A review by pattricejones
Black Power: A Record of Reactions in a Land of Pathos by Richard Wright

4.0

Wright's 1954 account of his travels through what is now Ghana when it was on the brink of independence. Well-worth reading for Wright's precise descriptions of scenes and conversations, all of which are rendered with the skill of the powerful novelist that he was. The book is strongest where Wright stayed with observation and weakest where he strayed from setting down the facts, veering into long-winded expositions of his dated (psychoanalysis, anyone?) and pedantic opinions about every topic under the African sun. Wright was dead-on in his depictions of white attitudes towards Africans but almost comically unaware of the degree to which his own attitude of superiority leaked onto the page. The patronizing tone of his closing letter of advice to Kwame Nkrumah is almost beyond endurance. Yet and still, as a documentary of a time and place (and a record of Wright's own character), this book is well worth reading. If you're tempted to set the book down when Wright starts opining, don't; instead just flip forward to where he picks the narrative back up. You won't be sorry you took the trip.