Africa Books

Enjoyed reading my friend John's (and fellow writer),book on his African Experiences.

His wife Adeline did a great job too.

Dr. Hult has written a truly remarkable story of life as a missionary pediatrician in East Africa. His writing is at all times clear and concise. He brings to life an era in this former British colony then called Tanganyika. For those of us who were there, and who recall the people and places he writes about, it's a nostalgic trip into the past. But for those who weren't there, this book paints pictures that portray humor and pathos, successes and failures, adventure and routine, life and death in a primitive African culture. A must-read for everyone interest in missions, African culture, or just the people themselves.

This is a stunning, beautiful and informative book. Done for the right reasons by people that cares. Five stars is not enough.

Beautiful. These photographs are absolutely breathtaking. Not only do these 8 photojournalists capture the tragic atrocities that are occuring in the region of Darfur, Sudan -- they capture the soul of the people that are being ravaged.

I appauld the courage of these people and others who travel to this region of the world and other places of genocide and mass atrocities and begin to open the eyes of the rest of the world. We can change the course of this world, and it begins with amazing photographs like this book gives to raise awareness.

Thank you for making this book. It is a good way to explain my career choice to my family and friends when they don't understand why I'd put myself in harms way for a bunch of people in a town hundreds of thousands of miles away for no reason.

There is a reason, and this book illistrates that very clearly. We are humanity, we are all human.

In the last chapter Daly describes the killing in Darfur every bit as bloody and destructive as anything you may have read in daily paper or magazine. The author makes it clear the national government of the Sudan has every intention to murder and drive the Fur people out of Darfur and take over their land. To carry out this ethnic cleansing, the Sudan Government encourages the pastoral livestock herders to act as marauders (the janjawid). In their extermination campaign they are supported by the Sudanese national army and air force. To avoid international or UN sanctions this government has repeatedly procrastinated, lied, and broken duly signed agreements and promises.

That is in the last chapter. Most of the book provides the historic background, how Darfur became what it is. History begins sometime in the 15th or 16th century with various independent principalities. Throughout history, during the Mahdyya, during the Egyptian and British colonial period, and even after independence Darfur was treated a special region. Generally neglected, it rarely played a role in the wider nation. Yet, at independence in 1956 some 55 percent of people in Darfur used Arabic at home, and only 42 percent spoke Fur. Thus the "racial" divide between "Arabs" and others is bogus. Daly has written an excellent readable history of the region.

It isn't that books such as these are of no interest to me;it's often just a case of dealing with difficult names and places which are overwhelming in English to the general, unsophisticated reader. For years now, we've read about terrible atrocities taking place in a faraway land; an area both remote and virtually unknown to the Western reader. At last,M.W.Daly has produced a book that is both informative and intelligible. First of all, it is a work of the history of this forbidding region, not a "blow by blow" description of a 21st century inquisition scene. Secondly,if the reader is able to subordinate relatively unimportant names to the general whole, the book reads very lucidly,a welcome relief to the non-expert,I suspect. Finally,albeit ominously,this problem area is not about to go away.Readers on all levels would be well advised to read this important book and to keep apace with Daly's future research.

This book examines the background of the genocide in the Sudan by examining the history of Chad's relations with Libya. Libya inserted itself in African politics in the 1980s and began a major degree of meddling in Sub-Saharan Africa, training revolutionaries and rebels such as Charles Taylor. Increasingly it involved itself in Chad and Chad became a brooding ground and testing ground for Arab Islamist militias persecuting indigenous Africans and Christians. This was a viscious recipe and it eventually led to the problems across the border in Darfur where similar rivalries based on race, religion and tribe ignited a genocide, backed by Khartoum.

A fascinating history and a new perspective.

Seth J. Frantzman

Images of the genocide in Darfur have shocked the Western world: Upwards of 300,000 of its inhabitants have died, and another 2.5 million have become refugees. Those affected by the violence are estimated at almost 4 million, 700,000 of whom are now beyond the reach of humanitarian assistance. These are staggering numbers, and the fractious insurgent groups involved-- Islamist Arab tribal militias against Christian black Africans and other militias made up of deserters of the Chad Army--were and still are supported to kill, rob, and terrorize by the governments of the neighboring states of the Sudan, Chad, and Libya.
These are the consequences of a decades-long war, as J. Millard Burr and Robert O. Collins explained in their earlier book, Africa's Thirty Years War: Libya, Chad, and the Sudan, 1963-1993. The Long Road to Disaster in Darfur updates this study and covers the events of the last thirteen years.

