensayos críticos hace una revisión poscolonial de los problemas políticos, sociales, religiosos y culturales que atraviesan a África, pero especialmente a Nigeria (de donde es el autor).

Los ensayos que más me iluminaron y me gustaron fueron "13. Sarah Baartman, Invisible!", "19. Religious Intolerance in Africa: Lessons from Yoruba Paganism" y "29. The myth of the good yoruba".

Está un poco pesado y varias veces tuve que leer notas que me dejaran entender sobre lo que criticaba el autor. No creo que sea un texto introductorio a los estudios sobre África.

[Lars Udsholt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awesome and elusive; this collection of essays by Pius Adesanmi resembles the continent the author is wrestling with. Written over a period of several years (and published in 2011) for apparently a variety of different audiences, topics and style differ considerably. Each piece stands on its own with no contextual assistance to the reader.

Most often Adesanmi succeeds in engaging the reader thanks to his eloquent prose and the use of apt contrasts and comparisons. Without awe he mobilises childhood memories alongside world literature heavy weights - often sardonically skewering opponents and demonstrating a continuing disgust for complacence and mediocrity.

Most often this works fine but occasionally the postulated past relevance of a particular text seems tainted by the ravages of time. Adesanmi is certainly not among the emphatic authors forgiving and approaching his readers for us to pick up his lucid yet less logical insights. 'Take it or leave it' seems to be his motto for literary communication.

For someone with a lesser insights into the infights and turbulence of the Nigerian diaspora the last 11 interventions (a third of the total book sections) are not easily accessible and seem to be time-bound and circumscribed to a rather specific audience.

Yet how I loved his account of oppression and colonisation as expressed in his encounter with a Quebeqois colleague ('We, the colonised'). Likewise, his reflections on the challenges of African parenthood when raising children in North America ('The boy from Ghana') are hard-hitting yet reflective and vulnerable in their unsuccessful search for easy answers.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book through an article in The Atlantic that highlighted the tragic death of the author (in the airplane accident that led to the grounding of the Boing MAX series airplanes) and the way Western media tended to minimize such accidents in Africa. Adesanmi’s essays in this collection covered many aspects of his experience as a Nigerian intellectual and university professor on African studies in Canada. He writes on the Western distorted image of Africa, the tensions (and their history) among the ethnic/religious groups in Nigeria, the valuable legacies of pre-Christian/pre-Muslim religious life in what is now Nigeria and many other interesting and thought-provoking examinations of his many identities (as an intellectual, Igbo, Nigerian, African). Definitely worth the read for anyone curious to peer beneath the superficial/scandalized image of Africa that is most commonly served to Western audiences.

[Wayne Jordaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A critical intellectual, raising uncomfortable questions

[Topi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts well, middle is a bit meh and ends OK.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

"There is no educated/Westernized/Christianised African who doesn't know when to temporarily (and quietly) suspend the Western influences around us and let Africa take over the process of making meaning in our lives. The facade of the West returns only when we have solved a particular problem the African way."

This is the essence of Adesanmi's observations and explanations as he moves around the continent - always returning to Yorubaland in Nigeria - reaching for an understanding of 21st Century Africa.

A fine addition to the library of books such as Basil Davidson's Let Freedom Come and Africa in Modern History: The Search for a New Society, furthering the recording of African history since the Winds of Change in the 1950s and 60s.

[Nina Chachu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book because it won the first Penguin prize for African writing in a non-fiction category, so I was definitely curious to find out what it was about. I admit that I did not find some of the essays as interesting or challenging as others, but overall it was worth reading, and gave me a different perspective on current Nigerian thought and politics.

[Yassmin]

good book.

[Paul Currie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting exploration of Yoruba philosophy in the current context of globalization, internet, and collectivisation of Africa