Point of View

The memoir is told through the first-person perspective of its author, Okey Ndibe. Ndibe's generous and flexible approach to cultural differences lead him to portray many of the challenges he faces in America in a seemingly lighthearted way; for instance, he concludes his account of a potentially dangerous experience of racial profiling by a police officer by quipping that the bank robber is like his "evil twin brother" (81). When Chris asks him how Africans travel across the ocean when there are no airports in Africa, he reveals that he is "determined to sustain the lighthearted tone" (96). Accordingly, he initially dwells on the comic potential of Chris's ignorance, rather than the deeply problematic attitudes about Africans as primitives that Chris's question implies.

Ultimately, however, Ndibe does not avoid this heavy topic. After letting the comedy of his response to Chris play itself out, Ndibe raises the...