Africa Books

This book is very cleverly written to make kids love the story and at the same time cram lots of info. about animals and Africa in it. I learned a lot myself, right along with my eight-year-old.

Children have a natural fascination with animals. Now take this fascination a step closer to reality, and you have an engaging tale in the picturesque setting of Africa.

Mac, Sam, and several other family and friends embark on a trip to Africa as part of their camping treat, to learn about various animals living in this country. Several up close encounters with snakes, hyenas, and elephants, delight and scare them all at the same time. At one point the action takes a dangerous turn when their guide is bit by a black mamba and it's up to Max and Sam to get help.

This book along with the rest of the series is one big mystery puzzle. In each book one mysterious letter appears in a map, which will come to a head at one point in an upcoming book. Middle grade readers will enjoy the humor, adventures, and educational tidbits found in each story. Miss Berry's talent in reaching out to this target audience is apparent. The story is easy to read, easy to understand, and the added mystery is the compelling force.

It was a fast and great read and educational even for me. I found out that the stripes on a zebra help to make them less visible to their predator while on a run. So even big kids will discover new things.

As a teacher, I love this new series, and especially this book. What a great way to explore Africa and learn about this interesting continent. The author writes in a fun and entertaining way, and at the same time, throws in educational material. This takes talent that I believe this author truly has.

"Adventure in Africa" is part of a new chapter book series, The Incredible Journey Series, designed for ages seven through nine and is wonderfully done. It focuses on two brothers, Max and Sam, who travel a lot and get into all kinds of adventures along the way. In this book, they travel to Africa, where they go on a safari, see animals like lions, zebras, hyenas, leopards and even encounter some poachers. They also have a mystery to solve - someone has left them a journal and a mysterious map. Each time they take a trip a letter like a "W" or an "I" appears on the map. Max and Sam wonder what letter will turn up on the map during their trip to Africa.

"Adventure in Africa" is a wonderful book that children (and their parents) will enjoy. The book is slim (less than 90 pages) but there are several things going on in the book. The first, of course, is the story of Max and Sam's trip to Africa. Children will enjoy reading about Africa and learning about the different animals there. There are other more subtle lessons in the book, like when school children pull a prank with invisible ink and then feel guilty and try to clean it up. There is also the mysterious map and what the final message will be. Besides the story itself, there are a couple of other things in the book. In the front of the book there are some fun facts about Africa. One is an acrostic about Africa, which is a fun way of showing children what acrostics are. In the book there are a couple of methods of making invisible ink and children will enjoy trying them and writing their own secret messages.

Although "Adventure in Africa" is part of a series, it can be read on its own. However, children will probably want to collect all the books in this fun series.

Max and Sam are on their way to Africa. Actually the book opens in summer camp, where we get to learn a bit about Max and Sam and their friends, then they're late to the airport, miss their plane and have to fly standby. Their parents are working in a village, so Max and Sam are going to be doing a kids safari.

During the safari, their guide, Ms. Sarah, is bitten by a black mamba, not a good thing. The boys, with the help of a wild elephant named Charger, get Ms. Sarah to the nearest village (you'll have to read the book to see how they do that). Then, on their way back to the other children, they hear an elephant cry in the jungle. They know they shouldn't but they go and investigate. Poachers have captured a baby elephant. Can Max and Sam save the calf? That's something else you'll have to find out by reading the book.

This is another Max and Sam adventure that you can read to your child at bedtime . It would also be good for the beginning reader. There is more going on here than the story about their trip to
Africa, there's the ongoing story about the journal they'd discovered in one of their previous adventures and the magic map they found with it and I guess I'm going to have to get the earlier books to understand what that's all about, so you see, you're not the only one who has to read more Max and Sam Adventures to find out what's going on.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

When I first read Dispatches some years ago, I was astounded at how a 'parachuted journalist' from the Washington Post could manage to be so empathetic to his new surroundings. Harden displays a questioning and understanding of all the places he reported on in Africa that many who've lived for decades in Africa do not have.

