The autobiography of an African princess

Abstract

The Autobiography of an African Princess by Fatima Massaquoi is the third literary effort chronicling the Massaquoi family from Sierra Leone and Liberia. The two previous works described the lives of male family members. The first narrated the story of Hans J. Massaquoi (1926–2013), a mixed-race youth who came of age in Nazi Germany. The second book was a biography of Hans Massaquoi’s grandfather, Momulu Massaquoi (1870–1938), a Vai nobleman and high-ranking Liberian government official. Fatima Massaquoi (1904–1978) was the daughter ofMomoluMassaquoi. She was also dean of the Liberal Arts College at the University of Liberia and the founder of the University of Liberia’s Institute of African Studies. The Autobiography recounts her childhood in Liberia and subsequent academic career as a teenager and young woman in Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. Massaquoi’s personal experiences and observations as a young village girl in Liberia are an invaluable account of the Vai and otherWest African people’s methods of socializing and educating young people to take their place in society. The Sande society for young girls and the Poro society for youngmen are the traditional vehicles for passing on cultural and spiritual knowledge that prepare youngsters for the responsibilities of adult life. Fatima discusses how the Sande society teaches girls child rearing, cooking, fishing, dancing, knowledge of herbs, and how to care for her future home and husband. According to Fatima, a young girl would learn from Sande “everything she needs to become a well-bred and functional woman in the community.” One unfortunate aspect of traditional society, however, is that it could be rigorous. It has the tendency to mete out corporal punishment for relatively minor offenses. For example, Fatima’s stepmother punished her for taking food BOOK REVIEW