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Valley of the Casbahs
Brief Summary
Valley of the Casbahs: A Journey across the Moroccan Sahara
The four-hundred-and-fifty-mile long Draa River Valley in the Moroccan Sahara contains some of the most sumptuous oases and searing desert of the Arab world, starting in the moonscape gorges of the Anti-Atlas Mountains through to a green sea of date palms over which rise the many-towered casbahs of ochre coloured clay, medieval in aspect and sheltering a life medieval in character.
It is a region richer historically and ethnically than anywhere else in North Africa. The river stretches to the mosaic of dunes and parched land known as hammada - the domain of Bedouin and Blue Men and isolated Berber tribes - and pours through the desert into the Atlantic, where it ends its course. Jeffrey Tayler follows the Draa by foot and on camel, recounting stays in casbah homes, weddings, visits to mosques and marabouts and nights in hashish dens.
It is a journey marked with extremes - of weather, as Tayler survives intense heat and sandstorms and potentially lethal local tribesmen - and one which he only narrowly escapes to tell this tale.
ISBN:9780349115368
Author:Jeffrey Tayler
Zulu
Brief Summary
Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879.
Saul David's Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 is a fascinating look at the most controversial and brutal British imperial conflict of the nineteenth century.
The real story of the Anglo-Zulu war was one of deception, dishonour, incompetence and dereliction of duty by Lord Chelmsford who invaded Zululand without the knowledge of the British Government. But it did not go to plan and there were many political repercussions. Using new material from archives in Britain and South Africa, Saul David blows the lid on this most sordid of imperial wars and comes to a number of startling new conclusions.
'Saul David's brilliant and magisterial account must now be regarded as the definitive history of the Zulu War' Frank McLynn, Literary Review
'This meticulously detailed book...give[s] a fully rounded and judicious account of this dismal conflict Guardian
'Fascinating, thrilling, convincing... reads like a novel' Economist
Saul David is Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham and the author of several critically acclaimed history books, including The Indian Mutiny: 1857 (shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature), Zulu: The Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879 (a Waterstone's Military History Book of the Year) and, most recently, Victoria's Wars: The Rise of Empire.
ISBN:9780141015699
Author:Saul David
The Last Train to Zona Verde
Brief Summary
The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari
Following the success of the acclaimed Ghost Train to the Eastern Star and The Great Railway Bazaar, The Last Train to Zona Verde is an ode to the last African journey of the world's most celebrated travel writer.
"Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a twenty-two-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.
His odyssey takes him northward from Cape Town, through South Africa and Namibia, then on into Angola, wishing to head farther still until he reaches the end of the line. Journeying alone through the greenest continent, Theroux encounters a world increasingly removed from both the itineraries of tourists and the hopes of postcolonial independence movements.
Leaving the Cape Town townships, traversing the Namibian bush, passing the browsing cattle of the great sunbaked heartland of the savanna, Theroux crosses "the Red Line” into a different Africa: "the improvised, slapped-together Africa of tumbled fences and cooking fires, of mud and thatch,” of heat and poverty, and of roadblocks, mobs, and anarchy. After 2,500 arduous miles, he comes to the end of his journey in more ways than one, a decision he chronicles with typically unsparing honesty in a chapter called "What Am I Doing Here?”
Vivid, witty, and beautifully evocative, The Last Train to Zona Verde is a fitting final African adventure from the writer whose gimlet eye and effortless prose have brought the world to generations of readers.
ISBN:9780618839339
Author:Paul Theroux
No Turning Back A Novel of South Africa
Brief Summary
Escaping from his violent stepfather, twelve-year-old Sipho heads for Johannesburg, where he has heard that gangs of children live on the streets. Surviving hunger and bitter-cold winter nights is hard ‘but learning when to trust in the ‘new' South Africa proves even more difficult.
No Turning Back appeared on the short list of both the Guardian and Smarties book prizes on the United Kingdom.
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ISBN:9780064407496
Author:Beverley Naidoo
The Double Comfort Safari Club
Brief Summary
Readers will agree that this touching and dramatic new installment in Alexander McCall Smith’s beloved and best-selling series is the finest yet. In this story, Precious Ramotswe deals with issues of mistaken identity and great fortune against the beautiful backdrop of Botswana’s remote and striking Okavango Delta.