In his travels, it's clear that Harden tries to stick his nose in and experience Africa. He is often more than an observer - he participates first-person - and is therefore able to tell a complete story without having resorting to hollow theorizing and trite conclusions as filler. His trip on the Kisangani-Kinshasa riverboat is a good example where the story and experience tells all - Harden doesn't need to tell the reader what to conclude. Same with his experiences with then President Moi of Kenya. He had the chance to talk to Moi, not just for an interview, but to discuss his deportation! Harden was always personally involved in his stories.

Coincidentally, a few years after Harden's Africa tenure, another Washington Post Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Keith Richburg, wrote his memoirs on Africa - Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. Though Out of America is a very good book, Dispatches is in another class entirely. It's a must read.

Harden, a first rate writer, researcher and observer, does an excellent job demystifying the African political diaspora with insightful anecdote and personal experience. For anyone that has lived or loved Africa this is a must read - it will remind you of everything that is wrong with Africa and everything that is unforgetable about Africa.

It's a pity that the book was written in the early nineties, since the only drawback I can point out of this work is the lack of information about the last fifteen years in the different countries (Sudan, Nigeria, Zambia, etc.) the author describes (this is not his fault, obviously!). Deeply educational, this is phenomenal journalism. If I had to pont out a chapter, the most interesting one is the one that deals with the Turkana tribe in Kenya.

From page one, I was hooked, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Africa, the forgotten continent. This was the perfect starting point.

Blaine Harden's Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent is by far the most interesting book out there about Africa. It is a series of vignette-like true life examples of how the continent is imploding, thanks to "big daddies" and the west's lack of understanding about the people, cultures, values, and even geography of this underdeveloped continent. Truly a masterpeice. It should be required reading in all universities across the country. One of the BEST books I've ever read.

Harden brings one of the least reported parts of the world to light, but his reporting is now a bit out of date. It is hard to give a book this good less than five stars, but many things have happened in Africa in the last five years. I would purchase an update in a minute.

Angela Fisher spent seven years criss-crossing Africa, seeking out traditional forms and styles of jewelry and body adornment. The metal crafting, artistic modes and affectations of traditional piercings are stunning. The more extreme examples of African body art are already missing: cutting and/or scarring, limb binding (neck/arms/legs) and lip stretching are lost arts these days.

The photography is top notch, with highly detailed closeups and oversize, full-color images on most pages. Notes are included for each image, with geography, tribal information and craftsman's details for many pieces.

This is a great example of the "coffee table" book. I checked this title out of the library while in graduate school repeatedly until my mother gifted me with my own copy (thanks, Mom!). For artists and jewelers, this volume will be an endless source of inspiration.

...origin as it relates to African cultural and creative expression and influence. Many designs and patterns we see repeated in contemporary jewelry design can be traced to African styles and designs created centuries ago - a fact beautifully exemplified in this book - with the added bonus of learning something about the meaning behind the particular adornment/piece of jewelry. The photos are brilliant! This book is a treasure and a highly recommended "must read" for everyone interested in design, jewelry and fashion history, and cultural customs, influences and contributions.

I found this book to be amazing...I loved the discussion about the different African cultures and most especially the pictures--I'm even considering purchasing another copy of this book just so I could frame some of the beautiful, highly colorful pictures. I am buying more books from those authors--I expect the other books to be just as beautiful and informative.

This is a thoughtful and gorgeous peek at the diversity of the continent. The colors of the photos alone are worth the price! Fisher's more recent work, "African Ceremonies", with Beckwith, is even better, if possible. And folks, Africa contains 54 countries, over 800 different languages and thousands of dialects, and has around 730 million people. If you consider yourself an interested citizen of our world, don't just look at the pictures, learn about the continent! Many people have criticised the authors, for this and their other works, because they present an Africa that doesn't exist anymore, or they are patronizing and exploitative- I agree in part with this criticism, but I would add some balancing words. This continent has some of the richest cities in the world- Johannesburg being one, and some of the poorest villages- I was visiting in one of them several weeks ago in eastern Namibia. People have cellphones, people have no phones, some drive Lexuses and some drive donkey carts made from the beds of old pick-up trucks. "Old" ceremonies are vibrantly alive for some people, and simply unimportant for others, sometimes within the same family or community. The point is that the images from this book *are* parts of life on this continent, but obviously do not tell the whole story. However, it is just as wrong and short-sighted to dismiss cultures as it is to see only the "exotic". The funny thing is that I first saw this book and "African Ceremonies" at a Himba village in Kaokoland, Namibia, shown to me by a man who was wearing "traditional" Himba clothes, with red ochre on his skin and so on. We were paging through this book and my friend, who is also Himba but wears "western" clothes, commented on how weird the images were, to which his friend laughed and agreed. To them, the pictures of most of these ceremonies were just as alien as they are to most westerners. So, to everyone who likes to box "Africa" and "Africans" into one category, this is perhaps something to think about.

