A member of the unique generation of African writers and intellectuals who came of age in the last days of colonialism, the author has witnessed the promise of independence and lived through postcolonial failure. He deeply comprehends the pressing problems of Africa, and, as an irrepressible essayist and a staunch critic of the oppressive boot, he unhesitatingly speaks out. In this work, he offers a wide-ranging inquiry into Africa's culture, religion, history, imagination, and identity. He seeks to understand how the continent's history is entwined with the histories of others, while exploring Africa's truest assets: "its humanity, the quality and valuation of its own existence, and modes of managing its environment, both physical and intangible (which includes the spiritual)." Fully grasping the extent of Africa's most challenging issues, he nevertheless refuses defeatism. In this work he analyzes problems ranging from the meaning of the past to the threat of theocracy. He asks hard questions about racial attitudes, inter-ethnic and religious violence, the viability of nations whose boundaries were laid out by outsiders, African identity on the continent and among displaced Africans, and more. His exploration of Africa relocates the continent in the reader's imagination and maps a course toward an African future of peace and affirmation.

pt. 1. Past into present -- The dark continent? Or beholder's cataract? -- Children of Herodotus -- Fictioning of the fourth dimension -- The tree of forgetfulness: alive and well in Darfur -- pt. 2. Body and soul -- A choice of chains -- Not a "way of life," but a guide to existence -- The spirituality of a continent -- Thus spake Orunmila: Africa as arbitrating voice.