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Emerging Perspectives on Nuruddin Farah
Brief Summary
"This is the first critical anthology on the Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah, winner of the 1998 Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Farah is one of Africa's most multilingual and multiliterate writers. In exile from his country since 1974, he has wandered through the world's cultures, literatures, and ideas."
This anthology features the works of scholars from Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America, bringing together some of the many readings that Farah's voices have evoked. In its variety and complexity of responses, the volume pays tribute to Farah's versatility as a writer and to the multidimensionality of his work.
Its subjects are diverse, ranging from the author's feminist and sociopolitical ideas, his vision of family and state, and concepts of time and history to his use of allegory and symbolism, his literary influences, and his relation to the oral tradition and postmodernism.
ISBN:9780865439191
Author:Derek Wright
Demilitarizing the Mind African Agend...
Brief Summary
This book highlights a central, but neglected component of Africa's complicated and intractable wars: the militarization of governance. Political cultures of militarism stand in the way of enduring peace, democracy, and the development of civil society. Militarism comes in both right-wing and left-wing guises -- the latter practiced by former liberation fronts in power across much of Africa which have all betrayed the ideals that enthused their earlier struggles.
Seven comparative essays, drawn from the experience of conflict and peacemaking, focus on different aspects of militarism in contemporary Africa and ways of overcoming it. How can we create a coherent, "joined-up" peacemaking that knits together the many tasks necessary for establishing peace in Africa? Can Africa establish "security communities" at a trans-national level, abolishing both interstate conflict and the readiness of countries to intervene militarily in their neighbors' affairs? What is the role of the African Union? How can constitutional rule promote peace and security at a national and international level? What are the political cultures of militarism in Africa today?
How are we to understand the widespread phenomenon of left-wing militarism as manifest by former liberation front’s now ruling their countries? How can key social groups, such as women, youth, and the poor, organize to promote peace? What roles are played by mercenaries in modern African wars? Are we witnessing the "mercenarization" of war and the entanglement of commerce with conflict? What are the challenges of post-conflict transitions to peace and democracy? The essays, edited by Alex de Waal, are unsigned and based on contributions by African political leaders and policymakers. They represent some of the most innovative thinking on African security dilemmas.
This book is based on a project by Justice Africa and InterAfrica Group, the regional center for dialogue on issues of peace in the Horn of Africa.
ISBN:9780865439887
Author:Alexander De Waal
Africas Peacemakers Nobel Peace Laure...
Brief Summary
As Africa and its diaspora commemorate fifty years of post-independence Pan-Africanism, this unique volume provides profound insight into the thirteen prominent individuals of African descent who have won the Nobel Peace Prize since 1950.
From the first American president of African descent, Barack Obama, whose career was inspired by the civil rights and anti-apartheid struggles promoted by fellow Nobel Peace laureates Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, and Albert Luthuli; to influential figures in peacemaking such as Ralph Bunche, Anwar Sadat, Kofi Annan, and F.W. De Klerk; as well as Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leymah Gbowee, Wangari Maathai, and Mohamed El-Baradei, who have been variously involved in women's rights, environmental protection, and nuclear disarmament, Africa's Peacemakers reveals how this remarkable collection of individuals have changed the world - for better or worse.
ISBN:9781780329437
Author:Adekeye Adebajo
How we made it in Africa by Jaco Maritz
How we made it in Africa: Learn from the stories of 25 entrepreneurs who've built thriving businesses
From the founder of the award-winning website (www.howwemadeitinafrica.com) comes the stories of 25 entrepreneurs who've built thriving businesses.
* Be inspired by the experiences of Africa’s most dynamic entrepreneurs
* Gain insight into the continent’s business opportunities
* Find the courage to make your own dreams and ambitions become a reality
Discover why Ken Njoroge is building a billion-dollar pan-African digital payments company (it is not because he wants to drive a Ferrari); Find out how Jean de Dieu Kagabo grew a Rwanda-based industrial group from a simple product: toilet paper; And be inspired by the extraordinary tale of Hassan Bashir who created a booming insurance company from nothing but grit and persistence.
