Her deep empathy and understanding, her years of observing Kenya’s rich variety of wildlife, and her pioneering work in perfecting the right husbandry and milk formula have saved countless elephants, rhinos, and other baby animals from certain death. In this heartwarming and poignant memoir, Daphne shares her amazing relationships with a host of orphans, including her first love, Bushy, a liquid-eyed antelope; Rickey-Tickey-Tavey, the little dwarf mongoose; Gregory Peck, the busy buffalo weaver bird; Huppety, the mischievous zebra; and the majestic elephant Eleanor, with whom Daphne has shared more than forty years of great friendship.  But this is also a magical and heartbreaking human love story between Daphne and David Sheldrick, the famous Tsavo Park warden. It was their deep and passionate love, David’s extraordinary insight into all aspects of nature, and the tragedy of his early death that inspired Daphne’s vast array of achievements, most notably the founding of the world-renowned David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Orphans’ Nursery in Nairobi National Park, where Daphne continues to live and work to this day.  Encompassing not only David and Daphne’s tireless campaign for an end to poaching and for conserving Kenya’s wildlife, but also their ability to engage with the human side of animals and their rearing of the orphans expressly so they can return to the wild, Love, Life, and Elephants is alive with compassion and humor, providing a rare insight into the life of one of the world’s most remarkable women.

     Intelligent, charming and handsome, Jean-Patrice has Paris at his feet. But when he embarks on a passionate affair with the beautiful wife of a superior, his brilliant career in the Civil Service goes south. Packed off to the equatorial colony of Gabon to avoid a scandal, Jean-Patrice is plunged from the City of Light into the Heart of Darkness. In the company of cannibals, ghosts, witchdoctors and a gorilla named Chloe, he is forced to revise everything he has learned and find the true meaning of courage and love. Told with humor and compassion, this is the story of a young man's coming of age in the last months of the 19th Century. Also by Marius Gabriel: THE MASK OF TIME ‘Keeps you reading while your dinner burns… Great fun.’ Cosmopolitan THE SEVENTH MOON ‘Few thrillers have as strong a sense of atmosphere and adventure as this fascinating tale.’ Chicago Tribune

    As a young woman, Gbowee was broken by the Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that tore apart her life and claimed the lives of countless relatives and friends. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, propelled by her realization that it is women who suffer most during conflicts--and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. In 2003, the passionate and charismatic Gbowee helped organize and then led the Liberian Mass Action for Peace, a coalition of Christian and Muslim women who sat in public protest, confronting Liberia's ruthless president and rebel warlords, and even held a sex strike. With an army of women, Gbowee helped lead her nation to peace.--From publisher description.

    Combining original research with her personal story, it is a deeply thoughtful meditation on war as it is being waged around the world against millions of civilians -- primarily women and children. Samantha's boundless energy, dedication, and compassion shine through on every page as she lays out real, lasting solutions to these problems and shows how to move beyond outdated notions of charity towards a more progressive, inclusive, and respectful world view.

    Her organization planted over thirty million trees in thirty years. This beautiful picture book tells the story of an amazing woman and an inspiring idea.

    Without running water or electricity, Warri is at first a nightmare for Blessing. Her mother is gone all day and works suspiciously late into the night to pay the children's school fees. Her brother, once a promising student, seems to be falling increasingly under the influence of the local group of violent teenage boys calling themselves Freedom Fighters. Her grandfather, a kind if misguided man, is trying on Islam as his new religion of choice, and is even considering the possibility of bringing in a second wife.But Blessing's grandmother, wise and practical, soon becomes a beloved mentor, teaching Blessing the ways of the midwife in rural Nigeria. Blessing is exposed to the horrors of genital mutilation and the devastation wrought on the environment by British and American oil companies. As Warri comes to feel like home, Blessing becomes increasingly aware of the threats to its safety, both from its unshakable but dangerous traditions and the relentless carelessness of the modern world.

    Smith offers hope for readers who wonder if God is calling them to greater things. Passport through Darkness takes readers on Smith's journey to the deserts of Africa and the deserts of her own soul as she tries to live well as an imperfect American mom, crusade for justice for orphans around the world, and embrace God's extraordinary dreams for her. When Kimberly and her husband risk everything to answer God's call, they see God change and restore them even amid exhaustion, marital struggles, and physical limitations. This heartbreaking, heart lifting book is for anyone who longs to see God's redemptive power heal broken hearts, fill empty bellies, and shelter uncovered heads. It is a call to readers to take one more step on their journey to know God's heart. It is a guide from one ordinary person to another to finding a life that matters.

    Later we immerse ourselves with the author in the intrigues, scandals and humor of a large corporate boardroom in South Africa where longevity of service was as fleeting as the mists on the Matabele plains.

    Uncovering compelling new evidence, Egyptologist Robert Bauval and astrophysicist Thomas Brophy present the anthropological, climatological, archaeological, geological, and genetic research supporting this hugely debated theory of the black African origin of Egyptian civilization. Building upon extensive studies from the past four decades and their own archaeoastronomical and hieroglyphic research, the authors show how the early black culture known as the Cattle People not only domesticated cattle but also had a sophisticated grasp of astronomy; created plentiful rock art at Gilf Kebir and Gebel Uwainat; had trade routes to the Mediterranean coast, central Africa, and the Sinai; held spiritual and occult ceremonies; and constructed a stone calendar circle and megaliths at the ceremonial site of Nabta Playa reminiscent of Stonehenge, yet much older. Revealing these “Star People” as the true founders of ancient Egyptian civilization, this book completely rewrites the history of world civilization, placing black Africa back in its rightful place at the center of mankind’s origins.

     Love, betrayal, passion and death are woven into this romantic novel with exquisite skill. A book to read and to relish. Samantha Ford is destined to become a contemporary romance bestseller with her stories out of Africa. The love story... A letter, found by her daughter Molly, in an old chest on the island of Zanzibar reveals the secret of Kate Hope’s glamorous but anguished past, and the reason for her sudden and unexplained disappearance. Ten years previously Kate’s lover and business partner, Adam Hamilton, tormented by a terrifying secret he is willing to risk everything for, brutally ends his relationship with Kate. A woman is found murdered in a remote part of Kenya, bringing Tom Fletcher to East Africa to unravel the web of mystery and intrigue surrounding Kate, the woman he loves but hasn't seen for over twenty years. In Zanzibar, Tom meets Kate’s daughter Molly. With her help he pieces together the last years of her mother’s life and his extraordinary connection to it. Stories from Africa When you read this book you will understand that Samantha is a very accomplished writer who describes human feelings only the way a woman can. Love and passion sear through the pages as does a clear indication that she has lived in and experienced love on the continent she adores. Africa is, of course, that continent and she has demonstrated that she can describe East and Southern Africa in original and evocative terms. She has been on many safaris and observed first hand the lifestyles that she draws upon to write her stories from Africa. Fiction they may be, but they give you an insight into the lives of the rich and powerful, both at work and at play. This is a book to get lost in, an absorbing story of suspense and intrigue, and one which it is hard to believe is a début novel. But don't worry Samantha has completed her second novel, The House Called Mbabati, due to be released in June 2016, and has made a start on her third. So if you love this book you will not have too long to wait for another story out of Africa.

    Douye aka Doughboy the career militant responsible for the crime. Amaibi the gentle university professor / eco-warrior accused. Kaniye the lawyer turned restaurateur who tries to get him off and Tubo an amoral oil company executive. Against a backdrop of corrupt practises, failed systems and injustice, these four friends tell the story of oil in a region and its effects on local communities and the Nigerian larger society.Chimeka Garricks in his extraordinary debut novel has written a frank and moving story about the realities of contemporary Nigeria. The evil long term effects of military rule resulting in the fragmentation and break down of moral values. His story paints a realistic picture of the very high price corruption exacts on a society and how no one is immune from its consequences.Chimeka has written a remarkable book; honest, insightful and tragic – Jude Dibia author of Blackbird.The book is absolute genius. Well researched, crisp lines, excellent and vivid dialogue, well developed characters. - Jekwu Ozoemene, author of The Anger of Unfulfillment.Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a chronicle of a region in turmoil, of a generation caught between the expectations of their parents and the depreciations of the Nigerian situation, each of these four men navigate their issues in different ways, and in their own voices. Mr Garricks is a new literary voice; unheralded, fresh, honest, unshorn of superficial flourish. Well worth the read. – Eghosa Imasuen, author of Fine Boys.Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a story of action and consequence, lies and love, greed and lust, the power of the truth and most poignantly, redemption. In a John Grisham-esque storytelling style, Chimeka Garricks carries the reader from the present to the past and back again in a seamless blend of storytelling, from the swamps of the Niger Delta to its courtrooms with some action, humour, suspense and just the right amount of romance thrown in. Tomorrow Died Yesterday is a novel by a Nigerian about Nigeria for the entire world. All in all, it is an impressive debut for a writer. - Seun Odukoya, reviewer www.naijastories.com

    The families were hungry, and their goats and sheep were hungry too. Then along came a scientist, Dr. Gordon Sato, who helped change their lives for the better. And it all started with some special trees.These are the trees, Mangrove trees, That were planted by the sea.With alternating verse and prose passages, The Mangrove Tree invites readers to discover how Dr. Sato's mangrove tree-planting project transformed an impoverished village into a self-sufficient community. This fascinating story is a celebration of creativity, hard work--and all those mangrove trees that were planted by the sea!

