Memories of an African Boyhood
by Baba Wague Diakite
ages: 10+
First sentence: “A little boy sat on the dirt floor with a bowl of millet porridge between his legs.”
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I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out a way to summarize this book, and I’m coming up short. How do you summarize a man’s reflections on his childhood, his experiences in a small village in Mali, and the life lessons that taught him? You can’t.

His parents, for cultural if not financial reasons, sent Diakite and his siblings to live in the small village where his father grew up to be raised by their grandparents. He stayed for several years, until he was in his early teens, learning about the ways of the village. While there’s no real over-arching narrative, the stories do follow a bit of a timeline from when he arrived at the village through until he met his wife, came to American and settled in here. The stories themselves are interesting; none are very long, and they each shed light on what life in a small, rural African village is like. There’s some commentary on imperialism and on materialism, but it’s not heavy-handed, or even all that present. The art, done by Diakite as well, helps give the book the feeling of being told African folktales from the hand of an experienced and talented storyteller.

His is a fascinating life, and a good story about how differences, the “other” if you will, can enrich all our lives.