Best of
Africa

1981

Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature


Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - 1981
    The Language of African Literature2. The Language of African Theatre3. The Language of African Fiction4. The Quest for RelevanceIndex

Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain: A Nandi Tale


Verna Aardema - 1981
    A cumulative rhyme relating how Ki-pat brought rain to the drought-stricken Kapiti Plain. Verna Aardema has brought the original story closer to the English nursery rhyme by putting in a cumulative refrain and giving the tale the rhythm of “The House That Jack Built.”

Death in the Silent Places


Peter Hathaway Capstick - 1981
    With his characteristic color and flair he recalls the extraordinary careers of hunting men like Colonel J.H. Patterson and Colonel Jim Corbett, who stalked legendary man-eaters through the silent darkness on opposite sides of the world; men like Karamojo Bell, acknowledged as the greatest elephant hunter of all time; men like the valiant Sasha Siemel, who tracked killer jaguars though the Matto Grosso armed only with a spear. With an authenticity gained by having shared the experiences he writes of, Peter Capstick eloquently recreates the acrid taste of terror in the mouth of a man whose gun has jammed as a lion begins his charge, the exhilaration of tracking and finding a long-sought prey, the bravery and even nobility of performing under circumstances of primitive and savage stress, with death all around in the silent places of the wilderness.

An African in Greenland


Tété-Michel Kpomassie - 1981
    Working his way north over nearly a decade, Kpomassie finally arrived in the country of his dreams. This brilliantly observed and superbly entertaining record of his adventures among the Inuit is a testament both to the wonderful strangeness of the human species and to the surprising sympathies that bind us all.

Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind


Bessie Head - 1981
    An examination of Serowe's recent past - seen through the words and memories of the village inhabitants.

No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky: The Liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, 1963-74


Basil Davidson - 1981
    

Writers in Politics


Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - 1981
    One of the completely new pieces, "Freedom of Expression," was written for the campaign to try to save Ken Saro-Wiwa and seven other writers from execution in Nigeria. He has rewritten almost all of the other pieces which have been kept.Ngugi says "It seemed to me how ironic the title "Writers in Politics" had turned out to be. In re-issuing these essays I didn't want to lose that nexus between culture and power which had been captured by the title."

Ah But Your Land Is Beautiful


Alan Paton - 1981
    Revolving around the everyday experiences of a group of men and women whose lives reflect the human costs of maintaining a racially divided society, in a series of vivid and compelling episodes, Alan Paton examines what happens between people when such political events overtake their lives.

The Last Wilderness: A Journey Across the Great Kalahari Desert


Nicholas Luard - 1981
    He had also heard the question asked, and was unable to fully answer: "Why should we love or respect the wilderness?" He went out to the desert in search of both leopard and the answer.

To the Ends of the Earth: Four Expeditions to the Arctic, the Congo, the Gobi & Siberia


John Perkins - 1981
    

Where The Leopard Passes: A Book Of African Folk Tales


Geraldine Elliot - 1981
    

Cultural Atlas of Africa, Revised Edition


Jocelyn Murray - 1981
    The CULTURAL ATLAS series aims to evoke the spirit and vitality of the world's great civilisations, past and present, through photography, maps and supporting text.

Otters in bronslaai


Antjie Krog - 1981
    

Lone Sun


Daniel Maximin - 1981
    The first novel published by Daniel Maximin, it is a novel about the writing of a novel, and an unusual achievement in the familiar genre of the 'Kunstlerroman'.

The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds


Robert Farris Thompson - 1981
    

Pillars in Ethiopian Hist


Joseph E. Harris - 1981
    Harris Taken from William Leo Hansberry's private papers the four essays in Volume I, better described as narrative histories, decipher and remove from the entanglement of myth, legend and spurious historical documentation the pillars of Ethiopia's unity. The editor, Joseph Harris, is the former chairman of the Department of History at Howard University. AFRICA AND AFRICANS AS SEEN BY CLASSICAL WRITERS, The William Leo Hansberry African History Notebook Volume II Edited by Joseph E. harris volume II of the William Leo Hansberry Notebook interprets, classical comments about Africa and Africans. William Leo Hansberry is considered by many to be the father of African Studies in the United States. During the thirty-seven years that Hansberry taught at Howard University, he laid the foundations for the systematic study of African History culture and politics.