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Decision Points by George W. Bush
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Many in One and Other Stories from Africa
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Korondo-Panic: A Satirized Diary of a Kenyan’s Experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic
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“Articles in this book overflow with humour and thought provoking jokes. The way Araka twists and plays around with names of public figures, their actions and inactions, and blends it with the joys and disappointments of ‘ordinary’ citizens is on another level. The style is readable and appealing. The articles revolve around the novel Coronavirus disease. This is a time to be told and retold to present and future generations.” – Rose Kong’ani Keya, Book Editor and Teacher
“The author has banked on wordplay to offer his contribution in chronicling a critical moment in our lives when COVID-19 threw the world into panic and confusion. The book tells of humanity’s inadequacies, hits and misses. Through his trademark satire, Araka shows that as human beings, we deserve better and can do better even when caught up in difficulties. – Edna, Gutenbergschule, Leipzig
“Many occurrences happen in everyday life and can go unnoticed despite being significant. Araka is a gifted writer that makes such occurrences memorable through satire and humour. The themes in the articles including: political manipulations, exploitation, corruption, family relations, hypocrisy, traditions, and modern technology are well intertwined in the writer’s rich narrative style with vivid descriptions that capture the reader to achieve reading this collection in the shortest time possible. I recommend this collection to readers that wish to relive occurrences in their lives and surroundings in a laughable way.” – George Onkundi, Principal, Nyamira School.
About the Author: Joshua Nyangau Araka is a journalist, creative writer and biographer. His other published works include: Peppered Path, Chronicles of the Idler-Volume One, and Beaten Odds, a Biography of Stephen Mabea.
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Why We Tell Stories
Storytelling was an intrinsic activity in traditional African communities. Typically told by older people, usually grandmothers and grandfathers, stories were a way of life for the young and old alike, linking the past, present and future of those societies. Set as they were around a fire, the storytelling tradition strengthened communal ties between the old and the young, and as reinforced bonds among the young.
Stories emphasized shared culture, cultural values and history that were the foundation of the society’s ties. They underscored important societies’ traditions, beliefs and other norms.
From the old, the young learnt lessons about their community that to affirmed their collective identity. They learnt and internalized moral values such as honesty, courage, respect, solidarity and caring for others. Invariably, stories discouraged greed and selfishness. Further, the tales captured the essence of the environment in which the people lived while reinforcing their core values. They contributed to character-building through appreciation of the moral of the stories.
In Why We Tell Stories, Dorcas Kiptoo and Arthur Dobrin bring their storytelling experiences and expertise to the fore through a selection of from the African folklore. Even as the two look back to societies of yore to dig up the tales, the inherent lessons remain as relevant in contemporary times as they were ages ago.
About the Authors
Dorcas Kiptoo was born in Mogotio, Kenya. She attended Kenyatta University where she earned her Bachelor of Education degree. She currently lives in New York.
The Winding Road
The Winding Road is a heart rending tale about identity. The main protagonist, Yuna hits the road on a journey of self discovery on realising the woman she has known as her mother is not actually her biological mother. . . a journey to discover her roots. Its a journey that's fraught with dazzling highs and distressing lows. From desolation she's swung to the pinnacle of the modeling industry and is crowned Miss Africa. The undreamed of success gets into her head and she dramatically temples from grace to scavenge in the streets with her old question of identity haunting her. Will Yuna discover her roots?
Ann and the Pen
This Red Land: A novel
“I was moved by the character’s struggle to find meaning in their lives. So sorry to see it end! I couldn’t put it down. It is a story told with great imagination and sensitivity. The descriptions of New York, Kenya and Japan come alive.” - Mel Haber, business writing teacher
“This novel expertly transports the readers across continents, decades and cultures. The characters’ lives are nicely interwoven in this real-world novel.” - Rich Green, retired professor of comparative literature.
