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The jail bugs by Wahome Mutahi
Kagames Economic Mirage by David Himbara
Brief summary
Rwanda is a roaring African economic lion-or at least that's what President Paul Kagame wants people to believe. But in Kagame's Economic Mirage, former senior advisor David Himbara blows the whistle on Kagame and exposes the problems within the leader's totalitarian regime.
Himbara, who served twice under Kagame, most notably as head of Kagame's Strategy and Policy Unit from 2006 to 2010, explains why the math of Kagame's supposed accomplishments simply doesn't add up. Human rights advances have taken a back seat to Kagame's push for economic prosperity, while boasts that a peasant economy is giving way to a dynamic, knowledge-based market are overblown and misguided at best. Steel yourself for this insider's view of a corrupt political system that is holding citizens back from the promised future Rwandans deserve.
Kagame's Economic Mirage is the unauthorized biography of the man behind the curtain as Rwanda's president continues to con both residents and the West alike. This book exposes not only Kagame, but also the American and British support helping to prop him up. Rwanda remains one of the world's poorest countries-not the "Singapore of Africa" that Kagame claims.
ISBN:9781519411211
Author:David Himbara
Disgraceful Oscoode and other essays ...
Songs of Fire by Miguna Miguna
Brief summary
Magnificent. Miguna Miguna’s Songs of fire is a monumental literacy achievement; it does to modern literature what Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol did to it more than twenty years ago.
Each line, each song, each poem, evokes feelings of betrayal and patriotism. Betrayal of and by the neocolonialists, and patriotism of the revolutionary patriots. Songs of fire is a literary indictment of neocolialism, white supremacy and imperialism in all their forms.
The book is relevant from Azania (South Afrika) to Nova Scotia. It’s a must read.
ISBN:Songs of Fire by Miguna Miguna001
Author:Miguna Miguna
Betrayal in the City by Francis Imbuga
Brief summary
First published in 1976, this play from one of Africa's foremost dramatists is in the classic cannon. It is an incisive examination of the problems of independence and freedom in post-colonial Africa states, where few believe they have a stake in the future.
In the words of one of the characters: "It was better while we waited. Now we have nothing to look forward to. We have killed our past and are busy killing our future." Francis Imbuga is a playwright and actor.
He is the recipient of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences Distinguished Professional Award in Play Writing.
ISBN:9789966463609
Author:Francis Imbuga
Its Our Turn to Eat by Michela Wrong
It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistle-Blower.
When Michela Wrong's Kenyan friend John Githongo appeared one morning on the doorstep of her London flat, it was clear something had gone very wrong in a country regarded until then as one of Africa's few budding success stories.
John's tale is the story of how a brave man came to make a lonely decision with huge ramifications.
Medical Apartheid by Harriet A Washin...
Brief summary
Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.
From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment.
Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections.
Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.
The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.
ISBN:9780385509930
Author:Harriet A Washington
Tip and Run by Edward Paice
Brief summary
Controversial and groundbreaking account of the infamous East African campaign during First World War
In the aftermath of the Great War the East Africa campaign was destined to be dismissed by many in Britain as a remote 'sideshow' in which only a handful of names and episodes - the Königsberg, von Lettow-Vorbeck, the 'Naval Expedition to Lake Tanganyika' - achieved any lasting notoriety. But to the other combatant powers - Germany, South Africa, India, Belgium and Portugal - it was, and would remain, a campaign of huge importance.
A 'small war', consisting of a few 'local affairs', was all that was expected in August 1914 as Britain moved to eliminate the threat to the high seas of German naval bases in Africa. But two weeks after the Armistice was signed in Europe British and German troops were still fighting in Africa after four years of what one campaign historian described as 'a war of extermination and attrition without parallel in modern times'.
The expense of the campaign to the British Empire was immense, the Allied and German 'butchers bills' even greater. But the most tragic consequence of the two sides' deadly game of 'tip and run' was the devastation of an area five times the size of Germany, and civilian suffering on a scale unimaginable in Europe. Such was the cost of 'The White Man's Palaver', the final phase of the European conquest of Africa.
ISBN:9780753823491
Author:Edward Paice
Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia
Brief summary
Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia Monarchy Revolution and the Legacy of Meles Zenawi
When we think of Ethiopia we tend to think in cliches: Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, the Falasha Jews, the epic reign of Emperor Haile Selassie, the Communist Revolution, famine and civil war. Among the countries of Africa it has a high profile yet is poorly known. How- ever all cliches contain within them a kernel of truth, and occlude much more.
Today's Ethiopia (and its painfully liberated sister state of Eritrea) are largely obscured by these mythical views and a secondary literature that is partial or propagandist. Moreover there have been few attempts to offer readers a comprehensive overview of the country's recent history, politics and culture that goes beyond the usual guidebook fare.
