Best of
Africa

2010

A Long Walk to Water: Based on a True Story


Linda Sue Park - 2010
    The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith Summary & Study Guide


BookRags - 2010
    30 pages of summaries and analysis on The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith.This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa


Jason K. Stearns - 2010
    And yet, despite its epic proportions, it has received little sustained media attention. In this deeply reported book, Jason Stearns vividly tells the story of this misunderstood conflict through the experiences of those who engineered and perpetrated it. He depicts village pastors who survived massacres, the child soldier assassin of President Kabila, a female Hutu activist who relives the hunting and methodical extermination of fellow refugees, and key architects of the war that became as great a disaster as--and was a direct consequence of--the genocide in neighboring Rwanda. Through their stories, he tries to understand why such mass violence made sense, and why stability has been so elusive.Through their voices, and an astonishing wealth of knowledge and research, Stearns chronicles the political, social, and moral decay of the Congolese State.

Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World


Jen Cullerton Johnson - 2010
    A picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African womanand first environmentalistto win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya.

Mama Miti: Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya


Donna Jo Napoli - 2010
    Today, more than 30 million trees have been planted throughout Mama Miti’s native Kenya, and in 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Wangari Muta Maathai has changed Kenya tree by tree—and with each page turned, children will realize their own ability to positively impact the future.

Igifu


Scholastique Mukasonga - 2010
    From the National Book Award finalist who Zadie Smith says, "rescues a million souls from the collective noun genocide."Scholastique Mukasonga's autobiographical stories rend a glorious Rwanda from the obliterating force of recent history, conjuring the noble cows of her home or the dew-swollen grass they graze on. In the title story, five-year-old Colomba tells of a merciless overlord, hunger or igifu, gnawing away at her belly. She searches for sap at the bud of a flower, scraps of sweet potato at the foot of her parent's bed, or a few grains of sorghum in the floor sweepings. Igifu becomes a dizzying hole in her stomach, a plunging abyss into which she falls. In a desperate act of preservation, Colomba's mother gathers enough sorghum to whip up a nourishing porridge, bringing Colomba back to life. This elixir courses through each story, a balm to soothe the pains of those so ferociously fighting for survival.Her writing eclipses the great gaps of time and memory; in one scene she is a child sitting squat with a jug of sweet, frothy milk and in another she is an exiled teacher, writing down lists of her dead. As in all her work, Scholastique sits up with them, her witty and beaming beloved.

Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirit


Tim Butcher - 2010
    This travel book touches on one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a different moment in its history.

Soul of a Lion: One Woman's Quest to Rescue Africa's Wildlife Refugees


Barbara Bennett - 2010
    It chronicles the unique Harnas Wildlife Foundation in Namibia, where Marieta van der Merwe and her family, former wealthy cattle farmers, have sold land to buy and care for embattled wildlife. We meet Sam, the "AIDS" lion infected by mistake at a vet clinic. Boerjke, a baboon with epilepsy and Down syndrome. Savanna, the one-eyed lioness. And Marieta van der Merwe herself, the inspiring proprietor of Harnas who shares her home with needy wild animals. Survivor of an early life fraught with personal tragedy in the African Bush, she now devotes herself as care-giver and ambassador for wildlife and wildland. Told with insight, humor, and thrilling immediacy by author and Harnas volunteer Barbara Bennett, this story will captivate readers of all ages.

The Kaiser's Holocaust: Germany's Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism


David Olusoga - 2010
    As colonial forces moved in, their ruthless punitive raids became an open war of extermination. Thousands of the indigenous people were killed or driven out into the desert to die. By 1905, the survivors were interned in concentration camps, and systematically starved and worked to death.Years later, the people and ideas that drove the ethnic cleansing of German South West Africa would influence the formation of the Nazi party. The Kaiser's Holocaust uncovers extraordinary links between the two regimes: their ideologies, personnel, even symbols and uniform. The Herero and Nama genocide was deliberately concealed for almost a century. Today, as the graves of the victims are uncovered, its re-emergence challenges the belief that Nazism was an aberration in European history. The Kaiser's Holocaust passionately narrates this harrowing story and explores one of the defining episodes of the twentieth century from a new angle. Moving, powerful and unforgettable, it is a story that needs to be told.

My Friend the Mercenary


James Brabazon - 2010
    To protect him, he hired Nick du Toit, a former South African Defence Force soldier who had fought in conflicts across Africa for over three decades. What follows is an incredible behind-the-scenes account of the Liberian rebels — known as the LURD — as they attempt to seize control of the country from government troops led by President Charles Taylor. In this gripping narrative, James Brabazon paints a brilliant portrait of the chaos that tore West Africa apart: nations run by warlords and kleptocrats, rebels fighting to displace them, ordinary people caught in the crossfire — and everywhere adventurers and mercenaries operating in war's dark shadows. It is a brutally honest book about what it takes to be a journalist, survivor, and friend in this morally corrosive crucible.

Child of the River


Irma Joubert - 2010
    Persomi’s world is extraordinarily small. She has never been to the local village and spends her days absorbed in the rhythms of the natural world around her. Her older brother, Gerbrand, is her lifeline and her connection to the outside world. When he leaves the farm to seek work in Johannesburg, Persomi’s isolated world is blown wide open. But as her very small world falls apart, bigger dreams become open to her—dreams of an education, a profession, and of love. As Persomi navigates the changing world around her—the tragedies of WWII and the devastating racial strife of her homeland—she finally discovers who she truly is and where she belongs.A compelling coming of age story with an unlikely and utterly memorable heroine, Persomi’s English language publication solidifies Irma Joubert’s important place in the canon of inspirational historical fiction.

The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe


Peter Godwin - 2010
    As a soldier, he's fought them. But nothing prepared him for the surreal mix of desperation and hope he encountered when he returned to Zimbabwe, his broken homeland. Godwin arrived as Robert Mugabe, the country's dictator for 30 years, has finally lost an election. Mugabe's tenure has left Zimbabwe with the world's highest rate of inflation and the shortest life span. Instead of conceding power, Mugabe launched a brutal campaign of terror against his own citizens. With foreign correspondents banned, and he himself there illegally, Godwin was one of the few observers to bear witness to this period the locals call The Fear. He saw torture bases and the burning villages but was most awed as an observer of not only simple acts of kindness but also churchmen and diplomats putting their own lives on the line to try to stop the carnage.THE FEAR is a book about the astonishing courage and resilience of a people, armed with nothing but a desire to be free, who challenged a violent dictatorship. It is also the deeply personal and ultimately uplifting story of a man trying to make sense of the country he can't recognize as home.

Zulu Rising: The Epic Story of iSandlwana and Rorke's Drift


Ian Knight - 2010
    In one bloody day more than 800 British troops, 500 of their allies, and at least 2,000 Zulus were killed in a staggering defeat for the British empire. The consequences of the battle echoed brutally across the following decades as Britain took ruthless revenge on the Zulu people. In Zulu Rising Ian Knight shows that the brutality of the battle was the result of an inevitable clash between two aggressive warrior traditions. For the first time he gives full weight to the Zulu experience and explores the reality of the fighting through the eyes of men who took part on both sides, looking into the human heart of this savage conflict. Based on new research, including previously unpublished material, Zulu oral history, and new archaeological evidence from the battlefield, this is the definitive account of a battle that has shaped the political fortunes of the Zulu people to this day.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives


Lola Shoneyin - 2010
    The struggles, rivalries, intricate family politics, and the interplay of personalities and relationships within the complex private world of a polygamous union come to life in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives—Big Love and The 19th Wife set against a contemporary African background.

In the Shadow of Freedom: A Heroic Journey to Liberation, Manhood, and America


Tchicaya Missamou - 2010
    Born into the Congolese wilderness, Tchicaya Missamou became a child soldier at age 11. As a horrific civil war loomed across his country, Tchicaya began using his militia connections to ferry jewels, cash, computers, and white diplomats out of the country. By 17, he was rich. By 18, he was a hunted man, his house destroyed, his family brutalized in front of him by his own militia. By 19, he’d left behind everything he’d ever known, escaping to Europe and, eventually, to America.In the Shadow of Freedom is the uplifting story of one man’s quest to achieve the American Dream. Tchicaya Missamou’s life is a shining example of why America is a gift that should not be taken for granted, and why we are limited only by the breadth of our imagination and the strength of our will.

