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The African American Odyssey of John Kizell: A South Carolina Slave Returns to Fight the Slave Trade in His African Homeland. By Kevin G. Lowther. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, c. 2011. Pp. [xxii], 301. $39.95, ISBN 978-1-57003-960-7.)
John Kizell, the subject of Kevin G. Lowther's biography, is one of a tiny fraction of the victims of the Atlantic slave trade who not only survived that ordeal but also managed to return to Africa. These resourceful and determined individuals found different paths back to their homeland; Kizell did so as one of the "black loyalists" who joined the British during the American Revolution, won their freedom, and returned to Africa after a stay in Nova Scotia (p. ix). Lowther spent many years in Africa, first in the Peace Corps and then as a founder of Africare, an organization focused on development and relief across the continent. He is not a professional historian, but he has written extensively on African issues for such publications as the Washington Post and...