Return to My Native Land by Aimé Césaire

Rating:

3 Stars

Themes:

Poetry, Classics

Thoughts:

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is split into the introduction by Jason Allen-Paisant and the poem of Return to My Native Land. As much as the introduction can feel long and I did consider skipping it at one point as I wanted to get to the poem I am glad I persevered as it helped provide some essential context for the time the poem was written such as Partir and colonial alienation. The poem itself is extremely emotive and conveys the marginalised perspective in anti-colonial domination that is essential for us to learn about, accept and understand in order to better understand cultural differences and compassion today.

Favourite Quote:

“Despite the energetic way they both have of drumming on his cropped skull, neither the teacher in his classroom nor the priest at catechism can get a single word from this little half-asleep black child because his famished voice has been sucked down into the marsh of hunger”

Comments

The War of Sober by Edward Rand

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Shame-Sex Attraction by Lucas Wilson

Rating: 4 Stars Themes: Non-Fiction, LGBTQ+ Thoughts: I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This is definitely a difficult read and it took me quite a while to get through it for that very reason. It is split up into 17 different peoples experiences with a foreword and afterword. It’s definitely an important read for many as these practices are still legal in many countries, including my own, and without knowledge of the damage of the practices many may not join in the protests or sign the petitions to try to get laws in place. As a member of the community myself I found some of these stories such as the ‘Sniffing the Gay Away’ and ‘Convert’ especially difficult to read and reminded me just how lucky I was to have such a supportive and loving community around me. I appreciated that the afterword highlighted the limitations of the collection such as having little to no religious, geographical or racial diversity but that they did try to ga...

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