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Congos Violent Peace Conflict and Str...
Brief Summary
Congo's Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle Since the Great African War
Despite a massive investment of international diplomacy and money in recent years, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a conflict-ridden and volatile country, marked by a series of rebellions, failed international interventions, and unworkable peace agreements.
In Congo's Violent Peace, leading Congo expert Kris Berwouts provides the most comprehensive and in-depth account to date of developments since the so-called Congo Wars. Berwouts analyzes such topics as Rwanda’s destructive impact on security in Eastern Congo, the controversial elections of 2006 and 2011, the M23 uprising, as well as Joseph Kabila’s increasingly desperate attempts to cling to power. This will be an essential resource for anyone interested in this troubled, but important, country.
ISBN:9781783603701
Author:Kris Berwouts
Red Ink A Novel
Brief Summary
Who is the serial killer, and what motivates him? When public relations consultant Lucy Khambule, young, beautiful and ambitious, receives a call from Napoleon Dingiswayo - a convicted serial killer, nicknamed "The Butcher" by the media - she sets out to fulfil her childhood dream of writing a book by answering this question.
Napoleon is an all too obliging subject, but Lucy discovers that her choice of topic is not for the faint-hearted. Soon after meeting him in Pretoria's notorious C-Max Prison her world is turned upside down by a number of violent and disturbing events.
Napoleon is behind bars, but Lucy cannot shake the thought that the brutal killings have something to do with him. Can she uncover the method and the madness behind this monster? As she learns that people have their reasons for being who they are and doing what they do, Lucy must decide what price she is willing to pay to pursue her dream.
ISBN:9781770100688
Author:Angela Makholwa
Sing Unburied Sing
Brief Summary
An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing examines the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power – and limitations – of family bonds.
Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. His mother, Leonie, is in constant conflict with herself and those around her. She is black and her children’s father is white. Embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances, she wants to be a better mother, but can’t put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use.
When the children’s father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love.
Rich with Ward’s distinctive, lyrical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first century America. It is a majestic new work from an extraordinary and singular author.
ISBN:9781501126062
Author:Jesmyn Ward
The House of Hunger
Brief Summary
Marechera made an immediate impact with the publication of The House of Hunger. The novella and nine short stories, most of them set in Zimbabwe, symbolize both home and country as the 'house of hunger', the place of madness and violence and despair.
Marechera describes a world in which tenderness has long given way to the tactics of survival, and he does so in a style at once explosive and loaded with angry humor.
ISBN:9780435895983
Author:Dambudzo Marechera
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me An...
Brief Summary
Mindy Kaling has lived many lives: the obedient child of immigrant professionals, a timid chubster afraid of her own bike, a Ben Affleck–impersonating Off-Broadway performer and playwright, and, finally, a comedy writer and actress prone to starting fights with her friends and coworkers with the sentence "Can I just say one last thing about this, and then I swear I’ll shut up about it?”
Perhaps you want to know what Mindy thinks makes a great best friend (someone who will fill your prescription in the middle of the night), or what makes a great guy (one who is aware of all elderly people in any room at any time and acts accordingly), or what is the perfect amount of fame (so famous you can never get convicted of murder in a court of law), or how to maintain a trim figure (you will not find that information in these pages). If so, you’ve come to the right book, mostly!
In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.
ISBN:9780307886262
Author:Mindy Kaling
Talk of the Devil Encounters with Sev...
Brief Summary
Inspired by newspaper clippings he had kept about two former African dictators accused of cannibalism, journalist Riccardo Orizio set out to track down tyrants around the world who had fallen from power?to see if they had gained any perspective on their actions, or if their lives and thoughts could shed any light on our own.
The seven encounters chronicled in Talk of the Devil reveal Orizio's gift as an observer and his skill at getting people to reveal themselves. They are also, each of them, memorable stories in their own right.
