The World Beneath


Janice Warman - 2014
    Joshua lives with his mother in the maid’s room, in the backyard of their wealthy white employers’ house in the city by the sea. He doesn’t quite understand the events going on around him. But when he rescues a stranger and riots begin to sweep the country, Joshua has to face the world beneath—the world deep inside him—to make heartbreaking choices that will change his life forever. Genuine and quietly unflinching, this beautifully nuanced novel from a veteran journalist captures a child’s-eye view of the struggle that shaped a nation and riveted the world.

Blackass


A. Igoni Barrett - 2015
    As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo finds the dead ends of his life open out before him. As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster – except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, Furo's ass remains robustly black . . .Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative – this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail.

I Do Not Come to You by Chance


Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani - 2009
    Being the opara of the family, Kingsley Ibe is entitled to certain privileges--a piece of meat in his egusi soup, a party to celebrate his graduation from university. As first son, he has responsibilities, too. But times are bad in Nigeria, and life is hard. Unable to find work, Kingsley cannot take on the duty of training his younger siblings, nor can he provide his parents with financial peace in their retirement. And then there is Ola. Dear, sweet Ola, the sugar in Kingsley's tea. It does not seem to matter that he loves her deeply; he cannot afford her bride price. It hasn't always been like this. For much of his young life, Kingsley believed that education was everything, that through wisdom, all things were possible. Now he worries that without a "long-leg"--someone who knows someone who can help him--his degrees will do nothing but adorn the walls of his parents' low-rent house. And when a tragedy befalls his family, Kingsley learns the hardest lesson of all: education may be the language of success in Nigeria, but it's money that does the talking. Unconditional family support may be the way in Nigeria, but when Kingsley turns to his Uncle Boniface for help, he learns that charity may come with strings attached. Boniface--aka Cash Daddy--is an exuberant character who suffers from elephantiasis of the pocket. He's also rumored to run a successful empire of email scams. But he can help. With Cash Daddy's intervention, Kingsley and his family can be as safe as a tortoise in its shell. It's up to Kingsley now to reconcile his passion for knowledge with his hunger for money, and to fully assume his role of first son. But can he do it without being drawn into this outlandish mileu?

Battle on the Lomba 1987: The Day a South African Armoured Battalion shattered Angola’s Last Mechanized Offensive - A Crew Commander's Account


David Mannall - 2014
    

Jamestown


Marshall William Fishwick - 2017
    They would establish a British colony, find gold, and discover a water route to Asia. But what awaited them was far different - fire, hunger, sickness, death, even cannibalism. Here, from the noted historian Marshall W. Fishwick, is the dramatic story of Jamestown and the struggle of its leader, Captain John Smith, who, with the help of Pocahontas, daughter of the Algonquian chief Powhatan, succeeded against all odds.

Stolen Angels: The Kidnapped Girls of Uganda


Kathy Cook - 2007
    The girls were raped and tortured before being forced to become child soldiers and sex slaves.This was only one out of thousands of child kidnappings by merciless madman and rebel leader Joseph Kony. But for the battered civilians terrorized by rebel warfare and neglected by corrupt government, this was the breaking point. Something had to be done�the world needed to know and their girls needed to be brought home.Kathy Cook�s one-on-one interviews with the surviving girls and their mothers make their fear, frustration, and suffering overwhelmingly real. With exceptional insight gained from on-location research, Cook gives us an authoritative account of how concerned parents, interfaith groups, politicians from Canada and the United States, and NGOs banded together in a struggle to rescue the girls and to mobilize a people, their country, and a global community.An emotionally charged retelling of a heartbreaking true story, Stolen Angels reminds us of the importance of faith, strength, and determination in the face of adversity.

The Blessed Girl


Angela Makholwa - 2017
    The lifestyle doesn’t come cheap, though, nor does maintaining the body that allows it (just ask Dr Heinz at the beauty clinic). Luckily, Bontle has a degree in MENcology, and there is no shortage of blessers at her penthouse door, eager to give her all the love and (financial) support she needs. Papa Jeff might be overweight and getting on a bit, and receiving some unwanted attention from the Hawks; and Teddy might not have fully come through for her on that messed-up tender business; but Mr Emmanuel, the Nigerian businessman with deep pockets and the possibility of conferring second wife status … could that be love? Keeping all her boyfriends happy and living a fabulous life is not without its challenges. With so many people clamouring for Bontle’s attention – from her shebeen queen mother Gladys in Mamelodi, who is taking strain bringing up her teenaged brother, Golokile, on her own; to her girlfriends, Iris and Tsholo; not to mention her soon-to-be ex-husband, the ever-patient, ever-loving Ntokozo, Bontle barely has time to post on Instagram these days. Sooner or later something’s got to give …

