Best of
Africa

2018

Call Me American: A Memoir


Abdi Nor Iftin - 2018
    As a child, he learned English by listening to American pop artists like Michael Jackson and watching films starring action heroes like Arnold Schwarzenegger. When U.S. marines landed in Mogadishu to take on the warlords, Abdi cheered the arrival of these real Americans, who seemed as heroic as those of the movies.Sporting American clothes and dance moves, he became known around Mogadishu as Abdi American, but when the radical Islamist group al-Shabaab rose to power in 2006, it suddenly became dangerous to celebrate Western culture. Desperate to make a living, Abdi used his language skills to post secret dispatches to NPR and the Internet, which found an audience of worldwide listeners. But as life in Somalia grew more dangerous, Abdi was left with no choice but to flee to Kenya as a refugee.In an amazing stroke of luck, Abdi won entrance to the U.S. in the annual visa lottery, though his route to America--filled with twists and turns and a harrowing sequence of events that nearly stranded him in Nairobi--did not come easily. Parts of his story were first heard on the BBC World Service and This American Life. Now a proud resident of Maine, on the path to citizenship, Abdi Nor Iftin's dramatic, deeply stirring memoir is truly a story for our time: a vivid reminder of why western democracies still beckon to those looking to make a better life.

An Elephant in My Kitchen


Françoise Malby-Anthony - 2018
    But when she fell in love with renowned conservationist Lawrence Anthony her life took an unexpected turn. Lawrence died in 2012 and Francoise was left to run Thula Thula without him, even though she knew very little about conservation. She was short on money, poachers were capitalizing on the chaos of Lawrence’s death, and one of their elephants was charging Land Rovers on game drives and terrifying guests. How Francoise survived and Thula Thula thrived is beautifully described in this charming, funny and poignant book. If you loved Lawrence's The Elephant Whisperer, or just want to spend time with some remarkable animals, then you won’t want to miss this sparkling book.

Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa


Paul Kenyon - 2018
    The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business.And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree


Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani - 2018
    Some managed to escape. Many are still missing. A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village. A girl who works hard in school and to help her family. A girl with a future as bright as live coals in the dark. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone—her mother, her five brothers, her best friend, her teachers—can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach. Even if the voices on Papa’s radio tell more fearful news than tales to tell by moonlight.But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.

The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After


Clemantine Wamariya - 2018
    Clemantine and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, ran and spent the next six years wandering through seven African countries searching for safety--hiding under beds, foraging for food, surviving and fleeing refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing unimaginable cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were alive.At age twelve, Clemantine, along with Claire, was granted asylum in the United States--a chance to build a new life. Chicago was disorienting, filled with neon lights, antiseptic smells, endless concrete. Clemantine spoke five languages but almost no English, and had barely gone to school. Many people wanted to help--a family in the North Shore suburbs invited Clemantine to live with them as their daughter. Others saw her only as broken. They thought she needed, and wanted, to be saved. Meanwhile Claire, who had for so long protected and provided for Clemantine, found herself on a very different path, cleaning hotel rooms to support her three children.Raw, urgent, yet disarmingly beautiful, The Girl Who Smiled Beads captures the true costs and aftershocks of war: what is forever lost, what can be repaired, the fragility and importance of memory, the faith that one can learn, again, to love oneself, even with deep scars.

Praise Song for the Butterflies


Bernice L. McFadden - 2018
    But when the Katas’ idyllic lifestyle takes a turn for the worse, Abeo’s father, following his mother’s advice, places her in a religious shrine, hoping that the sacrifice of his daughter will serve as religious atonement for the crimes of his ancestors. Unspeakable acts befall Abeo for the fifteen years she is enslaved within the shrine. When she is finally rescued, broken and battered, she must struggle to overcome her past, endure the revelation of family secrets, and learn to trust and love again.In the tradition of Chris Cleave’s Little Bee, Praise Song for the Butterflies is a contemporary story that offers an educational, eye-opening account of the practice of ritual servitude in West Africa. Spanning decades and two continents, Praise Song for the Butterflies will break and heal your heart.

In The Shadow of 10,000 Hills


Jennifer Haupt - 2018
    At the heart of this inspiring novel that bestselling author Wally Lamb calls "an evocative page-turner" and Caroline Leavitt calls "blazingly original" is the discovery of grace when there can be no forgiveness.In 1968, Lillian Carlson left Atlanta, disillusioned and heartbroken, after the assassination of Martin Luther King. She found meaning in the hearts of orphaned African children and cobbled together her own small orphanage in the Rift Valley alongside the lush forests of Rwanda.Three decades later, in New York, Rachel Shepherd, lost and heartbroken herself, embarks on a journey to find the father who abandoned her as a young child, determined to solve the enigma of Henry Shepherd, a now-famous photographer.When an online search turns up a clue to his whereabouts, Rachel travels to Rwanda to connect with an unsuspecting and uncooperative Lillian. While Rachel tries to unravel the mystery of her father's disappearance, she finds unexpected allies in an ex-pat doctor running from his past and a young Tutsi woman who lived through a profound experience alongside her father.

The Gold Diggers


Sue Nyathi - 2018
    A group of passengers is huddled in a Toyota Quantum about to embark on a treacherous expedition to the City of Gold. Amongst them is Gugulethu, who is hoping to be reconciled with her mother; Dumisani, an ambitious young man who believes he will strike it rich, Chamunorwa and Chenai, twins running from their troubled past; and Portia and Nkosi, a mother and son desperate to be reunited with a husband and father they see once a year.They have paid a high price for the dangerous passage to what they believe is a better life; an escape from the vicious vagaries of their present life in Bulawayo. In their minds, the streets of Johannesburg are paved with gold but they will have to dig deep to get close to any gold, dirtying themselves in the process.Told with brave honesty and bold description, the stories of the individual immigrants are simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming.

Freshwater


Akwaeke Emezi - 2018
    It centers around a young Nigerian woman, Ada, who develops separate selves within her as a result of being born "with one foot on the other side." Unsettling, heartwrenching, dark, and powerful, Freshwater is a sharp evocation of a rare way of experiencing the world, one that illuminates how we all construct our identities.Ada begins her life in the south of Nigeria as a troubled baby and a source of deep concern to her family. Her parents, Saul and Saachi, successfully prayed her into existence, but as she grows into a volatile and splintered child, it becomes clear that something went terribly awry. When Ada comes of age and moves to America for college, the group of selves within her grows in power and agency. A traumatic assault leads to a crystallization of her alternate selves: Asụghara and Saint Vincent. As Ada fades into the background of her own mind and these selves--now protective, now hedonistic--move into control, Ada's life spirals in a dark and dangerous direction.Narrated by the various selves within Ada and based in the author's realities, Freshwater dazzles with ferocious energy and serpentine grace, heralding the arrival of a fierce new literary voice.

Spider Zero Seven


Mike Borlace - 2018
    Now he collates his experiences in this compelling wartime memoir set against the backdrop of the civil war fought in Rhodesia during the 1970s. Helicopters were a vital component of the small Rhodesian Defence Force and as part of special forces, Borlace and his fellow aircrew soon became key weapons in the counterinsurgency operations. Adopting new flexible tactics and blending stealth with courage, they carried the fight by air to the heart of the enemy, establishing a fearsome reputation. In this vivid history, Borlace chronicles the story of airmen, soldiers and leading figures such as Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe’s communist backed guerillas from the perspective of a professional officer at the sharp end. In Spider Zero Seven, Borlace humorously recounts the training, living conditions and hardships of his time in the forces. He also touchingly depicts the human side of the military through his portrayals of his fellow pilots, technicians, medics, nurses and flying with his dog Doris. Out of the 1096 days he served as a pilot in 7 Squadron, Borlace spent 739 days on combat operations. During his 149 contacts with the enemy he was shot down five times and wounded twice. He is one of only five recipients of the Silver Cross, the highest gallantry award given by the air force. With this authority he gives a powerful insight into the violent events of a brutal conflict, in a book that will appeal not only to those interested in military history, but also to a wider readership who enjoy a personal, true-life adventure.

Everything Lost Is Found Again: Four Seasons in Lesotho


Will McGrath - 2018
    There he finds a spirit of joyful absurdity and resolve, surrounded by people who take strangers’ hands as they walk down the road, people who―with sweetest face―drop the dirtiest jokes in the southern hemisphere. But Lesotho is also a place where shepherds exact Old Testament retribution, where wounded pride incites murder and families are devastated by the AIDS epidemic.Driven by a spirit of openhearted cultural exchange in the style of Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country and Alexandra Fuller’s Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, Will McGrath’s Everything Lost Is Found Again is a love-drunk ballad to Lesotho, infusing humor and heart into pop ethnography.

Mandela and the General


John Carlin - 2018
    Unless he can win over his archenemy, the white supremacist General Viljoen, the democratic struggle for equality and justice in South Africa will end in "the peace of graveyards.""Intense."--Booklist"A riveting read."--Morgan Freeman"Fascinating."--Library Journal, starred reviewAs the first post-apartheid elections approach in 1994, with South African blacks poised to take power, the nation's whites fear reprisal. White nationalist militias claiming 50,000 well-armed former soldiers stand ready to fight to the death to defend their cause. They need someone who can lead and unite them. That man is General Constand Viljoen, former chief of apartheid South Africa's military.Mandela knows that he can't avert a bloodbath on his own. He will have to count on his archenemy. Throughout those historic months, the two men meet in secret. Can they trust each other? Can they keep their followers and radical fringe elements from acts of violence? The mettle of these two men will determine the future of a nation.The drama of this contest and the history that pivoted on it comes vividly to life in visual form. Veteran British journalist John Carlin teams up with Catalan artist Oriol Malet to create a historically and artistically rich graphic novel with obvious relevance to today's polarized politics.

We Dared to Win: The SAS in Rhodesia


Hannes Wessels - 2018
    A quiet, introspective thinker. Andre started out as a trooper in the SAS before being commissioned into the Rhodesian Light Infantry Commandos, where he was engaged in fire-force combat operations. He then rejoined the SAS.Wounded 13 times, his operational record is exceptional even by the tough standards that existed at the time. He emerged as the SAS officer par excellence; beloved by his men, displaying extraordinary calmness, courage, and audacious cunning during a host of extremely dangerous operations. Andre writes vividly about his experience, his emotions, and his state of mind during the war, and reflects candidly on what he learned and how war has shaped his life since.In addition to Andre's personal story, this book reveals more about some of the other men who were distinguished operators in SAS operations during the Rhodesian War.RUNNING TIME ➼ 10hrs. and 48mins.©2018 Hannes Wessels and Andre Scheepers (P)2020 Tantor

First Raise A Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War but Lost the Peace


Peter Martell - 2018
    Half a century later, with millions massacred in Africa's longest war, the continent's biggest country split in two.It was an extraordinary, unprecedented experiment. Many have fought, but South Sudan did the impossible, and won. This is the story of an epic fight for freedom. It is also the story of a nightmare. First Raise a Flag details one of the most dramatic failures in the history of international state-building. Three years after independence, South Sudan was lowest ranked in the list of failed states. War returned, worse than ever.Peter Martell has spent over a decade reporting from palaces and battlefields, meeting those who made a country like no other: warlords and spies, missionaries and mercenaries, guerrillas and gunrunners, freedom fighters and war crime fugitives, Hollywood stars and ex-slaves. Under his seasoned foreign correspondent's gaze, he weaves with passion and colour the lively history of the world's newest country. First Raise a Flag is a moving reflection on the meaning of nationalism, the power of hope and the endurance of the human spirit.

