Africa Books

Great advice especially for first time visitors to any of the covered areas. Heavy on "LBJ's" but that's no real flaw -
twitchers are people, too. Directions generally correct and useful where I used them in South Africa. You could actually plan a birding trip using the info in the book.

This book is so full of information that it transcends the format of a typical site guide (you'll find advice on the type of car jack and how to behave in case of attacks by wild animals. The target audience are independent birders who will find the guide indispensable for Namibia, Botswana and especially South Africa. Commendably, the less commonly traveled adjoining countries of Zambia and Angola find coverage as well, even though they are not strictly in Southern Africa. One hopes that success will breed a future edition in which I would like to find GPS coordinates, particularly for the more remote sites. Even if you don't have any immediate plans for a birding trip to Southern Africa this book would enjoyable for the armchair adventurer fascinated by the charismatic (and often enigmatic) avifauna. Congratulations also to the publisher for keeping the price so low.

I just got back from a two month self-guided birding trip to South Africa. I used this book for all my planning and selection of the places to visit. The book proved invaluable. It is well laid out, includes very good maps - including one of the whole of Southern Africa with all the birding spots clearly marked on it, it has many excellent bird and scenery photographs and a complete list of all the birds that can be seen with a cross-reference to their location in the book. A few minor points that caused me some irritations during the trip: only odd pages are numbered in the middle of the right hand side (very confusing); some of the maps are a little misleading e.g. the Sir Lowry's pass map is incorrect - the trail starts directly opposite the car park and not downhill as shown; some of the instructions are also incorrect e.g. the instructions to the Damara Tern Colony (I could not find the location.) These are minor points that an able birder can easily overcome. The book also covers other Southern African countries however having lived in Zambia and Zimbabwe I found their coverage of these two countries to be very sparse only covering the top birding spots. I strongly recommend this book if you are planning a trip to this beautiful area of our planet so rich in birds.

This wonderful and insightful work by Pierre Englebert is one of the best works out there on the political economy of Africa. His thesis is that Africa's wide range of economic experiences (despite the general malaise) has its roots in the varying levels of historical legitimacy exhibited by African states. He backs this argument up with impressive quantitative data and a qualitative look into how illegitimacy retards growth and development. His most controversial claims come as he questions that sanctity of the state boundaries bestoyed on Africa by colonialism. Brilliant, insightful and accessible!

I learned a lot from reading this book. It provides both a very thorough and detailed account of Africa's mixed development fortunes and an original theory of development and underdevelopment. It is very well written.

This book provides a sophisticated and nuanced theory of African underdevelopment, which also explains African success stories! It represents one of the most important theoretical advances in African studies in a long time, and it is not dogmatic at all. This book incorporates historical, sociological, political and economic insights to derive a general theory of the determinants of poverty and weak state capacity in Africa. It is very well written and will be accessible to undergraduates as well as advanced readers. Rich in statistical evidence, the text always remains clear, even to the quantitative novice, and is full of real life examples. A compelling argument and a real "tour de force."

In his book, "Abafana", Stef de Klerk has created the perfect blend of artistry and erotica by coupling his physically attractive models with the lush land and seascapes of the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

The photographs are well-composed and the colors are faithfully reproduced by the printer who beautifully captures the interaction of the setting sun and the warm skin of the chosen model(s).

The attractive young men of the Xhosa tribe are featured with and without various props, at all times in good taste and proud of their heritage.

I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who appreciates the physical beauty of the nude black male and encourage you to add it to your own personal library.

This is art. These are incredible pictures of black african males in their context. The complement of the African scenery with their luscious bodies made me discover an entire new perspective on african male nude.
If you love art and photography this is your book. If you love black males, this is for you.

Nubian gods in situtaions and poses that will appeal to the most salacious aspects of human sexuality. VERY HOT STUFF.

It was a pleasure to read this creative work. I found I did not want to put it down, anxiously waiting to see how the author would tie all the loose ends together. - It was superbly done, and has me eagerly anticipating her next book.

It was a pleasure to read this creative piece of work. I found I did not want to put it down, anxiously waiting to see how the author would tie all the loose ends together. - It was superbly done, and has me anticipating her next book.

