My interest in Africa and food started in my youth in our family home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. My mother affectionately called Africa the motherland and she and my father shared a fascination with the continent. I believe their interest developed out of the civil rights and later black power movement and in both their thirst for reading about Africa. My parents held their African heritage in high esteem and shared what they learned with my two siblings and me. Reading in my opinion is too often undervalued and neglected. The United States for the most part is one of the few places in which people have access to public libraries filled with books about Africa for wood library services one can request books about the continent using interlibrary loans. There are some fantastic novels as well as monographs about various parts of Africa. If you love music you might consider reading the autobiography of African artist like Hugh Maskela or Mariam Makeba. Or perhaps consider reading a biography of the father of Afrobeat Fela Kuti. At the least Google their names and learn more, more than likely that process will lead you through some good reading options.