    They dislike each other … A lot. They have loathed each other since Hugh bit Angus at a family picnic many years ago. In a last-ditch attempt to forge a brotherly bond between the two, Mr and Mrs MacNaughton secure them jobs at an exclusive five-star game lodge. They manage to convince (bribe in the case of Angus) the siblings to work at Sasekile Private Game Lodge for a year. A Year in the Wild tells the uproarious, cringe-worthy and hilarious tales of Angus and Hugh in the form of weekly emails to their sister Julia. Their experiences include encounters with guests, animals, female staff and often a mixture of these.Combine: an eclectic mix of rich, over-demanding and adulterous guests, a dash of crazy bush lodge staff including two jealous brothers (one a bitterly sarcastic game ranger and the other an over-eager lodge manager) and throw in the beauty of the African bushveld. Shake well. Conflict and disaster are inevitable.

    In his last book, the adventure classic God’s Middle Finger, he narrowly escaped death in Mexico’s lawless Sierra Madre. Now, Grant has plunged with his trademark recklessness, wit, and curiosity into East Africa. Setting out to make the first descent of an unexplored river in Tanzania, he gets waylaid in Zanzibar by thieves, whores, and a charismatic former golf pro before crossing the Indian Ocean in a rickety cargo boat. And then the real adventure begins. Known to local tribes as “the river of bad spirits,” the Malagarasi River is a daunting adversary even with a heavily armed Tanzanian crew as travel companions. Dodging bullets, hippos, and crocodiles, Grant finally emerges in war-torn Burundi, where he befriends some ethnic street gangsters and trails a notorious man-eating crocodile known as Gustave. He concludes his journey by interviewing the dictatorial president of Rwanda and visiting the true source of the Nile. Gripping, illuminating, sometimes harrowing, often hilarious, Crazy River is a brilliantly rendered account of a modern-day exploration of Africa, and the unraveling of Grant’s peeled, battered mind as he tries to take it all in.

    An army of children was approaching, under the leadership of Charles Taylor. It seemed like the end of the world. Slowly, they made their way to the safety of Sierra Leone. They were the lucky ones.After years of exile, with the fighting seemingly over, Agnes returned to Liberia--a country now devastated by years of civil war. Families have been torn apart, villages destroyed, and it seems as though no one has been spared. Reeling, and unsure of what to do in this place so different from the home of her memories, Agnes accepted a job at the local UN-run radio station. Their mission is peace and their method is reconciliation through understanding and communication. Soon, she came up with a daring plan: Find the former child soldiers, and record their stories. And so Agnes, then a 43-year-old single mother of four, headed out to the ghettos of Monrovia and befriended them, drinking Club Beer and smoking Dunhill cigarettes with them, earning their trust. One by one, they spoke on her program, Straight from the Heart, and slowly, it seemed like reconciliation and forgiveness might be possible.From Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Africa's first female president, to Butt Naked, a warlord whose horrific story is as unforgettable as his nickname--everyone has a story to tell. Victims and perpetrators. Boys and girls, mothers and fathers. Agnes comforts rape survivors, elicits testimonials from warlords, and is targeted with death threats--all live on the air.Set in a place where monkeys, not raccoons, are the scourge of homeowners; the trees have roots like elephant legs; and peacebuilding is happening from the ground-up. Harrowing, bleak, hopeful, humorous, and deeply moving--And Still Peace Did Not Come is not only Agnes's memoir: It is also her testimony to a nation's descent into the horrors of civil war, and its subsequent rise out of the ashes.

    M. Coetzee's majestic trilogy of fictionalised memoir, Boyhood, Youth and Summertime.Scenes from Provincial Life opens in a small town in the South Africa of the 1940s. We meet a young boy who, at home, is ill at ease with his father and stifled by his mother's unconditional love. At school he passes every test that is set for him, but he remains wary of his fellow pupils, especially the rough Afrikaners.As a student of mathematics in Cape Town he readies himself to escape his homeland, travel to Europe and turn himself into an artist. Once in London, however, the reality is dispiriting: he toils as a computer programmer, inhabits a series of damp, dreary flats and is haunted by loneliness and boredom. He is a constitutional outsider. He fails to write.Decades later, an English biographer researches a book about the late John Coetzee, particularly the period following his return to South Africa from America. Interviewees describe an awkward man still living with his father, a man who insists on performing dull manual labour. His family regard him with suspicion and he is dogged by rumours: that he crossed the authorities in America, that he writes poetry.Scenes from Provincial Life is a heartbreaking and often very funny portrait of the artist by one of the world's greatest writers.

    And the more she talks to her mother and father and grandfather and grandmother and aunties and cousins about it, the more her happiness grows! There's only one thing to do...Sing!

    For nearly a thousand years, storytellers have gathered in Jemaa el Fna, the legendary square of the city, to recount ancient folktales and fables to rapt audiences. But this unique chain of oral tradition that has passed seamlessly from generation to generation is teetering on the brink of extinction. The competing distractions of television, movies, and the Internet have drawn the crowds away from the storytellers and few have the desire to learn the stories and continue their legacy. Richard Hamilton has witnessed first-hand the death throes of this rich and captivating tradition and, in the labyrinth of the Marrakech medina, has tracked down the last few remaining storytellers, recording stories that are replete with the mysteries and beauty of the Maghreb.

    He was a college student heading into the Marines, and he sought to better understand ethnic violence-something he would likely face later in uniform. He learned Swahili, asked questions, and listened to young people talk about how they survived in poverty he had never imagined. Anxious to help but unsure what to do, he stumbled into friendship with a widowed nurse, Tabitha Atieno Festo, and a hardscrabble community organizer, Salim Mohamed.Together, this unlikely trio built a non-governmental organization that would develop a new generation of leaders from within one of Africa's largest slums. Their organization, Carolina for Kibera (CFK), is now a global pioneer of the movement called Participatory Development, and was honored by Time magazine as a Hero of Global Health. CFK's greatest lesson may be that with the right kind of support, people in desperate places will take charge of their lives and create breathtaking change.Engaged in two seemingly contradictory forms of public service at the same time, Barcott continued his leadership in CFK while serving as a human intelligence officer in Iraq, Bosnia, and the Horn of Africa. Struggling with the intense stress of leading Marines in dangerous places, he took the tools he learned building a community in one of the most fractured parts of Kenya and became a more effective counter insurgent and peacekeeper.It Happened on the Way to War is a true story of sacrifice and courage and the powerful melding of military and humanitarian service. It's a story of what America's role in the world could be.

    Katie and Tariro are worlds apart but their lives are linked by a terrible secret, gradually revealed in this compelling and dramatic story of two girls grappling with the complexities of adolescence, family and a painful colonial legacy.14-year-old Tariro loves her ancestral home, the baobab tree she was born beneath, her loving family - and brave, handsome Nhamo. She couldn't be happier. But then the white settlers arrive, and everything changes - suddenly, violently, and tragically.Thirty-five years later, 14-year-old Katie loves her doting father, her exclusive boarding school, and her farm with its baobab tree in rural Zimbabwe. Life is great. Until disaster strikes, and the family are forced to leave everything and escape to cold, rainy London.Atmospheric, gripping and epic in scope, Far from Home brings the turbulent history of Zimbabwe to vivid, tangible life.

    Their choices affect their families, the people they love, and the course of their lives. Their stories start before the events in Sudan touch them, following them through challenges and triumphs, as they rebuild their lives. What they have in common with the rest of us is that their journeys are about finding out what kind of people they are: Should they try to draw strength from their anger or should they let it go? Is it better to stick with what you know or find the courage to change?

     Glen Retief's childhood was at once recognizably ordinary--and brutally unusual.Raised in the middle of a game preserve where his father worked, Retief's warm nuclear family was a preserve of its own, against chaotic forces just outside its borders: a childhood friend whose uncle led a death squad, while his cultured grandfather quoted Shakespeare at barbecues and abused Glen's sister in an antique-filled, tobacco-scented living room.But it was when Retief was sent to boarding school, that he was truly exposed to human cruelty and frailty. When the prefects were caught torturing younger boys, they invented "the jack bank," where underclassmen could save beatings, earn interest on their deposits, and draw on them later to atone for their supposed infractions. Retief writes movingly of the complicated emotions and politics in this punitive all-male world, and of how he navigated them, even as he began to realize that his sexuality was different than his peers'.

    It uses research, life stories, and artistic expression—including essays, case studies, poetry, news clips, songs, fiction, memoirs, letters, interviews, short film scripts, and photographs—to examine dominant and deviant sexualities and investigate the intersections between sex, power, masculinities, and femininities. It also opens a space, particularly for young people, to think about African sexualities in different ways.

