
“The struggle for justice, while long and arduous, can bear fruit in the most barren soil.” These words neatly express the hope that runs through Gary Younge’s new work, Dispatches From The Diaspora: a collection of articles focussing on the experiences of Black people over the last three decades.
It is a pragmatic hope for positive change; optimistic, despite having witnessed years of struggle; aspirational, despite acknowledging the realities of power structures that still stand between Black lives the world over and true equality. Hope shaped by a career filled with the experience of meeting and writing about some of the most inspirational people on the planet, and some of the most seismic social shifts seen for centuries.
Younge reports on early forays into writing for the Guardian, trekking around South Africa on the campaign trail with Nelson Mandela. He covers partying in Chicago with victorious Obama supporters; drinks with Maya Angelou; talking Glastonbury with Stormzy and chatting over Cheerios with Desmond Tutu. Alongside the inspirational figures and waves of social change, not least the Black Lives Matter movement in the USA, there are pieces on matters of domestic significance: knife crime, Windrush, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Black communities.
There is much to be frustrated by in the lack of social progress laid bare by Younge’s writing, but hope reigns supreme.
Dispatches From The Diaspora, Gary Younge (Faber)
Price: £14.99. Info: here
words HUGH RUSSELL
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