Africa Books

A writer who can transport someone from the hard concrete unnatural world of NYC to a bambo well thousand of miles away in a remote tropical forrest has to be one I love! Really loved the connection to nature this brought for me. I'd love to read another travel log of Ms. Heyings.

I read this when traveling to Madagascar to get a sense of what the place was like. I found this book to be very descriptive, informative and enjoyable. Heather is a frog researcher. I was a bit bothered by how frogs are marked and what I learned about frog research, but setting that aside the rest of the book was very good. Heather talks about the nitty gritty of travel - getting from point A to B, what there is (or isn't) in the way of facilities and food, etc. But, mostly, she focuses on her interactions with the local Malagasy people and her life on the isolated island of Nosy Mangabe. Although she was there in the late 1990's, she probably didn't begin to foresee that Nosy Mangabe would become such a tourist island. Today, it is easier to reach and well worth the trip if you get to Madagascar. I found reading this gave me a much deeper appreciation and perspective on my trip than I would otherwise have had.

This book is focuses on what it's like for a western biologist (herpetologist) to go to Madagascar to study frogs. Heather Heying has a wonderful way with words that creates vibrant images of what she saw, heard, and felt while living there. Most of the focus is on cultural issues, including her own culture shock. Wildlife is used as a means of conveying her experiences and the experiences of the Malagasy people, not as the thrust or purpose of the book. I highly recommend this if you are at all interested in the people of Madagascar. This is a very well-written, engaging account.

Heying is a terrific writer and a keen observer of the world around her. She has traveled to Madagascar to research the behavior of tiny poisonous frogs but finds herself equally challenged by the strange behavior of the island's human inhabitants. The book is a thoughtful exploration of the predicament faced by forest creatures, the Malagasy people, and ultimately, the author herself. For those not lucky enough (or brave enough) to live in a remote tropical forest, this book provides a vivid portrait of the experience.

This book is beautiful touching story of childhood longing.

Six children wait for their fathers to come home after ten months away working in the mines.

We start their day with them as they wake in anxious anticipation. We follow them through their day with descriptive prose and amazing illustrations as they dress, go to school, make music and celebrate and wait and wait and wait.

They will not go home until their fathers arrive. The wait is longer than expected but the excitement remains high throughout this book until the beautiful end.

At the Crossroads by Rachel Isadora is a made-up story. It is about kids waiting for their fathers to come home. They waited a long time. I think that this story is really cool and that other kids will like it. I liked the pictures a lot, except the one where the moon was orange.

Wow! My family is from South Africa and we were thrilled when we found this book at our local bookstore. It is sooo true to life and so uplifting. It brought back all the memories we have of our home and even the colors brought back memories. I am sorry we had to leave S. Africa and I am happy that Rachel Isadora could bring back the sights, sounds and smells. I hope that by understanding the terrible situation of apartheid the country will become a better place and all the people can live together. I hope my children will understand all this someday! Thank you for such a wonderful book.....

A wonderful book telling of the warmth and love, not only in a family, but in a whole community. Eagerly awaiting the return of their fathers the children prepare a joyous welcome. Filled with rich, beautiful colors "At the Crossroads" tells a story of the love children have for their fathers, even though they may seldom see them. I felt that this really spoke of how those still at home kept the fathers 'alive' for the children. This is a wonderful book for children to see how other children live and how happy they can be with, what we would consider, so little. I use this book every year with our unit on Families.

Originally hand-drawn and -colored illustrations give you an idea of what the temples and other buildings might've looked like at the height of the Pharaohs. Most of the Egyptian ornament I've seen in museums is so worn away you can't tell what the colors were originally. This book introduces you to the freshness and vitality of Egyptian art in a way museums can't. I became interested in Prisse d'Avennes by finding a 1930's reproduction of his work in very large format at a library; unfortunately, that book was falling apart and was wihdrawn from the stacks, but this printing is a very nice substitute.