The beauty, dignity, and composition of the photos are enough to lure the reader. This book features the jewelry and accessories of African costume in different regions and tribes. It gives the reader information on the people wearing these lovely adornments, as well as describing their meanings and ceremonial uses, when applicable. While this represents only specific aspects of some parts of Africa, it is a beautiful glance at some tribal costumes still worn in increasingly fewer and fewer places.

Runoko Rashida, Wayne Chandler and Co. put together a fine work illustrating the Asiatic hereditary connections with so called "black" people, especially the Shang Dynasty. They also touch on the influence of the mysterious order of the Hashimiyyah & the Knights Templar. As always the text is accompanied by top rated images supporting the text itself. This book continues a standard of excellence, in the field of knowledge of Self.

There's a wealth of knowledge in this book. What illustrates the effectiveness of the book are the pictures, as well as the words. It's one thing to say that there are black people in India, who were the founders of civilization, there. It's another thing to actually show the descendents of those people, clearly black people, living in India. The book is impressive.

Dr. Rashidi and Dr. Van Sertima are esteemed scholars who have changed my life for the better. They have given me a wealth of knowledge about my Afrikan heritage, which spans worldwide.

THIS BOOK IS AMAZING IT PROVIDES INFORMATION THAT IS BOTH TRUE AND OF EXTREME VALUE. THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY ASIA COVERS MIGRATION FROM AFRICA TO ASIA DATING BACK FROM OVER 100,000 YEARS AGO. IT ALSO COVERS THE REVOLT OF THE ZANJ, WERE EAST AFRICAN SLAVES REVOLTED IN IRAQ AND IRAN. CAUSING NUMEROUS DEFEATS UPON THEIR OPPRESSORS AND SERIOUS ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO THE EMPIRE OF THEIR OPPESSORS. IT ALSO COVERS NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF AFRICAN PERSONALITIES AND PEOPLE IN ASIA. SUCH AS UTHMAN IBN BAHR AL-JAHIZ, MALIK AMBAR, LOKMAN, BILAL, ANTARA: THE LION AND MANY OTHERS. THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN ASIA WAS MAINLY BY MIGRATION, BUT SLAVERY WAS ALSO AN EXAMPLE OF THESE MASSIVE AFRICAN POPULATIONS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ARABIA, YEMEN, SOUTHERN IRAQ, KUWATI, SOUTHERN IRAN, AND SOME PARTS OF INDIA. HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS INCLUDED SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN ALSO. AS WELL AS INDIA HAS AN EXTREMLY LARGE AFRICOID POPULATION KNOWN AS THE "THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA" WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS INHABITERS OF INDIA AND THE CREATORS OF THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION. THERE ARE ALSO AFRICAN POPULATIONS IN MALAYSIA, SOUTHERN CHINA, ANDAMEN ISLANDS, SRI LANKA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS. THIS BOOK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE ON THE UNEXPLORED HISTORY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN ASIA. OTHER BOOKS RECOMENDED IS AFRICANS AT THE CROSSROAD: NOTES ON AN AFRICAN WORLD REVOLUTION, INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, THE DESTRUCTION OF A BLACK CIVILIZATION, AND THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION

This book has made it clear that the inhabitant of this earth is GOD in all forms. There is nothing else to be said on this subject. This book and others like it, has opened the door for many to become what they truly are...GOD.

