Best of
Africa

2017

Hum If You Don't Know the Words


Bianca Marais - 2017
    In the same nation but worlds apart, Beauty Mbali, a Xhosa woman in a rural village in the Bantu homeland of the Transkei, struggles to raise her children alone after her husband's death. Both lives have been built upon the division of race, and their meeting should never have occurred...until the Soweto Uprising, in which a protest by black students ignites racial conflict, alters the fault lines on which their society is built, and shatters their worlds when Robin’s parents are left dead and Beauty’s daughter goes missing.After Robin is sent to live with her loving but irresponsible aunt, Beauty is hired to care for Robin while continuing the search for her daughter. In Beauty, Robin finds the security and family that she craves, and the two forge an inextricable bond through their deep personal losses. But Robin knows that if Beauty finds her daughter, Robin could lose her new caretaker forever, so she makes a desperate decision with devastating consequences. Her quest to make amends and find redemption is a journey of self-discovery in which she learns the harsh truths of the society that once promised her protection.Told through Beauty and Robin's alternating perspectives, the interwoven narratives create a rich and complex tapestry of the emotions and tensions at the heart of Apartheid-era South Africa. Hum If You Don’t Know the Words is a beautifully rendered look at loss, racism, and the creation of family.

The President's Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison


Jacques Pauw - 2017
    As Zuma fights for his political life following the 2017 Gupta emails leak, this cabal – the president’s keepers – ensures that after years of ruinous rule, he remains in power and out of prison. But is Zuma the puppet master, or their puppet? Journey with Pauw as he explores the shadow mafia state. From KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape to the corridors of power in Pretoria and Johannesburg – and even to clandestine meetings in Russia. It’s a trail of lies and spies, cronies, cash and kingmakers as Pauw prises open the web of deceit that surrounds the fourth president of the democratic era.

The Ardent Swarm


Yamen Manai - 2017
    He wakes one morning to find that something has attacked one of his beehives, brutally killing every inhabitant. Heartbroken, he soon learns that a mysterious swarm of vicious hornets committed the mass murder—but where did they come from, and how can he stop them? If he is going to unravel this mystery and save his bees from annihilation, Sidi must venture out into the village and then brave the big city and beyond in search of answers.Along the way, he discovers a country and a people turned upside down by their new post–Arab Spring reality as Islamic fundamentalists seek to influence votes any way they can on the eve of the country’s first democratic elections. To succeed in his quest, and find a glimmer of hope to protect all that he holds dear, Sidi will have to look further than he ever imagined.In this brilliantly accessible modern-day parable, Yamen Manai uses a masterful blend of humor and drama to reveal what happens in a country shaken by revolutionary change after the world stops watching.

Always Another Country


Sisonke Msimang - 2017
    Her parents, talented and highly educated, travel from Zambia to Kenya and Canada and beyond with their young family. Always the outsider, and against a backdrop of racism and xenophobia, Sisonke develops her keenly perceptive view of the world. In this sparkling account of a young girl’s path to womanhood, Sisonke interweaves her personal story with her political awakening in America and Africa, her euphoria at returning to the new South Africa, and her disillusionment with the new elites. Confidential and reflective, Always Another Country is a search for belonging and identity: a warm and intimate story that will move many readers.Sisonke Msimang is one of the most exciting contemporary female black voices in literature. Now based in Perth, Australia, she regularly contributes to publications like The Guardian, the Huffington Post, and the New York Times. She has over 20,000 followers on Twitter @Sisonkemsimang. Her TED Talk,“If a story moves you, act on it,” has been viewed over 1.3 million times.

Madame President: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf


Helene Cooper - 2017
    Madame President is the inspiring, often heartbreaking story of Sirleaf’s evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author Helene Cooper deftly weaves Sirleaf’s personal story into the larger narrative of the coming of age of Liberian women. The highs and lows of Sirleaf’s life are filled with indelible images; from imprisonment in a jail cell for standing up to Liberia’s military government to addressing the United States Congress, from reeling under the onslaught of the Ebola pandemic to signing a deal with Hillary Clinton when she was still Secretary of State that enshrined American support for Liberia’s future. Sirleaf’s personality shines throughout this riveting biography. Ultimately, Madame President is the story of Liberia’s greatest daughter, and the universal lessons we can all learn from this “Oracle” of African women.

African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918


Robert Gaudi - 2017
    So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with one another not just in the bloody trenches, but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history. With the now-legendary Schutztruppe (Defensive Force), von Lettow-Vorbeck and a small cadre of hardened German officers fought alongside their devoted native African allies as equals, creating the first truly integrated army of the modern age. African Kaiser is the fascinating story of a forgotten guerrilla campaign in a remote corner of Equatorial Africa in World War I; of a small army of loyal African troops led by a smaller cadre of rugged German officers—of white men and black who fought side by side. It is the story of epic marches through harsh, beautiful landscapes; of German officers riding bicycles to battle through the bush; of rhino charges and artillery duels with scavenged naval guns; of hunted German battleships hidden up unmapped river deltas teeming with crocodiles and snakes; of a desperate army in the wilderness cut off from the world, living off hippo lard and sawgrass flowers—enduring starvation, malaria, and dysentery. And of the singular intercontinental voyage of Zeppelin L59, whose improbable four-thousand-mile journey to the equator and back made aviation history. But mostly it is the story of von Lettow-Vorbeck—the only undefeated German commander in the field during World War I and the last to surrender his arms.

Stolen Girls: Survivors Of Boko Haram Tell Their Story


Wolfgang Bauer - 2017
    The event caused massive, international outrage. Using the hashtag “Bring Back Our Girls,” politicians, activists, and celebrities from all around the world—among them First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai—protested.Some of the girls were able to escape and award-winning journalist Wolfgang Bauer spent several weeks with them as they recounted their ordeal. In Stolen Girls, he gives voice to these girls, allowing them to speak for themselves—about their lives before the abduction, about the horrors during their captivity, and their dreams of a better future. Bauer’s reportage is complemented by over a dozen stunning portraits by award-winning photographer Andy Spyra.Bauer also examines the historical and political background of the Islamist terror in the heart of Africa, showing how Boko Haram works and describing the damage it has done to the fragile balance of ethnicities and cultures in one of the world’s most diverse regions. His book tells a story of violence, fear, and uncertainty; it is also a story of hope, strength, and courage.

The Lioness of Morocco


Julia Drosten - 2017
    Still single at twenty-three, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father’s house.When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father’s trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape. As Benjamin’s rising career whisks them both away to exotic Morocco, Sibylla is at last a citizen of the world, reveling in her newfound freedom by striking her first business deals, befriending locals…and falling in love for the first time with a charismatic and handsome Frenchman.But Benjamin’s lust for money and influence draws him into dark dealings, pulling him ever further from Sibylla and their two young sons. When he’s arrested on horrible charges, the fate of Sibylla’s family rests on her shoulders, as she must decide whether she’ll leave him to his fate or help him fight for his life.

Stay with Me


Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ - 2017
    Though many expected Akin to take several wives, he and Yejide have always agreed: polygamy is not for them. But four years into their marriage--after consulting fertility doctors and healers, trying strange teas and unlikely cures--Yejide is still not pregnant. She assumes she still has time--until her family arrives on her doorstep with a young woman they introduce as Akin's second wife. Furious, shocked, and livid with jealousy, Yejide knows the only way to save her marriage is to get pregnant, which, finally, she does--but at a cost far greater than she could have dared to imagine. An electrifying novel of enormous emotional power, Stay With Me asks how much we can sacrifice for the sake of family.

Safari Ants, Baggy Pants And Elephants: A Kenyan Odyssey


Susie Kelly - 2017
     With her husband Terry, Susie sets off for a holiday touring the game reserves, but what she finds far exceeds her expectations. In this, her seventh, travelogue, she takes readers from five star hotels to luxury tents in the wilderness, and to poverty in Nairobi's slums, describing a journey of joy, excitement, discovery, nostalgia, of new friendships and encounters of the very close kind with Kenya’s majestic wildlife. Forgotten memories come flooding back as she revisits the scenes of her childhood and adolescence, so movingly portrayed in her popular memoir I Wish I Could Say I Was Sorry, many of them changed beyond recognition. Written in her characteristic laid back style, this is a travel tale that will appeal to all those readers who have enjoyed Susie's previous books, as well as anybody who has lived in or dreams of visiting Kenya, the magical land Susie still thinks of as ‘home’. 'Vivid, moving, entertaining. Anybody thinking of taking a safari holiday in Kenya, or who would like to take an armchair safari to Kenya, should read this book.' "Hemingway wrote: 'I never knew of a morning in Africa when I woke up that I was not happy.' That is how I feel about Kenya. You feel at once insignificant and amazing, just for being here. This magnificent, beautiful country, birthplace of mankind, owner of my heart." Susie Kelly, 2017 WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: 'I’ve just been on a wonderful safari trip to Kenya! At least that’s how it felt. As a lover of all wildlife this was a trip that I could only ever dream about, but this book more than satisfied my curiosity and thirst for knowledge about African wildlife.' MRS BLOGGS BOOKS 'A wonderful & poignant African safari. Being an animal fanatic I enjoyed learning so much about African wildlife from this book and also the incredible people who care for, and protect it' SUSAN KEEFE 'Susie is a great ambassador for Kenya. It’s the best safari experience you are likely to get, without going on safari!' FRENCH VILLAGE DIARIES 'I consider myself rather knowledgeable about wildlife, yet I still found plenty here that was new to me about the animals and the Masai Mara in particular.' ANDREW IVES 'Susie Kelly's books are always a delight to read. The descriptions were informative, insightful and at times hilarious.' 'Wonderful read. I have avidly read each of Susie's previously published books.' 'One of my best reads ever. Cannot recommend this book enough - beautifully written (as always) and having lived in Kenya myself during the same period empathise totally with every word she writes.' 'Personal, Funny, Informative and Memorable! It's so very well-written, so easy to read, so funny and entertaining, so informative and educational.' 'I'm a big fan of Susie Kelly and her travels. Susie - where you going next? I'll be in my armchair right there with you!' 'What a fabulous trip. Delightful.' 'Thoroughly enjoyable as well as being informative. Certainly made me look forward to such a journey some day!' 'Susie Kelly has a wonderful way with words and descriptions and a fantastic sense of humour.' 'More than your average safari. I pre-ordered the book, received it on 6th June and read it the same day...phone off the hook and cup of tea at hand.

Leopard at the Door


Jennifer McVeigh - 2017
    Her father’s new companion—a strange, intolerant woman—has taken over the household. The political climate in the country grows more unsettled by the day and is approaching the boiling point. And looming over them all is the threat of the Mau Mau, a secret society intent on uniting the native Kenyans and overthrowing the whites.As Rachel struggles to find her place in her home and her country, she initiates a covert relationship, one that will demand from her a gross act of betrayal. One man knows her secret, and he has made it clear how she can buy his silence. But she knows something of her own, something she has never told anyone. And her knowledge brings her power.