“In this moving sequel to his novels Malaika, Salted With Fire, and Kwamboka’s Inquiry, Dobrin weaves a riveting, tragic tale bridging the lives of his richly developed characters in New York and Kenya across decades marked by violent political and social upheavals. From the red soils of Kenya, to the red of blood spilled, to the red of political ideology, This Red Land presents timeless themes of love, struggle, and yearning for justice in a carefully crafted, wise, and deeply human work of richly detailed historical fiction.” - Colleen Eren, sociologist.
Enriching. Enjoyably Complex. Bravo!
“Vivid characters leading parallel lives with vastly different experiences and perceptions of the world are expertly interweaved by the author to briefly intercept in an unexpected and powerful way amid rich cultural, political and historical texture. This isn’t just one captivating story - but instead three! Brilliant surprise endings leave sense of something to grieve, but also to imagine and hope for.” - Jack Beder, Vice-President of Consumer Research Company
An Ethnopharmacological Investigation of Plants used by Abagusii Traditional Medical Practitioners
Before the arrival of Western medical practices in Africa, indigenous communities had many ways of treating various illnesses. Some, like the Abagusii of Kenya, even had advanced medical practices (given the time) such as head surgery which they conducted routinely with success. Western religion and medicine dealt a blow to these proven medical practices and stunted their development. Nonetheless, because of its effectiveness, traditional healing survives alongside Western medical practices that have taken root worldwide. Some estimates suggest that approximately 60% of the world’s population depends solely on plants for medication. As such, in Africa, it is common to find a Western-educated who professes the Christian faith under modern hospital treatment alongside prescriptions by traditional healers.
Indigenous healing relied on a clear selection of specific plants, elaborate preparation and administration. Typically, the administration of the treatment relied on the plants’ medicinal potency, the associated diet (nutrition) and spiritual beliefs. William Nyang’ate Gisesa set out to test the efficacy of some of the plants used for treatment in Gusii with the results presented herein.
The work, An Ethnopharmacological Investigation of Plants Used by Abagusii Traditional Medical Practitioners, relied on interviews with herbal medicine practitioners, their claims and testing the effectiveness of the plants in a laboratory environment. The work, originally completed for doctoral studies, examines (using modern scientific methods) the authenticity of traditional headers’ claims on the efficacy of their treatment.
The results point to the potential for an indigenous, plant-based, pharmaceutical industry to complement the established medicinal drug production. At a time when pathogens rapidly acquire resistance to medications, indigenous plants offer fresh options.
The work focused on practitioners from Gusii region: Nyamira and Kisii counties. Considering that all communities had similar practices, the task of examining plants used by all Kenyan peoples is colossal.
Ludic Activities in Foreign Language Learning: The CAVIF Project in Uganda
Teachers of the French language in the Department of European and Oriental Language at Makerere University kept wondering what could be done to help young beginner learners of French to speak the language more efficiently and be effortlessly creative. By general observation, the teachers noted that this could best be done through games and play-like activities. This was later to be verified through French Holiday Camps or Cadres de Vie en Francais.
The initiative of the “CAVIF Project” identified a gap that the teachers were eager to fill. However, with the ending of the initial financing of the Federarion Internationale des Professeurs de Francais (FIPF) it became apparent that pedagogical goal needed several years of trial before fully responding to the curriculum needs with supporting evidence. The study took five years of organizing mini-language immersion camps for secondary school learners of French. This process, supported by a Fulbright African Scholar Fellowship at the University of Connecticut for the corresponding editor, resulted in the collective publication of this title, Ludic Activities in the Learning of Foreign Languages: The CAVIF Project of Uganda. This book is a record and an assessment of five years of experiential and collaborative learning aimed at improving students’ interactive skills through the use of word and number games, songs, photographs, proverbs, French cuisine, excursions, drama, debate and talent show. The application of these interactive pedagogical approaches will be helpful to readers not only for increasing learner motivation but also for making the learning environment in non-Francopnone contexts more conducive.
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Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra's impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s.
We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene.
Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war."
Breakout Nations by Ruchir Sharma
To identify the economic stars of the future we should abandon the habit of extrapolating from the recent past and lumping wildly diverse countries together. We need to remember that sustained economic success is a rare phenomenon.
