Africa Books

... all these are present in this fine study. I am especially impressed with the criticisms that Igoe mounts about "fortress conservation," and it brings to mind the debates over exclusionary conservation versus "wise use" in the U.S., following John Muir, Gary Snyder, and others. The historical threads to late 19th-century U.S. preservation and the English enclosure movements are valuable, and they echo in works by Vandana Shiva and other critics of multinational corporatization.

Recently I was asked to sit for a short interview on camera related to immigration issues and policy in central Iowa. The camera, from a local TV station, was shut down by a hotel manager because of "private property." This enclosure of politics - its conduct on private turf instead of in public forums and spaces - is very parallel to the privatization of lands and the management of parks that Igoe describes in East Africa. These are only some of the consequences that capitalist privatization bring to us: the end to meaningful public debate, the dislocation of otherwise grounded and vested local communities, and so on.

I highly recommend this book for courses in environmental science, land and resource management, globalization, and, of course, any of a number of related specializations in sociocultural anthropology. It would be a good book for introductory courses as well.

From the first page of his introduction, Jim Igoe's assertiveness in presenting his work on why and how community-based conservation is failing in parts of Tanzania as well as in the United States hits readers hard, sparking their interest in these issues. Over the last decade the term conservation has reached a fluid state in which it presents the world with a new obstacle of maintaining a balance between humans and the environment, which will ideally promote reciprocal productivity in a sustainable measure. Igoe's account of the state of conservation surrounding National Parks in both the United States and Northern Tanzania is unique. Not only was he able to portray his experiences in a manner in which a western reader can relate to, but he was also able to maintain an outside perspective while becoming immersed in a new culture. In affect, Igoe was able to make correlations between two indigenous cultures who are experiencing similar struggles as they have been pushed off their land in the interest of national conservation. Additionally, he critically assesses the current approaches, which are being used to address the issue of conflict between indigenous people, political leaders and environmental conservationists.
I found two dominant strengths in this literature, the first of which is his use of diverse cultural examples. As an undergraduate student with a strong interest in this topic as well as some previous knowledge concerning the issues presented, I found Igoe's narrative style refreshing as well as engaging. Readers are able to get a direct insight into the Maasai culture and a clear historical account of the implications of colonialism and religion. Additionally, Igoe presents the progression of the development of national parks and what resulted in western fortress conservation in Tanzania. Together this information provides a solid background allowing readers who are both educated and new to these topics to gain a better understanding of how the current state of conservation arose. Secondly, his combination of information creates a piece of literature that addresses critical global issues, which can be applied to a wide variety of disciplines. Alone this speaks highly for the books adaptability in various classrooms as well as a reference for professionals in various fields. Furthermore, it supports the fact that in order for new forms of conservation to be successful it is necessary to bring together experts in various social, political, and scientific disciplines.

The social consequences that conservation brings to indigenous people has often been ignored by those trying to protect natural resources and wildlife. Jim Igoe explains and displays what happens and has happened to the people who live outside the famous national parks many of us know and cherish around the world. He presents case studies of how people who live outside the parks have suffered all over the globe. He describes this situation with passion and personal examples, as he lived with many of the people he describes. His work has given him a unique perspective, as he did not travel or live like the typical tourist who wants to view the native flora and fauna that has been protected.

The book's primary focus is East Africa, but Jim includes a substantial amount of material from other regions and cultures. His strength, in this text, is his ability to look at conservation through a global lens, but with a native's perspective. His knack for engaging people at all levels shows in this book. Jim's writing is easy to follow, crystal clear, and relates his first hand experiences and examples in a way that quickly give his work broad appeal. He brings to life the reality of indigenous people struggling to adapt to globalization and the pressure on natural resource base they have relied on for centuries.

This book has appeal at many levels. For high school and undergraduate students it offers an interesting examples of how important anthropology is to understanding the human issues of many global problems. His personal examples and ideas offer discussion points, which once read will not be forgotten. For graduate students Jim offers many ideas on how his own work with NGO's (Non government organizations) got started, progressed, and changed his life. The importance of understanding land tenure, community control, the role of NGO's and different types of parks, as well as the capacity of the local people are all shown to clearly impact both conservation and local people. For conservationists, researchers, and the general public this book offers a unique perspective and voice of the people who have been displaced, lost their livelihoods, and in a few cases successfully adapted to this change.

Globalization has affected us all, and in many cases has had negative consequences for indigenous people. Jim clearly shows that there are much larger forces at work than simply protecting interests of the wildlife and wild areas. Exploring policies of the National Park Service in the United States, as well as policies of other countries, he weaves together the similarities and clearly points out the different ways in which natural resources are managed. In addition to offering an important critique of failed policies, Jim Igoe offers alternative solutions necessary for both the environment and social justice, while providing lessons in history, land tenure and policy making from all over the globe. I recommend this book to all of my students traveling abroad to work with indigenous people.

