A broad range of cultural works produced in traditional and modern African communities shows a fundamental preoccupation with the concepts of communal solidarity and hospitality in societies driven by humanistic ideals. African Cultural Production and the Rhetoric of Humanism is an inaugural attempt to focus exclusively and extensively on the question of humanism in African art and culture. This collection brings together contributors from different fields who critically examine the deployment of various forms of artistic production such as oral and written literatures, paintings, and cartoons to articulate an Afrocentric humanist discourse. The contributors argue that the artists, in their representation of civil wars, massive corruption, poverty, abuse of human rights, and other dehumanizing features of post-independence Africa, call for a return to the traditional African vision of humanism.

A broad range of cultural works produced in traditional and modern African communities shows a fundamental preoccupation with the concepts of communal solidarity and hospitality in societies driven by humanistic ideals. African Cultural Production and the Rhetoric of Humanism is an inaugural attempt to focus exclusively and extensively on the question of humanism in African art and culture. This collection brings together scholars from different disciplines who deftly examine the deployment of various forms of artistic production such as oral and written literatures, paintings, and cartoons to articulate an Afrocentric humanist discourse. The contributors argue that the artists, in their representation of civil wars, massive corruption, poverty, abuse of human rights, and other dehumanizing features of post-independence Africa, call for a return to the traditional African vision of humanism that is relentlessly being eroded by the realities of postcolonial nationhood.

The first-born son and brother to six siblings, author Mohamed Kamara was just a year old when the civil war started in Sierra Leone. But it wasnOt until he was six that the war reared its ugly head in his village, Mile 91 Tonkolili District of the Northern Province. In the middle of the night, Mohamed and his family fled into the woods, leaving their burning home behind. In Diamond in the Rough, he shares the story of his flight from Africa to the United States. As a young child, he witnessed unspeakable atrocities while the family struggled to stay alive, hiding in the woods and journeying from village to village during the night. Kamara narrates his tale of survival and his return home when the war ended. In this memoir, he tells of his opportunity to travel to America, graduating from both high school and Johnson and Wales University, and creating a nonprofit to benefit his village. Kamara offers a story of pain, suffering, love, endurance, and courage.