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Searching For Zion: The Quest For Home In The African Diaspora (2013)

by Emily Raboteau(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0802120032 (ISBN13: 9780802120038)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Atlantic Monthly Press

review 1: At age 23 Emily Roboteau flew to Israel to visit a friend and found herself interrogated by Israeli agents at the airport and strip searched apparently because they believed she was Arab. Emily's parents are African-American and White and apparently her middle name is Arabic which she never knew. The name came from her father's side of the family. After that experience and meeting a group of Ethiopian Jews, she started thinking of people who are searching for a Zion or a promised land. Where do many Black people feel the belong? The Ethiopian Jews were rejected by Israel repeatedly until they were caught in a war in the Ethiopia and the world's eyes focused on Israel. Their acceptance in Jewish society is still precarious and not always friendly. She travels to Jamaica whe... morere there are groups which see Zion as a potential home and the Rastafarians who see Hallie Sallasie as their savior and Ethiopia as their homeland. In Ethiopia, she finds a neighborhood of Jamaicans who moved to Ethiopia over the years. In Ghana, African-Americans try to find a homeland but are considered foreigners but with a friendly smile. Raboteau ends up in the South in the US looking at Birmingham and other places where many African-Americans identify as their homeland even though it has also mistreated them throughout their history. An interesting book.
review 2: Searching for Zion is a stirring combination of memoir, travelogue and cultural history. The writing is lyrical, always candid and so very, very smart. I was immediately swept up by the narrative and came away feeling genuinely enriched, as though I had personally enjoyed many of Ms. Raboteau's varied cultural adventures. The descriptions of her far flung international destinations are gorgeous and the questions thought provoking. Though Ms. Raboteau's search is unique, the questions she asks are universal. I defy anyone to read Searching for Zion and not yearn to hit their own open road. less

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