One Saturday in August

Drawing from the college days of his not-so-quiet student activism, K-Moses Nagbe evokes memories of political activism in the 1970s. His world of fiction continues to be set in the Republic of Uodama, a fictitious West African country, which he often describes as 'the country of a little over one million people set among its West African neighbors like an irritating bone stuck amongst some teeth.' In that country, several enlightened sons and daughters are fired up. They want to see social justice. They want to see economic equality. They want to see political fair play. Sometime later, the reality crawls home: In politics, there are always more forces to fight than those that meet the eye. One Saturday in August is a drama of sorts, which pits theory against practice, the ideal against the real, the young against the old, the best against the worst. In the book, neither cruelty nor kindness rests with one color or creed. Yet, Nagbe implies that an amalgam of color and creed working together will redeem the world or make it a little more reassuring place to live and prosper.