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi head to a safari camp to carry out a delicate mission on behalf of a former guest who has left one of the guides a large sum of money. But once they find their man, Precious begins to sense that something is not right. To make matters worse, shortly before their departure Mma Makutsi’s fiancé, Phuti Radiphuti, suffers a debilitating accident, and when his aunt moves in to take care of him, she also pushes Mma Makutsi out of the picture.
Could she be trying to break up the relationship? Finally, a local priest and his wife independently approach Mma Ramotswe with concerns of infidelity, creating a rather unusual and tricky situation. Nevertheless, precious is confident that with a little patience, kindness and good sense things will work out for the best, something that will delight her many fans.
ISBN:9780375424502
Author:Alexander McCall Smith
Of Beasts and Beings
Brief Summary
In this searing and timely novel, reminiscent of the work of J.M. Coetzee and Cormac McCarthy, the devastating effects of a country's economic and moral collapse provide the backdrop for a story about individual fortitude and conscience.
In an unnamed and post-apocalyptic African republic, militiamen seize a scavenger as he is digging for roots, or anything that will nourish him and keep him alive. He is traded and ransomed and ends up in the hands of another group, whose members include a pregnant woman whom he is forced to carry in a wheelbarrow on a nightmarish and seemingly endless overland journey.
This story alternates with the diary entries of a white schoolteacher who, embittered by the horrific state of his country, is preparing to leave. Before he can do so, however, he must confront his own demons and personal failings. Both narrators are in danger and both are apparently helpless to control their fates. When these two plotlines brilliantly and surprisingly unite the result is electrifying, shocking, and brilliant.
With sparse and heartbreaking prose Ian Holding asks vital questions about personal responsibility, choice, and truth.
ISBN:9781609450540
Author:Ian Holding
The Kalahari Typing School for Men
Brief Summary
Life is never without its problems. Will Precious Ramotswe’s delightfully cunning and profoundly moral methods save the day? Find out in this, the fourth volume in the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series featuring Botswana's first and only lady detective.
Now that The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (the only detective agency for ladies and others in Botswana) is established, its founder, Precious Ramotswe, can look upon her life with pride: she’s reached her late thirties ("the finest age to be"), has a house, two children, a good fiancé -- Mr. J. L. B. Matekoni -- and many satisfied customers.
But life is never without its problems. It turns out that her adopted son is responsible for the dead hoopoe bird in the garden; her assistant, Mma Makutsi, wants a husband and needs help with her idea to open the Kalahari Typing School for Men; yet Mma Ramotswe’s sexist rival has no trouble opening his Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency across town. Will Precious Ramotswe’s delightfully cunning and profoundly moral methods save the day? Follow the continuing story of Botswana’s first lady detective in the irresistible The Kalahari Typing School for Men.
ISBN:9780349117041
Author:Alexander McCall Smith
The Lower River
Brief Summary
Ellis Hock never believed that he would return to Africa. He runs an old-fashioned menswear store in a small town in Massachusetts but still dreams of his Eden, the four years he spent in Malawi with the Peace Corps, cut short when he had to return to take over the family business.
When his wife leaves him, taking the family home, he realizes that there is one place for him to go: back to Malawi on the remote Lower River, where he can be happy again. Arriving at the dusty village, he finds it transformed: the school he built is a ruin, the church and clinic are gone, and poverty and apathy have set in among the people.
They remember him — the White Man with no fear of snakes — and welcome him. But is his new life, his journey back, an escape or a trap? Interweaving memory and desire, hope and despair, salvation and damnation, this is a hypnotic, compelling, and brilliant return to a terrain no one has ever written better about than Theroux.
ISBN:9780241957745
Author:Paul Theroux
The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh
Brief Summary
Having drawn comparisons to Gone with the Wind and Out of Africa, The Fever Tree is a page-turner of the very first order. In London she was caged by society.
In South Africa, she is dangerously free.
Frances Irvine, left destitute in the wake of her father’s sudden death, has been forced to abandon her life of wealth and privilege in London and immigrate to the Southern Cape of Africa. 1880 South Africa is a country torn apart by greed. In this remote and inhospitable land she becomes entangled with two very different men—one driven by ambition, the other by his ideals. Only when the rumor of a smallpox epidemic takes her into the dark heart of the diamond mines does she see her path to happiness.