The first part of this album on ancient Egyptian art presents the author and his passion for Egyptology. The second part consists of plates, representing drawings and outlines of pillars, vases, portraits, columns, niches, plans, and patterns among many others. This is a good reference to the art and architecture of ancient Egypt.

Atlas Of Egyptian Art was originally authored and illustrated by Emile Prisse d'Avennes, one of the first and most mysterious modern pioneers of Egyptology, who lived during the 1800's. The informative text withstands the test of time, and the amazing 150 color reproductions of Egyptian art and artifacts are truly a wonder to behold. The artistic skill of Emile Prisse d'Avennes has preserved images even though some of the original works were later lost. These were the first reliable, accurate drawings of ancient Egyptian art made available to the non-specialist general readers in the West. A fascinating and beautiful book, and a "must" for anyone with an interest in the clean, classical simplicity of Egyptian art!

This book is gorgeous, I am surprised I am the first to review it! If you are looking for inspiration in your Egyptian studies, graphics, and art this is the book to purchase. There are hundreds of color plates depicting Egyptian rock art, columns, stone carvings, and other tidbits drawn by Prisse. If you always wanted to know what color a Lotus was depicted as, or other such items, this will help immensely. The plates are so beautiful they can be framed as wall art. Inspirational and more!

BEAUTIFUL. AND UGLY TOO is a strong collection of poetry that reflects the political climate of our world, the history of our culture and personal thoughts of a very gifted poet. M. K. Asante, born in Zimbabwe and raised in Philadelphia has a powerful voice and his passion is expressed throughout each of his pieces.

Although all the poems have a message, each is unique in its style and presentation. For example in "Public School" the poem is virtually unreadable, until you realize it is written in reverse therefore making its meaning crystal clear. "Grandmother" is a dedication to a woman whose strength will forever be a testament. "I am not that Random, America" deals with ethnicity in America and how being born in America does not remove the disdain of being African-American. Just from these examples, readers can infer they will be taken on a journey of edification of their minds and feel the passion of the author.

This compilation is strong and quite thought provoking. Reading the selections had me reflecting on the state of our politics and our presence in this world. The author is wise beyond his years and his wisdom is so eloquently expressed throughout BEAUTIFUL. AND UGLY TOO. With 32 poems, M. K. Asante has something for all poetry lovers to relish. The style and rhythms are part of what makes this collection stand out, giving life to all the pieces. The notes at the end of the collection allow readers to realize where the author gained his inspirations and involve readers in the thought processes of a young man who used life experiences and human conditions to write an intelligent book of poetry.

Reviewed by Cashana Seals
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Packed with uncompromising logic, M.K. leads us, through carefully selected words, towards a deeper understanding of history and presence.

These complex poems are layered with importance and relevance. Each read provided me with new, valuable, information and the helpful `notes' section was a unique opportunity to see Asante's sources of inspiration.

I recommend this book to everyone.

I read your book about three times now and I must applaud you again.
It took me a few reads on some of your poems but each read was more captivating than the last
your poems were able to suggest rather than dictate which is an excellent style of writing
I really like how you used Langston as a road map in so many of your poems
By Langston being my favorite writer I enjoyed your book that much the better and as a fellow poet it was refreshing and moving
GREAT WORK!

In the legacy of the greats like Amiri Baraka this book stings with purity and passion. Truly African in its subtext, amazing in its delivery. A refreshing book from an often silent generation of African-Americans. The intelligence behind this book gives our nation hope that the next mental genius are on the rise and fully articulating a new reality for humanity.

Excellent book! Like reading another chapter in the book of Acts. Your faith cannot but increase after reading this book on the life and adventures of H.B. Garlock in Africa. As Hudson Taylor said, "Unless there is an element of risk in our exploits for God, there is no need for faith!"

Great read! I love stories about missionaries. I have added this one to my collection!

The story of the Garlock's life in Africa is amazing . In it we see how God showed up so powerfully in their lives as they lived in obedience to Him. Their courage is such a testament to their faith.