Good authorship requires two things - a story to tell and good way of communicating it. Jim Igoe has both in buckets. Conservation and Globalisation is a clear and challenging story of how conservation practices can disrupt local lives and how apparently straightforward solutions to the problems resulting are riven with complexity and difficulty.

The book is based primarily on fieldwork in East Africa and Prof Igoe's enlivens his account of the problems of understanding the worlds he encountered there with a down to earth uncomplicated style that takes the reader right out to the towns and plains where the work was conducted. This is a must-read for any student contemplating ethnographic or anthropological fieldwork. But its scope is far more than merely East Africa. Prof Igoe's pen takes us to England before the Industrial Revolution and to the latest developments in National Parks in the US, Australia, Nepal, Brazil and Panama. He quite clearly shows how the problems of conservation and civil society are global in their origins and nature and have to be understood through a multitude of sites.

One of the book's greatest strengths is its analysis of civil society, local movements and non-governmental organisations. At a time when much hope and expectation is vested in democratisation and local empowerment this work is a sanguine wake-up call to the problems that these notions bring with them. It quite clearly demonstrates how these ideas are manipulated by local actors, often with very different agendas from global organisations, and transformed by the perpetuated dysfunction typical of the institutions implementing of global development and conservation ideals.

I would, therefore, recommend this book to students, conservationists and development workers in all situations. Its language and style are accessible to all. Its questions and challenges will inform expert practitioners, university teachers and PhD students. This is an excellent book.

Excellent book. Timeless, and very educational about not only elephant hunting but of many different tribes of Africa. I rate this book as highly as the Capstick books.

This is an excellent narration by the premiere elephant hunter of the early 20th Century. This extraordinary man presents adventures as simple matters of fact, as calmly as if he were recounting a normal day's work in some office. There is droll, and I believe "unintended" humor throughout the book. He gives a glimpse into the everyday life and perils of a short-lived profession that became a staple of early Hollywood adventure movies. Karamojo Bell was a master hunter who believed that the size of the bullet was not nearly as important as the placement of the shot. He hunted elephants with calibers that would only seem suitable for deer in today's hunting circles.

I really enjoyed this book after looking for it for a long time!! It is a classic of African hunting!
I will try to get more of his books!

Walter Dalrymple Maitland (W.D.M.) Bell(1880-1951) roamed Africa for a quarter of a century between 1897 and 1922. His main interest there was to collect ivory, and it was much easier back then, as safaris and safari outfitters were uncommon. The elephants and other African animals had no cause to fear men, and shots from the rifles were rare except those made by slave raiders. The best part was that there were plenty of elephants with tusk weighing 100 lbs or more on each side. Bell took full advantage of the situation.

Armed with low calibre rifles, he ventured into the elephant country on foot, and knowing the vital spots of the elephants, he drove the bullets right into their brain, heart or lungs causing instant death to the animals. The bullets were cheap, perhaps a box of 20 for a shilling. But the ivory collected from one elephant brought a luxury life, and Bell collected virtually tons of ivory during his wanderings in Africa, especially an area known as Karamojo (see Bell's 2nd book 'Karamojo Bell' published in 1949)

According to a biographer, Bell was 'arguably the greatest ivory hunter: Certainly the last'. Wanderings of an Elephant Hunter was Bell's first book, originally published by Macmillan in 1923. It contained several sketches and paintings prepared by Bell 'on the spot'. This reprint by Safari Press also reproduced all the illustrations and art works from the original edition, and to me it is much superior in quality than the ones published by Neville Spearman, London.
**For additional reading: please consult BELL OF AFRICA

Peter Dalglish is a visionary...there are no two ways about it. He has seen and experienced more in his lifetime than many of us ever will, and his story is one which every young person should read.

He has touched the lives of children from war-torn North Africa to the corrupt shanty towns of Bangkok--and in each he has made a fundamental difference in those children's lives. His contribution to social development is as far-reaching as any of the great figures in international affairs that may spring to mind, except he has achieved it on a small-scale, personal level.

I believe Mr. Dalglish has touched on a point that we should all take to heart: that those of us who have been fortunate enough to have the resources we do, have an OBLIGATION to give more to the lives of these impoverished children.

I commend Mr. Dalglish and think his book a fantastic reflection of a distinguished career of service.

This book is touching and encouraging on all levels. It teaches the true meaning of many things, touching on the soul and heart. Definetly a must read.

Peter Dalgish's book is one of the fantastic I have ever read. It is an emotional and touching story, no matter how sad or heart wrenching. But it also lets us believe in freedom and truth. Read this books!