In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front


Judi Rever - 2018
    Considered by the international community to be the saviours who ended the Hutu slaughter of innocent Tutsis, Kagame and his rebel forces were also killing, in quiet and in the dark, as ruthlessly as the Hutu genocidaire were killing in daylight. The reason why the larger world community hasn't recognized this truth? Kagame and his top commanders effectively covered their tracks and, post-genocide, rallied world guilt and played the heroes in order to attract funds to rebuild Rwanda and to maintain and extend the Tutsi sphere of influence in the region. Judi Rever, who has followed the story since 1997, has marshalled irrefutable evidence to show that Kagame's own troops shot down the presidential plane on April 6, 1994--the act that put the match to the genocidal flame. And she proves, without a shadow of doubt, that as Kagame and his forces slowly advanced on the capital of Kigali, they were ethnically cleansing the country of Hutu men, women and children in order that returning Tutsi settlers, displaced since the early '60s, would have homes and land. This book is heartbreaking, chilling and necessary.

A Voice in the Darkness: Memoir of a Rwandan Genocide Survivor


Jeanne Celestine Lakin - 2018
    In April of 1994, the Rwandan government, aided by trained paramilitary militias and Hutu citizens, initiated an ethnic massacre aimed at eliminating the Tutsis. Just nine-years-old and a Tutsi herself, Jeanne faced a grave reality. Over the course of 100 days, she and her sisters were forced to survive in the wilderness with groups of bloodthirsty militiamen hunting them. After months of slaughter, she discovered nearly all her adult relatives including her parents, along with one million others were killed. Surviving the genocide was only the beginning.At 14 years old, Jeanne found herself in an American classroom learning a new language while carrying the deep wounds caused by the horror she witnessed and years of abuse as an orphan in Rwanda prior to being adopted by a family that moved to the United States. As she grew into adulthood, journaling became her cathartic release. She was determined to create a better life for herself and went on to attend college and then earn her master's degree from Eastern Washington University. Upon graduating, Jeanne met a kindred spirit, her now husband, Paul, who also suffered childhood abuse. Together, they attended counseling, grew closer and found their deep passion for helping children who have suffered situations similar to their own and work to prevent future abuses. For the past ten years, Jeanne has served as an adoption counselor, and most recently released her memoir, A Voice in the Darkness. The book recounts her loss of innocence and fight for survival. It also provides hope that good deeds can come from dark days and by giving others a voice, many can benefit. Now, Jeanne uses her story to advocate for orphans through her nonprofit and her hope is to raise awareness for orphans and shine a light on an extremely ominous time in human history.(To purchase an author signed copy or donate to orphans visit www.avoiceinthedarkness.org )

Target Africa: Ideological Neocolonialism in the Twenty-First Century


Obianuju Ekeocha - 2018
    These challanges have attracted wealthy donors from Western nations and organizations that have assumed the roles of helper and deliverer. While some donors have good intentions, others seek to impose their ideology of sexual liberation. These are the ideological neocolonial masters of the twenty-first century who aggressively push their agenda of radical feminism, population control, sexualisation of children, and homosexuality.The author, a native of Nigeria, shows how these donors are masterful at exploiting some of the heaviest burdens and afflictions of Africa such as maternal mortality,unplanned pregnancies, HIV/AIDS pandemic, child marriage,and persistent poverty. This exploitation has put many African nations in the vulnerable position of receiving funding tied firmly to ideological solutions that are opposed tothe cultural views and values of their people. Thus many African nations are put back into the protectorate positionsof dependency as new cultural standards conceived in the West are made into core policies in African capitals.This book reveals the recolonization of Africa that is rarely talked about. Drawing from a broad array of well-sourced materials and documents, it tells the story of foreign aid with strings attached, the story of Africa targeted and recolonized by wealthy, powerful donors.

From the Heart of Africa: A Book of Wisdom


Eric Walters - 2018
    They give guidance, context and instruction for life's issues, and they help us understand each other and the world around us. We use them every day, yet never think about where they came from or why they exist. In this beautifully illustrated collection, Eric Walters brings us classic sayings from the places where this shared wisdom began. Ashanti, Sukuma, Akan and Kikuyu: all of these cultures use the portable and easily shared knowledge contained in aphorisms, and from these cultures and more this communal knowledge spread. This book is a celebration of art, of community and of our common history.

She Would Be King


Wayétu Moore - 2018
    Gbessa, exiled from the West African village of Lai, is starved, bitten by a viper, and left for dead, but still she survives. June Dey, raised on a plantation in Virginia, hides his unusual strength until a confrontation with the overseer forces him to flee. Norman Aragon, the child of a white British colonizer and a Maroon slave from Jamaica, can fade from sight when the earth calls him. When the three meet in the settlement of Monrovia, their gifts help them salvage the tense relationship between the African American settlers and the indigenous tribes, as a new nation forms around them.Moore’s intermingling of history and magical realism finds voice not just in these three characters but also in the fleeting spirit of the wind, who embodies an ancient wisdom. “If she was not a woman,” the wind says of Gbessa, “she would be king.” In this vibrant story of the African diaspora, Moore, a talented storyteller and a daring writer, illuminates with radiant and exacting prose the tumultuous roots of a country inextricably bound to the United States. She Would Be King is a novel of profound depth set against a vast canvas and a transcendent debut from a major new author.

A Gathering of Dust: A Novel Out of Africa


Samantha Ford - 2018
     Thousands of miles away, in London, an unidentifi ed woman lies in a coma. When she recovers she has no memory of her past or where she comes from. As fragments of her memory begin to return, the woman has to confront the facts about herself as they begin to unfold. A disastrous love affair in the African bush; a missing husband; and a sinister, shadowy figure who knows exactly who she is and where she comes from. Tension builds as images and secrets begin to resurface from her lost past – rekindled memories that plunge her back into a world she finds she would rather not remember. Set against the magnificent backdrop of East and South Africa, A Gathering of Dust is a fast-paced story of love, betrayal and murder scattered along a trail of deception and lies, with a single impossible truth, and an unthinkable ending.

The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela


Sisonke Msimang - 2018
    On one side, her legacy was cast by the media and public in the shadow of her sanctified ex-husband. Winnie was history’s loser. She was damaged goods; Nelson Mandela was whole and pure.A younger generation, in particular women, took a different view and so a battle of ideas began that sought to reframe Winnie’s career and reclaim her identity as an extraordinary woman and fierce political activist.Sisonke Msimang, an acclaimed author and public commentator, wasted little time in jumping into the fray. And when the dust settled, what emerged is this short but razor-sharp book which reflects critically on the turbulent yet remarkable life of Winnie. Msimang situates her political career and legacy in the contemporary context, what she means today in social and political terms, by exploring different aspects of her iconic persona.The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela is an astute examination of one of South Africa’s most controversial political figures, of the rise and fall – and rise, again, – of a woman who not only battled the apartheid regime, but the patriarchal character of the struggle itself. In telling Winnie’s story, Msimang shows us that activism matters, and that the meaning of women’s lives can be reclaimed.

Getting to Zero: A Doctor and a Diplomat on the Ebola Frontline


Sinéad Walsh - 2018
    Completely overwhelmed and wrapped in stifling protective suits, he and his team took it in turns to provide care to patients while removing dead bodies from the ward. Against all odds he battled to keep the hospital open, as the queue of sick and dying patients grew every day. Only a few miles down the road the Irish Ambassador and Head of Irish Aid worked relentlessly to rapidly scale up the international response. At a time when entire districts had been quarantined, she travelled around the country, and met with UN agencies, the President and senior ministers so as to be better placed in alerting the world to the catastrophe unfolding in front of her.In this blow-by-blow account, Walsh and Johnson expose the often shocking shortcomings of the humanitarian response to the outbreak, both locally and internationally, and call our attention to the immense courage of those who put their lives on the line every day to contain the disease. Theirs is the definitive account of the fight against an epidemic that shook the world.

Scent of Fear


Tony Park - 2018
    Haunted by nightmares of the war and racked with guilt from driving away his ex-wife, Christine, he soon discovers she and Craig in the midst of an intense affair.And there's another enemy at play . . .As bombs target Sean's unit, can he get himself back on track and win the fight for Africa's wildlife - and Christine - before it's too late?'Gripping action thrillers...never disappoints as a storyteller' DAILY TELEGRAPH

Africa's Business Revolution: How to Succeed in the World's Next Big Growth Market


Acha Leke - 2018
    But that's about to change. By 2025 spending by African consumers and businesses will exceed $5 trillion, and by 2035 Africa will have the world's largest urban population and a workforce larger than China's or India's. That points to exciting opportunities for global and Africa-based companies looking to access new growth markets--and to build large, profitable businesses in sectors ranging from resources to manufacturing to services. Their momentum will be fuelled by Africa's young and fast-growing population and by the rapid adoption of technology across the continent. But Africa's business environment remains poorly understood and known to many executives in the West only by its reputation for complexity, contradiction, and corruption.Africa's Business Revolution provides the inside story on business in Africa and its future growth prospects, and helps executives understand and seize the opportunities for building profitable, sustainable businesses. The authors--Acha Leke, Mutsa Chironga, and Georges Desvaux--are senior leaders in McKinsey's African offices and draw on in-depth proprietary research by the McKinsey Global Institute as well as their own extensive experience advising corporate and government leaders across Africa. Brimming with company case studies and exclusive interviews with some of Africa's most prominent executives, this book comes to life with the vibrant stories of those who have navigated the many twists and turns on the road to building successful businesses on the continent.Combining an unrivalled fact base with expert advice on shaping and executing an Africa growth strategy, this book is required reading for global business executives wanting to expand their existing operations in Africa--and for those seeking a road map to access this vast, untapped market for the first time.

African Ways Again: More recollections of life in South Africa


Valerie Poore - 2018
    It tells what happened next in Valerie Poore's life in South Africa's rural Kwa-Zulu Natal in the 1980s. More bittersweet than the first book, Val and her family move down the mountain from the farm where they spent the three happy years described in African Ways. In this second book, life changes dramatically for the author and her small daughters, but the anecdotes she shares are still filled with colour, humour and everything that she loves about Africa and its people.