But this is a ruthless world of avarice and exploitation, where the spoils of the rich come at a terrible human cost and powerful men will go to any lengths to keep the mines in operation. Removed from civilization and disillusioned by her isolation, Frances must choose between passion and integrity, a decision that has devastating consequences.
The Fever Tree is a compelling portrait of colonial South Africa, its raw beauty and deprivation alive in equal measure. But above all it is a love story about how—just when we need it most—fear can blind us to the truth.
Children of the Revolution
Brief Summary
Seventeen years after fleeing the revolutionary Ethiopia that claimed his father's life, Stepha Stephanos is a man still caught between two existences: the one he left behind, aged nineteen, and the new life he has forged in Washington D.C. Sepha spends his days in a sort of limbo: quietly running his grocery store into the ground, revisiting the Russian classics, and toasting the old days with his friends Kenneth and Joseph, themselves emigrants from Africa.
But when a white woman named Judith moves next door with her only daughter, Naomi, Sepha's life seems on the verge of change...
ISBN:9780099502739
Author:Dinaw Mengestu
The Carnivorous City
Brief Summary
Rabato Sabato aka Soni Dike is a Lagos big boy; a criminal turned grandee, with a beautiful wife, a seaside mansion and a questionable fortune. Then one day he disappears and his car is found in a ditch, music blaring from the speakers. Soni's older brother, Abel Dike, a teacher, arrives in Lagos to look for his missing brother.
Abel is rapidly sucked into the unforgiving Lagos maelstrom where he has to navigate encounters with a motley cast of common criminals, deal with policemen intent on getting a piece of the pie, and contend with his growing attraction to his brother's wife.
Carnivorous City is a story about love, family and just desserts but it is above all a tale about Lagos and the people who make the city by the lagoon what it is.
ISBN:9781911115243
Author:Toni Kan
A Primates Memoir by Robert M. Sapolsky
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life among the Baboons.
In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons.
"I had never planned to become a savanna baboon when I grew up; instead, I had always assumed I would become a mountain gorilla,” writes Robert Sapolsky in this witty and riveting chronicle of a scientist’s coming-of-age in remote Africa.
An exhilarating account of Sapolsky & and twenty-one-year study of a troop of rambunctious baboons in Kenya, A Primate’s Memoir interweaves serious scientific observations with wry commentary about the challenges and pleasures of living in the wilds of the Serengeti — for man and beast alike.
Over two decades, Sapolsky survives culinary atrocities, gunpoint encounters, and a surreal kidnapping, while witnessing the encroachment of the tourist mentality on the farthest vestiges of unspoiled Africa. As he conducts unprecedented physiological research on wild primates, he becomes ever more enamored of his subjects — unique and compelling characters in their own right — and he returns to them summer after summer, until tragedy finally prevents him.
By turns hilarious and poignant, A Primate’s Memoir is a magnum opus from one of our foremost science writers.
Tick Bite Fever
Brief Summary
Tick Bite Fever is the unconventional memoir of a very unconventional childhood. In the early Seventies, Dave Bennun's family transplanted themselves from Swindon to the wilds of Kenya. His father, who was a doctor, had lived in Africa before (but had felt it expedient to leave when the South African government realized he was carting explosives around in the boot of his car for the ANC).
But for Dave, Kenya was be musingly new. It would be his home for the next 16 years. In Kenya, the childhood memoir takes on a surreal tone. On the way home from school, closed because a pair of lions are padding around the playground, Dave is mugged by baboons.
Meet Dave's favorite pet Achilles, the almost indestructible dog! Find out about 'Nairobi snow' - and the national radio station that only has three records. And read about Dave and his Dad spending happy Sunday afternoons being chased by a herd of elephants. Enchantingly funny, Tick Bite Fever is a tale of the fading innocence of childhood that is miles ahead of the competition.