Horses of God


Mahi Binebine - 2010
    It was the deadliest attack in Morocco’s history. The bombers came from the shantytowns of Sidi Moumen, a poor suburb on the edge of a dump whose impoverished residents rarely if ever set foot in the cosmopolitan city at their doorstep. Mahi Binebine’s novel Horses of God follows four childhood friends growing up in Sidi Moumen as they make the life-changing decisions that will lead them to become Islamist martyrs.The seeds of fundamentalist martyrdom are sown in the dirt-poor lives of Yachine, Nabil, Fuad, and Ali, all raised in Sidi Moumen. The boys’ soccer team, The Stars of Sidi Moumen, is their main escape from the poverty, violence, and absence of hope that pervade their lives. When Yachine’s older brother Hamid falls under the spell of fundamentalist leader Abu Zoubeir, the attraction of a religion that offers discipline, purpose, and guidance to young men who have none of these things becomes too seductive to ignore.Narrated by Yachine from the afterlife, Horses of God portrays the sweet innocence of childhood and friendship as well as the challenges facing those with few opportunities for a better life. Binebine navigates the controversial situation with compassion, creating empathy for the boys, who believe they have no choice but to follow the path offered them.Winner of the 2010 Prix du Roman Arabe and Prix Littéraire Mamounia"The novel provides context and perspective to often little-explored issues, offering incredible insight into the complex lives of poor boys who are groomed to kill themselves for a cause and commit violent acts in the name of religion. Binebine portrays these young men as supremely human, victims of powers much larger than themselves, and like any Kafkaesque anti-hero, cogs in an incomprehensible and monstrous machine."--Starred Publishers Weekly"Moroccan painter, novelist, and former math teacher Binebine (Welcome to Paradise) writes with humor and pathos amid the novel’s grinding tragedy but never allows the narrative to veer into self-pity or cheap sentimentality. The book is based on the 2004 suicide bombings in Casablanca, and Binebine’s unblinking eye for detail makes this a haunting tale." --Library Journal

A Long Way from Paradise: Surviving the Rwandan Genocide


Leah Chishugi - 2010
    She married and had a son. When in 1994 she was caught up in the horrific conflict, she escaped only after being left for dead under a pile of corpses. She fled with her son to Uganda, then South Africa, where she was miraculously reunited with her husband whom she believed dead. Leah finally settled in the UK where she was granted asylum and became a nurse. After her mother died, Leah decided to set up a charity to help the women and children of eastern Congo—victims of continuing war atrocities. This is a deeply courageous narrative of one woman's survival of personal trauma and finding a greater purpose in life through devotion to the service of others.

Bookclub-in-a-Box Discusses Cutting For Stone, the novel by Abraham Verghese


Marilyn Herbert - 2010
    The narrative begins in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, when twin boys, Shiva and Marion, are born to a nun (who dies) and a surgeon (who runs away). The babies, conjoined at the head, are successfully separated immediately after birth. The original conjoinment and separation of the boys becomes the operating theme of the novel and we are given situation after situation in which to consider the concepts of fusion and partition. Bookclub-in-a-Box looks at all that Verghese provides: history (Ethiopia and Eritrea), medicine (blood and liver disease), psychology (the search for identity), sociology (human relationships) and philosophy (of both science and religion). The narrative's real facts and descriptions are especially interesting for their thematic implications. Every Bookclub-in-a-Box printed discussion guide includes complete coverage of the themes and symbols, writing style, and interesting background information on the novel and the author.

Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Africa


Tony Fitzjohn - 2010
             Born Wild is the memoir of Fitzjohn’s extraordinary life. It shows how a man driven by an impossibly restless spirit can do almost anything, from being a bouncer in a brothel, to surviving a vicious lion attack, to fighting with the Tanzanian government, to being appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen.         A notorious hell-raiser given to scrapes with bandits, evil policemen, and wicked politicians, who has been shot at by poachers and chewed up by lions, Fitzjohn is also a wonderful raconteur. Shenanigans aside, he belongs to that rare species of humans who have sought refuge and meaning in a life truly dedicated to the restoration of the animal kingdom. Many times Tony Fitzjohn has put his life on the line for the cause in which he believes. Born Wild is the story of that passion.

Rain School


James Rumford - 2010
    Children are filling the road. "Will they give us a notebook?" Thomas asks. "Will they give us a pencil?""Will I learn to read?"But when he and the other children arrive at the schoolyard, they find no classroom, no desks. Just a teacher. "We will build our school," she says. "This is our first lesson."James Rumford, who lived in Chad as a Peace Corps volunteer, fills these pages with vibrant ink-and-pastel colors of Africa and the spare words of a poet to show how important learning is in a country where only a few children are able to go to school.

They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers


Roméo Dallaire - 2010
    In fact, there is no more complete end-to-end weapon system in the inventory of war-machines. What are these cheap, renewable, plentiful, sophisticated and expendable weapons? Children.Roméo Dallaire was first confronted with child soldiers in unnamed villages on the tops of the thousand hills of Rwanda during the genocide of 1994. The dilemma of the adult soldier who faced them is beautifully expressed in his book's title: when children are shooting at you, they are soldiers, but as soon as they are wounded or killed they are children once again.Believing that not one of us should tolerate a child being used in this fashion, Dallaire has made it his mission to end the use of child soldiers. In this book, he provides an intellectually daring and enlightening introduction to the child soldier phenomenon, as well as inspiring and concrete solutions to eradicate it.From the Hardcover edition.

Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo


Vanessa Woods - 2010
    Settling in at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo's capital, Vanessa and her fiancé entered the world of a rare ape with whom we share 98.7 percent of our DNA. She soon discovered that many of the inhabitants of the sanctuary - ape and human alike - are refugees from unspeakable violence, yet bonobos live in a peaceful society in which females are in charge, war is nonexistent, and sex is as common and friendly as a handshake. A fascinating memoir of hope and adventure, Bonobo Handshake traces Vanessa's self-discovery as she finds herself falling deeply in love with her husband, the apes, and her new surroundings while probing life's greatest question: What ultimately makes us human? Courageous and extraordinary, this true story of revelation and transformation in a fragile corner of Africa is about looking past the differences between animals and ourselves, and finding in them the same extraordinary courage and will to survive. For Vanessa, it is about finding her own path as a writer and scientist, falling in love, and finding a home.

Sebastiao Salgado. Africa


Leila Salgado - 2010
     An homage to the continent of contrasts   "In the footsteps of courage and catastrophe [...] – a 30-year journey across the dark continent by the world’s greatest photojournalist." - The Sunday Times Magazines, LondonSebastião Salgado is one the most respected photojournalists working today, his reputation forged by decades of dedication and powerful black-and-white images of distressed people taken in places where most wouldn’t dare to go. Although he has photographed around the globe,his work most heavily concentrates on Africa, where he has shot more than 40 reportage works over a period of 30 years. From the Dinka tribes in Sudan and the Himba in Namibia to gorillas and volcanoes in the lakes region to displaced peoples throughout the continent, Salgado shows us all facets of African life today. He knows exactly how to grab the essence of a moment and his images artfully teach us the disastrous effects of war, poverty, disease, and hostile climatic conditions. This stunning book brings together Salgado’s photos in three parts: the first concentrates on thesouthern part of the continent (Mozambique, Malawi, Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia), the second on the Great Lakes region(Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya), and the third on theSub-Saharan region (Burkina Faso, Mali, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Mauritania, Senegal, Ethiopia). Texts are provided by renowned Mozambique novelist Mia Couto, who describes how today’s Africa reflects the effects of colonization as well as the consequences of economic, social, and environmental crises.

War Is Not Over When It's Over: Women and the Consequences of Conflict


Ann Jones - 2010
    Answers came through the point and click of a digital camera. On behalf of the IRC, Ann Jones spent two years traveling through Africa, East Asia, and the Middle East, giving cameras to women who had no other means of telling the world what war had done to their lives. The photography project—which moved from Liberia to Syria and points in between—quickly broadened to encompass the full consequences of modern warfare for the most vulnerable. Even after the definitive moments of military victory, women and children remain blighted by injury and displacement and are the most affected by the destruction of communities and social institutions. And along with peace often comes worsening violence against women, both domestic and sexual.Dramatic and compelling, animated by the voices of brave and resourceful women, War Is Not Over When It's Over shines a powerful light on a phenomenon that has long been cast in shadow.

