ourish, not to be bogged down by greed, corruption, violence and stagnation. He blames the legacy of colonialism as much as the African leaders because "whites released power politically without releasing it economically." But ultimately he admits that it is natural that it took the Africans quite a while to catch on to the process of independence and freedom.
The book, however, is more than Manu's experiences and observations on the development of post-colonial Africa; it is primarily about his musical career and journey of discovery. In spite of the disappointments he experiences in Africa and in his native Cameroon, he keeps returning to Africa because "I had to know who I was before I could know where I was going." The quest he sets himself is true for establishing his identity as well as his role as a musician.
One of the themes of the book is Manu's struggle to play and compose the kind of avant-garde music he favors: modern jazz that incorporates and transposes the traditional mokossa of his homeland with music from other countries that blends jazz, blues, reggae, Caribbean, Arabic and traditional European music. What Manu was after was a world music, and eventually he achieved it with Afro-music. He persuasively created "a definitive music melting pot for African and western music."
Manu's search for an authentic ident
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