Thanks to his conversion to Islam, the unrepentant Idi Amin lives in exile in Saudi Arabia and laughs off his murderous past while still attempting to meddle in Uganda. Jean-Bedel Bokassa, the bloody former emperor of Central Africa, boasts astonishingly that Pope Paul VI had nominated him as the thirteenth apostle of the Catholic Church. Nexhmije Hoxha defends her husband's brutal Stalinist regime from her Albanian prison cell and proudly explains how it worked.
Paris-based Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier?in his first interview since fleeing Haiti in 1986?speaks about voodoo and the women of his life, and laments the loss of his fortune. Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam of Ethiopia, Mira Markovic (Slobodan Milosevic's wife), and General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the former Polish head of state, all claim, in one way or another, that history will do them justice.
By turns chilling and comical, rational and absurd, Talk of the Devil brings back into focus forgotten history and people we have viewed as evil incarnate. Stripped of their power and titles, they are oddly human, and in Orizio's hands, their stories, and his own, are compulsively readable.
ISBN:9780802714169
Author:Riccardo Orizio
The Congo Wars Conflict Myth and Reality
Brief Summary
This book, by a lifelong authority on the Congo, makes sense of the world’s least reported and least understood major war. Since 1996 successive waves of armed conflict in the Congo have left behind at least 3 million casualties, overwhelmingly civilian.
Turner throws new light on partisan and economically self-interested military interventions by Uganda, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. And he cuts through the highly tendentious historical myths that have been used to make sense of the unfolding catastrophe both in the region and beyond.
The book also indicates the changes required of the international community, neighboring African states and Congolese political leaders if this hugely resource-rich region of Central Africa is to build peace and economic security for its people.
ISBN:9781842776896
Author:Thomas Turner
Beyond Khartoum A History of Sub nati...
Brief Summary
Useful to both scholars and policymakers, Beyond Khartoum is a history of subnational government in Sudan from early times through to 2010.
With more than 2.5 million Sudanese killed in conflicts over the past half century, such an enquiry has become increasingly relevant and urgent.
Given Sudan's pivotal position in regional conflicts, its cultural diversity, its past instability and more recent oil wealth, an understanding of subnational politics is essential to fully appreciate the dynamics behind the news emanating from Khartoum, Darfur, Southern Sudan and beyond.
ISBN:9781569023365
Author:Randall Fegley
Getting Somalia Wrong Faith War and H...
Brief Summary
Somalia is a comprehensively failed state, representing a threat to itself, its neighbors, and the wider world. In recent years, it has become notorious for the piracy off its coast and the rise of Islamic extremism, opening it up as a new "southern front" in the war on terror. At least that is how it is inevitably presented by politicians and in the media.
In Getting Somalia Wrong? Mary Harper presents the first comprehensive account of the chaos into which the country has descended and the United States' renewed involvement there. In doing so, Harper argues that viewing Somalia through the prism of al-Qaeda risks further destabilizing the country and the entire Horn of Africa, while also showing that though the country may be a failed state, it is far from being a failed society.
In reality, alternative forms of business, justice, education, and local politics have survived and even flourished. Provocative and eye-opening, Getting Somalia Wrong? Shows that until the international community starts to "get it right," the consequences will be devastating, not just for Somalia, but for the world.
ISBN:9781842779330
Author:Mary Jane Harper
The Last Slave Market
Brief Summary
The African slave trade did not end when Britain passed its landmark law in 1807: on the continent's east coast, Arab slavers were still shipping tens of thousands of Africans to the Middle East. Slavery was ingrained in Arab culture, considered indispensable to their societies and condoned by religious texts.
The hub of this industry was the island of Zanzibar, part of Oman's empire, and the British consul there faced a hard task. John Kirk was a Scottish doctor who wound up as Zanzibar's acting consul at a time when British political pressures were mounting to end the Arab slave trade - although the East India Company found it advantageous to ignore it.