Lost Boy, Lost Girl: Escaping Civil War in Sudan


John Bul Dau - 2010
    His wife, Martha, endured similar hardships. In this memorable book, the two convey the best of African values while relating searing accounts of famine and war. There’s warmth as well, in their humorous tales of adapting to American life. For its importance as a primary source, for its inclusion of the rarely told female perspective of Sudan’s lost children, for its celebration of human resilience, this is the perfect story to inform and inspire young readers.

In My Dreams I Dance


Anna Wafula Strike - 2010
    But Anne Wafula achieved many remarkable things in her life. This is her incredible story.Struck down with polio at the age of two and a half, Anne overcame the prejudice rife in her native village in Kenya, where neighbours believed she was cursed and called her a snake because of her disability, which left her paralysed below the waist.Losing her mother at a tender age, and sent to a school far away from home, she achieved fantastic academic results, amidst the challenges of a military coup. She went to university and qualified as a teacher, and fell in love with a British man who truly valued her defiant spirit.She moved from a world with no running water to make a life for herself in modern Britain. Where, against all odds, she bore a child, and went on to be the first East African to compete in her sport internationally. Anne is currently in further training, and will be representing Great Britain at the 2012 Paralympics, where she has been tipped as one of our top hundred hopefuls.Meet Anne Wafula, a woman whose determination knows no bounds.

Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives


Peter Orner - 2010
    This book asks the question: How did a country with so much promise—a stellar education system, a growing middle class of professionals, a sophisticated economic infrastructure, a liberal constitution, and an independent judiciary—go so wrong?In their own words, they recount their experiences of losing their homes, land, livelihoods, and families as a direct result of political violence. They describe being tortured in detention, firebombed at home, or beaten up or raped to "punish" votes for the opposition. Those living abroad in exile or forced to flee to neighboring countries recount their escapes, of cutting through fences, swimming across crocodile-infested rivers, and entrusting themselves to human smugglers. This book includes Zimbabweans of every age, class and political conviction, from farm laborers to academics, from artists and opposition leaders to ordinary Zimbabweans: men and women simply trying to survive as a once thriving nation heads for collapse.

Maske


Phyllis Galembo - 2010
    The fantastically colorful costumes specific to African and Caribbean rituals and celebrations go several steps further, transforming ordinary people into mythic figures and magicians, tricksters and gods, and symbolizing the roles their wearers play in the ancient dramas that form the cornerstones of their cultural heritage. Phyllis Galembo began photographing the characters and costumes of African masquerade in Nigeria in 1985, and since then she has continued developing her theme throughout Africa and the Caribbean. This volume collects 108 thrilling carnival photographs from Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Zambia and Haiti. In magnificent color shots, Galembo's subjects pose in striped bodysuits that cover the entire body, including the face; or outfits made entirely of bunched greenery; or a lacquered wooden mask topped with a headdress featuring full-body models of other characters; or an oversize misshapen animal head and plywood wings. The carnival characters, rooted in African religion and spirituality, are presented in chapters organized by tribal or carnival tradition and are accompanied by Galembo's personal commentary, shedding light on the characters and costumes portrayed, and on the events in which they play a pivotal role. "Maske" is a serious contribution to ethnographic study, a photo-essay about fashion and an assembly of superb images.

Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World


Wangari Maathai - 2010
    Despite dire warnings and escalating concern over the state of our planet, many people feel out of touch with the natural world. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has spent decades working with the Green Belt Movement to help women in rural Kenya plant—and sustain—millions of trees. With their hands in the dirt, these women often find themselves empowered and “at home” in a way they never did before. Maathai wants to impart that feeling to everyone, and believes that the key lies in traditional spiritual values: love for the environment, self-betterment, gratitude and respect, and a commitment to service. While educated in the Christian tradition, Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating the Jewish mandate tikkun olam (“repair the world”) and renewing the Japanese term mottainai (“don’t waste”). Through rededication to these values, she believes, we might finally bring about healing for ourselves and the earth.

I Hear Olofi's Song: A Collection of Yoruba Spiritual Prayers for Egun and Orisa


Ayoka Wiles Quiñones - 2010
    Though a monotheistic (belief in one God) religion, the Yoruba have a pantheon of deities called Orisa. Each deity is dominion of certain earth forces and emotions: ie. Obatala is the deity of peace and leadership, Oshun is the deity of love and female sexuality, Ogun is the deity of war and work. In addition, the Yoruba also pay homage to their ancestors, Egun; believing that respect has to be paid not only to the living elders who are still with us here on earth, but those whose have already passed and have paved our way. This set of prayers is intended to become a standard for those wanting to communicate with Egun and Orisa.

A Princess Found: An American Family, an African Chiefdom, and the Daughter Who Connected Them All: Volume 2


Sarah Culberson - 2010
    

Running the Rift


Naomi Benaron - 2010
    Born a Tutsi, he is thrust into a world where it's impossible to stay apolitical - where the man who used to sell you gifts for your family now spews hatred, where the girl who flirted with you in the lunchroom refuses to look at you, where your Hutu coach is secretly training the very soldiers who will hunt down your family. Yet in an environment increasingly restrictive for the Tutsi, he holds fast to his dream of becoming Rwanda's first Olympic medal contender in track, a feat he believes might deliver him and his people from this violence. When the killing begins, Jean Patrick is forced to flee, leaving behind the woman, the family, and the country he loves. Finding them again is the race of his life. This is the third Bellwether Prize winner published by Algonquin. The Bellwether Prize is awarded biennially by Barbara Kingsolver for an unpublished novel that addresses issues of social justice and was previously awarded to The Girl Who Fell from the Sky and Mudbound.

When Rain Clouds Gather & Maru


Bessie Head - 2010
    Makhaya, a political refugee from South Africa, becomes involved with an English agricultural expert and the villagers as they struggle to upgrade their traditional farming methods with modern techniques. The pressures of tradition, the opposition of the local chief, and, above all, the harsh climate threaten to bring tragedy to the community, but strangely, there remains a hope for the future.

The Pull Of Freedom


Brenda Barrett - 2010
    Led by Nanny and Cudjoe, the siblings escaped the Simmonds’ plantation and went in different directions to forge their destiny in the new country called Jamaica. But before Cudjoe escaped the plantation his assignation with the housemaid, Martha, produced a daughter called Asha.Intertwined in the stories of Nanny and Cudjoe, former slaves, who would do anything for freedom, are the stories of the Simmonds’ plantation owners who had their own sets of problems.And bridging the divide of slave and free, rich and poor, black and white is Asha the house slave and Mark Simmonds whose attachment was inappropriate for the times they lived in and whose lives brought it all together.

The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa


Sasha Polakow-Suransky - 2010
    South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II. But after Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed: they exchanged billions of dollars’ worth of extremely sensitive material, including nuclear technology, boosting Israel’s sagging economy and strengthening the beleaguered apartheid regime. By the time the right-wing Likud Party came to power in 1977, Israel had all but abandoned the moralism of its founders in favor of close and lucrative ties with South Africa. For nearly twenty years, Israel denied these ties, claiming that it opposed apartheid on moral and religious grounds even as it secretly supplied the arsenal of a white supremacist government. Sasha Polakow-Suransky reveals the previously classified details of countless arms deals conducted behind the backs of Israel’s own diplomatic corps and in violation of a United Nations arms embargo. Based on extensive archival research and exclusive interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, The Unspoken Alliance tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and Israel’s estrangement from the left. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Israel’s history and its future.

African Women Writing Resistance: An Anthology of Contemporary Voices


Jennifer Browdy - 2010
    Thematically organized, it presents women’s writing on such issues as intertribal and interethnic conflicts, the degradation of the environment, polygamy, domestic abuse, the controversial traditional practice of female genital cutting, Sharia law, intergenerational tensions, and emigration and exile.    Contributors include internationally recognized authors and activists such as Wangari Maathai and Nawal El Saadawi, as well as a host of vibrant new voices from all over the African continent and from the African diaspora. Interdisciplinary in scope, this collection provides an excellent introduction to contemporary African women’s literature and highlights social issues that are particular to Africa but are also of worldwide concern.  It is an essential reference for students of African studies, world literature, anthropology, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and women’s studies.  A Choice Outstanding Academic BookOutstanding Book, selected by the Public Library AssociationBest Books for High Schools, Best Books for Special Interests, and Best Books for Professional Use, selected by the American Association of School Libraries

Rhodesia: A Complete History 1890-1980


Peter Baxter - 2010
    Rhodesia was the last British territory in Africa, and the most difficult to divest. This is the story of a gifted land, bitterly contested as the final imperial chapter in Africa. Through war and peace, following the careers of some of the great African leaders of the modern age, this was the last, painful transition from colonial to liberated Africa. A story intricately told and meticulously researched. For all enthusiasts of African and British Imperial history, this book is a must read!

