Searching for Zion: The Quest for Home in the African Diaspora, by Emily Raboteau, tells the fascinating story of the connection between Zion as a concept and place of homeland among the world’s far flung Africans.
This is also a personal journey, as Raboteau has a father with African ancestry and a mother of European ancestry. As she does not look “African” she is constantly negotiating not only her own self of identity, but how others place her in their own categories of identity. Her search for Zion, for home, is therefore both social and personal.
Raboteau is an often harsh observer of those living in African diasporas' Zions. She has a difficult time reconciling herself with how people of African descent have adjusted the concept of Zion to their own circumstances, and the ideal of Zion.
She realizes this, I believe. Zion is not in Israel, or Ethiopia, but
instead ourselves and our communities.
No home is really “home.” Home is
something we must work to create through our own ethical and moral behaviors. Zion lives in us.
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