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We Need to Talk About Africa: The Har...
Brief Summary
If you boil a kettle twice today, you will have used five times more electricity than a person in Mali uses in a whole year. How can that be possible?
Decades after the colonial powers withdrew Africa is still struggling to catch up with the rest of the world. When the same colonists withdrew from Asia there followed several decades of sustained and unprecedented growth throughout the continent. So what went wrong in Africa? And are we helping to fix it, or simply making matters worse?
In this provocative analysis, Tom Young argues that so much has been misplaced: our guilt, our policies, and our aid. Human rights have become a cover for imposing our values on others, our shiniest infrastructure projects have fuelled corruption and our interference in domestic politics has further entrenched conflict. Only by radically changing how we think about Africa can we escape this vicious cycle.
General History of Africa Complete Se...
This set brings together all 8 volumes of the groundbreaking Unesco General History of Africa, which are all now available again as paperbacks.
The series demonstrates the importance of African history from earliest pre-history, through the establishment of its ancient civilizations to the placing of Africa in the context of world history.
The growth and development of African historiography, once written records became more common, document the triumph of Islam, the extension of trading relations, cultural exchanges and human contacts, as well as the impact and consequences of the slave trade.
The European scramble for colonial territory in the 1880s is examined with a focus on the responses of Africans themselves to the economic and social aspects of colonial systems up to 1935, including the growth of anti-colonial movements and the strengthening of African political nationalism.
The contributions document how the continent moved from international conflict under foreign domination to struggles for political sovereignty and economic independence. The last (unabridged) volume 8 examines the challenges of nation-building and the socio-cultural changes affecting the newly independent nations.
Message to the Blackman in America by...
Brief Summary
Message To The Blackman In America By Elijah Muhammad According to countless mainstream news organs, Elijah Muhammad, by far, was the most powerful black man in America.
Known more for the students he produced, like Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan and Muhammad Ali, this controversial man exposed the black man as well as the world to a teaching, till now, was only used behind closed doors of high degree Masons and Shriners. An easy and smart read.
The book approaches the question of what and who is God. It compares the concept held by religions to nature and mathematics. It also explores the origin of the original man, mankind, devil, heaven and hell. Its title, Message To The Blackman, is directed to the American Blacks specifically, but addresses blacks universally as well.
The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Afr...
In 1960, the GDP per capita of Southeast Asian countries was nearly half of that of Africa. By 1986, the gap had closed and today the trend is reversed, with more than half of the world’s poorest now living in sub-Saharan Africa.
Why has Asia developed while Africa lagged? The Asian Aspiration chronicles the stories of explosive growth and changing fortunes: the leaders, events and policy choices that lifted a billion people out of abject poverty within a single generation, the largest such shift in human history.
The relevance of Asia’s example comes as Africa is facing a population boom, which can either lead to crisis or prosperity; and as Asia is again transforming, this time out of low-cost manufacturing into hi-tech, leaving a void that is Africa’s for the taking. Far from the determinism of ‘Africa Rising’, this book calls for unprecedented pragmatism in the pursuit of African success.
Authors: Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, Hailemariam Desalegn and Emily Van der Merwe
Travelling While Black By Nanjala Nya...
Travelling While Black: Essays Inspired by a Life on the Move.
What does it feel like to move through a world designed to limit and exclude you? What are the joys and pains of holidays for people of colour, when guidebooks are never written with them in mind? How are black lives today impacted by the othering legacy of colonial cultures and policies? What can travel tell us about our sense of self, of home, of belonging and identity? Why has the world order become hostile to human mobility, as old as humanity itself, when more people are on the move than ever?
Nanjala Nyabola is constantly exploring the world, working with migrants and confronting complex realities challenging common assumptions - both hers and others'. From Nepal to Botswana, Sicily to Haiti, New York to Nairobi, her sharp, humane essays ask tough questions and offer surprising, deeply shocking and sometimes funny answers. It is time we saw the world through her eyes.
Author: Nanjala Nyabola
A history of the Luo Abasuba of Weste...
