{"id":887,"date":"2009-06-01T12:02:31","date_gmt":"2009-06-01T17:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sistahsontheshelf.com\/blog\/?p=887"},"modified":"2020-05-09T00:50:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T04:50:47","slug":"manjani-by-freedom-speaks-diaspora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/?p=887","title":{"rendered":"Manjani by Freedom Speaks Diaspora"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>\"\"Publisher\/Date:\u00a0<\/strong> Sun Cycle Publishing, Aug. 2008
\nGenre(s):\u00a0<\/strong> Coming of Age, Young Adult
\nPages:<\/strong>\u00a0 320
\nWebsite:\u00a0<\/strong> http:\/\/www.manjani.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"★\" <\/p><\/strong><\/p>\n

Never will you read a novel with a more outspoken, unwavering young lady than MANJANI<\/strong><\/em>, a tale that narrates a girl\u2019s coming of age and chronicles her ultimate self-fulfillment written by Freedom Speaks Diaspora.<\/p>\n

The title character, Manjani, is one to be reckoned with. When she speaks, she speaks the truth. The problem is that it\u2019s her version of the truth. Manjani wants to be a revolutionary, bless her heart. Although she means well, she uses her most powerful weapon \u2013 her voice \u2013 to annihilate anyone who impedes her growth and doesn\u2019t ascribe to her way of thinking \u2013 including her teachers and even her own friends.\u00a0 Determined to lead the charge to cure her \u201cdeaf, dumb and blind\u201d peers, she sets out to prove how gullible \u201cAfrican-Americans\u201d are, ignorant of the full history of their Afrikan people. It\u2019s not that her message is flawed, it\u2019s that the way it comes across leaves people turned off.<\/p>\n

But never mind that. Manjani has a mission: to be revolutionary. With her father a member of an Afrocentric band and her sister, Aniba, a student at a healer\u2019s school, Manjani has a few examples of role models to follow. However, her family is torn apart when a fire destroys their home, and Manjani is left with her father and younger brother while Aniba is missing. Living in a new home, her father decides to enroll her in Catholic school, where she is one of the few black faces there.<\/p>\n

In short, life is a nightmare for Manjani. It doesn\u2019t get any better when she realizes the school supports racist traditions \u2013 one that Manjani can\u2019t stand for. Soon she\u2019s kicked out of school, and joins an academy for future revolutionaries like herself. The Black Nationalist Academy is where she envisions achieving her life\u2019s purpose with students and teachers who have the same goal in mind. Except the more she learns, the more Manjani realizes the world isn\u2019t black and white, but several shades of gray. It\u2019s even more complicated when she falls in love with a woman, who is both her teacher and mentor. But revolutionaries can\u2019t fall in love, can they?<\/p>\n

As the story progresses, Manjani finds out being true to yourself is the best cause she could fight for.<\/p>\n

Manjani<\/em> is a clever, energetic novel from an author who creates an honest character. Diaspora has a method to her writing that is introspective, but doesn\u2019t come off as too preachy. I enjoyed the rise of a true woman warrior who knows her value and endeavors to make a difference with it.<\/p>\n

Reviewed June 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Publisher\/Date:\u00a0 Sun Cycle Publishing, Aug. 2008 Genre(s):\u00a0 Coming of Age, Young Adult Pages:\u00a0 320 Website:\u00a0 http:\/\/www.manjani.com Never will you read a novel with a more outspoken, unwavering young lady than MANJANI, a tale that narrates a girl\u2019s coming of age and chronicles her ultimate self-fulfillment written by Freedom Speaks Diaspora. The title character, Manjani, is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[44,58,136,461,534],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=887"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7376,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/887\/revisions\/7376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sistahsontheshelf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}