ISBN:9780091886899
Author:David Bennun
From Goatherd to Governor
Brief Summary
From Goatherd to Governor. The Autobiography of Edwin Mtei
From Goatherd to Governor is Edwin Mtei's autobiography. It is a story of the journey a few Africans of his generation made, from humble beginnings to heights of success and power. Mr. Mtei was the first Governor of the Bank of Tanzania and the architect of Central Banking in Tanzania, Secretary General of the East African Community and Minister of Finance in Nyerere's Government.
Born in 1932 in Marangu, Moshi, he was brought up in a grass-thatched conical hut by his mother, a single parent; he attended 'bush' school at Ngaruma Lutheran Parish Church, and herded goats after lessons finished; he attended Old Moshi Middle and Tabora Secondary schools and went on to Makerere University College in 1953. He graduated from there with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science, History and Geography in 1957. In his own words he states: "I have felt it worthwhile starting right at the beginning of my life.
In this way, I aim to give some idea as to what it was like growing up in my birthplace, Marangu, in the tribal and colonial environment of Tanganyika in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. I touch on some of the traditions and beliefs of those days and on some colonial laws that impacted on our lives and surroundings." But as he himself states: "The most interesting part of my story is that relating to the events when I held senior positions in Nyerere's Government, and in the public service generally." That includes his falling out with Mwalimu Nyerere over IMF and its policies, and his resignation from his post as Minister of Finance. For the first time he tells his side of that story.
In 1992 Mr. Mtei threw himself deep into the waters of multiparty politics. He founded Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) - the Party for Democracy and Development - and worked tirelessly to see it grow and emerge as an important party in the opposition, despite his own failure to win the parliamentary seat for Arusha Urban in the 1995 election. Even at 77 Mr. Mtei does not mince his words.
He says what he believes and says it with courage and conviction. This is history, spanning well over half a century, written by someone who was involved in and who observed closely the key events of his time. He is retired and works on his farm, Ogaden Estate, but still manages to ruffle feathers whenever he is asked to comment on the economy and politics of Tanzania and East Africa.
ISBN:9789987080304
Author:Edwin Mtei
No Time to Lose
Brief summary
No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses
When Peter Piot was in medical school, a professor warned, "There’s no future in infectious diseases. They’ve all been solved.” Fortunately, Piot ignored him, and the result has been an exceptional, adventure-filled career. In the 1970s, as a young man, Piot was sent to Central Africa as part of a team tasked with identifying a grisly new virus.
Crossing into the quarantine zone on the most dangerous missions, he studied local customs to determine how this disease—the Ebola virus—was spreading. Later, Piot found himself in the field again when another mysterious epidemic broke out: AIDS.
He traveled throughout Africa, leading the first international AIDS initiatives there. Then, as founder and director of UNAIDS, he negotiated policies with leaders from Fidel Castro to Thabo Mbeki and helped turn the tide of the epidemic. Candid and engrossing, No Time to Lose captures the urgency and excitement of being on the front lines in the fight against today’s deadliest diseases.
ISBN:9780393063165
Author:Peter Piot
The Beautiful Struggle
Brief summary
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons and an Unlikely Road to Manhood
An exceptional father-son story about the reality that tests us, the myths that sustain us, and the love that saves us.
Paul Coates was an enigmatic god to his sons: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian and new-age believer in free love, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization. Most of all, he was a wily tactician whose mission was to carry his sons across the shoals of inner-city adolescence and through the collapsing civilization of Baltimore in the Age of Crack, and into the safe arms of Howard University, where he worked so his children could attend for free.
Among his brood of seven, his main challenges were Ta-Nehisi, spacey and sensitive and almost comically miscalibrated for his environment, and Big Bill, charismatic and all-too-ready for the challenges of the streets.
The Beautiful Struggle follows their divergent paths through this turbulent period, and their father's steadfast efforts assisted by mothers, teachers, and a body of myths, histories, and rituals conjured from the past to meet the needs of a troubled present to keep them whole in a world that seemed bent on their destruction. With a remarkable ability to reimagine both the lost world of his father’s generation and the terrors and wonders of his own youth, Coates offers readers a small and beautiful epic about boys trying to become men in black America and beyond.
ISBN:9780385520362
Author:Ta-Nehisi Coates
Lonely Planet Africa -Travel Guide
Brief summary
Lonely Planet Africa is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Take a refreshing dip at Victoria Falls, explore the ancient pyramids of Egypt, or take a walking safari in South Luangwa National Park; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Africa and begin your journey now!
