Out of America

Out Of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa by Keith Richburg, Basic Books, 1997. 

Washington Post

Keith Richburg was a reporter for the Washington Post who covered Africa for 3 years in the 1990s. He reported from: Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda , Burundi , Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa

Problems with Governance: 

• the big man

• corruption

• tribalism

• honest African leaders are jailed or killed

• the casual disregard for human life

Telling the Truth about Africa: 

• pressure to hide the truth about Africa

• reluctance to criticize Africans

• blaming Africa’s problems on European colonialism

• holding Africans to a lower standard

Glad to Be an American

The author was happy that his ancestors had been brought to America. He got into trouble whenever he was mistaken for an African. He problems as a black man in America were much smaller than the black men had in Africa, living in countries under black rule.