Each entrepreneur’s story is told in an honest manner, not shying away from the mistakes made and the considerable hurdles they had to overcome. And there were many tough times: from being betrayed by long-time senior managers to losing vast sums of money because of poor market research. Pursuing their business ambitions also had a toll on their personal lives: one entrepreneur was too broke to afford diapers for his baby, while another had to sell her house to keep the company alive.
Meet The Entrepreneurs
1. Ken Njoroge (Kenya): The long, hard journey to build a billion-dollar company
2. Tseday Asrat (Ethiopia): A modern twist on Ethiopia's coffee culture
3. Tumi Phake (South Africa): Flexing his entrepreneurial muscles to exploit a gap in the fitness industry
4. Monica Musonda (Zambia): Instant noodle pioneer
5. Hassan Bashir (Kenya): An insurance firm created from nothing but grit and persistence
6. Ebele Enunwa (Nigeria): A $50-million food and retail empire
7. Tayo Oviosu (Nigeria): The entrepreneur who traded in his Silicon Valley life to bring mobile money to Nigerians
8. Navalayo Osembo (Kenya): How to make a Kenyan running shoe
9. Jean de Dieu Kagabo (Rwanda): Rwandan industrialist always hunting for the next big business idea
10. Addis Alemayehou (Ethiopia): Serial entrepreneur bringing the world to Ethiopia
11. Kasope Ladipo-Ajai (Nigeria): Nigerian cooking made convenient
12. Chijioke Dozie (Nigeria): Leveraging past experiences to disrupt the banking industry
13. Sylvester Chauke (South Africa): Marketer with a passion to take African brands global
14. Yoadan Tilahun (Ethiopia): Showing Ethiopia how to throw an event
15. Mossadeck Bally (Mali): West African hotel group built on an appetite for risk
16. Jennifer Bash (Tanzania): Adding value to everyday staples
17. Jesse Moore (Kenya): Thinking out of the box to power over 600 000 homes with solar energy
18. Twapewa Kadhikwa (Namibia): How one hair salon became a group of companies
19. Jacques de Vos (South Africa): Growing a high-impact tech business one problem statement at a time
20. Nana Akua Birmeh (Ghana): Architect breaking glass ceilings
21. Nelly Tuikong (Kenya): Kenyan beauty brand taking on global giants
22. Dr Hend El Sherbini (Egypt): From a small Egyptian family business to a London-listed healthcare giant
23. NJ Ayuk (Cameroon): A lawyer on the road less travelled
24. Polo Leteka (South Africa): The investor who spots opportunity where others see risk
25. Ashley Uys (South Africa): Diagnostic hustler
What Is the What by Dave Eggers
Brief Summary
From the bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What Is the What is the epic novel based on the life of Valentino Achak Deng who, along with thousands of other children —the so-called Lost Boys—was forced to leave his village in Sudan at the age of seven and trek hundreds of miles by foot, pursued by militias, government bombers, and wild animals, crossing the deserts of three countries to find freedom.
When he finally is resettled in the United States, he finds a life full of promise, but also heartache and myriad new challenges. Moving, suspenseful, and unexpectedly funny, What Is the Whatis an astonishing novel that illuminates the lives of millions through one extraordinary man.
ISBN:9781932416640
Author:Dave Eggers
Africas Odious Debts How Foreign Loan...
Brief Summary
In Africa's Odious Debts, Boyce and Ndikumana reveal the shocking fact that, contrary to the popular perception of Africa being a drain on the financial resources of the West, the continent is actually a net creditor to the rest of the world.
The extent of capital flight from sub-Saharan Africa is remarkable: more than $700 billion in the past four decades. But Africa’s foreign assets remain private and hidden, while its foreign debts are public, owed by the people of Africa through their governments.
Léonce Ndikumana and James K. Boyce reveal the intimate links between foreign loans and capital flight. More than half of the money borrowed by African governments in recent decades departed in the same year, with a significant portion of it winding up in private accounts at the very banks that provided the loans in the first place.