Reviews of Africa's Thirty Years War
"A lively detailed and informative study...The authors consider ethnic, religious, cultural, technological,geographic, and meteorological variables and present brief enlightening political portraits of the stories' protagonists. Historically situating the war within the struggle for supremacy along the borders of the Islamic world, the book seeks to explain why so many governments invested so much for so long in the control of such seemingly worthless expanses of sand and rock."
--Foreign Affairs

"This is a fine work, well documented and well argued, and convincing."--Journal of Military History

"This fascinating study combines analytical depth with accessible lucidity. It should be essential reading for any student of African history and politics." --African Studies Review

"...a timely, useful contribution. ... The volume is replete with meticulous detail. ...well documented and lucidly written...useful for years to come." --International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

> Andrew Ross' study of the life and work of David Livingstone is a worthy
> contribution to the literary corpus of this great man. Ross makes
> accessible the revealing nuances and context of this giant of the 19th
> century. There is special sensitivity to Livingstone because, like
> Livingstone, Ross is also a Scot and served as a missionary in Africa.
> His impressive knowledge of Africa and its history serve the reader
> well in grappling with both the facts and implications of what
> Livingstone did. His research is thorough and objective, while his
> portrayal is winsome and inspiring. This book is necessary for an
> accurate understanding of Livingstone. Reading it is a delightful
> experience!

This work, featuring many new and nuanced insights, is a wonderfully written story of a very determined missionary and explorer. As the author so ably describes, our modern knowledge of David Livingstone is heavily influenced by the fact that, in death, he has been made the icon for many causes. His legacy has been put to the service of, for instance, British imperial aspirations. But as the author recounts, Livingstone's complexity defies any neat categorization.

Livingstone was possessed of a ferocious curiosity. He was born into a life of poverty, but became both a medical doctor and an ordained minister. He fathered a large family from whom, due to his travels, he was often away. Both his physical endurance, and his capacity to withstand pain were prodigious. His respect and admiration for African cultures was incomprehensible to his contemporaries. Witnessing firsthand the depredations of the slave trade, he devised strategies for development that, had they been heeded, provided a chance for leaving African cultures intact.

Livingstone mapped the unknown interior of Africa. His expeditions were remarkable both in the beauty of the places "discovered", and the grueling physical and consequent emotional demands on the explorers. During Livingstone's final expedition, the American journalist H.M. Stanley so famously "found" Livingstone. The meeting is replete with irony, and the context and effect of this meeting are very movingly described. Very moving, as well, is the story of Livingstone's death in Africa, and the transport, by loyal friends, of his body fifteen hundred miles to the coast.

Read the book, see the film, but if you can go and visit the battlefields in the company of David Rattray and his team.

The guidebook is a well written, easily digested and comprehensive guide to this corner of South Africa, by the author, who is extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the subject, having lived so close to two of the sites of major engagements, Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift, and who also owns and runs the Fugitives Drift Lodge. For those with only a short time to devote to seeing some of the sites the book is essential reading, the descriptions and directions to the sites being particularly useful. The illustrations and photographs are also useful especially in knowing exactly what one should be looking for at particular sites, in view of the sometimes overgrown and obscure nature of the locations.

The historical facts are well explained, giving the reader a good introduction as to why this conflict came about and on the major players in the campaign. A gripping narrative as to the conduct of each battle makes the book difficult to put down and readers would be advised to start the book earlier in the day rather than later!

Together with the guidebook a battlefield tour in David's company is guaranteed to make the visit come alive, his passion for the land and the Zulu people is obvious, the talks making it feel as if you were there on the day, especially on this 125th anniversary of the battles of Isandlwana and Rorkes Drift.

It is highly recommended from one who only recently purchased a copy, and was then lucky enough to visit South Africa, all within three weeks.

David Fuller
22 January 2004

I actually brought the book for modern photos and illstrations since I figured that I would never get to see these places in person. However, the book proves to be an excellent reference material as well. Its pretty clear that David Rattray knows his material and how to present them. Combination of great photos (b/w and color), excellent illstrations, maps and well written narrative, this book actually covered all aspects of the Zulu War. There are tons of information packed in this short book. This book appears to be a history book in disguised as a tour guide book. Can't get any closer to South Africa unless you were there already.

This book is very educational! I would say kids of all ages should read this book. This book is about a girl named Thembi who lives with her great-grandmother and parents. Well one day Thembi's mom comes home crying because black South Africans are finally going to get to vote and it it very special because it will be Thembis great-grandmothers first time to vote. At first Thembis parents say her great-grandmother cant go vote because they will have to be at work when she votes so she will have no way of getting there. Also that there will be very long lines and they dont think she can stand for that long. This book has very nice pictures that you should look at even if you havnt read the book! It teaches kids that in some places in our world people are not so lucky like we are, they dont have very much freedom. Also that children should'nt take things for granted and should respect what they have because other kids arent so lucky!