Wild Africa


Alex Bernasconi - 2010
    From a totally fresh perspective, world-renowned photographer Alex Bernasconi provides a spectacular tour across a magnificent continent. This is the off-road, seldom-seen Africa. Moments of true beauty and natural delicacy show the full splendor of wildlife at one with the landscape.Choosing from among many thousands of photographs -- having taken more than 1,800 photographs a week of some of nature's finest and most endangered animals -- Bernasconi stays true to the best principles of wildlife photography: invisible, honest, creative. He is especially well known for his uncanny ability to capture animals in their true nature, and the pages of Wild Africa demonstrate he is often rewarded for his patience with endearing and humorous images.These are unique images captured by a photographer motivated to preserve for posterity one of the world's most exceptional panoramas of extant wildlife. See it here -- and let's try to preserve it.

A History of the Yoruba People


Stephen Adebanji Akintoye - 2010
    With a population of nearly 40 million spread across Western Africa - and diaspora communities in Europe, the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America - Yoruba are one of the most researched groups emanating from Africa. Yet, to date, very few have grappled fully with the historical foundations and development of this group which has contributed to shaping the way African communities are analyzed from prehistoric to modern times. This commendable book deploys four decades of historiography research with current interpretations and analyses to present the most complete and authoritative volume to date. This exceptionally lucid account gathers and imparts a wealth of research and discourses on Yoruba studies for a wider group of readership than ever before.

Like Breath and Water: Praying with Africa


Ciona D. Rouse - 2010
    The prayers the team heard in Africa will be posted year-round on the PraywithAfrica.com Web site, inviting all people to pray these prayers together.

In the Shadow of the Tokolosh


Conrad K. - 2010
    While the world and its attitude changed around them, they found themselves fighting to save their way of life, in a land that did not share their views or values. Set in the Zambezi Valley, where the white man made his last stand in Africa.

Ways of Staying


Kevin Bloom - 2010
    But when his own cousin was killed in a vicious random attack, the questions he'd been asking about the troubling political and social changes in his country took on a sickeningly personal urgency. Suddenly, it felt as though this South Africa was no longer the place he'd grown up in or the place which felt like home. Still stunned by the loss, Bloom begins to trace the path of violence from the murder of his cousin in the hills of Zululand to the fatal shooting of the historian David Rattray, linking these individual crimes to the riven political landscape, and the riots and xenophobic attacks of 2008. Visceral, complicated, and compassionate, Ways of Staying is an eloquent account of how the white community is coping with black majority rule, and in particular how one family is coping in the aftermath of their own private tragedy.

Fruits of Forgiveness: Stories of Love, Hope, and Healing After the Rwandan Genocide


Immaculée Ilibagiza - 2010
    The hunger to find inner peace is so universal that Immaculée now spends much of her life sharing her story in churches, synagogues, concert halls, and stadiums all over the globe. Along the way she offers us moments of true inspiration by taking us into the lives of people whose hearts have been freed from a lifetime of pain by finding forgiveness.In this book, we join Immaculée as she travels from Iceland to Japan, from Hollywood to the Holy Land, to the White House luncheon and a meeting with the first family, and much more. In each country, no matter what the culture or language, Immaculée is greeted with the same question: “How do we forgive?” Her answer is always the same, and it is what Sowing The Seeds of Forgiveness is truly about—“Love.”

The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding


Severine Autesserre - 2010
    Drawing from more than 330 interviews and a year and a half of field research, it develops a case study of the international intervention during the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s unsuccessful transition from war to peace and democracy (2003–2006). Grassroots rivalries over land, resources, and political power motivated widespread violence. However, a dominant peacebuilding culture shaped the intervention strategy in a way that precluded action on local conflicts, ultimately dooming the international efforts to end the deadliest conflict since World War II. Most international actors interpreted continued fighting as the consequence of national and regional tensions alone. UN staff and diplomats viewed intervention at the macro levels as their only legitimate responsibility. The dominant culture constructed local peacebuilding as such an unimportant, unfamiliar, and unmanageable task that neither shocking events nor resistance from select individuals could convince international actors to reevaluate their understanding of violence and intervention.

Sudan: Darfur and the Failure of an African State


Richard Cockett - 2010
    Drawing on interviews with many of the main players, Richard Cockett explains how and why Sudan has disintegrated, looking in particular at the country’s complex relationship with the wider world. He shows how the United States and Britain were initially complicit in Darfur—but also how a broad coalition of human-rights activists, right-wing Christians, and opponents of slavery succeeded in bringing the issues to prominence in the United States and creating an impetus for change at the highest level.

The Sacrifice of Africa: A Political Theology for Africa


Emmanuel M. Katongole - 2010
    Looking at this region, ravaged by war, corruption, terror, genocide, and disease, Katongole wonders at length what difference Christianity makes — or could make — in numerous African nation-states. The Sacrifice of Africa argues that in the face of Africa’s social, political, and economic turmoil, a new future truly is possible, and displays how such a new future, inspired by Christian faith, looks.

Amazing Africa Projects You Can Build Yourself


Carla Mooney - 2010
    Amazing Africa Projects You Can BuildYourself introduces readers ages 9 and up to the stunning landscapes, ancient civilizations and ethnic groups, unique traditions, and amazing wildlife of the vast African continent.With 25 fun projects that kids can complete using common household supplies and many recycled materials, kids learn about life in Africa. Step-by-step instructions show young readers how to make their own shields for an initiation ceremony, cook banana fritters and fufu cakes, and design animal masks to commemorate the seasons. Kids will celebrate Africa and its place in our world.

Justine by Lawrence Durrell Summary & Study Guide


BookRags - 2010
    0 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more – everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Justine (novel). This detailed literature summary also contains Topics for Discussion on Justine (novel) by Lawrence Durrell.

From Slavery to Freedom, Volume 1


John Hope Franklin - 2010
    The preeminent history of African Americans, this best-selling text charts the journey of African Americans from their origins in Africa, through slavery in the Western Hemisphere, struggles for freedom in the West Indies, Latin America, and the United States, various migrations, and the continuing quest for racial equality. Building on John Hope Franklin's classic work, the ninth edition has been thoroughly rewritten by the award-winning scholar Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. It includes new chapters and updated information based on the most current scholarship. With a new narrative that brings intellectual depth and fresh insight to a rich array of topics, the text features greater coverage of ancestral Africa, African American women, differing expressions of protest, local community activism, black internationalism, civil rights and black power, as well as the election of our first African American president in 2008. The text also has a fresh new 4-color design with new charts, maps, photographs, paintings, and illustrations.

Blood on the Stone: Greed, Corruption and War in the Global Diamond Trade


Ian Smillie - 2010
    They destroyed the lives of millions more and they crippled the economies of Angola, the Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The biggest UN peacekeeping forces in the world--in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo and C�te d'Ivoire―are the legacy of 'conflict' or 'blood diamonds'.'Blood on the Stone' tells the story of how diamonds came to be so dangerous. It describes the history of the great diamond cartel and how it gradually lost control of the precious mineral, as country after country descended into anarchy and wars fuelled by diamonds. The book describes the diamond pipeline, from war-torn Africa to the glittering showrooms of Paris, London and New York. It describes the campaign that began in 1999 and which eventually forced the industry and more than 50 governments to create a global certification system known as the Kimberley Process, aimed at wringing blood diamonds out of the retail trade. This gripping account concludes with a sobering assessment of the certification system, which soon became hostage to political chicanery, mismanagement and vested interests. Too important to fail, the Kimberley Process has been hailed as a regulatory model for Africa's extractive minerals. Behind the scenes, however, it runs the risk of becoming an ineffectual talk shop, standing aside as criminals re-infest the diamond world.

Drinking the Wind


Jon Arensen - 2010
    Growing up in Tanganyika in the bush by Lake Victoria, Jon learned Kisukuma before he spoke English. He loved the outdoors and as a young boy he helped feed the family with his shooting skills. But he couldn t grow up in the wilds of Africa forever and he went off to boarding school in Kenya to study and learn more about the wider world. After university in the USA, Jon returned to Africa as a teacher at Rift Valley Academy before moving to southern Sudan in 1976. He and his wife Barb surveyed the languages of southern Sudan for the Education Ministry before settling among the Murle people at Pibor Post where they learned the language and culture and translated the Bible into the Murle language. The author's love for Africa oozes from every page of this book, which abounds with adventures of all kinds in this memoir of a life lived in Africa.