Inside Lonely Planet's Africa Travel Guide:
1. Colour maps and images throughout
2. Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests
3. Insider tips save you time and money, and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
4. Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices
5. Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
6. Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including history, local customs, music and wildlife
7. Over 235 maps
8. Useful features - including Month by Month (annual festival calendar), Itineraries (suggested routes that maximise your time and money), and Planning Safaris
9. Coverage of Botswana, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Egypt, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and more
The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Africa, our most comprehensive guide to Africa, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.
• Looking for just a few of the destinations included in this guide? Check out the relevant Lonely Planet Country Guides or Regional Guides, such as Lonely Planet Morocco or Lonely Planet Southern Africa.
ISBN:9781741798968
Author:Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet Zambia & Malawi-Tr...
Brief summary
Take Lonely Planet's first edition of Zambia & Malawi on your travels and you'll be wildlife spotting on safari in unspoilt national parks; gazing at the thundering might of Victoria Falls; watching Kuomboka, one of the last great Southern African ceremonies; or relaxing beachside at Nkhata Bay. Why not do it all?
Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This brand new edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.
In This Guide:
1. Detailed itineraries take you from Zambia's magnificent wildlife to Malawi's stunning lakes
2. Ecofriendly tips to help you make your travels green
3. Color chapter on wildlife, wild places and where to chill out
ISBN:9781741794335
Author:Alan Murphy and Nana Luckham
Lonely Planet Tanzania -Travel Guide ...
Lonely Planet Tanzania is your passport to all the most relevant and up-to-date advice on what to see, what to skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Watch East Africa's greatest natural dramas play out on the Serengeti plains, learn about local Chagga culture, or wander through the narrow alleyways of Zanzibar; all with your trusted travel companion.
Get to the heart of Tanzania and begin your journey now!
Inside Lonely Planet Tanzania Travel Guide:
1. Colour maps and images throughout
2. Highlights and itineraries show you the simplest way to tailor your trip to your own personal needs and interests
3. Insider tips save you time and money and help you get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots
4. Essential info at your fingertips - including hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, and prices
5. Honest reviews for all budgets - including eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, and hidden gems that most guidebooks miss
6. Cultural insights give you a richer and more rewarding travel experience - including customs, history, religion, art, music, dance, politics, landscapes, wildlife, and cuisine
7. Over 46 local maps
8. Useful features - including Month-by-Month (annual festival calendar), Safaris, and Active Tanzania
9. Coverage of Dar es Salaam, Mt Kilimanjaro, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the Zanzibar Archipelago, Stone Town, Lake Victoria, the Serengeti Plains, the Mahale Mountains, Katavi, Ruaha, and more
The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet Tanzania, our most comprehensive guide to Tanzania, is perfect for those planning to both explore the top sights and take the road less travelled.
• Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's East Africa guide for a comprehensive look at all the region has to offer.
Obama Senior A Dream Fulfilled
Brief summary
On January 20, 2009, Barack Hussein Obama made history as the first African-American president of the United States of America since its founding in 1776. Around the world, people celebrated his election as if he were one of their own and held exceedingly high expectations of his presidency.
When, as senator of Illinois, he visited his father's village in Nyang'oma K'Ogelo in Kenya, he was struck by the ecstatic reception that the people accorded him. He was deeply touched by the abject poverty and fullness of spirit of the people. The level of need and the challenges that he witnessed in the poor neighborhoods of Chicago in the US, in Indonesia and Kenya may have significantly contributed to his spirited drive to the White House.
In this book, the author re-traces the life of Barack Obama Senior and how his character, vision and intellect influenced his son's drive to the most powerful office in the land. In so doing, the author revisits the events in pre- and post-colonial Kenya and how these, too, had a bearing on the life of Obama Senior.
The book also relates the history of his people - the Luo - from their original settlements along the Nile in Egypt and the Sudan to their present homelands in East Africa and the Great Lakes region. It details the often tragic and ultimately triumphant struggle of a people in pursuit of a just, peaceful and progressive society.
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ISBN:9789966560391
Author:Fredrick Donde