The French Foreign Legion


Douglas Boyd - 2006
     Founded in 1831 to fight France’s colonial wars without spilling French blood, this mysterious army is today a world-class fighting force. Training is so tough that five recruits out of six are rejected, never to wear the coveted white kepi. This is a world where fact exceeds the wildest fiction: men fighting literally to the last bullet at Camarón in Mexico in 1863; cooks and clerks with no parachute training volunteering to be dropped into beleaguered Dien Bien Phu in 1954 with the intention of dying beside their comrades; the paras who mutinied in Algeria to bring down the government of France; the heroes who dropped on Kolwezi to rescue thousands of European hostages. Praise for Douglas Boyd 'A tight and fascinating history of the nearly two centuries of the Legion's activities.' - Brig Anthony Hunter-Choat, the UK's senior ex-legionnaire Perhaps the greatest praise of the book is the fact that legionnaires liked this history of their incredible army so much that they elected author Douglas Boyd an honorary ex-legionnaire. RAF Russian linguist, international businessman, music impresario, BBC Television Producer/Director, Douglas Boyd has been writing full-time since setting up home in a medieval farmhouse in south-west France thirty-five years ago. His published fiction and non-fiction, translated into many languages, includes three novels set against a Legion background: The Eagle and the Snake, The Truth and the Lies, The Honour and the Glory.

Cry, the Beloved Country: A Novel of South Africa: (A Study)


Edward Callan - 1991
    

The Profiler Diaries: From the case files of a police psychologist


Gérard Labuschagne - 2020
    

Secret Son


Laila Lalami - 2009
    Suddenly his dreams are within reach when he discovers that his father whom he d been led to believe was dead is very much alive. A wealthy businessman, he seems eager to give his son a new start. Youssef leaves his mother behind to live a life of luxury, until a reversal of fortune sends him back to the streets and his childhood friends. Trapped once again by his class and painfully aware of the limitations of his prospects, he becomes easy prey for a fringe Islamic group. In the spirit of "The Inheritance of Loss "and "The Reluctant Fundamentalist," Laila Lalami s debut novel looks at the struggle for identity, the need for love and family, and the desperation that grips ordinary lives in a world divided by class, politics, and religion. "

Too Late the Phalarope


Alan Paton - 1953
    Paton's second novel portrays a police lieutenant's struggle with his conscience when he violates strict South African law concerning relationships between Blacks and whites.

A General Theory of Oblivion


José Eduardo Agualusa - 2012
    As the country goes through various political upheavals from colony to socialist republic to civil war to peace and capitalism, the world outside seeps into Ludo’s life through snippets on the radio, voices from next door, glimpses of someone peeing on a balcony, or a man fleeing his pursuers.A General Theory of Oblivion is a perfectly crafted, wild patchwork of a novel, playing on a love of storytelling and fable.

In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture


Kwame Anthony Appiah - 1992
    At the heart of these debates on African identity are the seminal works of politicians, creative writers, and philosophers from Africa and its diaspora. In this book, Appiah asks how we should think about the cultural situation of these intellectuals, reading their works in the context both of European and American ideas and of Africa's own indigenous traditions. Appiah draws on his experiences as a Ghanaian in the New World to explore the writings of African and African-American thinkers. In the process, he contributes his own vision of the possibilities and pitfalls of an African identity in the late twentieth century. Setting out to dismantle the specious oppositions between "us" and "them, " the West and the Rest, that have governed so much of the cultural debate about Africa in the modern world, Appiah maintains that all of us, wherever we live on the planet, must explore together the relations between our local cultures and an increasingly global civilization. Appiah combines philosophical analysis with more personal reflections, addressing the major issues in the philosophy of culture through an exploration of the contemporary African predicament.

African Presence in Early Asia


Runoko Rashidi - 1970
    Presenting their case with persuasive eloquence and research, the authors examine cultural forms, art motifs, weapons, scripts, and skeletal evidence to link Asian civilizations to Africa's Nile Valley. Articles detail both the physical and cultural presence of Africans in Asia. Topics covered include the black presence and heavy intermittent influence in Sumer, Elam, and Arabia; contributions of Dravidians and Ethiopian blacks to the Indus Valley civilizations; the history of first Chinese emperor, Fu-Hsi; the origin of martial arts; parallels between Krishna, Guatama Buddha, and Jesus; and the nature of slavery in Arabia and Asia. Five major chapters have been added to this new edition, adding substantially to the range and depth of the original volume.