Cooked In Africa


Justin Bonello - 2010
    Based on the popular TV series, this unique compilation of places, spaces and flavours combines chef Justin Bonello's three favourite things - Southern Africa, food and friends.

Pk Van Der Byl: African Statesman


Hannes Wessels - 2010
    By his very nature PK was controversial and confrontational. This account is likely to give offense to some because it portrays him as bluntly as he was in real life. Much can be contested about PK van der Byl but few will dispute he was an extremely colorful character with a devilish sense of humor. This memoir covers his life with a full flourish while doing nothing to detract from the seriousness of the international political and military conflict in which he was engaged. The reader will glean new information on a highly controversial subject and emerge with a more sympathetic understanding of what PK van der Byl and his colleagues did and strove for. The human tragedy that has followed the removal from power of Ian Smith and his Rhodesian Front party will almost certainly force the reader to deal with some uncomfortable conclusions, of value to anyone sincere about grappling with the volatile and deeply troubling challenges that confront all Africans today.Hannes Wessels was born in 1956 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) but grew up in Umtali on the Mozambican border. As a boy, holidays were spent with Game Department rangers; time on safari in Mozambique with the late Wally Johnson was a big influence on him. Wessels also grew to know Robert Ruark whose love of Africa, its people, politics and the written word left a lasting impression. He saw action in the Rhodesian bush war before acquiring a law degree which he chose not to use. He has hunted big game in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania in a 20-year career. In 1994 he was severely gored by a wounded buffalo which almost cost him his life. While no longer directly involved in hunting, he is part-owner of a lodge and game ranch in Zambia on the Zambezi and remains keenly interested in all matters relating to African wildlife and conservation. He has published Strange Tales from Africa in the USA, a collection of anecdotes from his hunting days. He is also a syndicated writer for Outdoor Life in the United States and is currently writing a history on the Rhodesian SAS. He is married to Mandy and has two daughters, Hope and Jana, and lives in Darling in the Western Cape of South Africa.

The Housemaid's Daughter


Barbara Mutch - 2010
    Isolated and estranged in a small town in the harsh Karoo desert, her only real companions are her diary and her housemaid, and later the housemaid's daughter, Ada. When Ada is born, Cathleen recognizes in her someone she can love and respond to in a way that she cannot with her own family.Under Cathleen's tutelage, Ada grows into an accomplished pianist and a reader who cannot resist turning the pages of the diary, discovering the secrets Cathleen sought to hide. As they grow closer, Ada sees new possibilities in front of her—a new horizon. But in one night, everything changes, and Cathleen comes home from a trip to find that Ada has disappeared, scorned by her own community. Cathleen must make a choice: should she conform to society, or search for the girl who has become closer to her than her own daughter?Set against the backdrop of a beautiful, yet divided land, The Housemaid's Daughter is a startling and thought-provoking novel that intricately portrays the drama and heartbreak of two women who rise above cruelty to find love, hope, and redemption.

The River War and Other Works by Winston Churchill (Halcyon Classics)


Winston S. Churchill - 2010
    He served as Lord of the Admiralty during both world wars.THE STORY OF THE MALAKAND FIELD FORCE was Churchilll's first published book. It details an 1897 military campaign on the Northwest Frontier (an area now part of Pakistan). Churchill participated in the campaign as a second lieutenant in the cavalry. British forces defeated an insurrection led by Saidullah and a 10,000 man force.In THE RIVER WAR, Churchill provides a history of the British involvement in the Sudan and the conflict between the British forces led by Lord Kitchener and Dervish forces led by Khalifa Abdallahi ibn Muhammad, heir to the self-proclaimed Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad who had embarked on a campaign to conquer Egypt, to drive out the non-Muslim infidels and make way for the second coming of the Islamic Mahdi.LONDON TO LADYSMITH VIA PRETORIA is a personal record of Churchill's impressions during the first five months of the Second Boer War. It includes an account of the Relief of Ladysmith, and also the story of Churchill's capture and dramatic escape from the Boers. The fourth book in the collection is LIBERALISM AND THE SOCIAL PROBLEM, a collection of speeches Churchill gave to parliament during the early years of the 20th century, when Churchill switched from the conservative Tories to the Liberal party.This ebook is DRM free and includes an active table of contents.

King Leopold's Ghost


Frederic P. Miller - 2010
    High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! King Leopold's Ghost is a best-selling popular history book by Adam Hochschild that explores the exploitation of the Congo Free State by King Leopold II of Belgium between 1885 and 1908. The book aims to increase public awareness of crimes committed by European colonial rulers in Africa. It was refused by nine of the ten U.S. publishing houses to which an outline was submitted, but became an unexpected bestseller and won the prestigious Mark Lynton History Prize for literary style. By 2005, some 400,000 copies were in print in a dozen languages. The title is adopted from the poem The Congo, by Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay. Condemning Leopold's actions, Lindsay wrote: Listen to the yell of Leopold's ghost, / Burning in Hell for his hand-maimed host. The book is the basis of a 2006 documentary film of the same name, directed by Pippa Scott and narrated by Don Cheadle.

Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence


Rosalind Shaw - 2010
    But when local responses to transitional justice destabilize these assumptions, the result can be a troubling disconnection between international norms and survivors' priorities.Localizing Transitional Justice traces how ordinary people respond to—and sometimes transform—transitional justice mechanisms, laying a foundation for more locally responsive approaches to social reconstruction after mass violence and egregious human rights violations. Recasting understandings of culture and locality prevalent in international justice, this vital book explores the complex, unpredictable, and unequal encounter among international legal norms, transitional justice mechanisms, national agendas, and local priorities and practices.

Hotel Tropico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization, 1950-1980


Jerry Dávila - 2010
    In the early 1960s it launched an effort to establish diplomatic ties with Africa; in the 1970s it undertook trade campaigns to open African markets to Brazilian technology. Hotel Trópico reveals the perceptions, particularly regarding race, of the diplomats and intellectuals who traveled to Africa on Brazil’s behalf. Jerry Dávila analyzes how their actions were shaped by ideas of Brazil as an emerging world power, ready to expand its sphere of influence; of Africa as the natural place to assert that influence, given its historical slave-trade ties to Brazil; and of twentieth-century Brazil as a “racial democracy,” a uniquely harmonious mix of races and cultures. While the experiences of Brazilian policymakers and diplomats in Africa reflected the logic of racial democracy, they also exposed ruptures in this interpretation of Brazilian identity. Did Brazil share a “lusotropical” identity with Portugal and its African colonies, so that it was bound to support Portuguese colonialism at the expense of Brazil’s ties with African nations? Or was Brazil a country of “Africans of every color,” compelled to support decolonization in its role as a natural leader in the South Atlantic? Drawing on interviews with retired Brazilian diplomats and intellectuals, Dávila shows the Brazilian belief in racial democracy to be about not only race but also Portuguese ethnicity.

Newman's Birds of Southern Africa


Kenneth Newman - 2010
    Newman's Birds of Southern Africa, a leading field guide in the region, illustrates and fully describes all the birds recorded from the Antarctic to the Zambezi River. The familiar, user-friendly format of Newman's Birds has been subtly modernized for a fresh look, and plate annotations have been added to the large, accurate paintings of each species, in line with modern trends.

South Africa


Michael Poliza - 2010
    The stunningly diverse landscapes and rich tapestry of humanity are all captured in this latest work from photographic master, Michael Poliza.

Botswana and Namibia (Lonely Planet Multi Country Guides)


Matthew D. Firestone - 2010
    Whether you want to explore the Skeleton Coast or relax at a luxury safari lodge, our 2nd edition has it covered. Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip. In This Guide: National Parks chapter to help you plan the perfect safariWildlife chapter written by a natural-history expertGreen Index helping you to travel sustainably

How to Talk to Children About World Art


Isabelle Glorieux-Desouche - 2010
    Each section begins with very simple observations — "This face doesn't look very African!" — and moves on to more complex questions such as "What do the decorations on the forehead and temples represent?" Written in everyday language for people with no art expertise or teaching experience, the book includes maps, color-coding, and thumbnail images to help readers situate each featured work of art. The explanations also include guidance on what's most appropriate for what age, from four to 14. There are invaluable tips for planning a visit to a museum, a thorough discussion of modern Western perceptions of world art, and help with the tricky terminology associated with this subject.