A Gift From Darkness: How I Escaped with My Daughter from Boko Haram


Patience Ibrahim - 2018
    She fled to the safety of her village and remarried several months later. Having prayed for a child for years, Patience is overjoyed when she discovers she is pregnant. But her joy is short-lived: Boko Haram soldiers are at her door. Brutally abducted and forced to convert to Islam, she lives in constant terror of what her kidnappers have in store for her. She finds herself alone in the world and fears her life is over. For two months, Patience hides her pregnancy while facing the brutalities meted out by Boko Haram. By the sheer force of her determination to protect her baby, she and her child are able to survive. Now, she has entrusted journalist Andrea C. Hoffmann with her story, a powerful first-person account of Boko Haram's atrocities in Nigeria and Cameroon.One of the first testimonies on the terrorist group's war crimes in Western Africa, A Gift from Darkness poignantly shows the human toll of a crisis that demands attention.

On Leopard Rock


Wilbur Smith - 2018
    I've been writing novels for over fifty years. I was lucky enough to miss the big wars and not get shot, but lucky enough to grow up among the heroes who had served in them and learn from their example. I have lucked into things continuously. I have done things which have seemed appalling at the time,disastrous even, but out of them have come another story or a deeper knowledge of human character and the ability to express myself better on paper, write books which people enjoy reading. Along the way, I have lived a life that I could never have imagined. I have been privileged to meet people from all corners of the globe, I have been wherever my heart has desired and in the process my books have taken readers to many, many places. I always say I've started wars, I've burned down cities, and I've killed hundreds of thousands of people - but only in my imagination! From being attacked by lions to close encounters with deadly reef sharks, from getting lost in the African bush without water to crawling the precarious tunnels of gold mines, from marlin fishing with Lee Marvin to near death from crash-landing a Cessna airplane, from brutal schooldays to redemption through writing and falling in love, Wilbur Smith tells us the intimate stories of his life that have been the raw material for his fiction. Always candid, sometimes hilarious, and never less than thrillingly entertaining, On Leopard Rock is testament to a writer whose life is as rich and eventful as his novels are compellingly unputdownable.

Born for Life: Midwife in Africa


Julie Watson - 2018
    This memoir takes you on Julie’s journey to Kalene Mission Hospital in Zambia, where she worked as a midwife for five months caring for African women and their babies at the most cherished time in their lives. It is a story of joy and heartbreak, of courage and perseverance, and of an extraordinary adventure.

The Theory of Flight


Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu - 2018
    At the moment of her death, Imogen Zula Nyoni – Genie – was seen to fly away on a giant pair of silver wings ...’ Said to have hatched from a golden egg, Genie spends her childhood playing in a field of sunflowers as her country reawakens after a fierce civil war. But Genie’s story stretches back much further: it tells of her grandfather, who quenched his wanderlust by walking into the Indian Ocean, and of her father, who spent countless hours building model aeroplanes to catch up with him. It is the tale of her mother, a singer self-styled after Dolly Parton with a dream of travelling to Nashville, and of her grandmother, who did everything in her power to raise her children to have character. With the lightest of touches, a cast of unforgettable characters, and moments of surreal beauty, The Theory of Flight sketches decades of history in this unnamed Southern African nation. It does not dwell on what has been lost in its war, but on the daily triumphs of its people, the necessity of art, and the power of its visionaries to take flight.

Ministry of Crime: An Underworld Explored


Mandy Wiener - 2018
    It features new revelations about high-profile, unsolved hits and the intricate relationships between known criminals and police officers at all levels. It delves into the current power struggle between opposing factions in Cape Town's security industry and the suspected involvement of state operatives in the bloody standoff.Wiener has gained exclusive access to and on-the-record interviews with key underworld characters and police generals accused of colluding with criminals. These have helped her track the parallel narrative of the capture of law-enforcement agencies and unravel how players with inexplicable political backing have been able to pillage secret slush funds and abuse organs of state for their own benefit.Against this backdrop, prominent underworld figures - Radovan Krejcir key among them - have been able to thrive, setting up elaborate networks with the assistance of police. While crime is flourishing, the top echelons of the police and prosecution have been at war with themselves.The proximity of politics, law enforcement and organised crime over the past decade is frighteningly intertwined. The story of the rise and reign of the Ministry of Crime winds its way from the depths of the underworld, via multiple mysterious unsolved murders, to senior politicians and the very top ranks of the country's police force.

Epidemic: Ebola and the Global Scramble to Prevent the Next Killer Outbreak


Reid Wilson - 2018
    A world unprepared for another outbreak. In December 2013, a young boy in a tiny West African village contracted the deadly Ebola virus. The virus spread to his relatives, then to neighboring communities, then across international borders. The world's first urban Ebola outbreak quickly overwhelmed the global health system and threatened to kill millions.As we are currently seeing, in an increasingly interconnected world in which everyone is one or two flights away from New York or London or Beijing, a localized epidemic has become a pandemic. Ebola's spread through West Africa to Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States sounded global alarms that the next killer outbreak is right around the corner--and that the world is woefully unprepared to combat a new deadly disease.From the poorest villages of rural West Africa to the Oval Office itself, this book tells the story of a deadly virus that spun wildly out of control--and reveals the truth about how close the world came to a catastrophic global pandemic. It is a story that serves as a cautionary tale for the COVID-19 epidemic currently spreading throughout the world.

Captive


Tony Park - 2018
    When Kerry arrives at the animal sanctuary it's to the news that Graham is imprisoned in Mozambique following a shootout with elephant poachers. In the gunfight he killed the brother of corrupt politician and poaching kingpin Fidel Costa.Kerry's earnest sense of justice takes her to Massingir to help Graham with his case, and into a world of danger. Kidnapped, chased, attacked and betrayed, Kerry learns the bitter truth about the complexities and deadly nature of the war on poaching.Even the motivations of well-meaning charities, wealthy donors and private zoos are not all they appear.Kerry's perilous entanglement may be what Graham needs to shake off his drunken cynicism and rejoin the fight for Africa's animals, but is it enough, and in time, to stop Costa's quest for revenge...

The 21: A Journey Into the Land of Coptic Martyrs


Martin Mosebach - 2018
    But not in the world from which the murdered came. All but one were young Coptic Christian migrant workers from Egypt. Acclaimed literary writer Martin Mosebach traveled to the Egyptian village of El-Aour to meet their families and better understand the faith and culture that shaped such conviction.He finds himself welcomed into simple concrete homes through which swallows dart. Portraits of Jesus and Mary hang on the walls along with roughhewn shrines to now-famous loved ones. Mosebach is amazed time and again as, surrounded by children and goats, the bereaved replay the cruel propaganda video on an iPad. There is never any talk of revenge, but only the pride of having a martyr in the family, a saint in heaven. "The 21" appear on icons crowned like kings, celebrated even as their community grieves. A skeptical Westerner, Mosebach finds himself a stranger in this world in which everything is the reflection or fulfillment of biblical events, and facing persecution with courage is part of daily life.In twenty-one symbolic chapters, each preceded by a picture, Mosebach offers a travelogue of his encounter with a foreign culture and a church that has preserved the faith and liturgy of early Christianity - the "Church of the Martyrs." As a religious minority in Muslim Egypt, the Copts find themselves caught in a clash of civilizations. This book, then, is also an account of the spiritual life of an Arab country stretched between extremism and pluralism, between a rich biblical past and the shopping centers of New Cairo.

A Dancer's Guide to Africa


Terez Mertes Rose - 2018
    Vowing to restart as far from home as possible, she accepts a two-year teaching position with the Peace Corps in Africa. It’s a role she’s sure she can perform. But in no time, Fiona realizes she’s traded her problems in Omaha for bigger ones in Gabon, a country as beautiful as it is filled with contradictions. Emotionally derailed by Christophe, a charismatic and privileged Gabonese man who can teach her to let go of her inhibitions but can’t commit to anything more, threatened by an overly familiar student with a menacing fixation on her, and drawn into the compelling but potentially dangerous local dance ceremonies, Fiona finds herself at increasing risk. And when matters come to a shocking head, she must reach inside herself, find her dancer’s power, and fight back. Blending humor and pathos, A DANCER’S GUIDE TO AFRICA takes the reader along on a suspense-laden, sensual journey through Africa’s complex beauty, mystery and mysticism.

Grandad Mandela


Zindzi Mandela - 2018
    They learn that he was a freedom fighter who put down his weapons for the sake of peace, and who then became the President of South Africa and a Nobel Peace Prize-winner, and realise that they can continue his legacy in the world today. Seen through a child’s perspective, and authored jointly by his great-grandchildren and daughter, this amazing story is told as never before to celebrate what would have been Nelson's Mandela 100th birthday.

Heir to the Raven (The Pierced Veil, #1)


J. Wesley Bush - 2018
    His raven shall pick their bones!” All young Selwyn wants is to join the Knights-Scholastic and fight battles of the mind. But when tragedy claims his father and older brother, Selwyn becomes lord of the Savanna March, the Shield of Jandaria. Unwilling and unready, he must wage war and diplomacy. Even more, he must put away childish things and learn the harsh lessons of manhood. Ancient enemies now circle: Vyr horse lords ravage the frontier even as brutish Priest-King Leax descends from the north. Amid the crucible of war, Selwyn fights to unravel the conspiracy that shattered his family and threatens to enslave his people. His allies are a bowmaid sister, an outcast stone-man, a faietouched peasant girl, and his dubiously-loyal fool. A hard road of battle and betrayal awaits them. Should they fail, Jandaria will fall under a tyrant’s heel. “…full of gritty combat, dark humor, and vivid characters.” Alexander McKinney, author of City of the Dead Gods

Going to the Mountain: Life Lessons from My Grandfather, Nelson Mandela


Ndaba Mandela - 2018
    To the rest of the world, Nelson Mandela was a giant: an anti-apartheid revolutionary, a world-renowned humanitarian, and South Africa's first black president. To Ndaba Mandela, he was simply "Granddad." In Going to the Mountain, Ndaba tells how he came to live with Mandela shortly after he turned eleven--having met each other only once, years before, when Mandela was imprisoned at Victor Verster Prison -- and how the two of them slowly, cautiously built a relationship that would affect both their lives in extraordinary ways. It wasn't an easy transition. Mandela had high expectations for those around him, especially his family, and Ndaba chafed at the strict rules and exacting guidelines in his grandfather's home. But at the same time -- through overheard calls from foreign dignitaries as well as the Xhosa folk wisdom that his grandfather shared with him at every opportunity -- Ndaba was learning how to be a man. On a scale both personal and epic, Ndaba's extraordinary journey mirrors that of South Africa's coming of age -- from the segregated Soweto ghettos into which he was born to the privileged life in which he grew up and the turbulent yet exciting times in which he carries on his grandfather's legacy.Going to the Mountain is, in the end, a story about unlocking the power within each of us. It's a cautionary tale about how a child's life can go one way or the other, depending upon the intervention of a caring soul--and about the awesome power of love to serve as a catalyst for change.