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did; I was interested to read it after hearing Peter Dalgleish speak. He is a charismatic, brilliant speaker and this book is equally riveting. A lawyer by training, Dalgleish was heading for the big salary, the luxury life. The book charts how he turned himself around and ended up using his characteristic drive and energy to help some of the world's poorest children. It will make you question the values of western society and it will make you realise that with energy and a determination, many things are indeed possible.

Nell Irvin Painter is the Edward Professor of American History at Princeton University. She is author of many books on the Black experience and African American history in the United States, including 'Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol' and 'Southern History across the Color Line'. This book, 'Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present', is a broad, sweeping text that stirs and involves the reader in the long and significant history of this people in North America. Beginning with the Middle Passage and slave trade that brought the majority of Africans to the Western Hemisphere, Painter continues her narrative through to very recent events, including the appointments of Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice as Secretaries of State for the United States.

Painter draws on early stories and official histories, biographical accounts and legends, well-known events and little known incidents. One person highlighted is Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest of the African slaves to write his account. As one might expect, Painter's pieces on Sojourner Truth and others of her generation are particularly good.

Painter also draws on the official history of the quest for civil rights. She looks at famous court cases, like the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (which made 'separate but equal' a legal standard), Brown v. Board of Education (which knocked down the same 'separate but equal' as being unworkable), and other political and legal events in the quest for civil rights, even those sometimes viewed as separate from the Civil Rights Movement proper, which is also highlighted in good detail.

There is also a good discussion of the Black culture in terms of art, literature, film, music and other aspects. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s is highlighted, as are the figures who came out of this period - Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Wallace Thurman, and Zora Neale Hurston, not to mention the very influential Apollo Theatre, helped launch the careers of such talent as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown, and later Michael Jackson.

Painter's historical survey includes a good coverage of the Civil War and the Abolitionist movement, including the aftermath of the unfulfilled promises of Reconstruction.

This is a well-illustrated book, with over a hundred photographs and other graphics, and an engaging style of text that keeps the attention of the reader very much engaged.

The past isn't what it used to be.

That's one of the threads which runs throughout this engaging narrative of African American history from 1619 to the present. Too often students misconstrue history as being carved in stone but as this book illustrates - literally, for it includes nearly 150 works of art which provide comment upon on historical events - interpretations of the past change as new facts come to light, or are viewed through a more diverse lens and connected to current events.

For example, Painter frequently uses the word "terrorist" when referring to white supremacists who have used violence to limit the rights and economic development of black Americans for centuries. It's a word which is not only appropriate, but more meaningful to contemporary students.

Though not an art history book per se (it does not provide analysis of the art, only descriptions which place it in historical context) there is biographical information about each artist at the end of the book.

Engaging and highly readable, I recommend this book to anyone seeking a general overview of African American history and culture. I think it would be particularly useful as a text for high school Advanced Placement courses.

very descriptive Book on African Americans from Slavery to the present day. very detailed Book that talks about many firsts&also deals with Politics,Entertainment,Creativity&is a full Book that is a Must Read&Have.

This is a great book to read, covers everything from the origns of slavery to the rapid growth of hip-hop. The artwork that is included in the book is phenomenal and really adds to the reading experience. This book will be one of the few scholastic books that I don't sell back to the bookstore.

For 300 years the Atlantic Slave Trade brought 12 million people from Africa to the New World. But in spite of the huge numbers of people who made the trip there have been only a handful of first-person accounts left by those who made that horrible trip. Most of the slaves lived and died without having a chance to tell their story. It was not until the advent of the Civil Rights Movement that much needed attention was finally given to one of the saddest chapters in American history.
That makes Dreams of Africa in Alabama, The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America such a welcome addition to the field of African-American and Southern history. In Dreams, Dr. Sylviane Diouf, who is the curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, tells the story of the last Africans brought to the United States on the ship Clotilda.The slave trade was outlawed in 1807, but that did not stop slave traders from bringing slaves into the United States. In 1860, the year before the outbreak of the Civil War, Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile businessman from Maine, bet a group of friends that he could bring a shipful of Africans right into Mobile Bay "under the officers noses." He won the bet.
The 110 people that Meaher brought from the kingdom of Dahomey on the west coast of Africa were named Oluale, Pollee Allen, Zuma, Ossa Keeby, and Cudjo Lewis, who would be the last of the shipmates to die in 1935. Slaves for only five years before they won their freedom at the end of the war, they failed in their quest to get back home and instead carved out a life for themselves in their own town outside of Mobile, Africa Town.
Forgotten for years, their story is brought to life by Svlviane Diouf, who thanks to her outstanding research and writing skills brings to life the dreadful trip during the Middle Passage,and then the dehumanzing, backbreaking life of a slave in Alabama during the Civil War. Even years later, the shipmates would break down when they tried to talk about the trip on the Clotilda. Looked down upon by whites and other blacks as "savage Africans," a bias that would haunt them and their families into the 20th century, they lived through slavery, war,and Jim Crow and created the only town of its kind in the United States, a town founded and lived in by people who had been brought to this country as slaves from Africa.
For 50 years, memebers of the shipmates' families and others have worked to preserve the history of Africatown and the story of the men and women who founded it. There is still much that is needed to be done to save that legacy before it is too late. Hopefully Dr. Diouf book will help to raise awareness about this important and little known chapter from American history.