John Kirk was the only companion of David Livingstone to emerge untainted from the disastrous, often fatal expedition up the Zambezi River between 1859 and 1863. Three years later, Kirk returned to Africa, to the notorious island of Zanzibar, ancient source of slave trafficking from Africa to the Middle East.
Half a century after the abolition of slave trading had been passed into British law, this commerce continued to exist on Africa's east coast, tolerated and even connived at by Britain's empire on the Indian Ocean. But Kirk, appointed as medical officer to the British Consulate in Zanzibar, could do nothing.
This extraordinary - and controversial - book brings Kirk's years in Zanzibar to life. The horrors of the overland passage from the interior, and the Zanzibar slave market itself are vividly described. The final bitter conflict with Livingstone, who blamed Kirk for his own disasters, is retold.
But it was Kirk's own success in closing down the slave trade on the island which made him internationally famous. Using private diaries and papers, a long forgotten Victorian hero and an extraordinary chapter in British history are revived in detail.
ISBN:9781845296728
Author:Alastair Hazell
Youth Unemployment in Kenya A Ticking...
Brief Summary
Unemployment is the big burden on the lives of youths. Th¬ey are trapped in slums and in the informal sector, hardly making ends meet. Academic youths are jobless after graduation or not prepared for a job.
Women and persons with disabilities face specific problems in the labor market. ¬ there are state programmes for youths but they are inefficient due to bureaucracy. Youth need education - education for life, for life skills and work ethics.
Th¬ey have to be trained and educated for entrepreneurship. Dual vocational education and training will make them fit for practical work skills as well as for a deeper understanding of a vocation. Th¬ere are opportunities for the youth, e.g. in agribusiness and urban agriculture, but also in the jua kali sector and by being self-employed.
ISBN:9966314210
Author:Helmut Danner, Monica Kerretts-Makau and Johannes Michael Nebe
A Brief History of Seven Killings by ...
On December 3, 1976, just before the Jamaican general election and two days before Bob Marley was to play the Smile Jamaica Concert, gunmen stormed his house, machine guns blazing.
The attack nearly killed the Reggae superstar, his wife, and his manager, and injured several others. Marley would go on to perform at the free concert on December 5, but he left the country the next day, not to return for two years.
Deftly spanning decades and continents and peopled with a wide range of characters—assassins, journalists, drug dealers, and even ghosts—A Brief History of Seven Killings is the fictional exploration of that dangerous and unstable time and its bloody aftermath, from the streets and slums of Kingston in the 70s, to the crack wars in 80s New York, to a radically altered Jamaica in the 90s. Brilliantly inventive and stunningly ambitious, this novel is a revealing modern epic that will secure Marlon James’ place among the great literary talents of his generation.
African Myths and Folk Tales by Carte...
How was the earth formed, and where did animals come from? Why does the hippopotamus live in water, and why do cats chase rats? Imaginative answers to these and other age-old questions can be found among the rich oral traditions of Africa. Generations of listeners have delighted in these fanciful explanations of the natural, moral, and spiritual worlds, which unfold amid a realm of talking animals, magic drums, tricksters, and fairies.
Known as the "Father of Black History," Carter Godwin Woodson was among the first scholars to promote the history and achievements of African-Americans. His compilation of fables about a jealous blind man, a disobedient daughter, a rivalry among brothers, and other timeless predicaments is punctuated with thought-provoking proverbs and gentle humor. Told in simple language, these tales will enchant readers and listeners of all ages. Over sixty evocative illustrations appear throughout the book.
Rumba on the River: A History of the ...
Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congo's.
There had always been music along the banks of the Congo River—lutes and drums, the myriad instruments handed down from ancestors. But when Joseph Kabasele and his African Jazz went chop for chop with O.K. Jazz and Bantous de la Capitale, music in Africa would never be the same. A sultry rumba washed in relentless waves across new nations springing up below the Sahara. The Western press would dub the sound soukous or rumba rock; most of Africa called in Congo music.
