The Most Influential African Woman You've Never Heard Of

TULSA, Okla., Oct. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Most Americans are hard pressed to name any African women that helped shape America. "The Black Hand of God" (http://www.theblackhandofgod.com ), a novel published by an independent literary press in Tulsa, Oklahoma, hopes to help change that. "The Black Hand of God" documents the life of Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita, a dynamic African woman who led a religious reform movement some 300 years ago. Often known as the African "Joan of Arc," Kimpa Vita's achievements were crushed by the Church but her influence could be discerned in slave uprisings in the United States many years later. While most accounts of her life are Eurocentric, "The Black Hand of God" uses academic accounts of her life drawn from eyewitness journals and posits a more African version of events.

"To interpret African history," explained R.S. Basi, the book's author, "we are at the mercy of European eyewitnesses who clearly had their own biases and agendas." People and institutions from Nelson Mandela to UNESCO have lamented the Eurocentric nature of African history. Basi wrote "The Black Hand of God" to both offer a different perspective and to show Americans that we will discover many things about Africa if we only make the effort. "Most people don't realize, for instance, how many great African leaders influenced the world we now live in," says Basi. "Or that Christianity spread to Africa before Europe."  

Basi wrote "The Black Hand of God" (The Marked, LLC, October 2009, $15.95) as a starting point for individuals who want to interpret and discover African history for themselves. He also wanted Kimpa Vita's story to be put in context with history, religion, and more modern African events, and to show a concrete example of African influence on the development of the United States. The book offers a view of a sophisticated, complex society in ancient African kingdoms that counters what we learned in history books. This is one of the most important unknown stories in African American history and helps color our perspective on how our nation was able to assimilate Africans in such large numbers.

ISBN 1-887905-24-3

The Marked, LLC is an independent small press in Tulsa, OK established to bring eclectic and literary fiction and nonfiction to market, including novels, graphic novels, and film.

For further information, please contact David Wagoner at the following address:

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SOURCE The Marked, LLC