Intruders: Short Stories


Mohale Mashigo - 2018
    At a busy taxi rank, a woman kills a man with her shoe. A genomicist is accused of playing God when she creates a fatherless child. Intruders is a collection that explores how it feels not to belong. These are stories of unremarkable people thrust into extraordinary situations by events beyond their control.With a unique and memorable touch, Mohale Mashigo explores the everyday ills we live with and wrestle constantly, all the while allowing hidden energies to emerge and play out their unforeseen consequences. Intruders is speculative fiction at its best.

The Essiens: Billionaires: Books 1-3


Kiru Taye - 2018
     The Essiens are the kings of African finance. A close-knit family, their father is the patriarch of a finance dynasty that ranges from retail to investment banking spanning the African continent. Yet all is not as it seems as the three brothers—Felix, Mark and Tony—soon discover when their family is rocked by secrets and scandals. Blood ties or not, family is family. If you like your book boyfriends to be tall, dark and handsome billionaires, then say hello to the Essien brothers. Includes: Keeping Secrets Making Scandal Riding Rebel

Risk and Return: A journey of entrepreneurship and self-discovery in Africa


Yomi Jemibewon - 2018
    This book comes highly recommended not just to the youth in search of meaning but also to the leader about to be displaced and the elder scared of disruption." - Konyin Ajayi (SAN), Managing Partner, Olaniwun Ajayi LP "As an African entrepreneur who has been through many of the trials and tribulations Yomi describes in his book, I can relate to the ups and downs, but also the immense joy and fulfillment of building businesses on the African continent.” - Frederick K. Swaniker, Chairman and Founder, African Leadership Group “This book is literally what every single person who wants to move back to Africa should read. Even people who are already back should read it just so they know there's a community of people who have been through what they are experiencing.” - Seni Sulyman, VP, Global Operations, Andela "It is rare to get an inside scoop on the vulnerabilities of the entrepreneur who is well ahead in the "making it" journey, especially in the African context of prayer-as-strategy which leaves room for minimal lessons to be learned.  In Risk and return, Yomi has done a rich and thoughtful job of capturing that experience so others can learn." - Misan Rewane, Co-founder & CEO, WAVE Academies  Synopsis Risk and Return is the story of one man’s return to Africa—a journey that begins with a search for self-fulfillment, which then evolves into an entrepreneurial adventure filled with tribulations, triumphs and many life lessons that will keep readers engaged from start to finish.    In a casual conversational voice, the author–Yomi Jemibewon, gives an honest, often hilarious and sometimes sobering account of what it feels like to chase a dream under highly uncertain circumstances. His anecdotes and reflections about navigating an unfamiliar, sometimes unforgiving, African business environment — as an idealistic returnee, an eager entrepreneur, or a young family man — will help readers navigate the challenging and sometimes terrifying times that a person experiences when embarking on a big life change.   For those readers with a special passion for Africa, his story just might inspire action to join the wave of people collaborating to galvanize positive change in Africa.

A Calf Named Brian Higgins


Kristen Ball - 2018
    Never having been to a developing country, she finds the food gross and the community filthy. She has to live without electricity or running water. Then she is told she must attend school. Just when she thinks nothing could make this trip any worse, she learns people there are dying of hunger and preventable disease. Hannah becomes frustrated and wants to help, but when poverty threatens the lives of people she loves, all she wants to do is go home. This story is an adventure of discovery.

Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics: How the Internet Era is Transforming Kenya


Nanjala Nyabola - 2018
    And, as in Western nations, the digital age has had dramatic effects on society and politics. Yet, while we hear about the #MeToo movement and the Russian bot scandal, there is little appreciation for the feminist movement #MyDressMyChoice and the subversion of state-run political propaganda by social media.Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics aims to change this by presenting a unique contribution to the debate on digital democracy. For traditionally marginalized groups, particularly women and the disabled, digital spaces have provided vital platforms that allow Kenyans to build new communities that transcend old ethnic and gender divisions. Covering attempts by political elites to prevent social movements from translating online visibility into meaningful offline gains, Digital Democracy, Analogue Politics explores the drastic efforts to contain online activism and new methods of feminist mobilization, as well as how “fake news,” Cambridge Analytica, and allegations of hacking contributed to tensions around the 2017 elections. Reframing digital democracy for the first time from the African perspective, Nanjala Nyabola’s groundbreaking work opens up new ways of understanding our current global online era.

Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally


Harun Maruf - 2018
    Somalis risk retaliation or death if they oppose or fail to comply with Al-Shabaab-imposed restrictions on aspects of everyday life such as clothing, media, sports, interpersonal relations, and prayer. Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of Al-Qaeda's Most Powerful Ally recounts the rise, fall, and resurgence of this overlooked terrorist organization and provides an intimate understanding of its connections with Al-Qaeda. Drawing from interviews with former Al-Shabaab militants, including high-ranking officials, military commanders, police, and foot soldiers, authors Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph reveal the motivations of those who commit their lives to the group and its violent jihadist agenda. A wealth of sources including US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, letters taken from the Pakistani hideout of Osama bin Laden, case files from the prosecution of American Al-Shabaab members, emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as secretary of state, and Al-Shabaab's own statements and recruiting videos inform Maruf and Joseph's investigation of the the United States' campaign against Al-Shabaab and how the 2006 US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia gave the group the popular support it needed to radicalize ordinary citizens and become a powerful movement.

Longing for Africa: Journeys Inspired by the Life of Jane Goodall Part One: Ethiopia


Annie Schrank - 2018
    Her treasured childhood Africa scrapbook never prepared her for the isolated, barren mountains of northern Ethiopia, relentless poverty, and a ten-year drought and famine unacknowledged by the world. Housed in a primitive mud hut with no electricity or indoor plumbing, falling in love with a handsome Italian, and forced to flee the military coup that toppled Haile Selassie, will Annie find the Africa of her childhood dreams or will she return home, disillusioned? Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert, Alexandra Fuller, or Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen). “With a title like this, of course, I was compelled to read this beautifully written book! A fascinating and adventurous life, spiced with danger, and with a love story thrown in. You can’t go wrong.” Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE. Founder, the Jane Goodall Institute. UN Messenger of Peace. “This swept me away. Ann Schrank writes like a magical spider, spinning continental webs that ensnare the reader. There’s flavor, fragrance, wit, perseverance, and pinpoint observational awareness. Owning a great story doesn’t guarantee being able to tell it well. It’s a gift with which Ms. Schrank is lavishly endowed.” Richard Bangs. TV host and producer and author of numerous travel books. “Each chapter brims with anticipation and springs alive with poignant description. A girl reveals in a glance the story of her desperate hunger, told in words so intense we can smell Africa, from the spices to the rotting fruit. Teeming with historical overview and literary flourish, Longing for Africa reads like Graham Greene plus romance.” Cathy Luchetti. Author of Women of the West, Children of the West, and Men of the West. “A memorable story of love, loss and Italian cooking, Schrank’s descriptions of the Palmucci’s Sunday lunch table had me dining right there alongside her. Schrank is a skillful storyteller, writing with compassion and fondness for the people who care about Africa and those who have come to call the continent home.” Robyn Keene-Young. Author and wildlife documentary producer.

Of Pawns and Players


Kinyanjui Kombani - 2018
    This story follows the life of Thomas, a roadside food vendor whose involvement with the daughter of a rich and prominent man traps him in a betting syndicate.Thomas is in a dilemma between what is morally right and what will keep him out of trouble.

The Land is Ours


Tembeka Ngcukaitobi - 2018
    In an age of aggressive colonial expansion, land dispossession and forced labour, these men believed in a constitutional system that respected individual rights and freedoms, and they used the law as an instrument against injustice. The book follows the lives, ideas and careers of Henry Sylvester Williams, Alfred Mangena, Richard Msimang, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Ngcubu Poswayo and George Montsioa, who were all members of the ANC. It analyses the legal cases they took on, explores how they reconciled the law with the political upheavals of the day, and considers how they sustained their fidelity to the law when legal victories were undermined by politics. The Land Is Ours shows that these lawyers developed the concept of a Bill of Rights, which is now an international norm. The book is particularly relevant in light of current calls to scrap the Constitution and its protections of individual rights: it clearly demonstrates that, from the beginning, the struggle for freedom was based on the idea of the rule of law.

An Unquiet Place


Clare Houston - 2018
    A concentration-camp journal from the South African War, found in a dusty box of old stock, reveals the life of Rachel Badenhorst, a young girl separated from her family and enduring the crushing hardship of war. Hannah becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Rachel. Coveting the young girl’s courage and endurance, she is compelled to uncover Rachel’s story, never thinking it will lead her to pick open the wounds of a local farmer and dig up old tragedies, unearthing grief that even the land has held on to for over a century.

Land For Fatimah


Veena Gokhale - 2018
    In Land for Fatimah, Anjali involves herself in Fatimah’s quest to find new land for her scattered community, and is thrown into a web of intrigue that upturns her safe, orderly world. Capturing the warmth and vitality of Africa, illuminating everyday heroism, the novel explores expat life, the forced displacement of the poor and the complexities of development.

Lion Hearted: The Life and Death of Cecil and the Future of Africa's Iconic Cats


Andrew Loveridge - 2018
    The lion was one of dozens slain each year in Zimbabwe, which legally licenses the hunting of big cats. But Cecil’s death sparked unprecedented global outrage, igniting thousands of media reports about the peculiar circumstances surrounding this hunt. At the center of the controversy was Dr. Andrew Loveridge, the zoologist who had studied Cecil for eight years. In Lion Hearted, Loveridge pieces together, for the first time, the fascinating life and murky details of this beloved lion’s slaying. In the tradition of Born Free and Gorillas in the Mist, Lion Hearted chronicles Loveridge’s long acquaintance with a host of charismatic lions that his team has tracked, often from birth to death. Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Loveridge learned to love predators at the knee of his father, an eminent herpetologist who stored baby crocodiles in the family bathtub. After earning his doctorate at Oxford, he seized an invitation to study the lions of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. There he meets Stumpy Tail, who, despite her name, has the dignity of the Queen of the Animal Kingdom; Dynamite, a venerable coalition leader who, muscled out by younger males, sets off on an incredible thirty-seven-day, 137-mile journey to find a new home; and Kataza, who escapes another lion’s claws, and whom Loveridge twice saves from death at the hands of humans. And, of course, there is Cecil. Dethroned in an epic battle, he forms an alliance with a former rival. He also becomes a favorite of photographers and tourists—until the fateful night when a Minnesota dentist and his hunting guide entice the trusting cat with a free meal. Loveridge unravels the complexities of lion society and the dangers the cats face both within their ranks and from the outside world. Despite their ruthless reputation, lions can form deep emotional bonds—females live in prides, a sisterhood of mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts that can exhibit military precision when hunting in formation; males band together in coalitions to vie for control of territory and the female prides. They also display a wide range of emotional behavior, including mourning the loss of their mates, partners, and cubs. Africa’s lion population is estimated to have shrunk by 43 percent in the last twenty years. There may now be as few as 20,000 wild lions across the entire continent—far fewer than the number of elephants. While deploring the killing of lions for sport, Loveridge does not believe that banning trophy hunting, by itself, will halt the decline of Africa’s lion populations. He sees greater threats in human population growth, the loss of habitat to agriculture, and the illegal trade in lion body parts for use in traditional medicines. And he offers concrete proposals for averting the lion’s extinction. More than a gripping detective story, Lion Hearted is an exploration of humanity’s relationship with the natural world and an attempt to keep this majestic species from disappearing. “Lions are one of the most beloved animals on the planet,” Loveridge observes. “They are the national symbol of no fewer than fifteen countries. . . . Surely, we can think of a better way to save the wild animals we love besides killing them.”

