Africa Books

Cleopatra, a historical fiction book written by Polly Schoyer Brooks tells the story of how the beautiful, Egyptian queen Cleopatra used her elegance to pursue two powerful Roman leaders into helping her regain lost land and conquer more land for her Egyptian kingdom.

When I started reading this book I thought it would be more factual than was my liking. As the book went on it grew more and more exciting until at times I could not put it down. I enjoyed reading about Julius Caesar�s relationship with Cleopatra. It was depressing though when Caesar was stabbed by some of his own subjects. After Caesar�s death Cleopatra was greatly depressed until Mark Antony, one of Caesar�s friends, came to her. She fell in love with him and they ruled Rome and Egypt together.

One of the most interesting parts was went Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Cleopatra�s other powerful husband, were in battle against Octavius and his fleet. While some of their ships were on fire they secretly escaped on Cleopatra�s royal barge and fled back to Alexandria.

The book got boring when Antony was off at battle and there was nothing for Cleopatra to do. It picked up pace though when Antony stabbed himself because Octavius had taken all his army. When Cleopatra heard that her beloved had killed himself she planned her own death. But did she follow out with this plan or did she meet another powerful Roman lover. You will have to read the book to find out.

This book is great for young or old to read. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about history but thinks those text books lack action and are way to boring.

I thought this book was absoutely fantastic! I loved this book because it tells the story of the queen's life in her own perspective. I also like this book because it tells a lot about Cleopatra.You see, I love ancient Egypt,and Cleopatra is my favorite Egyptian ruler. I love learning more and more about Cleopatra and ancient Egypt. This was possibly the best way I could do that. This is also preparing me for a career I want to do when I grow up. I want to be an Egyptologist. This was a great book.

I am in middle school, and I was doing a report on Cleopatra and this was the most helpful book that I found, and not only was it imformative, but it was fun to read. So, not only was this one of the most imformative books I have read, but it is also a good book. I loved this book and would reccommand it to any one at all.

If I don't like a book than I just don't like it. I won't read it and no one can make me. With a book I like you can't get it away from me. I don't know how many times I've been up to 2:00 am reading under the covers. With this book I was up till 4:00 am reading under the covers because I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what was going to happen next. This book takes a woman who knew what she wanted and how to get it. It tells you with wonderful adjectives how she got those ambitions fufilled and what happened after that. It takes a historical event and puts it in one of the lines in the story. So please take my avice and read about the goddess of Egypt and the enemy of Rome.

If I had to pick the man who had the most interesting life on this planet, Jean-Pierre Hallet would be at the top of my list. As a field agent for the government of the Belgian Congo, he comes to help them grow crops and gets deeply involved in African society. The things he does are amazing-and it's all true.
At different times he:
lives amongst the field pygmies, (he wrote another book just about that)
loses his hand in an explosion, then swims from crocodiles,
kills a leopard with a knife,
starts an animal hospital,
witnesses a revolution,
goes through the Masai manhood ritual, killing a charging lion with a spear.
Those are just the highlights. A big man with a bushy beard and a mechanical hand , he was making the rounds of talk shows when I was a teen ager.

I had the pleasure of knowing Jean Pierre in his shop in Santa Monica in the 90s. I heard his stories about being captured by Zairean rebels, being rescued by Zairean troops, and some of the stories "behind" Congo Kitabu. This is one of the most amazing men that has ever lived. I read Congo Kitabu for the first time in the 80s, and Jean-Pierre's efforts to save the Efe Pygmies of the Ituri forest in his later life equals that of Congo Kitabu. This book is only part 1 of one of the most amazing lives of our century. There is more to his story, and that of the Efe Pygmies, that has yet to be told.

This is one of the hidden gems of our time. It is a wonder that it has not been reprinted.

I first read Congo Kitabu in the 60's while in high school and was in awe of this true-life adventure. I nearly got to meet the author but couldn't get a ride to where he was speaking. This is one of those books everyone ought to read, because it is a page-turner, but also because it talks about a troubled area of the planet. This should be read with Out of America by Keith Richberg, a more current view of Africa. This is one of those books you'll never forget--it'll make a lasting impression and you'll want to read it again.

I had just seen Matrix Revolution, which seemed to me a mythical heroic saga, and, unable to sleep, searched my bookshelves for something to read. Little did I know as I began to read Congo Kitabu that I was entering a real-life heroic saga.

Congo Kitabu is the story of Jean-Pierre Hallet's life in Africa between 1948 and 1960. To tell the details of those years would be to spoil a breath-taking story, so I will simply talk about Jean-Pierre.

This is a man who takes his life as it comes, with humor and a kind of courage few of us know. He becomes part of all he experiences, he cares, he's a practical visionary who sees the possibilities in people and situations and creates ways to bring those possibilities about. He's also a pragmatic realist who never seems to sucuumb to sadness or despair, despite circumstances whcih would make that a great temptation, but deals directly with whatever he faces.

His adventures, seeing the Africa of his day through his eyes, makes the book a great read. His heroics, both the everyday kind and the extraordinary kind, expand my understanding of what it is to be human.

In an interview Mr. Hallet says he never courted danger for its own sake, but... "it's simply that I refuse to have anything to do with that negative feeling called fear." Conga Kitabu is a great read simply as a story, as the reader scrambles along with Hallet during his numerous and fascinating adventures. It's also the heroic tale of a man who rose above fear again and again as he followed his heart, his passion, his vision. As such it expands its reader into new territory, calling him or her to do likewise.

... all these are present in this fine study. I am especially impressed with the criticisms that Igoe mounts about "fortress conservation," and it brings to mind the debates over exclusionary conservation versus "wise use" in the U.S., following John Muir, Gary Snyder, and others. The historical threads to late 19th-century U.S. preservation and the English enclosure movements are valuable, and they echo in works by Vandana Shiva and other critics of multinational corporatization.

Recently I was asked to sit for a short interview on camera related to immigration issues and policy in central Iowa. The camera, from a local TV station, was shut down by a hotel manager because of "private property." This enclosure of politics - its conduct on private turf instead of in public forums and spaces - is very parallel to the privatization of lands and the management of parks that Igoe describes in East Africa. These are only some of the consequences that capitalist privatization bring to us: the end to meaningful public debate, the dislocation of otherwise grounded and vested local communities, and so on.

I highly recommend this book for courses in environmental science, land and resource management, globalization, and, of course, any of a number of related specializations in sociocultural anthropology. It would be a good book for introductory courses as well.

From the first page of his introduction, Jim Igoe's assertiveness in presenting his work on why and how community-based conservation is failing in parts of Tanzania as well as in the United States hits readers hard, sparking their interest in these issues. Over the last decade the term conservation has reached a fluid state in which it presents the world with a new obstacle of maintaining a balance between humans and the environment, which will ideally promote reciprocal productivity in a sustainable measure. Igoe's account of the state of conservation surrounding National Parks in both the United States and Northern Tanzania is unique. Not only was he able to portray his experiences in a manner in which a western reader can relate to, but he was also able to maintain an outside perspective while becoming immersed in a new culture. In affect, Igoe was able to make correlations between two indigenous cultures who are experiencing similar struggles as they have been pushed off their land in the interest of national conservation. Additionally, he critically assesses the current approaches, which are being used to address the issue of conflict between indigenous people, political leaders and environmental conservationists.
I found two dominant strengths in this literature, the first of which is his use of diverse cultural examples. As an undergraduate student with a strong interest in this topic as well as some previous knowledge concerning the issues presented, I found Igoe's narrative style refreshing as well as engaging. Readers are able to get a direct insight into the Maasai culture and a clear historical account of the implications of colonialism and religion. Additionally, Igoe presents the progression of the development of national parks and what resulted in western fortress conservation in Tanzania. Together this information provides a solid background allowing readers who are both educated and new to these topics to gain a better understanding of how the current state of conservation arose. Secondly, his combination of information creates a piece of literature that addresses critical global issues, which can be applied to a wide variety of disciplines. Alone this speaks highly for the books adaptability in various classrooms as well as a reference for professionals in various fields. Furthermore, it supports the fact that in order for new forms of conservation to be successful it is necessary to bring together experts in various social, political, and scientific disciplines.

The social consequences that conservation brings to indigenous people has often been ignored by those trying to protect natural resources and wildlife. Jim Igoe explains and displays what happens and has happened to the people who live outside the famous national parks many of us know and cherish around the world. He presents case studies of how people who live outside the parks have suffered all over the globe. He describes this situation with passion and personal examples, as he lived with many of the people he describes. His work has given him a unique perspective, as he did not travel or live like the typical tourist who wants to view the native flora and fauna that has been protected.

The book's primary focus is East Africa, but Jim includes a substantial amount of material from other regions and cultures. His strength, in this text, is his ability to look at conservation through a global lens, but with a native's perspective. His knack for engaging people at all levels shows in this book. Jim's writing is easy to follow, crystal clear, and relates his first hand experiences and examples in a way that quickly give his work broad appeal. He brings to life the reality of indigenous people struggling to adapt to globalization and the pressure on natural resource base they have relied on for centuries.

This book has appeal at many levels. For high school and undergraduate students it offers an interesting examples of how important anthropology is to understanding the human issues of many global problems. His personal examples and ideas offer discussion points, which once read will not be forgotten. For graduate students Jim offers many ideas on how his own work with NGO's (Non government organizations) got started, progressed, and changed his life. The importance of understanding land tenure, community control, the role of NGO's and different types of parks, as well as the capacity of the local people are all shown to clearly impact both conservation and local people. For conservationists, researchers, and the general public this book offers a unique perspective and voice of the people who have been displaced, lost their livelihoods, and in a few cases successfully adapted to this change.

Globalization has affected us all, and in many cases has had negative consequences for indigenous people. Jim clearly shows that there are much larger forces at work than simply protecting interests of the wildlife and wild areas. Exploring policies of the National Park Service in the United States, as well as policies of other countries, he weaves together the similarities and clearly points out the different ways in which natural resources are managed. In addition to offering an important critique of failed policies, Jim Igoe offers alternative solutions necessary for both the environment and social justice, while providing lessons in history, land tenure and policy making from all over the globe. I recommend this book to all of my students traveling abroad to work with indigenous people.

Good authorship requires two things - a story to tell and good way of communicating it. Jim Igoe has both in buckets. Conservation and Globalisation is a clear and challenging story of how conservation practices can disrupt local lives and how apparently straightforward solutions to the problems resulting are riven with complexity and difficulty.

The book is based primarily on fieldwork in East Africa and Prof Igoe's enlivens his account of the problems of understanding the worlds he encountered there with a down to earth uncomplicated style that takes the reader right out to the towns and plains where the work was conducted. This is a must-read for any student contemplating ethnographic or anthropological fieldwork. But its scope is far more than merely East Africa. Prof Igoe's pen takes us to England before the Industrial Revolution and to the latest developments in National Parks in the US, Australia, Nepal, Brazil and Panama. He quite clearly shows how the problems of conservation and civil society are global in their origins and nature and have to be understood through a multitude of sites.

One of the book's greatest strengths is its analysis of civil society, local movements and non-governmental organisations. At a time when much hope and expectation is vested in democratisation and local empowerment this work is a sanguine wake-up call to the problems that these notions bring with them. It quite clearly demonstrates how these ideas are manipulated by local actors, often with very different agendas from global organisations, and transformed by the perpetuated dysfunction typical of the institutions implementing of global development and conservation ideals.

I would, therefore, recommend this book to students, conservationists and development workers in all situations. Its language and style are accessible to all. Its questions and challenges will inform expert practitioners, university teachers and PhD students. This is an excellent book.

Peter Dalglish is a visionary...there are no two ways about it. He has seen and experienced more in his lifetime than many of us ever will, and his story is one which every young person should read.

He has touched the lives of children from war-torn North Africa to the corrupt shanty towns of Bangkok--and in each he has made a fundamental difference in those children's lives. His contribution to social development is as far-reaching as any of the great figures in international affairs that may spring to mind, except he has achieved it on a small-scale, personal level.

I believe Mr. Dalglish has touched on a point that we should all take to heart: that those of us who have been fortunate enough to have the resources we do, have an OBLIGATION to give more to the lives of these impoverished children.

I commend Mr. Dalglish and think his book a fantastic reflection of a distinguished career of service.

This book is touching and encouraging on all levels. It teaches the true meaning of many things, touching on the soul and heart. Definetly a must read.

Peter Dalgish's book is one of the fantastic I have ever read. It is an emotional and touching story, no matter how sad or heart wrenching. But it also lets us believe in freedom and truth. Read this books!

I didn't expect to enjoy this book as much as I did; I was interested to read it after hearing Peter Dalgleish speak. He is a charismatic, brilliant speaker and this book is equally riveting. A lawyer by training, Dalgleish was heading for the big salary, the luxury life. The book charts how he turned himself around and ended up using his characteristic drive and energy to help some of the world's poorest children. It will make you question the values of western society and it will make you realise that with energy and a determination, many things are indeed possible.

Nell Irvin Painter is the Edward Professor of American History at Princeton University. She is author of many books on the Black experience and African American history in the United States, including 'Sojourner Truth: A Life, A Symbol' and 'Southern History across the Color Line'. This book, 'Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present', is a broad, sweeping text that stirs and involves the reader in the long and significant history of this people in North America. Beginning with the Middle Passage and slave trade that brought the majority of Africans to the Western Hemisphere, Painter continues her narrative through to very recent events, including the appointments of Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice as Secretaries of State for the United States.

Painter draws on early stories and official histories, biographical accounts and legends, well-known events and little known incidents. One person highlighted is Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest of the African slaves to write his account. As one might expect, Painter's pieces on Sojourner Truth and others of her generation are particularly good.

Painter also draws on the official history of the quest for civil rights. She looks at famous court cases, like the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson (which made 'separate but equal' a legal standard), Brown v. Board of Education (which knocked down the same 'separate but equal' as being unworkable), and other political and legal events in the quest for civil rights, even those sometimes viewed as separate from the Civil Rights Movement proper, which is also highlighted in good detail.

There is also a good discussion of the Black culture in terms of art, literature, film, music and other aspects. The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s is highlighted, as are the figures who came out of this period - Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, Wallace Thurman, and Zora Neale Hurston, not to mention the very influential Apollo Theatre, helped launch the careers of such talent as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown, and later Michael Jackson.

Painter's historical survey includes a good coverage of the Civil War and the Abolitionist movement, including the aftermath of the unfulfilled promises of Reconstruction.

This is a well-illustrated book, with over a hundred photographs and other graphics, and an engaging style of text that keeps the attention of the reader very much engaged.

This is a great book to read, covers everything from the origns of slavery to the rapid growth of hip-hop. The artwork that is included in the book is phenomenal and really adds to the reading experience. This book will be one of the few scholastic books that I don't sell back to the bookstore.

very descriptive Book on African Americans from Slavery to the present day. very detailed Book that talks about many firsts&also deals with Politics,Entertainment,Creativity&is a full Book that is a Must Read&Have.

The past isn't what it used to be.

That's one of the threads which runs throughout this engaging narrative of African American history from 1619 to the present. Too often students misconstrue history as being carved in stone but as this book illustrates - literally, for it includes nearly 150 works of art which provide comment upon on historical events - interpretations of the past change as new facts come to light, or are viewed through a more diverse lens and connected to current events.

For example, Painter frequently uses the word "terrorist" when referring to white supremacists who have used violence to limit the rights and economic development of black Americans for centuries. It's a word which is not only appropriate, but more meaningful to contemporary students.

Though not an art history book per se (it does not provide analysis of the art, only descriptions which place it in historical context) there is biographical information about each artist at the end of the book.

Engaging and highly readable, I recommend this book to anyone seeking a general overview of African American history and culture. I think it would be particularly useful as a text for high school Advanced Placement courses.

I think that parents should buy this book for children of the age 1-6 years of age. I suggest this book because it is silly and gives a good idea about what sounds the animals make. This book called The Crocodile Beat is about music and rhymes with animals.
This book crocodile Beat is as silly as tom and Jerry. First the animal are all making noises and rhymes. Second the lion has a king's crown and a throne. Finally when the crocodile tries to eat them and ends up eating a chair.

"Crocodile Beat" has charmed all three of my boys from the time they were under a year old. The animal story mixes with the sounds making it a winner for little ones. All of my boys memorized it before they turned 2! The only reason I am ordering it now is because we gave our copy as a gift. I am sorry to see it is not available in hardcover.

I have five children, ages newborn to six. "Crocodile Beat" is a family favorite. It's written in a sort of rap song form, about various animals engaged in a parade through the jungle while a hungry crocodile waits near by. "Down by the river in the heat of the day... a crocodile sleeps and awaits his prey...Zzzz...Zzzz....Zzzz." Except for the baby, of course, we all have the entire book memorized. It's fun, active, and exciting. I'm buying one for each of my kids' memory boxes, expecting the next generation to enjoy it as much as we do.

My 14-month-old LOVES this book. Some of the pages make him laugh out loud. He stomps his feet and claps his hands with the animals as we read this rhythmic story of sounds and activity. He asks for it at least once a day. We even got him a stuffed monkey (now a favorite) because he so loves the monkeys in this book. It's a real keeper - I too wish it were available here in hardcover - but I am buying it for two friends for the holidays anyway because it's so good!

For 300 years the Atlantic Slave Trade brought 12 million people from Africa to the New World. But in spite of the huge numbers of people who made the trip there have been only a handful of first-person accounts left by those who made that horrible trip. Most of the slaves lived and died without having a chance to tell their story. It was not until the advent of the Civil Rights Movement that much needed attention was finally given to one of the saddest chapters in American history.
That makes Dreams of Africa in Alabama, The Slave Ship Clotilda and the Story of the Last Africans Brought to America such a welcome addition to the field of African-American and Southern history. In Dreams, Dr. Sylviane Diouf, who is the curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, tells the story of the last Africans brought to the United States on the ship Clotilda.The slave trade was outlawed in 1807, but that did not stop slave traders from bringing slaves into the United States. In 1860, the year before the outbreak of the Civil War, Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile businessman from Maine, bet a group of friends that he could bring a shipful of Africans right into Mobile Bay "under the officers noses." He won the bet.
The 110 people that Meaher brought from the kingdom of Dahomey on the west coast of Africa were named Oluale, Pollee Allen, Zuma, Ossa Keeby, and Cudjo Lewis, who would be the last of the shipmates to die in 1935. Slaves for only five years before they won their freedom at the end of the war, they failed in their quest to get back home and instead carved out a life for themselves in their own town outside of Mobile, Africa Town.
Forgotten for years, their story is brought to life by Svlviane Diouf, who thanks to her outstanding research and writing skills brings to life the dreadful trip during the Middle Passage,and then the dehumanzing, backbreaking life of a slave in Alabama during the Civil War. Even years later, the shipmates would break down when they tried to talk about the trip on the Clotilda. Looked down upon by whites and other blacks as "savage Africans," a bias that would haunt them and their families into the 20th century, they lived through slavery, war,and Jim Crow and created the only town of its kind in the United States, a town founded and lived in by people who had been brought to this country as slaves from Africa.
For 50 years, memebers of the shipmates' families and others have worked to preserve the history of Africatown and the story of the men and women who founded it. There is still much that is needed to be done to save that legacy before it is too late. Hopefully Dr. Diouf book will help to raise awareness about this important and little known chapter from American history.

This book is wonderful, excellent, and educational and knowledge filled, without being an academic bore. I don't even know where to start. I will say buy your hardback copy now. This author deserves financial support through the purchase of this book. The story of the Clotilda Africans should be known. I beg y'all to please read this book, and if you love it encourage others to read it. This is one of a few first hands accounts of Africans telling their stories by an unbiased storyteller. Ms. Diouf's writing skills make this an easy read.

Dreams tell us about the lives and the journey of 110 Africans who were brought from Dahomey, known today as Benin in West Africa. Benin is situated between Nigeria and Togo. A schooner, by the name of Clotilda, was built and dispatched from Mobile Bay Alabama to the Kingdom, by Timothy Meaher, wealthy businessman in Mobile. In a drunken stupor he bragged to his associates that he could bring Africans into the Mobile without detection from authorities. Coincidentally, an advertisement appeared in the Mobile Press Register that the King of Dahomey was doing a brisk sale in Africans. So it was an open secret that Africans could still be brought into the country.

Timothy decided to commission the building of the Clotilda for the journey to Dahomey, even though the transportation of Africans was abolished in 1808. The Clotida was an efficient, light and swift boat. It would criss cross the Atlantic in record time.

The Africans were primarily spoils of warfare and the raids of villages other ethnic Africans. They came from various ethnic groups and cultures. However, the core group, were Yorubas. The Yorubas are a large ethnic groups, with many subgroups who live in what is now Benin and southwest Nigeria. They had names like "Kossola,, Abache, Abile, Omolabi, Kupollee, Kehounco, and Arzuma."

The Yorubas are generally an urban people. They live in towns and city-states. However, they all have home villages that their people hail. These Africans were brought to South America and the Caribbean islands in very large number. However, out of the 480,000 or so Africans brought to the US, less than 5% came from this group. Whereas the people out of the Bight of Biafra(Ibos and Ibibio) comprise about 24% of African population brought to the US, which is pretty much in dead competition as far as numbers to the BaKongo and Angolans. So this group is quite unique.

Ms. Slyviane tells us their story primarily through the eyes of the last survivor of the Clotilda Africans, Cudjo Lewis aka Kossola, a Yoruba. He survived all of his children, wife, and shipmates.

This is a fascinating story of African American history, American history, and African history. Cudjo and his shipmates had dreamed and planned to get back to their homeland, but it never happened.

What makes this book so fascinating is that we actually know the slaver, the captain, the ship, and where they came from. Not only that, about 30 of the Africans lived on Meaher's land. So there is first hand information and resources from the slavers, the Africans, and their descendents.

What is more fascinating to me is I am a native Mobilian. I grew up and was schooled there from kinder garden to college. Yet I don't recall ever hearing anything about the Clotilda until years later after I left home. Again, I am a Mobilian. Y'all talkin' about the Miss Education of the Negro. I am raise my hands without shame. I was one.

Again, I am begging folks to read this book, especially my folks(AAs) and other folks of Central and West African descent, i.e. Angola, Kongo(Zaire), Senegambia, Guinea, Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leon, etc. Knowledge of self and ones history is the ultimate self-love. Y'all want regret it.

I also encourage others who are genuinely interested in a truthful and accurate telling of history to read this wonderful book.

I cannot recommend this book any more feverishly. It is incredibly well researched and written. The author lays down the historical facts in a clear manner and then leaves the characters to entice you into their lives and speak to you. The stories are never sensationalized, if anything, it is this lack of dramatization that enables the stories to unfold naturally.

The book clearly shows how within a relatively short space of time certain aspects of a culture may vanish, but other aspects which form the core of a community's make-up are improvised regardless of the circumstances and continued down the line (the communal spirit of the Africans, reverence to authority, conflict resolution etc). Cudjo's life was the one delved into in the greatest detail and it evolved to be as remarkable as it was melancholic.

After the last of the African deportees dies, I can only imagine the loneliness that would have haunted him - being alone in America, a land that he had lived in for three quarters of his life, but one that was still alien to him, one where no other local born Africans were in his immediate vicinity would surely have quelled his tenacious will and defiant spirit. For him to have lived the rest of his years, not being able to converse in his native tongue or to express his innermost feelings in a manner capable of being immediately understood by his neighbors would surely have been unbearably painful. There is an African proverb that states that "you know who a person really is by the language they cry in". When all he had ever known was gone and he lamented for them in his native tongue, I wonder, did the people around him understand the depth of his despair? After all his personal losses and tragedies in America, he finally relents of his desire to go back to Africa and surmises that he was indeed alone on earth - his family in America was no more and he figured that his family in Africa would also be no more - an unbearable set of circumstances to accept. The author should be commended for unearthing and bringing to life such a great story, but even more importantly, for doing so in as lucid a manner as is possible. My only question is how on earth do we let a story as remarkable as this just dawdle with no attempt to publicise it more. It would be great if we could have a children's book on the story.
A trip to AficaTown in Alabama is in the offing for my family.

Dreams of Africa in Alabama is a beautifully written and meticulous book. It's evident that Ms. Diouf spent a considerable amount of time and detail with her research. The author describes the Alabama slave trade and the events that lead to the maiden voyage of the modified schooner, Clotilda. She devotes two chapters to the lives of the "shipmates" - one prior to their capture and the other chronicling their imprisonment in the barracoons (slave pens) and their subsequent Middle Passage voyage. The remaining chapters recount the lives of the deported Africans during their enslavement and post emancipation.

In 1808 the United States abolished the international slave trade. In order to circumvent the law, many Southerners modified existing ships to camouflage their true intent and evade naval officials. The Clotilda was one such ship. Seeking to make a profit on the sale of Africans, the Meaher brothers and their associates went about the business of arranging a slaving run. Many of the captured Africans were placed into slavery as a result of lost tribal wars and/or suspect alliances between African Kings and European and American merchants.

When the humiliation and brutality of slavery was over, the shipmates endured Jim Crow, disenfranchisement and other forms of maltreatment. In spite of those obstacles, the Africans purchased land just outside of Mobile, Alabama, and became a self-sufficient community with a bank, farms, schools and churches. The shipmates limited their interaction with non-African people. Other than their contact with Americans and African Americans in the workplace, the Africans made little effort to interact anyone who wasn't from the continent in their personal lives. Intermarriages between Africans and African Americans occurred in small numbers. There were attempts to return to their families and homes in Africa; run-ins with the law; and a desire to dispel the rumors of their savagery and cannibalism.

This book is a sobering and painful account of some of the atrocities Africans endured. Ms. Diouf interviewed the descendants of the Mobile, Alabama slaves, and poured over mountains of archives in libraries and private collections to give the reader an up close and personal view of the lives of the shipmates of the Clotilda. There are many more stories and details to be discovered when you read Dreams of Africa in Alabama.

This is an excellent and comprehensive survey of
Africa's enormous economic potential; paradoxically,
the richest yet poorest continent, as the author
convincingly argues. He has looked at the potential of
every country in sub-Saharan Africa, naming crops,
minerals and other resources. The book is also a
balanced account of the failed - socialist - economic
policies most African countries pursued since
independence, and of the market approach adopted
mostly in the 1990s after the end of Communism as a
rival ideology in the international arena. The author
also makes strong arguments for regional integration,
without which Africa is doomed. But he does not
adequately address the negative impact of globalization
and the market economy - of which he's very much aware -
on African countries which has had catastrophic
consequences, in terms of lost jobs and income, health
care, educational opportunities and other services for
millions of Africans already living in abject poverty.
May be that was not his intention in this sweeping survey
and analysis. He does, however, warn against the
predatory nature of capitalism which, he says, is
ruthless and capitalizes on greed; and calls for
government intervention to protect the weak, but
without reverting to socialism. It is a useful text,
and an interesting one to read. But it would have been
even more interesting if the publisher and the editor
had taken the time to correct glaring typos found in
the book. It's hard to understand why they didn't, and
even harder to believe it's the writer's fault,
especially when the book is supposed to be a college
textbook published by a leading academic publisher. A
number of books, including this one, by the same author
are found in university libraries, obviously recommended
for purchase by professors in appropriate departments.
Yet such embarassing mistakes are inexcusable and may
even impair the author's credibility, while the blame
should really be placed on the publisher and his/her
editor or editors who are responsible for the
final product. For example, Ghanaian President Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah was overthrown in February 1966, not in 1996 as
is stated in the book; a date the author knows very well,
especially as a former news reporter in Tanzania and in
a country whose government under President Julius Nyerere shared ideological affinity with
Nkrumah's. In spite of all this, the author's work
remains true to its central thesis: how to achieve
economic development in Africa in this era of
globalization, despite the author's reservations about
Western penetration of the continent because of
EuroAmerican - and Japanese - domination of the global
economy.

A brilliant overview of Africa's abundant wealth, and a vital critique of the failed socialist policies which ruined Africa's economies.

Godfrey Mwakikagile should be commended for showing us that Africa is not an entirely hopeless continent. The main problem is its leaders, busy stealin'. And spending huge amounts of money on weapons to kill their own people, whom they also regularly starve into submission.

"Economic Development in Africa" is also an inspiring book. It should encourage us to unite and integrate our economies. As the author says, the continent has huge potential. But without economic integration, Africa will indeed be a hopeless continent.

There are, however, hopeful signs. In East Africa, we have the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar (Tanzania), with problems of course, but enough proof that African countries can indeed unite. We also have revived the East African Comunity made up of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, and there is serious talk of these countries forming a political union. In southern Africa is the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and in West Africa, ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which already has plans to introduce a common currency, the Eco, by 2004.

So, there is hope. And we need more books like "Economic Development in Africa," especially by our own African writers like Godfrey Mwakikagile, to encourage us and point in the right direction. We are already headed that way. But we need the right kind of leaders to go all the way.

As an African myself, I am both proud and ashamed of our continent, supposedly the richest yet poorest. Why are we in such a mess?

Godfrey Mwakikagile from neighboring Tanzania - I come from Zambia - provides some of the answers in his excellent study, "Economic Development in Africa." We have had bad leadership for decades since independence; we have pursued wrong policies; we have not fully used our potential; and we are hopelessly disunited, despite claims to the contrary, as we continue to pay lip service to regional integration and African unity on a continental scale.

There is no other continent so richly endowed in natural resources; and probably no other continent so fertile in different parts of this huge land mass, the second largest after Asia. It is estimated that there are four acres of arable land for every African; yet, on average, less than one acre is under cultivation. And tens of millions of Africans are starving or undernourished. Eating one meal a day is a luxury; one every other day, the norm for millions.

It is potentially the richest continent. But it is also the poorest, the most battle-scarred, disease-ridden, and least developed. This is also a continent where the people would not only be able to feed themselves; they would be able to feed fellow Africans in less endowed areas instead of seeking international relief. It is also a continent which used to export food in the thirties, forties and fifties. Now it imports even beans and maize which we can easily grow ourselves in abundance.

Even debt forgiveness won't do us much good unless our leaders are held accountable for their actions. Instead, they are busy stealing from us, depositing in foreign banks what should be used to develop our countries. They even steal foreign aid coming from donor nations. The masses hardly get anything. Forgiving poor countries is a good idea. But also remember who's being forgiven: the leaders for what they stole.

Make them return what they stole. Donor nations can make them do that because that's where our leaders hide the money, the gold and diamonds, they stole from us. That's also where they go to buy expensive merchandise. Don't let them in, and freeze their accounts. And tell them to stay where they are, in their countries, and work with their people to develop their countries.

Africa is not going to be developed by outsiders. We are the only people who can develop our continent. But we must have the right kind of leadership, and we must work together. The author makes a very strong case, and an impassioned plea, for regional integration without which Africa is doomed. That, alone, is good reason why African government officials should read "Economic Development in Africa" by Godfrey Mwakikagile, one of our most clear-headed writers and articulate Pan-African spokesmen on a continent being led astray by our leaders, many of them muddle-headed.

What struck me most about Dr. Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, "Economic Development in Africa," is the vast amount of wealth the continent has: the minerals, agricultural products, the superbly fertile land in many parts of the continent, and much more...The unscrupulous nature of most African leaders is one of the highly volatile subjects the author addresses in his book. The book is also an excellent guide for those who don't know much about but want to invest in Africa. The focus is on sub-Saharan Africa where the author has examined the economic potential of every country, from crops to minerals. And as a textbook for development and comparative studies, it has rightfully earned its place in university libraries and on the shelves of economics and international relations professors.

But the book is equally important to members of the general public who want to know about the economic potential of the world's poorest continent. They'll find out that Africa is not really that poor. It is the leaders who have made it poor. And it is the leadership that must change in order for the continent to exploit its full potential for the benefit of all its people. They have suffered enough. And Godfrey Mwakikagile makes that clear. African leaders should, at least, have the decency to concede that much.

I never fail to pick-up the book from my coffee table and find something I might has missed previously.

Imagine, there was something I overlooked.

DJR

Beautiful and compelling. A fascinating book, and one of the best of its kind ever made.

Just got to say that I live out in Gamba, Gabon as my family work for Shell Gabon and in all the time I have been there, I never imagined that beauty out there exists as deeply as portrayed in this book. You look at the beaches and you think wow but to then see it as detailed as it is in the Edge of Africa, it brings real light to your eyes. Get it.

I just put the book down and all I can say is "Wow". I am amazed at the spectacular photographs and vivid descriptions of the book. It made me feel like I was in Africa. The photographer depicts the various animal, plant, and geography so unique to the area, while the author describes the details and makes you feel like you are right there. This gives me a different perspective to other images and documentation I have seen regarding this region of Africa. Recommended!

While it lacks the depth of a Blue Guide, this book is a helpful tool for negotiating many of Egypts sites. We used it for our 8 day trip to Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel, and it served us well as an addition to the Lonely Planet guidebook.

Not since the famous Baedeker guide of 1929 has someone written such a comprehensive and lucid book about Egypt. Michael Haag writes with reassuring authority -- clearly he knows and loves the country well -- and with an eye for revealing detail and with a narrative ability that makes this book as enjoyable to read and as unputdownable as a good novel. This is the book to take with you to Egypt, and to read before you go and after you have returned. You could have no better companion.

The only way to really know the value of a guide book is to use it, and that is what I most thoroughly did during my five weeks of travel through Egypt. A marvellous book! A comprehensive, assured and thoroughly readable historical and cultural account of five thousand years of civilization, as well as being entirely practical for the traveler in every respect, so that whether concerning accommodations or ways of moving about the country or where to eat or to shop, I came to trust Mr Haag entirely. A trip to Egypt is the journey of a lifetime and you owe it to yourself to have with you this incomparable companion.

Michael Haag's Egypt is a substantive compendium of practical travel advice noting more than 240 hand-picked places for the traveler to stay, as well as over 150 quality tested restaurants, bars and cafes. Enhanced with color maps of Egypt and the city center of Cairo, 47 additional maps and site plans, full coverage of the new, state-of-the-art library at Alexandria, and a completely revised chapter on Nubia (including full details of cruise itineraries on Lake Nasser), and with a thoroughly "reader friendly" and eloquent text, Egypt is the complete, comprehensive, dependable, portable, indispensable travel guide recommended to tourists, businessmen, students, and anyone else planning a trip to the fabled lands, cities, and monuments of Egypt.