This book is wonderful, excellent, and educational and knowledge filled, without being an academic bore. I don't even know where to start. I will say buy your hardback copy now. This author deserves financial support through the purchase of this book. The story of the Clotilda Africans should be known. I beg y'all to please read this book, and if you love it encourage others to read it. This is one of a few first hands accounts of Africans telling their stories by an unbiased storyteller. Ms. Diouf's writing skills make this an easy read.

Dreams tell us about the lives and the journey of 110 Africans who were brought from Dahomey, known today as Benin in West Africa. Benin is situated between Nigeria and Togo. A schooner, by the name of Clotilda, was built and dispatched from Mobile Bay Alabama to the Kingdom, by Timothy Meaher, wealthy businessman in Mobile. In a drunken stupor he bragged to his associates that he could bring Africans into the Mobile without detection from authorities. Coincidentally, an advertisement appeared in the Mobile Press Register that the King of Dahomey was doing a brisk sale in Africans. So it was an open secret that Africans could still be brought into the country.

Timothy decided to commission the building of the Clotilda for the journey to Dahomey, even though the transportation of Africans was abolished in 1808. The Clotida was an efficient, light and swift boat. It would criss cross the Atlantic in record time.

The Africans were primarily spoils of warfare and the raids of villages other ethnic Africans. They came from various ethnic groups and cultures. However, the core group, were Yorubas. The Yorubas are a large ethnic groups, with many subgroups who live in what is now Benin and southwest Nigeria. They had names like "Kossola,, Abache, Abile, Omolabi, Kupollee, Kehounco, and Arzuma."

The Yorubas are generally an urban people. They live in towns and city-states. However, they all have home villages that their people hail. These Africans were brought to South America and the Caribbean islands in very large number. However, out of the 480,000 or so Africans brought to the US, less than 5% came from this group. Whereas the people out of the Bight of Biafra(Ibos and Ibibio) comprise about 24% of African population brought to the US, which is pretty much in dead competition as far as numbers to the BaKongo and Angolans. So this group is quite unique.

Ms. Slyviane tells us their story primarily through the eyes of the last survivor of the Clotilda Africans, Cudjo Lewis aka Kossola, a Yoruba. He survived all of his children, wife, and shipmates.

This is a fascinating story of African American history, American history, and African history. Cudjo and his shipmates had dreamed and planned to get back to their homeland, but it never happened.

What makes this book so fascinating is that we actually know the slaver, the captain, the ship, and where they came from. Not only that, about 30 of the Africans lived on Meaher's land. So there is first hand information and resources from the slavers, the Africans, and their descendents.

What is more fascinating to me is I am a native Mobilian. I grew up and was schooled there from kinder garden to college. Yet I don't recall ever hearing anything about the Clotilda until years later after I left home. Again, I am a Mobilian. Y'all talkin' about the Miss Education of the Negro. I am raise my hands without shame. I was one.

Again, I am begging folks to read this book, especially my folks(AAs) and other folks of Central and West African descent, i.e. Angola, Kongo(Zaire), Senegambia, Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leon, etc. Knowledge of self and ones history is the ultimate self-love. Y'all want regret it.

I also encourage others who are genuinely interested in a truthful and accurate telling of history to read this wonderful book.

I cannot recommend this book any more feverishly. It is incredibly well researched and written. The author lays down the historical facts in a clear manner and then leaves the characters to entice you into their lives and speak to you. The stories are never sensationalized, if anything, it is this lack of dramatization that enables the stories to unfold naturally.

The book clearly shows how within a relatively short space of time certain aspects of a culture may vanish, but other aspects which form the core of a community's make-up are improvised regardless of the circumstances and continued down the line (the communal spirit of the Africans, reverence to authority, conflict resolution etc). Cudjo's life was the one delved into in the greatest detail and it evolved to be as remarkable as it was melancholic.

