Africa Books

This book provides a deeply moving portrait of the authors' time in Angola, working with MSF. They describe the most distressing work under difficult circumstances, in a country I knew little about. The book is written in an honest and sincere tone, which effectively expresses the enormous human tragedy. The sterling work done by the authors and other volunteers is presented in an unassuming way, but I am in awe of what they have done.
You must read this book. You will cry, you will sit up half the night to finish it and you will realise how fortunate we are - but you will not forget those who died in Angola.

As a political scientist interested in Angola I find myself caught-up in detailing battles, troop movements, political parties and leaders, etc. Upon reading this excellent book by two people, Doctors Without Borders vounteers) who spent time in Kuito, Angola I was stunned to realize that I often forget the human cost of warfare. Anyone who reads this book will get a gripping reminder, some with pictures, as to what a bullet or landmine can do to a human body. These brave people volunteered their time to work in conditions so primitive that one is in awe that they saved anyone at all. Yet, in this war torn city they performed miracles on a daily basis. The next time I read about injuries and casualties in warfare, this book will remind me that it is more than a word. It denotes human suffering that few of us can imagine. The authors do a good job of telling their story without being too judgmental of the government and rebels. As with many nations in the world, the people of Angola deserve our humanitarian aid, respect as human beings, and our prayers. An excellent book, buy it!

A most excellent read. Sandra Meek's gift of language will lead you on an emotional roller coaster. Her words will truly reach the depths of your soul. Nomadic Foundations is an outstanding work and one of her best. I give it my highest recommendation.

Each poem is a looking glass through which Dr. Meek tries to convey the beauty of Batswana and the dimensions of human experience. Her use of language is as stunning as it is beautiful. Very impressive collection! Highly recommend!

If you travel to Tunisia, then this is the book for you. Tunisia has the best preserved Roman ruins in Africa, and a week's tour (and there are good tours to be had) will be enhanced by this text. Take it with you and preview the next day's travels.

I found Paul MacKendrick's book a fantastic comprehensive overview of Roman Africa and its monuments. He covers all the major and minor sites and descibes everything in an interesting manner. I love his style of writing engrossing and maintains the readers interests. I think his book would be interesting to professionals and laymen alike. The maps and photos were great and went well with the text. I loved this book and didn't want it to end.

the aswan dam has overflowed a greater part of Nubia, once the richest land of the pharaonic egypt. Beeing a happy retired involved in ancient egyptian epigraphic and civilisation studies, it was my natural step to be, any day, interested in Nubian kings ruling Kemet. This book is quite satisfying for anybody aiming to find a billiant text and exquisite coloured pictures, able to illustrate any personnal work to come. Fully satisfied.

This is an outstanding book worth adding to the collection of anyone interested in ancient Kerma. I highly recommend this book for those who are keeping up with the excavation work that archaeologist Charles Bonnet is doing in Kerma (Sudan). This book is a masterpiece. The photos are excellent and the cultural history of this ancient civilization is well written. Bonnet continues to enrich our understanding of one of the first Kingdoms of Nubia.

Even before I began reading, I knew this book was something special. The prose is presaged by the product: a well crafted paperback edition that uses good quality paper, an easy to read font and size, and enough space between the lines to make it comfortable.

The introduction, which introduces the story and the rationale without any extra verbiage, tells you that this author, George D. Colman (who happens to be a friend and neighbor in Oaxaca) has the kind of spare writing style that gets the job done without falling in love with himself.

The story is a complex but compassable tale of the parallel development of one man, one family, and two renaissances, one religious and the other political. It takes place against the background of the waxing of Rastafarianism and the waning of British colonial rule in the eastern Caribbean, and recounts some of the ways that the one influenced the other.

It is not a stale tale for academics, however. For from it. Colman is as interested in the players as the game; in the complex realities of current affairs in the region; in the forces that shaped a young tear-about from St. Vincent into the man who marched onto a cricket field during a welcoming ceremony for an African prince in the Vincentian capital, dressed in the colors and waving the flag of Africa.

Africa World Press put out a fine book, equal to (and, I feel sure, reflecting their pleasure with) the fine work it contains. Congratulations all `round.

Stan Gotlieb
"Oaxaca, Mexico: an Expatriate Life"
(...)

The interweaving of the personal, the political and the religious growth of one man - Oba - from the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies greatly informs one's understanding of a part of the world generally ignored in American history. Though Americans frequently vacation in the Islands, and though West Indians have long populated the United States, the history, culture and daily lives of the people in that part of the world are basically unknown to most Americans. That will no longer be true after reading this book.

So compellingly capsulated is the history that I found it at times even more engrossing than Oba's personal trajectory. Written in a prose style that is both intelligent and accessible, this book leaves you with the feeling of wanting more and wanting to learn more.

