Customer Reviews

The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa

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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.

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.

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.

This book provides the missing link in our spiritual/mythical evolution. When one link in humanity's mythological history is placed forever outside of the philosophical circle; both sides lose. Those inside the circle suffer, as well as those outside of the circle. This book is as important to me as Ken Wilber's "Brief History of Everything.' From this point forward the African myths are given their rightful place in the pantheon of world mythology.