Bookreview: Hybrid Eyes- Reflections of an African in Europe

Daily Graphic, Pg 9. Tues. Feb. 16/10

Author: Osman Sankoh (Mallam O)
Pages: 96
Reviewed by: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
Sales point: EPP Bookshops in Ghana

Hybrid Eyes is a must-read for every young person of African descent with the ambition to travel outside, especially to Europe, to seek greener pastures.
The 17-chapter book vividly describes some of the harsh conditions of life that one can expect in a bid to better one’s economic circumstances or seek higher education in Germany or other European countries.
The writer, a Sierra Leonean of the Sierra Leonean Writers Series, shares with readers his difficult experience in his bid to further his education in Germany. From discrimination, because of his colour, to the expectations of his people back home, the writer gives an account of how he dealt with the numerous roadblocks he encoutered.
Osman Sankoh portrays how Africans are rooted in the extended family system, where the support system embraces you when you need help, to the individualism in a European setting where you can be frustrated to a point that you want to abandon the journey and come back home.
The author’s tales include encounters with some Germans who were extremely nice to him, but he still found out that the majority, mostly on trains, in the neighbourhoods, and on the streets, were brainwashed by schools and the media to see Africans as an inferior race who needed to be avoided. Many people, by their actions, reminded him that he was different.
The author touches on challenges that one is likely to encounter abroad. These include differences in language, stereotyping, hustling, and adverse weather conditions, as well as the varying cultures of the people. On the frustrations he endured while seeking higher education, Sankoh finds that the disparity in the educational systems mean that Africans have to go through a more rigorous training before undertaking a particular course. The writer also compares the efficiency of systems, such as transportation in Europe to the chaotic ones in Africa. He describes how Europeans value time and how their laws work.
He sums up all his frustrations in a reply to a long letter of requests that his brother sent him from Sierra Leone. In the letter, he tries to sensitise his degree-holding brother to his challenges and how he manages to survive the harsh conditions of life as well as the sacrifices that he had made to enable him send money back home.
Despite all the hassle, the writer points out that there are many Africans who have become successful in Germany, America, Britain, and other places in the West, although they often have to go into private business since it is difficult for them to secure jobs in their actual professions.
The book also touches on the different ways that marriage and other customary practices work in Sierra Leone and Africa in general in comparison to what pertains in Germany or Europe. The author shows how the emancipation of women is seen differently from both sides of the continent.
Reading the book, one will also get to feel the gender sensitiveness of the author from the way he portrays his wife and three girls and also through a poem dedicated to his mother. He also brings to the fore the positive attitudes that Germans have for Government property and how they are always proud to talk about their country as opposed to Africans who do not see the need to protect or maintain any property owned by Government for posterity.
The typical African hospitality is also brought up in the book as the author demonstrates how Africans are ready to accommodate westerners in their country, but some westerners perceive Africans as economic refugees and a thorn in their flesh.
The final chapter of the book talks about the importance of one’s root, how the West portrays Africa, and how the writer developed the western eye, which made it possible for him to be able to see Africa and Europe from different angles. The book ends with a call on Africans to eschew corruption, which, according to Sankoh is the bane of underdevelopment in Africa.
Sankoh is the Executive Director of the INDEPTH Network, a health information international NGO based in Accra which works to improve public health in developing countries around the world.