Henry Akello Ayot in his PhD thesis titled A History of the Luo Abasuba of Western Kenya from AD 1760-1940 however offers an alternative narrative. The scholar argues that the Abasuba are also to be found in Tanzania and had originated from southern Uganda before migrating to South Nyanza via Mfangano Islands.
He casts doubts about Buganda being the origin of the Abasuba, hypothesising that there were some descendants from the Busoga.
The oral narrative of Abasuba’s blood linkages with the Kabaka of Buganda are given credence by Siraje Lubwama in an article published by Uganda’s The Observer.
The writer retells Kabaka Jjunju’s sexual excesses and the rebellion it triggered in the over two centuries ago.
The consequences of this palace lust have had some far reaching effects which are still felt today in Kenya, more than 200 years after the sibling betrayal.
According to the Suba folklore, the people banished from the Buganda Kingdom first set foot on Kenyan soil led by Kiboye.
One of the few remaining elders conversant with the oral history, Moris Kasuku, Kiboye disembarked his canoe along the shores of Lake Vitoria in Mfangano Island. His brother Witewe who opted to remain in Mfangano Island as the latter proceeded towards Gwassi accompanied Kiboye.
" Kiboye had been attracted to the Gwassi hills that were visible from Mfangano Island. The hills, bathed by fluffy misty and enveloped by alluring dense vegetation were irresistible,” explained Kasuku.
In the Castle of My Skin
Brief Summary
In a sleepy fishing village in 1930s Barbados, nine-year-old G. leads a life of quiet mischief. While the village lies tranquil in the shadow of its English landlord, Mr Creighton, and his towering house on the hill, G. makes his own fun, crab catching, teasing preachers, and playing among the pumpkin vines.
Yet from this world of boyish pursuits, the precocious G. finds himself slowly awakening to strange goings-on in adult society. All around him, sudden bursts of violence - a devastating flood on the morning of his birthday; the headmaster unduly flogging his schoolmates on Empire day - hint at a brutality and destruction lurking beneath the apparently peaceful order of things.
As the mounting wrongs of the present drive the villagers to rise up against Mr Creighton, the fissures in the facade of his Barbadian 'little England' begin to crack open, laying bare the central, bruising secret at the heart of their shared past. And as the world he knows crumbles before his eyes, G. is spurred ever closer to a life-changing decision. Poetic, unsettling, this classic coming-of-age novel is a story of tragic innocence, as a poor village boy comes to consciousness amid the collapse of colonial rule in mid-century Barbados.
ISBN:9780472064687
Author:George Lamming
Born Free A Lioness of Two Worlds
Brief summary
There have been many accounts of the return to the wild of tame animals, but since its original publication in 1960, when the New York Times hailed it as a "fascinating and remarkable book," Born Free has stood alone in its power to move us.
Joy Adamson's story of a lion cub in transition between the captivity in which she is raised and the fearsome wild to which she is returned captures the abilities of both humans and animals to cross the seemingly unbridgeable gap between their radically different worlds. Especially now, at a time when the sanctity of the wild and its inhabitants is increasingly threatened by human development and natural disaster, Adamson's remarkable tale is an idyll, and a model, to return to again and again.
Illustrated with the same beautiful, evocative photographs that first enchanted the world forty years ago and updated with a new introduction by George Page, former host and executive editor of the PBS series Nature and author of Inside the Animal Mind, this anniversary edition introduces to a new generation one of the most heartwarming associations between man and animal.
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ISBN:9780375714382
Author:Joy Adamson
Blood River
Brief summary
Blood River: A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart.
A compulsively readable account of a journey to the Congo — a country virtually inaccessible to the outside world — vividly told by a daring and adventurous journalist.
Ever since Stanley first charted its mighty river in the 1870s, the Congo has epitomized the dark and turbulent history of a failed continent. However, its troubles only served to increase the interest of Daily Telegraph correspondent Tim Butcher, who was sent to cover Africa in 2000. Before long he became obsessed with the idea of recreating Stanley’s original expedition — but travelling alone.
Despite warnings Butcher spent years poring over colonial-era maps and wooing rebel leaders before making his will and venturing to the Congo’s eastern border. He passed through once thriving cities of this country and saw the marks left behind by years of abuse and misrule. Almost, 2,500 harrowing miles later, he reached the Atlantic Ocean, a thinner and a wiser man.