One of two new beautifully written, fascinating books by Marie Warder - author of "The Bronze Killer". One cannot but feel sympathy for the young Marguerite caught in the web of her marriage, and we are drawn from page to page in the hope that all will be well in the end. It is always so interesting to read about places you have visited and to learn the early history of the area. I was in Cape town, South Africa in the early 90's so I have been to the top of Table Mountain and have sipped the wine in the Stellenbosch vineyards. Both books have a soft cover, which I especially enjoy as I like to read books in bed or laying on a chaise lounge on the patio. They are also very reasonably priced. I highly recommend both books as a definite must read

Fue necesario unir los campesinos y trabajadores -los victimas del capitalismo- para llevar a cabo la revolucion democratica en el pais de Sudafrica, en contra de los mismos capitalistas. Y no solo fue una clase capitalista en su pais, sino un imperialismo que extraia ganancias de muchos paises del sur y centro de su continente.

Parece ironico, pero asi es el dilema del capitalismo en su fase imperialista actual. Sudafrica era uno de los ultimos ejemplos de lo que Lenin explicaba a principios del siglo XX en relacion de los paises sometidos al capitalismo (Imperialismo: la fase superior del capitalismo). Habiendo consumido su periodo revolucionario con la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos, de 1865 en adelante la burguesia ya no es capaz de ofrecer el liderazgo para ninguna revolucion democratica en ningun rincon del mundo. Unicamente los campesinos y trabajadores pueden instalar las leyes de igualdad, con la burguesia esperando impaciente de regresar del margen para tomar el poder una vez consumidas las necesidades democraticas.

Con Nelson Mandela de frente, el Congreso Nacional Africano impuso los minimos de igualdad, y asi acabo con un imperio pequeno pero tan brutal como el de Israel hoy en dia. Sudafrica sigue capitalista, pero ya no tiene segregacion para extraer super-ganancias.
from la Ciudad de Mexico

Este libro relata como Nelson Mandela y de su organización, el Congreso Africano Nacional, conquistaron el liderazgo de la revolución sudafricana democrática. Escrito en 1985 como un informe para la orientación de los militantes del Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores y de la Alianza de la Juventud Socialista en sus actividades contra el apartado, describe el papel internacionalista monumental de Cuba socialista. Su apoya militar y solidario a Angola enfrentó la agresión del régimen racista sudafricana entre 1975 y 1988, constituyéndose parte fundamental de la victoria del movimiento democrático antiracista en los años finales del siglo XX. Las lecciones de liderazgo revolucionario de Mandela y sus compañeros y compañeras sustenta el labor de los revolucionarios obreros anticapitalistas de hoy y mañana, en todos los países imperialistas -recordamos que Sudáfrica era un país imperialista-. Estas lecciones, especialmente para los que quieren erradicar el racismo y buscan un cambio social fundamental en los Estados Unidos examinan esta obra detalladamente.

Though published in 1985, nine years before the victory of the African National Congress against Apartheid, the main article in this book-length magazine Jack Barnes's "The Coming Revolution in South Africa," forecasts the way forward for the democratic revolution in South Africa and shows how the roots of a future socialist revolution in South Africa flow out of that struggle. Barnes, thenational secretary of the Socialist Workers Party, explains why the democratic tasks of national liberation and unification advanced by the ANC and its allies were the correct way forward for the peoples of South Africa. With examples from the policies of Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks and theCuba and Nicaraguan revolutions, Barnes takes on sectarians who attacked the ANC because it did not have an explicitly anticapitalist program. Along with Barnes' speech, this issue contains "The Freedom Charter"--the political program the ANC advanced in the antiapartheid struggle -- "The Future Belongs to US" a Speech by ANC leader Oliver Tambo, a speech by Fidel Castro explainingwhy and how Cuba supported the freedom struggle in Angola, and a summary of the then latest stages in the South African struggle by Ernest Harsch.

Bloody good book - told as it was. Everyone should read it.

An excellent read. The book really took me back. I grew up pre-Zimbabwe and was 14 years old at the independence of Zimbabwe. I left in '87. The book is a great account of the "bush war"..you're really there!