As an era of easy money and easy growth comes to a close, China in particular will cool down. Other major players including Brazil, Russia, and India face their own daunting challenges and inflated expectations. The new "breakout nations" will probably spring from the margins, even from the shadows. Ruchir Sharma, one of the world’s largest investors in emerging markets for Morgan Stanley, here identifies which are most likely to leap ahead and why.
After two decades spent traveling the globe tracking the progress of developing countries, Sharma has produced a book full of surprises: why the overpriced cocktails in Rio are a sign of revival in Detroit; how the threat of the "population bomb" came to be seen as a competitive advantage; how an industrial revolution in Asia is redefining what manufacturing can do for a modern economy; and how the coming shakeout in the big emerging markets could shift the spotlight back to the West, especially American technology and German manufacturing.
What emerges is a clear picture of the shifting balance of global economic power and how it plays out for emerging nations and for the West. In a captivating exploration studded with vignettes, Sharma reveals his rules on how to spot economic success stories. Breakout Nations is a rollicking education for anyone looking to understand where the future will happen.
The State of Africa by Martin Meredith
Africa is forever on our TV screens, but the bad-news stories (famine, genocide, corruption) massively outweigh the good (South Africa). Ever since the process of de-colonialisation began in the mid-1950s, and arguably before, the continent has appeared to be stuck in a process of irreversible decline.
Constant war, improper use of natural resources and misappropriation of revenues and aid monies contribute to an impression of a continent beyond hope. How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done?
Fully revised and updated and weaving together the key stories and characters of the last sixty years into a stunningly compelling and coherent narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European ideas of how to organise 10,000 different ethnic groups has led to what Tony Blair described as the 'scar on the conscience of the world'.
Authoritative, provocative and consistently fascinating, this is the updated edition of the seminal book on one of the most important issues facing the West today."
Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
Born in a rural Kenyan village in 1940, Wangari Maathai was already an iconoclast as a child, determined to get an education even though most African girls then were uneducated. In her remarkable and inspiring autobiography, she tells of her studies with Catholic missionaries, earning bachelors and master's degrees in the United States, and becoming the first woman both to earn a PhD and to head a university department in Kenya.
She tells of her numerous run-ins with the brutal government of Daniel arap Moi and of the political and personal reasons that compelled her, in 1977, to establish the Green Belt Movement, which spread from Kenya across Africa, and which helps restore indigenous forests while assisting rural women by paying them to plant trees in their villages.
Maathai's extraordinary courage and determination helped transform Kenya's government into the democracy in which she now serves as Deputy Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources and as a Member of Parliament. Eventually her achievement was internationally recognized in the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded in recognition of her 'contribution to sustainable development, human rights, and peace'.
In Unbowed, we are in the presence of a hugely charismatic yet humble woman whose remarkable story carries with it an inspiring message of hope. Hers is an extraordinary story, spanning different worlds and changing times, and revealing what the courage, determination, tenacity and humour of one good woman can achieve; how as small a thing as planting a seedling and watering it can made all the difference in the world.
Kenya the Beautiful
This guide explores Kenya, a country in the heart of Africa. Astride the Equator, Kenya extends from Lake Victoria in the west to the sea in the east, with snow-capped mountains and rolling plains giving the country a dramatic scenery.
The book evokes the land, its people, in particular the colourful Maasai and their tribal traditions, its history, flora and fauna, cities, game parks and tropical offshore islands. Both the major attractions and the little-known parts of the country are included.
ISBN:1853685576
Author:Michael Brett
The Ghosts of Happy Valley: Searching for the Lost World of Africa’s Infamous Aristocrats by Juliet Barnes
‘Happy Valley’ was the name given to the region of Kenya’s Central Highlands where a community of affluent, hedonistic white expatriates settled between the wars. Including the writer Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen).
