Africa Books

Amanda Smith began her life as a slave. She later became a very successful evangelist, preaching to both black and white audiences all over the United States, as well as in England, Liberia and Africa. Fame on that scale in that field would, of course, be rare for an African-American woman even in today's society. In the face of the social obstacles she faced in the late 19th century it was surely nothing short of miraculous.

Her autobiography is, of course a real autobiography. They didn't often have "ghostwriters" in those days. Her style of writing is easy to read but intelligent, articulate and piercingly insightful.

She writes about encounters with racism, sexism and class distinctions among African-Americans with a rare combination of uncompromising integrity, wisdom, humor, tact and graciousness. She writes about holiness and theological issues within the context of her own personal experience with God in a way that is compelling and inspirational.

The autobiography of Amanda Smith is a remarkable telling of a remarkable life. She is an undiscovered American treasure. Her book ought to be a perennial bestseller.

I just finished reading the biography of Amanda Smith. I found this book to be a faith building testimony of God's faithfulness and sufficiency, to all who will only trust Him both for spiritual and temporal provision. In today's complicated secular society and even in the organized church, Amanda Smith's testimony rises up in a refreshing way to glorify the Lord and teaches us that God's ways are still pure and simple, easy for anyone to understand and full of goodness and mercy, if only we would humble ourselves to hear what the Lord is saying to us, in His Word, the Bible. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a closer walk with Jesus.

I lived in Tanzania for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Now that I have children I want to read stories to them about life there. This is the best children's story I have found that accurately depicts life in Tanzania and also tells an engaging story.

This moving story is enhanced by the beautiful illustrations. My five year-old daughter and I both enjoyed this book very much.

I am from Thailand and a native Thai.
I read his book; he is my professor.
I am impressed with his idea- the so " socratic idea".
I love his book and everyone should buy it.

I was unfamiliar with the trends in African and Southeast Asian development before reading this book ... the title and subject seemed interesting. However, during the course of my reading it, I have grown significantly more knowledgable about how "3rd world" nations are on their own tracts to develop and enter the ranks of "modern societies".

He begins with a short history of both African and Asain developments, the key players, and background that sets each region up before they take charge of their own destinies. From there, he investigates the cultural, economic, environmental, and international pressures that disseminate one economy from another, as well as invesitgating the ultimate consequences of this growth.

This book is well-written, interesting evenfor a non political science or economics major, and thought-provoking to the core. I highly recommend this book to any who would be interested in learning more about modern development in differing regions of the world.

If you love the Drakensberg and like to explore the mountains, you cannot go without this publication. The author relates and shares his experiences and love for the Berg and also tells you about the history, people and explorers. If ever you plan to spend a vacation in the mountains, especially the Drakensberg, you must read this book, for it will enable you to survive and enjoy many pleasurable and exiting hours of joy and relaxation, whether you are a day hiker, backpacker, or mountaineer.

I searched bookshops in South Africa for two months to find a copy - after having found and read it, I would have continued searching for much longer! Barrier of Spears is without a doubt the definitive work on the history of the Drakensberg, its personalities and natural wonder. Everyone who loves this beautiful mountain in South Africa should (and probably already) have one. I fell in love with the Drakensberg all over again and could not stop reading. Although not describing any of the numerous routes of the 'Berg in particular, it gave me a deep understanding and knowledge of the different peaks, passes and areas that would not otherwise be possible. Knowing the story behind the name of a peak, the triumphs and tragedies that took place on it gave my outings to the Drakensberg a whole new dimension. Pearse have a wonderful way with words and I keep referring to many of the thought provoking passages such as the end of the chapter on George Thomson. It may be difficult to find, but it is certainly worth it.