After the last of the African deportees dies, I can only imagine the loneliness that would have haunted him - being alone in America, a land that he had lived in for three quarters of his life, but one that was still alien to him, one where no other local born Africans were in his immediate vicinity would surely have quelled his tenacious will and defiant spirit. For him to have lived the rest of his years, not being able to converse in his native tongue or to express his innermost feelings in a manner capable of being immediately understood by his neighbors would surely have been unbearably painful. There is an African proverb that states that "you know who a person really is by the language they cry in". When all he had ever known was gone and he lamented for them in his native tongue, I wonder, did the people around him understand the depth of his despair? After all his personal losses and tragedies in America, he finally relents of his desire to go back to Africa and surmises that he was indeed alone on earth - his family in America was no more and he figured that his family in Africa would also be no more - an unbearable set of circumstances to accept. The author should be commended for unearthing and bringing to life such a great story, but even more importantly, for doing so in as lucid a manner as is possible. My only question is how on earth do we let a story as remarkable as this just dawdle with no attempt to publicise it more. It would be great if we could have a children's book on the story.
A trip to AficaTown in Alabama is in the offing for my family.

Dreams of Africa in Alabama is a beautifully written and meticulous book. It's evident that Ms. Diouf spent a considerable amount of time and detail with her research. The author describes the Alabama slave trade and the events that lead to the maiden voyage of the modified schooner, Clotilda. She devotes two chapters to the lives of the "shipmates" - one prior to their capture and the other chronicling their imprisonment in the barracoons (slave pens) and their subsequent Middle Passage voyage. The remaining chapters recount the lives of the deported Africans during their enslavement and post emancipation.

In 1808 the United States abolished the international slave trade. In order to circumvent the law, many Southerners modified existing ships to camouflage their true intent and evade naval officials. The Clotilda was one such ship. Seeking to make a profit on the sale of Africans, the Meaher brothers and their associates went about the business of arranging a slaving run. Many of the captured Africans were placed into slavery as a result of lost tribal wars and/or suspect alliances between African Kings and European and American merchants.

When the humiliation and brutality of slavery was over, the shipmates endured Jim Crow, disenfranchisement and other forms of maltreatment. In spite of those obstacles, the Africans purchased land just outside of Mobile, Alabama, and became a self-sufficient community with a bank, farms, schools and churches. The shipmates limited their interaction with non-African people. Other than their contact with Americans and African Americans in the workplace, the Africans made little effort to interact anyone who wasn't from the continent in their personal lives. Intermarriages between Africans and African Americans occurred in small numbers. There were attempts to return to their families and homes in Africa; run-ins with the law; and a desire to dispel the rumors of their savagery and cannibalism.

This book is a sobering and painful account of some of the atrocities Africans endured. Ms. Diouf interviewed the descendants of the Mobile, Alabama slaves, and poured over mountains of archives in libraries and private collections to give the reader an up close and personal view of the lives of the shipmates of the Clotilda. There are many more stories and details to be discovered when you read Dreams of Africa in Alabama.

A brilliant overview of Africa's abundant wealth, and a vital critique of the failed socialist policies which ruined Africa's economies.

Godfrey Mwakikagile should be commended for showing us that Africa is not an entirely hopeless continent. The main problem is its leaders, busy stealin'. And spending huge amounts of money on weapons to kill their own people, whom they also regularly starve into submission.

"Economic Development in Africa" is also an inspiring book. It should encourage us to unite and integrate our economies. As the author says, the continent has huge potential. But without economic integration, Africa will indeed be a hopeless continent.

There are, however, hopeful signs. In East Africa, we have the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (Tanzania), with problems of course, but enough proof that African countries can indeed unite. We also have revived the East African Comunity made up of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and there is serious talk of these countries forming a political union. In southern Africa is the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and in West Africa, ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which already has plans to introduce a common currency, the Eco, by 2004.

So, there is hope. And we need more books like "Economic Development in Africa," especially by our own African writers like Godfrey Mwakikagile, to encourage us and point in the right direction. We are already headed that way. But we need the right kind of leaders to go all the way.

As an African myself, I am both proud and ashamed of our continent, supposedly the richest yet poorest. Why are we in such a mess?

Godfrey Mwakikagile from neighboring Tanzania - I come from Zambia - provides some of the answers in his excellent study, "Economic Development in Africa." We have had bad leadership for decades since independence; we have pursued wrong policies; we have not fully used our potential; and we are hopelessly disunited, despite claims to the contrary, as we continue to pay lip service to regional integration and African unity on a continental scale.

There is no other continent so richly endowed in natural resources; and probably no other continent so fertile in different parts of this huge land mass, the second largest after Asia. It is estimated that there are four acres of arable land for every African; yet, on average, less than one acre is under cultivation. And tens of millions of Africans are starving or undernourished. Eating one meal a day is a luxury; one every other day, the norm for millions.

It is potentially the richest continent. But it is also the poorest, the most battle-scarred, disease-ridden, and least developed. This is also a continent where the people would not only be able to feed themselves; they would be able to feed fellow Africans in less endowed areas instead of seeking international relief. It is also a continent which used to export food in the thirties, forties and fifties. Now it imports even beans and maize which we can easily grow ourselves in abundance.