One Shadow on the Wall


Leah Henderson - 2017
    It was comforting. It was also a reminder that Mor had made a promise to his father before he passed: keep your sisters safe. Keep the family together. But almost as soon as they are orphaned, that promise seems impossible to keep. With an aunt from the big city ready to separate him and his sisters as soon as she arrives, and a gang of boys from a nearby village wanting everything he has—including his spirit—Mor is tested in ways he never imagined. With only the hot summer months to prove himself, Mor must face a choice. Does he listen to his father and keep his heart true, but risk breaking his promise through failure? Or is it easier to just join the Danka Boys, whom in all their maliciousness are at least loyal to their own?

Love, Africa: A Memoir of Romance, War, and Survival


Jeffrey Gettleman - 2017
    For the past decade, he has served as the East Africa bureau chief for the New York Times, fulfilling a teenage dream.At nineteen, Gettleman fell in love, twice. On a do-it-yourself community service trip in college, he went to East Africa—a terrifying, exciting, dreamlike part of the world in the throes of change that imprinted itself on his imagination and on his heart.But around that same time he also fell in love with a fellow Cornell student—the brightest, classiest, most principled woman he’d ever met. To say they were opposites was an understatement. She became a criminal lawyer in America; he hungered to return to Africa. For the next decade he would be torn between these two abiding passions.A sensually rendered coming-of-age story in the tradition of Barbarian Days, Love, Africa is a tale of passion, violence, far-flung adventure, tortuous long-distance relationships, screwing up, forgiveness, parenthood, and happiness that explores the power of finding yourself in the most unexpected of places.

Dalila


Jason Donald - 2017
    Once she wanted to be a journalist, now all she wants is to be safe. When she finally arrives, bewildered, in London, she is attacked by the very people paid to protect her, and she has no choice but to step out on her own into this strange new world. Through a dizzying array of interviews, lawyer’s meetings, regulations and detention centres, she realises that what she faces may be no less dangerous than the violence she has fled.Written with grace, humour and compassion, this timely and thought-provoking novel tackles its uncomfortable subject matter in a deeply affecting way. A book about forging dignity in a world of tragedy, and raising issues about immigration and asylum-seekers through the story of one woman’s plight, Dalila is a necessary tale of our times. It is also a work of great literary power: a slow-burning, spell-binding novel about how we treat the vulnerable and dispossessed that will leave its readers devastated.

A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa


Alexis Okeowo - 2017
    This debut book by one of America's most acclaimed young journalists illuminates the inner lives of ordinary people doing the extraordinary--lives that are too often hidden, underreported, or ignored by the rest of the world.

Dancing the Death Drill


Fred Khumalo - 2017
    A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead and the restaurant staff baffled. Why did the head waiter, a man who’s been living in France for many years, lunge at his patrons with a knife?As the man awaits trial, a journalist hounds his long-time friend, hoping to expose the true story behind this unprecedented act of violence.Gradually, the extraordinary story of Pitso Motaung, a young South African who volunteered to serve with the Allies in the First World War, emerges. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso found himself on board the ss Mendi, a ship that sank off the Isle of Wight in February 1917. More than six hundred of his countrymen, mostly black soldiers, lost their lives in a catastrophe that official history largely forgot. One particularly cruel moment from that day will remain etched in Pitso’s mind, resurfacing decades later to devastating effect.Dancing the Death Drill recounts the life of Pitso Motaung. It is a personal and political tale that spans continents and generations, moving from the battlefields of the Boer War to the front lines in France and beyond. With a captivating blend of pathos and humour, Fred Khumalo brings to life a historical event, honouring both those who perished in the disaster and those who survived.

Dear Philomena


Mugabi Byenkya - 2017
    July 1991, Leocardia Byenkya underwent an ultrasound that informed her to expect a baby girl. She chose the name Philomena. January 16 1992, her baby was born as a boy. Filled with shock and surprise, Leocardia named her baby boy Mugabi.December 2014, Mugabi suffered from two strokes within a week of each other. Mugabi was 22 years old. 'Dear Philomena,' is a series of thoughts and conversations between Mugabi and Philomena (the girl he was supposed to be) about the year he was supposed to die but somehow lived through.

The Atlas of Forgotten Places


Jenny D. Williams - 2017
    But when her American niece Lily disappears while volunteering in Uganda, Sabine must return to places and memories she once thought buried in order to find her. In Uganda, Rose Akulu—haunted by a troubled past with the Lord’s Resistance Army—becomes distressed when her lover Ocen vanishes without a trace. Side by side, Sabine and Rose must unravel the tangled threads that tie Lily and Ocen’s lives together—ultimately discovering that the truth of their loved ones’ disappearance is inescapably entwined to the secrets the two women carry.Masterfully plotted and vividly rendered by a fresh new voice in fiction, The Atlas of Forgotten Places delves deep into the heart of compassion and redemption through a journey that spans geographies and generations to lay bare the stories that connect us all.

Stay with Me by Ayobami Adebayo | Conversation Starters


Daily Books - 2017
    The novel follows Yejide and Akin, a Nigerian couple who have been married since they met at university. Yejide’s difficulties with becoming pregnant eventually lead Akin to take a second wife, breaking the couple’s agreement to remain monogamous. As Yejide attempts to get pregnant, she must deal with the jealousy and fury she feels at her husband’s choice.Ayobami Adebayo’s debut novel is unforgettable, bursting with color and heart and, as The Guardian describes, “demonstration of female spirit”. The beautiful and nuanced prose invites readers to explore the familiar motif of marital struggles through the lens of a culture that is patriarchal and oppressive. Heartbreak and the expectations of family and community weigh heavily in Adebayo’s narrative, creating a rich and layered story that earned both critical and commercial acclaim.A Brief Look Inside:EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER than the surface of its pages. The characters and their world come alive, and the characters and its world still live on. Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to bring us beneath the surface of the page and invite us into the world that lives on.These questions can be used to...Create Hours of Conversation:• Promote an atmosphere of discussion for groups• Foster a deeper understanding of the book• Assist in the study of the book, either individually or corporately• Explore unseen realms of the book as never seen beforeDisclaimer: This book you are about to enjoy is an independent resource meant to supplement the original book. If you have not yet read the original book, we encourage doing before purchasing this unofficial Conversation Starters.

Inside the Battle of Algiers: Memoir of a Woman Freedom Fighter


Zohra Drif - 2017
    When the movement’s leaders turned to Drif and her female colleagues to conduct attacks in retaliation for French aggression against the local population, they leapt at the chance. Their actions were later portrayed in Gillo Pontecorvo’s famed film The Battle of Algiers. When first published in French in 2013, this intimate memoir was met with great acclaim and no small amount of controversy. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand not only the anti-colonial struggles of the 20th century and their relevance today, but also the specific challenges that women often confronted (and overcame) in those movements.

Gravel Heart


Abdulrazak Gurnah - 2017
    Living with his parents and his adored Uncle Amir in a house full of secrets, he is a bookish child, a dreamer haunted by night terrors. It is the 1970s and Zanzibar is changing. Tourists arrive, the island's white sands obscuring the memory of recent conflict--the longed-for independence from British colonialism swiftly followed by bloody revolution. When his father moves out, retreating into disheveled introspection, Salim is confused and ashamed. His mother does not discuss the change, nor does she explain her absences with a strange man; silence is layered on silence.When glamorous Uncle Amir, now a senior diplomat, offers Salim an escape, the lonely teenager travels to London for college. But nothing has prepared him for the biting cold and seething crowds of this hostile city. Struggling to find a foothold, and to understand the darkness at the heart of his family, he must face devastating truths about those closest to him--and about love, sex, and power. Evoking the immigrant experience with unsentimental precision and profound understanding, Gravel Heart is a powerfully affecting story of isolation, identity, belonging, and betrayal, and Abdulrazak Gurnah's most astonishing achievement.

The Girl from Simon's Bay


Barbara Mutch - 2017
    Louise Ahrendts, daughter of a local shipbuilder, nurtures the dream of becoming a nurse amid the unwritten, unspoken rules about colour that might hold her back.As the port becomes a hub of activity following the outbreak of the Second World War, Louise crosses paths with man she is determined to be with - despite all the obstacles that life and war can throw in their way. But when a new troubled moment of history dawns, can they find their way back to each other?

Child Of Africa


T.M. Clark - 2017
    Working in the messy political society of Zimbabwe, she’s engaged in a constant struggle to save the national parks. When she nearly drives over Joss, the reunion isn’t joyous – Joss let down her dying sister eighteen months before, after all. But once she uncovers the terrible ordeal that Joss has gone through, can she learn to forgive and move forward?When a corrupt and dangerous businessman with close ties to government threatens all he holds dear, Joss realises he doesn’t need to save strangers in a faraway land. But will he fight to save his own country and the people he considers his family?

Churchill & Smuts: The Friendship


Richard Steyn - 2017
    In youth they occupied very different worlds: Churchill, the rambunctious and thrusting young aristocrat; Smuts, the ascetic, philosophical Cape farm boy who would go on to Cambridge where, in an unprecedented achievement, he sat both parts of a law tripos simultaneously and won a double first.Brought together first as enemies in the Anglo-Boer War, and later as allies in the First World War, the men forged a friendship that spanned the first half of the twentieth century and endured until Smuts's death in 1950. Richard Steyn, author of Jan Smuts: Unafraid of Greatness, examines this close friendship through two world wars and the intervening years, drawing on a maze of archival and secondary sources, including letters, telegrams and the voluminous books written about both men.This is a fascinating account of two exceptional men in war and peace: one the leader of an empire, the other the leader of a small fractious member of that empire who rose to global prominence.

Tale of a Boon's Wife


Fartumo Kusow - 2017
    Her decision transforms her life, forcing her to face harsh and sometimes even deadly consequences for her defiance of a strict tribal hierarchy. Set in the fifteen-year period before Somalia’s 1991 Civil War, Idil’s journey is almost too hard to bear at times. Her determination to follow her heart and to pursue love over family and convention is a story that has been told across time and across cultures.

The Axe and the Tree: How Bloody Persecution Sowed the Seeds of New Life in Zimbabwe


Stephen Griffiths - 2017
    Peter died prematurely of a brain tumor; Brenda was repeatedly robbed and ultimately fled the country in her seventies, leaving behind the ruins of all they sought to accomplish.Yet this is not the end of the story. Many students Brenda and Peter taught have kept their faith, though scattered across the country, and many are now in positions of leadership and influence. The strong Christian church in Zimbabwe today continues to honor Peter and Brenda's courage and sacrifice.

My Life in the Bush


Mark Penney - 2017
    Usually sooner. The short answer is “Yes, it could”, whether it is a charging lion or a rampaging elephant. It is inevitable that when working so close to these animals, something will happen. Mark Penney spent more than 20 years working as a field guide and a tourist guide in various South African game parks and reserves, including the Kruger National Park and Pilanesberg. Over the years he has had some interesting experiences and shares some of the stories of encounters with the unpredictable wildlife of Southern Africa.