The Brightest Sun


Adrienne Benson - 2018
    Jane, a lonely expat wife, follows her husband to the tropics and learns just how fragile life is. Simi, a barren Maasai woman, must confront her infertility in a society in which females are valued by their reproductive roles. In this affecting debut novel, these three very different women grapple with motherhood, recalibrate their identities and confront unforeseen tragedies and triumphs.In beautiful, evocative prose, Adrienne Benson brings to life the striking Kenyan terrain as these women's lives intertwine in unexpected ways. As they face their own challenges and heartbreaks, they find strength traversing the arid landscapes of tenuous human connection. With gripping poignancy, The Brightest Sun explores the heartbreak of loss, the struggle to find a sense of belonging and the surprising ways we find our family and home.

Go Tell the Crocodiles: Chasing Prosperity in Mozambique


Rowan Moore Gerety - 2018
    But most Mozambicans have little to show for the nation's prosperity; to travel in Mozambique is to see much of the promise of development as a mirage. And in the fall of 2016, a sudden debt crisis gripped the nation, heralding what many in the financial world feared might be the beginning of a "global financial shockwave" (The Guardian).Go Tell the Crocodiles explores the efforts of ordinary people to provide for themselves where foreign aid, the formal economy, and the government have fallen short. Author Rowan Moore Gerety tells the story of contemporary Mozambique through the heartbreaking and fascinating lives of real people, from a street kid who flouts Mozambique's child labor laws to make his living selling muffins to a community that struggles with frequent crocodile attacks. Gerety introduces us to a nation struggling with mercenaries, refugees, infectious disease, human smuggling, child labor, warlords, and political corruption, weaving stories together into a stunning broader account of the challenges facing Africa and all developing nations.

The Teller of Secrets


Bisi Adjapon - 2018
    But after she is humiliated and punished for her own sexual exploration, Esi begins to question why women's secrets and men's secrets bear different consequences. It is the beginning of a journey of discovery that will lead her to unexpected places.As she navigates her burgeoning womanhood, Esi tries to reconcile her own ideals and dreams with her family’s complicated past and troubled present, as well as society’s many double standards that limit her and other women. Against a fraught political climate, Esi fights to carve out her own identity, and learns to manifest her power in surprising and inspiring ways. Funny, fresh, and fiercely original, The Teller of Secrets marks the American debut of one of West Africa's most exciting literary talents.

Louis Botha: A Man Apart


Richard Steyn - 2018
    Louis Botha was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, a union he did much to create in the decade after the devastation of the Anglo-Boer War. During the war Botha was a brilliant young Boer general who through his battlefield strategy won significant victories over the British in the early stages of the war. When the weight of British arms overwhelmed the Boers, Botha along with Smuts did much to encourage peace between English and Afrikaner and led the country to Union in 1910 and dominion status.Botha was a big-hearted and generous man who showed magnanimity in his dealings with all, including former enemies. He led the South African troops to victory and the capture of German South West Africa – prior to this he had to put down a revolt of pro-German Afrikaners. At the Peace of Versailles, representing South Africa, he pleaded unsuccessfully for magnanimity towards the Germans. Botha was a globally respected figure – he and Smuts effectively operated as a double act in South Africa and on the international stage before Botha’s untimely death in August 1919 at only 57. In A Man Apart this tragically short life is illuminated in full.

Milk Fever


Megan Ross - 2018
    In deftly and experimentally navigating the angst, joy and self-reckoning that comes with the choices and misadventures of young womanhood, this is a collection that brings together the evocative with the provocative, and the feminist with the personal, in a bold and startling poetic style. Hallucinatory, image-wet, and navigating the eternal tides of spirit and body, Milk Fever is a chimeric dreamscape in which a woman reconfigures, remembers and rebirths herself.

So Devilish a Fire


Nadia Owusu - 2018
    We saved you.” In Nadia Owusu’s So Devilish a Fire, we experience Nadia’s coming-of-age story, in which she absorbs the split narrative that has defined her life: Born in Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater to a White mother and Black father, motherhood curved into a complete question. She tells us of the two people pressed just under her flesh, the pressures to be lighter and whiter. We learn alongside her how whiteness represents a safety she can never fully attain. This chapbook offers the complexity of learning self-love while showing us exactly what her survival looks like. The title is plucked from W. E. B. Du Bois, who said of Black women, “I sincerely doubt if any other race of women could have brought its fineness up through so devilish a fire.” Owusu, simultaneous to her brilliant courage to speak, invests in the duplicitous power of storytelling as yet one more way she brought herself up through these fires. Stories, as we know all too painfully, have many sides, as glimmering as they are putrid. She reminds us of this doubleness, a metaphor for her entwined bloodlines: “The most destructive weapon in the world is a story, purified and poisoned. It attacks from the inside out, and from the outside in. We soak in it. We drink it. We are it.”

Ayobami and the Names of the Animals


Pilar López Ávila - 2018
    After war comes to an end, she can finally return to the schoolhouse. But in order to do so, she has to take a dangerous path through the jungle. Armed only with a piece of paper and a worn-out pencil, she embarks on a hazardous journey to fulfill her unweaving desire to learn and write.This is a tale about the importance of education, the difficulties that many children have to overcome to go to school, and the perseverance and enthusiasm of those who want to learn.

The Specter of Global China: Politics, Labor, and Foreign Investment in Africa


Ching Kwan Lee - 2018
    Among major foreign investors in Africa, China has stirred the most fear, hope, and controversy. For many, the specter of a Chinese neocolonial scramble is looming, while for others China is Africa’s best chance at economic renewal. Yet, global debates about China in Africa have been based more on rhetoric than on empirical evidence. Ching Kwan Lee’s The Specter of Global China is the first comparative ethnographic study that addresses the critical question: Is Chinese capital a different kind of capital?   Offering the clearest look yet at China’s state-driven investment in Africa, this book is rooted in six years of extensive fieldwork in copper mines and construction sites in Zambia, Africa’s copper giant. Lee shadowed Chinese, Indian, and South African managers in underground mines, interviewed Zambian miners and construction workers, and worked with Zambian officials. Distinguishing carefully between Chinese state capital and global private capital in terms of their business objectives, labor practices, managerial ethos, and political engagement with the Zambian state and society, she concludes that Chinese state investment presents unique potential and perils for African development. The Specter of Global China will be a must-read for anyone interested in the future of China, Africa, and capitalism worldwide.

Growing Greatness: A Journey Towards Personal and Business Mastery


Pepe Marais - 2018
    After finishing high school in 1986, he spent two years in the army completing what was then compulsory national service. On his way home at the end of his service, while waiting for a Vlossie at an airforce base in Rundu, he had a chance encounter with a graphic artist, an event which would change the course of his life. Pepe's latent talent for art was developed and honed at an art school in Cape Town, where he finished top of his class each year, which in turn would lead him to discover his passion for advertising. After six years in the industry he and his business partner Gareth Leck launched their enterprising Take-Away Advertising Agency and success seemed a foregone conclusion.However, in 2006, Pepe's business career and personal life began to disintegrate. At the lowest point of his life, he would discover a fundamental insight that became the foundation on which he would rebuild everything. It would also inspire the development of his Purpose for Business methodology and his deep interest in unlocking both human and business potential.While Growing Greatness contains many lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs, perhaps what is more important is the deep wisdom it offers. Through his growing awareness of what purpose means in both business and personal terms, Pepe points the way to growing your own greatness.

The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast


Michael Scott Moore - 2018
    In a terrible twist of fate, Moore himself was kidnapped and subsequently held captive by Somali pirates. Subjected to conditions that break even the strongest spirits—physical injury, starvation, isolation, terror—Moore’s survival is a testament to his indomitable strength of mind. In September 2014, after 977 days, he walked free when his ransom was put together by the help of several US and German institutions, friends, colleagues, and his strong-willed mother. Yet Moore’s own struggle is only part of the story: The Desert and the Sea falls at the intersection of reportage, memoir, and history. Caught between Muslim pirates, the looming threat of Al-Shabaab, and the rise of ISIS, Moore observes the worlds that surrounded him—the economics and history of piracy; the effects of post-colonialism; the politics of hostage negotiation and ransom; while also conjuring the various faces of Islam—and places his ordeal in the context of the larger political and historical issues.           A sort of Catch-22 meets Black Hawk Down, The Desert and the Sea is written with dark humor, candor, and a journalist’s clinical distance and eye for detail. Moore offers an intimate and otherwise inaccessible view of life as we cannot fathom it, brilliantly weaving his own experience as a hostage with the social, economic, religious, and political factors creating it. The Desert and the Sea is wildly compelling and a book that will take its place next to titles like Den of Lions and Even Silence Has an End.

Seeds of Slavery


Joseph F. Baiden - 2018
    Two lovers twice denied happiness by another man's greed. Two young men of mixed African and European heritage exploited by unscrupulous leaders from both worlds. One boy who makes his own destiny. In 1667 Samuel Hastings and his business partner, Albert Dross, set sail for Africa to earn their fortunes in trans-Atlantic slave trafficking. This decision will change the lives of hundreds, inciting kings to war and tearing families apart to support a trade that will spread untold wealth--and shame--across three continents and two centuries. Set during the early years of the slave trade in West Africa, Seeds of Slavery uncovers painful truths about the tribal leaders and European traders who created a global exchange of human lives for gold and guns that would dislocate families, weaken identities, and impart a legacy of loss and pain for generations to come.