Meanwhile, debt-service payments continue to drain scarce resources from Africa, cutting into funds available for public health and other needs. Controversially, the authors argue that African governments should repudiate these "odious debts" from which their people derived no benefit, and that the international community should assist in this effort.
A vital book for anyone interested in Africa, its future, and its relationship with the West.
ISBN:9781848134584
Author:Leonce Ndikumana and James Boyce
Beyond Khartoum A History of Subnatio...
Brief Summary
Useful to both scholars and policymakers, Beyond Khartoum is a history of subnational government in Sudan from early times through to 2010. With more than 2.5 million Sudanese killed in conflicts over the past half century, such an enquiry has become increasingly relevant and urgent.
Given Sudan's pivotal position in regional conflicts, its cultural diversity, its past instability and more recent oil wealth, an understanding of subnational politics is essential to fully appreciate the dynamics behind the news emanating from Khartoum, Darfur, Southern Sudan and beyond.
ISBN:9781569023365
Author:Randall Fegley
The Mediator Gen Lazaro Sumbeiywo and...
Brief Summary
This is the story of the peace process in Sudan. It is told by one of Kenya's most distinguished writers, well placed to narrate the extraordinary story of how peace in Africa's largest country was mediated over a period of over five years by General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, a passionate and indefatigable soldier.
Sumbeiywo managed to achieve what top-level international diplomats had failed to do: to reconcile the positions represented by the President of the Khartoum Government, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, on the one hand, and on the other, by the late Colonel John Garang, leader of the southern-based resistance movement/army, the SPLM/A, until his untimely death in 2005.
The process culminated in the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in January 2005, which effectively ended over two decades of conflict, and marked a major breakthrough in the history of the African continent.
ISBN:9789966254801
Author:Waithaka Waihenya
New Sudan in the Making Essays on a N...
Brief Summary
New Sudan is a concept for radically reforming Sudan s governance system by addressing the national identity crisis that has been responsible for the wars, the instability and the failure of the national building project that have afflicted the country since independence. The gist of the crisis is that the dominant Arab group, which is in fact an African Arab hybrid and a minority, perceives the country in its image as an Arab-Islamic nation.
This inevitably discriminates against the non-Arab and non-Moslem populations in the South and even against the other groups in the peripheral regions of the North, who even though are predominantly Moslem, are however not Arabs. The South, one third of the country in territory and population, was the first to rebel against this discriminatory framework in August 1955, only a few months before independence on the January 1, 1956.
That rebellion which escalated into a 17 year war was separatist, but was resolved in 1972 by a compromise that granted the South regional autonomy. The abrogation of that accord in 1983 led to the resumption of the second rebellion by the Sudan People s Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) that called for the unity of the country in the framework of a New Sudan in which there would be full equality of citizenship, without any discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, culture or gender. Over time, this vision began to appeal to the non-Arab northern groups and other liberal minded northerners.
The Nuba and the Ingassana (Funj) were the first to join the SPLM/A in the struggle in the mid-1980s. The Beja in the East joined later. And the Darfurians, after having their first attempt at rebellion crushed in 1992, again staged a rebellion in 2003, triggering the atrocious war that is still raging and which some international observers have determined to be genocide. The vision of the New Sudan was largely that of Dr. John Garang de Mabior, a man who was a scholar, a soldier, and a statesman. When he arrived in Khartoum to be sworn in as First Vice President of the Government of National Unity and President of the Government of Southern Sudan, in accordance with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement of January 9, 2005, he was met by a rallying crowd estimated in the millions, clear evidence that the New Sudan was in sight. Tragically, two weeks later, Garang died in a helicopter crash.
To some, the vision of the New Sudan died with him. To others, his legacy, including the New Sudan Vision, has been ironically rejuvenated, particularly in the North. But will it be realized or will it remain a dream and an elusive goal? That is the very essence of the question mark in the title of this book.
ISBN:9781569023020
Author:Francis Mading Deng
After the Comprehensive Peace Agreeme...