Butcher’s journey was a remarkable feat. But the story of the Congo, vividly told in Blood River, is more remarkable still.
ISBN:9780099494287
Author:Tim Butcher
Mukiwa A White Boy in Africa
Brief description
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa is the story of Peter Godwin's experiences growing up in Rhodesia. He recounts the story of that country's violent transformation into Zimbabwe, as well as his own personal metamorphoses from privileged boy to reluctant soldier to investigative journalist.
Godwin's story begins, "I think I first realized something was wrong when our next door neighbor, Oom Piet Oberholzer, was murdered. I must have been about five then. It was still five years before the real war would start." The Godwins enjoyed a typical genteel existence in 1960 rural Rhodesia, their household including a "garden boy," a "cook boy," and a nanny. Peter's father managed a wood- and sugarcane-processing plant. His mother, a rural government doctor, was often called to pronounce deaths or conduct autopsies, for which she brought along her "assistant," five-year-old Peter, who was responsible for shooing away the flies.
Godwin's plans for attending college were squashed when he was drafted into the Rhodesian army and assigned to the "Anti-Terrorist Unit," which proved to be an important experience in his life. When he later looked at himself, he saw a man "coursed through with anger and despair. It was the face of someone who would kill an unarmed civilian for withholding information." Disturbed by what he had become, Godwin left Rhodesia after he got out of the army, only to return in 1981 as a journalist. Rhodesia was now Zimbabwe, and the "terrorists" he had reluctantly fought against were now the country's rulers.
Godwin reported on theutterbrutalities in Zimbabwe and the fate of Matabeleland, a black minority region in Zimbabwe. He described the army style of interrogation, in which "before they even began to question you, they would break one wrist," and wrote about the old mines where bodies of the dead were buried. When Godwin's writings received worldwide attention, the Zimbabwean government tried to discredit him, and he received numerous death threats, escaping the country just hours before the police came looking for him.
Mukiwa is not only a memoir but also a compelling adventure story that tells a personal saga that needs to be heard.
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ISBN:9780802141927
Author:Peter Godwin
Guerrillas of Tsavo
Brief description
An Illustrated Diary of a Forgotten Campaign in East Africa 1914-1916 Guerrillas of Tsavo records the actions and tribulations of a British Empire army at war against an enterprising, adventurous enemy. Following the military operations, as well as the personal endeavors of the troops, porters and their followers, Guerrillas of Tsavo describes the first 22 months of the First World War in the Mombasa-Voi Command in British East Africa (Kenya).
The German Schutztruppe, under the leadership of Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck - the only undefeated German general of the First World War, engaged a far larger Empire and Allied army and occupied the only British territory during the entire First World War - Taveta, Tsavo West National Park and down along the frontier to the Indian Ocean.
The Empire forces faced high rates of attrition, not from fighting but from the hostile environment of wild animals, snakes, heat, thirst, malnutrition, caused by long lines of communication, malaria and other tropical diseases. Guerrillas of Tsavo brings to light the extensive part played by East Africa, in particular the communities of Taveta, Tsavo and the south coast in shaping the course of Kenya’s history.
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ISBN:9789966757012
Author:James Willson
A Noble But Onerous Duty: An Autobiog...
From a humble beginning as a son of employees in white settlers' farms in the central Rift Valley, Dr Francis K. Sang overcame many odds to rise through the ranks of the Kenya Police and become the 4th Kenyan Director of the Criminal Investigation Department. He served in this position for 4 years before he was transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the changeover of government in Kenya at the end of 2002.
He was tasked with the establishment of the Nairobi Secretariat to coordinate issues to do with small arms in the region. This he did and later helped transform the secretariat into the Regional Centre for Small Arms (RECSA), a regional inter-governmental body that coordinates activities aimed at controlling and reducing the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the Eastern Africa, Great Lakes and Horn of Africa region and bordering states.