Heart of a Game Ranger: Stories from a Wild Life


Mario Cesare - 2017
    After years as warden of Olifants River Game Reserve, his feet are firmly planted in this magnificent slice of Big Five country to the west of the Kruger Park, where he has experienced a rich life packed full of incidents far from routine.In Heart of a Game Ranger, Cesare recounts some of these hair-raising, heart-breaking and heart-warming moments: a buffalo calf reunited with its pining mother, injured lions given second chances and rhinos lost, one by one, to poaching.Nestled among these tales, Cesare pays homage to the brave, dedicated and curious personalities engaged in a deadly combat on the most majestic of battlefields. Yet, while rhino poaching is by far the reserve's biggest problem, Cesare reveals how the daily struggles of a game ranger are so much broader - and the rewards, when they come, immense.Heart of a Game Ranger is a story of extremes, one of fierce loyalty and devastating betrayal where spectacular days that end in exhausted satisfaction and achievement are balanced by those that leave behind only despair and frustration.Seen through his eyes and spoken from the heart, Cesare tells a deeply personal story - not only of a life lived wild, but of the joy of Africa's incredible natural world.

Official Guide to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture


National Museum of African American History and Culture - 2017
    Opened in September 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture welcomes all visitors who seek to understand, remember, and celebrate this history. The guidebook provides a comprehensive tour of the museum, including its magnificent building and grounds and eleven permanent exhibition galleries dedicated to themes of history, community, and culture. Highlights from the museum's collection of artifacts and works of art are presented in full-color photographs, accompanied by evocative stories and voices that illuminate the American experience through the African American lens.

Enemy of the People: How Jacob Zuma stole South Africa and how the people fought back


Adriaan Basson - 2017
    When Jacob Zuma took over the leadership of the ANC one muggy Polokwane evening in December 2007, he inherited a country where GDP was growing by more than 6% per annum, a party enjoying the support of two-thirds of the electorate, and a unified tripartite alliance. Today, South Africa is caught in the grip of a patronage network, the economy is floundering and the ANC is staring down the barrel of a defeat at the 2019 general elections. How did we get here? Zuma first brought to heel his party, Africa’s oldest and most revered liberation movement, subduing and isolating dissidents associated with his predecessor Thabo Mbeki. Then saw the emergence of the tenderpreneur and those attempting to capture the state, as well as a network of family, friends and business associates that has become so deeply embedded that it has, in effect, replaced many parts of government. Zuma opened up the state to industrial-scale levels of corruption, causing irreparable damage to state enterprises, institutions of democracy, and the ANC itself. But it hasn’t all gone Zuma’s way. Former allies have peeled away. A new era of activism has arisen and outspoken civil servants have stepped forward to join a cross-section of civil society and a robust media. As a divided ANC square off for the elective conference in December, where there is everything to gain or to lose, award-winning journalists Adriaan Basson and Pieter du Toit offer a brilliant and up-to-date account of the Zuma era.

Destination Casablanca: Exile, Espionage, and the Battle for North Africa in World War II


Meredith Hindley - 2017
    Seventy-four hours later, the Americans controlled the country and one of the most valuable wartime ports: Casablanca.In the years preceding, Casablanca had evolved from an exotic travel destination to a key military target after France's surrender to Germany. Jewish refugees from Europe poured in, hoping to obtain visas and passage to the United States and beyond. Nazi agents and collaborators infiltrated the city in search of power and loyalty. The resistance was not far behind, as shopkeepers, celebrities, former French Foreign Legionnaires, and disgruntled bureaucrats formed a network of Allied spies. But once in American hands, Casablanca became a crucial logistical hub in the fight against Germany--and the site of Roosevelt and Churchill's demand for "unconditional surrender."Rife with rogue soldiers, power grabs, and diplomatic intrigue, Destination Casablanca is the riveting and untold story of this glamorous city--memorialized in the classic film that was rush-released in 1942 to capitalize on the drama that was unfolding in North Africa at the heart of World War II.

It Takes a School: The Extraordinary Story of an American School in the World's #1 Failed State


Jonathan Starr - 2017
    “Why,” they wondered, “would he turn down a life of relative luxury to relocate to an armed compound in a breakaway region of the world’s #1 failed state?” To achieve his mission, Starr would have to overcome profound cultural differences, broken promises, and threats to his safety and that of his staff.It Takes a School is the story of how an abstract vision became a transformative reality, as Starr set out to build a school in a place forgotten by the world. It is the story of a skeptical and clan-based society learning to give way to trust. And it’s the story of the students themselves, including a boy from a family of nomads who took off on his own in search of an education and a girl who waged a hunger strike in order to convince her strict parents to send her to Abaarso.Abaarso has placed forty graduates and counting in American universities, from Harvard to MIT, and sends Somaliland a clear message: its children can compete with anyone in the world. Now the initial question Starr was asked demands another: “If such a success can happen in an unrecognized breakaway region of Somalia, can it not happen anywhere?”

Trekker Girl Morocco Bound: Life after Blood Clots or How I Learned to Live and Love Life as a Thrombosis Survivor


Dawne Archer - 2017
    Yet I suffer from Survivor Guilt; why did my Dad die from his blood clot while I lived through mine? At the age of 26 I experienced two clots, one in my leg and another in my lung. Having made it to my 50s, I now live a fuller and more active life than ever before, although most people would say that trekking in the Sahara Desert to raise money for charity was perhaps a step too far! After being contacted by a friend I last saw 35 years ago, I rashly signed up for this trek which pushed me way beyond my normal limits of endurance. Join me on my journey through the trials and tribulations of this adventure. Laugh and cry with me; this is my story. With blood clots, knowing what to look for might save your life or that of someone close to you.

A Time Traveller's Guide to South Africa in 2030


Frans Cronje - 2017
    Political tensions are on the up, economic performance has weakened, and South Africans are increasingly taking their frustrations to the streets. What does this mean for the country? Frans Cronje's new set of scenarios is a sober compass for our unpredictable future.

I Just Want to Say Good Night


Rachel Isadora - 2017
    But not if Lala has a say--because she's not ready to go to sleep! First she needs to say good night to the cat. And the goat. And the chickens. And, and, and . . .

In Spite of Lions


Scarlette Pike - 2017
    Of course, shedding her old life would be much easier without the disapproving looks of a handsome sea captain and the demons in her past haunting her from worlds away.

Skollie: One man’s struggle to survive by telling stories


John W. Fredericks - 2017
    Fredericks. In this book Fredericks tells the full story on which the film was based. Growing up in a dusty township on the Cape Flats, Fredericks formed a gang with his friends, and at the age of seventeen he was arrested for robbery and sentenced to two years in Pollsmoor prison. A number gangs vied to initiate him into their ranks, but he resisted their advances, offering instead to help them push their time by telling stories. And so he became the prison ‘cinema’, drawing on his storytelling abilities and cementing his ambition to become a writer. Life after prison became a nightmare when he was arrested for a murder he hadn’t committed, his childhood friends were sentenced to die on the gallows, and a gang boss tried to kill him. Slowly he turned his life around, getting a job and building a family, but society kept judging him as a gangster. Struggling to deal with his past, he turned to storytelling again, and painstakingly learnt the art of scriptwriting. The result was Noem My Skollie, which was watched by almost 90 000 people and won numerous awards. Written in a powerful and authentic voice, Skollie is a gripping memoir of life on the Cape Flats, of prison and gangs, and of one man’s struggle to survive all this by telling stories.

Love Does Not Win Elections


Ayisha Osori - 2017
    This is her story."This book is a baton. Those contemplating politics in Nigeria would do well to pick it up" - Feyi Fawehinmi

Mapping My Way Home: Activism, Nostalgia, and the Downfall of Apartheid South Africa


Stephanie Urdang - 2017
    In 1967, at the age of twenty-three, no longer able to tolerate the grotesque iniquities and oppression of apartheid, she chose exile and emigrated to the United States. There she embraced feminism, met anti-apartheid and solidarity movement activists, and encountered a particularly American brand of racial injustice. Urdang also met African revolutionaries such as Amilcar Cabral, who would influence her return to Africa and her subsequent journalism. In 1974, she trekked through the liberation zones of Guinea-Bissau during its war of independence; in the 1980's, she returned repeatedly to Mozambique and saw how South Africa was fomenting a civil war aimed to destroy the newly independent country. From the vantage point of her activism in the United States, and from her travels in Africa, Urdang tracked and wrote about the slow, inexorable demise of apartheid that led to South Africa's first democratic elections, when she could finally return home.Urdang's memoir maps out her quest for the meaning of home and for the lived reality of revolution with empathy, courage, and a keen eye for historical and geographic detail. This is a personal narrative, beautifully told, of a journey traveled by an indefatigable exile who, while yearning for home, continued to question where, as a citizen of both South Africa and the United States, she belongs. "My South Africa!" she writes, on her return in 1991, after the release of Nelson Mandela, "How could I have imagined for one instant that I could return to its beauty, and not its pain?"

Affluence Without Abundance: The Disappearing World of the Bushmen


James Suzman - 2017
    A hunting and gathering people who made a good living by working only as much as needed to exist in harmony with their hostile desert environment, the Bushmen have lived in southern Africa since the evolution of our species nearly two hundred thousand years ago.In Affluence Without Abundance, anthropologist James Suzman asks whether understanding how hunter-gatherers like the Bushmen found contentment by having few needs easily met might help us address some of the environmental and economic challenges we face today. Vividly bringing to life a proud and private people, introducing unforgettable members of their tribe, Affluence Without Abundance tells the story of the collision between the modern global economy and the oldest hunting and gathering society on earth. In rendering an intimate picture of a people coping with radical change, it asks profound questions about how we now think about matters such as work, wealth, equality, contentment, and even time.Not since Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People in 1959 has anyone provided a more intimate or insightful account of the Bushmen or of what we might learn about ourselves from our shared history as hunter-gatherers.

Emerald Labyrinth: A Scientist's Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo


Eli Greenbaum - 2017
    The richly varied habitats of the Democratic Republic of the Congo offer a wealth of animal, plant, chemical, and medical discoveries. But the country also has a deeply troubled colonial past and a complicated political present. Author Eli Greenbaum is a leading expert in sub-Saharan herpetology—snakes, lizards, and frogs—who brings a sense of wonder to the question of how science works in the twenty-first century. Along the way he comes face to face with spitting cobras, silverback mountain gorillas, wild elephants, and the teenaged armies of AK-47-toting fighters engaged in the continent’s longest-running war. As a bellwether of the climate and biodiversity crises now facing the planet, the Congo holds the key to our planet’s future. Writing in the tradition of books like The Lost City of Z, Greenbaum seeks out the creatures struggling to survive in a war-torn, environmentally threatened country. Emerald Labyrinth is an extraordinary book about the enormous challenges and hard-won satisfactions of doing science in one of the least known, least hospitable places on earth.