The pioneering aviator Beryl Markham and the troubled socialite Idina Sackville whose life was told in Frances Osborne’s bestselling The Bolter, the Happy Valley set’s notoriety was sealed in 1931 with the sensational – and still unsolved - murder of the Earl of Errol, the investigation of which laid bare the extent of the set’s decadence and irresponsibility, and made for another bestselling book in James Fox’s White Mischief.
But what is left now? Juliet Barnes, who has lived in Kenya for many years, has set out to explore Happy Valley in a remarkable and indefatigable archaeological quest to find the homes and haunts of this extraordinary and vanished set of people – grand residences like Clouds up in the hills that once hosted opulent and scandalous parties. With the help of African guides, and guided by the memories of elderly expats she tracks down to the Muthiaga old enough to have first-hand memories of the likes of Idina and Lord Errol and the lives they led, what she finds - ruins reclaimed by luxuriant bush, tumbledown dwellings in which an African family ekes a subsistence living, or even a modest school – is a revelation of the state of modern Africa that makes the gilded era of the Happy Valley set seem even more fantastic. A book to set alongside such singular evocations of Africa and its strange colonial history as The Africa House, Happy Valley: The Biography is a mesmerising blend of travel narrative, social history and personal quest.
ISBN:2147483647
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Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed
Longlisted for the Orange Prize and winner of the Betty Trask Award. For fans of Half of a Yellow Sun, a stunning novel set in 1930s Somalia spanning a decade of war and upheaval, all seen through the eyes of a small boy alone in the world. Aden, Yemen, 1935; a city vibrant, alive, and full of hidden dangers.
And home to Jama, a ten year-old boy. But then his mother dies unexpectedly and he finds himself alone in the world.
Jama is forced home to his native Somalia, the land of his nomadic ancestors. War is on the horizon and the fascist Italian forces who control parts of East Africa are preparing for battle. Yet Jama cannot rest until he discovers whether his father, who has been absent from his life since he was a baby, is alive somewhere. And so begins an epic journey which will take Jama north through Djibouti, war-torn Eritrea and Sudan, to Egypt.
And from there, aboard a ship transporting Jewish refugees just released from German concentration camps, across the seas to Britain and freedom. This story of one boy's long walk to freedom is also the story of how the Second World War affected Africa and its people; a story of displacement and family
Dinner With Mugabe by Heidi Holland
This penetrating, timely portrait of Robert Mugabe is the psycho-biography of a man whose once-brilliant career has ruined Zimbabwe and cast shame on the African continent.
Heidi Holland's tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Mugabe, the freedom fighter, and ends in a searching interview with Zimbabwe's president more than 30 years later.
The author charts Mugabe's gradual self-destruction, and uncovers the complicity of some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy. Probing the mystery of Africa's loyalty to one of its worst dictators, Holland explores the contradictions that cloud the life of a man who had embodied the continent's promise.
Crisis In The Horn of Africa
The most dangerous corner of Africa is its north-east corner where instability reigns and terrorism thrives on the antagonisms of all of its governments. This region, comprising Ethiopia, Sudan and now South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea, and stretching to include Kenya and Uganda, is a pivotal geopolitical pressure point in world politics.
It stands at the hinge of Africa and the Middle East. It was of vital interest to the superpowers during the Cold War and remains, in the post-Cold War period, a key area in international relations and a major source of mineral wealth, while its sufferings have been described as a scar on the conscience of humanity.
But seemingly endemic political chaos, failed states, terrorism and international piracy have dealt a death blow to the ambitions of the US and her allies in the international community to further a New World Order of liberal democracy. Peter Woodward's book is essential reading for Africa and international relations specialists, including policy planners."
ISBN:2147483647
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The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus, which critics hailed as "one of the best novels to come out of Africa in years” (Baltimore Sun), with "prose as lush as the Nigerian landscape that it powerfully evokes” (The Boston Globe); The Washington Postcalled her "the twenty-first-century daughter of Chinua Achebe.”
Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic upon its publication three years later, once again putting her tremendous gifts—graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters’ hearts—on display.
Now, in her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.
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The young mother at the center of "Imitation” finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home. And the title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.
