The astonishing journey of a bright, utterly displaced boy, from the short-lived African nation of Biafra, to Jamaica, to the harshest streets of Los Angelesâa searing memoir that adds fascinating depth to the coming-to-America story
The first time Chude-Sokei realizes that he is âfirst son of the first sonâ of a renowned leader of the bygone African nation is in Uncle Daddy and Big Auntieâs strict religious household in Jamaica, where he lives with other abandoned children. A visiting African has just fallen to his knees to shake him by the shoulders: âIs this the boy? Is this him?â
Chude-Sokeiâs immersion in the politics of race and belonging across the landscape of the African diaspora takes a turn when his traumatized mother, who has her own extraordinary history as the onetime âJackie O of Biafra,â finally sends for him to come live with her. In Inglewood, Los Angeles, on the eve of gangsta rap and the LA riots, itâs as if heâs fallen to Earth. In this world, anything alienâdefinitely Chude-Sokeiâs secret obsession with science fiction and David Bowieâis a danger, and his yearning to become a Black American gets deeply, sometimes absurdly, complicated. Ultimately, it is a boisterous pan-African family of honorary aunts, uncles, and cousins that becomes his secret society, teaching him the redemptive skill of navigating not just Blackness, but Blacknesses, in his America.