Best of
Africa

2001

The Wilderness Family: At Home with Africa's Wildlife


Kobie Krüger - 2001
    The heat was unbearable, malaria would be a constant danger, her husband would have to be away for long stretches, there were no schools or nearby doctors for their three daughters, and of course the area teemed with wild animals. Yet for Kobie and her family, the seventeen years at South Africa's Kruger National Park were the most magical of their lives. Now, in The Wilderness Family, Kobie recounts the enchanting adventures and extraordinary encounters they experienced in this vast reserve where wildlife has right of way.Kobie and her husband Kobus were overwhelmed by the beauty of the Mahlangeni ranger station when they arrived with their little girls in the autumn of 1980. Golden sunshine glowed in the lush garden where fruit bats hung in the sausage trees; hippos basked in the glittering waters of the Letaba River; storks and herons perched along the shore. Kobie felt she had found heaven on earth--until she awoke that first night to find a python slithering silently across her bedroom floor. It was the perfect introduction to the wonders and terrors that awaited her.As the Krügers settled in, they became accustomed to living in the midst of ravishing splendor and daily surprises. A honey badger they nursed back to health rampaged affectionately through the house. Sneaky hyenas stole blankets and cook pots. Ordinarily placid elephants grew foul-tempered and violent in the summer heat. And one terrible day, the shadow of tragedy fell across the family when a lion attacked Kobus in the bush and nearly killed him.But nothing prepared the Krügers for the adventure of raising an orphaned lion cub. The cub was only a few days old and on the verge of death when they found him alone.  Leo, as the girls promptly named the cub, survived on loads of love and bottles of fat-enriched milk, and soon became an affectionate, rambunctious member of the family. At the heart of the book, Kobie recounts the unique bond that each of the Krügers forged with Leo and their sometimes hilarious endeavor to teach him to become a "real" lion and live with his own kind in the wild.Writing with deep affection and luminous prose, Kobie Krüger captures here the mystery of untamed Africa--its fathomless skies, soulful landscapes, and most of all, its astonishing array of animals. By turns funny and heart-breaking, engaging and suspenseful, The Wilderness Family is an unforgettable memoir of a woman, her family, and the amazing game reserve they called home for seventeen incredible years.

Beatrice's Goat


Page McBrier - 2001
    But in her small African village, only children who can afford uniforms and books can go to school. Beatrice knows that with six children to care for, her family is much too poor. But then Beatrice receives a wonderful gift from some people far away -- a goat! Fat and sleek as a ripe mango, Mugisa (which means "luck") gives milk that Beatrice can sell. With Mugisa's help, it looks as if Beatrice's dream may come true after all.Page McBrier and Lori Lohstoeter beautifully recount this true story about how one child, given the right tools, is able to lift her family out of poverty. Thanks to Heifer Project International -- a charitable organization that donates livestock to poor communities around the world -- other families like Beatrice's will also have a chance to change their lives.

The Hospital by the River


Catherine Hamlin - 2001
    But more than forty years later, the couple has operated on more than 20,000 women, most of whom suffer from obstetric fistula, a debilitating childbirth injury. In this awe-inspiring book, Dr. Catherine Hamlin recalls her life and career in Ethiopia. Her unyielding courage and solid faith will astound Christians worldwide as she talks about the people she has grown to love and the hospital that so many Ethiopian women have come to depend on. She truly is the Mother Teresa of our age.

A Vanished World


Wilfred Thesiger - 2001
    Three years later he returned to explore the Awash River and photograph the ferocious Danakil, who were reputed to mutilate any traveler they encountered. In the Sudan he photographed the Muslim tribes in Northern Darfur, pagan Nuer in the Western Nile swamps, and magnificent Nuba wrestlers.The visual drama of Arabia's deserts was the backdrop to Thesiger's emergence as a master of the portrait. In that harsh environment he captures the striking faces of Bedu companions posing unselfconsciously for his camera. In contrast, tranquil images of reeds, lagoons, and waterways characterize his matchless portraits of the Marsh Arabs of Iraq, whose way of life has now completely disappeared. Subsequent journeys took him to remote areas of Kurdistan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, and finally to northern Kenya, where he lived for many years.This book is the summation of a unique and magnificent career. Duotone photographs.

Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali


Khephra Burns - 2001
    Suddenly, the world he has known is gone. Is he to be a slave? Or will destiny carry this son of a proud people to a different future? Caldecott Medalists Leo and Diane Dillon capture the grandeur of Africa's ancient empires, lands, and people in stunning paintings as this richly imagined tale of the boyhood of Mansa Musa, one of Mali's most celebrated kings, carries us across the continent on a triumphant journey of self-discovery.

