Not Yet African: A Journal of Discovery

by Kevin Gordon

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1578890136
• ISBN13: 9781578890132
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Passeggiata Press
• Length: 295 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Age Range: 14 to 17 years
• Grade Range: Grades 9 to 12

Customer Reviews

Not Yet African

This book is scintillating and titillating. Kevin really brings the audience into his world...a world of confusion, humor, and a large bee-face. Well worth the read.

Not Yet African - A Man Searches for his Roots

Kevin Gordon's first book "Not Yet African" chronicles the author's four-month journey across the heart of Africa, from Senegal to Kenya, in 1993-1994. From the book's cover we learn that Kevin is from Winnipeg and well educated, that his skin is brown, and that he is unsure of his place in the world. We learn that he feels neither African nor American nor Black nor White nor Ivy League, and we wonder as he does 'Who is this man?' Kevin explored Africa as a shy and soft spoken young person looking into the roots of himself and of the continent that he hoped to call home, and 'Not Yet African' is a close transcription of the journal he kept there. His descriptions of Africa are excellent (seven days of waiting for a train that never comes and wondering if he'll get his passport back from the police!), and as a travel story 'Not Yet African' is a good read. But what makes this book special is the clarity and power with which Kevin describes the lifeblood of Africa and his own yearning to be part of it. Kevin lays his soul bare for us in this book, and his courageous writing alone is worth the time it takes to read it. Kevin may be neither African nor American, but in Nigeria and Cameroon and Zaire and Kenya he finds something, a place for his heart, a home for his soul, or at least one of the rivers which has given him life. 'Not Yet African' is a very personal tale about the grief of losing roots and the hope of finding them again, and I learned alot from it. I hope that others will read it and find in Kevin's words a thread common with their own, for this is how healing happens. We're all from someplace, even if we don't have a name for it yet.

An unforgettable novel about a man trying to find himself.

I am a personal Friend of Kevin Gordon. I have taken tennis lessons with him for five years. I was interested to know that his book had been published. I immediately began reading it the day it came out. I was at the book signing at a nearby Borders the first day also. I went home and began skimming it like I always do. It was great once I began reading. He used such intricate detail to get his point across. I was astonished to read about things that wouldn't even be thought about in the United States. He explained even the smallest things that really got to me. I have begun to apply some of the things that he talked about in his book to my everyday life. I would have never known about sharing a taxi cab if I had never read this book. Can You even picture sharing a taxi cab, or taking cold bucket showers, or even a steady flow of unselfishness? I have learned through this book that there is a truth out there somewhere and we must seek it in order to become better people.It has been wonderful reading this book and I encourage others to see eye to eye with me by reading this book also.

Thought provoking documentation of an adventure thru Africa

From the BEFORE:this book looks interesting. AFTER: that book had a profound effect on me file, I strongly recommend this book. Kevin Gordon(KG) documents a five-month wild ride through western central and southern Africa. This trip was a physical, spiritual, and psychological marathon that elucidated exteme emtional highs and lows for KG. He is a unique individual in a unique circunstance. He is a black man raised in Canada by Jamacian parents, and educated in prep schools and eventually Harvard; he seems to have no niche. Part of this trip was a search for identity. KG struggles with weighty issues such as slavery, neocolonialism, racism, and poverty in this wonderfully human prose, yet somehow never becomes preachy. In fact, the journal is peppered with a great sense of humor, often in the least expected places. Between pondering which one of his relatives was unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time while visiting Cape Coast (slave ship place) he searches for Dallas Cowboy updates, details his gastric indulgences(and frequent extreme hunger) and forms many amazing relationships. The boldest aspect of this books is KG's honesty with himself, and therefor his readers. He painfully acknowldeges his hypocrisies. Everybody has inconsistencies in their ideal beliefs versus their behaviors. Very few of us can admit them to ourselves yet alone publish them. The struggle with his desire for western comforts versus his desire to be a true African and take life in stride continues through the entire journal. The descriptions of the beauties of Africa, both the land itself and the harmony of the various cultures is as memorable as the extreme poverty and suffering he sees in Zaire. This book will open your eyes to the real Africa. KG's passion is to teach. He does a fine job of that through his journal.