Makeda

by Randall Robinson

Overview

A “hypnotic” novel about the bond between a remarkable African-American matriarch and her grandson in the 1950s South (Essence).
 
Makeda Gee Florida Harris March is a proud matriarch, the anchor and emotional bellwether who holds together a hard-working African American family living in 1950s Richmond, Virginia. Lost in shadow is Makeda’s grandson Gray, who begins escaping into the magical world of her tiny parlor.

Makeda, a woman blind since birth but who has always dreamed in color, begins to confide in Gray the things she “sees” and remembers from her dream state, and a story emerges that is layered with historical accuracy beyond the scope of Makeda's limited education. Her connection with Gray will shape his life for years to come.

Part coming-of-age story, part spiritual journey, and part love story, Makeda is a universal tale of family, heritage, and the ties that bind. Randall Robinson plumbs the hearts of Makeda and Gray and summons our collective blood memories, taking us on an unforgettable journey of the soul.
 
“Luminous and magical.”—Bernice L. McFadden, author of Praise Song for the Butterflies
 
“Eloquent and erudite, Robinson's oft-times mystical coming-of-age saga teems with rich and evocative historical insights.”—Booklist

“Robinson is not only exploring what it means to be black. His theme of knowing the past before planning the future applies to all cultures, all people. Pick up this odyssey of family drama, history and love, and be prepared to consider your own beginnings.”—Shelf Awareness

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617750694
Publisher:	Akashic Books
Publication date:	08/30/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	350
Sales rank:	910,616
File size:	731 KB

About the Author

Randall Robinson is the author of An Unbroken Agony and the national best sellers The Debt, The Reckoning, and Defending the Spirit. He is also founder and past president of TransAfrica, the African-American organization he established to promote enlightened, constructive U.S. policies toward Africa and the Caribbean. In 1984, Robinson established the Free South Africa Movement, which pushed successfully for the imposition of sanctions against apartheid South Africa; and in 1994, his public advocacy, including a 27-day hunger strike, led to the UN multinational operation that restored Haiti's first democratically elected government to power. Mr. Robinson lives with his wife and daughter in St. Kitts.

Editorial Reviews

"Robinson is not only exploring what it means to be black. His theme of knowing the past before planning the future applies to all cultures, all people. Pick up this odyssey of family drama, history and love, and be prepared to consider your own beginnings."

Shelf Awareness

"Makeda is beyond ambitious and imaginative . . . well written and powerful, with an ending that is equal parts tragic and romantic in nature . . . a breathtaking revelation, weighted with romance and lovely passionate prose.
"

New York Journal of Books

"Hypnotic . . . one of the finest novels this year . . . [Robinson] is a gifted storyteller."

Essence

Gray Marsh is close to his blind grandmother, who entrusts him with stories of past lives she experiences in dreams. Her vivid dreams of a childhood in Africa include many facts that should be unknown to her, including customs, geographical features, and astronomical observations made by the Dogon people. Gray investigates these claims as he grows older and establishes himself in the academic community, and he comes to see himself and his grandmother as exceptionally connected to an African past. A journey to Mali predictably confirms not only the mystical details of his grandmother's visions but also the narrator's growing belief that he has been educationally shortchanged by the Western canon. VERDICT Robinson (The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks) attempts to craft a unique coming-of-age novel set in a racially divided America, but his story is flawed by repetitive and didactic passages that veer frequently into polemic. A controversial novel on history and race that may interest readers of African and African American history.—John R. Cecil, Austin, TX

Library Journal

You wouldn't think a law professor would tell a story full of imagination from the perspective of a boy. But Randall Robinson is taking a new angle on his favorite nonfiction subject: the African-American experience in modern society. Kevin R. Free brings this melodic exploration of coming-of-age straight to the listener's ear in an honest, friendly narrative style. The conversational tone of Free's narrative and dialogue helps connect listeners to the protagonists, Makeda, a blind woman, and her grandson, Gray, and catch them up in what happens next. He provides touches of Southern accents, which he capably manages by sidestepping stereotypes. He also gives life to female characters as masterfully as he does males. M.R. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2012 - AudioFile

Through his grandmother Makeda, narrator Gray March finds much to love about his African—and his African-American—heritage.

For a time Gray has only known his blind and loving grandmother in her persona as Mattie March, a laundress for white families in Richmond, Va., but it turns out she has great depth to her soul. For one thing, her real name turns out to be Makeda, reflecting an African heritage that goes back generations. For another, she has dream-visions of past life experiences, one of the most notable being her memory as thedaughter of Ongnonlou, a 14th-century Dogon priest from Mali. Mattie/Makeda accepts these dreams as a matter of course, and as she spins out her past history to 15-year-old Gray, he becomes fascinated and writes down the details of her life as a Dogon girl. Most startlingly, the Dogon people are skilled astronomers who worship Sirius as well as some smaller, satellite stars...whose existence wasn't confirmed by astronomers until the late 20th century. (According to Robinson's postscript, this detailed astronomical knowledge of the Dogon is a mystery that has yet to be resolved.) Gray's fascination with his grandmother's story eventually leads him to Mali, and his research confirms the existence of Ongnonlou as well as geographical details of the landscape of which Makeda could obviously have no firsthand knowledge. Makeda also channels other past lives, in one of which she was a Jew and in another a Muslim, but her experience of having been raised Dogon over 500 years before dominates both her life and her grandson's.

Robinson writes with erudition about strange and wonderful matters.

Kirkus Reviews