Rashidi and Van Sertima are shaping the world of future scholarship with this book. To realize that the Sumerians, Elamites, Dravidians, Harrapans, and the Sabaeans were all black, adds more honor to the "misplaced" History of the African people. This affects those rascist who try and make the beggining dates of Egypt, closer to those of the Tigres, and the Euphrates. Still even by doing so, the beggining of each were "Christmas Coal Black". This book provides much evidence of this fact! Also interesting, and something most unknown, is the images of Buddah, and Krishna, at first had African features. For those who haven't read Kersey Graves "16 Crucified Saviors" the myths of Buddah, Krishna, Christ, as well many others is almost exactly the same. What is even more interesting is Buddah , Krishna, and Christ, all have a 600 year split between their virgin births, and all there first graven images had African features, before they were tampered with. In the end this is a book that should be read by all, scholars, and common people a like, because it helps you to understand, and appreciate the role of the African people throughout history. This book has intense evidence, regardless if you choose to accept it or not.

This is the best book on the history of the Afrikaners despite its shortcommings. It is ironic that the policy of apartheid, which made Afrikaners a household name and a single Afrikaans word, a derogative international slogan, receives only 50 pages covering. In a timeline of their history this is befitting, although one might criticize it. Yet, one must also remember that Giliomee as sociologist published numerous books on the evils of apartheid. What is more dissapointing, is that he skipped a whole generation, who grew up on the renegate protest newspaper "Vrye Weekblad" and who rebelled with the rock music of the Voëlvry movement, his focus being too much on politicians and intellectuals.

This is a wonderful new full account of the Afrikaner people of South Africa. This narrative history ranges from the first Dutch settlements to the post-apartheid era. It covers the Great Trek, the Zulu Wars and gives special attention to the harsh treatment of the Afrikaners at the hands of the British during the Boer War, in which many were forced into the worlds first concentration camps. A very fluid history and one of the only books to focus on the history of the Afrikaners as a people and a culture. The author is an eminent South African Historian, and an original fighter against Apartheid, yet he argues passionately to explain the reasons the Afrikaners, their nationalists having come to power in 1948, choose apartheid over majority rule. Important leaders are revealed such as Mr. Smuts, Mr. Botha and Mr. De Klerk as well as insights into Mandela and Mbeki's rule. A must read for scholars of south Africa and those interested in Apartheid, its creation and consequences.

A wonderful book and the first of its kind to bring the Afrikaner historical experience up to date. From their beginnings as Dutch colonizers to their Brutal wars with the Zulu as they trekked northward to escape British imperialism. The Dutch of Africa became a hardened and embittered people. As they grew from a paltry group of colonists to become their own tribe, whose roots in S. Africa predate the migration of the Zulu, they also became hardened against those who wanted to crush them, namely the British and the more viscous of S. Africa natives. This book tells the tale of a people between two worlds, on one hand the African world of the Natives and the European of the imperialists. In the end the Afrikaans, being so numerous and having no country to call home could not simply move, the way so many whites did when fleeing black nationalism in Africa. The Afrikaners became victims of their own situation, although the first to suffer the horrors of the concentration camp, and although a poor and starving people in 1900 they grew to dominate S. Africa, and many opposed helping the English in WWII. A marvelous account that brings to life the history of the region this is a muct read for anyone interested in Africa, Aparthied or colonialism's consequences.

This fascinating book is subtitled, "Biography of a People," and it certainly lives up to it. The book follows the history of the Boers of South Africa, from their arrival in the seventeenth century, through to the final collapse of apartheid and beyond (the book having been published in 2003). Along the way, the reader is treated to an in-depth and yet highly readable history that makes South African history come alive in an exciting and highly informative way.

I must say, this book is nothing short of a tour de force! I have read several books on South Africa, and I must admit that I was at first intimidated by this book's size and appearance, which convinced me that it was a school book. But, while this book is eminently useful as a school book, it is still highly readable, making South Africa's history interesting. It covers many details without sounding dry and academic.

So, while I have read several books on South Africa's history, I can easily say that this is the best one that I have read so far. If you are interested in South Africa and the Boers, then this is the best book you can get on the subject. I give this book my highest recommendations!

Nog nooit het ek geskiedenis so pakkend ervaar nie. Die boek lees soos 'n roman wat jy net nie kan neersit nie. En dit laat allerhande vrae -- dit bly jou by. Lees dit!

Captivating, , honest, searing, this is a beautifully rendered story of a painfully difficult childhood. Carolyn Slaughter made me fall in love with the Africa of her childhood while wanting to whisk her away from that very childhood.

