African Interest

Brief Summary Our Values, Our Destiny: A Conversation on Values in Kenya is an introductory book to study of values. From her work with children on values, Margery discusses 12 key values including peace, respect, love, responsibility, tolerance and unity. Most of these values have been identified in Kenya’s constitutive documents such as the Kenya constitution 2010, the national anthem and the vision 2030. The message of the book is that the challenge that Kenya is facing today such as corruption with impunity and cheating in examinations, point to an erosion of values. Margery suggests that revisiting these values might be one way to address these challenges and create a united and more cohesive nation that we shall all be proud of. It’s imperative that values start taking a central place in the national discourse. We need to focus more on orienting and training our children and youth to become more value based. ISBN:9789966097262 Author:Margery Kabuya

Brief Summary The manual, Beyond Ethnicism. Exploring Racial and Ethnic Diversity for Educators, a first of its kind in Kenya, speaks to the key issues of ethnic and racial belonging that are such a key-determining factor in defining and dividing Kenyans. These two issues influence many social, economic and especially political decisions. The manual transcends the limitations of current discussions on ethnicism and racism. Questions of ethnic and racial belonging are connected to some of the deepest moral and political decisions of our time. Belonging is an emotional subject that as a country citizens should not lose capacity to discuss coherently. An educator who wanted to know how to end ethnicism and racism inspired the writing of this manual. Ethnic and racial favoritism as well as discrimination have seeped into the Kenyan education system. Educators sit in staff-rooms as members of political parties or ethnic communities and sometimes consciously or unconsciously perpetuate ethnic and racial stereotypes and prejudices. Educators find talking about ethnicism and racism difficult. They do not know where to begin yet they can recognise ethnicism and racism in learners. Sometimes they practice it themselves, favouring or discriminating learners on the basis of ethnicity or race. Educators are sometimes helpless in arresting ethnicist and racist practices in their learners or themselves, as they do not have the tools to do so. This manual is a practical resource which assists educators in contextualising ethnic and race related concerns without undermining the human rights, it also helps in creating the space for discourse amongst educators on how to combat ethnicism and racism. It asks rarely addressed critical and significant questions on the meaning of ethnic and racial belonging. The manual addresses the arresting of stereotypes and prejudice before they morph into actual discrimination and sometimes violence. ISBN:9789966190307 Author:Alice Wairimu Nderitu

Brief Summary Volume V of this acclaimed series is now available in an abridged paperback edition. The result of years of work by scholars from all over the world, The UNESCO General History of Africa reflects how the different peoples of Africa view their civilizations and shows the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent. Historical connections with other continents demonstrate Africa's contribution to the development of human civilization. Each volume is lavishly illustrated and contains a comprehensive bibliography. This fifth volume of the acclaimed series covers the history of the continent from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the close of the eighteenth century in which two themes emerge: first, the continuing internal evolution of the states and cultures of Africa during this period; second, the increasing involvement of Africa in external trade—with major but unforeseen consequences for the whole world. In North Africa, we see the Ottomans conquer Egypt. South of the Sahara, some of the larger, older states collapse, and new power bases emerge. Traditional religions continue to coexist with both Christianity (suffering setbacks) and Islam (in the ascendancy). Along the coast, particularly of West Africa, Europeans establish a trading network which, with the development of New World plantation agriculture, becomes the focus of the international slave trade. The immediate consequences of this trade for Africa are explored, and it is argued that the long-term global consequences include the foundation of the present world-economy with all its built-in inequalities. ISBN:9780520067004 Author:B A Ogot

Brief Summary Includes writing by Charles Cantalupo spanning roughly twenty-five years. Chronologically, it begins in 1993 with the first time he interviews Ngugi wa Thiong'o and ends in 2016, when Cantalupo last interviews him. In between, the decades reveal Cantalupo as a writer moving from a primarily Euro-American literary and cultural viewpoint to a continuum with African literatures and languages. Compelled by their power and their translation, he becomes deeply engaged with Eritrea, while also probing the process of translation itself. ISBN:9781569025741 Author:Charles Cantalupo

Brief Summary The massacre of one million Rwandan Tutsis by ethnic Hutus in 1994 has become a symbol of the international community’s helplessness in the face of human rights atrocities. It is assumed that the West was well-intentioned, but ultimately ineffectual. But as Andrew Wallis reveals in this shocking book, one country - France - was secretly providing military, financial and diplomatic support to the genocidaires all along. Based on new interviews with key players and eye-witnesses, and previously unreleased documents, Walliss’ book tells a story which many have suspected, but never seen set out before. France, Wallis discovers, was keen to defend its influence in Africa, even if it meant complicity in genocide, for as French President Francois Mitterrand once said: "in countries like that, genocide is not so important”. Wallis’s riveting expose of the French role in one of the darkest chapters of human history will provoke furious debate, denials, and outrage. ISBN:9780857735348 Author:Andrew Wallis

Brief Summary In Africa's Odious Debts, Boyce and Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world. The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa’s foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments. Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce reveal the intimate links between foreign loans and capital flight. More than half of the money borrowed by African governments in recent decades departed in the same year, with a significant portion of it winding up in private accounts at the very banks that provided the loans in the first place. Meanwhile, debt-service payments continue to drain scarce resources from Africa, cutting into funds available for public health and other needs. Controversially, the authors argue that African governments should repudiate these "odious debts" from which their people derived no benefit, and that the international community should assist in this effort. A vital book for anyone interested in Africa, its future, and its relationship with the West. ISBN:9781848134584 Author:Leonce Ndikumana and James Boyce

Brief Summary New Sudan is a concept for radically reforming Sudan s governance system by addressing the national identity crisis that has been responsible for the wars, the instability and the failure of the national building project that have afflicted the country since independence. The gist of the crisis is that the dominant Arab group, which is in fact an African Arab hybrid and a minority, perceives the country in its image as an Arab-Islamic nation. This inevitably discriminates against the non-Arab and non-Moslem populations in the South and even against the other groups in the peripheral regions of the North, who even though are predominantly Moslem, are however not Arabs. The South, one third of the country in territory and population, was the first to rebel against this discriminatory framework in August 1955, only a few months before independence on the January 1, 1956. That rebellion which escalated into a 17 year war was separatist, but was resolved in 1972 by a compromise that granted the South regional autonomy. The abrogation of that accord in 1983 led to the resumption of the second rebellion by the Sudan People s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) that called for the unity of the country in the framework of a New Sudan in which there would be full equality of citizenship, without any discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, culture or gender. Over time, this vision began to appeal to the non-Arab northern groups and other liberal minded northerners. The Nuba and the Ingassana (Funj) were the first to join the SPLM/A in the struggle in the mid-1980s. The Beja in the East joined later. And the Darfurians, after having their first attempt at rebellion crushed in 1992, again staged a rebellion in 2003, triggering the atrocious war that is still raging and which some international observers have determined to be genocide. The vision of the New Sudan was largely that of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, a man who was a scholar, a soldier, and a statesman. When he arrived in Khartoum to be sworn in as First Vice President of the Government of National Unity and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 9, 2005, he was met by a rallying crowd estimated in the millions, clear evidence that the New Sudan was in sight. Tragically, two weeks later, Garang died in a helicopter crash. To some, the vision of the New Sudan died with him. To others, his legacy, including the New Sudan Vision, has been ironically rejuvenated, particularly in the North. But will it be realized or will it remain a dream and an elusive goal? That is the very essence of the question mark in the title of this book. ISBN:9781569023020 Author:Francis Mading Deng