Kingdom, power, glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the quest for supremacy, 1960–87


Stuart Doran - 2017
    Historian Stuart Doran explores these events in unprecedented detail, drawing on thousands of previously unpublished documents, including classified records from Mugabe’s Central Intelligence Organisation, apartheid South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada.This groundbreaking book charts the development of an intense rivalry between two nationalist parties—Robert Mugabe’s Zanu and Joshua Nkomo’s Zapu—and reveals how Zanu’s victory in the elections of 1980 was followed by a carefully orchestrated five-year plan, driven by Mugabe, which sought to smash all forms of political opposition and impose a one-party state.​Doran shows not only what happened during Zimbabwe’s darkest chapter, but why—and why it still matters. In an expansive narrative saturated with new findings, he documents a culture of political intolerance in which domination and subjugation became the only options, and traces the rise of the key proponents of this supremacist ideology.

Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement


Alexander Thurston - 2017
    It has killed more than twenty thousand people and displaced more than two million in a campaign of terror that began in Nigeria but has since spread to Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well. This is the first book to tell the full story of this West African affiliate of the Islamic State, from its beginnings in the early 2000s to its most infamous violence, including the 2014 kidnapping of 276 Nigerian schoolgirls.Drawing on sources in Arabic and Hausa, rare documents, propaganda videos, press reports, and interviews with experts in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Niger, Alexander Thurston sheds new light on Boko Haram's development. He shows that the group, far from being a simple or static terrorist organization, has evolved in its worldview and ideology in reaction to events. Chief among these has been Boko Haram's escalating war with the Nigerian state and civilian vigilantes.The book closely examines both the behavior and beliefs that are the keys to understanding Boko Haram. Putting the group's violence in the context of the complex religious and political environment of Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, the book examines how Boko Haram relates to states, politicians, Salafis, Sufis, Muslim civilians, and Christians. It also probes Boko Haram's international connections, including its loose former ties to al-Qaida and its 2015 pledge of allegiance to ISIS.An in-depth account of a group that is menacing Africa's most populous and richest country, the book also illuminates the dynamics of civil war in Africa and jihadist movements in other parts of the world.

Murder in the Zambezi: The story of the Air Rhodesia Viscounts shot down by Russian-made missiles


Ian Pringle - 2017
    In this in-depth exploration of a little-known piece of southern African history, Ian Pringle tells a true story of terrorism, sabotage, and survival. Pringle, who lived in Rhodesia at the time of the crashes, collected interviews from survivors, witnesses, pilots, ground staff, accident investigators, family members, and experts. These testimonies reveal stories of heroism and courage in the wake of a major tragedy. Air Rhodesia Flight RH825 was the first airliner ever to be shot down by Russian surface-to-air guided missile. The surviving passengers tell the story of the crash and its horrific aftermath. Five months later, Air Rhodesia Flight RH827 was downed in the same way. This time, there were no survivors. In addition to presenting vivid first-person testimonies, Pringle examines how the attacks—and the ensuing collective rage of the Rhodesian people at those responsible—contributed to the instability of the country. He shows how these tragedies indirectly led to the rise of Robert Mugabe and laid the groundwork for a very different future for the African nation.

Africa's Billionaires: Inspirational Stories from the Continent's Wealthiest People


Chris Bishop - 2017
    Chris Bishop gets up close and personal with the biggest names in business on the continent: Aliko Dangote, Patrice Motsepe, Nicky Oppenheimer, Christo Wiese, Wendy Appelbaum and Stephen Saad, among others. These are the stories of how they not only survived, but thrived, in the fast and furious world of African business: Narendra Raval, the penniless priest who became a steel baron; Tim Tebeila, the barefoot apple-seller who turned into a mining millionaire; Herman Mashaba, the 'knocksman' who went from running dice games and dealing drugs to running a city; Pascal Dozie, the economics student who studied with Mick Jagger ... This is a rich tapestry of stories about the super-wealthy and the qualities that make them so spectacularly successful, in arguably the most challenging economic arena in the world.

A Season in the Sun


Robert Rees - 2017
    His day consists of ignoring requests to tidy his desk, making money and spending it on his three great loves: French landscape paintings, fine wine, and cricket. But the new City does not agree with him, and he finds himself falsely accused of financial chicanery, and summarily dismissed. In a stroke of extremely good fortune, a legacy from an elderly aunt allows Henry to move to the Seychelles – though there are strings attached. He must manage her Village Cricket Club, and propel it through the formative years of the Seychelles Cricket league to the position of greatness it deserves. For his colourful and talented team of amateurs, who include a depressive ex-county opener, a drug-taking fast bowler, and the local Chief of Police, this would be difficult enough a task. But in addition there are darker forces within Seychelles cricket, forces from the murky world of gambling who wish to twist the beautiful game to their illicit ends. Henry’s first season in the sun becomes a high stakes contest of amateur talent against organised crime, leading to a thrilling climax...

Into Africa


Frans Lanting - 2017
     Lanting’s images feature some of the most celebrated landscapes on Earth, from the sweeping vistas of the Serengeti Plains and the water wilderness of the Okavango Delta to the enchanting deserts of Namibia, the bewildering jungles of the Congo, and the otherworldly island of Madagascar. During many journeys over the past three decades, Lanting has documented Africa’s iconic animals—elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, leopards, and cheetahs—as well as its endangered primates, including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lemurs. His personal stories express the deep understanding and sense of mission that make his work stand out as a unique tribute to the continent’s wildlife and wild places. This book is based on Frans Lanting’s landmark exhibition, Into Africa, which was produced as a partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the National Geographic Society, with support from the World Wildlife Fund.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency: BBC Radio Casebook, Vol. 1 - Eight Full-Cast Dramatisations


Alexander McCall Smith - 2017
    These acclaimed productions, complete with vibrant music, bring the exotic world of the books to life.In these eight episodes, Mma Ramotswe takes on her first case – and a new secretary; tries to solve a bone mystery; tackles a domestic drama and a doctor's erratic behaviour; and investigates the case of a missing American. In addition, she is hired by a beauty contest judge to check the integrity of the finalists; looks for two women wronged by her client, Mr Molefelo; learns of a rival detective agency; and is commissioned by a physiotherapist to find out what her errant husband is up to. The stories included are: The Daddy; The Bone; The Maid; Tears of the Giraffe; The Chief Justice of Beauty; The Confession; The Kalahari Typing School for Men and The Admirer.Claire Benedict stars as Mma Ramotswe, with Nadine Marshall as Mma Makutsi and Joseph Marcell as Mr JLB Matekoni.Duration: 6 hours approx

Play Like a Girl: How a Soccer School in Kenya's Slums Started a Revolution


Ellie Roscher - 2017
    After being raised by his aunts, mother, and grandmother and having a daughter himself, he felt that he needed to make a difference.In 2002, Abdul started a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera (GSK), with the hope of fostering a supportive community and providing emotional and mental support for the young women in the town. The soccer program was a success, but the looming dangers of slum life persisted, and the young women continued to fall victim to the worst kinds of human atrocities. Indeed, it was the unyielding injustice of these conditions that led Abdul to the conclusion that soccer alone was not enough to create the necessary systemic change.In 2006, after much work, the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy (KGSA) was established with their first class of 11 girls and 2 volunteer teachers. Today, KGSA is composed of 20 full-time staff, provides a host of artistic and athletic programs for more than 130 students annually, and continues to expand. By providing academics inside and outside of the classroom along with artistic and athletic opportunities, KGSA inspires the young women of Kibera to become advocates for change within their own communities and for Kenya as a whole.Play Like a Girl tells the KGSA story through Abdul's voice and vision and the stories of key staff and students. It is written by Ellie Roscher who spent 2 summers doing research at KGSA and several years writing this book.

How to Steal a City: The Battle for Nelson Mandela Bay, an Inside Account


Crispian Olver - 2017
    Over the following eighteen months, I led the investigations and orchestrated the crackdown as the "hatchet man" for the metro’s new Mayor, Danny Jordaan. This is my account of kickbacks, rigged contracts and a political party at war with itself.' How to Steal a City is the gripping insider account of this intervention, which lays bare how Nelson Mandela Bay metro was bled dry by criminal syndicates, and how factional politics within the ruling party abetted that corruption.As a former senior state official and local government 'fixer', Crispian Olver was no stranger to dodgy politicians and broken organisations. Yet what he found in Nelson Mandela Bay went far beyond rigged contracts, blatant conflicts of interest and garden-variety kickbacks. The city's administration had evolved into a sophisticated web of front companies, criminal syndicates and compromised local politicians and officials. The metro was effectively controlled by a criminal network closely allied to a dominant local ANC faction. What Olver found was complete state capture – a microcosm of what has taken place in national government.Olver and his team initiated a clean-up of the administration, clearing out corrupt officials and rebuilding public trust. Then came the ANC's doomed campaign for the August 2016 local government elections. Having lost its way in factional battles and corruption, the divided party went down to a humiliating defeat in its traditional heartland.Olver paid a high price for his work in Nelson Mandela Bay. Intense political pressure and even threats to his personal safety took a toll on his mental and physical health. When his political support was withdrawn, he had to flee the city as the forces stacked against him took their revenge. This is his story.

Radio Sunrise


Anietie Isong - 2017
    ‘It is a real life saver for all journalists in this country.’Ifiok, a young journalist working for the government radio station in Lagos, Nigeria, aspires to always do the right thing but the odds seem to be stacked against him. Government pressures cause the funding to his radio drama to get cut off, his girlfriend leaves him when she discovers he is having an affair with an intern, and kidnappings and militancy are on the rise in the country. When Ifiok travels to his hometown to do a documentary on some ex-militants’ apparent redemption, a tragi-comic series of events will make him realise he is unable to swim against the tide. Radio Sunrise paints a satirical portrait of (post) post-colonial Nigeria that builds on the legacy of the great African satirist tradition of Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Ayi Kwei Armah.

Reflecting Rogue: Inside the Mind of a Feminist


Pumla Dineo Gqola - 2017
    In ‘Becoming my mother’ the themes of fear, envy, adoration and resentment are unpacked in mother-daughter relationships. While ‘I’ve got all my sisters with me’ explores the heady heights of feminist joy, ‘A meditation on feminist friendship with gratitude’ exposes a new, and more personal side to ever-incisive Gqola.

The Boy from the Wild


Peter Meyer - 2017
     Peter Meyer grew up on an African game reserve. His idyllic childhood was spent running wild in the bush with Zulu friends and other free spirits. His adventures in the wilderness honed his character, nurtured by an inspirational father who taught him to believe that everything is possible. Before he had turned eight he had survived Rhino attacks, close encounters with Buffalo and Wildebeest — and the terror of twice being bitten by snakes. His pets were a baby Elephant, Warthogs and an Ostrich that frequented his backyard. He lived in a world where beauty was tempered by daily struggles for survival. He discovered that the reality of the bush is often heart-breaking, such as when an Nyala doe that he had hand-reared was taken by predators. He learned through first-hand experience that the cycle of life on Africa’s feral outbacks can be as unforgiving as it is magnificent. These were the key lessons from the wilds of Africa that he took with him when his family left the continent; from school days in England where his tough upbringing resulted in being a top sportsman, to studying at an exclusive Swiss hotel school and becoming one of the youngest directors in the Hilton group, managing exotic resorts in Jamaica and the Middle East. He was on top of the world when everything came crashing down due to tragedy. Drawing on resilience learned in the African bush, he started to rebuild his life, becoming an actor and model, clawing his way up in one of the most critically demanding industries in the world. This is an inspiring true story of living the dream — a dream nurtured by the freedom and self-reliance of growing up wild in Africa.