In CATCHING LIGHT, Kathryn Stripling Byer weaves yet again her own brand of poetic magic. Poems in the voice of an aging woman named Evelyn take us into the life and imagination of a woman who refuses to give up, refuses to let go of life. In lyrics with delicate yet strong movement and closure, she gathers her reader into the web that only language well used can weave. Byer continues to grow as a poet, and I look forward to future volumes. The terms Southern and Appalachian no longer apply to such work; it has moved beyond the regional and into a realm accessible to anyone who cares about poetry, regardless of its regional roots. All good poems begin in the particulars of their worlds, of course, but too often poems termed regional, especially Southern or Appalachian, are met with condescension from the more entlighted literati in NYC, Provincetown, and else where. Byer's poems rebuke such a constricted view of American poetry.

When the Southeastern Bookseller's Association selected this book for their 2002 Book of the Year in Poetry, they knew what they were doing. Kathryn Stripling Byer's fourth book of poetry takes on the subject of a woman's old age, her last days, and how she reacts to them. By turns stark, witty, lyrical, elegiac, these poems seem determined to rise to the challenge issued by Eavan Boland in several of her poems and essays that writing about an aging woman is difficult if not downright impossible in the Western poetic tradition. In the voice of a woman by the name of Evelyn, and growing out of a collaboration with photographer Louanne Watley, whose Evelyn Series illuminated the last days of an eccentric old woman, these poems take the reader into Evelyn's interior world, her fears, her sexuality, her memories. It's quite a journey and one well worth taking, not only for its insights but also for the beauty and clarity of its poetry.

The term "African American" doesn't usually invoke images north of the 49th parallel, but it should. Not only because Canada was the longed for "Canaan Land" of so many spirituals and therefore, the ultimate home of many escaped slaves, nor because Nova Scotia and New France also had slaves, but because black communities have been a part of what we now call "Canada" since the beginning. George Elliott Clarke , an award winning poet, playwright, critic and scholar , is very much part of the literary map of Canada; this book gathers together a representative selection of his essays and reviews published over a decade and demonstrates that African-Canadian literature is not a recent phenomenon. His map covers vast and diverse territory , including the status of African-American culture as a "model for blackness," black and white racial metaphors in Quebecois literature, black women's search for history and more. This is a great introduction for newcomers, and a foundation for students in the field.

The term "African American" doesn't usually invoke images north of the 49th parallel, but it should. Not only because Canada was the longed for "Canaan Land" of so many spirituals and therefore, the ultimate home of many escaped slaves, nor because Nova Scotia and New France also had slaves, but because black communities have been a part of what we now call "Canada" since the beginning. George Elliott Clarke , an award winning poet, playwright, critic and scholar , is very much part of the literary map of Canada; this book gathers together a representative selection of his essays and reviews published over a decade and demonstrates that African-Canadian literature is not a recent phenomenon. His map covers vast and diverse territory , including the status of African-American culture as a "model for blackness," black and white racial metaphors in Quebecois literature, black women's search for history and more. This is a great introduction for newcomers, and a foundation for students in the field.

This is actually a compilation of three previously-published novels, set in sub-Saharan Africa. To the best of my knowledge, all three are out of print, so the publisher has done the reader a service by re-printing all three in this volume.

Each of the novels in this volume has certain merits, and all three are worth your time. As a whole, they serve to encapsulate the experience of being a foreigner in Africa, in the 1970s. By foreigner I don't just mean Caucasian; the stories are told from diverse points of view. My personal favorite is the one about a group of women running a boarding school in upcountry Uganda, but anyone who either likes the writings of Paul Theroux or has an interest in Africa, would find that all three stories are worth his while.

I am very glad I found this paperback at the library and took a chance on it. The first novel, Fong and the Indians, concerns a hapless petty merchant in East Africa. It is delighfully politically incorrect while maintaining a sympathetic opinion of the underlying humanity of all the characters. The third, Jungle Lovers, could have been written by a heavy drinker attracted to African women, because, well, the protagonist has these characteristics. It is also well-paced and mixes politics, plot, and character quite well. I am currently reading the "second" placed novel and it is also delightfully juicy and descriptive. Overall, these books made me want to read more novels set in Africa, by Africans as well as visitors.

Set in South Africa in the desert, this lovely and familiar story of a child who has difficulty reading, is an enjoyable read with a message. The language and artwork are gentle and flowing, the message to keep trying and to be kind to others who are struggling, is predictable but important. It was an excellent bedtime read for my children who are 6 and 9 years old, we will buy it (it is on loan from the library).

I teach a children's literature class at a state university and a student shared this in class today. I was so moved by her retelling of the story and knew I must have it in my collection. Students who are struggling with reading will identify with the feelings of the main character and the relationship between the child and grandmother is magical. It reminds me of another must-have book, Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco.

I was happy to buy this book to send to a school in Rwanda.

"One Child, One Seed: A South African Counting Book" is an excellent book for children age 4 - 8. It teaches counting, and tells the story of a South African child, her family, and their garden, and a seed that grows into a plant and yields a harvest of pumpkin that is made into . . . Isijingi. There are actually three texts in this book that can be read separately or together: the counting text; the story of the seed; and background about South African family life. The book is illustrated with a couple dozen color photographs, and also includes a map of Africa and South Africa. This book teaches more than counting, something just as valuable: a look at another people and their culture. Younger children will like the counting text, with its large font and big pictures, slightly older children will appreciate learning about South Africa, its people and food.