Having spent a year in Africa, I can assure you that the illustrations so beautifully painted by John Butler, recreate the African plain. Most of the colors are yellows and oranges, with the brown mud. Bashi is born into an elephant family whose young females all protect and mother him, as is the norm. It is a good thing they do so, because Bashi's natural enemies are out there awaiting an opportunity. Unfortunately, they almost find one when little one day old Bashi is caught in the mud by the water hole. Luckily, his mother digs out around and under his feet and finally gets him free. The reader gets the idea of just how hard it is for the wonderful little creature to survive his first day of life on the African plain. Children loved it at a recent storytime I did.

This book provides a magnificent escape, with its astonishing illustrations that somehow really do capture the flat, endless essence of the desert savannah, the world the elephants and their potential predators inhabit. There are ordinary books with ordinary illustrations, and then there are books like this, with perfectly executed lines and colors. When you close the book, it is almost as if you've been to Africa, or seen a film of it. I suppose it is somehow like storyboards of a film. Anyhow, it is a beautiful, distinctive book that adults will like as much or more than child readers will. In addition, its story includes a deep motherlove between adult and child elephant that is moving in a calm, realistic way. A really excellent book.

The Douglas-Hamilton's tell a fascinating yet often heartbreaking tale of the struggle to save Africa's elephants from ivory poachers, corrupt officials, governments, and an explosive human population, with great style, objectivity, elegance and passion. This is an important book that should be made into a film, for it encapsulates the conservation story as a whole - why we must try to save the wilderness that remains for the future of the planet.

The Douglas-Hamiltons tell an amazing story of their work on the ground and flying across every African country hosting elephants, to document the status of and threats to the species. The story and writing style is captivating; a constantly exciting adventure, hard to put down. This is a beautiful and incredibly informative account of the slaughter of elephants that went on and on for 20 years while conservationists stood by, bickered, and asked for more information. Eye-opening, heart-breaking, but ultimately the efforts of this heroic couple were essential in bringing Africa's elephants into the 21st century. The description of the vast wild landscapes and flying across Africa are wonderful. This story will capture your imagination. Highly recommended.

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley was born in Tugbakeh, Liberia. She and her family moved to the USA in 1991, during the early years of Liberia's civil war. In Before the Palm Could Bloom, Wesley writes vividly of those war years, of life in the time before, and of a future full of both uncertainty and hope.

Wesley's picturesque poems of village life-and particularly her description of village life (before and after the war) in Tugbakeh: A Song-illustrate how much we have lost because of the chaos in our country. Child Soldier, one of the most powerful poems in the collection-and the one from which the book's title comes-is a moving piece about real children who played chilling roles in the destruction that ultimately left over 200,000 dead. Throughout her book, Wesley writes with the authority and sensitivity of a survivor who is already thinking about the healing that must follow the violence. But not all her poems are full of sorrow and longing. They Say and Monrovia Women are timeless and humorous poems of Liberian women's experiences and perceived behavior. Some, like Big Ma, pay tribute to people Wesley knew. Still others uplift the spirit with plans for repatriation of Liberians from the diaspora. In the upbeat poem One of These Days, Wesley describes the great rejoicing that will take place when all the refugees return to their homeland. Homecoming, one of the last poems, is a bit more poignant in its plea: I don't want to be a stranger / when I come home. / Yes, I'm a wanderer, / a woman. / But I don't want to be a stranger / in my hometown.

Before the Palm Could Bloom is a beautiful collection of poems that, together, presents a complex Liberia-a part we may never know again, a part we never want to relive, and much that we yearn to recreate for future generations.

