“The smokescreen will lift. And the villains who manipulated the schools and the streets would be unmasked. But there were so much to know- so much geography to cover- Africa, the Caribbeans, the Americans, the United States” (page 47)
In context, Coates is referencing the extent of the investigation before him.... the work required to unlock the history that would support his theories. This quote speaks to his difficulties in putting together a narrative, particularly, the running narrative he expected, as he faced the many factions that had grown out of the history he wished to uncover.
When I was at Howard [University], ‘the black race’ was real and mattered. My working theory then held all black people as kings in exile, a nation of original men severed from our original names and our majestic Nubian culture.” Coates says he wanted to find our how “Europe underdeveloped Africa. I went into this investigation imagining history to be a unified narrative, free of debate, which, once uncovered, would simply verify everything I had always suspected. The smokescreen would lift. And the villains who manipulated the schools and the streets would be unmasked. But there was so much to know – so much geography to cover – Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, the United States. And all of these areas had histories, sprawling literary canons, fieldwork, ethnographies. Where should I begin? The trouble came almost immediately. I did not find a coherent tradition marching lockstep but factions, and factions within factions. Had we retained any of our African inheritance? I felt bound by my ignorance and by Howard itself. It was still a school, after all. I wanted to pursue things, to know things, but I couldn’t match the means of knowing that came naturally to me with the expectations of professors. The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books.
Between the World and Me
