Out of Africa

"It does not take a rocket scientist to know that there was a time when black folks were not even allowed to come to the table," he says. But he also believes, as he once wrote in a Houston Chronicle op-ed, that "Black America must take primary responsibility for its self-inflicted wounds regardless of the machinations and deprivations it has historically suffered."

Nwangwu has long touted trade and investment as engines for democratization in Africa. But in 1998 he took his pro-entrepreneurial leanings in a different direction, this one aimed at African-Americans. He launched The Black Business Journal to offer professional advice, investment information and profiles on black businesspeople.

There is an expression in Nigeria that a man who answers every summons by the town crier will not plant corn in his fields. Nwangwu currently puts out three publications, writes copiously, advises Mayor Lee Brown and other local officials on Africa, assists immigrants with legal quandaries and hosts conferences and conventions for visiting Africans.

On top of that, his wife, Valerie, a New York-born pharmacologist of Nigerian descent, is due to give birth soon to their first child.

It's the kind of schedule that would drive a lesser person insane. Although his cell phone screeches to life every few minutes, Nwangwu seems to find time for his endeavors and to thrive.

He plans to start an oil and gas publication and a sweeping technology initiative for schools and libraries in Africa. He is also at work on a book about Nigeria's civil war, BIAFRA: History Has No Mercy. The subject goes to the core of the question he asked as a boy after the bombs fell on Aba: "What was that thing that almost killed me?"

The mere question may contain the antidote to more violence. Bongmba, the Rice professor, finds Nwangwu's prose reflects a clearheaded awareness of the fragility of peace. The professor says that by exposing the dangerous follies of extremists and tyrants, and by celebrating the richness and promise of African people, Nwangwu provides the kind of humane dialogue required for a sane, stable and even prosperous future.

"He certainly wants to see a critical engagement that will continue to keep the unity of Nigeria. The kind of writing he does [reflects] that that kind of unity is something people have to work for," Bongmba says. "He has a very, very broad appreciation of what Nigeria can offer and what the rest of Africa can offer."