The saga by Ms. Slaughter is a touching tale of courage, and determination ... a tragedy using the failed British Empire rape of India and Africa as a backdrop to to the personal rape and subsequent journey of this brave Lady. She emerged triumphant... the Empire failed.

Ms. Slaughter. Well Done.

This gorgeously, generously written memoir by the novelist, Carolyn Slaughter, is certain to be on my list of Best Books at year's end. These are Slaughter's young years from birth in India to age 14. She moved with her parents from India to England to Africa where she spent most of her childhood, or what should have been her childhood. A brilliant, affecting, important book. Slaughter has been one of my favorite writers since I read her Africa novels (highly recommended!) years ago: Dreams of the Kalahari and The Innocents.

So I confess to having not done so (finishing the book.) I am a mere 25 pages from the ending, and I am left feeling not more than a little perplexed. There is the niggling sense that the author is not playing fair. She describes a childhood rife with neglect and pain, but increasingly she is starring in her memories in a sort of grandiose, romantic way. I find myself not trusting the narrator's voice. It has become besot with victimization, so that her memories begin to all sound the same: poor, poor me. Horrid parents. Boarding schools and hand-me-downs, cruel nuns, lost love, nothing going right! Which is sad, don't get me wrong. But other authors can write about such heartache without seeming to "star" themselves in such a superlative way.
I read on, because the author is a gifted writer, and she can describe the African bush with much eloquence. She refuses to tell the American reader the difference between "African", "Afrikan" and "Afrikaan," along with what the various native foods and phrases might translate for us in the United States. For some reason, this lack of explanation begins to feel like condenscension, and coupled with the author's ascending view of herself and her suffering, so does the whole book. Interesting read. I would like to finish it, if for no other reason than to see if the author revisits the bomb she dropped in the introduction. Will she? Won't she? I don't think she's been entirely fair by dragging it out this long.

This is a fabulous book, and one can't help but compare it to Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to The Dogs Tonight".

The difference is that although Fuller's parents were hard-drinking and unconventional, they loved their children enormously. Carolyn Slaughter had such toxic parents that it is amazing she has become an accomplished, funtioning person. Horribly abused by her father, physically as well as the sexual abuse, she was totally abandoned emotionally by her mother. I almost hated her mother more than the father, as she seemed to have no maternal feelings whatsoever.

My only complaint is that she ended the book when she left Africa as a teenager. She tells us in the epilogue that her parents and one of her sisters have all died, but doesen't say anything about their years back in England and whether she continued to have any relationship with her parents and what finally resulted in her having any self-esteem at all. I hope she is busy writing a follow-up. I highly recommend this book as well as Fuller's book.

This book is nonstop excitement gives you the the feeling of actually being there. While most books and movies tend to be politically correct on the subject of modern Africa Dangerous Game does not go that route but instead takes the reader on a safari that National Geographic would not dare go. On this this journey you will see the corruption, aids, drug smuggling, violence, and other things that would have Kipling spinning in his grave. I first heard of this book on sniper [...] and after reading the reviews and excerpts I was intrigued enough to buy the book and can't put it down Don Hollway is an excellent writer and look forward to reading more of his books.

I really enjoyed reading the novel. It seems to have captured certain themes of Africa rather accurately. I could readily identify with the descriptions and the way in which the characters played their parts. They, the dust, and the chase are real, and tangible to any person who has Africa in their soul.

Africa. Big game hunting. Army style. In this book Don tells the story of a Delta Force sniper that has major troubles in the streets of Mogadishu. In the aftermath he leaves the army but returns to Africa. As Don puts it "This is NOT Hemingway's Africa"! Drugs, corruption, wealthy man with his own private army, beautiful ex-Spetnaz sniper and ...well heck I ain't gonna tell you the whole story!!
Somali warlord, Kenyan government officials, CIA - gee them AGAIN - and real animal wildlife, and that's just the first few chapters!
What a read!!!

MARY LINN ROBY - author of THE HERRICK INHERITANCE

Set against a vivid African background, Hollway's DANGEROUS GAME is an fascinating account of international intrigue.