Garlock's accounts of the events he witnessed as a missionary in Africa in the 20th century serve as an insider's preface for the mass Christianization that swept Africa later in the century. The events that unfolded before him over his years in the African bush are recorded humbly and with a sense of reverance for both the people of Africa and God.

The events that occur are expertly told as to leave the reader hanging on every word and unable to put the book down. At a few points, the book becomes so intense that I was able to feel my blood pressure raising and haor stand on end. The fact that this a non-fiction book makes it even more intense for the reader. I give this book my highest rating.

This is a great book for newcomers to the faith, missionaries, aspiring missionaries and those just desiring too have their faith strengthened and read a testimony that could inspire anyone to live a life of action and service.

TAHIR SHAH is without doubt the most original travel writer of his generation... never before have I been so touched by, and become so involved in, a book. I am struck dumb by Shah's genius.

Read this book.

A fast gallop through the Indian sub-continent, Africa and South America, with a cast of eccentric characters perhaps unprecidented in modern travel writing. It put me in mind of Peter Flemming for the sheer pace and sense of adventure. Yet it was a hundred times funnier. Gives Redmond O'Hanlon a run for his money as the Number 1 funny travel writer at work today. Also, I notice it is easy to find in the UK, available in an Orion paperback, not out of print at all!

Tahir Shah devises a get rich quick scheme which brings him to India to seek his fortune. He also has other interests namely the mysterious Gond people who may have walked the earth when the earth was one joined land mass. However this book is so much more than that. India \ Africa \ South America are all experienced and observed from a most interesting angle. The author roughs it al the way. There are many side-splitting moments in this book. There is youth and vivacity in the words that flow. Tahir Shah is clearly in love with life. Incidentally while this book is truly excellent, his latest effort "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is I believe a masterpiece. You will not be disappointed in either book.

Beyond the Devil's Teeth, by Tahir Shah,is the funniest book of the year. Traces a haphazard route through India, Africa and South America, in search of GONDWANALAND. From sentece one of page one you can't put the thing down! Read it and split your sides with laughing

Mr. Beard seems loaded with all the right ingredients: curiosity, empathy, compassion, passion, drive plus blessed with an artistic eye all housed inside the form of a handsome athelete who has the resources and connections to make a difference in any cause he chooses to promote. His fascination with and respect for africa (decades before the dark continent became fashionable to take a deeper look at and "save"), ancient african tribal life, protecting and fighting for endangered animals,photographing sultry,statuesque fashion models and partying with influential socialites makes for a unique lifestyle...all celebrated in his spectacular photographs that enlighten, shock and amuse.He followed his adventurous dreams and ended up living a life more fantastic than anything hollywood could have imagined.He has successfully intersected the worlds of high art, high fashion, high society and humanitarianism on his terms to serve his needs.
Reproductions of his legendary journals are my favorite part of the book. Mr.Beard's powerful daily journals are physically huge, overwhelmingly organic, almost living, objects that have been spontaneously, randomly, obsessively created with his photographs, magazine and newspaper scraps, notes, drawings, doodles, comments, collaged with multi-dimensional found treasures and debris (including blood) from his daily experiences more than qualify as important works of intense, raw, fine art...exposing the guts and soul of one very lucky man who made the most of all that he was given.

Peter Beards latest book is short on words and long on interesting pictures. It is the most varied in subject content that I've seen in his work. Some of the wildlife scenes are without equal. The only detraction is that it is short on narration. If I could have one wish, I would really like to have him sitting beside me and telling me about each picture. I guess another complaint would be that the book is much too short, I want more. I have two of his other works (Eyelids of Morning, and End of the Game) which are longer and thus more satisfying to an avid reader. Some of this book can be seen in the others. A perspective buyer would also be advised to get more biographical information on Peter Beard to understand the background of work.

Beautiful, brutal and inspiring. Each time I open it I find it more touching. It is one of the best gifts to give to someone who appreciates nature, Africa or photography. Peter Beard is a collector of memories and his journals are pieces of art.
As a child, I was impressed by Peter Beard's creativity and sense of adventure. As an adult, I appreciate that he has chosen to share his experiences through his books. He's a man who lives an extraordinary life! His photographs and journals are a must-see if you can catch them in a gallery, however, this book is the next best thing.