Even debt forgiveness won't do us much good unless our leaders are held accountable for their actions. Instead, they are busy stealing from us, depositing in foreign banks what should be used to develop our countries. They even steal foreign aid coming from donor nations. The masses hardly get anything. Forgiving poor countries is a good idea. But also remember who's being forgiven: the leaders for what they stole.

Make them return what they stole. Donor nations can make them do that because that's where our leaders hide the money, the gold and diamonds, they stole from us. That's also where they go to buy expensive merchandise. Don't let them in, and freeze their accounts. And tell them to stay where they are, in their countries, and work with their people to develop their countries.

Africa is not going to be developed by outsiders. We are the only people who can develop our continent. But we must have the right kind of leadership, and we must work together. The author makes a very strong case, and an impassioned plea, for regional integration without which Africa is doomed. That, alone, is good reason why African government officials should read "Economic Development in Africa" by Godfrey Mwakikagile, one of our most clear-headed writers and articulate Pan-African spokesmen on a continent being led astray by our leaders, many of them muddle-headed.

What struck me most about Dr. Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, "Economic Development in Africa," is the vast amount of wealth the continent has: the minerals, agricultural products, the superbly fertile land in many parts of the continent, and much more...The unscrupulous nature of most African leaders is one of the highly volatile subjects the author addresses in his book. The book is also an excellent guide for those who don't know much about but want to invest in Africa. The focus is on sub-Saharan Africa where the author has examined the economic potential of every country, from crops to minerals. And as a textbook for development and comparative studies, it has rightfully earned its place in university libraries and on the shelves of economics and international relations professors.

But the book is equally important to members of the general public who want to know about the economic potential of the world's poorest continent. They'll find out that Africa is not really that poor. It is the leaders who have made it poor. And it is the leadership that must change in order for the continent to exploit its full potential for the benefit of all its people. They have suffered enough. And Godfrey Mwakikagile makes that clear. African leaders should, at least, have the decency to concede that much.

This is an excellent and comprehensive survey of
Africa's enormous economic potential; paradoxically,
the richest yet poorest continent, as the author
convincingly argues. He has looked at the potential of
every country in sub-Saharan Africa, naming crops,
minerals and other resources. The book is also a
balanced account of the failed - socialist - economic
policies most African countries pursued since
independence, and of the market approach adopted
mostly in the 1990s after the end of Communism as a
rival ideology in the international arena. The author
also makes strong arguments for regional integration,
without which Africa is doomed. But he does not
adequately address the negative impact of globalization
and the market economy - of which he's very much aware -
on African countries which has had catastrophic
consequences, in terms of lost jobs and income, health
care, educational opportunities and other services for
millions of Africans already living in abject poverty.
May be that was not his intention in this sweeping survey
and analysis. He does, however, warn against the
predatory nature of capitalism which, he says, is
ruthless and capitalizes on greed; and calls for
government intervention to protect the weak, but
without reverting to socialism. It is a useful text,
and an interesting one to read. But it would have been
even more interesting if the publisher and the editor
had taken the time to correct glaring typos found in
the book. It's hard to understand why they didn't, and
even harder to believe it's the writer's fault,
especially when the book is supposed to be a college
textbook published by a leading academic publisher. A
number of books, including this one, by the same author
are found in university libraries, obviously recommended
for purchase by professors in appropriate departments.
Yet such embarassing mistakes are inexcusable and may
even impair the author's credibility, while the blame
should really be placed on the publisher and his/her
editor or editors who are responsible for the
final product. For example, Ghanaian President Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah was overthrown in February 1966, not in 1996 as
is stated in the book; a date the author knows very well,
especially as a former news reporter in Tanzania and in
a country whose government under President Julius Nyerere shared ideological affinity with
Nkrumah's. In spite of all this, the author's work
remains true to its central thesis: how to achieve
economic development in Africa in this era of
globalization, despite the author's reservations about
Western penetration of the continent because of
EuroAmerican - and Japanese - domination of the global
economy.

I never fail to pick-up the book from my coffee table and find something I might has missed previously.

Imagine, there was something I overlooked.

DJR

Beautiful and compelling. A fascinating book, and one of the best of its kind ever made.

Just got to say that I live out in Gamba, Gabon as my family work for Shell Gabon and in all the time I have been there, I never imagined that beauty out there exists as deeply as portrayed in this book. You look at the beaches and you think wow but to then see it as detailed as it is in the Edge of Africa, it brings real light to your eyes. Get it.

I just put the book down and all I can say is "Wow". I am amazed at the spectacular photographs and vivid descriptions of the book. It made me feel like I was in Africa. The photographer depicts the various animal, plant, and geography so unique to the area, while the author describes the details and makes you feel like you are right there. This gives me a different perspective to other images and documentation I have seen regarding this region of Africa. Recommended!

