About

Since the days of Henry Morton Stanley, the United States of America has been sending correspondents to “discover” Africa. It’s about time Africa returned the favor.

Backed by a decade and a half of personal mistakes stemming from misconceptions of America, Our Man in America – a Kenyan-born award-winning journalist, memoirist, humorist and satirist named Edwin Okong’o – will bring you the America they never show you.

Like the American correspondent in Africa, Our Man in America will single-handedly cover the 50 countries that make the Unique States of America. Just like you see Somali stories in Western media reported from Johannesburg, Our Man in America will bring you tales from Kentucky and Alabama through California.

But unlike the American correspondent in Africa, Our Man in America will bring you both the good and the ugly of America.

If you are thinking about coming to the United States, Our Man in America hopes he will challenge that stereotypical portrait of America as “Heaven,” hoping you will understand it better before making that journey across the oceans. If you are new in America, he hopes reading his commentary and narratives about his escapades will help you avoid the mistakes he made.

And if you are an American, Our Man in America will give you a true mirror of your wonderful, hospitable country. (The bathroom mirror you look at every morning tells lies. You raise your right hand, it shows you’re raising your left hand).

Finally, a plea to all those of us who have been in America for decades: Please swallow your pride, kick the shame and tell our people the good, the bad of America.

Tell our people about the American ingenuity and institutions of higher learning, but also about an ailing K-12 (primary and secondary) education system. Tell them about private jets, mansions, plush cars, but also about the American the massive debt, depression and stress behind that lifestyle. Tell them about the supermarket, but also about the hundreds of thousands, and possibly millions, of hungry homeless people on the streets of America. Tell them about safe neighborhoods, but also about violence and death in the inner cities of Heaven.

Tell our people the truth. It’s good for the morale of our continent’s youth.

And, oh, if you don’t tell them, one day you might have to explain why to your grandchildren why they had to hear it from Our Man in America – a crazy man they have never met.