The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo


Clea Koff - 2001
    Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist, left the safe confines of a lab in Berkeley, California, to serve as one of sixteen scientists chosen by the United Nations to unearth the physical evidence of the Rwandan genocide. Over the next four years, Koff’s grueling investigations took her across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century. The Bone Woman is Koff’s unflinching, riveting account of her seven UN missions to Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, as she shares what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, and what she learned about the world. Yet even as she recounts the hellish nature of her work and the heartbreak of the survivors, she imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and a sense of justice. A tale of science in service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.

On the Postcolony


Achille Mbembe - 2001
    In On the Postcolony he profoundly renews our understanding of power and subjectivity in Africa. In a series of provocative essays, Mbembe contests diehard Africanist and nativist perspectives as well as some of the key assumptions of postcolonial theory.This thought-provoking and groundbreaking collection of essays—his first book to be published in English—develops and extends debates first ignited by his well-known 1992 article "Provisional Notes on the Postcolony," in which he developed his notion of the "banality of power" in contemporary Africa. Mbembe reinterprets the meanings of death, utopia, and the divine libido as part of the new theoretical perspectives he offers on the constitution of power. He works with the complex registers of bodily subjectivity — violence, wonder, and laughter — to profoundly contest categories of oppression and resistance, autonomy and subjection, and state and civil society that marked the social theory of the late twentieth century.This provocative book will surely attract attention with its signal contribution to the rich interdisciplinary arena of scholarship on colonial and postcolonial discourse, history, anthropology, philosophy, political science, psychoanalysis, and literary criticism.

The Hand on My Scalpel: Humorous & Heartbreaking Stories from a Jungle Operating Room


David C. Thompson - 2001
    David Thompson could easily be the stuff of which fiction books are made. David's father, an abused and orphaned child, grew up to be a missionary in Southeast Asia. There, David's parents were murdered by Viet Cong rebels. His father-in-law was kidnapped and marched into the jungle, never to be heard from again, and his mother-in-law spent time in the Hanoi Hilton, but was finally released.In 1977, David and Becki arrived at an isolated jungle post in Bongolo, Gabon, West Africa. Since then, he has performed more than 6,000 operations, at least one-third of which were initially out of his area of expertise and training.This book is not just about surgery, it's about God's ability to enable, guide, protect and teach His children who find themselves in difficult circumstances. And it's also about humor, adds David. So much of what we do is really quite funny when viewed from God's perspective (and the reader's too).

Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures


Richard E. Leakey - 2001
    Sometimes at the risk of his own life, Leakey's love of Kenya, and his convictions about the direction his country--and all of sub-Sahara Africa--must take to survive, have been unshakeable. Wildlife Wars is the odyssey of an extraordinary man in an extraordinary land.

Home and Exile


Chinua Achebe - 2001
    His fiction and poetry burn with a passionate commitment to political justice, bringing to life not only Africa's troubled encounters with Europe but also the dark side of contemporary African political life. Now, in Home and Exile, Achebe reveals the man behind his powerful work.

Dangerous Beauty: Life and Death in Africa: True Stories from a Safari Guide


Mark C. Ross - 2001
    By day's end, two of these clients and six other tourists were dead at the hands of Rwandan rebels. As a man who loves East Africa, Ross felt betrayed by this horror, which made headlines around the world. He writes, 'The continent has always been the love of my life. Now there is trouble between us.' Dangerous Beauty is the story of that love and trouble. Ross writes here about his close-up encounters with danger and natural beauty in Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Uganda. He describes his walks in the bush and the way he teaches his clients to read unearthly silences and stillnesses in the wind that signify trouble. He writes about deadly charges by elephants and the electric excitement of witnessing the mass migrations of wildebeest and zebras. He writes, too, in detail about the terrible events of 1999. Imbued with Ross's passion for East Africa, this is an unforgettable account of a life of remarkable adventures, and a memorable vision of a beautiful, deadly, and fragile world.

In the Kingdom of Gorillas: Fragile Species in a Dangerous Land


Bill Weber - 2001
    Poaching was rampant, but it was loss of habitat that most endangered the gorillas. Weber and Vedder realized that the gorillas were doomed unless something was done to save their forest home. Over Fossey's objections, they helped found the Mountain Gorilla Project, which would inform Rwandans about the gorillas and the importance of conservation, while at the same time establishing an ecotourism project -- one of the first anywhere in a rainforest -- to bring desperately needed revenue to Rwanda. In the Kingdom of Gorillas introduces readers to entire families of gorillas, from powerful silverback patriarchs to helpless newborn infants. Weber and Vedder take us with them as they slog through the rain-soaked mountain forests, observing the gorillas at rest and at play. Today the population of mountain gorillas is the highest it has been since the 1960s, and there is new hope for the species' fragile future even as the people of Rwanda strive to overcome ethnic and political differences.

