“The sex tourist sits on the sand alone, masked by designer shades, scouting her surroundings for the most appealing beach boy. If the wrong one saunters over, she politely sends him away.”

—from Klau de Albuquerque's “The Big Bamboo”

 

TRANSITION 77: Table of Contents

 

REMEMBRANCE____________________

John Henrik Clarke
He was a friend to Kwame Nkrumah, an admirer of Henrik Ibsen, a defender of Nat Turner, a mentor to Wesley Snipes. And when he died, the whole Afrocentric establishment descended on Harlem's Abyssinia Baptist Church. Richard Newman re-creates scenes from a funeral.

Midonz
When the Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody passed away, he left behind an array of wooden heads scattered across the globe and an attic stuffed with papers. His niece was left to puzzle out the rest. Cynthia Moody tells the story of Midonz, the artist's most elusive creation.

DISPATCHES____________________

In Romania, the Devil is Beating His Wife
Locked out of Europe, mired in poverty, Romania still struggles to define itself ten years after Communism's violent endgame. In a country desperate for answers, many are calling for a final solution. Roger Parham-Brown considers the fate of the Gypsies.

In Search of the Big Bamboo
When Terry McMillan got her groove back in Jamaica, she was only the latest American woman to discover the restorative properties of the big bamboo. But are the men of the Caribbean everything they're cracked up to be? Klaus de Albuquerque charts the ins and outs of the new sex tourism.

Jews in Paradise
Far from Jerusalem, on an island of palm trees and swastikas, an emigre community is debating what it means to be chosen. Bill Miles sends a postcard from Judaism's outer limits.

MEMOIR____________________

The Feather Palace
At the turn of the century, the ostrich--gawky and bone-headed, yet luxuriantly feathered--made parvenus out of peasants, firing the imagination of dreamers and milliners around the world. Three generations later, Rob Nixon recalls a South African boyhood awash in plumage.

POSITIONS____________________

Lessons From the Killing Fields
Thirty years ago, the Republic of Biafra tore away from a murderous Nigerian regime, igniting a civil war. Before it was over, two million had been bombed or starved to death. Today, the children of Biafra are coming of age. Olu Oguibe reflects on the burden of history.

Of Cows and Men
Out of Africa, a swarm of pestilence: typhoid, malaria, bilharzia, Ebola, AIDS. But is the Third World really more toxic than the First? Susanne Freidberg suggests that the Hot Zone may be in your refrigerator.>

Fish Soup on the Way to Heaven
When Ken Saro-Wiwa was killed, his Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People went underground, continuing the struggle from Australia, England, South Africa, and  . . . Missouri. Chris King describes life among the Ogoni of St. Louis.

UNDER REVIEW____________________

California Dreaming
Why were black community leaders unable to stop the Rodney King riots? Perhaps because most of the rioters were brown. Burton Moore deciphers a vision, a promise, a dream deterred: Los Angeles.

Amateurs
In a world defined by songs, styles, magazines and haircuts, aesthetic disagreement can destroy a community. But there's no accounting for bad taste . . . or is there? Stephen Burt limns the predicament of subculture.

CONVERSATION____________________

The Miseducation of Kathleen Neal Cleaver
For a young Kathleen Cleaver, being a Black Panther meant seeing the world: making revolution in California, vacationing in North Korea, and raising a family in Algeria. When it was over, she went to law school. Susie Linfield talks with her about rage, radicalism, and life with Eldridge.

Back To Archive