Understanding Contemporary Ethiopia seeks to do just that, presenting a measured, detailed and systematic analysis of the main features of this unique country, now building on the foundations of a magical and tumultuous past as it struggles to emerge in the modern world on its own terms.
ISBN:9781849042611
Author:Gerard Prunier and Éloi Ficquet
Ngugi Reflections on his Life of Writing
Brief summary
This collection of essays reflects on the life and work of Ngugi wa Thiong'o, who celebrated his 80th birthday in 2018. Drawing from a wide range of contributors, including writers, critics, publishers and activists, the volume traces the emergence of Ngugi as a novelist in the early 1960s, his contribution to the African culture of letters at its moment of inception, and his global artistic life in the twenty-first century.
Here we have both personal and critical reflections on the different phases of the writer's life: there are poems from friends and admirers, commentaries from his co-workers in public theatre in Kenya in the 1970s and 1980s, and from his political associates in the fight for democracy, and contributions on his role as an intellectual of decolonization, as well as his experiences in the global art world. Included also are essays on Ngugi's role outside the academy, in the world of education, community theatre, and activism.
In addition to tributes from other authors who were influenced by Ngugi, the collection contains hitherto unknown materials that are appearing in English for the first time. Both a celebration of the writer, and a rethinking of his legacy, this book brings together three generations of Ngugi readers. We have memories and recollections from the people he worked with closely in the 1960s, the students that he taught at the University of Nairobi in the 1970s, his political associates during his exile in the 1980s, and the people who worked with him as he embarked on a new life and career in the United States in the 1990s. First-hand accounts reveal how Ngugi's life and work have intersected, and the multiple forces that have converged to make him one of the greatest writers to come out of Africa in the twentieth century.
ISBN:9781847012142
Author:Simon Gikandi and Ndirangu Wachanga
Lyrics Alley by Leila Aboulela
Brief summary
Lyrics Alley is the evocative story of an affluent Sudanese family shaken by the shifting powers in their country and the near-tragedy that threatens the legacy they've built for decades.
Their fortune threatened by shifting powers in Sudan and their heir's debilitating accident, a powerful family under the leadership of Mahmoud Bey is torn between the traditional and modern values of Mahmoud's two wives and his son's efforts to break with cultural limits.
ISBN:9780802119513
Author:Leila Aboulela
Chameleon Aura by Billy Chapata
Brief summary
Zimbabwean poet Billy Chapata provides a thought-provoking take on the universal experiences of love, pain, and what comes next through messages of empowerment. This collection of poetry and prose will justify heartache and inspire the fortitude to survive and prosper.
Chameleon Aura presents a harmonious blend of experience and advice through a chaptered series of prose and poetry that focuses on shared experiences in love and loss. Emboldened words and phrases capture the essence of the author's message and distinguish his unique style.
Chapata's touching narrative celebrates humanity for their biological resilience and undeniable worth. This collection leaves readers warm with hope for growth, rebirth, and, most prominently, self-acceptance.
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ISBN:9781449499372
Author:Billy Chapata
Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
Brief summary
Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent—and Baking Cakes in Kigali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale—set in modern-day Rwanda—introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza—mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets—a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.
In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.
In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways.
ISBN:9780385343435
Author:Gaile Parkin
No Refuge The Crisis of Refugee Milit...
Brief summary
The militarization of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), especially in Africa, is causing growing alarm within the humanitarian and development communities. The planned and spontaneous arming of refugees and IDPs threatens access to asylum as well as protection.
But while the policy debates rage over how to deal with armed refugees and how to prevent their spill-over into neighbouring countries, surprisingly little research has been done to explain why displaced people arm themselves or how militarization affects the local and host populations.
This book traces the experience of refugee and IDP militarization in four African countries emerging from or affected by war: Guinea, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. It considers the effects of such militarization on regional, national, and human security, and reflects on the responses of hosting governments and humanitarian organizations.
ISBN:9781842777893
Author:Robert Muggah
A Continent for the Taking The Traged...
Brief summary
In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead.
Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders.
While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book about a fascinating and misunderstood continent.
ISBN:9781400030279
Author:Howard W French
The Obamas The Untold Story of an Afr...
Brief summary
On January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and children gathered under trees in the twilight at K’obama, a village on the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. Barack Obama’s rise to the American presidency had captivated people around the world, but members of this gathering took a special pride in the swearing in of America’s first black president, for they were all Obamas, all the president’s direct African family.
In the first in-depth history of the Obama family, Peter Firstbrook recounts a journey that starts in a mud hut by the White Nile and ends seven centuries later in the White House. Interweaving oral history and tribal lore, interviews with Obama family members and other Kenyans, the writings of Kenyan historians, and original genealogical research, Firstbrook sets the fascinating story of the president’s family against the background of Kenya’s rich culture and complex history.