African Cosmology of the Bantu-Kongo: Tying the Spiritual Knot- Principles of Life & Living


Kimbwandende Kia Fu-Kiau Bunseki - 2001
    He is also a genuine practitioner of the Kongo spiritual tradition. The book explores the Bantu-Kongo religious and philosophical teachings as well as concepts of law and crime. It provides readers with an overview of the personal-social organisation and cosmic relevance of the Bantu-Kongo religious practices. It also connects readers with one of the most ancient and powerful spiritual traditions, explores 'seven-direction walk', our origin and links to society, nature and the universe.

All that the Prophets have Spoken


John R. Cross - 2001
    It is wise to know what they said.History is strewn with wars and scrapping over religion. With the advent of the global village, people of different beliefs are being pressed up against each other, and the potential for major conflict is enormous. It behooves us to know what our neighbours believe and why they believe it. Though we may never agree with them, when we know what people believe, at the very least, we can intelligently disagree without being disagreeable.All that the Prophets have Spoken is about the most widely distributed and mostvehemently disputed book in history— the Bible. If you are one of those who seriously wants to understand the message of the Prophets, then this book is for you.John R. Cross writes from knowledge gained in a life-long study of the Holy Scripture. He has extensive experience traveling and living abroad.

Truth and Lies: Stories from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa


Jillian Edelstein - 2001
    The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, under its chairman Archbishop Desmond Tutu, held its first public hearings to investigate over thirty years of human rights violations under apartheid. The Commission had been founded in the belief that truth was the only means by which the people of South Africa could come to a common understanding of their past, and that this understanding was necessary if the country was to forge a new national identity in the future. In the first two years more than 20,000 victims made statements to the commissioners and, encouraged by the possibility of amnesty, some 7,000 perpetrators came forward to confess their crimes. The TRC hearings took place in township halls, churches and civic centres all over South Africa. In many cases victims and perpetrators sat in the same room to give evidence." Jillian Edelstein spent four years travelling back and forth between London and South Africa attending hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission up and down the country. She set up her camera in makeshift studios in rooms next door to where the hearings were held and visited people at home in the townships or deep in the countryside to take their portraits and listen to their stories. What she brought back was a collective portrait of a country which, between the Sixties and the Nineties, was engaged in a vicious struggle in which thousands of people were abducted, tortured and killed. This book tells some of their stories. It is unique in that it puts faces to the personal testimonies of both victims and perpetrators. In the most direct way it documents one of the most important experiments in democratic justice attempted in the 20th century.

You Look Beautiful Like That: The Portrait Photographs of Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé


Michelle Lamunière - 2001
    This book presents a range of these portraits as well as excerpts from recent interviews with the artists and an essay placing their work in the context of the history of portrait photography in West Africa since its beginnings in the 1840s." These photographs are the work of Africans controlling the camera to create images of African subjects for an African audience. For both photographers the studio was a theater in which to coordinate costumes, lighting, props, and poses to help the subjects define themselves. Keita adapted the formulas of portrait photography to make unique images that reflect both his clients' social identity within the community and their enthusiastic embrace of modernity. Later, as portrait conventions and societal roles became more flexible, Sidibe's subjects took an even more active part in constructing the images they wanted to convey. In Bambara, the language widely spoken in Mali, there is an expression, i ka nye tan, which means "you look beautiful like that." Keita's and Sidibe's protraits flatter the sitters, presenting them in the best possible light.

The Short Century: Independence And Liberation Movements In Africa, 1945 1994


Okwui Enwezor - 2001
    The Short Century is a broad survey of cultural life in Africa from the independence movements through the post-colonial era to the end of apartheid in 1994. Expansive, wide-ranging, and lavishly illustrated, this book studies achievements in all areas of the performing and fine arts, photography, literature, theater, architecture, music, and film.The Short Century includes the works of over 50 artists from the paintings of Mancoba and Sekoto during the fifties, through the drawings and theater projects of William Kentridge up to the installations and video works of Kay Hassan and Oladele A. Bamgboye.The great writers of the continent -- Soyinka, Senghor, and Cesaire amongst others --, Africa's filmmakers, architects and musicians, all of whom left their mark on the process of decolonialization, are studied here in depth. Renowned historians and cultural philosophers discuss the background of developments and analyse the ideological strategies employed by Western colonial powers to preserve their grip on African countries and peoples. A chapter on photojournalism supplemented by a detailed chronology of events and political movements presents the main stages of Africa's political history. A comprehensive anthology in the appendix contains some 30 historical documents, such as essays, speeches and political manifestos, shedding light on the key issues of the period.