The Governor's Wife


Amaka Azie - 2018
    Luck is on her side when the perfect site falls into her lap...until she learns who owns it. The chances of Philip Adamu renting to her are slim to none. Why would he when she dropped her financially struggling college sweetheart like a hot potato to marry someone else? Real estate tycoon Philip Adamu can’t believe his eyes when Ogonna struts into his office. Seven years earlier, the gold digger had kicked him to the curb to marry a wealthy politician. Now she needs him, more like needs his property. Vowing not to rent her so much as a dog house, Philip shows Ogonna the door. But can he resist the feelings he’s denied for so long when he sees her flirting with a rival developer?Sparks fly the moment they meet again. But he’s engaged and she’s still hiding the dangerous secret to her marriage.Can love and forgiveness overcome the lies and deceptions?Can they trust each other and the future they’d once dreamt of?

Monkey Chef: A Love Story


Mike Freiheit - 2018
    Recently dumped and working a dead-end job in New York City, he knew he needed a change. He found it in South Africa, working at a primate sanctuary as a cook for the monkeys and the volunteers. Monkey Chef: A Love Story is a fish out of water tale about a well-meaning American guy at odds with the British women he works with, the romantic tangles that come with long-distance dating, navigating a strange new world, and learning how to be a better man from the complicated monkeys under his care.

Shadows Over an African Heart: a novel


Diana M. Hawkins - 2018
    These noble beasts are being abused in cruel tourist ride training centers; while elsewhere small calves are being ripped from their mothers in the bush and shipped to lives of solitude and neglect in Chinese zoos; and in Hwange National Park, entire herds of elephants are mysteriously dropping dead. It's up to the newly appointed ZimParks superintendent, Hector Kaminjolo, his rangers and environmentalists Piet and Jessica van Rooyen, to band together to put a stop to these cruel practices, investigate the slaughter, locate the perpetrators and bring them to justice in 2013 Zimbabwe, where greed and corruption fuels the quest for ivory. This novel is a sequel to the author's other popular novel, Shadows along the Zambezi, set in 2001.

Shadow Sisters


Shelley Davidow - 2018
    During the terrifying years of Apartheid in South Africa, Shelley Davidow’s family was a crime. At a time when it was illegal for black and white people to live together, Shelley’s social activist parents took in Rosie, an abandoned black three-year-old. Rosie grew up as a beloved daughter and sister in a white household. Against the backdrop of racist laws and ever-present threats of violence, Shelley’s parents did all they could to provide a safe, happy home for their five children. But when Rosie was sixteen, devastating truths came to light, shattering the family’s understanding of the past. In this haunting memoir, Shelley Davidow sifts through the memories of her early life, searching for hope and reconciliation. Shadow Sisters leaves us with a deeper understanding of family love and of how, sometimes, that love is not enough.

Nature Of The Lion


T.M. Clark - 2018
    Clark. Hiding from the law, they never expected to be caught in the crosshairs of a hunter… After relocating to South Africa on the heels of scandal five years ago, Chloe and her invalid father, Mike, once wealthy Zimbabwean landowners, now have little. Away at university, Chloe has had to rely on her father's best friend Enoch and his son Xo to watch over Mike. When a violent confrontation puts Chloe in danger, Enoch steps in to help – with inadvertent fatal results. With increasing pressure from a right–wing group on the police to charge Enoch, this mismatched family have no choice but to flee back to Zimbabwe. But crossing the border will be dangerous and near impossible with their route taking them amid warring dissident armies and landmines, and their every footstep is stalked by a shadowy ring of hunters – whose trophies are taken from more than animals...Only with help from Nick, formerly a soldier under Mike's command, now a professional game ranger, will the fugitives have a chance of making it home. But Nick has long struggled to come to terms with his fellow soldiers' choices before their unit was abandoned. Will his past demons put them all at risk?

How we made it in Africa: Learn from the stories of 25 entrepreneurs who've built thriving businesses


Jaco Maritz - 2018
     * Be inspired by the experiences of Africa’s most dynamic entrepreneurs * Gain insight into the continent’s business opportunities * Find the courage to make your own dreams and ambitions become a reality Discover why Ken Njoroge is building a billion-dollar pan-African digital payments company (it is not because he wants to drive a Ferrari); Find out how Jean de Dieu Kagabo grew a Rwanda-based industrial group from a simple product: toilet paper; And be inspired by the extraordinary tale of Hassan Bashir who created a booming insurance company from nothing but grit and persistence. Each entrepreneur’s story is told in an honest and sober manner, not shying away from the mistakes made and the considerable hurdles they had to overcome. And there were many tough times: from being betrayed by long-time senior managers to losing vast sums of money because of poor market research. Pursuing their business ambitions also had a toll on their personal lives: one entrepreneur was too broke to afford diapers for his baby, while another had to sell her house to keep the company alive. MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS 1. Ken Njoroge (Kenya): The long, hard journey to build a billion-dollar company 2. Tseday Asrat (Ethiopia): A modern twist on Ethiopia's coffee culture 3. Tumi Phake (South Africa): Flexing his entrepreneurial muscles to exploit a gap in the health club industry 4. Monica Musonda (Zambia): Instant noodle pioneer 5. Hassan Bashir (Kenya): An insurance company created from nothing but grit and persistence 6. Ebele Enunwa (Nigeria): A $50-million food and retail empire 7. Tayo Oviosu (Nigeria): The entrepreneur who traded in his Silicon Valley life to bring mobile money to unbanked Nigerians 8. Navalayo Osembo (Kenya): How to make a Kenyan running shoe 9. Jean de Dieu Kagabo (Rwanda): Rwandan industrialist always hunting for the next big business idea 10. Addis Alemayehou (Ethiopia): Serial entrepreneur bringing the world to Ethiopia 11. Kasope Ladipo-Ajai (Nigeria): Nigerian cooking made convenient 12. Chijioke Dozie (Nigeria): Leveraging past experiences to disrupt the banking industry 13. Sylvester Chauke (South Africa): Marketer with a passion to take African brands global 14. Yoadan Tilahun (Ethiopia): Showing Ethiopia how to throw an event 15. Mossadeck Bally (Mali): West African hotel group built on an appetite for risk 16. Jennifer Bash (Tanzania): Adding value to everyday staples 17. Jesse Moore (Kenya): Thinking out of the box to power over 600 000 homes with solar energy 18. Twapewa Kadhikwa (Namibia): How one hair salon became a group of companies 19. Jacques de Vos (South Africa): Growing a high-impact tech business one problem statement at a time 20. Nana Akua Birmeh (Ghana): Architect breaking glass ceilings in Ghana 21. Nelly Tuikong (Kenya): Kenyan beauty brand taking on global behemoths 22. Dr Hend El Sherbini (Egypt): From a small Egyptian family business to a London-listed healthcare giant 23. NJ Ayuk (Cameroon): A lawyer on the road less travelled 24. Polo Leteka (South Africa): The investor who spots opportunity where others see risk 25. Ashley Uys (South Africa): Diagnostic hustler ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jaco Maritz is CEO of media company Maritz Africa, publisher of the award-winning pan-African online business publication How we made it in Africa. Jaco holds a BA in Information Science from the University of Stellenbosch.

In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement


John Heminway - 2018
    Anne Spoerry treated hundreds of thousands of people across rural Kenya over the span of fifty years. A member of the renowned Flying Doctors Service, the French-born Spoerry learned how to fly a plane at the age of forty-five and earned herself the cherished nickname, "Mama Daktari"--"Mother Doctor"--from the people of Kenya. Yet few knew what drove her from post-World War II Europe to Africa. Now, in the first comprehensive account of her life, Dr. Spoerry's revered selflessness gives way to a past marked by rebellion, submission, and personal decisions that earned her another nickname--this one sinister--working as a "doctor" in a Nazi concentration camp.In Full Flight explores the question of whether it is possible to rewrite one's troubled past simply by doing good in the present. Informed by Spoerry's own journals, a trove of previously untapped files, and numerous interviews with those who knew her in Europe or Africa, John Heminway takes readers on a remarkable journey across a haunting African landscape and into a dramatic life punctuated by both courage and weakness and driven by a powerful need to atone.

Congo Tales: Told By the People of Mbomo: Told by the People of Mbomo. Racontés par les gens de Mbomo


Stefanie Plattner - 2018
    In the heart of this forest is Odzala-Kokoua National Park, an ecological wonderland that is home to untold numbers of rare gorillas, forest elephants, and birds. It is also home to people who have lives vastly different from much of the rest of the world. In this stunning photographic series, Pieter Henket presents images of the children of Odzala- Kokoua telling the oral history of the Congo in enchanting and creative ways. Shot over the course of a month, Henket documented the children of this remote region as they designed, planned, created costumes for, and acted out a series of myths- about their tribes, their landscape, and the animals and plants that they live among. Their stories will educate others unfamiliar with a way of life that is so completely in harmony with nature. Filled with vibrant images that highlight the area's magnificent flora and fauna, this photographic project, which was three years in the planning and execution, offers an exciting opportunity to learn about nature and the environment and it delivers an optimistic message about trust, cooperation, and conservation for the next generation of policy makers.

Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed


John Prendergast - 2018
    The book highlights the devastating price Congo has paid for that support. However, the way the world deals with Congo is finally changing, and the book tells the remarkable stories of those in Congo and the United States leading that transformation. The people of Congo are fighting back against a tidal wave of international exploitation and governmental oppression to make things better for their nation, their neighborhoods, and their families. They are risking their lives to resist and alter the deadly status quo. And now, finally, there are human rights movements led by young people in the United States and Europe building solidarity with Congolese change-makers in support of dignity, justice, and equality for the Congolese people. As a result, the way the world deal with Congo is finally changing. Fidel Bafilemba, Ryan Gosling, and John Prendergast traveled to Congo to document some of the stories not only of the Congolese upstanders who are building a better future for their country but also of young Congolese people overcoming enormous odds just to go to school and help take care of their families. Through Gosling's photographs of Congolese daily life, Bafilemba's profiles of heroic Congolese activists, and Prendergast's narratives of the extraordinary history and evolving social movements that directly link Congo with the United States and Europe, Congo Stories provides windows into the history, the people, the challenges, the possibilities, and the movements that could change the course of Congo's destiny. Chosen by Amazon as the Best Book of the Month for December 2018 in Biographies & Memoirs, History, and Nonfiction. Featuring the life story of Dr. Denis Mukwege, winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize

Illegal Among Us


Martine Kalaw - 2018
    Her decision catapults her into a tumultuous and seven-year battle with immigration and a personal struggle to discover her identity. Ten years later, at age thirty-three, a social media message reconnects Martine with the father she thought dead for twenty years. Here begins the story of a prep-school illegal immigrant’s return to her birthland of Zambia. She travels to Africa to unlock the key to her past but what she discovers is unimaginable and will never leave her the same.A typical American college girl by all appearances, Martine’s innocent ignorance of her own immigration status erupts in a battle for US citizenship while avoiding deportation to her country of origin, the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Without documentation on the African continent in either DRC or Zambia, no country claims a stateless Martine.After seven years, six lawyers, numerous Master Calendar hearings, motions, rejections, appeals and testimony before the U.S. Congress (on behalf of The Dream Act), in 2012 Martine becomes a U.S. citizen and two years later she returns to Zambia. Only then does Martine discover a truth about her mother and father which ultimately brings her resolve and an identity.

