Book Review: Marrying black girls for guys who aren’t black
From the controversial title, one immediately expects a "do's and dont's" handbook for white men who marry black women. This is not the case.
Tumelo Tshetlo
Author: Hagen Engler
Review: 4/5
While this is a mini handbook, it is also an autobiography detailing Engler Hagen’s life before and after marrying his black “comrade” wife Baby.
Ex FHM editor and author Hagen takes readers on a journey, explaining why he is a sexist, recovering racist, part-time alcoholic, and closet gay.
Engler walks down memory lane, recalling childhood moments that made a lasting impact and contributed to his likes and dislikes.
He describes how race and upbringing play a role in his marriage.
He also pinpoints contributors such as their different tastes in music, television programmes, political views, food and even pronunciation of words, while comparing cultures and traditions in different races.
He hilariously unravels what he’s learnt from his wife’s Xhosa culture, black people, and especially black women (and their hair).
In a chapter titled New Month, Mew Girlfriend, Engler outlines the black women unwritten hair code, the different hairstyles, and he jokingly points out the many different looks his wife has subjected him to each time she changes her hair style.
While the book is mostly humorous in its delivery, the topics covered are very sensitive and serious, especially in South Africa.
However, Engler manages to get away with poking fun at sticky racial issues within different racial communities, because after all, he is a white man, married to a black woman, with a mixed race baby.