In this autobiography, he relates his experiences, from the difficult circumstances surrounding his birth and childhood, his struggles to get an education in spite of the many obstacles that he faced and his experiences in the police force, particularly in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) during the tenure of the 2nd President of Kenya, Daniel Arap Moi.
He also relates his experiences after the NARC Government took over in 2002 and sent most senior security officers in the former government packing, either on retirement or on transfer to other less prestigious positions. He further relates how, through determination, he has been able to achieve his academic dreams which had been deferred earlier in his life owing to financial constraints, culminating in the acquisition of a PhD late in life.
He also speaks about the role his family has played in enabling him to achieve all he has in his life. Reflecting on his long journey that has brought him to the place where he is today, the author also gives a number of insights on his work and life. This autobiography should serve as interesting reading to the general public as well as to persons serving in the disciplined forces, considering that it is the first from amongst persons that have served in the police force and risen through the ranks to the very top.
Moi at 90
Brief description
Moi at 90: H.E Daniel Arap Moi celebrates His Ninetieth birthday.
A couple of decades ago, a retired civil servant was a tired-looking and lethargic old man on a rocking chair, smoking an equally old pipe. The retirement age then was 55.
Mzee Moi defied that stereotype and broke the mould, which was a colonial psychological conspiracy to destroy or stifle the entrepreneurial spirit of retiring civil servants. It was meant to send them to an early grave and save the money meant for their pension.
Mzee Moi was elected the President of Kenya at the age of 54. During his 24 years, four months and eight days at the helm, he exhibited extremely high levels of energy. He was a veritable human dynamo with an encyclopedic mind.
ISBN:9789966074775
Author:Lee Njiru
Kagame The President of Rwanda Speaks
Brief summary
For many, Paul Kagame is the man who produced the Rwandan Miracle.
But this former refugee, now the president of a country that experienced the worse genocide in recent times, also has fierce enemies.
Twenty years after the genocide of Rwanda, Paul Kagame candidly reveals himself for the very first time.
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ISBN:9781936274772
Author:François Soudan
The Fear The Last Days of Robert Mugabe
Brief summary
‘A brave, sensitive and observant account of Zimbabwe’s tragedy, exposing the cruelty of Mugabe’s regime and the remarkable courage of those who have defied it’ Financial Times
In mid-2008, after thirty years of increasingly tyrannical rule, Robert Mugabe lost an election. Instead of conceding defeat, his supporters launched a brutal campaign of terror – Zimbabweans called it, simply, The Fear.
Peter Godwin travels, at considerable risk, to see the havoc raging at the heart of his country, but what emerges from the brutality are the heartbreaking tales of resistance and survival, the astonishing moments of humor and goodwill, and the unforgettable characters who will not be subdued.
‘A beautifully written chronicle of his journey through his ravaged but still achingly beautiful homeland’ Independent
‘An important book detailing the violent realities, the grotesque injustices, the hunger, the sadness, and a portrait of Mugabe, the tyrant who is the cause of it all’ Paul Theroux
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ISBN:9780330507776
Author:Peter Godwin
The Curator
Brief summary
It's not possible to undo what happened in 1976.
In rural South Africa a family massacre takes place; a bloodbath whose only witness is the family’s black maid. Hendrik Deyer is the principal of a state-run school camp who lives nearby with his wife and their two sons, Werner and Marius.
As Hendrik becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened, his wife worries about her neighbors, a poor white family whose malign influence on her son Werner is – she believes – making his behavior inexplicably strange and hostile. One night another tragedy changes each of their lives, irrevocably.
Two decades later, Werner is living with his mother and invalid father in a small Pretoria flat. South Africa is a changed place. Werner holds a tedious job in the administration department of the local university and dreams of owning his own gallery. His father is bedridden, hovering on the edge of death, and furious, as he has been for twenty years. As Werner feels his own life slip away, and his thoughts turn to murder as a means to correct the course of all their futures. He can't undo the past, but Werner’s desperation to change his own his fate will threaten not only his own family but also those still living in the aftermath of what happened all those years ago.
