Africa Books

This book is a product of a person who does not know what he is saying. Please nobody should weast his time reading this ethiopist ideas.

Excellent presentation. The book focuses more on passing on facts (excelent footnotes and appendix) to the reader than giving analysis of events and their significance from the author's point of view. It definitely sheds a new perspective of the beginning of the Ethio-Eritrean war. There is not much about TPLF, but there's an interesting coverage of rise and fall of ELF and the rise of EPLF. As strange as it may sound, the book also makes you appreciate that the war was carried out as it was. It makes you appreciate the Ethio-Eritrean civil society.

General Erwin Rommel was able to do the most with the least. Against great odds he earned the name "Desert Fox" by those he fought against; the British and their allies. Code of honor was important to him to where he cut the limited water rations of his own troops so that their prisoners would not die of thirst. The irony is that he received less respect from Hitler and the German high command than from the British and French. If there was a Nobel Prize for military genius he would have won it. He was loved by his troops and when he was recalled from North Africa hated to leave them. One of the British commanders, in a memo to his troops, referred to him as "our friend Rommel".

Part of the oustanding "Commanders in Focus" series from Brassey's, Eriwn Rommel 1891-1944 by Karl Hoffmann is an in-depth analysis of one of Germany's most famous and celebrated military leaders, a gentleman warrior also known as the "Desert Fox". Black-and-white photographs and military diagrams highlight this critical assessment of Rommel's strengths, weaknesses, character, and service - dissecting his engagements in World War I and II, and analyzing him both as a military commander and as a manager of men. A must-have for lay readers and military historians alike with a keen interest in learning from Rommel's brilliant life, which ultimately ended far too soon at the hands of his own side.

The Fortson Grove Youth Book Club just started with children ranging in age from 7-17, and Escape from the Slave Trader is the second book we've reviewed. They all agreed that this is an excellent book and it really held the attention of our young readers.

The style and pace of this book is a excellent for the growing reader, perhaps middle school and down. The Arabs were no friends to Africans.

IT IS AN EXCELLENT AND EDUCATIONAL BOOK. WELL ANALYSED AND UNBIASED. IT MUST BE READ BY ALL ETHIOPIANS AND THE US STATE DEPT. OFFICIALS. DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO HAVE IT PRINTED IN PAPER PACK SO THAT MANY ETHIOPIANS CAN BUY THE BOOK AT A CHEAPER PRICE?

IT IS AN EXCELLENT AND EDUCATIONAL BOOK. WELL ANALYSED AND UNBIASED. IT MUST BE READ BY ALL ETHIOPIANS AND THE US STATE DEPT. OFFICIALS. DO YOU HAVE A PLAN TO HAVE IT PRINTED IN PAPER PACK SO THAT MANY ETHIOPIANS CAN BUY THE BOOK AT A CHEAPER PRICE?

Having taken this book with me to a doctor's office, I was actually disappointed to have to stop reading, when my name was called for the appointment! I expected the book to be interesting, but it was much more than that. The great humor was unexpected! I laughed out loud several times, chuckled and smiled through many of the stories of Leoma's adventures during her years in the Sudan. Dr. Gilley gave a thorough understanding of the difficulties and hardships faced by an expatriate,while providing enilightening insight into Sudanese culture and customs. I highly recommend this book,both for personal reading and for gift-giving. Dixie M

After so much media coverage of the political situation in Sudan and Darfur, it was especially interesting to read this very personal view of the Sudanese culture and people. With a combination of humor and insight, the author takes the reader along with her as she learns how to live and work in a culture so very different from her own. The author obviously loves and respects the Sudanese; and by the end of the book, I had gained an appreciation for the Sudanese as well.

I have read many ethnographies in my day, but I can't recall another that has had me at turns astounded by the author's insight, impressed with his prose, saddened by his findings, and laughing out loud at the wry wit of his descriptive voice. I do not normally consider good anthropology "fun" to read, but "EXPECTATIONS OF MODERNITY" bucks the trend. It's well-argued, impassioned, and thoroughly readable.

Author Ferguson is concerned with the experience of "modernity" and "development" as lived by residents of Zambia's Copperbelt, who since the 1970s have experienced an unrelenting slide into social and economic marginalization. He works in case studies drawn from individual interview subjects, census data, and textual asides--boxes featuring news clippings from Zambian papers, or brief "People Watching" accounts of the author's street observations with his research assistant. The discussion ranges from meta-narratives of "progress" and "modernization" to an eye-opening analysis of the opposing styles adopted by Zambian urbanites.

His conclusion is grim: "For many Zambians... recent history has been experienced not--as the modernization plot led one to expect--as a process of moving forward or joining up with the world, but as a process that has pushed them out of the place in the world that they once occupied." The process of globalization has not connected this corner of Africa (and its inhabitants) to the currents of prosperity traversing the world economy; rather it has disconnected them, throwing them out of the garden of "development." Ferguson stresses that they have not been "left out" of world capitalism; the processes of abjection he describes are integral parts of the system.

