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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
I accidentally read this book first. I don’t think that impinged my understanding or journey at all. We can learn so much about Ghana and what it means to be a Black American around the world from Auntie Maya, and learn with her as she grows as a person. When Malcom X tells her, "I wanted to...encourage you to broaden your thinking. You are too good a woman to think small. You know we, I mean in the United States and elsewhere, are in need of hard thinkers. Serious thinkers, who are not timid.” I tried to accept the same lesson, to look beyond my hotheadedness, to find the woman who chooses how she wants to react to things.
inspiring
fast-paced
I love me some Maya Angelou.
I decided to re-read her autobiography and I’m chipping away at the project, one book at a time. I just finished “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes,” and it is reflection on her time in Africa.
She divorced her husband and moved from Egypt with the intention of settling in Liberia. Her plans to move to Liberia ended when her son Guy was involved in an automobile accident in Ghana. She remained in Ghana to be close to her son as he recovered from his accident.
In the meantime, Angelou hung out with African American expatriates. She longed to be accepted by Africans and to find a home there, but she was always aware of her American-ness.
All throughout the book you are reminded of Angelou’s greatness. She spends time with Malcom X, when he comes passing through. There was even a tense moment between Malcom and Mohamad Ali and Maya Angelou was right there to watch it all go down. That whole situation would have had me start struck.
Maya had a crazy encounter with a racist German which was amazingly weird and eye-opening.
She had a what appeared to be some kind of psychic moment over a dangerous bridge she was too afraid to drive over, insisting that she get out of the car and walk across the bridge instead. It turned out that the bridges in the area were known for being so poorly constructed that they would wash away while people were trying to drive over them. The only safe way to cross the bridge was on foot and Maya Angelou somehow knew that intuitively. She was very shaken by the incident.
Another interesting event was when she was recognized in a village called Keta as a former relative of the people there.
Maya Angelou resembled the people of the village, so much so that she was mistaken for a long lost relative. The people there concluded that she was only an American because her grandparents had once been stolen from there and forced into slavery. They wept when they saw her, and Maya realized a profound connection with the people of the place. She finally felt like she had found her origins. Her roots. And herself.
This book is very beautiful and well worth reading. I sometimes forget that Maya Angelou was more than just a writer. She was dancer, a singer, a poet, a mother and an activist. She was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement. She is an absolute legend and I really love her.
I decided to re-read her autobiography and I’m chipping away at the project, one book at a time. I just finished “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes,” and it is reflection on her time in Africa.
She divorced her husband and moved from Egypt with the intention of settling in Liberia. Her plans to move to Liberia ended when her son Guy was involved in an automobile accident in Ghana. She remained in Ghana to be close to her son as he recovered from his accident.
In the meantime, Angelou hung out with African American expatriates. She longed to be accepted by Africans and to find a home there, but she was always aware of her American-ness.
All throughout the book you are reminded of Angelou’s greatness. She spends time with Malcom X, when he comes passing through. There was even a tense moment between Malcom and Mohamad Ali and Maya Angelou was right there to watch it all go down. That whole situation would have had me start struck.
Maya had a crazy encounter with a racist German which was amazingly weird and eye-opening.
She had a what appeared to be some kind of psychic moment over a dangerous bridge she was too afraid to drive over, insisting that she get out of the car and walk across the bridge instead. It turned out that the bridges in the area were known for being so poorly constructed that they would wash away while people were trying to drive over them. The only safe way to cross the bridge was on foot and Maya Angelou somehow knew that intuitively. She was very shaken by the incident.
Another interesting event was when she was recognized in a village called Keta as a former relative of the people there.
Maya Angelou resembled the people of the village, so much so that she was mistaken for a long lost relative. The people there concluded that she was only an American because her grandparents had once been stolen from there and forced into slavery. They wept when they saw her, and Maya realized a profound connection with the people of the place. She finally felt like she had found her origins. Her roots. And herself.
This book is very beautiful and well worth reading. I sometimes forget that Maya Angelou was more than just a writer. She was dancer, a singer, a poet, a mother and an activist. She was an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement. She is an absolute legend and I really love her.
adventurous
hopeful
A thoroughly enjoyable book that taught me a lot about Africa and African culture. Yet another great book by Maya Angelou.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Colonisation
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
I'm getting towards the end of Maya Angelou's memoirs and feeling so sad about it.
This one was very interesting and informative, describing Maya Angelou's experience living in Ghana and the differences between African and African-American culture in dating, communication, food, work and many other arenas. Again, I find this so valuable- where else would you get such a detailed account of this?
The insider knowledge into the Civil Rights movement and the schisms inside of it (and also the documenting of Malcolm X's changing beliefs) were super interesting too.
This one was very interesting and informative, describing Maya Angelou's experience living in Ghana and the differences between African and African-American culture in dating, communication, food, work and many other arenas. Again, I find this so valuable- where else would you get such a detailed account of this?
The insider knowledge into the Civil Rights movement and the schisms inside of it (and also the documenting of Malcolm X's changing beliefs) were super interesting too.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced