Africa Books

"As a woman living with HIV," says Beatrice Were of Uganda, "I am often asked whether there will ever be a cure for HIV/AIDS, and my answer is that there is already a cure. It lies in the strength of women, families and communities who support and empower each other to break the silence around AIDS and take control of their sexual lives." With a vaccine against HIV far off in the distant future (if at all), and with treatment of AIDS in the two-thirds world difficult, expensive, and limited in effect, the name of the game in HIV-AIDS is prevention. But in places like Africa, which is the focus of Helen Epstein's book, prevention is not as simple as it sounds. As she notes in her appendix, measles, syphilis, tuberculosis, and other entirely preventable diseases still kill millions of people even though they can be treated for pennies.

Why has HIV-AIDS ravaged eastern and southern Africa like no place on earth? "In 2005," she writes, "roughly 40 percent of all those infected with HIV lived in just eleven countries in this region-- home to less than 3 percent of the world's population." In some of these countries the infection rates have hit 30 percent, decimating the general population, while in the west, for example, rates hover at about 1% and are generally limited to specific demographics like gay men, intravenous drug users, and commercial sex workers." Theories abound about this discrepancy, but Epstein argues a narrow point, that Africa's problem is not profound promiscuity, or even the normal culprits of high risk groups like prostitutes or truck drivers, but instead a social phenomenon of "concurrent partners." That is, Africans do not have more sexual partners than in other places in the world, and nowhere near as many as gay men among whom infection rates are exponentially lower; but they do have a small number of sexual partners concurrently, at the same time, rather than one at a time or sequentially. This has set the virus loose among the general population like a runaway train.

And why has prevention been so elusive? Epstein appeals to what she calls the comprehensive "social ecology" of denial, silence, shame, adverse gender roles, and stigma about HIV-AIDS. Western-initiated and donor-funded programs will always be less successful than listening to Africans themselves and their own suggestions about how to address the problem. Uganda, of course, has been the amazing success story in this regard, and the subject of bitter debates about why. In 1989 Uganda had one of the highest infection rates in the world, but from about 1992-2002 the infection rate dropped by two-thirds. The key to the success, argues Epstein, was not in the billions of dollars from the west, but from the "collective efficacy" of a "shared calamity," by people helping each other and talking openly about the scourge. In particular, "partner reduction," she says, and not the much vaunted condom use, helped Ugandans to address the cultural phenomenon of concurrent partners. Partner reduction, as one worker described it, is thus the "neglected middle child of the ABC approach" of abstinence, fidelity ("be faithful"), and condoms. Zero Grazing, as Uganda's president Yoweri Museveni called for, is thus the silent cure already available, however valuable other prescriptions.

Epstein, a molecular biologist who has written widely on public health issues, combines rigorous science and the anecdotal evidence of substantial field research. She's clearly as comfortable with and interested in meeting with a dozen African widows under a mango tree as she is in the latest results of a demographic study. Her book has received strong reviews in the New York Times and the New York Review of Books (where her mother was a co-editor before she died), and also a rebuttal of sorts on the home page of UNAIDS that was provoked by her somewhat conspiratorial stance toward research that she argues they ignored because it didn't fit their partisan ideology.

I'm an American doctor working in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. I can attest to the substance of much of the material presented in this book and the importance of its message, specifically that norms of sexual behavior in this culture need to be discussed and changed for prevention efforts to begin to be effective. As the author aptly discusses, numerous aid organizations, flush with good intentions and funds, seem to operate on the periphery of this central issue. One of the most disturbing lessons of my time in the midst of this horrible tragedy is the realization that the stigma attached to this disease in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa remains so severe that many people prefer to die than to find out that they have AIDS, a point the author seems to get across through with many informative anecdotes. The fundamental thesis is that we need to begin to engage the leaders within these societies at a fundamental cultural level regarding relationships and sexual behavior. No small task. I would highly recommend this book as the first read for someone trying to understand why AIDS is so unbelievably prevalent in Sub-Saharan Africa. As of today, for every person we enroll in antiretroviral treatment in rural KwaZulu-Natal, five will be newly infected. It's very depressing to see so many people dying from a preventable disease--1,000 people die of it every day in South Africa alone.

The most important book published on AIDS in a long time, and one of the most important books of the year. If you liked Rachel Carson's Silent Spring or And The Band Played On, you will love this book. It is readable, impassioned and brilliant, and despite its savage denunciation of the failures of the West to deal with the AIDS crisis, it is an essentially optimistic work. Publishers Weekly in a starred review said it will save lives, and that is not hyperbole. I urge anyone who is interested in the greatest medical crisis of our time; anyone who is interested in Africa; anyone who is outraged by the failure of the UN, the WHO and the Bush administration to deal with this tragedy, to buy this book and give it to your friends. It is the kind of book that will change peoples' minds and will move continents. It will be read for years to come...