Green Oranges on Lion Mountain (Eye Classics)


Emily Joy - 2010
    Even so, Emily Joy puts on her rose-tinted glasses, leaves behind her comfortable life as a doctor in Britain, and heads off for two years to a remote hospital in Sierra Leone. There she finds the oranges are green, the bananas are black, and her patients are very ill. There's no water, no electricity, no oxygen, no amputation saw�and Dr. Em is no surgeon. And there's no chocolate to treat her nasty case of unrequited love. Dr. Em's problems are tiny compared to those faced by the people of Sierra Leone on a daily basis. If they can remain so optimistic, what's Em's excuse? Our green doctor is a bit of a yellow-belly, often red-faced, trying to fight the blues. But green oranges give sweet orange juice. Never judge a fruit by its color.

The Okapi Promise


Paula Boer - 2010
    Two adversaries, unknown to each other, join a small tour group to gain the serum. One wants to use the cure for the good of all mankind; the other for personal glory and profit. Amidst dramatic scenery, the nine travellers are threatened by wild animals, civil unrest and appalling conditions. The physical and emotional challenges leave none of them unchanged, but one of them won't come out alive.

An Arid Eden: A Personal Account of Conservation in the Kaokoveld


Garth Owen-Smith - 2010
    In the process he has lived and worked in a number of countries but his chosen battlefield has always been the most challenging place of all: the harsh, beautiful and almost unknown Kaokoveld in north-western Namibia, his ‘Arid Eden’. He chose sides early on, when he spent two youthful years in the Kaokoveld and not only developed a deep affinity with the indigenous Himba, Herero and Damara pastoralists but realized that they had developed the ideal form of nature conservation, a situation in which humans and their livestock could live in equilibrium with wild game, so that there was room for all. In 1970 he was thrown out of the Kaokoveld as an alleged security risk, then spent a year looking into conservation and the treatment of indigenous peoples in Australia, farmed for two years in Rhodesia, and did pioneering work in conservation education for black youths in South Africa. He finally managed to get back to South West Africa in 1978, and from there embarked on his life’s work, to save the remnants of the Kaokoveld’s rich wildlife, devastated by a variety of illegal hunters. And he succeeded, although it took him and his partner, Dr Margaret Jacobsohn, 27 years. They have won some of the world’s major conservation awards, north-western Namibia is a popular tourism destination and the Kaokoveld’s wildlife has come back from the brink of virtual extinction, and thousands of people have benefited from the links they have forged between community development and natural resource management.

Fat Woman on the Mountain: How I Lost Half of Myself and Found Happiness


Kara Richardson Whitely - 2010
    She lost 120 pounds and found happiness along the way. Kara Richardson Whitely has been a journalist for the past decade. She has been featured in Self, American Hiker and Redbook magazines.

Development Economics in Action: A Study of Economic Policies in Ghana


Tony Killick - 2010
    In this new edition three additional chapters provide a detailed account of 1978-2008.

Theory of African Music, Volume I


Gerhard Kubik - 2010
    One of the most prominent experts on the subject, Gerhard Kubik draws on his extensive travels and three decades of study in many parts of the continent to compare and contrast a wealth of musical traditions from a range of cultures. In the first volume, Kubik describes and examines xylophone playing in southern Uganda and harp music from the Central African Republic; compares multi-part singing from across the continent; and explores movement and sound in eastern Angola. And in the second volume, he turns to the cognitive study of African rhythm, Yoruba chantefables, the musical Kachamba family of Malaŵi, and African conceptions of space and time.Each volume features an extensive number of photographs and is accompanied by a compact disc of Kubik’s own recordings. Erudite and exhaustive, Theory of African Music will be an invaluable reference for years to come.

Mandela


Peter Hain - 2010
    His tireless crusade for social justice has made him a hero of our times, and of all times. A friend and fellow anti-apartheid activist recounts the entire dramatic, inspiring story in an up-to-date, concise and totally accessible format. MANDELA traces Mandela's life from his early tribal upbringing, to his university days, his work as a young lawyer, and the foundation of the African National Congress. You'll gain a clear understanding of his experiences as a young black man under apartheid, both in everyday and political terms. Through three decades of imprisonment, during which time he continued to lead the anti-apartheid campaign, to his release in 1990, and his triumphant election as President of South Africa only four years later, we marvel at the strength of spirit and clarity of vision that enabled him to heal his torn country, uniting whites and blacks in a single vision of freedom and equality for all. Insightful interviews, stirring tributes from luminaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Bill Clinton, and Prime Minister Tony Blair, and over 100 photos give us a full picture of this remarkable man.

Begging to Be Black


Antjie Krog - 2010
    The murder weapon was then hidden on Antjie Krog 's stoep. In Begging to Be Black, Krog begins by exploring her position in this controversial case. From there the book ranges widely in scope, both in time reaching back to the days of Basotho king Moshoeshoe and in space as we follow Krog 's experiences as a research fellow in Berlin, far from the Africa that produced her. Begging to Be Black forms the third part of a trilogy that Antjie Krog (unknowingly) began with Country of My Skull and continued with A Change of Tongue. Mixing memoir and history, philosophy and poetry, the book is stylistically experimental and personally courageous. Begging to Be Black is a welcome addition to Krog 's own oeuvre and to South African literary non-fiction.

Zimbabwe


Paul Murray - 2010
    The country itself might be said to be equally contradictory in character. With some of the finest national parks in Africa, Zimbabwe draws curious tourists and wildlife enthusiasts, yet many only know the country from news reports. The mighty Zambezi River offers adventure holidays; Victoria Falls will leave visitors breathless, while the range of birdlife excites ornithologists. The tourist infrastructure is being rebuilt; this guide offers up-to-date information on the facilities, advice on itinerary planning, as well as how to select a safari. In addition, the book provides accommodation options for all budgets – from luxury safari camps to budget stays for younger travellers.

A Gift from Childhood: Memories of an African Boyhood


Baba Wagué Diakité - 2010
    He is most unhappy about this at first, but under his grandmother’s patient and wise tutelage he comes to love his close-knit village community. He learns how to catch a catfish with his bare hands, flees from an army of bees, and mistakes a hungry albino cobra snake for a pink inner tube. Finally, Grandma Sabou decides that Baba is educated enough to go to school, and he moves back to the city, where his family struggles to provide him with a formal education. But he brings his village stories with him, and in the process of sharing them with his neighborhood uncovers his immense artistic and storytelling talents.

The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Early Christian Era to the "Age of Discovery": Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World


David Bindman - 2010
    Highlights from her collection appeared in three large-format volumes that quickly became collector's items. A half-century later, Harvard University Press and the Du Bois Institute are proud to publish a complete set of ten sumptuous books, including new editions of the original volumes and two additional ones.Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World, written by a small team of French scholars, has established itself as a classic in the field of medieval art. The most striking development in this period was the gradual emergence of the black Magus, invariably a figure of great dignity, in the many representations of the Adoration of the Magi by the greatest masters of the time. The new introduction by Paul Kaplan provides a fresh perspective on the image of the black in medieval European art and contextualizes the classic essays on the subject.

Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution


Stephen Zunes - 2010
    Pitting local nationalist determination against Moroccan territorial ambitions, the dispute is further complicated by regional tensions with Algeria and the geo-strategic concerns of major global players, including the United States, France, and the territory’s former colonial ruler, Spain. For over twenty years, the UN Security Council has failed to find a formula that will delicately balance these interests against Western Sahara’s long-denied right to a self-determination referendum as one of the last UN-recognized colonies.In the first book-length treatment of the issue in over two decades, Zunes and Mundy examine the origins, evolution, and resilience of the Western Sahara conflict, deploying a diverse array of sources and firsthand knowledge of the region gained from multiple research visits. Shifting geographical frames—local, regional, and international—provide for a robust analysis of the stakes involved. - Syracuse University Press

New History of South Africa


Hermann Giliomee - 2010
    In the New History of South Africa, 31 of South Africa s foremost share fresh insights and new approaches to the story of this country. Up-to-date international research is woven into a readable narrative history that makes the past come alive. Readable, yet authoritative, this is the story of South Africa, as it has not been told before.

Blood Diamond


Riley Quinn - 2010
    James expected when she signed up with Doctors Without Borders. Yet that’s exactly what she gets after a mysterious visit from her brother.Mercenary Mack Nichols doesn’t have much faith in humanity these days. When the beautiful young doctor denies being part of the theft of a blue diamond from his client, he doesn’t put much stock in her story.Neither have reason to trust the other and their mutual attraction is an inconvenience to both. A betrayal and the reveal of an evil plan pit these two against an army. Can they put aside their doubts and work together to bring down a corrupt, power-hungry overlord or will their chance at love be over before it ever starts?

Troepie, From Call Up To Camps


Cameron Blake - 2010
    The chapters are structured according to the general sequence of a conscript's experience: receiving call-up papers, klaaring in, the first week of Basics, bush phase, second-phase training, general service, the Border, Angola, the townships, klaaring out and camps. It includes stories of various lengths, from a paragraph to a few pages; it's a book that is easy to dip into. Appendices give additional information on a range of matters, from the context of the Angola War to National Service medals. A comprehensive glossary explains military terms.

The Book of the Dead


Kgebetli Moele - 2010
    He studies hard, despite many distractions, and goes to the University of the North where he meets Pretty. Although she is scarred by her past relationships with men, the two fall in love and get married. Soon after, their son, Thapelo, is born. But there is no happily ever after here.Even with her successful career, surrounded by beautiful things in her big house, Pretty is lonely. Their son seems to favour his father and Thapelo and Khutso seem to have their own secret club that she is not a part of. So Pretty has an affair. She contracts HIV and, filled with grief and despair, she commits suicide, leaving her husband infected with the disease...

My Heart, His Soul


Loraine Lotter - 2010
    Captivating. And strangely irresistible … Caught amidst an inevitable fate, Abigail needs to make the right decisions when she gets ensnared into a secret society no one knew existed. No one, except her best friend and an oddly enticing stranger, but after all is said and done, who will be bearing the consequences?The truth could kill you …Now available in paperback at http://www.memoriessa.co.za/Don't miss out now!

Akwaaba: A Taste of Ghana


Sandra Amoako - 2010
    The goal is to provide straightforward recipes that can easily be prepared using accessible ingredients, no matter what country or continent you reside in. You will discover how to prepare dishes with step-by-step guidelines, discover something new or something forgotten and experience some of the wonderful culture that Ghana has to offer.ISBN: 978-0-9825249-1-6

Africa's Best Stories


StoryAfrica - 2010
    It is a selection of the best of African literature from Africa's finest writers. In this first volume, we feature heartwarming stories by some of Africa's most renowned writers such as Noble-Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, Orange Prize winner, Chimamanda Adichie, Caine Prize finalists Sefi Atta, EC Osondu, Chika Unigwe, Muthoni Garland, and Jude Dibia among other equally awesome writers. These are storytellers from the gods, telling a diverse range of stories, under varying circumstances. Just for your delight! Their stories will make you laugh, cry, grin, wish, reflect, reminisce and curse (not). Let these stories keep you company while lying in the comfort of your bed, on the subway on your way to work or when having a cup of tea.

General Smuts: South Africa


Antony Lentin - 2010
    He pleaded for a magnanimous peace, warning that the treaty of Versailles would lead to another war.

The Evolution of the Ethiopian Jews: A History of the Beta Israel (Falasha) to I920


James Quirin - 2010
    It traces the development of the Ethiopian Jews from their controversial origins to the beginning of the twentieth century. The author places their evolution firmly within the Ethiopian social, ethnic, religious, political and historical context, using analytical tools such as caste, class and ethnicity. Quirin shows how the Ethiopian Jews struggled to maintain their identity in the face of political, military, economic and religious external pressures from the Ethiopian state and the dominant Christian society from the fourteenth through the early seventeenth centuries. He then analyzes their loss of political independence and partial assimilation into the society and state of the Gondar dynasty during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They faced new challenges and influences from European Protestant missionaries and western Jews in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Quirin employs an exhaustive use of Ethiopian and European written sources, as well as an original and careful use of internal oral traditions obtained in interviews with scores of Beta Israel and other informants.

From Social Silence to Social Science: Same-Sex Sexuality, HIV AIDS and Gender in South Africa


Vasu Reddy - 2010
    Drawing particular attention to the risk behaviors and treatment needs of South Africans who engage in homosexual sex, the results of this study explain why same-sex sexuality is increasingly noted in today’s efforts to study, test, and prevent the spread of HIV infection in the region. Relevant to scholarly debates about HIV and AIDS, this resource offers essential sociological data for anyone involved in research, policymaking, advocacy, and community development in conflicted regions.

Let Sleeping Lions Lie


Bob Curby - 2010
    The book is written in real time today with 'flash backs' to amusing and/or terrifying events in the writer's past. Stories go from getting trapped down a deep pothole with five dead bodies, to facing the formidable Cape Buffalo. The writer has danced with a bull elephant, caught a crocodile with a fishing rod, swum with Hippos and been charged by a leopard. This book has a sequel - Wild Grass - to follow before December 1st - WATCH THIS SPACE!

Galatians (Hippo / Africa Bible Commentary Series)


Samuel Ngewa - 2010
    It also features contemporary applications that the churched and the unchurched alike can apply today. Each unit is not intended to be preached as a sermon; rather, it provides material church leaders can draw from for sermon preparation. Each unit is then followed by two or three questions that are ideal for a small group or personal study for you as a church leader or a lay reader. Academic issues relating to the Greek text, disputes about interpretation, and other issues of academic importance are clarified in the extensive end notes within this one-of-a-kind commentary and trustworthy teaching and scriptural resource.

African Migs: Migs and Sukhois in Service in Sub-Saharan Africa: Volume 1: Angola to Ivory Coast


Tom Cooper - 2010
    In order to ensure precise documentation of every airframe delivered to and operated by the various air forces, special attention is given to illustrations as well as extensive tables of known serial numbers and attrition.The new volume is updated with much exclusive information, photographs and artworks. As such, it provides the most comprehensive and reliable source on the background of each of the features air forces, their organization and unit designations, deliveries of fighters built by MiG, Sukhoi, Chengdu and Shenyang, camouflage, markings and combat deployment.REVIEWS ...superbly researched as best as can be and the authors are completely neutral in terms of the political situation revolving around their use. The narrative sticks to the facts (as well as they are known) and it does not hesitate to admit it when the facts are fuzzy or contradictory. It is this approach that makes the books so appealing...any aviation enthusiast will find interesting and entertaining. It is a great resource and book that I most highly recommend. I'm looking forward to volume 2 coming back into print.Modeling Madness"

Igbo Poets: Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Onwutalobi Anthony-Claret, Chris Abani, Chike Obi, Okwui Enwezor, Okey Ndibe, Chinweizu Ibekwe


Books LLC - 2010
    Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 73. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Chinua Achebe (pronounced; born Albert Chinalmg Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor at Brown University and critic. He is best known for his first novel, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature. Raised by Christian parents in the Igbo village of Ogidi in southeastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos. He gained worldwide attention for Things Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe writes his novels in English and has defended the use of English, a "language of colonizers," in African literature. In 1975, his lecture An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" became the focus of controversy, for its criticism of Joseph Conrad as "a bloody racist." When the region of Biafra broke away from Nigeria in 1967, Achebe became a devoted supporter of Biafran independence and served as ambassador for the people of the new nation. The war ravaged the populace, and as starvation and violence took its toll, he appealed to the people of Europe and the Americas for aid. When the Nigerian government retook the region in 1970, he involved himself in polit...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=262625

Shades of Nature


Heinrich van den Berg - 2010
    His fearless approach inspires the reader to see the hidden depths of his images, to subjectively appreciate both the aesthetic and the emotional. His writing is, as usual, startling in its astute erudition couched as casual wit. This work truly confronts the definitions and parameters of Art.

Theory of African Music, Volume II


Gerhard Kubik - 2010
    Over the course of two volumes, Kubik, one of the most prominent experts in the field, draws on his extensive travels and three decades of study throughout Africa to compare and contrast a wealth of musical traditions from a range of cultures. In this second volume, Kubik explores a variety of topics, including Yoruba chantefables, the musical Kachamba family of Malawˆ i, and the cognitive study of African rhythm. Drawing on his remarkable ability to make cross-cultural comparisons, Kubik illuminates every facet of the African understanding of rhythm, from timing systems to elementary pulsation. His analysis of tusona ideographs in Luchazi culture leads to an exploration of African space/time concepts that synthesizes his theories of art, rhythm, and culture. Featuring a large number of photographs and accompanied by a compact disc of Kubik’s own recordings, Theory of African Music, Volume II, will be an invaluable reference for years to come.