The Spider Weaver: A Legend Of Kente Cloth


Margaret Musgrove - 2001
    The colorful patterns of its magical web were woven into the unique fabric of kente cloth.

Mara-Serengeti: A Photographer's Paradise


Jonathan Scott - 2001
    This book celebrates the diversity of life found in the Mara-Serengeti: the great predators, the wonders of the migration, and the Masai people, who still share their lives with the animals.

African Visions: The Diary of an African Photographer


Mirella Ricciardi - 2001
    This great photographer (Vanishing Africa; Vanishing Amazon) presents an intimate account of Africa to the reader...with such sincerity that it may be experienced first-hand, unadulterated....Through stories and commentaries as well as pictures, the people emerge full of life and emotions, the landscape flows as the stage for their lives, and the reader gets a subtle lesson in history. Anyone interested in African adventure and travel should at least peruse this work...recommended for both public and academic libraries...."--Library Journal. "Mirella Ricciardi('s)...visceral approach shows in this collection of photographs that depict a wide range of subjects, including wildlife, people, landscapes and war....chronicles a life spent in Africa from the 1920s to the present."--Publishers Weekly.

Open Cockpit Over Africa


Victor Smith - 2001
    This intimate account of what it was like to fly open-cockpit, single engined aircraft over the length and breadth of primitive Africa in the early 1930's has been written by one of the pioneers of the African air-routes, Victor Smith.Smith is in fact the last of that intrepid breed of pilots who risked their lives, and their machines, in a determined bid to open up the "Darkest Continent" - and to reduce traveling times between Africa and Europe.

Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa


Terry Stevenson - 2001
    Covering all resident, migrant, and vagrant birds of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, this small and compact guide describes and illustrates a remarkable 1,388 species in convenient facing-page layout. Featuring 287 new color plates with 3,400 images painstakingly rendered by three experienced artists, the guide illustrates all the plumages and major races likely to be encountered. Set opposite the plates are range maps and concise accounts describing identification, status, range, habits, and voice for each species. Introductory sections provide notes on how to use the species accounts, the nomenclature adopted, conservation issues, where to send records, and maps of protected and other important bird areas. Between them, Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe have more than 40 years' experience leading bird tours and conducting conservation work in East Africa. The region shelters a remarkable diversity of birds, including many seriously threatened species with small and vulnerable ranges. The region's birds form a constantly colorful, noisy, and highly extroverted part of the landscape. The book is sure to become an indispensable guide for anyone interested in studying or conserving birds in East Africa, as well as the many visitors who simply want to enjoy the sheer beauty of its birds. First comprehensive field guide to the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi Covers 1,388 species, with 3,400 color images on 287 plates Concise species accounts facing the plates describe appearance, status, range, habits, and voice A color distribution map is given for each species Information on habitats, protected areas, and conservation issues The essential guide to the birds of this spectacular region An overview of East African birds East African environment Seasonality Plumage Species accounts Common alternative names Conservation and threatened species The local scene Glossary, references, and an indexKey Features: Small and compact Comprehensive species All distinctive plumages and races illustrated Color plates Illustrations All species ranges mapped Key protected and important bird areas mapped

What for Chop Today: Her Mission Was to Save Lives


Gail Haddock - 2001
    Long on ideals but short on surgical experience, Gail Haddock left behind the circumscribed life of a York GP for a remote hospital in Sierra Leone.

The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History


Brian Griffith - 2001
    The author seeks to understand how the great civilizations in the original green lands of North Africa, Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, South Asia and China responded and changed under the pressure of invaders fleeing growing environmental degradation in the surrounding deserts.

Gugu's House


Catherine Stock - 2001
    Though the village where Gugu lives is dry and dusty, her house is big and sprawling and unlike any other. The courtyard and walls are decorated with beautiful paintings and clay animals, all made by Gugu herself. Best of all, when Kukamba visits, she gets to help shape and paint some of the wonderful zebras, elephants, and birds that Gugu is always adding to the house. When the heavy rains come and her grandmother's showpieces are destroyed, Kukamba is crushed. But the Gugu helps her see that an ending can also be a beginning, and art is not the only beauty the world has to offer. Set in the grassy plains of Zimbabwe and gracefully illustrated in watercolors, GUGU'S HOUSE is a unique tribute to the spirit of creativity and the immutable cycles of nature.

The Committee (Middle East Literature in Translation)


Sun' Allah Ibrahim - 2001
    

Awo Obi: Obi Divination in Theory and Practice


Baba Osundiya - 2001
    It is virtually impossible to locate a single text that is not only clear, but also complete. The book succeeds in filling a long-standing void within the circle of divination texts and includes information that has been before been published. This book takes the study of the Obi to new heights and open the door into this fascinating and powerful oracle.

Global Expressions: Decorating with Fabrics from Around the World


Lisa Shepard - 2001
    From sadza batik in Zimbabwe to Japanese sashiko quilting, this text explains the authentic method for creating each fabric, with instructions for recreating the look.

Black Liverpool


Raymond Henry Costello - 2001
    It tells the story of people whose lives may have seemed mundane, but whose daily struggles were heroic in a difficult period for Black people.

Conversations with Wole Soyinka


Biodun Jeyifo - 2001
    His plays have been produced by the leading professional and repertory companies and stages in the English-speaking world including the National Theatre in Britain and the Lincoln Center in New York.At the same time, Soyinka has been the most consistent campaigner against civil and human rights violations and abuses, on occasion using his drama, poetry, and essays to speak out powerfully and eloquently in defense of the freedom of ordinary citizens and of the conscience and autonomy of the African continent's writers and intellectuals.Featuring interviews with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Anthony Appiah, and the editor, among others, Conversations with Wole Soyinka is the first collection of Soyinka's interviews. The volume helps to clarify the place of Soyinka in the canon of modern African literature and the international currents of world literature in English of the last half century.Within the interviews, Soyinka is forthright, clear, and eloquent. He specifically addresses many facets of his writing and plumbs pressing issues of culture, society, and community in the present period of increasing globalization. With interviewers in Africa, America, and the United Kingdom he discusses the rise of extreme nationalist and fundamentalist movements and ideologies in his homeland.In particular, the volume throws welcome light on many of the difficulties and obscurities of form and "message" that both academic and non-academic readers find in the most ambitious works of Soyinka. Soyinka says, "I never set out to be obscure. But complex subjects sometimes elicit from the writer complex treatments."Biodun Jeyifo is a professor of English at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY. His previous books include The Popular Traveling Theatre of Nigeria (1984) and The Truthful Lie (1985). He has been published in such periodicals as Stanford Literature Review, Research in African Literatures, and Callaloo.

Art of the Lega


Elisabeth Lynn Cameron - 2001
    Biebuyck's seminal fieldwork of the 1950s, Elisabeth Cameron investigates the culture and the art of the Lega peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Among the Lega, art is only created for and used by the Bwami Society. Bwami is a complex organization consisting of multiple levels, and it forms an essential component of the political, social, and religious structure of the Lega.Within Bwami, artworks are used in conjunction with proverbs, anecdotes, and performances to form complex layered metaphors and to serve as mnemonic devices. As initiates move up through the ranks of the Bwami Society, a variety of different artworks assist them in recalling a vast corpus of complex aphorisms. The many beautiful examples of Lega artworks illustrated in this volume are drawn primarily from the Jay T. Last collection and include masks, animals, human forms, miniature tools, and spoons.

The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa: A Quest for Inter-religious Dialogue


John Alembillah Azumah - 2001
    Drawing on a wealth of sources, from the colonial period to the most up-to-date scholarship, the author challenges the widely held perception th at, while Christianity oppressed and subjugated the African people, Islam fitted comfortably into the indigenous landscape. Instead, this penetrating account reveals Muslim settlers to be as guilty of enforcing slavery and conversion as those of their more maligned sister tradition. Only with an acknowledgement of the true roles of both faiths in African history, suggests Azumah, can the people of both traditions move themselves and their continent towards a new future of tolerance and self-awareness.

The Shattered Pearl


Sara Armstrong - 2001
    It begins with an inside look at the Peace Corps in 1966 against the backdrop of the civil rights movement. Sara found herself the only black Peace Corps trainee in a group of 150. Once in Uganda, Sara taught science and math and traveled around East Africa. In April 1968, Sara married a Ugandan, resigned from the Peace Corps and began a new life. On January 25, 1971 Idi Amin Dada seized power and plunged this tropical paradise into a cycle of unimaginable terror and bloodshed. During the next six year, as this incredible tragedy unfolded, Sara moved freely around Uganda witnessing many things that were not reported in the press. She lived as a Ugandan but saw events from an American viewpoint including the historic raid on Entebbe Airport. The Shattered Pearl is a gripping, entertaining account of an incredible journey filled with adventure, love, joy and terror.

Growing Up in Slavery


Sylviane A. Diouf - 2001
    Some children came to be slaves when they were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and brought to North America. Others were born enslaved and knew no other life. Despite the hardship and suffering, the children of slavery never quite lost their spirit -- and as we recognize today, the traditions they started and perpetuated enrich us to this day.

Dogon: Africa's People of the Cliffs


Walter E.A. Vanbeek - 2001
    In the sandy plains, they grow the millet and sorghum they need to live. This arresting photographic portrait allows us privileged access to their traditional way of life, remarkably maintained today even after extensive contact with Western civilization.Stephenie Hollyman's intimate pictures show a tightly knit, cooperative society engaging in daily activities and sacred rituals: planting and harvesting crops, creating crafts, and performing varied religious ceremonies, most notably the masked dances with which the Dogon celebrate the honored burial of their dead. Walter van Beek's engaging narrative displays the authority and observant eye of an anthropologist who has long lived among the people he writes about. This astonishing volume will find a rapt audience among readers of Abrams' acclaimed African Ceremonies and other popular books on vanishing African tribal customs.

Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa: A Study in Culture Change


Alan Channing - 2001
    The result is at once a valuable reference tool, a field guide, and a source of ideas for future research.A source of increasing interest in their own right, amphibians are also benchmark species for biodiversity, and are used as laboratory animals in many of the sciences. In the wild, amphibians, especially frogs, act as natural monitors of water quality and are invaluable in pest control. Their skins secrete a wide range of pharmacologically active substances, such as antibiotics and painkillers. Yet frog populations are declining worldwide, mainly due to human destruction of their habitats. Alan Channing synthesizes information published over the last century to provide the first natural history and a portrait of the amphibian fauna of this vast region.Key features of Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa include*detailed accounts for 205 species of frogs and toads (and 2 species of caecilian) accompanied by color illustrations, distribution maps, details of breeding and tadpole behavior, and call descriptions*illustrations and tadpole identification keys for each genus*special sections for some species with topics such as "skin toxins"*an overview of fossil frogs, a discussion of humankind and frogs in Africa, and a bibliography of African frog biology

Africa


John Reader - 2001
    57 photos. 8 maps.

Obí: Oracle of Cuban Santería


Ócha'ni Lele - 2001
     • Uses the shell of a coconut, which embodies the spirit of Obí, as a divination tool. • Includes a detailed “mojuba” or prayer that awakens the orishas and invites them to speak. • Examines in depth the five basic patterns that appear when obí is cast and explains how to interpret the oracle's answer. • Explores the fifty additional patterns and meanings contributed by ten orishas closely associated with the orisha Obí One of the paths to the spirits within Santeria is through a divination technique known as obi, the coconut oracle, which gives the petitioner access to the orisha of the same name. The orisha Obí began as a mortal human who ascended to become an orisha as a reward for good deeds done on Earth, then fell from grace because of excessive pride. When he descended back to Earth, his spirit was embodied in the coconut palm. Though he no longer has a tongue, he can answer questions posed to him through the patterns made by four pieces of coconut shell cast as a divination tool. Obí: Oracle of Cuban Santería is the first book to fully explore the sacred body of lore surrounding Obí, as well as his particular rituals and customs, including opening considerations, casting and interpreting the oracle, and employing advanced methods of divination. Also explained are the previously unpublished secrets of closing the oracle properly so that any negative vibrations will be absorbed by the coconuts and permanently removed from the diviner's home.

Beloved African


Jill Baker - 2001
    At the turn of the century John Hammond began forging one of the most competent and far sighted educational systems on the continent of Africa. Hammond's program of education provided schooling for both blacks and whites and eventually produced many of Zimbabwe's founding black nationalists.

The Athenian Sun in an African Sky: Modern African Adaptations of Classical Greek Tragedy


Kevin J. Wetmore Jr. - 2001
    In particular, Greek tragedy has grown as model and inspiration for African theatre artists. This work begins with a discussion of the affinity that modern-day African playwrights have for ancient Greek tragedy and the factors that determine their choice of classical texts and topics. The study concentrates on how African playwrights transplant the dramatic action and narrative of the Greek texts by rewriting both the performance codes and the cultural context. The methods by which African playwrights have adapted Greek tragedy and the ways in which the plays satisfy the prevailing principles of both cultures are examined. The plays are The Bacchae of Euripides by Wole Soyinka, Song of a Goat by J.P. Clark, The Gods Are Not to Blame by Ola Rotimi, Guy Butler's Demea, Efua Sutherland's Edufa, Orestes by Athol Fugard, The Song of Jacob Zulu by Tug Yourgrau, Femi Osofisan's Tegonni, Edward Kamau Brathwaite's Odale's Choice, The Island by Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, and Sylvain Bemba's Black Wedding Candles for Blessed Antigone.

