African Interest

Brief Summary Evelyne Ongogo is a Kenyan teacher, writer and one of the notable poets today. Her other collections of poetry include: "Dichol and Other Poems” and "The Eye of the Rising Sun.” In this text, Ongogo capitalizes on the use of song tradition and narration to confront, dissect, question, satirize and address various issues in the current social-political and economic dispensation. Such issues include: sexuality, religious hypocrisy and theft, alcoholism, love, modernity, traditions, plight of women and male chauvinism among others. The complexity of these issues, their influence on human character and how we should handle them are presented in 37 long poems in which Ongogo wears different masks to create characters and contexts that matter in her quest to argue her case as a woman, a conservatist, a parent, a believer and a lover. Her anger and critical attitude in most poems define her as a rebel or activist of some sort. It is also important to note that most of these poems are basically versified conversations in the sense that responses to issues raised in one poem are provided in another. ISBN:BeautifulShards001 Author:Evelyne Ongogo

Brief Summary Gross Domestic Problem: The Politics Behind the World's Most Powerful Number. Gross domestic product is arguably the best-known statistic in the contemporary world, and certainly amongst the most powerful. It drives government policy and sets priorities in a variety of vital social fields - from schooling to healthcare. Yet for perhaps the first time since it was invented in the 1930s, this popular icon of economic growth has come to be regarded by a wide range of people as a 'problem'. After all, does our quality of life really improve when our economy grows 2 or 3 per cent? Can we continue to sacrifice the environment to safeguard a vision of the world based on the illusion of infinite economic growth? Lorenzo Fioramonti takes apart the 'content' of GDP - what it measures, what it doesn't and why - and reveals the powerful political interests that have allowed it to dominate today's economies. In doing so, he demonstrates just how little relevance GDP has to moral principles such as equity, social justice and redistribution, and shows that an alternative is possible, as evinced by the 'de-growth' movement and initiatives such as transition towns. A startling insight into the politics of a number that has come to dominate our everyday lives. ISBN:9781780322759 Author:Lorenzo Fioramonti

Brief summary This collection of essays reflects on the life and work of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who celebrated his 80th birthday in 2018. Drawing from a wide range of contributors, including writers, critics, publishers and activists, the volume traces the emergence of Ngugi as a novelist in the early 1960s, his contribution to the African culture of letters at its moment of inception, and his global artistic life in the twenty-first century. Here we have both personal and critical reflections on the different phases of the writer's life: there are poems from friends and admirers, commentaries from his co-workers in public theatre in Kenya in the 1970s and 1980s, and from his political associates in the fight for democracy, and contributions on his role as an intellectual of decolonization, as well as his experiences in the global art world. Included also are essays on Ngugi's role outside the academy, in the world of education, community theatre, and activism. In addition to tributes from other authors who were influenced by Ngugi, the collection contains hitherto unknown materials that are appearing in English for the first time. Both a celebration of the writer, and a rethinking of his legacy, this book brings together three generations of Ngugi readers. We have memories and recollections from the people he worked with closely in the 1960s, the students that he taught at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s, his political associates during his exile in the 1980s, and the people who worked with him as he embarked on a new life and career in the United States in the 1990s. First-hand accounts reveal how Ngugi's life and work have intersected, and the multiple forces that have converged to make him one of the greatest writers to come out of Africa in the twentieth century. ISBN:9781847012142 Author:Simon Gikandi and Ndirangu Wachanga

Brief Summary Clara Usiskin has spent eight years investigating the 'War on Terror' and its effects in the East and Horn of Africa, documenting hundreds of cases of rendition, secret detention and targeted killings. As a result of her work exposing abuses carried out by regional governments and their international partners, Clara was deported from Kenya and Uganda and is currently persona non grata in both countries. Her book sets out the historical background to today's covert war, including the early Somali jihads and British repression in colonial Kenya, through to the 1998 US Embassy Bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and President Clinton's early rendition programme. America's Covert War in East Africa then looks at the US Military's new Africa Command, with its emphasis on counterterrorism, alongside increasing use of targeted killings by security forces in the region, and continued renditions and secret detention. Finally, Usiskin investigates the shorter and longer term consequences of such intensive militarisation, and the proliferation of surveillance and other technologies of control in East Africa and its surrounding waters, focusing in particular on their impact on vulnerable ethnic and religious groups in a highly volatile region. ISBN:9781849044134 Author:Clara Usiskin