The Light of Darkness is the first memoir of Alhassan Susso, an immigrant from Africa's smallest nation, the Gambia. It traces his journey to America as a nearly blind teenager and his trials and triumphs becoming American, while maintaining his deep African roots. The story builds on Susso's long family tradition of serving as griots, the keepers and transmitters of his peoples' history, and how he continues that tradition as a high school American History teacher to new immigrants in America. The inspirational story follows his inner life and thoughts as he moves back and forth between the Old World and the New, and his personal transformation. This story is about family and lineage. It is about tradition and change. It is about Africa, in a sense, if there is really such a place as singular in definition as Africa. It certainly is a story about being African, particularly from the perspective of his new American homeland. This story is also about seeing and awareness, and conversely about blindness and ignorance. It's about what we can see, what we are conditioned to see, and what we can learn to see. It is about blind spots and the search for higher consciousness: culturally, historically, personally, professionally, economically, religiously, and otherwise. For sight, both symbolically and biologically, is a central theme of the story. Finally, it is a story about the importance of storytelling, of remembrance, of the obligation to remember and to retell, and of course the warning not to forget. It is about the power of story to bind a people together so tightly even the harshest of circumstances cannot destroy their sense of identity and unity as a people. This story is for everyone, anyone striving for a deeper understanding of the meaning of life and the challenges of translating that meaning into a life both fulfilling personally and meaningful to the greater human society.
About the Author: Alhassan Susso is an educator, speaker and author who has devoted his career to transforming the lives of young people facing difficulties, particularly new immigrants to America. He graduated with honors from the University of Vermont, and received his Masters of Arts in Teaching from Bard College. An immigrant from West Africa, Susso came to America as a poor teenager coping with a rare eye disease which left him nearly blind at an early age. Having overcome this and other obstacles, Susso seeks to expand the worldview of young minds so they can find meaning in their lives in order for them to reach their destiny. As a high school teacher at a New York City Public School specializing in new immigrants, Susso has worked with children from all across the globe, facing a range of personal, social and economic challenges. Drawing on his own personal struggles, he has honed his talent for engaging students at their level and helping them transform their lives. Over the past several years, he has worked with over 600 teens. His electrifying smile, energy and authenticity have earned him the moniker of "The most admired and influential teacher."