Africa's Great Rift Valley


Nigel Pavitt - 2001
    Spanning some 3500 miles of the African continent, from Ethiopia in the north to Mozambique in the south, the Great Rift Valley is home to an astounding array of flora and fauna, including a great concentration of glassland animals amd three of the world's four great apes: the chimpanzee, bonobo and gorilla.

The Guide's Guide to Guiding


Garth Thompson - 2001
    A wide range of subjects are expertly explored, including guiding principles and camp etiquette, medical supplies and safety tips, and details on the use of common field tools such as rifles, handguns, cameras, and binoculars. Real-life stories blend with artful cartoons—that add humor while emphasizing pertinent points—to round out this must-have reference for those looking for a career in guiding.

Nii Kwei's Day (Child's Day)


Catherine McNamara - 2001
    He gets up at 6 o'clock every morning. He helps his sisters and brother tidy up the compound, then he eats a breakfast of coco (corn porridge), bread, fried eggs and a chocolate drink. At 7:30 he goes to school in a taxi. Later, on his way home, he goes to Abraham's material store with his mother. He ends the day playing football with his cousins, back at the compound. This book is part of the series A Child's Day, photographic information books concentrating on the daily lives and experiences of children in countries around the world, published in association with Oxfam. The other books in the series are Bongani's Day (South Africa), Boushra's Day (Egypt), Cássio's Day (Brazil), Enrique's Day (Peru), Geeta's Day (India), Huy and Vinh's Day (Vietnam), Iina Marja's Day (Lapland), Polina's Day (Russia) and Yikang's Day (China).

Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora


Linda M. Heywood - 2001
    Focusing on the Kongo/Angola culture zone, the book illustrates how African peoples re-shaped their cultural institutions as they interacted with Portuguese slave traders up to 1800, then follows Central Africans through all the regions where they were taken as slaves and captives.

African Forms: Art and Rituals


Laure Meyer - 2001
    With our first book, La Colombe d’Or, we sought to convey the experience of a small hotel in the south of France, a tiny, sublime world of art, history, luxury, and inspiration unto itself. Over time, that world has been expanded to create a universe that is anchored by our books but no longer limited to paper and pages.

The Autobiography of Nicholas Said: A Native of Bornou, Eastern Soudan, Central Africa


Nicholas Said - 2001
    Civil War, African American, African and Muslim history in particular. It is the story of an African Muslim, born Mohammed Ali Ben Said, who was enslaved on three continents, mastered nine languages, traveled to over thirty cities, came to America a free man and fought in the U.S. Civil War from 1863-1865 both as a corporal and a sergeant before going on to start schools for Blacks in the South and in his words show the world the possibilities that may be accomplished by the African … and stimulate some at least of my people to systematic efforts in the direction of mental culture and improvement. The discovery of this book has been described as an astounding discovery and achievement, and a significant addition to the canon of African-American writing. It is edited and introduced by Precious Rasheeda Muhammad, who discovered this overlooked text and reintroduced it to the world as the first publication of Journal of Islam in America Press (JIAP), a division of Sojourners' Truth Publishing Ltd (STPL). Ms. Muhammad is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and founder/CEO of STPL.

Jimma Abba Jifar: An Oromo Monarchy Ethiopia 1830-1932 With a Post-Script


Herbert S. Lewis - 2001
    Although the Oromo are known for their democratic ("republican") gada system, Jimma and other Gibe states arose through a series of processes and historical events in the 19th century that propelled certain men into positions of supreme power. Based on intensive fieldwork in Jimma, this book presents a study of the history and organization of Jimma under its most powerful ruler, Abba Jifar II (1878-1932). Lewis stresses the dynamic aspects of politics and places the politicial history and structure of Jimma in perspective by noting its similarities and differences to monarchial systems in other parts of Africa and the rest of the world. He also explores those distinctive aspects of the Oromo culture which gave Jimma Abba Jifar its particular political style and includes an ethnographic study of an Oromo Muslim agricultural community. This is one of the first published professional anthropological works about the Oromo and will be of strong interest to social scientists as well as African anthropologists and historians.

