Crying for Freedom

CRYING FOR FREEDOM tells the story of Oheneba, a young man from Africa whosedesire to escape his native country''s defective social, political, and economic systems propels himto Europe and eventually to the United States. He discovers that neither place is the "land of milkand honey" he had dreamt of. His experiences and observations during his travels dampen his hopefor the black race, which he views as not only failing to trust itself, but also reposing blind trust inthe white race and in the Christian religion of meekness and forgiveness: misplaced trust that hasenabled the aggressive and the "strong" to perpetually dominate the black race. Oheneba comes tothe scathing determination that the white race is a ruthless, bloodthirsty race, quick to give charitybut not justice, a race that is never satisfied, that relentlessly pursues positions of command, gloryand wealth of every kind, even if it means colonizing and enslaving other races and declaring thempersonal property.

Yet, Oheneba concedes that he has reached his current station in life partly due to thebenevolence of the white race. As much as he tries to hate white people for their greedy andwanton destruction of his race, hate is a feeling very difficult for him to adopt. Oheneba cannotbring himself to apply the word "racist" to whites, partly because he has had worse experiences atthe hands of his fellow blacks.

In the end, Oheneba concludes that despite the many sins in white America''s past and theflaws in its present, they share with him a common humanity that is evident just below the surface.Oheneba wonders, rather boldly, whether his own life story provides evidence that white America,for all its atrocious and evil deeds, may possess a paradoxical goodness. In order for black people tofind their places in mainstream America, much depends upon the generosity of white Americans.And to the extent that many white Americans of past and present are decent, fighting for blackpeople''s equal rights and access to mainstream America, sometimes even helping black folks to getahead of their fellow whites, this paradoxical goodness is evident. Ironically, it is the very attributesof the social systems that Oheneba was running away from that ultimately became his grace: ecollective culture or the "it-takes-the-village-to-raise-a-child" approach to life. Oheneba loathedthis culture because he felt it created comfort and security for the African and resulted in thesuppression of individual responsibility and accountability.