His association of music with periods in his life "took me back" too. I remember dancing to ABBA "dancing queen" on a farm in Karoi..I grew up in Karoi and went to the Primary school there..I remember seeing the helicopters landing on the rugby field near the police station, directly opposite the school. I remember talking to the "army guys" and eating "rat packs",...convoys to Makuti, stopping halfway at a motel called "Elephants Walk". I went to school and was a border at Ellis Robins. I remember the seniors bringing rifles to school and handing them in to the house master at the beginning of a new school term....Alot of memories and this book brought them flooding back!...Although there was war, I would not have traded my upbringing, barefoot and running around the farm, for anything!

Once again, it's a great book to read.

This book reminds one of the horrors of war much like All Quiet on the Western Front did. The author starts out a middle class idealist, and concludes a hardened killer who in his early 20's needs to make sense of all the senseless deaths that surrounded his formative years. The Rhodesian "bush" war was bloody, and appears to have accomplished nothing, in that the present state of Zimbabwe almost makes those who fought against the "terrorists" heroes for trying to keep Rhodesian and southern Africa out of the hands of despots like Mugabe. I hope the Movement for Democratic Change really is a movement for democratic change, and that some day all Zimbabwean's will be free to participate in their country.

Great book, and don't forget to read the sequel "Survival Course".

At one time an African nation composed of two large tribes has a slaughter, a genocide. The people in power, let's call them Tribe 1, decided to eliminate the Tribe 2. A few years later Tribe 2 has gained power so began the slaughter/genocide of Tribe 1.

In this book Tribe 1 is the Huto, Tribe 2 is the Tutsi. Unfortunately this is a story so often repeated that the names almost do not matter. This could have been any of a number of countries.

And the countries do not have to be in Africa. We had the Holocaust in Germany, Ethnic Clensing in what was left of Yugoslavia. We've had people seemingly going nuts as they did in China's Cultural Revolution. And then there are places like Israel, Northern Ireland and oh so many more.

The story though keeps coming back to Africa. Taking place in the mid 1990's, this is a story of Africa, its leadership, such as it is. And it's a story of Africa before AIDS.

The story in this book is a story of the survival of a Huto woman at the hands of the Tutsi. It's a story of struggle against terrible odds -- and she made it.

I love this book but I am sickened by its content. I'm willing to bet that few people reading "Surviving the Slaughter" have ever had a bad year that adds up to just one day of Marie Beatrice Umutesi's many bad days depicted in this memoir. This is the story of the incredible hardship and endless courage and stamina of a lone woman who, miraculously, lived to tell her tale.

Why didn't we in the USA know more about this genocide? In New York City I am surrounded by the "survivors" of the WTC attack on 9/11/01 and constantly assaulted by their self-serving weeping and wailing. If one half the population of New York City had died on 9/11/01 the numbers would begin to equal the slaughter of this one genocide in Rwanda. Reading this book definitely gives the reader a context within which to judge the relative impact and importance of current events.

Having read my share of translations I must tip my hat to Julia Emerson for bringing this memoir to the attention of the English speaking world by making such a clear, readable and intelligent translation.

This is the tragic and triumphant autobiography of a Rwandan Hutu woman who, after living for a couple of years as an internally displaced person in Rwanda and then surviving the horrific conditions in the camps that were - illegally - set up in by the UN in Zaire within shelling distance of the Rwandan border and further down the road in the death camp at Tingi Tingi, decided, along with tens of thousands of others to try to escape from the murderous attacks of Kagame's RPF, UN bounty hunters and Kabila's troops by taking to the roads in an effort to find a way out of the country. She took around ten children, none of them her own, with her and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to keep them alive during months of trekking through trackless tropical forests during the rainy season, walking barefoot on blistering roads, eating whatever they could scavenge in the deserted villages along the way.