A Rope from the Sky: The Making and Unmaking of the World's Newest State


Zach Vertin - 2018
    But the party would not last; the Republic's freedom-fighters soon plunged their new nation back into chaos, shattering the promise of liberation and exposing the hubris of their Western backers. An epic tale of paradise won and lost, A Rope from the Sky is an extraordinary journey into the rise and fall of the world's newest state. Weaving together narratives local and global, this is a story of hope, power, greed, compassion, and conscience-shocking violence from the world's most neglected patch of territory. But it is also the story of an audacious attempt to forge a state from scratch, an intervention that reflects both the best of the West and its uncomfortable reckoning with the limits of Western power amid a world in disarray. The author's first-hand accounts, from deadly war zones to Washington's halls of power, bring readers inside this unique episode in global history - an unprecedented experiment and a cautionary tale. From moonlit battlefields and glitzy hotel ballrooms to the emerald marshes of the Nile, South Sudan's story is a richly painted canvas. Present before, during, and after independence, the author has taken tea with everyone: guerrilla fighters and corrupt ministers, teenage cattle rustlers and shadowy intelligence agents. Coupling his years on the ground with a role in the Obama administration, Zach Vertin is uniquely positioned to give the insider account of this modern-day Greek tragedy.

African Twilight: The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent


Carol Beckwith - 2018
    This new landmark volume will set the standard for capturing a visual testament to the vanishing traditions of African peoples.No other book like this exists or can ever be created again, as more than 40 percent of what has been documented here has already vanished. For the last 15 years of their four decades of African fieldwork, world-renowned photographers Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher have continued their journey across Africa, seeking out remote communities to record the sacred ceremonies, powerful art forms, and boundless creativity of the people living there today. This ground-breaking book is a testament to these vanishing moments and peoples. African Twilight is a celebration of the powerful artistry and boundless creativity of Africa's cultural heritage for audiences worldwide, transporting viewers into a world of connections between individual and community, body and soul, land and people. All of the photography is previously unpublished.

Abyssinian Nomad: An African woman's journey of love, loss, and adventure from Cape to Cairo


Maskarm Haile - 2018
    There are those who dream and have the courage to take the first steps past the threshold of familiarity. Their stories, like mine, are etched on the avenues we dare to traverse. The Cape to Cairo road is where I, a black female soul-searcher, faced my greatest trial in confronting my fear of losing my mother to cancer, trying to keep old love alive, and make my childhood dream come true.

G. W. F. Hegel


Shao Kai Tseng - 2018
    Taking a Reformed stance, Shao Kai Tseng shows the significance of Hegel's philosophy of religion and surveys the use of Hegelian methods in recent Protestant theology, with a focus on Barth and his theological heirs.

National Geographic. Around the World in 125 Years. Africa


Reuel Golden - 2018
    Inspired by our monumental Around the World in 125 Years, this volume curates around 200 captivating images sourced directly from the National Geographic historical archives, including 40 new photographs, that traverse the landscapes, history, cultures, and wildlife of Africa.Our continental journey through amazing Africa ranges from evocative early black-and-white pictures to autochromes, from the golden age of Kodachromes to digital. Along the way, we fly over the misty volcanoes of Uganda in a 1950s plane; follow archaeologists into the cool, musky tombs of Egypt; gaze up at the gleaming skyscrapers of Zimbabwe; admire the ritual masks of the Chokwe tribesmen of Angola; get lost in a labyrinth of alleys and souks in Algeria's old quarters; wonder at the fragile red-tufted flowers of South Africa's Drakensberg mountains; trudge behind Kenyan farmers as they battle clouds of flying locusts; and gingerly spy mountain gorillas enjoying the Rwandan sunshine.Long before the Travel Channel and Google Images, these images celebrated Africa's spectacular landscapes, incredible wildlife, and diversity--but also reflect edgier stories that speak of rural hardship, environmental threats, and the lasting remnants of forced colonization. Leaving no stone unturned, this definitive voyage is in equal parts a breathtaking homage to an incomparable continent, and a unique tribute to the world's most famous photography magazine.

Beyond Borders


Cassandra Arnold - 2018
    In that time, she accepted 8 posts in 5 different countries: Niger, Haiti, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Iraq. This is Niger, where it all began.Part journal, part photo essay, part poem... deeply personal and deeply confronting... If you have ever wondered what this work is really like, read this book and you will know. "Follow me now into the sands of the Sahel."Profits from the sale of this book will be donated to Doctors Without Borders Canada.

Life on the Edge: Tristan Voorspuy's Fatal Love of Africa


Adrian Dangar - 2018
    Early stints in Northern Ireland and Germany with the Blues and Royals regiment were but a precursor to a life defined by his love of Africa, a life cut tragically short in 2017 on his beloved game reserve, Sosian. From his epic motorbike ride from Cairo to Cape Town, to extraordinary wildlife encounters and many death-defying light aircraft near misses, Life on the Edge paints a picture of a man determined to live life to the full. It is also the story of compassion, conservation and, ultimately, tragedy. In the last two decades of his life, Voorspuy transformed the overgrazed and drought-blighted Sosian ranch in Northern Kenya into a celebrated game reserve, acclaimed tourist destination and successful cattle ranch. True to form, it was whilst defending this property that an unarmed Tristan, on horseback, was gunned down and killed, a murder that sent shockwaves around the world.

THE SKIN TRADERS: AN AFRICAN ADVENTURE


Nick France - 2018
     Madihah is a young woman fleeing from the oppression of her home country. Anja is desperate to track the whereabouts of her friend lost in Egypt. Jade and Emma, two young students from England embark on their first ‘girly holiday’ to Morocco, but their destination is not what it seems. Three epic journeys from the colourful fragrant Souk of Marrakech to the rugged terrain of the High Atlas Mountains, the Horn of Africa and the deadly beauty of the Sahara to the depths of the Mediterranean Sea. Who will survive… The Skin Traders?

Like Sodium in Water: A memoir of home and heartache


Hayden Eastwood - 2018
    He even thinks He-Man is right-wing. I ask Dad who we are and he says left-wing. Left is opposite to right. If right is bad, then we’re the opposite of that, which means we’re good.” It’s post-independence Zimbabwe and an atmosphere of nostalgia hangs over much of Harare’s remaining white community. Hayden Eastwood grows up in a family that sets itself apart, distinguishing themselves from Rhodie-Rhodies through their politics: left is good; right is bad.Within the family’s free and easy approach to life, Hayden and his younger brother, Dan, make a pact to never grow up, to play hide and seek and build forts forever, and to never, ever be interested in girls. But as Hayden and Dan develop as teenagers, and the chemicals of adolescence begin to stir, their childhood pact starts to unravel. And with the arrival of Sarah into their lives, the two brothers find themselves embroiled in an unspoken love triangle. While Sarah and Hayden spend increasing amounts of time together, Dan is left to deal with feelings of rejection and the burden of hidden passion alone, and the demise of a silly promise brings with it a wave of destruction. Laced with humour, anger and sadness, Like Sodium in Water is an account of a family in crisis and an exploration of how we only abandon the lies we tell ourselves when we have no other option.

Goma: Stories of Strength and Sorrow from Eastern Congo


Theodore Trefon - 2018
    Often portrayed by outsiders as a living hell, Goma is seen as a city of promise for many inside the country. Drawing on a rich tapestry of personal narratives, from taxi drivers to market traders, doctors to local humanitarian workers, Goma provides an engaging and unconventional portrait of an African city. In contrast to the bleak pessimism that dominates much of the writing on Congo, Theodore Trefon and Noël Kabuyaya instead emphasize the resilience, pragmatism, and ingenuity that characterizes so much of daily life in Goma. Resigned and hardened by struggle, the protagonists of the book give the impression that life is neither beautiful nor ugly, but an unending skirmish with destiny. In doing so, they offer startling insights into the social, cultural, and political landscape of this unique African city.

African Wax Print Textiles


Anne Grosfilley - 2018
    In beautifully illustrated chapters, Anne Grosfilley traces the process of printing and dying the batik fabric, involving wax or indigo, to its multifaced origins. She explores the differences of mass-produced and artisanally sourced fabrics, tracking where textiles go from the manufacturing centres to markets and cities throughout Africa and the world. Grosfilley offers the fruits of her own passionate research as she profiles a variety of individuals from rural venders to trendsetting fashionistas. This eye-opening volume celebrates the enormous variety of African fabric styles and uses, and explores the complex interconnections between the continent and colonialism and between modern technology and Old World practices.Anne Grosfilley is an anthropologist and an expert on African textiles and fashion

Shadow State


Mark Swilling (author), Haroon Bhorat (author), Mzukisi Qobo (author), Sikhulekile Duma (author), Lu - 2018
    

Hyenas


Melissa Gish - 2018
    A look at hyenas, including their habitats, physical characteristics such as their powerful jaws, behaviors, relationships with humans, and the declining populations of these often-misunderstood animals in the world today.

Timbuktu: A Ladybird Expert Book: The secrets of the fabled but lost African city


Gus Casely-Hayford - 2018
    Its history steeped in magicians, epic wars, story-tellers and missing ships. You'll learn what made Timbuktu so notorious and irresistible to Europe, and why centuries later it still enchants the Western World with its beauty, wealth, mystery, intellectual excellence and legacy.Inside you'll discover . . .- The significance of The River Niger - The great advantages in the introduction of camels- The birth of Mali- The connections between Islam and the Mali Empire- How the libraries give vivid access to the medieval African perspective- And much more . . .Written by the leading lights and most outstanding communicators in their fields, the Ladybird Expert books provide clear, accessible and authoritative introductions to subjects drawn from science, history and culture.For an adult readership, the Ladybird Expert series is produced in the same iconic small hardback format pioneered by the original Ladybirds. Each beautifully illustrated book features the first new illustrations produced in the original Ladybird style for nearly forty years.

ArabLit Quarterly: Fall 2018


M. Lynx QualeySofia Samatar - 2018
    Also: An open letter from novelist Sofia Samatar to deceased writer Tayeb Salih. A playlist to go with Mohamed Rabie's apocalyptic novel "Otared." A talk between graphic novelist Zeina Abirached and Olivia Snaije. With translations by award winners Marilyn Hacker, Yasmine Seale, Robin Moger, and more.

Sing to the Moon


Nansubuga Nagadya Isdahl - 2018
    First he dreams of reaching the stars and then of riding a supernova straight to Mars. But on a rainy day at his grandfather's house, he is brought down to earth with a bump. Do adventures only happen in galaxies far away or can he find magic a little closer to home? A touching story of a grandfather's love for his grandson and the quiet pleasures of a rainy day.

