This memoir-cum-polemic by George the Poet, AKA George Mpanga, opens at a party attended by the author where a white man starts preaching about race to a group of Black guests and gets antsy when challenged on his opinions. The anecdote serves as a trigger for a reflection on the concept of white fragility and the perils of talking about things you don’t understand. It also prompts Mpanga – a British-Ugandan rapper, spoken-word artist and podcaster – to look at his own past choices and politics, noting that he “rose to fame with non-threatening poems that criticised my own community for the problems it faced. I presented a narrative that aligned with ruling-class interests. I made the system look good.”
A heartfelt, illuminating blend of the personal and political, Mpanga’s book goes on to paint a picture of contemporary Black life as inextricable from history. Drawing on his own interactions with white institutions, from Cambridge University to the music industry, he explores Black creativity, economics, geopolitics and the legacy of white imperialism and slavery. Mpanga is the narrator, and those who know him from his Peabody award-winning pod series Have You Heard George’s Podcast? will be familiar with his vocal style: lyrical, meditative, persuasive yet always serene. He confesses he was hesitant about writing an autobiography. “It feels like there are more important things to talk about than myself. But the truth is that nothing compares to a personal story … Yes, my work is autobiographical because Black culture has convinced me that all our lives are worth writing about.”
Further listening
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
Naomi Klein, Penguin Audio, 14hr 47min
The No Logo author narrates her Women’s prize-winning book in which she contrasts her political and social values with those of the writer Naomi Wolf, for whom she is frequently mistaken.
Such a Fun Age
Kiley Reid, Bloomsbury, 9hr 58min
A young Black woman, Emira, is accused of kidnapping the white child she has been hired to babysit, setting off a disturbing chain of events. Read by Nicole Lewis.