We have heard a lot about the tragedy of the Tutsi genocide in 1994. What we haven't heard, partly because the press has been manipulated by the current Tutsi regime in Rwanda and partly because the U. S. continues to count on Kagame to keep our access open to the minerals in Congo - particularly coltan, which is used in cell phones and computers - is that as many Hutu as Tutsi have been killed both before and after 1994. Books like "We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" by Philip Gourevitch were highly misleading and only served to reinforce the mistaken view that all Hutu were genocidal and all Tutsi innocent victims, and as a result the world has let at least 750,000 innocent Hutu be slaughtered while their killers enjoy impunity. And that is not even counting the 3,000,000 Congolese who have died.

The first chapters of the book give an overview of the history Rwanda and life in the camps, and the rest of it deals with Umutesi's trek across Zaire. It is even handed, understated, immensely powerful and very timely. It was published in French, Spanish, Catalan and Dutch before being translated into English.

This book has information and pictures of some mummies that aren't in a lot of other books. Although some famous mummies like Otzi and Juanita aren't in here, other mummies that you might not find in most places are here. If you want to build your 'mummy repertoire,' you'lll find a few new ones here.

I found the book Tales Mummies Tell fascinating. This book is a mix of mystery and fact all in one! I recommend this book to people from years 11-adult because of the interesting,comprehendable information in it. I enjoyed this book because of my curiousity for it's subject. The book tells about preservation of mummies, the mummification proccess of mummies in Ancient Egypt, bodies found in bogs in Denmark, Ramesses III, and many more mindboggling facts. So if you are interested in this topic then I would suggest you read this book.

I found the book Tales Mummies Tell fascinating. This book is a mix of mystery and fact all in one! I recommend this book to people from years 11-adult because of the interesting,comprehendable information in it. I enjoyed this book because of my curiousity for it's subject. The book tells about preservation of mummies, the mummification proccess of mummies in Ancient Egypt, bodies found in bogs in Denmark, Ramesses III, and many more mindboggling facts. So if you are interested in this topic then I would suggest you read this book.

Following rapidly on the heels of "When you know that you know that you know!" comes 'Tarnished Idols', a story which clearly stems from the writer's early experience as a journalist. As used to be the case with so many of her books written in South Africa, before she immigrated to Canada , it is mainly set in a newspaper office, and provides an absorbing picture of what the production of a daily paper entailed before the advent of computers. She is known to paint human relationships very vividly, and this she does in Tarnished Idols. with an intensity which is, in some ways, a departure from the kind of story she loves to tell. South Africa is at war in the nineteen-forties, and this book deals with the consequences of love at first sight, and the enduring passion of a teenager for an air force pilot.

Her characters are so real you want to shake them because of some of the antics they indulge in. She has woven another gripping tale - set in her beautiful South Africa - which is difficult to put down. She is a keen observer of human frailty and most, if not all, her characters are based on people she has known. The course of true love certainly does not run smooth, but the author manages to bring all the characters into their right places by the end. Enjoy!

Her characters are so real that you want to shake them because of some of the antics they indulge in. Again she has woven a gripping tale - set in her beautiful South Africa - which is difficult to put down.

She is a keen observer of human frailty and most,if not all,her characters are based on people she has known. The course of true love certainly does not run smooth, but the author always manages to bring all the characters into their right places by the end.

This book is an excellent source for seeing the experience of apartheid from which the theory of black consciousness emerged. Biko lucidly articulates both the people and the regime he found himself in conflict with, and parallel's between his appraisal and his idea's are made clear. A must read for anyone who wants to get a full understanding of black consciousness.

Steve Biko's movement, Black Consciousness, is most fully articulated in his book "I Write What I Like," however, the testimony of Biko adds a crucial dimension to any understanding of Black Consciousness. It offers insight into the man behind the idea's, and offers crucial information about Biko's experience as a black man in South Africa. This information is necessary for a true understanding of what Biko writes, as he offers a lucid picture of the black experience during Apartheid. I have yet to find another writer with such tremendous insight into the oppressive nature of the Apartheid regime, and any oppresive regime in general. This book is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the oppressed mind.

This book is an excellent source for seeing the experience of apartheid from which the theory of black consciousness emerged. Biko lucidly articulates both the people and the regime he found himself in conflict with, and parallel's between his appraisal and his idea's are made clear. A must read for anyone who wants to get a full understanding of black consciousness.