Reviews

Growing Up African in Australia by Maxine Beneba Clarke

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a8bhatia's review against another edition

3.0

Again, this is a wonderful series. It is super educational, engaging and genuine. I loved hearing the different stories especially because I feel like there were many stories from African - Muslims which are a group of people that I do not specifically hear a lot about.

cat_queen005's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

3.5

bec1182's review against another edition

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informative fast-paced

4.5

harrislp's review against another edition

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3.0

This was pretty entertaining overall, some of the authors were better than others but you get that in an anthology. It was cool to see the different perspectives of those who had come from the different parts of Africa and the Caribbean and settled in Australia, and how many of the themes of isolation and alienation were shared between people of many different cultures and backgrounds.

I would recommend this title to those who are interested in the subject matter but don't go looking for great writing or in-depth recounts of the harrowing struggles of the authors; this is very much a surface-level overview. I would definitely like to hear more from a couple of the authors though, the Brazilian guy was in particular an excellent storyteller.

loosetoothfool's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.25

brilliant. full of unique life stories of African diaspora people who grew up or have lived in Australia and their experiences. i really loved a lot of the essays - there were some with beautiful prose, punchy poetry, a huge mix of writing styles, and all addressed different aspects of their experiences from doing their hair to police brutality to protest to the experience of being Muslim and queer to escaping wars to being a young actor or dancer to meeting a racist white father in law. some grew up rurally and others in the middle of bustling cities, some have always known life in Australia and others came here later in life. so many deeply powerful stories of trauma, inherited and experienced, and many brought to light again the casual and overt racism in this country. it was really important to hear these voices I think. a really great read