We have been overwhelmed by bad information about what causes AIDS to be so much more prevalent in the eastern and southern parts of Africa than elsewhere in the world. Even though more money than ever is being directed to stopping this epidemic, that money is hardly ever being spent for a helpful purpose. Helen Epstein carefully describes what she learned on site in Africa about what the primary problems really are and how best to deal with those problems . . . rather than the problems that politicians and NGOs want to address. Millions of lives are at stake: Please read what Ms. Epstein has to say and share what you learn with others.

So what's different about people in eastern and southern Africa that makes AIDS so much larger a risk there?

1. Men are much less likely to be circumcised. Circumcion cuts infection risk dramatically.

2. Although the people in that part of the world have no more (and often fewer) sexual partners over a life time, these people are more likely to be active with more than one sexual partner at a time. That habit causes those who become infected to spread the disease much faster and further.

What can be done?

Uganda (once the area most affected by AIDS) provides the answer: Make sure everyone knows that AIDS risk is there for everyone who is a drug user and shares needles, or has sex with anyone who has more than one partner without using a condom. The public in general, and politicians as well, like to paint AIDS as being a problem limited to homosexuals, sex workers, and promiscuous people. But in places like eastern and southern Africa, those who monogamous can be almost equally at risk. In fact, Uganda doesn't use these good policies any more ("No Grazing") because fighting AIDS has gone from being a local activity to being a national policy.

Ms. Epstein reports in detail how local initiatives to get the correct information out can make a big difference (saving an estimated one million lives in Uganda). National and international initiatives seem to waste almost all of the money (as she points out in several examples).

By not paying attention to what works and what doesn't, country leaders and international NGO leaders run the risk of making everyone feel like everything is being done . . . when the wrong things are being done. As a result, millions will die.

It's a sad story of how everyone wants to help, but they see the problem as being like the nail in the eye of a carpenter. You hit the nail to solve the problem. Drug companies want to develop vaccines. Condom makers want to sell condoms. Churches want to preach sexual abstinence. Politicians want to ignore the frequency of rape, casual sex, and cheating among married people. Individuals want to believe they are safe because they know the people they have sex with. But most of these nails don't make much difference.

Let's start hitting the right nail!

How rare it is to come upon an author like Helen Epstein. She not only knows her subject, with its numberless scientific and political implications; she also writes about it in a way that makes a common reader want to know more and more. She educates, she invigorates, she breaks our hearts. This is a vital and important book. -- Ben Sonnenberg, New York City

My 2/3 year olds can count now thanks to this book. They ALSO love the baseball song that is at the end of the book.

As a media specialist who has worked with K-5th graders for years, I have a really good sense of which books are keepers and which books are crap. I've used this book for years as a read-aloud during baseball season, tied in with "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Casey at the Bat." My younger students love the humor in this book. They really "get" it. I don't like to re-read books over year after year because there are so many good books kids ought to hear, but I do give in to repeated requests for this one because my kids look forward to it so much.

We're always trying to buy another decent copy to add to the shelves for our students, but it's getting tougher to find. I'm mystified by why publishers and booksellers discontinue good, fun books like this--while continuing to give prime shelf space to inane books like "Walter the Farting Dog."

If you are lucky enough to find a nice copy of this book, buy it! Added bonus: the music and the lyrics are in the book for the original song. You'd really hit jackpot if you could find both the book and the Tom Paxton recording of the song.

I fell in love with this book when I stumbled across it in a bookstore, and had to buy it "for my daughter." Luckily, she LOVES it (she's almost 3), too!

The other reviews give a good summary of the plot, so I'll just add that I've found this book to be a good conversation-starter about all kinds of topics, ranging from winning and losing, giving your best effort, not giving up, baseball rules, different kinds of monkeys...all kinds of things, and it changes over time.

All in all, it's been a very rewarding and refreshing book that I don't mind reading over and over, and my daughter loves coming back to.

A delightful baseball book about trying hard and overcoming obstacles. The slow, fat hippos put their patience and weight behind a baseball game and beat the monkeys in this jungle game. Enjoyed by my 10 month old son, who comes running whenever I read a passage from the book...whacka, whacka hoo boys - monkey, monkey, monkey,

This second of the Paxton--Schmidt combo (Going to the Zoo was the first) was a real winner in our family! The lush illustrations hilariosly depict the underdog hippos in a valiant fight to the finish. With a pathos that made my kids as well as myself cheer out loud at the ending, Jungle Baseball hits a home run--we loved this book!!

I usually shy away from POD or self-published books, but this novel shone with refreshing, gritty honesty and a thoughtful treatment of real life issues. Though the story line of a minister's wife (herione Katie Means) becoming a burglar to save a school for children with autism screams unbelievable, I couldn't argue with the author's careful characterization of the protagonist. Cher Smith's easy writing style and snappy dialogue had me sailing through the book in no time.

For those who normally read "Christian" or biblical worldview fiction, you may find some content offensive. Or, this may just be the kick in the pants you need. For those who normally read general or ABA fiction, welcome to a well-written yet convicting story about people just like you and me, trying to find our places in the world.

Bravo.

The book is outstanding! It's a fast read with so much thought, you'll want to read it twice. It talks of life, love, sacrifice, sex, nudity, God, the Church, lying, stealing, and learning to be honest with yourself (& with God). I appreciate how it keeps your interest the entire book. This book would be a great movie.

A quick and entertaining read. Katie Means is the perfect character to fall in love with. The reader will feel her pain, anxiety, and pleasure at each and every moment.

The author has an amazing knack for telling a story and utilizing characterization.

Especially recommended for all those stuffy, staunch, over-conservative Christians who think if you follow God perfectly, nothing bad will ever happen to you. Think again!! Bad things happen to everyone, and this book shows how one woman overcomes that in her own way and mends her relationship with God.

Justified Means is the story of a woman dealing with a disabled child. It's also the story of a pastor's wife who steals. Those contradictories make for a very enjoyable read. Her honesty about being angry at God is refreshing, especially for those who are more used to black-and-white characterizations of churchgoers.

It's about time a writer used her wit, intelligence, and craft to create a delightful and meaningful novel. "Justified Means" is one of those novels that has you crying one minute and then laughing the next. I highly recommend this for anyone who's tired of the trite, silly chick-lit that's out there. I promise you will not be disappointed. (Also, if you are lucky enough to find a copy, check out Cher Smith's other novel, "The Falcon and the Serpant." Another great read!)

I have not yet travelled to Kenya, but I have read this book. The aspect of the book that I enjoyed the most was Ms. Vachon's "no big deal" approach to dealing with a very different environment and culture. She really put me at ease, particularly in regard to family travel.

The book was also very well organized into logical sections, making it easy to find needed information.

I had always dreamed of going to Africa, but my husband was terrified at the prospect. We bought this Kenya guide in hopes of getting some accurate information. We found it very organized and pleasant to read. Ms. Vachon's book relieved many of his fears and we used the book intensely in planing our trip. Every tip, review and suggestion she wrote turned out to be true. We really credit this book in helping us experience the trip of a lifetime.

Pretty comprehensive. Covers all the do's and dont's and lets you design the type of experience you want. Helpful that the author actually grew up there....

As a seasoned traveler, I have learned to rely on books like this to help me plan my trips. Long a fan of Frommer and Fodor, I trust these authorities when choosing b&bs, hotels, tours, etc. I can now add Vachon to my list. She's "right-on" when it comes to the facts and I wasn't a bit disappointed in taking her advice. As a native of Kenya, she knows things about the country that the mere visitor wouldn't be privy to...all the more reason to trust what she has to say. I recommend this book 100% for your first (or next) trip to this wonderful part of the world!

After reading the book, gave a copy to a friend who was planning a trip to Kenya. All the information proved accurate. It was the deciding factor in including a balloon safari in the itinerary, which made the trip a smashing success. The book made a hero of the BIG BOY!

I just finished reading this book and was touched by Monique Schmidt's brutal honesty and self-evaluation. Schmidt bares her innermost thoughts to the reader. I found myself laughing out loud and, at times, crying. A very touching book about life, love and her Peace Corps experiences!

I highly recommend Last Moon Dancing, a memoir of a Peace Corps Volunteer's experience in Africa, by Monique Maria Schmidt. Schmidt's plan was to teach, sacrifice and contribute to an African village. She soon realizes, however, that she has brought more to Africa than planned. Woven into her journey are the memories of her own childhood on a farm in a Mennonite community in South Dakota. Schmidt humorously tries to make sense of it all and soon realizes she is surrounded by love. Schmidt's writing style is engaging and ranges from poetic & profound to blunt & to the point.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading "Last Moon Dancing." The author's candid descriptions about her experiences in an African village while serving in the Peace Corps keep this book interesting and fresh. I enjoyed the "Dear Angela" letters the most. My favorite letter was "Dear Angela, If you want to know what kind of day I've had, smell me." Schmidt's ability to find humor in the day-to-day stress of her African experience makes one marvel at the strength and tenacity of the human spirit. A definite Must-Read!!

Once I started reading Last Moon Dancing I could not put it down. I felt all emotions from desperate to amused but the most dominate thing I felt was pride. I am proud that young people have the courage and ambition to commite themselves to the aid and education of those with less. It is an awe inspiring story and one that is so fantastic it couldn't be anything but admired

I loved Monique Schmidt's memoir. Her honest,straight-forward account of her years in the Peace Corps in Africa is brutal, beautiful and witty. Woven through her African experience are connections to her childhood and early adulthood, but not always in the usual prose format. There may be a poem or an anecdote. Some of the revelations will anger the reader; some will shock, but throughout, you know Schmidt's telling it exactly as she sees and experiences life.

My husband and I have just recently returned from a two week trip to Mauritius. Although we booked our trip through a well known travel agent and stayed in a hotel, the Lonely Planet Guide was invaluable. If you are considering a trip to Mauritius and are toying with the idea of a self catering option (which I actually would recommend), you need this book. If you are going for the hotel option but are interested in seeing the island and sampling the local cuisine outside the hotel, you need this book. Don't go without it. Everything that there is to see and do on the island of Mauritius, is in the book.

Two summers ago we went into Seychelles, and Mauritius,Reunion& Seychelles LP travel guide was essential for us. Thanks to it, we could discover Seychelles was not just a diving and incredible beaches paradise, but its interiors landscapes were the best of our journey. We recomend it,because its fantastic information about Mahe,Praslin and La Digue islands, their national parks (such as Sainte Anne or Vallee de Mai). Prices were as high as the author wrote! and all information about public buses, rent-a-car and restaurants was right. Just one thing, we couldn't find where La Gogue Reservoir was! If anybody can strength the lake exists, please let us know!!

I spent 4 weeks living with a family on Mauritius this past summer, and this book was invaluable. I had many days to myself, and this book made it very easy to get around, with tips on restaurants that were up to date, good info about getting places on the bus and what things to see. The maps were probably the most helpful, especially in places like Port Louis and Grand Baie. I would recommend this book to anyone traveling to Mauritius, whether on a package tour, or on their own.

I used an earlier edition of this book on a trip in 1996, in which I visited the Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion. I was travelling independently (not as part of a package tour) and the book helped in many ways to make my trip a great one. It provides a wealth of information about hotels and restaurants, island culture, and places and things to see on the islands. If you can only visit one of these three islands, I would recommend the Seychelles, which offer some of the finest tropical scenery I have ever seen. One advantage of Mauritius for the budget-minded traveler is that it is considerably less expensive than the Seychelles.

This guide was my Bible while I traveled through Mahe and Praslin islands in 1999. The Seychelles are full of kind, open-hearted locals who are generous and more than willing to show Westerners around. My trusty LP guide helped me find several reasonable b&b's, Michael Adams' studio (wonderful local artist) and the most perfect beaches in the Indian Ocean. What I love about LP guides, and this one in particular, is the extensive history of the area the book is covering, as well as the locals' interests. Those intending to visit this incredible area should take this guide book - the photography alone will tempt anyone.

Not only does author Judy Walgren capture the faces and stories of the young children known as "The Lost Boys of Natinga," but she captures your heart as well.
In a easy to understand format, she details the facts behind the long running civil war between the North and the South of Sudan, chronicling the devastating effects it has had on the people who live there: in particular the children. This is a must read for anyone with an interest in Southern Sudan!
Joan Hecht
Author of "The Journey of the Lost Boys"

wonderful book to travel the imagination, through the words and images of a sensitive photographer... true african reportage!

I've got five lost Boys from Sudan in my Sunday School class and was trying to find more about them, their country and their situation. I found myself in tears as I read the book and looked at the wonderful photos. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting more information. It's easy to read for children but not so simplistic that adults can't benefit from it also.

I am working with adults who were "lost boys" and there is much speculation about the quality of their past education in the refugee camps and if they will be able to go on to college. This portrait allows me to better understand their lives in the refugee camps and look at their experiences and build upon them. A lack of education should be remedied by continured education not by telling people they are "incapable."

As the foster mother of two "Lost Boys" who have immigrated as refugees to the U.S., I found this book invaluable for understanding the day-to-day conditions under which my boys grew up. We've read lots of scholarly books and newspaper articles, but seeing the photos of the boys at school (scratching out their numbers in the dirt using a twig), grinding maize with a giant mortar and pestle (a 2 hour-a-day chore, according to one of my boys), and wasting away from lack of medicine provided me with a much clearer view.

The writing is also terrific and moving, and photography vivid and beautiful. Recommended for anyone with an interest in Africa, refugees, and stories of human endurance and dignity. A good book for adults as well as younger people.

Hillary

You read her book! This is a wonderful story that begins with two little girls going off to boarding school in Africa and ends with the beginning of a beautiful love story. In between the reader shares Maria's experiences of falling so in love while traveling in Italy, being an abused wife, falling in love again with a wonderful man and so much in between. I truly enjoyed reading this book and plan to reread it before I go to Italy.
It's a helpful thing to read about how other people lived their lives. You will have much to think about after finishing this book.

This woman has, like many of us, been through hell at the hands of a sadistic man. She, unlike
some of us, lived to tell about it, largely due to a compassionate doctor (all too rare today).

Every woman needs to read this book, if only to learn what an evil man can do to a successful
woman. This book should be required reading at every high school in the nation.

Get it for your daughter. Today. Before she meets Mr. Wonderful and is taken, inch by imperceptable inch, down the corridors into helplessness and slavery.

This author takes her reader by the hand and leads him down the winding road of her life in a deeply gripping, historically true story of her life, beginning as a child, during the WWII era in Africa. Her escapades in boarding school are worth a really good belly-laugh and her life in the African bushveldt with her Grandfather is filled with charm, wonder and nostalgia. But the incredible direction her life then takes as she grows up and struggles through unanticipated outcomes and unimaginable horror, from uprisings in Africa to post WWII Europe, had me unable to put the book down! What a life this woman had and how well she tells it!

Picked this up from a used bookstore and was amazed at how the prose drew me in. Never heard of the author or publisher either, but definitely a powerful narrative.
Goes to show that there are still some undiscovered gems out there.

As a reviewer, I get hundreds of books a week. But every once in a while...

How long and winding is each of our roads... The road described by this South African woman
is long and winding indeed--and not without its dangers. This is one of those rare books which makes one both laugh and cry by turns. It's a book that any woman would love, as they will all find something to identify with, be it the childish pranks or the spousal abuse by a predatory male.
This is one not to miss.

I have read this book twice because I love the story- Zakes remains one of my favorite African writers-

The publishing of his second novel, The Madonna of Excelsior : A Novel, establishes Zakes Mda as a bright new star of international literature. This novel, like his first, deals with African society?s attempts to deal with the struggle between tradition and modernity in contemporary Africa.

The basis of the novel is an actual event. In 1971 19 citizens of a village in Orange Free State were arrested for violating the Immorality Act in South Africa. Their crime? Interracial sex.

The book is a fictional accounting of the subsequent lives of those caught up in this incident.

The focus of the story, the ?Madonna? of the title is Popi, a young lady who represents the issue of one of these sexual encounters. She is called ?colored? by polite society and far ruder things by most others. Her life transverses the crossover from white apartheid rule to black native African rule and she fit in neither world, being ?to black for the apartheid regime and to white for the African regime?.

Most of the figures in this novel emerge as people deserving, if not of sympathy, at least of understanding. It is one of the strengths of the book that Mda?s politics?if he has any?are entirely absent from the narrative. This is a book about people and their experiences, not a vehicle for political rhetoric. Not that the tragedies of the political situation in South Africa don?t emerge?they most surely do. They do so within the context of the story, however.

In the end the villains in contemporary South Africa are not the apartheid enforcers who instigate the action with their contemptible raid, nor those caught up in it, or even those who discriminate against these people. The villains are those, former opposition leaders resisting the injustice and corruption of apartheid, who now are the legislators, town councilors and such, who allocate jobs, housing, favors and the like to themselves, their wives, girlfriends, family and cronies. All of those who, assuring that everything would change under a regime, instead ensured that nothing in fact would be any different for those without power.

In the end this is a book about people, stuck in an uncomfortable middle, despised by the old guard in their time, despised by the new guard in the present, trying as best they can to come to terms with their pasts, present and futures. It is a singularly insightful and moving tale.

The Madonna of Excelsior is one of the best books I?ve read in years. It?s definitely a ?must read? book.

South African writer Zakes Mda takes the notorious "Immorality Act" of South Africa's apartheid history, as well as a true event in South African history, which flowed from a violation of this law, and loosely weaves a fictionalized tale that will keep the reader turning the pages of this thematically complex book.

The "Immorality Act" was legislated to prevent miscegenation and ensure the purity of the races. In 1971, in the Orange Free State of South Africa, nineteen of its citizens, both white and black, were arrested for violating this law. The fictionalization of this event serves to contrast the old Afrikaner minority dominated South Africa in which apartheid was the law, and the new South Africa in which blacks are now the ruling majority. The author takes the reader through the transition from the old to the new South Africa through the fictionalization of the then notorious violation of the "Immorality Act".

Niki, one of the main protagonists, is an under-educated black woman living in white Afrikaner dominated South Africa in the township of Excelsior. She lives a life that is regulated by apartheid. She lives in substandard housing, works for Afrikaners for subsistence wages, and is at the beck and call of her employer. Moreover, she is easy prey for those Afrikaners who, despite the "Immorality Act", would forcibly subject her sexually. When her employer's wife forces her to submit to a humiliating invasion of her privacy, Niki fights back the only way she knows how, through the sexual enslavement of this woman's husband, her employer.

When she, along with a number of other native black women give birth to children that are clearly of mixed racial parentage, trouble ensues, and arrests under the "Immorality Act" are made of both male Afrikaners and native black women, of whom Niki is one, causing great scandal in the township. This incident is to leave a great mark on Niki's family, as it ensures the demise of her relationship with her husband, Pule, a miner whose irregular visits home, coupled with bouts of domestic violence, contribute to their estrangement. It affects her son, Viliki, who grows up rebellious, a political activist seeking to wrest political control of South Africa from the Afrikaners. It also affects Popi, the beautiful child of her illicit tryst with her employer, who forever seems to be in denial of her mixed race heritage. The book is not only about Niki's travails in white Afrikaner dominated South Africa under apartheid, it is also about Viliki's and Popi's coming of age in a post-apartheid South Africa in transition.

As the old Afrikaner rule in South Africa gives way to the new black majority rule in South Africa, one begins to realize that the issue is not so black and white. It boils down to power, who has it, and who has not. This is ultimately a story about those who are just trying to live their lives as best they can, as South Africa tries to reconcile its past with its present, while looking forward towards a more hopeful future.

Fiction does not always facilitate or augment the understanding of complex realities of time and place. Zakes Mda, however, has achieved this mixture admirably in this novel of his native South Africa. The political events of pre- and post-Apartheid periods take a central place in the story. Yet he manages to avoid being overly heavy on facts and details as he builds the narrative around the impact of one specific event and its aftermath on one small community, Excelsior. He captures the essence of life under Apartheid and the difficulties awaiting all when the regime ends. Old prejudices and tensions remain and the transition to the new SA adds new challenges and conflicts, including among the black political leadership.

Mda uses the 1971 case of the Excelsior 19 as the focus of the first part of his account. A group of white men and black women were charged with violation of the Immorality Act that prohibits intimate relations across race lines. The primary character is Niki, one of the Excelsior 19 women, whose life story is a symbol for this time and place. As a naïve, pretty 18 year old, she attracts the attention of a white Afrikaner who assaults her and keeps pursuing her. Escape into marriage is some protection and also results in her confidence growing. Life is good with a husband and her son, Viliki. Never questioning her role as a servant and second class citizen, a humiliating incident with her white woman boss changes all that.

Her rage leads her to take revenge. Realizing her power as a black beauty and the hold it has over white Afrikaners, she applies it deliberately. The mixed-race daughter Popi is evidence of the hushed-up relationship. Despite the indisputable evidence of children like Popi, the charges against the Excelsior 19 are withdrawn. Still, those implicated and their families have to somehow work out their lives and their various relationships: within families, among neighbours, between Afrikaners, English and Blacks and Coloured. Niki and her children also suffer the consequences. As the narrative of their lives continues, the focus shifts to Popi and her extraordinary beauty. Her features increasingly reveal her parentage to everybody in the community. In the new SA she can play an important role in the community despite the continuing suspicions against mixed race people, who are "not black enough".

Mda does an excellent job of bringing diverse individuals to life. We see them from different angles, we empathize with them and comprehend them as part of a larger reality being is being played out. Nothing is black and white (excuse the pun!), nobody is all "good" or all "bad". Mda acknowledges that Afrikaners maintain their dreams of returning to power and depicts realistically the political conflicts within the black leadership. He introduces two kinds of observers to the novel: Father Claerhout, the Belgian priest-artist living in the region and a knowledgeable "we" narrator. The "trinity" (man, Father, painter), as the Father is referred to, is fascinated by black "madonnas" who sit for him in all their nude loveliness and grace. Niki becomes a preferred subject, mainly because of beautiful young Popi.

The chapters open with the description of one of the trinity's paintings. They create an imaginary world with blue or purple madonnas in lush robes or naked, sitting in yellow corn fields, among surreal bright sunflowers or surrounded by pink and white star like blossoms. The child of the heavy-set full-breasted Madonna is of a lighter shade of brown and with delicate features. Sometimes other elements are added, creating portraits of life in the rural community. Semi-abstract and dreamlike, the paintings are reminiscent of van Gogh. They are always a lead in to the chapter and often the protagonists literally walk off the canvas. The transition between bold imagination and reality is fluid. We, the reader, follow with curiosity and emotion. To complement the trinity's visions, the "we" observer steps in to reflect on people and events. Assumed to be witnesses of Popi's generation, they follow her closely and comment in particular on the attention and mixed feelings she draws in the community. Sometimes critics, sometimes voyeurs, they establish the connections between the paintings and the reality of this microcosm that represents South Africa.

Mda's novel is wide-ranging and multifaceted. While it moves fast through time and events, it allows pauses to ponder scenes and portraits of life and invites reflection of decisive historical events in modern South Africa. You will come away enriched and keen to read more by this remarkable author. [Friederike Knabe]

In sensuous, intensely visual language, author Mda depicts the life of Niki, a black South African, showing her day-to-day struggles to survive under apartheid and raise her children, but he also depicts Fr. Frans Claerhout's idealized vision of her in his paintings--as a colorful Madonna figure, the mother of children who will eventually change the world. Niki has posed for many of Fr. Claerhout's paintings, a job which has helped her to feed her black son and her half-white daughter, even though she has often had to walk thirty-five kilometers to his studio in order to pose. Niki's story, from her teen years to old age, becomes the story of South Africa itself during the last half of the 20th century, a novel told from the perspective of a black author, and quite unlike the novels of Alan Paton, Nadine Gordimer, and J. M. Coetzee, though they cover the same time period.

Excelsior, the township in which Niki lives, is almost entirely black, yet all power in government and business rests in white hands. Without resorting to melodrama or clichés, the author shows in incident after incident, how black women are regarded as chattel, regularly harassed and even raped by their white bosses, town officials, judges, and even clergymen. Yet Niki never yields to self-pity, even when she and eighteen other women and the men who have used them are put on trial for violating the Immorality Act, a violation which has produced Niki's daughter Popi. Imperfect, sometimes angry, and often calculating, Niki comes alive as a woman determined to hang on to her pride, using the only power she has, her sexual power, to control those who would control her.

Vivid scenes of South African life from the 1970s to the present bring Niki and her children to life. As the children grow and become deeply involved in political movements, Mda gives us a clear-eyed picture of South Africa's transition from a restrictive, white-ruled government to a democratically elected government with room for both races. The black people here are real, not idealized, people with hopes, dreams, and strategies for survival, and they evoke enormous sympathy from the reader, especially as their personal limitations and faults become clear. Concentrating less on the national violence and battles for survival, and more on the individual conflicts of people in Excelsior, many of whom the reader has come to like and respect, he presents complex issues in a clear, uncomplicated narrative which throbs with life and offers both hope and caution for the future. Mary Whipple

Malcolm X, in his short life, spoke out strongly and forcefully against the injustices of the world, not just in the streets of the USA but around the globe. In this wonderful collection of his speeches, now in Spanish, he tells the truth to young fighters from Alabama to London to Africa. He talks not just of discrimination in the South, but also of Vietnam. As an internationalist fighter he exhorts young people to become citizens of the world and see the interconnections of struggles. However, the most important legacy of Malcom X is not the historical value of the speeches, but the real relevance to young fighters today. The horrors of war, poverty, racism, and violence are still with us. This book is a tool, still sharp, that can be used by those who want to use it today.

In his short life, Malcolm X became, through overcoming obstacles, challenging what was possible, and educating himself about the world, one of the U.S's foremost champions of the oppressed and exploited here and around the world. From the Congo to Harlem, he spoke out against injustice and called for right thinking people to demand change. In this collection of speeches, he speaks to those perhaps most important---the youth of the world. The speeches addressed the concerns of young people questioning the world they saw all around them in the 1960s---Vietnam, the Congo, the racism and violence in the United States. Malcolm not only spoke of these problems but expressed his confidence that the young people before him could take hold of destiny and transform society into a world worthy of humanity. This book is as important today as the speeches were in the 1960s---a tool for young fighters trying to figure a way out of the horrors of today---war, ecological devastation, poverty, and the continued assaults on civil and democratic rights not just in "dictatorships" somewhere else, but right here in the USA.

Malcolm X fue el dirigente revolucionario más importante que surgió de las luchas de masas de los años 1950 y 1960 en los Estados Unidos. Llegó a una perspectiva de lucha intransigente contra el racismo, las guerras y el saqueo económico que son productos del sistema capitalista. Fundó su estrategia de lucha y su optimismo en una perspectiva internacional de las luchas de los oprimidos en contra los opresores, y sobre todo en contra los ricos norteamericanos y su gobierno.

El libro Malcolm X habla a la juventud presenta cinco de sus discursos en encuentros con jóvenes y estudiantes en los Estados Unidos, Africa y Inglaterra durante el último año de su vida, antes de su asesinato en febrero de 1965. Por todo el mundo, dijo, son los jóvenes "quienes realmente se dedican a la lucha para eliminar la opresión y la explotación." Pero cualquier trabajador, campesino o activista luchando en pro de la justicia y un digno futuro para la humanidad puede ganar mucho en leer y estudiar estos textos.

El libro, por primera vez editado en español, también contiene muchas fotos, notas y un prefacio que ayuda al lector a conocer y valorar los tiempos y luchas de Malcolm X. ¡No lo pierdas!

Malcolm X valoró las calidades de la juventud en una época de rebelión. Los jóvenes rápidamente entran en la lucha cuando reconozcan la oportunidad de producir cambio para los oprimidos. En esta colección de discursos y entrevistas Malcolm dirige su mensaje a la juventud y los insta a encargarse al desafío.

Aunque frecuentemente se identifica Malcolm X con la ciudad de Nueva York, se dieron los discursos en este libro en Ghana, Bretaña (dos) y Mississippi. Cuando Malcolm estaba en el extranjero muchas veces se le estimó un "americano." Pero rápidamente señaló que, "soy de América, pero no soy un americano" (pág. 20). Habló no como un americano, pero como "uno de los veinte millones de víctimas del americanismo."

En sus ardientes discursos Malcolm claramente marcó al gobierno americano como la fuente del problema de opresión, no sólo para los africano-americanos pero también para los Vietnameses, los Congoleños, los Cubanos y muchos otros. Condenó los crímenes internacionales de Washington y animó a la juventud en todos los países a reunirse en un frente común para la lucha. Malcolm muchas veces señaló al 1955 Bandung Conferencia como una ocasión donde los países africanos se pusieron de acuerdo a "sumergir las áreas de diferencia y acentuar las áreas donde tenían algo en común" (pág. 58).

Malcolm estimó la juventud no como una fuerza aparte, pero como el elemento más encendido dentro de naciones, poblaciones y comunidades. Ellos son los que pueden estimular la masa entera a alzarse. Indicó que, "era los estudiantes que causaron la revolución en el Sudan, que barrió Syngman Rhee fuera de oficina en Corea, barrió Menderes fuera en Turquía. Los estudiantes no pensaron en cuanto a los riegos que enfrentaron, y no se los pudieron comprar" (pág. 113).

Malcolm X luchó con una energía increíble. Era lleno de optimismo por el futuro de los oprimidos. Este optimismo surgió de su profunda comprensión del poder inmenso que tiene una gente despertada. La vida de Malcolm nos ofrece un escalón en el escalera que conduce a la liberación.

This book was published at the request of the youth of Cuba! The young communists of Cuba requested that Pathfinder Press make this collection available in Spanish to educate the youth of Cuba about courage, audacity, scientific thinking, racism, and the need for pride in the bravery of youth, pride in the strength of the oppressed, pride in the example of Malcolm X. These are speeches to young people given literally all over the world. Some speeches are given in Harlem. Some of these speeches were given in Selma Alabama at the height of the civil rights struggle in 1965. One of the richest and most beautiful speeches here is the full text--published for the first time in this edition, of a debate Malcolm participated in at the Oxford University union. Another speech is given in Tanzania to African revolutionists. There is one message, Malcolm X's belief that young people, can and will change the world. Malcolm X's believe that the spirit of the then courageous simba fighters in Congo, Viet Cong in Vietnam, revolutionary student youth in France, and civil rights fighters in America could spread to youth around the world and save the world from the racist, imperialist exploiters, and build a world run by what Malcolm calls the "field niggers" is these speeches. Now old myself, though of the generations that heard Malcolm in these years and places, I have no doubt that young people of today facing worse conditions than in Malcolm's time, can pick up where the youth of the 1960s left off, and finish the job the old can no longer do!

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