Summary

In the prologue, “Masafropedia,” Ziyad recalls taking walks with their grandmother Mother Bhūmi in their Cleveland Heights neighborhood. The walks started during “the last four years of her life” (1). Ziyad hoped being with her would help them recover the “pieces of [their] childhood” they had lost “over the years” (1).

Years prior, Bhūmi and Ziyad’s mother Mata converted to Vishnavism. In the wake of Mata’s diagnosis with uterine cancer, she asked her children to say Krsna’s names. Although Ziyad had refused to chant for years, they did so after talking to Mata. They prayed Mata would recover although they knew the American health-care system disadvantaged Black women.

Not dissimilarly, American society fails Black children. Throughout this book, Ziyad presents “the unanticipated prayers” for Black children they have discovered in their search for “new faith” (4).

Throughout their walks, Bh...