Black Athena Writes Back: Martin Bernal Responds to His Critics


Martin Bernal - 2001
    Producing a shock wave of reaction from scholars, Black Athena argued that the development of Greek civilization was heavily influenced by Afroasiatic civilizations. Moreover, Bernal asserted that this knowledge had been deliberately obscured by the rampant racism of nineteenth-century Europeans who could not abide the notion that Greek society—for centuries recognized as the originating culture of Europe—had its origins in Africa and Southwest Asia. The subsequent rancor among classicists over Bernal’s theory and accusations was picked up in the popular media, and his suggestion that Greek culture had its origin in Africa was widely derided. In a report on 60 Minutes, for example, it was suggested that Bernal’s hypothesis was essentially an attempt to provide blacks with self-esteem so that they would feel included in the march of progress. In Black Athena Writes Back Bernal provides additional documentation to back up his thesis, as well as offering persuasive explanations of why traditional scholarship on the subject remains inaccurate and why specific arguments lobbed against his theories are themselves faulty. Black Athena Writes Back requires no prior familiarity with either the Black Athena hypothesis or with the arguments advanced against it. It will be essential reading for those who have been following this long-running debate, as well as for those just discovering this fascinating subject.

African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979-1999


Nicolas Van de Walle - 2001
    It shows that dynamics internal to African state structures largely explain this failure to overcome economic difficulties rather than external pressures on these same structures as is often argued. Far from being prevented from undertaking reforms by societal interest and pressure groups, clientelism within the state elite, ideological factors and low state capacity have resulted in some limited reform, but much prevarication and manipulation of the reform process, by governments that do not really believe that reform will be effective.

The Shallow Graves of Rwanda


Shaharyan M. Khan - 2001
    Shaharyar M. Khan's tenure began in the immediate aftermath of the downing of President Habarimana's plane on April 6, 1994 and the massacres that followed. Khan details his encounters with soldiers and politicians, victims and survivors, perpetrators of the massacres, and humanitarian relief efforts. This book reveals how the UN works on the ground and at headquarters.

We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument about Afrocentrism


Clarence Earl Walker - 2001
    But in We Can't Go Home Again, historian Clarence E. Walker puts Afrocentrism to the acid test, in a thoughtful, passionate, and often blisteringly funny analysis that melts away the pretensions of this therapeutic mythology. As expounded by Molefi Kete Asante, Yosef Ben-Jochannan, and others, Afrocentrism encourages black Americans to discard their recent history, with its inescapable white presence, and to embrace instead an empowering vision of their African (specifically Egyptian) ancestors as the source of western civilization. Walker marshals a phalanx of serious scholarship to rout these ideas. He shows, for instance, that ancient Egyptian society was not black but a melange of ethnic groups, and questions whether, in any case, the pharaonic regime offers a model for blacks today, asking if everybody was a King, who built the pyramids? But for Walker, Afrocentrism is more than simply bad history--it substitutes a feel-good myth of the past for an attempt to grapple with the problems that still confront blacks in a racist society. The modern American black identity is the product of centuries of real history, as Africans and their descendants created new, hybrid cultures--mixing many African ethnic influences with native and European elements. Afrocentrism replaces this complex history with a dubious claim to distant glory. Afrocentrism offers not an empowering understanding of black Americans' past, Walker concludes, but a pastiche of 'alien traditions' held together by simplistic fantasies. More to the point, this specious history denies to black Americans the dignity, and power, that springs from an honest understanding of their real history.

The Fall of Apartheid: The Inside Story from Smuts to Mbeki


Robert Harvey - 2001
    For the first time it reveals the full story of the secret meetings between Africans and Afrikaners in Britain in which South Africa's current president, Thabo Mbeki, had a direct line to President Botha.

Bikes For Rent


Isaac Olaleye - 2001
    So he works very hard, collecting firewood and mushrooms in the rain forest and selling them in the village market. He saves his money in a clay pot, and finally he has enough to rent a bike! But is he really ready to ride? Set in western Nigeria, this sunny tale portrays the zigs and zags -- as well as the bumps and thumps -- of an occasionally irresponsible but always irresistible bike lover.

When Whites Riot: Writing Race and Violence in American and South African Cultures


Sheila Smith McKoy - 2001
    This emerges clearly from Smith McKoy's examination of four riots that demonstrate the relationship between the two nations and the apartheid practices that have historically defined them: North Carolina's Wilmington Race Riot of 1898; the Soweto Uprising of 1976; the Los Angeles Rebellion in 1992; and the pre-election riot in Mmabatho, Bhoputhatswana in 1994. Pursuing these events through narratives, media reports, and film, Smith McKoy shows how white racial violence has been disguised by race riots in the political and power structures of both the United States and South Africa.    The first transnational study to probe the abiding inclination to "blacken" riots, When Whites Riot unravels the connection between racial violence—both the white and the "raced"—in the United States and South Africa, as well as the social dynamics that this connection sustains.