
The weight of the world, or at least a sufficiently media-literate part of it, may not always sit easily on an individual’s shoulders. Ta-Nehisi Coates, a journalist and essayist from Baltimore, occupies a position in contemporary culture that exceeds his relatively short time as a public figure, and through his writing has the power (the ability? The gift?) to tangibly influence wider conversations, on topics where it feels like those with the most power have imposed omertà.
The Message, a travelogue of sorts divided into three parts, had its American publication five months before the UK one, becoming one of the most debated books of 2024. Written ostensibly as a speech to students at Coates’ alma mater, Howard University in Washington D.C., its first two chapters may hold the most personal resonance for many readers, despite featuring little in these debates. A visit to the Senegalese capital Dakar has him reflecting on the origins of his name, “the idea of a Black civilization” and how here, he’s regarded as uncomplicatedly mixed race. Next, Coates goes to a town in South Carolina where a previous book of his was banned by a school board for specious reasons, and finds unexpected optimism when sitting in on a public meeting of that board.
Finally, and running to roughly half the book’s total length, is an account of 10 days spent in East Jerusalem, Palestine, invited by a literature festival during summer 2023. By Coates’ own admission – and he frames it in essentially apologetic terms – the visit opened his eyes to how apartheid, as meted out via innumerable subcategories of petty tyranny, is the default way of living for Palestinians. The region having since been subject to repeated airstrikes, this chapter holds greater pre-emptive tragedy, and it’s a crumb of comfort that the author’s message has not been silenced by those who would wish to.
The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates (Hamish Hamilton)
Price: £18.99/£9.99 Ebook/£14 audiobook. Info: here
words NOEL GARDNER