ISBN:9780224101752
Author:Jacques Strauss
Tastes of Africa
Brief summary
Africa is a continent of contrasts – not just those reflected in the grandeur of its deserts, mountains, dense forests or pristine white beaches that stretch endlessly to the horizon, but in the cultural variety of its diverse people and their impact on the totality of the continent. Anthropologists tell us that it all began in Africa. And just as Africa has given to the world, so too it has accepted – a pattern reflected in the way its people eat.
In Tastes of Africa, Justice Kamanga takes you on a gastronomic safari, exploring the tastes and textures of indigenous African cuisine, as well as dishes that have been influenced or introduced by a host of foreign settlers to the continent from Asia, Europe and the Middle East.
Simple in the choice of ingredients and easy to prepare, both traditional and fusion African cooking are nevertheless as intriguing in the subtle blends of flavors, colors and tantalizing aromas as the lands from which they come, where they have formed delicious and different staples for hundreds – and in some cases thousands – of years.
In order for you to organize your own African-themed lunch or dinner at home, the recipes in Tastes of Africa have been traditionally grouped, including starters, fish, meat, vegetarian, side dishes, desserts and breads, and are accompanied by authentically styled, full-color photography.
ISBN:9781770078024
Author:Justice Kamanga
Running with the Kenyans by Adharanan...
Brief summary
A dusty road stretches into the distance like a pencil line across the arid landscape. Lions, rhino, and buffalo roam the plains on either side. But I haven’t come to Kenya to spot wildlife. I’ve come to run.”
Whether running is your recreation, your religion, or just a spectator sport, Adharanand Finn’s incredible journey to the elite training camps of Kenya will captivate and inspire you. Part travelogue, part memoir, this mesmerizing quest to uncover the secrets of the world’s greatest runners—and put them to the test—combines practical advice, a fresh look at barefoot running, and hard-won spiritual insights.
As a boy growing up in the English countryside, Adharanand Finn was a natural runner. While other kids struggled, he breezed through schoolyard races, imagining he was one of his heroes: the Kenyan long-distance runners exploding into prominence as Olympic and world champions. But as he grew up, pursued a career in journalism, married and had children, those childhood dreams slipped away—until suddenly, in his mid-thirties, Finn realized he might have only one chance left to see how far his talents could take him.
Uprooting his family of five, including three small children, Finn traveled to Iten, a small, chaotic town in the Rift Valley province of Kenya—a mecca for long-distance runners thanks to its high altitude, endless running paths, and some of the top training schools in the world. Finn would run side by side with Olympic champions, young hopefuls, and barefoot schoolchildren . . . not to mention the exotic—and sometimes dangerous—wildlife for which Kenya is famous.
Here, too, he would meet a cast of colorful characters, including his unflappable guide, Godfrey Kiprotich, a former half marathon champion; Christopher Cheboiboch, one of the fastest men ever to run the New York City Marathon; and Japhet, a poor, bucktoothed boy with unsuspected reservoirs of courage and raw speed. Amid the daily challenges of training and of raising a family abroad, Finn would learn invaluable lessons about running—and about life.
Running with the Kenyans is more than one man’s pursuit of a lifelong dream. It’s a fascinating portrait of a magical country—and an extraordinary people seemingly born to run.
The Shadow of the Sun
Brief summary
In 1957, Ryszard Kapuscinski arrived in Africa to witness the beginning of the end of colonial rule as the first African correspondent of Poland's state newspaper. From the early days of independence in Ghana to the ongoing ethnic genocide in Rwanda, Kapuscinski has crisscrossed vast distances pursuing the swift, and often violent, events that followed liberation.
Kapuscinski hitchhikes with caravans, wanders the Sahara with nomads, and lives in the poverty-stricken slums of Nigeria. He wrestles a king cobra to the death and suffers through a bout of malaria. What emerges is an extraordinary depiction of Africa--not as a group of nations or geographic locations--but as a vibrant and frequently joyous montage of peoples, cultures, and encounters.
Kapuscinski's trenchant observations, wry analysis and overwhelming humanity paint a remarkable portrait of the continent and its people. His unorthodox approach and profound respect for the people he meets challenge conventional understandings of the modern problems faced by Africa at the dawn of the twenty-first century.
ISBN:9780679779070
Author:Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski