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FREEDOMWAYS THIRD QUARTER 1972

BIBLIOGRAPHY

THE CULTURAL UNITY OF NEGRO AFRICA. By Cheikh Anta Diop. Presence Africaine, 42, Rue Descartes, Paris 5, France. 212 pages. $5.00.
MAN, GOD AND CIVILIZATION. By John G. Jackson, University Books, 120 Enterprise Ave., Secaucus, N.J. 337 pages. $10.00.
THE DESTRUCTION OF BLACK CIVILIZATION: GREAT ISSUES OF A RACE FROM 4500 B.C. TO 2000 A.D. By Chancellor Williams. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., Dubuque, Iowa. 234 pages. $4.50.
AFRICAN ORIGINS OF THE MAJOR WESTERN RELIGIONS. By Yosef ben-Jochannan. Alkebu-Lan Books, 209 W. 125th St., Suite 204, New York, N.Y. 10037. 356 pages. $7.00.
AFRICA: MOTHER OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION. By Yosef ben-Jochannan. Alkebu-Lan Books. 717 pages. $10.00.
THE AFRICAN: HIS ANTECEDENTS, HIS GENIUS, AND HIS DESTINY. By G. K. Osei, University Books, Secaucus, N.J. 240 pages $5.95.
THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN ASIA. By Joseph E. Harris. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, Ill. 156 pages. $7.00.
A NEW HISTORY FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES, Books One and Two. By F. K. Buah. Macmillan and Co., New York, Book One - 183 pages; Book Two - 246 pages. $2.00 each.
AFRICAN SAGA: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN HISTORY. By Stanlake Samkange. Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tennessee. 222 pages. $2.95.
THE HORIZON HISTORY OF AFRICA. Edited by Alvin M. Josephy. American Heritage Publishing Co., New York. 528 pages. $25.00. (Available from FREEDOMWAYS).
AFRICA SEEN BY AMERICAN NEGRO SCHOLARS. Edited by the staff of The American Society of African Culture, New York. 418 pages. $5.50. (Available from FREEDOMWAYS.)
APROPOS OF AFRICA: AFRO-AMERICAN LEADERS AND THE ROMANCE OF AFRICA. Edited by Adelaide C. Hill and Martin Kilson. Anchor Books (Doubleday & Co., Inc.), Garden City, N.Y., 458 pages, $2.50 (paper). New York: Humanities Press. xiv, 390 pages. $11.25 (cloth).
THE AMERICAN IMAGE OF AFRICA: MYTH AND REALITY. By Felix N. Okoye. Black Academy Press, Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., 157 pages. $8.00.
MAKERS OF MODERN GHANA: FROM PHILIP QUARCOO TO AGGREY, Vol. I. By Magnus Sampson. Anowuo Educational Publications, 2R McCarthy Hill, Accra, Ghana. 190 pages. $2.50.
GALLERY OF GOLD COAST CELEBRITIES. By Dr. I. S. Ephson, Ilen Publications, Ltd., Accra, Ghana. 147 pages. $2.00.
JAJA OF OPOBO: THE SLAVE WHO BECAME A KING. By E. J. Alagoa. Longman Group, Ltd., London, England. 51 pages. $.70.
HOLY JOHNSON: PIONEER OF AFRICAN NATIONALISM 1836-1917. By E. A. Ayandele. Humanities Press, New York. 417 pages. $11.50.
JOHN MENSAH SARBAH, 1864-1910. By the Hon. Mr. Justice Azu Crabbe. Ghana Publishing Corp., Accra, Ghana. 115 pages. $3.00.
JOURNEY TO AFRICA. By Hoyt W. Fuller. Third World Press, Chicago, Ill. 95 pages. $4.95.

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BOOK REVIEWS

A WRITER OF PENETRATING VISION AND TRUTH

LES BLANCS: THE COLLECTED LAST PLAYS OF LORRAINE HANSBERRY. Edited with critical backgrounds by Robert Nemiroff. Random House, New York. ix; 372 pages. $8.95.

IN A SPEECH she delivered in 1962, Lorraine Hansberry criticized some of her fellow artists by remarking, "Among my contemporaries and colleagues in the arts the search for the roots of war, the exploitation of man, of poverty and of despair itself, is sought in any arena other than the one which has shaped these artists." It is a comment that she could have made only after a good deal of searching on her part; but more than that alone, it reveals the penetrating clarity of vision that she brought to her study of the arts in general and to her own writing in particular. Lorraine Hansberry's drama is always an occasion for us to come face to face with aspects of our world and our history that have a real hold on us. The confrontation is often painful, but if we are open to what the playwright is expressing, then we may recognize just how much we, too, are shaped - however unwillingly or unconsciously - by the arena of an existence which involves war, exploitation of man, poverty and despair. 

But most people have seen very little of the writing that reveals this extraordinary richness of Lorraine Hansberry. While she is well known for being the author of A Raisin in the Sun and, more recently, of the material in To Be Young, Gifted and Black, her other work is know by comparatively few people. The reason is, quite simply, that her concerns and her manner of expressing them have never been popular with those who either directly or indirectly control the purse strings of the theater world. Thus, her television play about the Civil War never reached production because TV executives found it "too controversial," and two of her major plays that were done on Broadway - The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window and Les Blancs - were doomed (though not without a fight) by a number of unfavorable reviews by critics who were plainly uncomfortable with the basic issues of the dramas themselves. (The histories of these productions, actual and attempted, comprise highly interesting stories in themselves.) It has also been difficult to get hold of some of her written material, for various reasons, one of which is

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