He tells the story of farmers and fishermen, of healers and hunters, of families lost and found, establishing for the first time the early ancestry of the Obamas. From the tribe’s cradleland in southern Sudan, he follows the family generation by generation, tracing the paths of the famous Luo warriors—Obama’s direct ancestors—and vividly illuminating Luo politics, society, and traditions.
Firstbrook also brings to life the impact of English colonization in Africa through the eyes of President Obama’s grandfather Onyango. An ambitious and disciplined man who fought in two world wars, witnessed the bloody Mau Mau insurrection, and saw his country gain independence from white rule, Onyango was also hot-tempered and autocratic: family lore has it that President Obama’s grandmother abandoned the family after Onyango attempted to murder her. And Firstbrook delves into the troubled life of Obama’s father, a promising young man whose aspirations were stymied by post-independence tribal politics and a rash tendency toward self-destruction—two factors that his family believes contributed to his death in 1982. They say it was no accident, as described in the president’s memoirs, but rather a politically motivated hit job.
More than a tale of love and war, hardship and hard-won success, The Obamas reveals a family history—epic in scope yet intimate in feel—that is truly without precedent.
ISBN:9781848092723
Author:Peter Firstbrook
I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
Brief summary
To compose his stunning documentary film I Am Not Your Negro, acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck mined James Baldwin's published and unpublished oeuvre, selecting passages from his books, essays, letters, notes, and interviews that are every bit as incisive and pertinent now as they have ever been.
Weaving these texts together, Peck brilliantly imagines the book that Baldwin never wrote. In his final years, Baldwin had envisioned a book about his three assassinated friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King.
His deeply personal notes for the project have never been published before. Peck's film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwin's private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.
ISBN:9780141986678
Author:James Baldwin
Treason by Miguna Miguna
Brief summary
Treason: the case against tyrants and renegades
This is a bold, candid and beautifully written book. Miguna presents vivid details of behind the scenes discussions that preceded the swearing in ceremony of January 30, 2018. The dialogues are verbatim. They are meticulously recorded. The feelings are raw and searing.
The logic and analysis in treason are robust.
"It was sad that the cancer of betrayal was ferociously attacking our liberations movement before the ink I had used to sign the oath of office on. The people’s president had dried ….. I am relieved, however, that my experiences would not go untold. That the future generations now have a permanent record of some of the most atrocious violations of human rights in modern history that have been committed against a Kenyan born citizen by the state.
If I were to die today, history would record that my death would have been caused by the cancer of betrayal by the home guards and renegades. But I would die on my feet a happy man, with the full knowledge that the ideas, aspirations, dreams and values for which I have dedicated my life, will, never die and that in the end and no matter how long it takes, these ideals and values will ultimately triumph over evil, injustice and wrongs that have been inflicted upon me and generations of Kenyans before me,” Miguna writes, eventually, facts and the truth shall prevail over falsehoods, deception and the oppressive machinations of the neocolonial agents of imperialism. That means my commitment and hope. Its also my burning dream.
Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree by Ada...
Brief Summary
On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 girls. Some managed to escape. Many are still missing. A new pair of shoes, a university degree, a husband—these are the things that a girl dreams of in a Nigerian village.
A girl who works hard in school and to help her family. A girl with a future as bright as live coals in the dark. And with a government scholarship right around the corner, everyone—her mother, her five brothers, her best friend, her teachers—can see that these dreams aren’t too far out of reach. Even if the voices on Papa’s radio tell more fearful news than tales to tell by moonlight.
But the girl’s dreams turn to nightmares when her village is attacked by Boko Haram, a terrorist group, in the middle of the night. Kidnapped, she is taken with other girls and women into the forest where she is forced to follow her captors’ radical beliefs and watch as her best friend slowly accepts everything she’s been told. Still, the girl defends her existence. As impossible as escape may seem, her life—her future—is hers to fight for.
ISBN:9780062696748
Author:Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani and Viviana Mazza
The Political Economy of Everyday Lif...
Brief Summary
What are the fundamental issues, processes, agency and dynamics that shape the political economy of life in modern Africa? In this book, the contributors - experts in anthropology, history, political science, economics, conflict and peace studies, philosophy and language - examine the opportunities and constraints placed on living, livelihoods and sustainable life on the continent.
Reflecting on why and how the political economy of life approach is essential for understanding the social process in modern Africa, they engage with the intellectual oeuvre of the influential Africanist economic anthropologist Jane Guyer, who provides an Afterword.
The contributors analyse the political economy of everyday life as it relates to money and currency; migrant labour forces and informal and formal economies; dispossession of land; debt and indebtedness; socio-economic marginality; and the entrenchment of colonial and apartheid pasts.
ISBN:9781847011664
Author:Wale Adebanwi