Even amid the gathering gloom of this analysis, I found myself heartened by the author's occasional humor and by his sympathetic (and self-effacing) accounts of casual encounters in the field. I had not previously had much time for anti-globalization arguments, but Ferguson's disarming approach lowered my skepticism, forcing me to confront the ugly truths of the new world order in a way I had never done before. My hat is off to this man for crafting such a great book.

This is a truly rich and incisive ethnography of an African nation in the midst of long-term economic decline. Ferguson may be best known to readers as the author of 1990's "The Anti-Politics Machine", a widely acknowledged classic of contemporary social anthropology and one of the seminal works of what might be called the new development studies. Admirers of "Anti-Politics Machine" should not expect a simple retread of old material here, however. "Expectations of Modernity" focuses squarely on the lived experience of national economic decline, and the cultural and economic strategies by which retiring copper miners are adjusting to the new world order.
Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of "Expectations" is Ferguson's recourse to an eclectic mix of theoretical concepts and approaches. Dick Hebdige's analysis of subculture and style, Judith Butler's insights into gender performances, and Bourdieu's reflections on cultural capital are all invoked here to shed light on Zambians' attempts to grapple with economic decline. The breadth and subtlety of the author's theoretical approach to questions of culture, power, and style enables him to challenge the old, teleological narrative of Africa's progress from "tradition" to "modernity." "Expectations of Modernity" is therefore relevant not only to Africa and the Third World, but also to all those de-industrializing and declining regions of the capitalist West that have been nourished for decades on the false promises of modernist metanarratives.

I very much enjoyed this book. Ilo looks at all levels of the issues affecting Africa today. His research and knowledge on Africa, African history, and the current climate is extremely thorough. It is clear he has a passion for the subject and his total approach model is not only practical, it is feasible. I found myself reading this slowly so I could absorb the points in each layer presented. Highly recommended.

This work is timely. At a time when many Westerners are reading Africa as masters and lords, Stan Chu Ilo, gives a new paradigm. He argues against the bifurcated vision of Africa that has been projected by many international organizations and agencies. His call for a total picture approach model for interpreting the movement of history in Africa is very insightful and well-taken; his call for Africans to take up again the task of nation-building is timely; his critique of globalization and neo-liberal orthodoxies is rooted in deep social scientific research and a keen sense of the bases for social evolution in Africa. The Afro-Christian vision that he projects based on signs of hope in Africa filled me with new sense of hope for Africa. His development of the structural injustice in Africa and the lack of African sense of identity which he interprets as the homelessness of Africans raises the concerns of Africa today beyond mere sentimentalism or romanticism to the concrete nithy grithy of deep engagment with history, politics, religion etc in a integral way to change the face of Africa. This book bears re-reading and needs to be put on the table of everyone who is interested in seeing the true face of Africa and wants to better the condition of African through the path of cultural and human development.

This book, the companion piece to the exhibition of the same name, is a blessing. Thompson, professor & head of the department of African Art at Yale, directed this incredible exhibition in 1993 at NYC's Museum of African Art. From Ifa in Nigeria, to Santeria in Puerto Rico, to Obeah in Jamaica, to Vodun in Haiti, he and his companion scholars and curators have contributed in a healing circle across the Middle Passage. Shattering damaging, racist mythologies of these religions, _Face of the Gods_ fosters an understanding for these misunderstood religions while maintaining a respectful distance. Complete with analyses, interviews, and color photographs.

This book is SO GOOD! I've had it for about five years, but every time I take it off the shelf I learn something new. Highly recommended for any Orisa devotee, a follower of African traditional religions, or anyone interested in the African diaspora. It would be a great gift even to the illiterate, as the photographs are amazing. I think this book sold for about $500 originally, and even at that cost it would have been worth every penny.

Alison Wright moves beyond photography as she not only captures the physical essence of the children she photographs, she also captures the social and spiritual essence of these children. Each child leaps off the page and commands your attention. Alison takes the reader on a tour of the non-Western world and provides us a glimpse of these children's daily lives. By the quality and detail of the photos, it is obvious that Alison loves these children and successfully invokes compassion in the reader. Alison draws the reader into each picture through the beautiful imagery and vivid narratives which descirbe the various cultures of the children.

Alison Wright, thank you for making this beautiful book and share your wonderful photographs with us. I can't never get tired of looking at them.
You have photographed them with the eyes of your soul.

An informative and very readable book. The reporting of environments and people is both vivid and frank. Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in this area.

Harding deserves praise for allowing Africans to do most of the talking in his essays looking at Africa's protracted civil conflicts. His book represents journalism at its finest and is a must read for anyone interested in contemporary African affairs.