Spy - Uncovering Craig Williamson


Jonathan Ancer - 2017
    Williamson was elected NUSAS’s vice president and in January 1977, when his career in student politics came to an abrupt end, he fled the country and from Europe continued his anti-apartheid ‘work’. But Williamson was not the activist his friends and comrades thought he was. In January 1980, Captain Williamson was unmasked as a South African spy. Williamson returned to South Africa and during the turbulent 1980s worked for the foreign section of the South African Police’s notorious Security Branch and South Africa’s ‘super-spy’ transformed into a parcel-bomb assassin.

Giles's War


Timothy S. Benson - 2017
    . . Wonderful cartoons.’ Nick Robinson, Radio 4 TodayFew contemporaries captured Britain's indomitable wartime spirit as well or as wittily as the cartoonist Carl Giles. Now, for the first time, the very best of the cartoons he produced between 1939 and 1945 are brought together, including many that have not seen the light of day in over 75 years.As a young cartoonist at Reynold’s News and then the Daily Express and Sunday Express, Giles's work provided a crucial morale boost – and much-needed laughs – to a population suffering daily privations and danger, and Giles's War shows why. Here are his often hilarious takes on the great events of the war – from the Fall of France, via D-Day, to the final Allied victory – but also his wryly amusing depictions of ordinary people in extraordinary times, living in bombed-out streets, dealing with food shortages, coping with blackouts, railing against bureaucracy and everyday annoyances. It's a brilliantly funny chronicle of our nation’s finest hour, as well as a fitting tribute to one of our greatest cartoonists.

Hey, Baby!: A Collection of Pictures, Poems, and Stories from Nature's Nursery


Stephanie Drimmer - 2017
    Get up close to adorable baby animals – from the teensiest turtle hatchling to the biggest baby whales; from black bear cubs frolicking free in the Rocky Mountains to a kangaroo joey lounging safely in its mother's pouch. Readers will ooh and aah over the cute baby pictures, sweet stories, folktales, and poems in this lovely keepsake book. Ideal for reading to sleepy little ones!

Ratels on the Lomba: The story of Charlie Squadron


Leopold Scholtz - 2017
    Ratels On The Lomba places the reader in the midst of the squadron of young conscripts who were taken off to the Border War to fight in this battle.Not only were they up against a vastly superior Angolan force in terms of numbers and weaponry, but they also had to deal with terrain so dense that their sight was severely impaired and their movement restricted. Also, even though SADF tactical doctrine clearly stated that tanks had to be countered by tanks, these conscripts had to take on the Angolan tanks in armoured cars with inferior low-velocity guns and thin armour, designed to keep out nothing more than small-arms fire. Yet, during the battle on the Lomba the 47 Brigade of the Angolan forces was nearly wiped out.Scholtz’z blow-by-blow account of a David vs. Goliath battle takes the reader to the heart of the action. It is honestly told and vividly described, thanks to interviews with veterans and diary entries that help to recreate the drama of the battle. It is an intensely human story of how individuals react in the face of death and how the war never left them, even when they returned home.

Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly


Safwan M Masri - 2017
    In a region beset by brutal repression, humanitarian disasters, and civil war, Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution alone gave way to a peaceful transition to a functioning democracy. Within four short years, Tunisians passed a progressive constitution, held fair parliamentary elections, and ushered in the country's first-ever democratically elected president. But did Tunisia simply avoid the misfortunes that befell its neighbors, or were there particular features that set the country apart and made it a special case?In Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly, Safwan M. Masri explores the factors that have shaped the country's exceptional experience. He traces Tunisia's history of reform in the realms of education, religion, and women's rights, arguing that the seeds for today's relatively liberal and democratic society were planted as far back as the middle of the nineteenth century. Masri argues that Tunisia stands out not as a model that can be replicated in other Arab countries, but rather as an anomaly, as its history of reformism set it on a separate trajectory from the rest of the region. The narrative explores notions of identity, the relationship between Islam and society, and the hegemonic role of religion in shaping educational, social, and political agendas across the Arab region. Based on interviews with dozens of experts, leaders, activists, and ordinary citizens, and a synthesis of a rich body of knowledge, Masri provides a sensitive, often personal, account that is critical for understanding not only Tunisia but also the broader Arab world.

Another Fine Mess: America, Uganda, and the War on Terror


Helen C. Epstein - 2017
    Museveni's involvement in the conflicts in Sudan, South Sudan, Rwanda, Congo, and Somalia has earned him substantial amounts of military and development assistance, as well as near-total impunity. It has also short-circuited the power the people of this region might otherwise have over their destiny. Epstein set out for Uganda more than 20 years ago to work as a public health consultant on an AIDS project. Since then, the roughly $20 billion worth of foreign aid poured into the country by donors has done little to improve the well-being of the Ugandan people, whose rates of illiteracy, mortality, and poverty surpass those of many neighboring countries. Money meant to pay for health care, education, and other public services has instead been used by Museveni to shore up his power through patronage, brutality, and terror. Another Fine Mess is a devastating indictment of the West's Africa policy and an authoritative history of the crises that have ravaged Uganda and its neighbors since the end of the Cold War.

Tea in Tripoli


Bernadette Nason - 2017
    When her cat is run over by a garbage truck, Nason makes an impetuous decision. With almost no travel experience, she grabs the first available overseas job and, within two months, finds herself in Libya. ‘Fitting in’ has never been her strength, yet here she is, the most unstable, self-loathing, slightly overweight fish ever to throw itself recklessly out of its own water. Move over, Bridget Jones, there’s a new, real-life idiot in town.Inspired by her expatriate adventures during Gaddafi's turbulent regime, c. 1984-85, Nason covers her thwarted desire to ‘fit in’, from bizarre daily life to terrifying confrontations with the Morality Police. Told with candor and wit, TEA IN TRIPOLI, follows a young woman’s attempts to escape her past on an extraordinary, often perilous, journey of self-discovery. It’s sure to resonate with anyone who has ever run away from problems instead of taking care of business.

7 Years of Camera Shake: The Wildlife Photography of David Plummer


David Plummer - 2017
    They are the epitome of form and function, and have a level of perfection that we revere.In 2009, wildlife expert, conservationist and photographer David Plummer was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Rather than let it defeat him, he was galvanised to grab life by the horns and achieve the perfect wildlife shot.Over the next seven years, he did much more than that. The result is this breathtaking collection of over 200 of his best and favourite photographs of exotic and wild animals in their natural habitats. To capture them, David travelled to some of the most remote and stunning locations across the world, from Africa to India to the Galápagos Islands and back to his native England.7 Years of Camera Shake showcases seven years of immersive and illuminating photography: of predators on the prowl, of prey in the clutches of death, of the inexplicable synchronisation of nature, of the beautiful relationship between mother and child, and much, much more.Plummer’s work has been featured in wildlife publications and national and international press, and now the work he has produced since his diagnosis is showcased here, accompanied by his thoughts and anecdotes on how he achieved each perfect shot.

From Barefoot to Bishop: A Rwandan Refugee's Journey


RT. Rev. Dr. Laurent Mbanda - 2017
    This memoir will inspire church leaders and laity alike, and it will appeal to those with a passion to living a life with a mission.In November 1959, Ethnic tensions in the East African Nation of Rwanda ignited what would become the first wave of deadly organized massacres against the Tutsi in Rwanda and a precursor to the horrific Genocide of 1994 in which a million or more Rwandans were killed in a hundred days. But on that day in 1959, a five-year-old boy named Laurent Mbanda knew only three things: first, that the air was filled with smoke; second, that his father was missing; and third, that his frightened mother was telling him they had to run and hide. Soon, Mbanda would become one of tens of thousands of Rwandan children literally running for their lives, one of the many children who would grow up in refugee camps amid dire poverty and hunger.From one refugee camp to another in Burundi, Mbanda and his family faced deprivation and near-constant discrimination because of their refugee status. Despite bitter hardships and setbacks, Mbanda never lost his faith.

Dirty War: Rhodesia And Chemical Biological Warfare 1975-1980


Glenn Cross - 2017
    Having declared its independence from Great Britain in 1965, the government--made up of European settlers and their descendants--almost immediately faced a growing threat from native African nationalists. In the midst of this long and terrible conflict, Rhodesia resorted to chemical and biological weapons against an elusive guerrilla adversary. A small team made up of a few scientists and their students at a remote Rhodesian fort to produce lethal agents for use. Cloaked in the strictest secrecy, these efforts were overseen by a battle-hardened and ruthless officer of Rhodesia's Special Branch and his select team of policemen. Answerable only to the head of Rhodesian intelligence and the Prime Minister, these men working alongside Rhodesia's elite counterguerrilla military unit, the Selous Scouts, developed the ingenious means to deploy their poisons against the insurgents. The effect of the poisons and disease agents devastated the insurgent groups both inside Rhodesia and at their base camps in neighboring countries. At times in the conflict, the Rhodesians thought that their poisons effort would bring the decisive blow against the guerrillas. For months at a time, the Rhodesian use of CBW accounted for higher casualty rates than conventional weapons. In the end, however, neither CBW use nor conventional battlefield successes could turn the tide. Lacking international political or economic support, Rhodesia's fate from the outset was doomed. Eventually the conflict was settled by the ballot box and Rhodesia became independent Zimbabwe in April 1980. Dirty War is the culmination of nearly two decades of painstaking research and interviews of dozens of former Rhodesian officers who either participated or were knowledgeable about the top secret development and use of CBW. The book also draws on the handful of remaining classified Rhodesian documents that tell the story of the CBW program. Dirty War combines all of the available evidence to provide a compelling account of how a small group of men prepared and used CBW to devastating effect against a largely unprepared and unwitting enemy. Looking at the use of CBW in the context of the Rhodesian conflict, Dirty War provides unique insights into the motivation behind CBW development and use by states, especially by states combating internal insurgencies. As the norms against CBW use have seemingly eroded with CW use evident in Iraq and most recently in Syria, the lessons of the Rhodesian experience are all the more valid and timely.