Contemporary authors tackle issues that would've been unheard of, fifty, even thirty years ago. "The Day Gogo Went to Vote" addresses South Africa's emergence from its apartheid past to the present politically-balanced form of government. Taking place in the days prior to the election of Nelson Mandela as its first black president, the book shows how important it is for open and free representation at the polling places.

The wonderful illustrations, coupled with the inspiring characters, make this a fascinating and insightful read. The love shared between the old lady and her grandchild, as well as the respect the community has for the elderly, helps to promote citizenship and family values.

"The Day Gogo Went to Vote" belongs in every library, every school, and, if things were perfect, every home.

In a speech before the Organization of American Historians, scholar Jacquelyn Dowd Hall offered a window onto "the long civil rights movement" -- a struggle for human rights, economic and social citizenship, and human dignity that began long before Brown v. Board of Education and continued long after the assassination of Martin Luther King.

In her pathbreaking book, Defying Dixie, professor Glenda Gilmore gives texture and character to the long civil rights movement, using indigenous southern activists, black and white, to give her story shape. These activists, from the fearless and foolhardy Lovett Fort-Whiteman to the brilliant and indomitable Pauli Murray, all faced the demon of American white supremacy and did their best to slay it. They did not always prevail with strategies they dreamed up and pursued, but their vision and dedication bequeathed us a social movement, more expansive than the classic civil rights movement, that still informs drives for justice and equity.

Gilmore's book moves beyond the tired debates of Cold War historiography and the simple hagiography of civil rights heroes to give us a dynamic movement filled with complex characters. In giving these people their due, and rooting them in American soil, Defying Dixie helps us to understand the promise and possibilities of American politics, and to contend with the present in which we live.

Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore's DEFYING DIXIE: The Radical Roots of Civil Rights, 1919 - 1950 is the history of the civil rights movement from that time until the early 1950s. It gives inside history, interviews and information on how the Civil Rights movement that we are aware of today, came about. In the beginning, the Communist party was deeply involved. Their plan was to get the workers of America - black and white - to fight for better salaries from the companies they worked for. The only way to accomplish that was to get the two groups to work together. Naturally, the South, with its legacy of slavery, wasn't too happy with the mixing of the races. The companies, to keep their profits high, wanted to continue to pay blacks less than they paid whites and the only way to do that was to keep them separate. Many residents of the South didn't want blacks involved in the job market because they felt it would reduce their ability to have those jobs. There were, however, many people, of both races, who were determined that segregation/Jim Crow, would end. They were brave enough to defy the system and as a result, they frequently ended up in jail or worse.

During the Second World War, as Stalin took power, the involvement of the Communist party began to lose its appeal. The House Un-American Activities became concerned and the FBI spied on Communist and suspects. Any contact with a Communist could cause problems. It didn't stop those who were determined to force America to honor what it claimed it went to war for, from pushing their agenda for social and economic equality for all, even though many of them suffered for it.

Gilmore has written a heart rending account that covers history that is either missing or glossed over in our history books. So often we don't know the brutal history that brought us where we are today and Gilmore lets us know in no uncertain terms. Some of the unfair situations that blacks face will break your heart. It is a book every American should read in order to understand where we have come from and where we are going. It should be required reading for both high school and college students.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

A mellifluous rendering of lives stunted by isolation and despair is rare. Yet Anne Landsman deftly accomplishes this in her transfixing debut novel The Devil's Chimney. Set in turn of the century South Africa, Ms. Landsman's narrative shimmers with scenes of windswept agrarian beauty and sizzles with the erotic as she describes passion run amok during the days of apartheid when Coloureds and women were disposable.

Poignantly related by Connie, an older woman who has sought release in alcohol, this is the tale of two women from dissimilar backgrounds. Their commonality, as Ms. Landsman skillfully reveals, is found in the loss of an only child.

With her feckless and abusive husband, Jack, Connie now oversees a dog kennel not far from Canga Caves, the area's major tourist attraction and home of Devil's Chimney, an aperture so narrow that you have to crawl through it on your stomach. Pregnant and afraid of being sent to Magdalena Tehuis, where they give your baby away and "make the girls wear maids' dresses and scrub the floors," Connie married Jack when she was 18. Two months later their child was stillborn, then buried in the yard beneath a lemon tree.

