Remembering My Childhood on the Continent of Africa Summary and Analysis

In this essay, Sedaris retells stories from his childhood as well as Hugh's, which illustrate once again the great differences between Sedaris and an important person in his life. Sedaris's partner Hugh did not have an average American childhood. Rather, he was an American living in Africa with servants, chefs, and drivers. Growing up on another continent, especially Africa, Hugh's childhood stories are peppered with incidents Sedaris could hardly imagine as a child.

Sedaris recounts how unalike their childhoods were. For instance, while living in Ethiopia, Hugh is taken on a field trip to a slaughterhouse, a trip which would be considered traumatic, not educational, in the US. While Hugh is visiting slaughterhouses, Sedaris is playing sack races. Hugh has stories of pythons slithering across school basketball...