While it lacks the depth of a Blue Guide, this book is a helpful tool for negotiating many of Egypts sites. We used it for our 8 day trip to Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel, and it served us well as an addition to the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Not since the famous Baedeker guide of 1929 has someone written such a comprehensive and lucid book about Egypt. Michael Haag writes with reassuring authority -- clearly he knows and loves the country well -- and with an eye for revealing detail and with a narrative ability that makes this book as enjoyable to read and as unputdownable as a good novel. This is the book to take with you to Egypt, and to read before you go and after you have returned. You could have no better companion.

The only way to really know the value of a guide book is to use it, and that is what I most thoroughly did during my five weeks of travel through Egypt. A marvellous book! A comprehensive, assured and thoroughly readable historical and cultural account of five thousand years of civilization, as well as being entirely practical for the traveler in every respect, so that whether concerning accommodations or ways of moving about the country or where to eat or to shop, I came to trust Mr Haag entirely. A trip to Egypt is the journey of a lifetime and you owe it to yourself to have with you this incomparable companion.

Michael Haag's Egypt is a substantive compendium of practical travel advice noting more than 240 hand-picked places for the traveler to stay, as well as over 150 quality tested restaurants, bars and cafes. Enhanced with color maps of Egypt and the city center of Cairo, 47 additional maps and site plans, full coverage of the new, state-of-the-art library at Alexandria, and a completely revised chapter on Nubia (including full details of cruise itineraries on Lake Nasser), and with a thoroughly "reader friendly" and eloquent text, Egypt is the complete, comprehensive, dependable, portable, indispensable travel guide recommended to tourists, businessmen, students, and anyone else planning a trip to the fabled lands, cities, and monuments of Egypt.

Excellent book. Besides the facts in the book, it teaches you to think objectively instead of subjectively.

At last! Here is a scholarly and revolutionary approach to looking at white world imperialism and black political, economic, social, and psychological reactions to that imperialism. Dr. Wilson breaks new ground with an airtight analysis of the system of global white supremacy. With skill and grace, he describes how the Afrikan mind has been damaged and reassembled by the oppressors. This book is a must read for anyone interested in freeing their mind. You should watch "The Matrix" right after reading this book!

I've read every one of his books and seen all of his dvds. Dr. Wilson is on an intellectual level by himself. I recall him saying once that there is nothing like a good theory to guide behavior. This book - and all his other works - are filled with good and necessary theories to guide the behavior of African people. In 'Falsification' he delineates step by step how Euro society has remade the Black person into an imbecilic slave. If our group is ever going to progress - which at times seems highly unlikely - we must understand this book completely. It literally is the only way to build up psych defenses in a society that is maintained on pathological normalcy. Read everything he's ever written and any dvd you can get your hands on will give you the over-standing that's indispensable.

This is the most absurd, ridiculous, and utterly insane book I've read in years! I hardly know where to start with this review. Let's see here.....ah yes, lets start with the notion the author offers that Europeans "caused" Africans to degenerate into imbecilic slaves. Laying pure and bile-spitting fantasy aside, its important to note that the slave trade was basically run by Arabs and Jews acted as brokers and middle men to bring the human merchandize to various Courts in Europe and to the developing holdings in the "New World".

Essentially, slave trading worked like this: The traders would enter a village and speak to the chieftain. They would offer the Chief various trade goods in exchange for people the chief wanted to get rid of. For the most part, the chief would exchange the prisoners he'd captured in wars with other African tribes. Such prisoners were slated for use in tribal entertainment and consumption ( tortured to death and then eaten - cooked or raw, depending upon mood ), but naturally the chief would conclude that the regularly slated tribal blood theatrics and barbecue could be preempted in favor of obtaining trade goods that he and the tribe could really use, but which they had no access to except via the traders.
Now, if prisoners of war were in short supply, the chief would offer individuals of his own tribe - his own people - to the traders in exchange for the goods they were offering him. These individuals of the chief's tribe were either people he personally didn't like, or the various idiots, misfits, kooks, lay-abouts, and those with abrasive hard-to-get-along-with personalities, etc. In other words, the chief would use the opportunity of obtaining unique and essential trade goods needed for improving the tribe's standard of living to get rid of the two-legged garbage in his society.
And heck, who wouldn't? It would be like members of some highly-advanced species from somewhere out in Space arriving here on earth and offering us technology that was utterly fantastic in our view in exchange for being allowed to take rapists, murderers, child molesters, drug pushers, etc. back to their planet with them! I mean, how many seconds would it take us to say "SURE! TAKE THE WHOLE LOT! AND PLEASE COME BACK SOON! WE'LL HAVE A LOT MORE FOR YOU JUST LIKE THIS BUNCH!".