As Connie reflects upon her life, she interweaves the story of Miss Beatrice and Mr. Henry, a well-to-do English couple who came to Oudtshoorn in 1910 to run an ostrich ranch. Although "An ostrich can split you in half with the nail on his big toe," at that time their exquisite feathers - prime whites, tipped whites, spadonas, blacks - brought a high price.

During Mr. Henry's mysterious disappearance into the mountains, Miss Beatrice determines to find out all she can about ostrich farms from Mr. Jacobs, the Jewish owner of a neighboring ranch who is successful enough to be known as the Ostrich King. Society's cruel divisions are underscored as she thinks of meeting him: "Was there garlic in his pockets and a black beard covering his whole face?.......Your neighbors aren't Jews. The Boers are bad enough, and so are the Poor Whites but the Jews."

As Miss Beatrice learns about the care and raising of the valuable birds, we, too, are privy to a lost skill practiced in a culture rife with superstition and medicinal potions. Herding the graceful birds into pens or kraals to be brutally plucked mirrors the narrowly circumscribed lives of Connie and Miss Beatrice, both bound to the veld by time and circumstance.

Eventually, Miss Beatrice and Mr. Jacobs become lovers, lying together in a cave's ebony darkness. She also has a physical relationship with September, her native servant. Thus, when Miss Beatrice discovers she is pregnant she is unsure of the baby's father, and is left to bear the child alone with only Nomsa, September's wife, to assist her.

As Connie recreates the final tragedy in Miss Beatrice's life she does, to a degree, come to terms with the adversity she has endured.

With scenes as clearly drawn as a stereoscope's slide, Ms. Landsman carries readers to the story's tragic culmination. It is perhaps the only finale for lives lost in unchecked physical desire and emotional deprivation.

A native of South Africa, Ms. Landsman writes of her homeland with fluid grace; she describes human foibles with perceptive compassion. The Devil's Chimney is a meritorious debut.

- Gail Cooke

Another impulse buy (despite the convenience of Amazon, the ability to browse the occassional page will forever more keep me loyal to old-fashioned bookshops). South Africa is the scene, and the story of two women gently unfolds, narrated by a middle-aged member of the boer white trash community. She tells the story of a local myth, of a certain english woman who once ran an ostrich farm, way back when whites were whites and blacks were trash, when ostrich feathers were in fashion, when africa was still the dark continent. Its a moving story about the schizoprenia of society, where racial lines were as strong as sexual ones, where women and men had clearly identifiable roles. Our turn-of-the century rule-breaker is a little like the female lead from'the god of small things'. Very much so. Our narrators story also evolves, and the mythical woman takes on a fantastic journey as the personalities of the narrator and narrated get all jumbled up into one raging ball of unspent emotion, frustration, alcoholic stupor, forsaken love, misplaced feelings and confused identities. I'd say this is a good book, although its similarities in many ways to Arundhati Roy's work prevents it from being a great book. There are some disadvantages of being a second, even though its a damn good read, and probably written in parrallel to Roy's.

I wonder why the english speaking world have suddenly fallen head over heels with books about the indian subcontinent - witness the irrational admiration for soap opera's extraordinaire such as 'a suitable boy' and 'a fine balance'. I think africa or latin america, (for that matter) could do with a little more attention, and are equally fascinating.

I thought Elizabeth Hull's research was timely, thorough and informing.
For anyone interested in the effects of Felon Disenfranchisement on mondern day politics, this is a must-read.

HULL DOES IT AGAIN *****

Elizabeth Hull's books have always displayed her natural literary gifts and passion for her subjects (whose life wasn't changed by "Taking Liberties"), but her latest is a work of such scholarly brilliance that I strongly beleive every student interested in politics, government, or even journalism should be required to read it. With the startling statistics Hull uncovers about how many ordinary Americans have lost their constitutional right to vote it is amazing that this hugely relevant issue is given no attention in Congress! "The Disenfrachisement of Ex-Felons" is at times hilarious: (i.e. the Representative from Florida's feeble attempt to ratioanlize hypocritical state laws which ban voting rights for life for petty theft, but not for a single white-collar crime!) The book is at times frightening: ( millions of people, who pay taxes and obey the law, are left without the ability to participate in their governemnt because of minor infractions during their youth.) All in all, the text inspires such a catastrophic force of supreme emotion that readers will feel like they've experinced a mega-rollercoster ride in and out of the depths of modern political debate by the time it comes to its climactic, but magnificent, end. My opinion, the ride is well worth it. *****