In Wesleyýs poem "Outside Child," a man hands his wife a child wrapped in a blanket; the child is his, he says, and the wife is angry. "Where is this childýs mother?" she asks. This Liberian woman has been a dutiful wife, and she has cared for her own children, and this product of her husbandýs philandering should not be her concern. But even as she is furious at the man, the "outside" child at her breast has won her over. She will care for this baby, "This thing that will rob her of heart and mind."
So seemed Patricia Jabbeh Wesleyýs poetry at first glance: poems from outside my world. There are enough African words peppering these poems to merit a glossary at the back of the book. What is this place in Africa to me? I wondered as I began to read. What is this war to me?ýýit is so far away. But as soon as I looked into the faces of these poems, I cared desperately, and I knew that this war, like all wars, belongs to all of us. Though I am from Wesleyýs adopted Michigan, land of maples and hickories and cedars, I hold to my breast these poems of the fertile land where kola nut trees and breadfruit trees and palms grow.
As the husband stands before the wife, awaiting the verdict, weeping, she sees him as "a tree after lightning has struck." Throughout this book borne of war-torn Liberia, we read of trees and people felled and uprooted, trees and women offering fruit and crops, trees taking over cities. Children should be running into the woods to play and harvest the fruits, but instead we children march off to war. The Liberian civil war (1989-1996) was famous for its induction of child soldiers, and Wesley brings us the heartbreak of the mothers of those babes with guns and "adjustable ammunition."
The war was unbearable, but the women and men and children who have survived did bear it and continue to bear their losses. There was so much death, according to the poem "War Children," that the ground would no longer accept the dead:
There is no burial ground anymore
In their shallow graves the corpses
dance Liberiaýs cradles empty.
These poems, however, are not tales of despair. The war-torn landscape is brightened by Wesleyýs love of village tradition and her joy in remembering the liveliness of Monrovia, as well as her honesty in depicting the more ordinary, ongoing battles of the male-female domestic situation. If the war will just end, these poems seem to say, we will grieve for a long time, but eventually the land will forgive us, the trees will grow and bloom again: the mango, the banana, the breadfruit, the kola nut, and especially the palm, for then the palm wine can flow for the people of Liberia, and all those who left will come home and be welcomed at the doors of their old homes. They will rejoice, as Wesley describes in the first stanza of "One of These Days:"
One of these days
there will be rejoicing
all over the place.
There will be so much shouting,
so much wailing,
so much dancing.
Thereýs going to be
such dancing
as weýve never seen before.
Thereýs going to be a day
like that, I say,
and thereýs no one
who will be able to stop us.

This book is a wonderful collection of tales told by Tunisian women, translated into English. While it is folklore, it is not for children--some of the tales are quite risqué! Highly recommended--but for adults!

Fun and easy reading. Challenges stereotypes and cliches one may have about women in muslim societies. This is the tale of tales which explores the oral tradition of a society's women to pass on stories of one's culture. By the telling stories -often "dissed" as old wives tales - of women in non-traditional roles, or sometimes ordinary roles, these tales validated and placed a value on the lives of many women in a society which tended to devalue their existence. Read and see how important that part of your growing up may have been. I liked the book and challenge you to find a reason to dislike it.

The world's full of literary journals. Why read this one? If you want to know about the world, it's all on National Geographic, Discovery Channel, and CNN, isn't it? What possibly can a literary journal add?

Don't look for the answer in the Table of Contents. Look for it in the Author Bios. To take only a few of the 28 contributors: Razi Abedi is from Pakistan, Vasilis Afxentiou from Greece, Arlene Ang from Manila, Anjana Basu Calcutta, Richard Czujko South Africa, Viktor Car and Miroslav Kirin from Croatia, Raymond Ramcharitar from Trinidad. Several are from India, there's a handful are Yanks, plus assorted hangers-on from places in the world with no fixed address, apparently they just respond to "Occupant."

Some of their characters leave a track, some make a mark, some luxuriate in unearned reward, some crumple under the stubbornness of systems, some sing, some cry. Yet when the last shovel of dirt is spaded or the pyre done to embers, their little bundles of personality have vanished along with their fleeting, private histories, blips on a scale whose magnitude they or we may never know, their meaning incomplete because our comprehension is incomplete. This instant, too, is a short story.

More than mere characters are in these stories. We are, in that part of ourselves which is all humans. First we are a dream, then we are not, then we are again ("Sister Hanh" by Ly Lan), only this time vaporous angels, the angels of the keys, angels in the sense of "Mon ange te précédera"-My angel will precede you-the ignored part of our own relevance going ahead of us into the so-called future (A Feast of Crows" by KC Chase), preceding, going ahead of us, furthering us ahead of our pace ("The Long Journey" by Vasanthi Victor; "Jesus Christ Lord of Hosts Discovers Southern California" by Holly Day), while events of the hour play themselves out as if seemingly important in our monkey-brain salad-bar humanity heads ("Parking Ticket" by Norma Kitson). The carnival barker calls on ("Singing in the Wind" by Keith Smith).

