Reviews

New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent by Margaret Busby

helenabythebook's review against another edition

I’m going to casually pick this up over time as it should be read 😅

eves_reads_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.0

ka_timbuktu's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-paced

5.0

The Bible of black African women letters from Cape to Cairo & the diaspora

jadenalex's review

I got the book originally thinking it was only poetry. Since it was also prose, I just read the poetry from it before returning it to the library. I’m sure the rest was good but I was specifically seeking out poetry at the time I put it on hold, so that’s what I was interested in getting from the anthology. 

annagrac's review against another edition

4.0

Fascinating collection of writings from women of the African diaspora over the past 150 years. I thoroughly recommend the speech by Diane Abbott which was eye-opening for me.

pintofbooks's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.5

staceyechin's review against another edition

5.0

4.5 stars

showthisbooksomelove's review against another edition

5.0

1000 pages will be a piece of cake, I thought to myself. It's nothing I haven't done before. This book is unlike anything I've ever read. Busby rounded up over 200 authors who contributed works for this book, ranging from poetry to nonfiction. There are short stories, there are essays, there are small sections of full length books, there are excerpts from plays, there are excerpts from letters and speeches. Some of the works have been published for decades, some were written specifically for this book. So now that I've read this book cover to cover, I feel it is more of an accomplishment than any book I've read thus far.

I'm proud for having read this book, but more than that I'm so grateful this book exists. Never have I gotten the message so strongly, so clearly, that groups of people are not one thing. There is no universal experience for anyone, not black people, not women, not Asian folks, nobody. It's one thing to know that and understand why, and quite another to experience the rapid back to back of over 200 authors showing you how drastically different all of their identities, perspectives, and experiences are. In fact, one of the few things they do seem to have in common is that they have likely all faced race discrimination. Many of them have faced many other kinds of discrimination as well, and stereotyping galore. Many of them write about these instances, but many of them also write about many other things.

There are odes to family members, to lands, to childhoods. There are poems about love, racism, compassion. There are memoirs. There are fantasies, dystopian stories, historical fiction. There is so much and it is beautiful.

I found so many new authors whose pieces I fell in love with. I'm so excited to read their books and continue discovering new words. This is one of the reason books exist; to provide scope for the imagination, new information, and exposure to a multitude of experiences and perspectives that fall in line with and differ from one's own. Never have I read a book that delivers these experiences so wonderfully effortfully. It took me months, but I'm so glad to have read this.

raben_76325's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

This collection isn't perfect, but I felt like I learned and experienced so much in the 3-1/2 months it took to read it.

morningstar1993's review against another edition

4.0

I'm not sure what to say except it was an experience. Around 200 entries from different women. There are a lot of gems in this collection.