Helene Cooper grew up like few in Africa could imagine — in a 22-room mansion on Sugar Beach in Liberia. Fancy cars. Servants. Shag rugs. The Jackson Five on the stereo.
Her African ancestors were freed American slaves who founded Liberia and went on to live like lords. Then it all came apart in a coup and civil war.
Helene Cooper’s family went from African elites to immigrants tossed back in America. Now she’s diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times and telling her extraordinary story.
This hour, On Point: The rise and fall and return to the house at Sugar Beach.
You can join the conversation. Does Helene’s story of exile, assimilation, and looking back speak to your own experience? Your family’s?
-Tom Ashbrook
Guest:
Helene Cooper, diplomatic correspondent for The New York Times. She spent twelve years as a reporter and foreign correspondent at The Wall Street Journal. Her new book is “The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood.”
Read an excerpt from “The House at Sugar Beach.”
This past July, I had the (serendipitous) pleasure to meet Ms. Cooper at a completely different outpost of “the good life” – La Montagola – a good friend’s family estate and agro-tourism villa, nestled in the hills of Umbria. Another fine example of an elite, family-owned Shangri-La, an ancestral legacy altogether alien and fascinating to my 3rd generation, Eastern-European American (via Ellis Island) eye.
Not having known of Ms. Cooper’s fascinating background before recognizing her voice on the radio today – it is a wonderful counterpoint to place this unique story alongside the bucolic scene where we met. As in every scene of apparent perfection, there is always a deeper storyline.
I’ll certainly be picking up this book and look forward to reading it.
Posted by Meredith Cutler, on September 16th, 2008 at 11:36 am EDTThis will become the first book for me to purchase and read this year.
This is new untold History in writing.
Posted by Mike Francis, on September 16th, 2008 at 11:51 am EDTMs. Cooper’s experience, how she feels either more American or Liberian depending on geography, I think, speaks to those of us of African descent who live in the US. I am not sure one can be completely assimilated into the American culture and there remains a great sense of pride and belonging being African.
Posted by Eda, on September 17th, 2008 at 1:47 am EDTGreat NYT article, plan on buying the book!
On September 17, 2008 in a suburb of Milwaukee I had maintenance done on my car while I was at work. At 5:30 pm I was picked up by the dealer’s friendly driver for a ride back to my car. He has an accent so I asked him where he was from. He told me he grew up in Liberia but his ancestors had lived in the U.S. He moved here to escape the political strife in his home country. Imagine my surprise when I tuned to “On Point” at 7 pm and heard a very similar story from your guest! Now I want to read Helene Cooper’s book.
Posted by Mary Koehler, on September 18th, 2008 at 1:19 pm EDT