Book 21 - Brit(ish) by Afua Hirsch

Reading date - July 2020

I remember when this book first came out.  I remember seeing it on display at Waterstones and telling myself I would buy it when I had read some of the books I already had.  Well, as you know, I never read before I buy more..

This was on kindle as their book of the day and for 99p, who can say no? 

My reading times have slowed down again as I am busier and busier with work so don't have as much time to read. I try and get through a chapter at a time but some of these chapters are 50 pages long.

Afua Hirsch is mixed race, her mum is Ghanaian and her dad is German Jewish (settled in England years ago).  On her mum's side of the family, I believe one of her ancestors was a Head of State.  She comes from privilege but doesn't got out of her way to hide this or act like a poverty tourist.  One of my favourite bits of this book is that she takes the time to tell you how to pronounce her name.  I would have said af-ooah but it's actually eff-wah.  She grew up in a well to do family in Wimbledon and went to either Oxford or Cambridge.  She makes no secret about this and the privilege that both private education and being a Oxbridge graduate gives her.  For example, upon graduation, she went to work in Senegal, under the Kim Kardashian of dodgy dealing, Mr George Soros.

The chapters in this book are long but full of very interesting information.  The book is a mixture of her insights of interviews with people, stats, her own experiences and the history of people not often told (i.e. the subjects of empire).

It pulls no punches and is a very good read for anyone, who, when asked "where are you from?" answers a western territory and is THEN faced with "but no, where are you really from?"  I was born in London. London is where I am from!!!  You mean "what is your heritage?" or as, has happened to me more than once.. "what exotic locale do you call home?" West London, son, how about you?  

There is one chapter which begins with a journey to a swingers' club that fetishises black men which I thought was a bit weird but thankfully it didn't take up the whole chapter.  

Being an ethnic minority, it speaks to me as us brown folk have a lot in common with black folk but I think it would speak more to black people which is no criticism in itself, I'd be far more critical if she had tried to speak for a culture (mine) of which she has no understanding.  I mean obviously, it would speak to black people more, she is half Ghanaian.

My main criticism is that she often says "....which I'll come back to later".  Just come back to it, don't tell me because I will try and search it out myself!  I know this is more a personal issue but I can overlook that for how much this book has taught me.  It has changed my opinion on things such as the adoption policy which matched the ethnicity of the child to the ethnicity of the parent.  I always thought this was the best course of practice but from what I've read in the book, it was not.  I have a cousin who is adopted, he is Punjabi, like I am but he cannot speak Punjabi because his parents never really spoke it around him.  However, I also have cousins who are not adopted and their Punjabi is worse than his because their parents think they're not brown.

Definitely one to read, would recommend it to everyone.