World-renowned hip-hop artist Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité’s journey through his own and his family’s history—from South Carolina slavery to twenty-first-century Sweden.
Diakité brings readers along on his personal inward and geographical journeys in search of his identity. Or rather, he shares his quest to define himself among multiple identities ... Diakité smooths out the conflicting complications of his heritage and upbringing to create a positive form of complexity, and avers that, 'Doubleness is infinitely better than halfness.'
[Diakité’s] tense but loving relationship with his father, who initially opposed his travels, pulls the narrative together. Through these experiences, Diakité better understands his father’s point of view and comes to terms with his own identity as a multiracial Swede. Willson-Broyles’s translation captures Diakité’s sense of longing ... This touching exploration of race and heritage is incisive, heartbreaking, and heartwarming. Recommended for readers interested in multiracial memoirs and the search for family and identity.
Diakité looks at themes such as race, manhood, family ties, and rootlessness with an unusual stance and fresh, sometimes-striking voice. His writing has an ethereal, questioning quality, in sync with his background as the son of an African American man and a white American woman who moved to Sweden and then divorced ... Diakité captures the cruelty of childhood peers alongside his dawning perceptions regarding race, and he reflects on the cultural awakening that led him to success as a rapper in Sweden ... While his storytelling is occasionally heavy-handed or repetitive, the author’s prose is often nimble and observant, sharply considering the burdens surrounding race and masculinity ... A vibrant, thoughtful memoir reflecting contemporary black cultural concerns.