Operation Linda Nchi
The book does not cover all aspects of Operational Art as pertains to Operation "Linda Nchi" [ swahili for safeguard or protect the Country ], as some of the details are still classified and the overall operation against Al Shabaab is still a work in progress., ie. it covers the Operational Art aspects of macroscopic maneuver, operational approach and operational objectives. But little information is revealed as pertains to Operational Logistics and the extent of disruption that is still required against Al Shabaab Operations in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
Indeed the foreward by His Excellency Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta, C.G.H, the President of the Republic of Kenya and Commander in Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, appreciates the fact that the war against Al Shabaab is still ongoing – in other instances he has stated "...for as long as it takes....”
The book is described as the "idea” of the former Chief of Kenya Defence Forces (CDF), General (Dr.) Julius Karangi, who at the time of his active service felt that the campaign against Al Shabaab should be documented in form of a publicly available book.
This was a unique idea for an African Military Force at the present time, but there are significant past conflicts documented in books especially around the colonial era, struggles for independence and post-independence episodes of guerilla warfare. An example of past documentation and appreciation of history that is declining, is that in the 1950s to 1960s, students in Kenyan schools learnt about General Paul Emil von Lettow Voerbeck and "The Great War".
This is despite the fact that Kenya was a British colony. Given the number of Kenya Defence Forces troops that have fallen to "water hole" ambushes near or inside Somalia, and the nature of the conflict in Somalia, Northern Nigeria [ Boko Haram ] and Central African Republic [ Lords Resistance Army ], it may be helpful if the Kenyan military was to dig deeper into history and reclaim the many lost lessons.
ISBN:2147483647
Author:Professor Peter Kagwanja Dr. Monica Juma Colonel Pius T. Migue Lieutenant Colonel Charles O. Imbiakha Major Daniel Mugoro Major David Anachoni Major Johannes Kimwele
Delicious Kenya Cookbook 2
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All it takes is the right recipes and a little spark of adventure to try something exciting and different. We have partnered easy-to-do international cuisine with some of our own healthy, wholesome foods to create meals that are simply sumptuous. This book is a collection of dishes that combine to form full meals.
There are main dishes, their accompaniments and complementing sauces and salads. A section is dedicated to amazing, easy to make cakes developed from flours like amaranth, sweet potato and cassava that can be served for dessert or tea.
There is a variety of creative, nutritious pancakes perfect for packed meals; and new flavourful porridge for breakfast. Clear step-by-step photographs will guide you through the recipes, showing how to marinate, whisk, pan-fry, bake and make sauces like a professional.
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An Ordinary Man
April 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide--Read more about the conflict and the amazing life story of the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda in this remarkable account
Readers who were moved and horrified by Hotel Rwanda will respond even more intensely to Paul Rusesabagina’s unforgettable autobiography. As Rwanda was thrown into chaos during the 1994 genocide, Rusesabagina, a hotel manager, turned the luxurious Hotel Milles Collines into a refuge for more than 1,200 Tutsi and moderate Hutu refugees, while fending off their would-be killers with a combination of diplomacy and deception.
In An Ordinary Man, he tells the story of his childhood, retraces his accidental path to heroism, revisits the 100 days in which he was the only thing standing between his "guests” and a hideous death, and recounts his subsequent life as a refugee and activist.
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Keeping Hope Alive
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An Image of Africa
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The White Masai
Brief Summary
The four-million-copy international bestseller of the incredible love story between a European woman and an African warrior The White Masai combines adventure and the pursuit of passion in a page-turning story of two star-crossed lovers from vastly different backgrounds. Corinne, a European entrepreneur, meets Lketinga, a Samburu warrior, while on vacation in Mombasa on Kenya's glamorous coast.
Despite language and cultural barriers, they embark on an impossible love affair. Corinne uproots her life to move to Africa—not the romantic Africa of popular culture, but the Africa of the Masai, in the middle of the isolated bush, where five-foot-tall huts made from cow dung serve as homes. Undaunted by wild animals, hunger, and bouts with tropical diseases, she tries to forge a life with Lketinga.
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