Reviews and Comments

I'm reviewing this book mainly because barely any reviews came up when I searched for them (promotional blurbs don't count), which is disappointing. There's a lot to talk about, & it deserves serious engagement.

For me, the central portion of the book covers Mai'a's years in Egypt, where she first ended up after getting jailed (with her kid) & kicked out of Palestine by israel, & eventually leaves after basically being harassed out of the loose activist “community” she tried to foster through the revolution. The themes built upon from the chapters about her earlier transnational experiences, of simultaneous solidarity & conflict with others in struggle, state violence & “intracommunal” policing, really come to a head. The constant misogynoir she mentions almost in passing seems to practically reach a fever pitch in Cairo, which she is careful to remind readers is an African city. At some point, my gut reaction to her the drawn-out collapse of Cairo's revolutionary milieu just became “Ugh, what a parade of terrible fucking people!! Why is she putting up with any of this shit??”

For me, the book's strength is that she doesn't necessarily try to answer it directly. Instead, she explains what happened, what she felt, how she [re]acted at the time—including the explanations she gave when she was asked over the course of events, rather than “looking back”. I liked this & think it worked out well, especially because the intro/foreword, which does try to do a little bit of the “here are the lessons” thing, wasn't to my liking. I preferred to read her story & draw my own conclusions, whether or not they were the same as hers.

The “Revolutionary Mothering” subtitle plays out in this fashion too. Rather than try to give some list of do's & don'ts for raising a children in social movements, her child Aza is simply the most important character in the story after herself. (Much more important than the father, who isn't absent, but is just…another person.) Rather than describe children & mothers as burdens or boons to social movements in an abstract way, Mai'a & Aza encounter people with these attitudes (or situations that might raise these questions) & respond however they do.

I originally read the title of the book, This is How We Survive, as didactic, but I don't think the book itself is so. I think it's better understood as “these are the things we do to survive as [aspiring] revolutionaries”, with the freedom/responsibility of deciding what to do with that knowledge & those experiences being given to the reader. I hope more people, especially those who have the kind of transnational mobility Mai'a has, check this book out, if only to know that others have taken similar paths before them & should be listened to.

If you are expecting an overview of CIA activity across the continent, the title's a little misleading as it focuses largely on the Congo (DRC, though it covers some important things in Congo-Brazzaville as well) & Ghana. However, those two countries were very important for the overall continental situation & so many interesting connections are made to other places.

With that caveat, the book is quite thorough & does what it aims to do. It gives background as to what evil shit the CIA was up to, why, & how they did it. There are lots & lots of notes explaining where things come from & clear distinctions are made between stuff that was definitely the CIA, stuff that was probably them, & stuff that wasn't. It rather neatly lays out the Cold War context without—as the CIA did—trying to use it to explain everything. It distinguishes carefully between people who knowingly collaborated with the CIA & those who ended up being its unwitting accomplices, & it summarizes & compiles lots of useful information that's trickled out in scandalous-sounding headlines over the years. A useful reference work even if you don't have the patience or interest to read it cover to cover. Also, lots of interesting photos.