;)
Incognegro | Advance Praise
"Wilderson [will] become a major American writer. Mark my word."
-Ishmael Reed, author of Mumbo Jumbo
"[G]ripping account of his role in the downfall of South African apartheid.... Wilderson has a distinct, powerful voice and a strong story that shuffles between the indignities of Johannesburg life and his early years in Minneapolis.... Wilderson’s observations about love within and across the color line and cultural divides are as provocative as his politics ... a riveting memoir of apartheid’s last days."
-Publishers Weekly [starred review]
"Into the wake of great literature fighting human bondage, Frank Wilderson pours Incognegro. And, like the offerings of Ellison, Fanon, Baldwin and Morrison, this revolutionary love story must be widely read, generously shared, and relentlessly engaged."
-Joy James, author of Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics
"[F]requently beautiful.... Angry and paranoid."
-Kirkus
"Radical, defiant, and searingly honest, this memoir about being active in the freedom struggle in the US and in post-apartheid South Africa is bound to spark passionate argument as Wilderson weaves together his personal story with his politics, always critical of those in power."
-Booklist
"Incognegro is a compelling work of creative nonfiction, as brutally candid as memoir can be, and as skillfully rendered as the best fiction."
-ForeWord
"Fast-paced, critical, humorous, hilarious at times, Incognegro asks provocative questions about post-Apartheid South Africa and post-civil rights America with all the passion, the drama, and the political clarity of a great autobiography. With perspectives from different times and places in the two continents, and with an unerring eye and ear for a telling detail and image, Frank Wilderson brings a novelistic and dramatic imagination to a story of our times. It is a multi-layered narrative of a life molded in struggles for human dignity in America and Africa, at once a gripping story of racial politics and a biography of his soul."
-Ngugi wa Thiong'o, author of Wizard of the Crow
“[Wilderson] melds fluidity, consciousness, and passion into a reading experience that, scarcely to be believed, is to be savored every page of the way.”
-Twin Cities Daily Planet
"Wow! An incredible piece of history, of Black life domestically and globally, written with brilliance, panache, and delicious wit.... [a] great contribution to revolutionary literature."
-Mumia Abu-Jamal, author of We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party
"Racism doesn't die a sudden death. It's a concept that's tough, vengeful, and bitter. Incognegro: A Memoir of Exile and Apartheid is a story of race and the shifting attitudes of two countries. Frank B. Wilderson has in his life lived in two countries notorious for its cruel treatment of some of its own citizens solely for the color of their skin - The United States and South Africa. Drawing his ideas and views, Wilderson constructs a very highly readable piece of work, that will enlighten as well as entertain. Written as a response to Nelson Mandela, Incognegro is a pivotal piece of writing for those studying race in today's world."
-Midwest Book Review
Return to Incognegro