In Search of Africa

In 1996, after a 32-year absence, Diawara, a professor of comparative literature and film at NYU, as well as that school's director of Africana Studies and the Institute of African American Affairs, returned to his childhood home of Guinea, West Africa. This insightful but awkwardly constructed book is his account of that prodigal son's journey. Ostensibly traveling to do some research for a documentary about the country's former dictator, Sekou Toure, Diawara found himself circling around and, ultimately, spinning in confusion about Africa and the continent's uneven quest for a modern identity unbeholden to the West. Though fluent in local languages and deeply conversant with local custom, he was still overwhelmed by Africa: ""How many times I have retreated from Africa into my hotel room!"" he writes, with typical honesty. He also embarked upon a poignant search to find his childhood best friend, leading to a series of incidents where his writing sparkles. His account of his teenage gang organizing the festival Woodstock-in-Bamako is fascinating. But readers will have to hunt, because Diawara also seems to carry with him another cargo: the weighty academic burden of African American studies, and what was perhaps meant as ballast nearly sinks the boat. In his book's first line, Diawara announces, ""I have organized this book into chapters and Situations, borrowing a concept from Sartre."" The ""Situations"" turn out to be big wedges of stiff academic porridge. These essays on such topics as ""Richard Wright and Modern Africa"" and ""Malcolm X: Conversionists versus Culturalists"" only bloat what should have been a beautiful, slender book. (Nov.)