Conversations with a Gentle Soul


Ahmed Kathrada - 2017
    He faced house arrest and many court trials related to his activism until, finally, a trial for sabotage saw him sentenced to life imprisonment alongside Mandela and six others.Conversations with a Gentle Soul has its origins in a series of discussions between Kathrada and Sahm Venter about his opinions, encounters and experiences. Throughout his life, Kathrada has refused to hang on to negative emotions such as hatred and bitterness. Instead, he radiates contentment and the openness of a man at peace with himself. His wisdom is packaged within layers of optimism, mischievousness and humour, and he provides insights that are of value to all South Africans.About the authorsAhmed Mohamed “Kathy” Kathrada was born on 21 August 1929 in Schweizer-Reneke. He entered politics at the age of 12 when he joined a non-racial youth club in Johannesburg that was run by the Young Communist League.Kathrada was jailed for the first time at the age of 17 in the Passive Resistance Campaign, for defying a law that discriminated against Indians. In 1952, along with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and 17 others, Kathrada was sentenced to nine months in prison with hard labour, suspended for two years, for their involvement in the Defiance Campaign. He received his first banning orders in 1954 and was arrested several times for breaking them.On 11 July 1963 he was arrested in a police raid on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. This led to the Rivonia Trial for sabotage, which resulted in life sentences imposed on Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Kathrada, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Denis Goldberg, Elias Motsoaledi and Andrew Mlangeni. Kathrada was in prison for 26 years and three months, 18 years of which were on Robben Island. A few months after his release on 15 October 1989, the African National Congress was unbanned.Kathrada served as Mandela’s parliamentary counsellor from 1994 to 1999 and for one term as the chairperson of the Robben Island Museum Council. In 2008, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation was established, with the aim of deepening non-racialism. Kathrada lives in retirement in Johannesburg and Cape Town with his wife, Barbara Hogan. This is his seventh book.Sahm Venter was born in Johannesburg and worked as a journalist for more than 20 years, mainly for the foreign media and the international news agency The Associated Press. The majority of her journalism career was focused on covering the anti-apartheid struggle and South Africa’s transition to democracy.Venter was a member of the editorial team for Nelson Mandela’s bestselling book Conversations with Myself. She edited A Free Mind and has co-edited several books, including: Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations, with Sello Hatang; 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, with Swati Dlamini; and Something to Write Home About: Reflections from the Heart of History, with Claude Colart. Venter has also authored a series of books called Exploring Our National Days. She is currently the senior researcher at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Before Forever After: When Conversations About Living Meet Questions About Dying


Helena Dolny - 2017
    How do you want to live your life? Do you have secrets that might hurt loved ones following your death? What medical intervention do you want at the end of your life? What rituals matter to you?

Bertha the Swiss Trader's Daughter: Love, War and Conspiracy in the Turbulent Past of Malawi - the little Jewel of Africa


Eleni Trataris Cotton - 2017
    Bertha and her sisters are left unprotected in a male dominated, racist society.Rejecting despair, they forge a new path for themselves with courage and determination. But is this enough to open society's closed doors, to build a new life, find love and defy what society expects lone girls of mixed race to do?This is fact-fiction meticulously researched, a novel and adventure story which is based on real peoples' lives, people who experienced the depths of tragedy, yet also the heights of joy during their lives on an unforgettably beautiful and wild continent. It is a slice of history, a window into an enthralling, exciting and doomed world that is gone forever.

Across The Dark Continent Bicycle Diaries from Africa 1931-1936


Kazimierz Nowak - 2017
    Caution! No English version! Polish release.

Message To The People


Marcus Garvey - 2017
    

Migrations: New Short Fiction from Africa


Helen MoffettUmar Turaki - 2017
    The stories explore true and alternative African culture through a competition on the theme of Migration. This is the fourth in the SSDA collection of anthologies which aim to break the one-dimensional view of African story telling and fiction writing. These are fresh urgent perspectives on one of our most profound phenomena.Contents:Exodus / Mirette Bahgat Eskaros --Involution / Stacy Hardy --Leaving / Okafor Tochukwu --Movement in the key of love / Lauri Kubuitsile --Diaspora electronica / Blaize Kaye --Naming / Umar Turaki --Things we found north of the sunset / Aba Asibon --Ayanti / Mary Ononokpono --Bleed / Gamu Chamisa --This bus is not full! / Fred Khumalo --Of fire / Mignotte Mekuria --My sister's husband / Nyarsipi Odeph --The castle / Arja Salafranca --Teii mom, win rekk lah / Francis Aubee --A door ajar / Sibongile Fisher --Farang / Megan Ross --Lymph / Anne Moraa --Tea / TJ Benson --The fates / Edwin Okolo --Keeping / Karen Jennings --The impossibility of home / Izda Luhumyo.

In The Field: A Novel


Jesse Loncraine - 2017
    Orin’s mother Liz, herself a retired reporter, is determined to find her son. Heedless of her battle with cancer, she heads into the field in search of him. As Liz and Christine deal with their sons’ disappearances in their own very different ways, Orin and Paul struggle to stay alive without losing their humanity in the process. This thrilling debut novel grapples with the ethical dilemmas of conflict reporting as seen through the complex and compelling relationships between two mothers and their sons.

Learning to See: And Other Stories and Memoirs from Senegal


Gary Engelberg - 2017
    We are about three quarters of the way through the rainy season. This has been one of those years that gives the impression of having passed by in overdrive. Suddenly January turned to May while I was still getting used to writing 2015 on my checks. Five days ago, September 1, marked my fifty years in Senegal… The years too have passed quickly. When I decided to write, the short stories in this book came quickly as well, like ripe mangos falling from the tree. They are accounts of real people and real events with some changes in names and details, as well as fictional stories with invented characters that are inspired by a composite of real events. With its roots in the 12th century, and located on a cross-roads where different world cultures have met and mixed, Senegal has had the time to develop intricate mechanisms to manage diversity and bind people together in non-conflictual relationships. While its architectural achievements are modest on the world scale, its social architecture has the beauty of the Taj Mahal in its balance and perfection. These social mechanisms are reflected in the predominant cultural values of this old society. In this collection, I share acquired insights from people and incidents that contributed to my growing respect for these values and the wisdom of this millennial culture. These stories and memoirs somehow encapsulate some of the values upon which this culture is constructed. They are gifts from Senegal to the world, a treasure of lessons about what is important in life for anyone interested in learning to see.

Doomed Interventions


Kim Yi Dionne - 2017
    During the same period, nearly 25 million died of AIDS and more than 32 million were newly infected with HIV. In this book for students of political economy and public policy in Africa, as well as global health, Kim Yi Dionne tries to understand why AIDS interventions in Africa often fail. The fight against AIDS requires the coordination of multiple actors across borders and levels of governance in highly affected countries, and these actors can be the primary sources of the problem. Dionne observes misaligned priorities along the global chain of actors, and argues this misalignment can create multiple opportunities for failure. Analyzing foreign aid flows and public opinion polls, Dionne shows that while the international community highly prioritizes AIDS, ordinary Africans view AIDS as but one of the many problems they face daily.

Protecting Pharaoh's Treasures: My Life in Egyptology


Wafaa el Saddik - 2017
    At a time when Egyptology was dominated by men, especially those with close connections to the regime, she was determined to succeed, and secured grants to study in Boston, London, and Vienna, eventually becoming the first female general director of the country's most prestigious museum. She launched the first general inventory of the museum's cellars in its more than hundred-year history, in the process discovering long-forgotten treasures, as well as confronting corruption and nepotism in the antiquities administration.In this very personal memoir, she looks back at the history of her country and asks, What happened to Egypt? Where did Nasser's bright new beginning go wrong? Why did Sadat fail to bring peace? Why did the Egyptians allow themselves to be so corrupted by Mubarak? And why was the Muslim Brotherhood able to achieve power? But her first concern remains: How can the ancient legacy of her country truly be protected?

The Portuguese Gambit


P.J. Rands - 2017
    After Henry's death, his nephew King Joao II, picks up the torch and continues the quest.Christopher Columbus is a respected ship's master in Portugal and is seeking backing to open a sea route to China by sailing west. Antagonist Spain is busy dealing with Moors in Andalusia but will soon be able to turn its attention to its smaller rival on the Iberian Peninsula. Teenage slave Mbekah arrives in Lisbon from the Elmina Slave Fort on the Gold Coast. In this novel inspired by truth-is-stranger-than-fiction events, Machiavellian King Joao trains and manipulates her into his high-stakes covert operation to find the bottom of Africa and make tiny Portugal a colonial powerhouse. But Mbekah gains allies at court and in his majesty’s fleet to pursue her own ambitions.

Gather Out of Star-Dust: A Harlem Renaissance Album


Melissa Barton - 2017
    Collaboration, friendship, partnership, and sponsorship were all central to the rise in prominence of African American publication, performance, and visual art. Most importantly, the act of collecting materials from this time subsequently enabled scholars to remember the movement. Gather Out of Star-Dust showcases fifty items from the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters at Beinecke Library. Each of these objects—letters, journal entries, photographs, ephemera, artworks, and first editions—is accompanied by a mini-essay telling a piece of the story about this dynamic period. While numerous scholarly works have been written about this time of rebirth, this book returns us to the primary materials that have made that scholarship possible.

Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda


Timothy Longman - 2017
    Placing Rwanda's transitional justice initiatives in their historical and political context, this book examines the project undertaken by the post-genocide government to shape the collective memory of the Rwandan population, both through political and judicial reforms but also in public commemorations and memorials. Drawing on over two decades of field research in Rwanda, Longman uses surveys and comparative local case studies to explore Rwanda's response both at a governmental and local level. He argues that despite good intentions and important innovations, Rwanda's authoritarian political context has hindered the ability of transnational justice to bring the radical social and political transformations that its advocates hoped. Moreover, it continues to heighten the political and economic inequalities that underline ethnic divisions and are an important ongoing barrier to reconciliation.

Transforming Sudan: Decolonization, Economic Development, and State Formation


Alden Young - 2017
    In this book, Alden Young traces the emergence of economic developmentalism as the ideology of the Sudanese state in the decolonization era. Young demonstrates how the state was transformed, as a result of the international circulation of tools of economic management and the practice of economic diplomacy, from the management of a collection of distinct populations, to the management of a national economy based on individual equality. By studying the hope and eventual disillusionment this ideology gave to late colonial officials and then Sudanese politicians and policymakers, Young demonstrates its rise, and also its shortfalls as a political project in Sudan, particularly its inability to deal with questions of regional and racial equity, not only showing how it fostered state formation, but also civil war.

Afrikaner Odyssey: The Life and Times of the Reitz Family


Martin Meredith - 2017
    Originally Dutch-Afrikaner gentry from the Cape, the family moved to the frontier settlement of Bloemfontein and played a key role in the building of the Orange Free State. At the heart of this tale is the extraordinary career of Deneys Reitz, whose account of his adventures in the field during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), published as Commando, became a classic of irregular warfare. Martin Meredith interweaves Reitz's experiences, taken from his unpublished notebooks, with the wider story of Britain's brutal suppression of Boer resistance. Concise and readable, and featuring rare photographs from the family archives, Afrikaner Odyssey is a wide-ranging portrait of a distinguished Afrikaner family whose presence is still marked on the South African landscape.

