Best of
Africa

1958

The Question


Henri Alleg - 1958
    At the time of his arrest by French paratroopers during the Battle of Algiers in June of 1957, Henri Alleg was a French journalist who supported Algerian independence. He was interrogated for one month. During this imprisonment, Alleg was questioned under torture, with unbelievable brutality and sadism. The Question is Alleg's profoundly moving account of that month and of his triumph over his torturers. Jean-Paul Sartre’s preface remains a relevant commentary on the moral and political effects of torture on both the victim and perpetrator.This Bison Books edition marks the first time since 1958 that The Question has been published in the United States. For this edition Ellen Ray provides a foreword. James D. Le Sueur offers an introduction.

The Lost World of the Kalahari


Laurens van der Post - 1958
    Faced with constant attack from all the peoples who followed them, the last of the Bushmen have retreated to the scorching depths of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. After a gruelling trek, van der Post finds the Bushmen, thriving in one of the world’s most inhospitable landscapes, with their physical peculiarities, their cave art and their joyful music-making intact.

The Man Who Presumed: A Biography of Henry M. Stanley


Byron Farwell - 1958
    Livingston was only one of many exploits in the remarkable life of the great African explorer Henry M. Stanley. In a narrative that reads like a novel, Byron Farwell tells the story of this complex man who made a major contribution o the world’s knowledge. He describes his bitter childhood, his coming to America where he found a friend and a name, his service in the American Civil War, his African adventures, and his late but happy marriage.

Muntu: African Culture and the Western World


Janheinz Jahn - 1958
    In his insightful study, Janheinz Jahn surveys the whole range of traditional and modern African thought expressed in religion, language, philosophy, literature, art, music and dance. He demonstrates that African culture, far from being doomed to destruction or homogenization under the onslaught of the West, is evolving into a rich and independent civilization that is capable of incorporating those elements of the West that do not threaten its basic values. Muntu (the Bantu word for “human”) presents an invaluable insight into the foundations of the unique and vital tapestry of cultures that compromise Africa today.