Understanding the Somalia Conflagration: Identity, Political Islam and Peacebuilding


Afyare Abdi Elmi - 2010
    Against this background of violence, Somali academic Afyare Abdi Elmi, attempts to explain the multiple dimensions of the conflict and find a peace-building consensus.Somalia is a failed state and a Muslim state. This combination means the West assumes that it will become a breeding ground for extremism. The country regularly hits the headlines as a piracy hotspot. This combination of internal division and outside interference makes for an intensely hostile landscape. Elmi shows that only by addressing the problem of the statelessness in the country can the long process of peace begin. He highlights clan identities, Islam and other countries in the region as the key elements in any peace-building effort.This unique account from an author who truly understands Somalia should be required reading for students and academics of international relations and peace / conflict studies.

Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1954-2008


Nadine Gordimer - 2010
    Telling Times, the first comprehensive collection of her nonfiction, bears insightful witness to the forces that have shaped the last half century. It includes reports from Soweto during the 1976 uprising, Zimbabwe at the dawn of independence, and Africa at the start of the AIDS pandemic, as well as illuminating portraits of Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and many others. Committed first and foremost to art, Gordimer appraises the legacies of hallowed writers like Tolstoy, Proust, and Conrad, and engages vigorously with contemporaries like Achebe, Said, and Soyinka. No other writer has so consistently evoked the feel of Africa"its landscapes, cities, and people"through a remarkable range of travel writing from Tanzania, Egypt, and along the Congo River. Telling Times is an extraordinary summation from a writer whose enduring courage and commitment to human freedom have made her a moral compass of her time.

Speak Swahili, Dammit !


James Penhaligon - 2010
    He gained a unique gaze on life, death, sadness and humour. With a family tragically affected by World War Two, and a father who died early because of his injuries, James, his sister and mother were left to the mercy of a gold mine with little use for them. His upbringing was mainly by a tribal ayah and an elderly Swahili man with pretensions beyond his station, but the soul and heart of a lion, who feared nobody, except his wife in Nubian-gin-inspired fury. James learnt to fish with home-made line and hooks, to eat insects, and, to the amusement of the watu, to abuse the European hierarchy on the mine in Swahili they did not understand. At boarding school in Arusha James befriended boys of different nations who were, in their separate ways, also outcasts or non conformers. He presented a dilemma to the teachers - a white boy with a "black spirit." His gang got up to nefarious enterprises, bringing them into a state of permanent conflict with the system. James became imbued with the history of Tanganyika, back to its time as the German Colony of Deutsch Ost Africa, which ended in 1918. The unparalleled courage and brilliance of the massively outnumbered German leader Obestleutnant Paul von Lettow Vorbeck and his schutztruppe in the bush war against the British became a beacon to James of what can be accomplished, even in the most adverse of circumstances.

Saving Darfur: Everyone's Favourite African War


Rob Crilly - 2010
    Most are forgotten wars that rumble away unnoticed for years. Darfur is different. For five years, an unlikely coalition of the religious Rght, the liberal Left, and a smattering of celebrities have kept Darfur's bloody conflict in the headlines. Rob Crilly, East Africa correspondent of The Times , arrived in Sudan in 2005 to find out what made Darfur special.He found a conflict very different to the one popularized by the Save Darfur movement. This was no simple genocide being carried out by Arabs on black, African tribes. Along the way he rides with rebels on donkeys, gets caught in a Janjaweed attack, and learns lessons from Osama bin Laden's horse.Rob Crilly has lived and worked in East Africa since 2004, writing for The Times and The Christian Science Monitor , among others. He has traveled extensively through Sudan and reported from war zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and northern Uganda.

The Lord's Resistance Army: Myth and Reality


Tim Allen - 2010
    From the issue of child soldiers to the response of the Ugandan government, the book looks at every aspect of this most brutal of conflicts, and even includes a remarkable first-hand interview with Joseph Kony himself.

New Dawn


Naa Shalman - 2010
    Batum’s air of cockiness and physical strength are nearly a perfect match for Ima’s impetuous spirit, and both have a fire burning in their belly for the power of their promising young lives. The impending union causes Ima’s peers to envy the haughty, saucy and self-indulgent maiden. But, when Batum carries out a wholly unprovoked attack on the neighbouring village’s Chief warrior, Adiago, to feed his greed for power and glory, his uncontrolled actions prompt his desperate flight from Asempa’Krom. Learning that Batum has killed the wife and children of another man in the surprise night-time raid, Ima’s father, Seth, informs her of the dissolution of her betrothal. Ima becomes the immediate target of her peer’s ridicule and cruel mocking. To avenge the attack on Adiago, the offended warrior’s clan sets out to kidnap Ima, and unintentionally begin her journey to womanhood. Over a week’s journey by foot away from her home, Ima is kept in the house of the man whose family was slaughtered by Batum. Referring to her only as “Batum’s intended wife”, Ima must learn to stave off her loneliness, and prove herself as an individual and not the reflection of Batum’s evil doings. While there, she discovers her compassion and resolves her growing desire for the very man who is now her captor. Her spirit and tenacity which once served as an impediment in her immaturity, now serve her well – helping her to find true love and guide her in the ways to reel in the man’s heart she desires.New Dawn tells the story of two very complex men and two resolute women who are fierce in their mannerisms, sharp tongued, bold in their actions, protective as lionesses and determined to take what belongs to them – but, will they succeed?

The Unspoken Alliance: Israel's Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa


Sasha Polakow-Suranasky - 2010
    Prior to the Six-Day War, Israel was a darling of the international left: socialist idealists like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir vocally opposed apartheid and built alliances with black leaders in newly independent African nations. South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II. But after Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed: they exchanged billions of dollars' worth of extremely sensitive material, including nuclear technology, boosting Israel's sagging economy and strengthening the beleaguered apartheid regime. By the time the right-wing Likud Party came to power in 1977, Israel had all but abandoned the moralism of its founders in favor of close and lucrative ties with South Africa. For nearly twenty years, Israel denied these ties, claiming that it opposed apartheid on moral and religious grounds even as it secretly supplied the arsenal of a white supremacist government. Sasha Polakow-Suransky reveals the previously classified details of countless arms deals conducted behind the backs of Israel's own diplomatic corps and in violation of a United Nations arms embargo. Based on extensive archival research and exclusive interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, "The Unspoken Alliance "tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and Israel's estrangement from the left. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Israel's history and its future. "From the Hardcover edition."

Wilfred Thesiger in Africa


Alexander Maitland - 2010
    Maitland investigates in depth Thesiger’s parents and family influences; his wartime experiences and the ethos of conflict; his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist; his development as a writer and photographer; his close friendships with the Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived; and his sexuality. In all, this major biography of a great and unusual man will take its place on the shelf of outstanding lives of the great explorers.

Touch: Stories Of Contact


Karina Magdalena SzczurekHenrietta Rose-Innes - 2010
    The result is a scintillating collection of twenty-two stories about all kinds of human interaction. There are tales of love lost, and of newfound intimacy. Some describe encounters with strangers, others explore family relationships. Most deal with touch in a physical and emotional sense; one or two consider the idea of keeping in touch . Between them the authors have won two Caine Prizes, one PEN Award, three Alan Paton Awards, two Sunday Times Fiction Prizes, two M-Net Literary Awards, several CNA Awards, a Commonwealth Writer 's Prize (Africa Region), one Booker Prize, and the Nobel Prize in Literature.Touch: Stories of Contact brings us work from such established luminaries as Andr Brink, Nadine Gordimer, Damon Galgut and Ivan Vladislavic, as well as exciting new voices such as Alistair Morgan and Julia Smuts Louw. Whether poignant or light-hearted, fictional or autobiographical, these innovative stories remind us of the preciousness of touch and are a testimony to the creative talents of South Africa 's writers. All the authors have agreed to donate their royalties to the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Every copy sold therefore contributes to the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Mohamed Fekini and the Fight to Free Libya


Angelo Del Boca - 2010
    Using the lens of the life of the iconic resistance fighter Mohamed Fekini, it tells the story of Libya under Ottoman and Italian rule from the point of view of the colonized. The story begins with the onset of Italian occupation in 1911-12, includes the crucial period of the anti-Italian jihad, from 1921 to 1930, and continues through the postwar creation of a united Libya under King Idris in 1947.