text: despite early promise, marked by intriguing personal observations and evident self-reflection, this effort fails to deliver on the author's experience and acumen.  the book is a disparate set of chapters and lacks a unitary thread, apart from a bitter leavening of asides on the shortcomings of United States rhetoric and policies on Africa.  i had hoped for more, given the fine record in newsprint of this well-traveled journalist.
  
  