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A series of essays and reflections ranging over several different categories are presented in this work. The author, an American college professor/provost from Nigeria, writes about social issues like the current trend of hair-straightening among black women worldwide, the preservation of indigenous languages in countries where English is replacing them, and India as a model of diversity. He discusses religious issues such as fundamentalism and infallibility, political issues like tribal identity in Nigeria and America’s myopic vision of itself as bastion of democracy, continuing with a more detailed discussion of the nuclear balance among nations. The work rounds off with more philosophical musings over general topics and ends with a witty nine-part poem made up of rhyming couplets that summarize the book’'s message.
The general theme that emerges from the book is one championing diversity, humanism, and freedom. Highly idealistic, the author's points about America's perception of itself and how this may not be shared by other nations is told in a no-holds barred fashion which is thought-provoking and fearless. His intent is to ask the questions most of us find uncomfortable and may not be willing to entertain—a fact he admits in the introduction. His internationalist viewpoint causes him to hold up our own notions of freedom and democracy to a particularly glaring light that is both critical and caustic. Parts of the book, mostly the detailed discussions about the intricacies of ethnicity in Nigeria, may be limited to readers knowledgeable about such matters. The majority is universal in scope, the language neither technical nor academically neutral. Sure to raise one's hackles, particularly if American, the work succeeds in bringing up questions that have no facile answer. Like a Socratic dialogue, the demands for self-examination arise spontaneously as one reads.