What I'm saying here is, no African tribe was ever sorry to see the traders arrive. Slavery was the basis for the only real economic activity across the entire African world for centuries. No one had to go to Africa with nets and chase people through the jungle to catch them as slaves as depicted in "Roots" and other Politically Correct trash fiction of today. Hey, slavery got so popular in Africa, Blacks began selling slaves to each other! Many still do so today! Last I heard, you could purchase an adult human being in the Northern Sudan for approximately $12.00 US! Think I'm making this up? Check with ANY international "Human Rights" organization and ask them about slavery being practiced in Africa today and see what they tell you. Of course our Politically Correct media is VERY CAREFUL not to mention anything about this to the public who are constantly being trained into thinking that the planet is one big "Global Village" just filled with wonderful people and love, light, happiness, rainbows, and so on!
So, you can forget about this book's nonsense about the victimization of African populations by terrible Europeans. Its just rubbish. Africa peoples adored the institution of slavery - period! But for some ( prisoners of tibal warfare and social misfits ) slavery was bad news, but even for the prisoners slavery was better than being tortured to death for entertainment and then being eaten by their captors!
Like I said, the fact that various African tribes used slavery as a sort of social garbage disposal is nothing terrible. The tribes happily obtained goods they could use and profit by, and at the same time got rid of all the useless, stupid, lazy, criminal, and deranged individuals within their tribes. No one on earth could logically fault anyone for being happy with that sort of an arrangement!

No, this book is just brimming to overflowing with positions based on the standard "whining resenter spews out hate" perspective. The content of this book can either be taken as the most appalling example of bizarre illogic and blatant stupidity, or it can be read with a view toward humor stemming from noting just how ridiculous some authors can get. I chose to read this printed foolishness from the humorous angle, and boy did it pay off! I haven't laughed so much and so hard in a long time. Its as good as watching a slap-stick motion picture!

As for the author, its amazing why he chooses to live in a European inspired, White society? Why not return to Africa and get to work making the wonderful peoples there understand how fantastic and superior they really are? No, instead of doing that sort of noble work, this author simply gives clownish lectures which are then assembled into clownish books which hardly anyone will read and which no one in their right mind can possibly take seriously.
Ho hum.

A young girl tries to understand what makes her mother's tea taste so good, as she goes to the market with her mother. On the way, she goes through all the components of tea until she herself realizes that it is the sugar that gives it the taste -- and the sweetness cannot be perceived by the eyes alone.

The sweeping watercolor illustrations of the wide-eyed Fatuma and her mother are absolutely gorgeous, and the story is a sweet, gentle tale of mother/daughter love.

Fatuma and her mother plan to spend their day in the market. Along the way, various merchants suggest their wares make chai (tea) taste better, but she does not see how their offerings make the chai taste differently. Then at the cloth shop, Fatuma chooses a new kanga cloth from which her mother will make her dress. Each Kanga pattern is imprinted with a Swahili saying, many of which have more than one meaning. Fatuma chooses a kanga imprinted with this message: "Don't be fooled by the color. The good flavor of chai comes from the sugar." So she learns that just as surgery dissolves becoming something we cannot not see, so are the things make us special as impossible to see.

FATUMA'S NEW CLOTH provides not only an entertaining tale, but also a fascinating peek into a vastly different culture from most American children's. In America, we teach our children, "don't judge a book by its cover." In Swahili, the same lesson is expressed as "don't judge the tea by its color." Parents will welcome the message that the value of people lies on the inside where we cannot see. In addition, parents seeking to teach their children the lessons of acceptance of other people's beliefs and culture will find the story an excellent aid. In addition, authentic East African features and kanga patterns frame the pages, lending the text an extraordinary visually pleasing appearance as charming illustrations bring the text alive. An author's note at the end aids parents to further explain the nuances of the story. Also included is a recipe for chai, allowing young children to experience the story first hand. Very highly recommended.

Fatuma's New Cloth is an energetic and highly recommended children's picturebook about Fatuma, a young East African girl who learns about the complexities of the marketplace. There is even a recipe for East African chai (tea) included in this highly enjoyable tale by Leslie Bulion, whose engaging text is superbly complemented by the soft, watercolor-style illustrations by Nicole Tadgell.

The lesson tells us, "you can't judge a book by its cover." But the inviting jacket art for Fatuma's New Cloth makes a promise that is fulfilled by a story that is as lush and lively as its illustrations.

The dialog between Fatuma and her mother sings with love, gentleness and humor.The author creates a story that is appealing to both girls and boys and one that is useful to parents and educators.

This delectable slice of East African culture lingers like the sweet taste of chai. (By all means, try the recipe!)

I recommend Fatuma's New Cloth and I look forward to seeing more books by Leslie Bulion.