Fodor's the Complete Guide to African Safaris: with South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, & Rwanda (Full-color Travel Guide Book 5)


Fodor's Travel Publications Inc. - 2018
    Travelers will be able to determine which African safari destination is best for them and plan their trip step by step starting months before departure up to the day of arrival. We cover the best local and international safari tour operators with information on how to create a dream safari, whether it's a luxury, bespoke experience, or a rustic in-the-bush excursion. Plus, Fodor's reveals the best beaches for must-needed post-safari relaxation. More in-depth planning information is given for popular gorilla treks in Rwanda and Uganda.This travel guide includes: •UP-TO-DATE COVERAGE: New recommendations include the best new safari camps and tour operators •ILLUSTRATED FEATURES: Special full-color "Fodor's Features" throughout the guide provide rich information on the Big Five, the Great Migration, the Dunes of Namibia, and African culture. Gorgeous photos throughout, many by Fodor's travelers, provide endless inspiration. •INDISPENSABLE TRIP PLANNING TOOLS: Travelers can discover details about animals and birds, including the Big Five, with checklists for each country. Fodor's offers a hierarchy of safari parks in each country, with detailed lodging options, and compare tour operators with an easy-to-read chart broken down by experience, expertise, and clientele. Internet resources, a planning timeline, packing lists, must-ask questions, and information on what to expect after arrival are provided in easy-to-use, compact features. •DISCERNING RECOMMENDATIONS: Fodor's The Complete Guide to African Safaris offers well-informed advice and recommendations from expert and local writers to help travelers make the most of their time. Fodor's Choice designates our best picks, from hotels to nightlife. •COVERS: South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Victoria Falls, South African Wine Country, Zanzibar, Kruger National Park, Skeleton Coast, Victoria Falls, Okavango Delta, Serengeti National Park, and Mount Kilimanjaro

Cuddle Me, Kill Me


Richard Peirce - 2018
    This movie blew the cover off a brutal industry that has burgeoned in the last decade or so, operating largely under the radar of public concern. In Cuddle Me Kill Me,   veteran wildlife campaigner Richard Peirce reveals horrifying facts about the industry. He tells the true story of two male lions rescued from breeding farmsThe exploitation and misery of these apex predators when they are bred in captivityHow young cubs are removed from their mothers mere hours after birthHow they are first used for petting by an adoring (and paying) publicTheir subsequent use for ‘walking with lions’ tourismAnd how, in the final stage of exploitation, they are served up in fenced enclosure for execution by canned hunters – or simply shot by breeders for the value of their carcass, a prized product in the East.Well researched by Peirce with the help of an undercover agent, and illustrated with photos taken along the way, this is a disturbing and passionate plea to end commercial captive lion breeding and the repurposing of wildlife to cater for human greed.

Safari


David Sachs - 2018
    They got the adventure.The thirty-something golden boy and golden girl investment bankers have lost their passion, for life and each other. For three months—snorkeling Zanzibar, climbing Kilimanjaro, trekking to gorillas—the trip worked its magic. But when they begin their Kenyan safari at the start of the rainy season, their trust is shattered. They enter Maasai Mara park wondering if their marriage is over when an accident leaves them stranded and injured in the bush. The animals of the Mara are normally frightened of humans, but humans rarely walk the savanna hurt and weak. The fight for their marriage is now a fight for their life.

The Doctor and the Diplomat: Courage and Chaos on the Ebola Frontline


Sinéad Walsh - 2018
    

Little Gorilla (padded board book)


Ruth Bornstein - 2018
    Perfect for the little ones! Everyone loves Little Gorilla: his mother, his father, his aunts and uncles, Big Boa Constrictor, and all the other animals living in the forest with him. Then one day, Little Gorilla begins to grow . . . and grow . . . and grow, until suddenly, at his birthday celebration, Little Gorilla's family and friends discover that he isn't little anymore!   In this delightful padded edition of this heartwarming tale, little readers will be comforted by the soft, gently pliable version of their beloved Little Gorilla.

The Rise of the African Novel: Politics of Language, Identity, and Ownership


Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ - 2018
    Calling it a major crisis in African literary criticism, Mukoma Wa Ngugi considers key questions around the misreading of African literature: Why did Chinua Achebe’s generation privilege African literature in English despite the early South African example? What are the costs of locating the start of Africa’s literary tradition in the wrong literary and historical period? What does it mean for the current generation of writers and scholars of African literature not to have an imaginative consciousness of their literary past?  While acknowledging the importance of Achebe’s generation in the African literary tradition, Mukoma Wa Ngugi challenges that narrowing of the identities and languages of the African novel and writer. In restoring the missing foundational literary period to the African literary tradition, he shows how early South African literature, in both aesthetics and politics, is in conversation with the literature of the African independence era and contemporary rooted transnational literatures. This book will become a foundational text in African literary studies, as it raises questions about the very nature of African literature and criticism. It will be essential reading for scholars of African literary studies as well as general readers seeking a greater understanding of African literary history and the ways in which critical consensus can be manufactured and rewarded at the expense of a larger and historical literary tradition.

Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers


Msia Kibona Clark - 2018
    In Hip-Hop in Africa, Msia Kibona Clark examines some of Africa’s biggest hip-hop scenes and shows how hip-hop helps us understand specifically African narratives of social, political, and economic realities.Clark looks at the use of hip-hop in protest, both as a means of articulating social problems and as a tool for mobilizing listeners around those problems. She also details the spread of hip-hop culture in Africa following its emergence in the United States, assessing the impact of urbanization and demographics on the spread of hip-hop culture.Hip-Hop in Africa is a tribute to a genre and its artists as well as a timely examination that pushes the study of music and diaspora in critical new directions. Accessibly written by one of the foremost experts on African hip-hop, this book will easily find its place in the classroom.

When Elephants Fight


Majok Tulba - 2018
    Forced to grow up quickly in the civil war, he is nonetheless fun-loving as well as smart. But his little world cannot deflect the conflict raging around it and soon he must flee the life he loves.Ahead lies a long trek to a refugee camp, a journey arduous and fraught. When at last it ends, Juba comes to wonder if there’s any such thing as safe haven in his country. Yet life in the camp is not all bad. There can be intense joy amid the deprivation, there are angels as well as demons.Poised part way between heaven and hell, When Elephants Fight draws a horrifying picture of what humanity can do to itself, but Juba’s is a story of transcendence and resilience, even exultation.Majok Tulba’s debut novel, Beneath the Darkening Sky, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and likened to the work of Nam Le, Markus Zusak and Primo Levi. No less brilliant, When Elephants Fight is an important testimony of the harrowing lives of refugees.

Children of Hope: The Odyssey of the Oromo Slaves from Ethiopia to South Africa


Sandra Rowoldt Shell - 2018
    Because Scottish missionaries in Yemen interviewed each of the Oromo children shortly after their liberation, we have sixty-four structured life histories told by the children themselves.In the historiography of slavery and the slave trade, first passage narratives are rare, groups of such narratives even more so. In this analytical group biography (or prosopography), Shell renders the experiences of the captives in detail and context that are all the more affecting for their dispassionate presentation. Comparing the children by gender, age, place of origin, method of capture, identity, and other characteristics, Shell enables new insights unlike anything in the existing literature for this region and period.Children of Hope is supplemented by graphs, maps, and illustrations that carefully detail the demographic and geographic layers of the children’s origins and lives after capture. In this way, Shell honors the individual stories of each child while also placing them into invaluable and multifaceted contexts.

Queer and Sexy Collection Vol 1


Eniitan - 2018
    Follow the lives of Ufuoma, Larrie, Ariyike, Fausiat, Halimat and Uduak as they experience the magic that is the otherworldly Tara.

Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War: Sovereignty, Responsibility, and the War on Terror


Elizabeth Schmidt - 2018
    She focuses on the quarter century following the Cold War (1991–2017), when neighboring states and subregional, regional, and global organizations and networks joined extracontinental powers in support of diverse forces in the war-making and peace-building processes. During this period, two rationales were used to justify intervention: a response to instability, with the corollary of responsibility to protect, and the war on terror.Often overlooked in discussions of poverty and violence in Africa is the fact that many of the challenges facing the continent today are rooted in colonial political and economic practices, in Cold War alliances, and in attempts by outsiders to influence African political and economic systems during the decolonization and postindependence periods. Although conflicts in Africa emerged from local issues, external political and military interventions altered their dynamics and rendered them more lethal. Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War counters oversimplification and distortions and offers a new continentwide perspective, illuminated by trenchant case studies.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide (BrightSummaries.com)


Bright Summaries - 2018
    The novel depicts the ravages of war as seen through the eyes of a handful of mostly Igbo characters, whose personal lives become inextricably intertwined with the fate of their country. Half of a Yellow Sun won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction, and a film adaptation starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton was released in 2014. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most influential Nigerian writers active today, and has published a variety of novels, short stories and nonfiction works. Her debut novel Purple Hibiscus was longlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize.Find out everything you need to know about Half of a Yellow Sun in a fraction of the time! This in-depth and informative reading guide brings you: • A complete plot summary• Character studies• Key themes and symbols• Questions for further reflectionWhy choose BrightSummaries.com?Available in print and digital format, our publications are designed to accompany you on your reading journey. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.See the very best of literature in a whole new light with BrightSummaries.com!

Monkeys up a Tree: A Memoir of an African Childhood


Rosemary Gordon - 2018
    A riveting account of a childhood buffeted by both the outer mayhem of life in an exotic land, and the inner world of constant confusion and hurt that come with the fluctuations of a mercurial mother, who in the wake of battling her inner demons, wreaks havoc in the lives of her loved ones. It is a fascinating and poignant tale that includes malaria, crocodiles, green chickens and a marauding leopard, by turns heart-breaking, horrifying and sometimes hilarious, painting a vivid window into the curious complexities of life in the landscape of colonial Africa.

The Last Words of Rowan du Preez: Murder and Conspiracy on the Cape Flats


Simone Haysom - 2018
    Angy was an activist, and spent her days collecting evidence for a commission of inquiry into policing that had the chance to change law enforcement across the country’s troubled townships. She was vocally against vigilante violence and a go-to person when demanding better services from the police.But when the commission started its hearings, Angy found herself on trial for murdering – necklacing – a young neighbourhood troublemaker, Rowan du Preez. The state’s case centred on the accusation Rowan had allegedly made with his dying breath – that Angy had set alight the tyre around his neck.Simone Haysom takes us into the heart of a mystery: was Angy Peter framed by the police for a murder she didn’t commit? Or was she a wolf in sheep’s clothing who won a young man’s trust and then turned on him in the most brutal way?Simone Haysom spent four years meticulously researching this case and the result is a court-room drama interwoven with expert opinion and research into crime and the state of policing in the townships of South Africa.