[The series of essays included in Voices in the Whirlwind] were written over a period of years. As a result, the statements concerning the Black Aesthetic, the Negritude and Pan-Africanist movements, the possibilities of detente between Black and white, and the possibilities of freedom under the Western Aesthetic, now appear to be outdated. However, when [Mphahlele] writes of the African situation, when he draws upon his own experiences while analyzing poets and novelists, when he throws over them his own personal—and he will not like the word—angst, he is most solid. He reveals here the spiritual anguish of a Black man who is both captive and admirer of Western culture. (p. 41)

This dualism leads Mphahlele to search for a synthesis, to attempt to bridge the gap between the old cultures and traditions of pre-urban Africa and the new cultures and traditions which result from urbanization. The...