If you love Africa, her people and the wildlife, you will enjoy this book by Peter Beard. I first came across his very first published book 'The End of the Game'in 1965 featuring a fascinating look at East Africa's endless game animals and some of the colorful characters who hunted them. He recorded an Africa that is long gone. Subsequently his other works came out - 'Longing for Darkness', 'Eyelids of the Morning''Fifty Years of Portraits' and this title 'Beyond the end of the World' and I was fortunate to have some of them autographed. As always, Beard's photographs and diaries are a delight to read.

This is a classic in our family. We've had it for a couple years (starting when my daughter was 4?). It is very well written and enjoyable to read, partly because it's told in Bintou's voice. As a bonus- it's also a good book for instilling pride in a little girl's hair.

This is a beautifully illustrated book and a beautiful story with wonderful messages about bravery, what girls should focus on (playing and learning instead of vanity), wisdom of ancestors, adults honoring children's desires while also standing their ground and providing wise guidance. It's also a lovely way to learn a bit about West African people and customs. I recommend it highly.

my daughter (age 4) enjoys having this book read to her. I think it makes her feel proud of the braids she wears in her hair (which Bintou wants so desperately). Plus it's interesting because it takes place in Africa. And Bintou's pride in her own hair in the end is wonderful too. A great book.

In a heartwarming story that reflects on family and tradition, Bintou, a child, grows up in her West African village yearning to have long braids like the older girls, with seashells and coins attached in the ancestral tradition. Poor Bintou only has four little tufts of hair wrapped in colored string, nothing nearly as attractive as the older girls. Bintou's baby brother is soon to be baptized and given a name, so she greets her grandmother in the village the day before the feast. Thanks to her many years, Bintou's grandmother knows everything; when Bintou asks why she can't have braids, the grandmother relates the tale of Couma, a girl who had such braids with seashells and coins and thought of nothing but herself. The elders decided that little girls could only have corn rows, so that they would make friends, play and learn before worrying about such grownup things. Still, Bintou dreams at night of braids with coins and seashells.

The day of the feast, Bintou escapes from the festivities for a while near the water's edge, where she hears cries for help; two boys are in danger of drowning. Taking a shortcut through the brambles, she tears loose two of her four tufts of hair, but finds help in time to save the boys. Promised a reward for her quick thinking, Bintou's older sister says, "She wants braids!" That night Bintou dreams a different dream, of yellow and blue birds nesting in her soft hair. The next morning, as her grandmother dresses her hair, she expects the usual corn rows; when Bintou looks in the mirror, a pretty girl stares back at her, hair sprinkled with blue and yellow birds. She is content to wait until she is grown for her braids.

While speaking to the importance of family and reverence for tradition, this wonderful story also acknowledges a little girl's dream of growing up, only not too quickly. Surrounded by love and the wisdom of her extended family, Bintou is nurtured through the phases of childhood, perfect just as she is. The vivid illustrations portray Bintou's family in their West African village, the girl's imaginative dreamscapes, the world through the eyes of a child, a perfect match for a timeless tale. Luan Gaines/2006.

This book is useful to anyone interested in understanding the connection between biodiversity and food-security in Sub-Saharan Africa. I was pleasantly surprised by the book.

"Africa has answers to its food deficits and its food insecurity." This remarkable sentence, free of the condescension of so much written about Africa, is backed up by history and current practice in this book. Examples of indigenous farmers sharing and protecting their seed diversity are examined beside the continuing interference and attempted global control of their lands' commodities by giant corporate agribusiness. With wisdom and hope, the story of the farmers' integrity and their capability of solving the problems globalization has created become accessible in this book and, quite simply, a revelation.