In these stories.

In some tales is the taste of cultures gone rancid ("The Ngong Hills" by Rasik Shah and "London Through the Magic Eye" by Raymond Ramchartiar), scallop-shaped memories in white light ("The Lost Village"-Lang Lo in Vietnam-by Le Van Thao), the wire through which happiness flows ("The Burden of Grace" by Vasilis Afxentiou), the sense of life's undoing preordained ("Curses and Poetry" by Anjana Basu and "Diary of a Street Kid" by Fanuel Jongwe), this or that character blocked by not knowing their true worth ("Dalit Literature" by Rezi Abedi and "Spectacles" by Anjana Basu), others a tarantella of quick cuts as the burning finger of the past reaches their heels ("Snapshots of Elsewhere" by Raymond Ramchartiar). The shape of a woman created out of the galaxies ("A Betting Man" by Vallath Nandakumar). The gelatin temple of turning deeds into a brand name (Winnie Mandela portrayed in David Herman's "The Lady and the Tiger"; "The Transformation of Sleepy Hollow" by Richard Czujko).

Everything is real, their reality, even the phantasmagoric. Like the paintings of California Realist James Doolin, the "realism" in these stories is skewed in a way that what is seems always lunging forward at an angle, anything but static. A good story tells us of time; what it brings us to know within is untouched by time. These accounts are real, yes, close to the surface of here and now, but also deeper for their absence of self-interjection, the contrived just-so light and just-so exoticism of the TV Special. Nothing artificial, nothing fake, nothing held back. What you feel is not the author's work, it is your own feelings responding to the facts they set forth.

About half are fiction-or rather, reality with the clothes of character on-the rest non-fiction. Some are cryptic enough to be short-shorts. Most have a certain fabulistic air about them; all you have to do is change the humans to animals and you have Apulius' Golden Ass or Mr. Toad and friends. The usual baggage of reviewer lingo hovers uneasily near these pages. The stories are lives, not stories; circumstances, not contexts. In the lives on these pages, Levi-Strauss, F.R. Leavis, postmodernism, and semiotics are self-indulgent caricatures. When we know where fear comes from, we transect it. That's when the stairway appears before us.

This "Gowanus" anthology is an outstanding volume of third world writing. Reading many of the essays, short stories, and poetry was more than a joy, because you get the flavor of other places, a sense of the people, and new perspectives about what's happening in "real time" around the world. To be sure, a lot of these writers are unsung, but clearly enormously talented. This volume deserves nationwide exposure, and many of the writers here could make a lot of noise, if they are "discovered." I recommend this one! It's an exciting, turn-the-pages read.

This book is a wonderful description of how the Seichelles were 50 years ago. It tells the ultimate (real) adventure of a man who had the strenght to change completely his life, and decided to live remote somewhere in the Indian Ocean. This is a story which will carry You in a world apart, and that it will not be any more. It makes you think of what and how much we have lost in our day after day rat race.
Read and escape for a while. Buy as many copies as You can and make it read to your children before it is too late for them.

This book is an absolute blinder. For any body like myself who is interested in diving or travel it will enthraul, for anybody else just the mere excitement of the story and the histerical situations a bunch of half naked Sechelian men and one very confused westerner can get into will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout. You may be interested to know that "Beyond The Reefs" is infact a double book, also containing my favourite of his "Sharks For Sale". Some of the things in here like being puled along side a hooked 30 foot female great white have to be read to be believed. As I said this book is fantastic and if youv'e ever read something like the beach then this is sure if only superficialy to appeal. ORDER A COPY NOW! INFACT ORDER TWO OR THREE!