Just finished the book this morning (got it yesterday morning). This looks like a movie in the making. As an avid hunter and shooter myself I really appreciate the details. There is the true contrast between humanity and civilization relating to all of the classes of people detailed. The characters come to life with true authenticity and fervour and the battle of Good v. Evil rages on. The ending was wonderfully done and I enjoyed the book from cover to cover (so to speak.) The book is a must have for any hunter/shooter and the story is excellent. I must have a copy for my collection and and I fully intend to send copies to friends of mine. Truly one of the best reads I have had in a while all BS aside. Thanks for the opportunity to preview it and it was indeed well written. Here's your quote," No questions...a gotta have book!"

The story of the South African struggle for liberation has been told in many ways by those who participated in this worthy course to liberate the country from the yoke of oppression.Never have I come accross this kind of perspective as postulated by Tsoaledi(Daniel)in his book.

His story is so compelling that I urge you to spare some time to read it in this book.

It is an incredible first hand account of the struggle for liberation in South Africa from the apartheid regime.
A must read for anyone interested in knowing more about the oppressed and exploited masses, in people's struggles worldwide, nature of racism and exploitation.
I therefore recommend you to read this book.

It is an incredible first hand account of the struggle for liberation in South Africa from the apartheid regime.
A must read for anyone interested in knowing more about the oppressed and exploited masses; in peoples struggles worldwide, nature of racism and exploitation.
I therefore recommend you to read this book.

The story of the South African struggle for liberation was told only from one perspective for a long time.A lot of people only know about a liberal or a non-racial approach to the struggle against apartheid.

Mr.Thobejane brings another perspective which was not known by many people especially outside South Africa.The Black Consciousness approach, which was mooted by people such
as Steven Bantu Biko and others, as Tsoaledi clearly states,should also be brought to the front so that we can fully understand what entailed this worthy struggle to liberate the oppressed in this country.

By reading his book, I can now understand these different underpinnings of the struggle for liberation especially from the Black Consciousness school of thought.I therefore recommend you to read this book.

Tsoaledi gives an incredible first hand account of the struggle for liberation in South Africa. He details the apartheid regime's
stronghold on the oppressed and exploited masses, and gives a powerful alternative. A must read for anyone interested in peoples struggles worldwide.

the quality of the product was the very best. it also arrived when i expected it too. i needed it in a crunch time and it came through beautifully.

This is a fascinating book for folks interested in the international decolonization movement of the 50s and 60s, and its relation to the Black Power movement in the States. The Discourse is beautifully written and passionately argued. The interview helps clarify Cesaire and Senghor's concept of "Negritude" as an early form of Black pride, rather than racial essentialism. The essay introduction is worthwhile since it puts the book in relation to Cesaire's poetic work and the Surrealist movement in France, America, and the Antilles. It's unduly dismissive of Cesaire's Marxist politics, especially since it goes against the spirit of the interview appended at the end.

I read Cesaire's 'discours sur le colonialisme' in one afternoon at a coffe place and it was captivating in how intellectually he wrote, with tinges of attitude in the words. A lot of the things he wrote about I already knew from studying a lot about Africa before and what ethnocentricism vs. ethno relativism means when applying yourself and perceptions of other cultures. This book is as applicable in the 1950's as today, I found that America seems to be the new France and Britain, as far as imperialism goes.

This book has so many good points about how one must look at the non Occidental world. Whenever I hear people talking about Africa in a degrading way in that the continent needs the Western world to give it medicine, schools, etc . . .it infuriates me with the lack of research these people have done. Although one can't expect everyone to know, but they would at least get a glimpse if they read this. They would see that it is the fault of the Occidentaux which is why Africa is in the state it is now. Before Europeans went there, the people of this rich, great continent had their own cultures, laws, languages, writing, religions that worked very well for them. Because they were different than Europes ways, they were viewed as primitive and uncivilized, but you can't measure a civilization by the same standards of another, far different one. Just because they didn't write their history down, doesn't mean they didn't have it. They used oral tradition for this, which is just one example of the European's prejudice. If Europe never went there, these African civilizations very well could have flourished and become great as the passage of time went along.

Colonization has done it's damage, Cesaire talks about decolonizing our minds, I wonder how long that will take to accomplish? I would recommend this short read to anyone who wants to try to get out of their own cultural shell and think about the way the world is viewed from the viewpoint of others, even though this book is seriously outdated and seems like the author has never even been to Africa.

