Literary Nonfiction. African American Studies. THE ESSENCE OF REPARATIONS is Baraka's first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism, national oppression, colonialism, neo-colonialism, self-determination and national and human liberation, which he has long been addressing creatively and critically. "Baraka sees the struggle for reparations not as an end in itself but as part of a wider struggle for full citizenship and equal rights in a program for genuine democratic transformation in the United States. In this context he poses issues that go way beyond the challenges of reparations. One does not have to agree with his ideological framework to appreciate the timeliness and urgency of his case for reparations."--Rupert Lewis, Professor of Political Thought, University of the West Indies. See also SOMEBODY BLEW UP AMERICA AND OTHER POEMS (also available from SPD).