Harmattan

Brief Summary Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, offers a refreshingly unique perspective on the challenges facing Africa, even as she calls for a moral revolution among Africans themselves, who, she argues, are culturally deracinated, adrift between worlds.The troubles of Africa today are severe and wide-ranging. Yet what we see of them in the media, more often than not, are tableaux vivantes connoting poverty, dependence, and desperation. Wangari Maathai presents a different vision, informed by her three decades as an environmental activist and campaigner for democracy. She illuminates the complex and dynamic nature of the continent, and offers "hardheaded hope” and "realistic options” for change and improvement. With clarity of expression, Maathai analyzes the most egregious "bottlenecks to development in Africa,” occurring at the international, national, and individual levels–cultural upheaval and enduring poverty among them–and deftly describes what Africans can and need to do for themselves, stressing all the while responsibility and accountability.Impassioned and empathetic, The Challenge for Africa is a book of immense importance. " " ISBN:9780307390288 Author:Wangari Maathai

The most dangerous corner of Africa is its north-east corner where instability reigns and terrorism thrives on the antagonisms of all of its governments. This region, comprising Ethiopia, Sudan and now South Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea, and stretching to include Kenya and Uganda, is a pivotal geopolitical pressure point in world politics. It stands at the hinge of Africa and the Middle East. It was of vital interest to the superpowers during the Cold War and remains, in the post-Cold War period, a key area in international relations and a major source of mineral wealth, while its sufferings have been described as a scar on the conscience of humanity. But seemingly endemic political chaos, failed states, terrorism and international piracy have dealt a death blow to the ambitions of the US and her allies in the international community to further a New World Order of liberal democracy. Peter Woodward's book is essential reading for Africa and international relations specialists, including policy planners." ISBN:2147483647 Author:Peter Woodward

When Sara and Sam fall in love, they presume Sara's white European skin and Sam's black African skin will not be of interest in 1978 Nairobi, the cosmopolitan and free-thinking capital of Kenya where they both live. They are wrong. Soon they must face painful prejudices from the outside world, as well as their own families. They also slowly realize that unexpected deep-rooted differences exist between them.Sara and her Dutch expat parents have happily settled in Kenya for a few years, but this is only the latest in a long list of countries they called home. Soon Sara's father will be transferred to a new position, and the family must move to a new country again.But things are different for Sara this time. She is 18 years old, and absolutely certain she belongs in Kenya. She plans to stay forever--especially after she falls passionately in love with Sam.After all, on the surface of it, Sara and Sam have a great deal in common. They both come from comfortable middle-class families. They attend excellent schools as academic high achievers. They balance on the cusp of adulthood, and have every reason to think their futures will be bright. But soon enough, the differences between them are too apparent to be ignored, even by them. And this is only the start of the ordeals Sam and Sara must overcome.Sara is a pampered only child. Sam is the eldest son of the first wife of a polygamous Ugandan family. Sara does not at first understand the significance of his position. It takes time for her to see how deeply his young life is influenced by the many responsibilities that rest on his shoulders.The lovers suffer from prejudices from people close to them, as well as from strangers. They are startled to discover that both sets of parents oppose their union, and believe their child should find a better partner within their own cultures.Perhaps most complicated of all is the slow realization that Sara and Sam have very different expectations of each other. Sam presumes he has certain rights as the man in the relationship. Sara does not automatically subscribe to his position of leader, or consider it her duty to follow. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Jo Alkemade

A young and beautiful white woman is murdered in the US, and the prime suspect is former Rwandan school headmaster Joshua - a hero who had risked his life to save the innocent during Rwanda's genocide. Ishmael, an African American detective, must investigate the case by plunging himself into Joshua's past. He travels to Kenya, where Joshua once lived as a refugee, and fi nds himself unearthing his own African identity as he uncovers this violent crime. Kenyan author Mukoma wa Ngugi's debut novel is a gripping and hard-hitting detective thriller that questions race, identity and class. ISBN:2147483647 Author:M?koma wa Ng?g?

The ideal introduction to the genius of Ernest Hemingway, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories" contains ten of Hemingway's most acclaimed and popular works of short fiction. Selected from "Winner Take Nothing, Men Without Women, " and "The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories. This collection includes "The Killers," the first of Hemingway's mature stories to be accepted by an American periodical; the autobiographical "Fathers and Sons," which alludes, for the first time in Hemingway's career, to his father's suicide; "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," a "brilliant fusion of personal observation, hearsay and invention," wrote Hemingway's biographer, Carlos Baker; and the title story itself, of which Hemingway said: "I put all the true stuff in," with enough material, he boasted, to fill four novels. Beautiful in their simplicity, startling in their originality, and unsurpassed in their craftsmanship, the stories in this volume highlight one of America's master storytellers at the top of his form. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Ernest Hemingway

Brief Summary An impassioned call to heal the wounds of our planet and ourselves through the tenets of our spiritual traditions, from a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize It is so easy, in our modern world, to feel disconnected from the physical earth. Despite dire warnings and escalating concern over the state of our planet, many people feel out of touch with the natural world. Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai has spent decades working with the Green Belt Movement to help women in rural Kenya plant—and sustain—millions of trees. With their hands in the dirt, these women often find themselves empowered and "at home” in a way they never did before. Maathai wants to impart that feeling to everyone, and believes that the key lies in traditional spiritual values: love for the environment, self-betterment, gratitude and respect, and a commitment to service. While educated in the Christian tradition, Maathai draws inspiration from many faiths, celebrating the Jewish mandate tikkun olam ("repair the world”) and renewing the Japanese term mottainai ("don’t waste”). Through rededication to these values, she believes, we might finally bring about healing for ourselves and the earth. ISBN:2147483647 Author:Wangari Maathai