Choose one of the following topics to explore in your essay:
Drawing on specific examples, such as Nicola Fuller’s desire to live in a country where “white men still ruled” and the Fuller family’s dramatic interactions with African squatters, soldiers, classmates, neighbors, and servants, how would you describe the racial tensions and cultural differences portrayed in the book, particularly between black Africans and white Africans?
Animals are ever present in the book. How do the Fullers view their domesticated animals, as compared to the wild creatures that populate their world? Articulate this distinction and then comment on its significance.
Throughout the book, the author introduces the reader to several examples of superstitious belief, such as the theory of “coming-back babies,” Thompson’s horror when Bobo disturbs an old gravesite, and Dad’s pronouncement that the quality of the fishing will determine whether or not the family will move (203). What role does superstition play in this book for both black and white Africans?
In “My Africa,” the afterword of the book, Alexandra Fuller mentions that her memoir “is a love story for the continent [of Africa]” (308). What might this mean? How could Fuller’s book be considered a “love story,” despite its tragic content?
