- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Bantam (Jan 19 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0553105442
- ISBN-13: 978-0553105445
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Extending the sensibility of Joseph Campbell, Ford exposes readers to African myths and folk tales, finding that they harbor both culturally specific and universal motifs. Ford (Where Healing Waters Meet) has a diverse background in business, chiropractic, psychotherapy and African-American history. He recounts many traditional African stories, exploring their metaphors, symbols and archetypal figures, their answers to the timeless questions of how to live, how life began and how it will end. While these tales have been notoriously absent from world literature, they are strikingly similar to Eastern, Western and Middle-Eastern mythology in many ways. As Ford splices the myths with his engaging analyses of them, he illuminates universal themes and values, symbols and characters. Applying the hero's journey to the African diaspora ("the massive forceful displacement of millions of Africans"), he ruminates: "there is every reason to believe that African slaves... understood their capture and travails in just such mythic terms." Likely to find its way into college classrooms, Ford's comprehensive work supplies a missing piece of world mythology.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Advance Praise for The Hero with an African Face:
"This fascinating exploration of African stories and myths informs and inspires us. And most importantly it tells us who we are as human beings--all of us."
--Cornel West, author of Race Matters
"The Hero with an African Face is a breakthrough book on the mythic imagination of Africa. Clyde Ford picks up where Joseph Campbell left off and takes us into the wonder and mystery of the African traditions. A master storyteller, he skillfully evokes the mythic vision, weaving personal reflections on the seeker's journey with interpretations of enchanting stories from the many voices south of the Sahara."
--Jonathan Young, Ph.D., founding curator, Joseph Campbell Archives and Library
"The Hero with an African Face presents the compelling wisdom of African traditions, which is relevant to everyone living in the modern world. Through this book the deep well of sacred mythic knowledge left to us by these 'first peoples' can assume its nature and rightful place in the pantheon of world mythologies. Clyde Ford has given us an extraordinary gift."
--Michael Toms, co-founder of New Dimensions Radio, author of An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversations with Michael Toms, and co-author of True Work: The Sacred Dimension of Earning a Living
"Though the contribution of Africa to world mythology is monumental, African mythology has yet to gain the honor and admiration given to other mythologies in the West. Clyde Ford is destined to change this. The Hero with an African Face resurrects the sacred wisdom of traditional Africa. This book should be read with reverence and respect."
--Malidoma Somé, author of Of Water and the Spirit
"This fascinating exploration of African stories and myths informs and inspires us. And most importantly it tells us who we are as human beings--all of us."
--Cornel West, author of Race Matters
"The Hero with an African Face is a breakthrough book on the mythic imagination of Africa. Clyde Ford picks up where Joseph Campbell left off and takes us into the wonder and mystery of the African traditions. A master storyteller, he skillfully evokes the mythic vision, weaving personal reflections on the seeker's journey with interpretations of enchanting stories from the many voices south of the Sahara."
--Jonathan Young, Ph.D., founding curator, Joseph Campbell Archives and Library
"The Hero with an African Face presents the compelling wisdom of African traditions, which is relevant to everyone living in the modern world. Through this book the deep well of sacred mythic knowledge left to us by these 'first peoples' can assume its nature and rightful place in the pantheon of world mythologies. Clyde Ford has given us an extraordinary gift."
--Michael Toms, co-founder of New Dimensions Radio, author of An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversations with Michael Toms, and co-author of True Work: The Sacred Dimension of Earning a Living
"Though the contribution of Africa to world mythology is monumental, African mythology has yet to gain the honor and admiration given to other mythologies in the West. Clyde Ford is destined to change this. The Hero with an African Face resurrects the sacred wisdom of traditional Africa. This book should be read with reverence and respect."
--Malidoma Somé, author of Of Water and the Spirit
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
All God's Children,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa (Hardcover)
Increasingly, happily (albeit painfully)the new question for modern man and woman is "Am I my black brother's (sister's) keeper?" Conversely, "Am I my white brother's (sister's) keeper?" The answer is a resounding "Yes!". This book is a tremendous contribution toward the fulfillment of that Dream, toward a universal Philadelphia (phila = love; delphia = brother): the City of Brotherly Love, genuine agape, Unconditional Agape.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A monumental work,
By John M. Gilmore (Memphis, TN USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa (Hardcover)
Clyde W. Ford helps us to connect to African mythology on so many levels. It is encouraging and illuminating to finally see African mythology treated in the manner that it deserves: as vital as those of any other culture. He demonstrates the importance of myth for centering our lives and providing focus for living. His discussion of the meaning and role of myth in the preface is worth the price of the book alone.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, a context for African American spirituality!,
By
This review is from: The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa (Hardcover)
The last paragraph of the book is in my day timer as a reminder of who I am, where I came from and why and how I will always be. Ford's view of the African American story as an epic journey is liberating. He contrasts the intimacy between African diety and the common person with the separation between the western God or Goddess and their subjects. As someone who is struggling to understand the deepening division of black and white in US culture, I find this book very helpful in clarifying our root cultural differences. This also is a wonderful book to give a young person who is away from home or struggling with the questions of identity. As someone who has worked with children in multiracial families (particularly adopted children) who are struggling with a sense of place, I wish I'd had this book a long time ago.
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