Enemies of the Self: a Black African's journey across Europe and through the American dream (ePub)

Enemies of the Self: a Black African's journey across Europe and through the American dream is the true story of one man's reckoning, and reconciliation, in a world fractured by seemingly irrevocable differences among nations and races.

Oheneba is a young African man of many wounds and dilemmas whose desire to escape the defective social, political, and economic systems of his native country propels him to Europe and eventually to the United States. As he faces an almost methodically cruel exclusion from society at the hands of white people, he discovers that neither place is the "land of milk and honey" he had dreamt of.

Through his travels, Oheneba tirelessly seeks an answer to a poignant but scathing question: "Why must we show up at the white man's doorstep, either to be lifted up or cast aside?" And yet, through the events that follow, often improbable and always affecting-from financing his MBA by working as a fruit harvester to depending on the kindness of sex-workers for food and housing-Oheneba begins to trace the complicated reality that the exceptions to the rules of society and race are often where the deepest truths reside, and in paradoxes is where he may finally find his peace.

The book is a tale of self-discovery and the perennial search for identity, belonging, love, and compassion in a world that may seem loveless, yet holds great abundance if one only persists beyond the point of perceived impossibility. Oheneba offers up his toil-as well as his wit, philosophy, and humor-so that he, and others both like and unlike him, might find recognition, reconciliation, and aspiration along the complicated storyline of race relations. He offers a hand to those who seek the companionship of something larger than themselves-those who would follow the harrowing path to wholeness through the wilds of the self and other.

About the Author

Oheneba Sankofa is an African-born U.S. citizen and published writer whose professional experience includes several years with a major U.S. company and Big Four public accounting firm. He is also a graduate of his company's executive management program. He has an uncanny ability to observe and write about the self and human nature with the thoroughness of an auditor. Oheneba Sankofa is his pen name.