    The Overlanders' Handbook is written in the same entertaining yet clear jargon-free English for which Chris's other books are known - it doesn't assume you know your plug gap from a radiator cap. This second edition has been re-researched and updated into a more compact book published as a paperback, rather than a hardback as before. Includes: 1. Planning - When to go; typical costs; documentation; sponsorship; early overland journeys. 2. Vehicle choice and preparation - The Overlanders' Handbook is the most comprehensive account in print, covering everything from adapting a cheap car to equipping a campervan or 4x4 for months on the road, or even building and outfitting your own accommodation module to mount on an all-terrain truck chassis. 3. Life on the road - How to handle dodgy borders, haggle over a purchase, treat a dodgy stomach and cope with crazy driving conditions. Guidance on wild camping; navigation and mapping strategies; onward shipping; advice for solo women overlanders; travelling with children or with pets; vehicle repairs and troubleshooting; and off-road driving techniques. 4. Continental route outlines - Guidelines on both popular and obscure overland routes through Africa, Asia and Latin America. Includes fuel prices, easiest borders and best seasons, visa strategies, danger zones and regional highlights. 5. Overlanders' Tales - Half a dozen accounts of global adventures lasting months or even years in vans, 4x4s and all-terrain trucks - from contributors aged from 9 to 69. 6. Supported by the online resource: www.overlanders-handbook.com.

    On September 18, 1961, Hammarskjöld's aircraft plunged into a dense forest in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), abruptly ending his mission to bring peace to the Congo. Many suspected sabotage, accusing multinational powers and the governments of Britain, Belgium, South Africa, and the United States of plotting to murder the peace-seeking leader. British High Commissioner Lord Alport, who had been stationed at a nearby airport when the aircraft crashed, fueled further speculation by claiming Hammarskjold had flown elsewhere -- even as his aircraft passed overhead. Also at the airport were white mercenaries known to stop at nothing to maintain white rule.Though the Rhodesian government blamed pilot error, Susan Williams shows their investigation suppressed and dismissed critical evidence. Though a subsequent United Nations inquiry could not rule out foul play, it had no access to the evidence to prove it. For the first time, Williams conducts a tense and often dangerous investigation into the Secretary-General's death, consulting sensitive materials in Zambia, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Britain, France, Belgium, and the United States, including a secret trove of damning documents and photographs. At the heart of her exposé is Hammarskjöld himself, a courageous and complex idealist who sought to protect newly independent nations from the predatory impulses of the Great Powers. Williams reveals how conflict in the Congo was driven less by internal divisions than by the determination of western forces to keep real power out of the hands of postcolonial governments. She also demonstrates the extent to which Rhodesia's British settlers would go to secure white minority rule.

    Living half-wild on an African farm with her horse, her monkey, and her best friend, every day is beautiful. But when her home is sold and Will is sent away to boarding school in England, the world becomes impossibly difficult. Lions and hyenas are nothing compared to packs of vicious schoolgirls. Where can a girl run to in London? And will she have the courage to survive?From the author of the “witty, inventively poetic” Rooftoppers comes an utterly beautiful story that’s sure to be treasured.

    Three love stories across two generations are intertwined, but perhaps the greatest love story of all is the one the author tells about the country she's lost. Poppet, the heroine, knows there is a dark secret about her birth, but she never suspects the truth! She dreams of a house fire, and lives with unexplained scars on her body. Her real name is never used, and she does not look like anyone else in her family. Something happened to her long ago, in the years before her memory was formed, but nobody on the remote farm where she lives will tell her what it was. The same secret literally drives her father to drink, but she won’t share what he knows with her. Poppet’s mother is dead; killed in a terrorist attack on the farm, her brother is confused, and the farm workers are determined to mind their own business. Poppet sets out to uncover the secret, beginning a journey that takes her to London, and brings her back to her African home where the truth and her worst fears lie. She has to deal with murder, rape, snakes, crocodiles and depression, and overcome them all before she finally arrives at the end of the secret. This is a romantic coming-of-age story, set in a wild and dangerous, but beautiful country. Poppet is a courageous, flame-haired heroine with a lot to learn, not least how to love the man who loves her so passionately. ‘Every Paradise has its Serpent, and every Eden its exiles.’ "Adrian swore, 'I will never leave Africa.I was born here and I love Africa.' The reply came: 'It doesn't matter how much you love Africa if Africa does not love you." I hope you enjoy it! It was written from my soul. Jennifer Munro "This book will make you laugh and make you cry. If it doesn't touch your heart, you haven't got one." "This book was absolutely beautiful. It is an engaging book that is impossible to put down from start to finish. You really come to care about Poppet. This book was truly a great find! " "Quite simply put; I loved this book! It's beautifully written, the descriptions bring the Africa I remember to life, the characters are people that feel familiar, people that you can connect with and it's definitely a page turner.I would definitely recommend this book!" "The best book I have read this year! The Characters are vivid and alive. The scenery is so real. If I hadn't read the Authors web site, I would have thought the story was autobiographical - it is so life like."

    The pup attached himself to Mario almost immediately and very soon he became known by the locals as ‘The Man with the Black Dog’.Very few dogs that live in Africa’s big game country die of old age, but Shilo was the exception that proved the rule. Shilo’s incredible versatility ranged from skilfully tracking big game in the hot arid bushveld to retrieving wild fowl in the icy wetlands if South Africa. He was also a constant companion, a devoted protector and for more than fourteen years he and Mario, had innumerable adventures together, encountering crocodiles, buffalo, lion, leopard, baboons and poachers.The Man with the Black Dog is permeated with the same love and empathy that made Jock of the Bushveld a classic and it too is a very South African story. Seldom has an account of a man and his dog revealed so much of the flavour of life in such a wild location and although over a century has passed since the transport wagons carved their trails to and from Delagoa Bay, the scent evoked of dust and rain remains the same and the grey ghosts of kudu and elephant still melt into the bush.

    Some of the essays previously appeared in a collection published only in South Africa, Resident Alien, but others are collected here for the first time. The collection comprises twenty-three pieces; the title story investigates the provenance of the world famous song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which Malan traces back to a Zulu singer named Solomon Linda who recorded a song called “Mbube” in the 1930s, which went on to be covered by Pete Seeger, REM, and Phish, and was incorporated into the musical “The Lion King.” In other stories, Malan follows the trial of Winnie Mandela and plunges into the explosive controversy over President Mbeki’s AIDS policies of the 1990s.The stories, combined with Malan’s sardonic interstitial commentary, offer a brilliantly observed portrait of contemporary South Africa.

    In an age of relentless European expansion, Ethiopia had successfully defended its independence and cast doubt upon an unshakable certainty of the age-that sooner or later all Africans would fall under the rule of Europeans. This event opened a breach that would lead, in the aftermath of world war fifty years later, to the continent's painful struggle for freedom from colonial rule.Raymond Jonas offers the first comprehensive account of this singular episode in modern world history. The narrative is peopled by the ambitious and vain, the creative and the coarse, across Africa, Europe, and the Americas-personalities like Menelik, a biblically inspired provincial monarch who consolidated Ethiopia's throne; Taytu, his quick-witted and aggressive wife; and the Swiss engineer Alfred Ilg, the emperor's close advisor. The Ethiopians' brilliant gamesmanship and savvy public relations campaign helped roll back the Europeanization of Africa.Figures throughout the African diaspora immediately grasped the significance of Adwa, Menelik, and an independent Ethiopia. Writing deftly from a transnational perspective, Jonas puts Adwa in the context of manifest destiny and Jim Crow, signaling a challenge to the very concept of white dominance. By reopening seemingly settled questions of race and empire, the Battle of Adwa was thus a harbinger of the global, unsettled century about to unfold.

    But in Botswana's Okavango Delta, the world's most awe-inspiring hunters are challenged not only by their waterlogged territory, but also by their formidable prey—the buffalo—who wield their massive horns with deadly accuracy. Pulsing with ancient rhythms of wild Africa, this harsh and eternal struggle is compelling, powerful, and poignant. Award-winning filmmakers and National Geographic Explorers-in-Residence Beverly and Dereck Joubert, give us an unforgettable glimpse of this iconic drama in the official companion book to their feature film, The Last Lions, and warn that due to declining numbers of lions in the wild, it may soon end forever. In fascinating text and breathtaking images, the Jouberts reveal both the beauty and danger of the Okavango Delta and its inhabitants. We follow a lone lioness, Ma di Tau—Mother of Lions—and three newborns as they flee a ferocious rival pride. Braving the Delta, despite their instinctive hatred of water, the lioness and her cubs head for an island lost in a labyrinth of streams. She and two cubs escape successfully; a lurking crocodile snatches the third. Soon, their refuge is invaded by a vast buffalo herd—aggressive, unafraid, a constant threat, yet the lions' only prey. But even as Ma di Tau hones her tactics and stalking skills, she is trapped between throngs of buffalo and a rival lion pride. So she does what all of her kind must—adapt or die. The Last Lions is a story of family and hope in a world of wild beauty and relentless predation that is a superbly photographed, sharply detailed intimate portrait of one dauntless mother struggling to protect her young and preserve her bloodline. It is a vivid, universal vision of the fate of lions everywhere, isolated on tiny islands amid a sea of humanity. Can we rescue them, or have we already, heedlessly, met the last lions? For decades the Jouberts have lived among great cats in the wild, observing, documenting, and often discovering unsuspected facets of lion behavior. A key message is that the inexorably rising tide of human population will soon drown what remains of that world unless we act now. The book draws attention to the numbers (500,000 in the 1950s to only 25,000 lions today) and highlights projects that have been enacted to help preserve wilderness for lion habitat.

    Upon arrival in the New World, the Yoruba religion began to incorporate elements from Catholic and Native traditions, evolving into Santería, and new patakís were born, adding to the many chapters already found in the odu of the diloggun--the sacred oral teachings and divination system of the Yoruba, or Lucumí, faith. Comparable to the myths of ancient Greece and Rome and rich with jewels of wisdom like the I Ching, these Santería stories are as vast as the Hindu Vedas and as culturally significant as the parables in the Torah, Talmud, and Christian Bible. Diloggun Tales of the Natural World presents more than 40 patakís that shed light upon the worldview of Santería. Each story in this collection, reassembled from the oral tradition of the African diaspora, is centered on a spiritual principle in nature: the waxing and waning of the moon, solar and lunar eclipses, the phenomenon of shooting stars, the separation of sky and earth, and the origins of the animals and birds who play key roles in Santería symbology. Revealing the metaphysics, theology, and philosophy of the Yoruba people, this volume shows these stories to be as powerful and relevant today as they were to the ancient Yoruba who once safeguarded them.

    It lies in East Africa, set in a landscape of mountains and rivers - and the Blue Nile, which flows into the River Nile, rises here in Lake Tana. Our wildlife includes giraffes, elephants, zebras, crocodiles, hyenas, lions and all kinds of beautiful birds.The country is rich in history. It has an important place in both the Christian and Muslim religions, with all kinds of colourful festivals. Thousands of people visit our ancient churches and mosques every year.Ethiopian people follow many different traditions, make music in a variety of ways and speak several different languages. We love to dance, sing and have fun, especially on public holidays! Our food is spicy and delicious. The coffee bean originated in this country, and we hold a special coffee ceremony in which the aroma of roasted coffee, the incense we burn, and the pleasure of meeting each other all make for a unique experience.E is for Ethiopia is the latest in the wide-ranging photographic World Alphabet series. The text and photographs in this book are by a group of young photographers in Ethiopia whose work is supported by the UK aid agency CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development.

    Through his story of healing, Medad calls readers to find healing from their own emotional scars. As Medad’s remarkable journey shows, when people forgive each other, they are doing something truly radical. They are changing relationships, communities, countries. They are welcoming God into the corners of the human soul, where real revolution begins.

    Here, for the first time, readers get a fuller picture of elephant society cast in a broader context, including the life of the male elephant in all its high drama. Merging the visual traditions of photojournalism and the nature documentary with the narrative voice of such classics as Jane Goodall's Chimpanzees of Gombe, this large-format, full-color volume of photo essays provides a uniquely rich understanding of what it's like to grow up and live within the complexities of elephant society at every turn of the page. Readers will experience the frustrations and anguish of the coming-of-age male struggling to leave his family, witness the constant vigilance a matriarch exerts to protect her family, and feel the drama of a dominant male trying to hold onto power during times of peace and times of social upheaval. Like Wolf Empire (Lyons Press, 2007), An Elephant's Life is an intimate portrait of a beloved and fascinating species.

    Five generations of women strong, the story begins in early 1900 Memphis with Daisy, a young bride full of hope and dreams for the future and ends in present day with Dahlia, a teen more lost than she knows whose future is hopelessly stalled by the mystery of her past. Lilly, Violet, and Rose are the links in the chain that can set her free or hold her back forever. Joseph, Stewart, Billy, Rueben & Taylor are the succession of men who live their lives intertwined with the women. More than mere observers they play an integral part in setting the course of circumstances that steer the plot of history played out here. A tale of intrigue, love, fear, hope, struggle and desire—a tale that could inspire or frighten us—if we have secrets of our own to keep.

    When a powerful and feared man demands a 'bride price' for the young girl he fosters, the author is forced to rely on his wits and courage to find a way within the rich traditions and superstitions of rural Zaire to set a fair price that the man would refuse to pay.Also available as an e-book

    However, Kenya's independence has been circumscribed by its failure to transcend its colonial past: its governments have failed to achieve adequate living conditions for most of its citizens and its politics have been fraught with controversy - illustrated most recently by the post-election violence of 2007-8. The decisions of the early years of independence and the acts of its leaders in the decades since - from Jomo Kenyatta, Tom Mboya, and Oginga Odinga to Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga - have changed the country's path in unpredictable ways, but key themes of conflicts remain: over land, ethnicity, money, power, national autonomy and the distribution of resources. The political elite's endless struggle for access to state resources has damaged Kenya's economy and the political exploitation of ethnicity still threatens the country's stability. In this definitive new history, Charles Hornsby demonstrates how independent Kenya's politics have been dominated by a struggle to deliver security, impartiality, efficiency and growth, but how the legacies of the past have undermined their achievement, making the long-term future of Kenya far from certain.

    Jack Mapanje represents the moving account of a poet's imprisonment by the state, the struggle to probe the hidden motives behind his arrest and his attempt to provide an unforgettable record of the architecture of imprisonment, the archeology of oppression and the perpetual struggle between the forces of trust and those of naked power. Mapanje's release after three years, seven months and sixteen days was largely due to British and international protest campaigns by human rights organizations and ordinary citizens. This book is a must read for anyone who believes in international justice and freedom of expression. A moving contribution to the growing world literature of incarceration. As such, it has universal appeal.

    It is a journey encompassing a Dutch-owned model farm in Ethiopia; a conference in Riyadh, where representatives of Third World governments compete to attract Saudi investors; meetings in Rome where the fate of nations is decided; and the headquarters of the Movement of Landless Workers in São Paulo.Since the food crisis of 2007–8, when the cost of staples such as rice and corn went through the roof, the race to acquire land in the southern hemisphere has become more intense than ever. Land Grabbing is the shocking story of how one half of the world is starved to feed the other.

    This collection - gathered from privileged authorised access to Mandela's vast personal archive of private papers, speeches, correspondence and audio recordings - features nearly 2,000 quotations spanning over 60 years, many previously unpublished. Mandela's inspirational quotations are organised into over 300 categories for easy reference, including such aspects as what defines greatness in 'Character', 'Courage' and 'Optimism', while we learn from the great man the essence of democracy, freedom and struggle in the categories 'Democracy', 'History', 'Racism', 'Reconciliation' and 'Unity'. Nelson Mandela: By Himself is the first, and only, authorised and authenticated collection of quotations by one of the world's most admired individuals.

    The village witch-doctor looking into his sould didn't help either. After sending Desmond on to Nigeria, I had to rescue him soon afterwards and bring him back to my village, suffering from a severe tropical fever and some nasty magic. The only cure available was at the hands of our witch-doctor and as Desmond recovered he came to understand new things about this man, the society of our village and the way I lived and worked.

    Written by Allister Sparks, Tutu: Authorized featuring contributions from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, President Barack Obama, and Nelson Mandela, as well as interviews given by Reverend Mpho Tutu, Desmond Tutu’s daughter, to world leaders and public figures including Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Bono, Richard Branson, and F.W. de Klerk. A stirring exploration and graphically rich presentation of one of the world’s most inspirational and altruistic figures, Tutu: Authorized overflows with illuminating revelations about Tutu’s life and resonates with insights into how we can each work to improve peace, fairness, and happiness in the world around us.

    He seems to care more about the secret brown envelope he carries with him everywhere than his own daughter. She's convinced things will improve, though, when her mother's baby arrives.Then one night Bambo beats Mai in a drunken rage, and neighbors rush her off to the hospital. Will Mai and the baby live? Will Kondi be sold off by her uncle Kakama to a rich man to be his third wife? And what could possibly be in Bambo's brown envelope?The secrets are about to be revealed.A beautiful coming-of-age story-of love, betrayal, and forgiveness-that you won't soon forget."A must read for those who have a heart for Africa."MIKE MCCLAFLIN, Africa Regional Director, Assemblies of God World Missions"A dramatic conclusion of God's wonderful grace in the life of a Malawian girl."DR. WARREN NEWBERRYFormer missionary to Malawi and Associate Professor of Missions, Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, USA"A captivating adventure in another culture."MARY HAKE, President, Oregon Christian Writers

    I shut my eyes experimentally, opened them again. If I was dreaming, the scene should change – but no, everything was exactly as it had been before."So begins A Labour of Moles, by one of South Africa’s most important writers, Ivan Vladislavic: a story which takes the reader into a realm utterly alien and at the same time as familiar as the letters forming the words on the page and the very building-blocks of fiction.

    In 1939, a centuries-old way of life is shattered when Vittorio Palumbo's family seeks to escape poverty by answering their fascist leaders' call to colonize Arab lands in Libya. Only months later, this six-year-old joins several thousand other children back to Italy for forced enrollment in Mussolini's military schools of indoctrination.

    What could possibly go wrong?Young Maudie doesn’t realise she has a ‘gift’ that seems more like a curse to her brother Tadpole who is the only person aware of it.If Roald Dahl, Gerald Durrell and Stephen King had teamed up to write a South African version of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ they might have produced something like this.A moving, exciting, sometimes scary, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny adventure set against a South African backdrop so well described it is almost a character in its own right.When you finish this book, the first thing you will want to do – is read it again.

    His only weapons were his reputation, a flotilla of river steamers and a few thousand demoralized Egyptian troops. Less than a fortnight after his arrival in Khartoum, Egypt s last field force was routed in the Red Sea Littoral. It was only a widespread popular clamor to Save Gordon that forced the Prime Minister s hand. Conventionally the history books relate that Wolseley s great Nile Expedition came within two days of relieving Khartoum. Wolseley was eminently successful in playing up the nearness of the miss and pointing the finger of blame at the politicians. Colonel Mike Snook eschews casual acceptance of Wolseley s version of events. He subjects the feasibility of the expedition to scrutiny, examines the fragility of the British military position in the Sudan as Khartoum and exposes critical failings in both Wolseley s plan and its execution. Drawing on extensive and sometimes hazardous fieldwork, together with participant accounts, Beyond the Reach of Empire brings a fascinating campaign to life. The narrative accounts and analysis of the epic fights at Battles of Abu Klea and Abu Kru are the most comprehensive, historically accurate and compelling versions yet published, and are accompanied within the plate section by striking images of seldom photographed battlefields.

    Fireforce as a military concept is a 'vertical envelopment' of the enemy (first practiced by SAS paratroopers in Mozambique in 1973), with the 20mm cannon being the principle weapon of attack, mounted in an Alouette III K-Car ('Killer car'), flown by the air force commander, with the army commander on board directing his ground troops deployed from G-Cars (Alouette III troop-carrying gun ships and latterly Bell 'Hueys' in 1979) and parachuted from DC-3 Dakotas. In support would be propeller-driven ground-attack aircraft and on call would be Canberra bombers, Hawker Hunter and Vampire jets. On 23 November 1977, the Rhodesian Air Force and 184 SAS and RLI paratroopers attacked 10,000 ZANLA cadres based at 'New Farm', Chimoio, 90 kilometers inside Mozambique. Two days later, the same force attacked 4,000 guerrillas at Tembue, another ZANLA base, over 200 kilometers inside Mozambique, north of Tete on the Zambezi River. Estimates of ZANLA losses vary wildly; however, a figure exceeding 6,000 casualties is realistic. The Rhodesians suffered two dead, eight wounded and lost one aircraft. It would produce the biggest SAS-led external battle of the Rhodesian bush war.

    This book also explores a host of practices, processes and problems which, in many ways, make for startling comparisons with modern-day South Africa.

    Baldwin's account of her adventure in Africa is honest, moving, frequently funny, sometimes startling, and always compelling. This is a journey of faith, and it carries the reader along every twist and turn in that journey with remarkable clarity and grace." -- Sean Murphy, author of "The Time of New Weather"

    Almost two decades later, however, the prospects of a dignified life of wage-earning work remain unattainable for most South Africans. Through extensive archival and ethnographic research, Franco Barchiesi documents and interrogates this important dilemma in the country's democratic transition: economic participation has gained centrality in the government's definition of virtuous citizenship, and yet for most workers, employment remains an elusive and insecure experience. In a context of market liberalization and persistent social and racial inequalities, as jobs in South Africa become increasingly flexible, fragmented, and unprotected, they depart from the promise of work with dignity and citizenship rights that once inspired opposition to apartheid. Barchiesi traces how the employment crisis and the responses of workers to it challenge the state's normative imagination of work, and raise decisive questions for the social foundations and prospects of South Africa's democratic experiment.

    . . .A white woman and a black man, stranded in the desert in a land laid waste by an undeclared war. She is a campaigning academic and believes in justice, absolutely. He is a barefoot librarian and believes in books, just about. Hunted by The Warriors of God, they must take refuge in the mountains and learn to live with their divergent beliefs if they are to survive.Examining themes broached in Charles Davis' first novel (Walk On, Bright Boy), Standing At The Crossroads explores the parallels between walking and reading, the nature of belief, and the transformational power of storytelling. As the two protagonists are pursued across the mountains, they discover an unlikely love that is of itself their best riposte to the fanatics who want to kill them, and which reaches its climax in the shattering, final confrontation.

    Its powerful words of hope have crossed generations and borders, and have made K’NAAN an international star.In his first book for children, When I Get Older, Somali-Canadian poet, rapper, singer, and songwriter K’NAAN tells his own story. Born in Somalia, he grew up in Mogadishu. His grandfather was a renowned poet who passed on his love of words to his grandson. When the Somali Civil War began in 1991, K’NAAN was just thirteen. His mother made the difficult decision to move her family so that they could grow up in safety. First in New York and then in Toronto, K’NAAN faced many challenges.Like so many other immigrants, he had to make a place for himself in a world of alien customs, clothes, and language. His road was a hard one: he lost many friends to violence. But K’NAAN’s love of music, and his enormous talent, became a way for him to connect with his past, with his classmates, and eventually, to millions of people around the world. Not only does K’NAAN tell a story that will inspire and encourage young readers, but he provides a brief history of the Somalian conflict. The lyrics of “Wavin’ Flag” are also included.Born Keinan Abdi Warsame, K’NAAN first came to prominence when he performed a spoken word piece before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1999. A member of the audience, the singer Youssou N’Dour, was so impressed that he asked K’NAAN to take part in an album and to tour with him.Since then, K’NAAN has performed in more than 86 countries and has received many honors, including three Juno Awards and the BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music. During the Vancouver Olympics, he worked with other Canadian musicians and artists under the name Young Artists for Haiti to produce a charity version of “Wavin’ Flag.” The song was adapted again to become the FIFA World Cup theme song. There are now twenty-two versions of the song, which hit #1 in nineteen countries.

    But how can we explain this proliferation of armed conflicts? What caused them and what were their main characteristics? And what did the world's governments do to stop them? In this fully revised and updated second edition of his popular text, Paul Williams offers an in-depth and wide-ranging assessment of more than six hundred armed conflicts which took place in Africa from 1990 to the present day - from the continental catastrophe in the Great Lakes region to the sprawling conflicts across the Sahel and the web of wars in the Horn of Africa. Taking a broad comparative approach to examine the political contexts in which these wars occurred, he explores the major patterns of organized violence, the key ingredients that provoked them and the major international responses undertaken to deliver lasting peace. Part I, Contexts provides an overview of the most important attempts to measure the number, scale and location of Africa's armed conflicts and provides a conceptual and political sketch of the terrain of struggle upon which these wars were waged. Part II, Ingredients analyses the role of five widely debated features of Africa's wars: the dynamics of neopatrimonial systems of governance; the construction and manipulation of ethnic identities; questions of sovereignty and self-determination; as well as the impact of natural resources and religion. Part III, Responses, discusses four major international reactions to Africa's wars: attempts to build a new institutional architecture to help promote peace and security on the continent; this architecture's two main policy instruments, peacemaking initiatives and peace operations; and efforts to develop the continent. War and Conflict in Africa will be essential reading for all students of international peace and security studies as well as Africa's international relations.

    He lives two lives, dividing time between his rural homestead and a worldclass hotel and spa, constantly bridging the differences between these opposing worlds. As a young man, he was awoken in the dead of night by an apparition sent by his ancestors. In terror, he fled to a river where he was submerged until sunrise. On the bottom of a riverbed, he claimed to acquire all the knowledge of his cultural heritage to heal bodies and minds. Ndlovu is a natural conservationist and leader who believes in the preservation of indigenous flora, in the strength of community, and in ubuntu, the philosophy that the universal bonds of humanity are what bind us. KwaZulu-Natal's violent path to democracy mirrored his own turbulent journey through mental illness – his uthwasa, the necessary process of suffering to become a traditional healer. But torment and tragedy led to consultations with Oscar nominees in Hollywood, a meeting with the British Queen, and a Christmas visit from a former state president. Ndlovu's tales of storm-chasing and magical serpents may be challenging for some, but the poignancy of his story and unwavering belief in African traditional healing are what endear him to the most hardened cynic. Melanie Reeder has captured the essence of this modern sangoma. She sheds light on the beauty of Zulu culture, and clarifies misconceptions about traditional healing.

    It is framed as a journey between two railway stations. The departure is from Park station Johannesburg and the destination is York station in Britain. It is an actual journey and the arrival at York is a real event, but it is also a symbolic journey in which Lewin describes his progress towards a meeting with Adrian Leftwich, the man who betrayed him to the Security Police in 1964. Park station is the point of departure because it was the site in 1964 of the station bomb planted by John Harris who was associated with the cell in which Lewin operated. The book therefore has a quest structure. After 40 years, Lewin is determined to meet with his long-term friend Leftwich both to find out what happened at his trial and to deal with the emotions of anger and bitterness that have assailed him ever since. Lewin's subject is the culpability of betrayal.

    For millions, the color of a person's skin still decides their destiny. In its wide-ranging, in-depth and provocative analysis, South Africa Pushed to the Limit shows that although the legacies of apartheid and colonialism weigh heavy, many of the strategic choices made since 1994 have compounded those handicaps. The economy remains dominated by a handful of large conglomerates that are now entwined in the circuitry of the global economy. The government, meanwhile, has squandered its leverage over their decisions in a series of miscalculations and errors. The social costs have been punishing.  Marais explains why those choices were made, where they went awry, and why South Africa's vaunted formations of the left failed to prevent or alter them.Shedding light on a variety of South Africa's most pressing issues -- from the real reasons behind President Jacob Zuma's rise and the purging of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki to a devastating critique of the country's continuing AIDS crisis -- South Africa Pushed to the Limit provides a unique, benchmark analysis of the long journey beyond apartheid.

    Since then, the country’s new leadership has undertaken a highly ambitious effort to refashion Rwanda’s politics, economy, and society, and the country’s accomplishments have garnered widespread praise. Remaking Rwanda is the first book to examine Rwanda’s remarkable post-genocide recovery in a comprehensive and critical fashion. By paying close attention to memory politics, human rights, justice, foreign relations, land use, education, and other key social institutions and practices, this volume raises serious concerns about the depth and durability of the country’s reconstruction.            Edited by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf, Remaking Rwanda brings together experienced scholars and human rights professionals to offer a nuanced, historically informed picture of post-genocide Rwanda—one that reveals powerful continuities with the nation’s past and raises profound questions about its future.  Best Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians Best Special Interest Books, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

    That's not a political statement. I am not a Whoopee Goldberg or an Oprah Winfrey, a middle-class American in search of an identity or asserting a political right. I am a woman and I am African. That is all there is to it, and that is my tragedy.' In Douala, Cameroon, an African woman relates her life as a woman of Africa to a white oil company worker. Her story can be seen as an experience which encompasses a range of issues that affect women in Africa today, it touches upon Aids tribal prejudice, prostitution, poverty and ignorance. Viewing her life through the conflicting filters of religion and cynicism, her narrative is entertaining and moving. She relates, with no trace of self-pity, her life as a Biafran refugee, as a women in modern Cameroon and as an uneducated Anglophone in today's Douala. The story she tells starts from her birth during the refugee crisis of Biafra. She grows to be a willful child who realises there is life outside the ghetto. The book follows her as she develops into a young woman whose singular, eccentric and colourful character drives her to embrace life furiously. In doing so she challenges the social norms of her society. Rarely self-analytical, she forces an almost existentist path through her limitations, frequently falling along the way but always pulling her self back up without a trace of despair. Through the force of her character she overcomes obstacles to succeed in her dream to become A Woman of Africa. This is an important new novel - and a fictionalised reworking of real life stories told to author Nick Roddy in Douala by Biafran refugees. Nick's own experiences in the region also inform this novel - while writing it he was kidnapped by MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) and held captive in the Jungle for 3 weeks. Nick still spends part of each year living and in Douala.

    She has been forced to hide her gender to preserve her life. Her deception is unmasked, leading to an incredible turn of events. Her wise mother envisions a different life for her daughter – that of a scholar – and takes her to Egypt for an education. Here a conflict of desires surges in Zenobia, for she finds that she loves both paths. As she feeds an emerging hunger for justice, the stirrings of a future political and strategic genius begin to manifest themselves. Growing into young womanhood, Zenobia feels an awakening attraction to two very different males – a vibrant young warrior from her own tribe and a brilliant bachelor scholar whose analytical mind cannot help from feeling romantically drawn to the most intriguing female he has ever met. Meanwhile, Zenobia learns of the annual horse race in Alexandria. She decides to enter her powerful mare against the highly-bred stallions of the East. The power of a legend influences the surprising course of the contest to its thundering conclusion.

    Lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, gazelles, and other large mammals roam the vast, rolling plains of the reserve, and with so many species competing for space and food, the stakes are high, and danger looms at every turn.In African Cats: Kingdom of Courage, filmmakers Keith Scholey and Amanda Barrett follow the lives of some of the Masai Mara's big cats, focusing on two lionesses and a cheetah and her adorable cubs. This companion book to their incredible film offers a fascinating exploration of the unique, yet interwoven, stories of each cat.Filled with stunning photographs of the Kenyan plains and the remarkable animals that reside on them, this book will take you on an unforgettable journey chronicling the struggle to survive.

    1989 A & B PUBLISHERS GROUP SOFTCOVER

    Set in Botswana, the stories trace the lives of characters whose paths cross and re-cross each others', some times in and through love, at other times through tragedy. And through them the author brings to bear a woman's perspective on the societal mores in which sexual abuse, homophobia and AIDS, among others, flourish and spread. The social content and views are never proclaimed as a loud agenda; instead, it forms a 'natural' backdrop to the lives of the characters, something that may raise a wry comment or thought in one character, while eliciting a mere shrug from another. Molefhe's voice is, to some extent, a world-weary voice, weary of all she has seen of society's failures, but never without the gentleness often absent and much needed in broken societies, and never without the hope and redemption that can be found in love and the imagination.

    James Appel leaves the comforts of home in the US to work as the only doctor in a floundering district hospital in the Republic of Chad. As a general practitioner he is faced with having to attempt things way beyond his level of comfort and training. Share the frustration, sorrow, pain, joy, triumph of living life in a totally different culture where patients often prefer to go see the witch doctor or traditional bone setter before coming to the hospital and where death is a daily occurrence. Dr. Appel shares his experiences in riveting first person narrative, written originally as blogs sent over a satellite phone from a village without telephones, water or electricity. Dr. Appel's commitment takes him from highs to lows over the course of three years as he struggles to bring health care to a desperate community while going on his own spiritual journey. Also available from James Appel, MD "Children of the East: the Spiritual Heritage of Islam in the Bible" www.createspace.com/3603603

    This politically-incorrect book reveals the most critical problems facing black male and female relationships, and provides a blueprint for healing our relationships, families, marriages, and ourselves.

    Their destination is tantalizingly close, yet the weather and—more importantly—their health will determine the end result. Barry's backpack holds a Canadian flag with the names of over 200 donors mobilized by the climbers back home. The donors have contributed to providing classrooms and clean water for desperately deserving school children in Tanzania. For Barry, this is a life-changing physical, mental and spiritual adventure. Follow along as he and his son strive to climb one of the World's Seven Summits, meet the children who will benefit from their fundraising, and come to an understanding that one or two people really can make a difference. It is a journey that leaves the two with the lasting impression that nothing is more satisfying than reaching a goal and giving others the opportunity to achieve theirs.

    The city existed as part of the story of the three great West African empires: Ancient Ghana, Medieval Mali and the Songhai Empire. Timbuktu's intellectual tradition is well known and widely praised.However, all of the important Black scholars have claimed that its intellectual heritage was destroyed in the sixteenth century by Arab and European invaders entering from Morocco. For example, Professor Chancellor Williams, in The Destruction of Black Civilization (US, Third World Press, 1987, p.207), claimed that: ‘In the Muslim destruction of the Songhay empire, the main centres of learning with all of their precious libraries and original manuscripts were destroyed first.’He was not alone in this view. Professor Cheikh Anta Diop, in Precolonial Black Africa (US, Lawrence Hill Books, 1987, p.182), advances almost the same theory. He laments on the loss of: ‘the judicial and administrative archives: assistants of cadis [i.e. judges] kept minutes of the sessions. But tons of documents have disappeared.’The ideas of Williams and Diop have influenced an entire generation of Black scholars into believing that West Africa’s intellectual heritage was mostly destroyed after the 1591 Arab and European invasion.This lecture essay, Intellectual Life and Legacy of Timbuktu, was written to disprove this idea. The West African intellectual heritage still exists and the literature is still held by Black families and institutions who have passed on this literature from generation to generation as family heirlooms.This inspiring lecture essay gives an account of this amazing intellectual legacy. There is a map and three illustrations.

    Helena Island slaves speak English, but African drums still throb in their veins; they hear the whispers of their ancestors. From this arises a girl of unusual strength, whose pampered life ends when her kindly mistress dies, and she moves to a shanty in the quarters. Kedzie soon learns that the punishing fields aren't nearly as grim as her master's abuse. Enter Rio, a young man without a family and at a loss for a heritage. He loves Kedzie, but he can't rescue her. Kedzie alone can save herself. How a people survives adversity is a story that never grows old. This is a bold look at slavery. No explanations. No apologies. If you like historical fiction, Kedzie is a must-read. Don't miss it!

    

    Full description

    It covers some 120 mammals, from the smallest (bats, sengis and shrews) to the largest (lion, rhinoceros and elephant), as well as marine species, such as seals, dolphins and whales. Clear, full-color photographs and distribution maps. A must-have for tourists and nature-lovers alike. This authoritative guide offers concise information, clear images of each animal, distribution maps and illustrations of tracks and droppings. This colorfully illustrated guide offers concise information on key ID pointers, similar species, habitat, behavior, diet, reproduction, longevity, calls, occurrence and measurements. Clear images of each animal, distribution maps, silhouettes indicating size relative to humans and illustrations of tracks and droppings offer concise yet detailed information enabling quick and easy mammal ID."

    And they couldn't possible be expected to know that the winds of change would eventually blow these clouds across their beloved home, Scarfell Farm. But when the war of independence finally splits this beautiful country, the boys are thrust into a world so terrible that even their childhood friendship cannot possibly survive it. Caught in the crossfire between black and white Africans, Miles, the son of a white farmer, and Julius, the son of a black farm worker, experience a suffering so great it will destroy their pact of blood brotherhood and settle the burden of hatred upon them as they grow into men. As the fledgling Zimbabwe struggles to emerge from the ashes of war, the enmity between Miles and Julius rages on. Each man is motivated by one goal in life: to destroy the other. The old war between black and white Africa is over, but a new one has just begun.

    In Defeat Is the Only Bad News Alison Des Forges recounts the ambitions, strategies, and intrigues of an African royal court under Yuhi Musinga, the Rwandan ruler from 1896 to 1931. These were turbulent years for Rwanda, when first Germany and then Belgium pursued an aggressive plan of colonization there. At the time of the Europeans’ arrival, Rwanda was also engaged in a succession dispute after the death of one of its most famous kings. Against this backdrop, the Rwandan court became the stage for a drama of Shakespearean proportions, filled with deceit, shrewd calculation, ruthless betrayal, and sometimes murder.            Historians who study European expansion typically focus on interactions between colonizers and colonized; they rarely attend to relations among the different factions inhabiting occupied lands. Des Forges, drawing on oral histories and extensive archival research, reveals how divisions among different groups in Rwanda shaped their responses to colonial governments, missionaries, and traders. Rwandans, she shows, used European resources to extend their power, even as they sought to preserve the autonomy of the royal court. Europeans, for their part, seized on internal divisions to advance their own goals. Des Forges’s vividly narrated history, meticulously edited and introduced by David Newbury, provides a deep context for understanding the Rwandan civil war a century later.

    Susan Corbett told people she was out to save the world, but really she was running--running from her home as much as to anywhere. Like many women, she was searching for meaning to her life or for a good man to share it with. In Africa, she hoped to find both. Compelling and compassionate, In the Belly of the Elephant is Susan's transformative story of what happens when you decide to try to achieve world peace while searching for a good man. More than a fish-out-of-water story, it's a surprising and heart-rending account of her time in Africa trying to change the world as she battles heat, sandstorms, drought, riots, intestinal bugs, burnout, love affairs and more than one meeting with death. Against a backdrop of vivid beauty and culture, in a narrative interwoven with a rich tapestry of African myths and fables, Susan learns the true simplicity of life, and discovers people full of kindness, wisdom and resilience, and shares with us lessons we, too, can learn from her experiences.

    The text will present an introductory, comprehensive overview of the field, and content will be structured to meet broad curriculum requirements.

    It contains thirteen churches hewn or carved from the native tufa rock in imitation of buildings. As legend has it, the site was founded in the 13th century by King Lalibala, ruler of a newly united kingdom a number of centuries after the fall of the sacred capital Aksum. However, nothing of its accepted or assumed history can be regarded as certain. Lalibela and the Ethiopian kingdom remained unknown to the West during the period of the Crusades, and first came to western notice when its ruler sent an embassy to Portugal at the beginning of the 16th century. Dissecting the fragmentary evidence--including decorations, church furnishings, manuscripts, and mural paintings--requires a knowledge of Ethiopian culture and its languages that the authors of this book are rare in possessing.This is the first book to consider this extraordinary site in all its many dimensions--historical and cultural, archaeological, architectural, art historical, and documentary.

    Across time, people have gone beyond the known boundaries to seek new experiences, find new land, or test their theories. This atlas brings their stories together in a richly graphic way. Newly commissioned maps, timelines, illustrations, and carefully researched photography all contribute to make The Illustrated Atlas of Exploration an authoritative reference and a compelling read.

    Through a quartet of characters, the admirable Maya and her devoted husband Omoniyi, the formidable Nduesoh and her philandering husband Edward, the novel depicts how their connected world progresses towards crisis and tragedy. Blackbird is a provocative and evocative novel from start to finish. It lays bare all the fatal flaws of humanity — love and jealousy, need and possessiveness, care and self-preservation — and does so through a style that is finely judged and accessible. Building on its author’s previous ground-breaking novels, this latest follows his interest in how traditional beliefs and personal experiences clash to force explosive changes. Blackbird is an important modern novel by a contemporary Nigerian writer.

    But soon they were told that the move had been illegal, and they were kicked out of their new homes. They built shacks next to the road opposite the housing project and hundreds organized themselves into the Symphony Way Anti-Eviction Campaign, vowing to stay on the road until the government gave them permanent housing. This anthology of stories of justice miscarried, of violence domestic and public, of bigotry and xenophobia, is both testimony and poetry. This book is a means to dignity, a way for the poor to reflect and be reflected. It is testimony that there's thinking in the shacks, that there are humans who dialogue, theorize, and fight to bring about change.

    It was the single bloodiest episode in the campaign, as well as a harbinger of the bitter and desperate fighting still to come in the Second Boer War.Spion Kop, just northeast of Ladysmith, was the largest hill in the region, being over 1,400 feet high, and it lay almost exactly at the center of the Boer line. If the British could capture this position and bring artillery to the hill they would then command the flanks of the surrounding Boer positions.On the night of 23 January 1900, a large British force under Major General Edward Woodgate was dispatched to secure the height, with Lt. Colonel Alexander Thorneycroft selected to lead the initial assault. However, the Boers refused to give up the position and a bitter two days of fighting ensued. In the initial darkness the British mistakenly entrenched at the center of the hill instead of the crest, and suffered horribly from Boer marksmen clinging to the periphery. Suffering badly themselves, the Boers were finally inclined to admit defeat when they discovered that the British had retreated, leaving behind their many dead. Yet, in light of the devastation wrought on both sides, the British were finally able to rally and relieve Ladysmith four weeks later. Ron Lock, esteemed author of many Zulu warfare histories, brings to life this bitter and previously overlooked campaign in vivid and complete detail, with supporting sources including then-journalist Winston Churchill s battle report, as well as many previously unpublished illustrations and 6 newly commissioned maps. His account will be valuable to both historians and strategists wanting to better understand this difficult and devastating conflict.REVIEWS a wonderful addition to the bookshelves not only of enthusiasts in the Anglo-Boer War but anybody with an interest in military history. Guild of Battlefield Guides Member Tony Scott Ron Lock s well-researched book brings to life this bitter and somewhat overlooked battle in vivid and complete detail This account will be valuable to both historians and armchair generals wanting a better understanding of this difficult and devastating conflict. Military Modelcraft International Ron Lock has done his homework in compiling this history nicely presented Highly recommended Miniature Wargames a boon to anyone seeking a better understanding of the Boer War s intricacies, follies, ironies and pathos Toy Soldier and Model Figure Magazine well written, easy to read, and focuses on the British perspective of the battles involved and included much about the action and leadership of the Boers. It provided good focused context for anyone with ancestors involved with this campaign. Paul Milner, FGS FORUM..".an excellent read, well researched and incisive in his handling of the various protagonists involved. He succeeds in offering a fresh perspective"Al Venter, Author of Barrel of a Gun, Iran's Nuclear Option, Gunship Ace, Mercaenaries, War Dog"

    This book analyses the causes, dynamics and politics underpinning oil-related violence in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It focuses on the drivers of the conflict, as well as the ways the crises spawned by the political economy of oil and contradictions within Nigeria's ethnic politics have contributed to the morphing of initially poorly coordinated, largely non-violent protests into a pan-Delta insurgency. Approaching the issue from a number of perspectives, the book offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis available of the varied dimensions of the conflict. Combining empirically-based and analytic chapters, it attempts to explain the causes of the escalation in violence, the various actors, levels and dynamics involved, and the policy challenges faced with regard to conflict management/resolution and the options for peace. It also examines the role of oil as a commodity of global strategic significance, addressing the relationship between oil, energy security and development in the Niger Delta.