Frantz Fanon is a more compelling read though (even though he's a bit of a misogynist), try "black skin, white masks" or "l'an V de la revolution algerienne/a dying colonialism".

In Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism," She very blatantly voices her opinion that a (European) civilization that is:

...incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to the most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. [and finally] A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization. (31)

As well as applying for both Britain's presence in Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, and France's colonial presence in Africa and the Caribbean, this powerful statement could become an equation for the line drawn between one country's involvements with another.

For example, here is an unmistakable connection here to the US' involvement in Iraq. Are we as a nation decadent? Stricken? Dying? The over $155B spent in Iraq (...) instead of other national priorities. Cesaire's points are very relevant to the times as she brings further knowledge and past histories into the damage of Colonialism: "...at the present time the barbarism of Western Europe...being only surpassed...by the barbarism of the United States" (47).
She talks about the `gangrene' of impartiality, in regards to the French hearing stories that are disturbing and pornographic. "Colonization, I repeat, dehumanizes even the most civilized man" (Césaire 41). A theme prevalent in films such as Black Girl, Chocolat, and Xala. It is easy to be impartial when one is ignorant.

Discourse on Colonialism was a serious eye opener. Cesaire made me think about all of the horrible out comes colonialization produced. It was one of the best non-novel books I've read in years.

REVEWED BY SCOTTY THOMPSON LAS VEGAS NV, THERE ARE TWO ELITES, A HISTORY OF THE RHODESIAN SAS AND HER COMPANION THE ELETE PICTORIAL. BOTH ARE UNQUESTIONALY THE BEST ON THE WAR IN RHODESIA.BOTH INDESPENSABLE!! NO COLD WAR LIBIRARY SHOULD BE WITH OUT BOTH!! DO NOT READ ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER!! BARBRA COLE IS WALKING LIVING HISTORY! THEY WILL MAKE YOU CRY. THERE IS ONLY ONE C TROOP! SEMPER FI "AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING, WE WILL NOT FORGET THEM, WE WILL NOT FORGET THEM"

Having just reread this book, I remain as impressed by it as ever and continue to recommend it to anyone interested in either Rhodesia or the SAS. It's a great contribution to the history of the Rhodesian war and as time proves Smith was right all along about Mugabe, a remainder of much that was lost and of the Rhodesians who gave their lives fighting for our shared values.

"They shall not grow old,
As we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
Nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun,
And in the morning,
We will remember them.
We will remember them."

I Read this book as a young soldier just starting out on a 23 year odessy,and i can honestly say it is still one of the best books on Special forces to be read. Not only is it informative bringing you upto speed on the Rhodesian's dire situation it also show's you how the SAS learned to react fast to changing terrorist tactics and modus operandi so they where hot on the terrorist tracks and not locking the door after the horse had bolted! The book also looks at the equipment that was designed for combat and the excellent pictures show you just how advanced their personal load bearing equipment design was, most modern systems are a variation of their theme! The Rhodesians ability to improvise was and still is legendary and their tenacity,Aggression,daring are what modern soldiers aspire to. I had the honour of serving along side ex RLI,SAS,Parabats and Selous scouts whilst in the British Army and they are as impressive soldiers in real life as they are in print! The shame of the Mother country abandoning them to thier fate after all the sacrifices they made for us in both World Wars and Malaya, however while books like this survive "Their name liveth for ever more, They were Men amongst Men" An excellent companion book to "Pamwe Chete" and Chris cocks Fireforce". Highly reccomended.

This is truly a one of a kind, straight up and informative look into a people who stood up to the world but in the end were ganged upon and betrayed by the so called world leaders of the day.. They did so much with so little and yet made a difference. My hat goes off to all the Rhodesian units. Counter insurgency>this is it.. p>s More men more time, Hmmm ,Could have been a different ending. Five stars all the way, IB

Simply put, this is the best Non-Fiction unit history I have ever read...the amount of research that went into this book is phenominal. You MUST READ this book! The only question that remains is...Where can I get the "Elite Pictorial? "...if someone knows...EMAIL ME!

TE