Born in Kinshasa and Brazzaville at the end of World War II, Congon music matured as Africans fought to consolidate their hard-won independence. In addition to great musicians—Franco, Essous, Abeti, Tabu Ley, and youth bands like Zaiko Langa Langa—the cast of characters includes the conniving King Leopold II, the martyred Patrice Lumumba, corrupt dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, military strongman Denis Sassou Nguesso, heavyweight boxing champs George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, along with a Belgian baron and a clutch of enterprising Greek expatriates who pioneered the Congolese recording industry.
Rumba on the River presents a snapshot of an era when the currents of tradition and modernization collided along the banks of the Congo. It is the story of twin capitals engulfed in political struggle and the vibrant new music that flowered amidst the ferment.
Soft Magic
Brief Summary
'Soft magic.' is the debut collection of prose and poetry by Malawian writer, Upile Chisala.
This book explores the self, joy, blackness, gender, matters of the heart, the experience of Diaspora, spirituality and most of all, how we survive. 'Soft magic.' is a shared healing journey.
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Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.”
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Back from Africa
Brief Summary
After enthralling readers around the world with her incredible story of falling in love with and marrying the Masai warrior Lketinga-and living with his family and their daughter in Kenya-Corinne Hoffmann recounts her return to Switzerland and the difficulties she faced.
This frank and revealing memoir details how she built a new life for herself and her daughter while overcoming all obstacles with the same courage and optimism she employed in her life in the Kenyan outback.
Once again, Hoffmann proves herself to be an acute observer and an effective storyteller, and her astonishing and compelling tale will captivate fans new and old.
ISBN:9781905147328
Author:Corinne Hofmann
How to Read the Air by Dinaw Mengestu
A heartbreaking literary masterwork about love, family, and the power of imagination, which confirms Mengestu's reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation.
Dinaw Mengestu's first novel, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, earned the young writer comparisons to Bellow, Fitzgerald, and Naipaul, and garnered ecstatic critical praise and awards around the world for its haunting depiction of the immigrant experience. Now Mengestu enriches the themes that defined his debut with a heartbreaking literary masterwork about love, family, and the power of imagination, which confirms his reputation as one of the brightest talents of his generation.
One early September afternoon, Yosef and Mariam, young Ethiopian immigrants who have spent all but their first year of marriage apart, set off on a road trip from their new home in Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of a new identity as an American couple. Soon, their son, Jonas, will be born in Illinois.
Thirty years later, Yosef has died, and Jonas needs to make sense of the volatile generational and cultural ties that have forged him.
How can he envision his future without knowing what has come before? Leaving behind his marriage and job in New York, Jonas sets out to retrace his mother and father's trip and weave together a family history that will take him from the war-torn Ethiopia of his parents' youth to his life in the America of today, a story - real or invented - that holds the possibility of reconciliation and redemption.
The Book of Not by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Brief Summary
A sequel to Nervous Conditions, this is a powerful and engaging story about one young woman's quest to redefine the personal and political forces that threaten to engulf her.
As its title suggests, this is also a book about denial and unfulfilled expectations and about the theft of the self that remains one of colonialism's most pernicious legacies.
The novel disrupts any comfortable sense of closure to the dilemmas of colonial modernity explored in Nervous Conditions and as such is a fitting sequel.
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ISBN:9780954702373
Author:Tsitsi Dangarembga
Tom Mboya The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget
Brief Summary
This book is a must read by all Kenyans, particularly those born after 1963. No nationalist, dynamic, intelligent and patriotic leader who can be compared to the late Thomas Joseph Mboya anywhere in Eastern Africa today.
He did so much for Kenya during his short life on the earth. From Trade Unions to fighting for Kenya’s Independence from the British Colonial Rule. The assassin’s bullet ended his life at 39 years of age, but ordinary Kenyans will not FORGET him!
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