    Designed to reflect the content of an undergraduate LLB course, the book provides thorough and informative coverage of all the important topics within the subject.The Law of Contract in South Africa includes several features to support student learning and to inspire independent, critical and reflective engagement with the subject. The book is also a useful resource for legal practitioners wishing to clarify new or foundational principles of the field.

    In this book she describes her life: her walk to school, the dust that blows between her teeth and the mud she wades through, her teacher's down-to-earth encouragement, her fear of being alone, how safe she feels at school...This sensitive account in words and photographs reveals the realities of life for some of the world's most deprived people - and offers hope as Beatrice follows her dream.About Kibera slumKibera is in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, in east Africa. It is one of the largest slums in the world with over half a million people living there – about a quarter of the population of Nairobi. The slum covers 2.5 square kilometres (630 acres). There are no roads and few of the residents have modern toilets, clean drinking water or electricity. The crime rate is high and disease spreads rapidly in the unsanitary conditions.Many people come to Kibera from rural areas to look for jobs in the city. A large proportion of the children have become orphans because so many adults have died from AIDS – many people in Kibera are infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.A number of organisations work in the slum offering medical care, finding jobs and houses, and encouraging people to take part in sports and education. KIKOSHEP (Kibera Community Self-Help Program) provides care and advice for people with HIV/AIDS. They also have a youth centre where youngsters like Beatrice can go for health information and advice. The centre shows films and arranges sports and social events.I first met Beatrice at the KIKOHEP primary school. Since then, she has graduated at the top of her class and is eligible to go on to secondary school. In Kibera, this is most children’s dream – they see education as the best way to escape from the slum.But sadly, many girls are sent away by their families into arranged marriages or end up on the street as prostitutes, so they are never able to realise their dream.The Kenyan Government and the United Nations have now started building new homes in Kibera so that they can move thousands of people out of the slum into better living conditions.

    While the tumultuous uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya have seized the attention of media analysts, the concurrent rebellions in Benin, Gabon, Senegal, Swaziland, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, and in other parts of the African continent have gone virtually unnoticed. Arguing that these disturbances are the result of decades of declining living standards, mass unemployment, land dispossessions, and impoverishment of the majority, this account provides an overview of the struggle for democratization, which constitutes a reawakening of the spirit of freedom and justice for all.

    By telling the stories of many brave women through firsthand accounts, it highlights some of the tremendous challenges related to gender issues in South Sudan today; challenges such as a lack of access to education, high rates of gender-based violence, the prevalence of highly patriarchal traditions and customs, and poor health-care services resulting in the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. Informative and hopeful, this book aspires to contribute to the creation of a policy framework that is in line with the vision of a democratic and peaceful South Sudan.

    The author takes us with him into Somalia and Yemen, Eritrea and Djibouti, with excursions into Ethiopia and the Sudan, as he reveals how the economic and environmental crisis currently in gestation could lead to more social dislocation and violence in this strategically important region.

    Sculptures from throughout Nigeria as well as Edo/Benin bronze and brass sculptures are featured, all from a major African-owned collection of African art. The analysis of this unique collection provides significant insight into an unexplored aspect of African art and the role and relevance of African collectors in shaping discourse on the subject.

    Anthropomorphic sculptures made of wood, textile, bone, string, and shell, many of these bocio were used for protection, healing, and to inflict harm on enemies, imbuing them with a meaning that adds to their physical appeal. In addition to two hundred newly commissioned photographs by Yuji Ono showing the mystery and beauty of these works, a series of personal photographs and texts throughout illustrate the Kerchaches’ passion for African statuary. Published in tandem with the first major exhibition devoted uniquely to the vodun arts, Vodun includes contributions by, among others, Suzanne Preston Blier, Gabin Djimassé, Marc Augé, and Patrick Vilaire.

    Anansi loves to prove just how clever he is by boasting and tricking those around him. However sometimes his tricks backfire with comic effect.Adults will love reading these tales to younger children whilst older children will delight in discovering Anansi for themselves. Following Anansi in the following eight tales:Anansi and the gum dollHow Anansi got to ride TigerHow Anansi turned an ear of corn into one hundred goatsHow Anansi won the stories of the Sky-GodWhy Anansi the Spider stays on the ceilingAnansi and the Witch named ‘Five’Anansi and the pot of wisdomAnansi and the Tommy (Thompson Gazelle)Each story can be read in approximately ten minutes making this book ideal for bedtime at home or for story time in school.

    Also included is an exclusive excerpt of the third book in the series, Death of the Mantis.

    With a naturalist s eye for detail as well as the bigger picture of managing a fragile ecosystem through years of drought and plenty, Mario Cesare brings a storyteller s delight and a dash of Italian passion to sharing his world.Life-and-death encounters with lion, elephant and buffalo are balanced by rescues and interventions as these giants of the lowveld suffer the effects of human interference in their ecosystem. There are problems with poachers and with rapacious neighbors; then the delights of success and in the case of the elephant population, the conundrums of too much success.

    Featuring full-color photos of more than 400 species of birds, mammals, snakes, lizards, and insects, Wildlife of Southern Africa provides a spectacular sense of what travelers can see in the major game reserves and national parks of South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and southern Mozambique. Each species in this guide is accompanied by at least one full-color photograph plus a full textual description. Tips on wildlife photography as well as information on how to make the most of a safari are also included. This is a must-have guide for anyone planning or dreaming about a visit to this fascinating part of the world.Highly portable and informative guide to the wildlife of Southern AfricaHundreds of full-color photos detail more than 400 speciesAt least one full-color photograph and full textual description for each speciesTips on wildlife photography and making the most of a safari

    Dube’s many public achievements. Tracing the history of his forbearers in the Zulu kingdom, this volume chronicles the politician’s life from his birth in 1871, and highlights his many achievements, including the founding of the Ohlange School, the key role he played in the Bhambatha Rebellion, and the authorship of the first Zulu novel. As it evaluates Dube’s five-year presidency of the ANC, this book shows that in spite of the many conflicts and ambiguities in his position, Dube’s central political belief—that Africans should be directly represented in the parliament of the land—remained remarkably constant throughout his long career.

    Her work, though translated into German, Turkish, Arabic, and Italian, has only seen snippets translated into English. Poet Marilyn Hacker has edited and translated a survey of Said's poems from the last ten years in a fully bilingual anthology. The first survey of Said's works to appear in the English language.

    Daniel Mains' detailed and moving ethnographic study, a"Hope is Cut," examines young men's struggles to retain hope for the future in the midst of economic uncertainty and cultural globalization.Through a close ethnographic examination of young men's day-to-day livesa"Hope is Cut"aexplores the construction of optimism through activities like formal schooling, the consumption of international films, and the use of khat, a mild stimulant.Mains also provides a consideration of social theories concerning space, time, and capitalism. Young men here experience unemployment as a problem of timeOCothey often congregate on street corners, joking that the only change in their lives is the sun rising and setting. Mains addresses these factors and the importance of reciprocity and international migration as a means of overcoming the barriers to attaining aspirations.

    Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo writes with the ferocity of a barbed arrow: straight from the quiver of the heart to the target of another heart. The result is a lyrical tale that is experientially rich and enriching, a veritable mosaic of the human condition." JAMES TAR TSAAIOR, Ph.D."Roses and Bullets takes us right into the experience of war: its divisiveness, the pain caused by untimely and violent death, and the humanity that prevails in spite of pain and violence. It comes from a voice of experience, providing depth and insight into a traumatic period in Nigeria’s life in a most moving, graphic way. In reading, we live a little along with the characters, sharing both the trauma and the hope of new life." PAT BRYDEN"Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Roses and Bullets distinguishes itself among the best of Nigerian Civil War novels. It is a beautiful human story about an ugly (inhuman) war. Tearful and heartrending." ODILI UJUBUONU, author of Pregnancy of the Gods

    49 pages of summaries and analysis on West with the Night by Beryl Markham. This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.

    Humanitarian aid agencies, community peacebuilders, microcredit promoters, children's rights activists, the World Bank, the International Criminal Court, the US military, and numerous others have involvedthemselves in African conflicts, all claiming to bring peace and human rights to situations where they are desperately needed. However, according to Adam Branch, Western intervention is not the solution to violence in Africa. Instead, it can be a major part of the problem, often undermining humanrights and even prolonging war and intensifying anti-civilian violence. Based on an extended case study of Western intervention into northern Uganda's twenty-year civil war, and drawing on his own extensive research and human rights activism there, this book lays bare the reductive understandingsmotivating Western intervention in Africa, the inadequate tools it insists on employing, its refusal to be accountable to African citizenries, and, most important, its counterproductive consequences for peace, human rights, and justice. In short, Branch demonstrates how Western interventionsundermine the efforts Africans themselves are undertaking to end violence in their communities. The book does not end with critique, however. Motivated by a commitment to global justice, it proposes concrete changes for Western humanitarian, peacebuilding, and justice interventions. It also offers anew normative framework for re-orienting the Western approach to violent conflict in Africa around a practice of genuine solidarity.