> If you do, then read this complex, but excellent academic work (co-authored by Andrew Muchita and Carol B. Thompson), for it is
> vital for their, and our, future.
>
> Totally geared to huge, immediate profit from the ballooning market (resulting
> from the -purposely uncontrolled- population explosion), backed by millions of
> dollars, and by the corrupt governments they control, the multi-national
> corporations have been destroying the biodiversity of our crops, trying to
> create instant super yields. This has been done without any regard to the
> effects it is creating for future generations and has resulted in the fact
> that the monoculture of industrial agriculture has, for instance, reduced our
> biodiversity to only 12 plants providing 75 percent of industrialized food,.
> making us sitting ducks for a worldwide, modern day "Irish Potato Famine" of
> mega proportions.
>
> So far the corporate bio-pirates have focused on the West and Asia, and have
> ignored Africa and African farmers; farmers who for generations have known
> every inch of their soil, freely exchanging seeds, creating a huge
> reservoir of potent organic biodiversity. Now, however, the fast buck boys
> and their patent attorneys have set their sights on this diverse continent
> ready to resume their agricultural rape. This book explains in fine detail
> the who, what, where, when and how, and that it is up to us to stop them
> now, if we at all care for our future survival.
>
> T. van Renterghem,
> author, researcher, historian

This book hopefully represents a new genre of social critique because it bridges multiple fields in an effortlessly readable manner. Connecting contemporary concerns about the environment, corporate malfeasance, economic and social justice and local and international acts resistance, this book will undoubtedly be used by specialists, but more importantly, it should be read by countless others who simply want to understand our world.

Authors Andrew Mushita, the Director of the Community Technology Development Trust in Zimbabwe, and Carol Thompson, a Professor of Political Economy, link the environmental and global justice crises down to one essential component---the seed. Their book focuses largely on the southern African region and the current global corporations who are stealing seeds, genetically modifying them and then claiming private ownership of such seed through intellectual property rights. The brilliance of the book is that by focusing on southern Africa and seed, their story is both specific and yet sadly easy to extrapolate to others parts of the world. Interlaced with chapters about the history of past `biopiracy' from the conquest in Mesoamerica to land reform attempts in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe, the book also outlines real successes wrested from WTO by savvy coalitions of African and Indian scientists and diplomats in their attempt to maintain the integrity of original seed stocks.

It's a bracing book. Carefully researched (footnotes are thoughtfully lodged at the end of each chapter) and a goldmine of data-- yet the authors are doing what Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse) did for history, in terms of taking a complex subject formerly the preserve of academic study and rendering it in popular prose. And by tackling the 21st century, on-going problem of Biopiracy of Biodiversity in southern Africa, reading this book is arguably even more pressing.

It is always interesting to hear 'the other side of the story'. This account of the Boer War is informative yet very personal. It is one of those books that most will find difficult to set down before it is finished.

The author had a most incredible life which is doccumented in Commando and two subsequent books. The adventures are so amazing that, in the preface, Jan Smuts is compelled to comment upon the truthfulness of the account. The book provides insight into the Boer culture and a turn of the century concept: honor.

It is always interesting to hear 'the other side of the story'. This account of the Boer War is informative yet very personal. It is one of those books that most will find difficult to set down before it is finished.

The author had a most incredible life which is doccumented in Commando and two subsequent books. The adventures are so amazing that, in the preface, Jan Smuts is compelled to comment upon the truthfulness of the account. The book provides insight into the Boer culture and a turn of the century concept: honor.

This is an incredible story of the adventures that a young commando endured during the boer wars. The narrow escapes, the victories, the defeats and the struggle to keep up the fight make this a must read for anyone interested in the Boer War. If there is one book to read on the subject this is it!

The memoirs of a soldier in the unsuccesfull war of independence that the Transvaal and Free State Republics in Southern Africa fought against the British Empire at the turn of the century. Reitz wrote the book in exile and left it for 20 years, then took out the emotion and bitterness and was left with a well structured, intelligent memoir that reads like the best fiction. His account of this guerilla war against the British empire can loosly be compared with Chickenhawk, Robert Mason's equally gripping memoir of the Viet Nam war