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It’s Important to read Black Authors
As well as white ones and Asians… diversity really is our strength
I remember the first time I read Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston. I was riveted. The book is short enough to read in a single sitting and fascinating enough that I could not put it down.
In the book, Hurston interviews an 86-year old former slave.
His name is Oluale Kossula. He was born in West Africa but was captured when he was 19 and brought to the United States. After five and a half years of slavery, he was freed by the Civil War.
When Kossula tells his story, Hurston writes it in the vernacular. This makes it harder to grasp at first, but ultimately more poignant.
The hardest part for me to read was the section where he describes being transported on the Middle Passage. I’d read about it in history books, but reading a first hand account was chilling.
Because of Hurston’s prose, I could imagine myself as Kossula. I could put myself in his shoes.
This is the power of prose, well written. And this is one reason it’s important to read work by authors that are not like us.
I’m Indian. My parents came to the United States from Bombay, India (now Mumbai). I’ve read works by Indian authors, and…