Cuba and Angola: The War For Freedom


Harry Villegas - 2017
    The Angolan people had just thrown off 500 years of Portuguese colonial brutality. Now South Africa's white supremacist regime, spurred by Washington, had invaded Angola. Its goal: to impose a government beholden to Pretoria and imperialism. Angola's government appealed for help. The response of Cuba's leadership was immediate and decisive. A hard-fought war for freedom ended in 1988 at the battle of Cuito Cuanavale, with the crushing defeat of South Africa's army by Angolan, Cuban, and Namibian combatants. This is the story of Cuba's unparalleled contribution to the fight to free Africa from the scourge of apartheid. And how, in the doing, Cuba's socialist revolution also was strengthened. Harry Villegas is a brigadier general of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces. He is known the world over as "Pombo," the nom de guerre given him by Ernesto Che Guevara, at whose side he worked and fought in Cuba, the Congo, and Bolivia.

African Muckraking: 75 Years of Investigative Journalism from Africa


Anya Schiffrin - 2017
    The editors delved into the history of modern Africa to find the most important and compelling pieces of journalism on the stories that matter. This collection of 41 pieces of African journalism includes passionate and committed writing on labour abuses, police brutality, women’s rights, the struggle for democracy and independence on the continent and other subjects. Each piece of writing is introduced by a noted scholar or journalist who explains the context and why the journalism mattered. Some of the highlights include: Feminist writing from Tunisia in the 1930s, hair-raising exposés of the secret tactics planned by the South African government during apartheid, Richard Mgamba’s searing description of the albino brothers in Tanzania who fear for the lives, the piece by Liberian journalist Mae Azongo’s on genital cutting which forced her to go into hiding. This edited collection includes the legends of African journalism and writing: stories on corruption and brutality by Mozambique journalist Carlos Cardoso and Angolan writer Rafael Marques, a loving profile of the legendary cameraman Mo Amin and his writing on the Ethiopian famine, Drum’s investigative reporter Henry Nxumalo who went undercover in South Africa to write about labour conditions on the notorious potato farms of Bethal. Nigerian novelist Okey Ndibe describes Chinua Achebe’s passionate writing on the war with Biafra and Kenyan novelist Peter Kimani describes the Hola Massacre while Ken Saro-Wiwa warned of the coming war in the Niger Delta. Like their counterparts all over the world, African Muckrakers have been imprisoned and even killed for their work. Africa Muckraking is a must-read for anyone who cares about journalism and Africa.

Mapping My Way Home: Activism, Nostalgia, and the Downfall of Apartheid South Africa


Stephanie Urdang - 2017
    In 1967, at the age of twenty-three, no longer able to tolerate the grotesque iniquities and oppression of apartheid, she chose exile and emigrated to the United States. There she embraced feminism, met anti-apartheid and solidarity movement activists, and encountered a particularly American brand of racial injustice. Urdang also met African revolutionaries such as Amilcar Cabral, who would influence her return to Africa and her subsequent journalism. In 1974, she trekked through the liberation zones of Guinea-Bissau during its war of independence; in the 1980's, she returned repeatedly to Mozambique and saw how South Africa was fomenting a civil war aimed to destroy the newly independent country. From the vantage point of her activism in the United States, and from her travels in Africa, Urdang tracked and wrote about the slow, inexorable demise of apartheid that led to South Africa's first democratic elections, when she could finally return home.Urdang's memoir maps out her quest for the meaning of home and for the lived reality of revolution with empathy, courage, and a keen eye for historical and geographic detail. This is a personal narrative, beautifully told, of a journey traveled by an indefatigable exile who, while yearning for home, continued to question where, as a citizen of both South Africa and the United States, she belongs. "My South Africa!" she writes, on her return in 1991, after the release of Nelson Mandela, "How could I have imagined for one instant that I could return to its beauty, and not its pain?"

Malawi A Place Apart


Asbjørn Eidhammer - 2017
    But stranger Asbjørn Eidhammer is not. He worked tirelessly with Malawians for more than eight years as Norwegian ambassador to Malawi during politically difficult times. Malawi – A Place Apart is a unique and welcome update of the story of the nation examined from the point of view of a highly observant outsider. His subtle exposure of the sometimes hidden economic mismanagement is particularly poignant when people are crying out for open societies everywhere. – Professor Jack Mapanje, author of Of Chameleons and Gods Combining aspects of history, cultural studies, personal memoir and opinion, this rarely published and hard hitting perspective from a former senior member of the donor community analyses the past, current and future prospects of Malawi politics and economics. The book proves yet again the adage that ‘sometimes the mlendo (visitor) has the sharper [analytical] knife’ with its examination of the issues of politics, poverty and the relationship — or lack of it — between Malawi and its development partners. Throughout it all the author’s love for the ‘Warm heart of Africa’ shines through and all who love Malawi will be stimulated and enriched by this book. – Dr John Lwanda, author of Kamuzu Banda of Malawi: A Study in Promise, Power and Legacy. With an insightful and understanding gaze, Asbjørn expresses the nuances of Malawi only a caring visitor can. Full of unmitigated hope and constructive critique, the book concisely paints a tender portrait of a country. Perhaps in equal measure, Malawi offers hope and despair — a sense of contradiction that she embodies so well. It is this sense that Asbjørn carefully and lovingly portrays in this book. Over 50 years since independence from British rule, Malawi is debating the way forward. Discourses, some structured others not, abound. Asbjørn’s book is a necessary addition. – Muti Michael Phoya, author of Malawi, Lake of Stars Asbjørn Eidhammer is a Norwegian political scientist, activist, and diplomat. He served as the Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi from 1999 to 2004 and from 2011 to 2014. Between his missions to Malawi, he was Director of Evaluation at the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation for five years. From 1981 to 1984, he was President of the Norwegian Council for Southern Africa, Norway’s anti-apartheid movement. He has published books in Norwegian about politics and development in Africa and Malawi.

The Ideology of Failed States: Why Intervention Fails


Susan L Woodward - 2017
    The book also questions how specific international interventions on both aid and security fronts - greatly varied by actor - based on these outsiders' perceptions of state failure create conditions that fit their characterizations of failed states. Susan L. Woodward offers details of international interventions in peacebuilding, statebuilding, development assistance, and armed conflict by all these specific actors. The book analyzes the failure to re-order the international system after 1991 that the conceptual debate in the early 1990s sought - to the serious detriment of the countries labelled failed or fragile and the concept's packaging of the entire 'third world', despite its growing diversity since the mid-1980s, as one.

Service Disrupted: My Peace Corps Story


Tyler E. Lloyd - 2017
    Service Disrupted is an engaging memoir in which Tyler tells of his adventures and his eagerness to share his knowledge of gardening and agriculture with the kind and quirky villagers in Burkina Faso, Africa. But when he learns that his end of service medical exam showed a positive HIV test, Tyler’s mind becomes consumed with emotion, worry, and despair. The ups and downs will keep you reading to the end with a new respect for Peace Corps Volunteers and the African people. You’ll be both fascinated and saddened by the Sub-Saharan people who have become much more than a village to Tyler, as he awaits the answer to what his future holds. Get ready for the emotional story of a Peace Corps Volunteer who will enlighten you with the highs of his service and imprison you with the lows. - - Interested in hearing more stories from Peace Corps Volunteers? Visit mypeacecorpsstory.com and listen to current and returned volunteers tell their story on the My Peace Corps Story podcast.

Fire In Ice: Tale of the dragon rider (A Gaiian Novel Book 2)


S.K. Sandhu - 2017
    Martel Da Mar is the leading scientist in glacial hydrology. He also has a problem. He cannot touch people without turning them to ice. Don’t ask why, it’s a long story. Since he is Gaiian and has a three hundred year lifespan, he knows his will be a long and lonely existence. He has accepted his fate in life and throws all of his energies into his work studying an unknown heat source that has melted a glacial lake leaving a few blocks of ice in the center of the lake. His tests show the glacial melt can’t be dismissed as global warning. He soon discovers there is something in one of the remaining blocks of ice that radiates an unusual type of heat signature. This something is an angel of fire. She is trapped and needs his help but releasing her could place the entire continent in jeopardy. Princess Ribi wakes from a cold lonely confinement to find life, as she knows it, has irrevocably changed. She is locked in a block of ice with a brooding dragon literally attached to her hip. The man she met in her dreams is on the outside and cannot release her for only the ice can contain the dragon and her fire. Will freedom bring her redemption? ...Or will it doom them all?

Congo Love Song: African American Culture and the Crisis of the Colonial State (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)


Ira Dworkin - 2017
    While the song's title may appear consistent with that narrative, it also invokes the site of King Leopold II of Belgium's brutal colonial regime at a time when African Americans were playing a central role in a growing Congo reform movement. In an era when popular vaudeville music frequently trafficked in racist language and imagery, "Congo Love Song" emerges as one example of the many ways that African American activists, intellectuals, and artists called attention to colonialism in Africa.In this book, Ira Dworkin examines black Americans' long cultural and political engagement with the Congo and its people. Through studies of George Washington Williams, Booker T. Washington, Pauline Hopkins, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, and other figures, he brings to light a long-standing relationship that challenges familiar presumptions about African American commitments to Africa. Dworkin offers compelling new ways to understand how African American involvement in the Congo has helped shape anticolonialism, black aesthetics, and modern black nationalism.

Living Liberia: Laughter, Love & Folly


Robert Cherry - 2017
    His destination was the village in the Liberian rain forest where, fourteen years before, he had served as a Peace Corps Volunteer--the first American to live there.The result is Living Liberia, which introduces the reader to a charming, exotic and unforgettable land, although given Liberia's history it seems that God himself, at times, has forgotten it.The book evokes the author's special and enduring relationship with, and his sharp observations about, the country and its people, including Liberia's unique history--it was founded by freed American slaves; the challenges of living in a village for almost two years without electricity and running water and teaching with a principal who made up national holidays. Moreover, it depicts the education of a young American in tribal rituals, sexual mores and, not least, his encounters with a memorable gallery of African idealists and rogues. "Moving, funny and informative" is how one reviewer described the author's earlier work, fitting words as well for Living Liberia.

Neo-Colonialism and the Poverty of 'Development' in Africa (Contemporary African Political Economy)


Mark Langan - 2017
    Eschewing polemics and critically engaging the work of Ghana’s first President – Kwame Nkrumah – the book offers a rigorous assessment of the concept of neo-colonialism. It then demonstrates how neo-colonialism remains an impediment to genuine empirical sovereignty and poverty reduction in Africa today. It does this through examination of corporate interventions; Western aid-giving; the emergence of ‘new’ donors such as China; EU-Africa trade regimes; the securitisation of development; and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Throughout the chapters, it becomes clear that the current challenges of African development cannot be solely pinned on so-called neo-patrimonial elites. Instead it becomes imperative to fully acknowledge, and interrogate, corporate and donor interventions which lock many poorer countries into neo-colonial patterns of trade and production. The book provides an original contribution to studies of African political economy, demonstrating the on-going relevance of the concept of neo-colonialism, and reclaiming it for scholarly analysis in a global era.

