Three cheers to the U.S. government for agreeing to permit 10,000 people from war-torn Burundi into America, on a permanent basis. Burundi has been in near-continuous conflict for decades, and these Burundians will welcome a chance to build lives free from strife. They also will join a vibrant and very diverse community of black Africans — now about 1 millionstrong — in the U.S. As the African-born community grows in the U.S., the ties between Africa and the U.S. will grow. And these ties will be based on real mutual interests, rather than charitable motivations. The new African immigrants to America are the subject of a long essay of mine in the summer issue of The Wilson Quarterly, one of the nation’s leading literary magazines.
See the full article, which includes a striking photo of a machete-wielding Nigerian woman who is also my wife.