A Drop of Midnight by Jason Diakité: book review

A Drop of Midnight (2020) is the autobiography of Swedish hip-hop artist Jason “Timbuktu” Diakité, and specifically about his inter-racial family history.

He was born and raised in Lund, Sweden, the son of black father Madubulo Diakité and white mother Elaine Bosak. His sister Anja was born six years later to Elaine and a white father: this is the start of Jason’s ‘drawn-out identity crisis.’

He writes that he has a complex system of roots, that makes him the ‘intersection of Slovakia, Germany, France, Africa, South Carolina. Of white, black, and Cherokee.’

He traces his family roots from America to Europe to learn about his heritage, to help him define himself, and to answer questions about his identity. He begins with his grandfather Silas, born in 1907 in South Carolina, America, but he goes back further—to Africa.

To learn about the past, Diakité talks to his parents, researches letters and family documents, and takes a journey to South Carolina and New York, where his mother and father first met.

At the same time, he talks about his love of music and his rise in the hip-hop sphere. His ambition.

He also mentions the adoption of his moniker “Timbuktu” and the meaning behind the title of his memoir: a drop of midnight.

This is more than a personal voyage of discovery. It is an historical account of the how family and society create influences for trauma, discrimination, confidence, doubt, and confusion, but also determination, strength, and aspirations. Equally, it questions normality in a complex world.

This memoir is insightful, honest, thought-provoking, well-expressed, and interesting.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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