Colonizing and Decolonizing Africa: The History and Legacy of European Imperialism across the African Continent


Charles River Editors - 2017
    In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together, to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event—known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885—galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa. The conference established two fundamental rules for European seizure of Africa. The first of these was that no recognition of annexation would granted without evidence of a practical occupation, and the second, that a practical occupation would be deemed unlawful without a formal appeal for protection made on behalf of a territory by its leader, a plea that must be committed to paper in the form of a legal treaty. This began a rush, spearheaded mainly by European commercial interests in the form of Chartered Companies, to penetrate the African interior and woo its leadership with guns, trinkets and alcohol, and having thus obtained their marks or seals upon spurious treaties, begin establishing boundaries of future European African colonies. The ease with which this was achieved was due to the fact that, at that point, traditional African leadership was disunited, and the people had just staggered back from centuries of concussion inflicted by the slave trade. Thus, to usurp authority, to intimidate an already broken society, and to play one leader against the other was a diplomatic task so childishly simple, the matter was wrapped up, for the most part, in less than a decade. During World War II, when Roosevelt and Churchill met at what came to be known as the Atlantic Conference, Churchill’s pleas for U.S. manpower and aid were accepted, but only under clear conditions. If the United States was to come to the aid of Britain, it would be for the purpose of defeating the Germans and the Japanese and not to support the insupportable institutions of empire. Britain and, by extension, France and Portugal, the only remaining major European shareholders in foreign empire, would have to commit to decolonization as a basic prerequisite of substantial U.S. assistance. The French too were a major imperial power with a great deal to lose from such a monumental change, but their view of the global chessboard was somewhat different. France lay under German occupation, and an armistice had been signed on behalf of the French nation by Marshall Philippe Pétain, commencing the era of Vichy France. In London, meanwhile, the firebrand French General Charles de Gaulle urged a continuation of the resistance, believing the French mainland to be only a small part of the picture. France was much more than just France. De Gaulle established the Free French movement in Britain, based on the loyalty and the ongoing Free French control of a majority of her overseas territories. The Free French movement and the Free French army based themselves in Francophone Africa. The saga of the Free French movement would impact the war in both North Africa and Europe, but most specifically, it would serve to radically redefine the French view of itself and her relationship with her overseas territories. Most importantly, it would set the tone for a style of decolonization very different from the British. Colonizing and Decolonizing Africa: The History and Legacy of European Imperialism across the African Continent examines the turbulent history of imperialism across Africa and the consequences it has had.

The World-System and Africa


Immanuel Wallerstein - 2017
    While drawing attention to the structural crisis of the modern world-system, Wallerstein uses the first set of essays to explore the impact of this worldwide structural crisis on Africa. Next, he turns to identity politics, a political stance that came to prominence in the last thirty years, and considers the world-system context for the African dilemmas posed by this approach. Not unique to Africa, identity politics has become central to political struggles everywhere in the world-system. Finally, Wallerstein reflects on African thinkers' analyses of current affairs both in the world-system and in Africa. Coming from someone who has been involved in writing about Africa for over seventy years, Wallerstein argues that if Africa is going to play an appropriate and significant role in resolving the structural crisis of the modern world-system, it is crucial that there continue to be a well-informed and intellectually relevant debate about the issues involved, the moral choices to be made, and the political strategies to follow.

The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame


Ian Campbell - 2017
    In three terror-filled days and nights of arson, murder and looting, thousands of innocent and unsuspecting men, women and children were roasted alive, shot, bludgeoned, stabbed to death, or blown to pieces with hand-grenades. Meanwhile the notorious Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, infamous for his atrocities in Libya, took the opportunity to add to the carnage by eliminating the intelligentsia and nobility of the ancient Ethiopian empire in a pogrom that swept across the land.In a richly illustrated and ground-breaking work backed up by meticulous and scholarly research, Ian Campbell reconstructs and analyses one of Fascist Italy's least known atrocities, which he estimates eliminated 19-20 per cent of the capital's population. He exposes the hitherto little known cover-up conducted at the highest levels of the British government, which enabled the facts of one of the most hideous civilian massacres of all time to be concealed, and the perpetrators to walk free.

Lonely Planet West Africa (Travel Guide)


Lonely Planet - 2017
    Explore the Senegalese music scene in Dakar, sun yourself in the coastal paradise of Freetown, or hike through lush highlands in Kpalime; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of West Africa and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet West Africa Travel Guide: Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, religion, arts, cuisine, environment, sport, arts and crafts, culture Over 80 maps Covers Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet West Africa, our most comprehensive guide to West Africa, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled. Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet Africa guide for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet. About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.

Jah Kingdom: Rastafarians, Tanzania, and Pan-Africanism in the Age of Decolonization


Monique Bedasse - 2017
    While the existing studies of the Rastafarian movement have primarily focused on its cultural expression through reggae music, art, and iconography, Monique A. Bedasse argues that repatriation to Africa represents the most important vehicle of Rastafari's international growth. Shifting the scholarship on repatriation from Ethiopia to Tanzania, Bedasse foregrounds Rastafari's enduring connection to black radical politics and establishes Tanzania as a critical site to explore gender, religion, race, citizenship, socialism, and nation. Beyond her engagement with how the Rastafarian idea of Africa translated into a lived reality, she demonstrates how Tanzanian state and nonstate actors not only validated the Rastafarian idea of diaspora but were also crucial to defining the parameters of Pan-Africanism. Based on previously undiscovered oral and written sources from Tanzania, Jamaica, England, the United States, and Trinidad, Bedasse uncovers a vast and varied transnational network--including Julius Nyerere, Michael Manley, and C. L. R James--revealing Rastafari's entrenchment in the making of Pan-Africanism in the postindependence period.

The First Law of Sadness


Nick Mulgrew - 2017
    Connected by more than their exquisite prose, Nick Mulgrew’s new stories delve into a world of killer eagles, tattoo removal parlours, hardcore punk guitarists-cum-auditors, turtle sanctuaries, plane crashes, amateur pornographers and biltong-makers – a world concurrently too strange and too familiar for comfort.A collection of startling imagination and sympathy – set primarily in South Africa’s least fashionable cities and suburbs – these stories maintain a precarious balance between rich comedy and despair throughout their explorations of grief, spectacle, sex, nostalgia, and the lives of animals, both human and not.With audaciousness met by trademark spiritual undercurrents and poetic flourish, The First Law of Sadness is confirmation of Mulgrew’s status as one of South Africa’s best contemporary exponents of short fiction.

This Tilting World


Colette Fellous - 2017
    She also writes of her personal tragedies—the deaths of her father, a quiet man, and of another lifelong friend, who just weeks ago died at sea, having forsaken the writing that had given his life meaning.Part of a trilogy on the history of Tunisia’s Jewish community, Fellous’s story nods to Proust and encompasses a multitude of colorful portraits, sweeping readers onto a lyrical journey from Tunisia to Paris to a Flaubertian village in Normandy, full of the voices of loved ones now silent.Written with echoes of Roland Barthes’s gorgeous fragmentary texts, such as A Lover’s Discourse and Camera Lucida, Fellous’s creative memoir is at once a political and cultural portrait of a region that has sat at the center of world history for millennia, as well as a search into her own memory, emotions, and family history.

The Gods are not to Blame: A play


Ola Rotimi - 2017
    King Odewale’s progress towards a full knowledge of the murder and incest that must be expatiated before his kingdom can be restored to health is unfolded with a dramatic intensity heightened by the richness of the play’s Nigerian setting. The Gods are not to blame was first performed in Nigeria at the Ife Festival of the Arts in 1968, has since been staged with great success across Africa Europe and the USA

New Times


Rehana Rossouw - 2017
    In this astonishing tour de force Rossouw illuminates the tensions inherent in these new times. Ali Adams is a political reporter in Parliament. As Nelson Mandela begins his second year as president, she discovers that his party is veering off the path to freedom and drafting a new economic policy that makes no provision for the poor. She follows the scent of corruption wafting into the new democracy’s politics and uncovers a major scandal. She compiles stories that should be heard when the Truth Commission gets underway, reliving the recent brutal past. Her friend Lizo works in the Presidency, controls access to Madiba’s ear. Another friend, Munier, is beating at the gates of Parliament, demanding attention for the plague stalking the land.Aaliyah Adams lives with her devout Muslim family in Bo-Kaap. Her mother is buried in religion after losing her husband. Her best friend is getting married, piling up the pressure to get settled and pregnant. There is little tolerance for alternative lifestyles in the close-knit community. The Rugby World Cup starts and tourists pour up the slopes above the city, discovering a hidden gem their dollars can afford. Ali/Aaliya is trapped with her family and friends in a tangle of razor-wire politics and culture, can she break free?Told with Rehana’s trademark verve and exquisite attention to language you will weep with Aaliya, triumph with Ali, and fall in love with the assemblage that makes up this ravishing new novel.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Rehana Rossouw was born and rooted in Cape Town, but is currently in self-imposed exile in Johannesburg. She has been a journalist for three decades and has also taught journalism and creative writing. She has a Master’s in Creative Writing from Wits University.

Living with Nkrumahism: Nation, State, and Pan-Africanism in Ghana


Jeffrey S. Ahlman - 2017
    Nkrumah was a visionary, a statesman, and one of the key makers of contemporary Africa. In Living with Nkrumahism, Jeffrey S. Ahlman reexamines the infrastructure that organized and consolidated Nkrumah’s philosophy into a political program.Ahlman draws on newly available source material to portray an organizational and cultural history of Nkrumahism. Taking us inside bureaucracies, offices, salary structures, and working routines, he painstakingly reconstructs the political and social milieu of the time and portrays a range of Ghanaians’ relationships to their country’s unique position in the decolonization process. Through fine attunement to the nuances of statecraft, he demonstrates how political and philosophical ideas shape lived experience.Living with Nkrumahism stands at the crossroads of the rapidly growing fields of African decolonization, postcolonial history, and Cold War studies. It provides a much-needed scholarly model through which to reflect on the changing nature of citizenship and political and social participation in Africa and the broader postcolonial world.

Rescue Thyself: Change In Sub-Saharan Africa Must Come from Within


Sylvanus A. Ayeni - 2017
    It asserts that the most formidable barriers to progress in Sub-Saharan Africa are Sub-Saharan Africans, particularly the leaders. Thus, for these nations to escape from destitution, change must originate from within. African leaders are reminded that life anchored on the pursuit of money, material wealth, and power by any means, is hollow, empty, and meaningless. The future leaders of Sub-Saharan Africa are reminded that the Creator has endowed them and the citizens of their nations with the talents they need to develop themselves and their societies. Furthermore, nature has been so kind to their nations, endowing them with more than sufficient natural resources. Thus, they need not continue the culture of dependency on the rest of the human race.

Queen of the Free State: A Memoir


Jennifer Friedman - 2017
    There are midnight escapes, banned comics, eisteddfods, terrifying policemen, albino messengers and Pa's beatings... Told with humour and pathos, Friedman's memoir brings to life a strong sense of place, love, rebellion and betrayal.