Brief Summary
After a long process of peace negotiations the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) was signed on 9 January 2005 between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
The CPA raised initial hopes that it would be the foundation block for lasting peace in Sudan. This book compiles scholarly analyses of the implementation of the power sharing agreement of the CPA, of ongoing conflicts with particular respect to land issues, of the challenges of the reintegration of internally displaced people and refugees, and of the repercussions of the CPA in other regions of Sudan as well as in neighboring countries.
Elke Grawert is Senior Lecturer at the Institute for Intercultural & International Studies (InIIS), Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Bremen, Germany.
ISBN:9781847010223
Author:Elke Grawert
Sudan South Sudan and Darfur What Eve...
Brief Summary
For thirty years Sudan has been a country in crisis, wracked by near-constant warfare between the north and the south. But on July 9, 2011, South Sudan became an independent nation. As Sudan once again finds itself the focus of international attention, former special envoy to Sudan and director of USAID Andrew Natsios provides a timely introduction to the country at this pivotal moment in its history.
Focusing on the events of the last 25 years, Natsios sheds light on the origins of the conflict between northern and southern Sudan and the complicated politics of this volatile nation. He gives readers a first-hand view of Sudan's past as well as an honest appraisal of its future. In the wake of South Sudan's independence, Natsios explores the tensions that remain on both sides. Issues of citizenship, security, oil management, and wealth-sharing all remain unresolved.
Human rights issues, particularly surrounding the ongoing violence in Darfur, likewise still clamor for solutions. Informative and accessible, this book introduces readers to the most central issues facing Sudan as it stands on the brink of historic change.
ISBN:9780199764198
Author:Andrew S. Natsios
They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky T...
Brief Summary
Benjamin, Alepho, and Benson were raised among the Dinka tribe of Sudan. Their world was an insulated, close-knit community of grass-roofed cottages, cattle herders, and tribal councils. The lions and pythons that prowled beyond the village fences were the greatest threat they knew. All that changed the night the government-armed Murahiliin began attacking their villages.
Amid the chaos, screams, conflagration, and gunfire, 5-year-old Benson and 7-year-old Benjamin fled into the dark night. Two years later, Alepho, age 7, was forced to do the same. Across the Southern Sudan, over the next 5 years, thousands of other boys did likewise, joining this stream of child refugees that became known as the Lost Boys.
Their journey would take them more than 1000 miles across a war-ravaged country, through landmine-sown paths, crocodile-infested waters, and grotesque extremes of hunger, thirst, and disease. The refugee camps they eventually filtered through offered little respite from the brutality they were fleeing.
In They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, Alepho, Benson, and Benjamin, by turn, recount their experiences along this unthinkable journey. They vividly recall the family, friends, and tribal world they left far behind them and their desperate efforts to keep track of one another.
This is a captivating memoir of Sudan and a powerful portrait of war as seen through the eyes of children. And it is, in the end, an inspiring and unforgettable tribute to the tenacity of even the youngest human spirits.
ISBN:9781586483883
Author:Benson Deng, Alephonsion Deng and Benjamin Ajak,
The Nuer a description of the modes o...
Brief Summary
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.
We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
ISBN:9781179585093
Author:Evans Pritchard
First Raise a Flag How South Sudan Wo...
When South Sudan's war began, the Beatles were playing their first hits and reaching the moon was an astronaut's dream. Half a century later, with millions massacred in Africa's longest war, the continent's biggest country split in two.
It was an extraordinary, unprecedented experiment. Many have fought, but South Sudan did the impossible, and won. This is the story of an epic fight for freedom. It is also the story of a nightmare. First Raise a Flag details one of the most dramatic failures in the history of international state-building.
Three years after independence, South Sudan was lowest ranked in the list of failed states. War returned, worse than ever. Peter Martell has spent over a decade reporting from palaces and battlefields, meeting those who made a country like no other: warlords and spies, missionaries and mercenaries, guerrillas and gunrunners, freedom fighters and war crime fugitives, Hollywood stars and ex-slaves.
Under his seasoned foreign correspondent's gaze, he weaves with passion and colour the lively history of the world's newest country. First Raise a Flag is a moving reflection on the meaning of nationalism, the power of hope and the endurance of the human spirit.
A Singular Woman The Untold Story of ...
Brief Summary
Barack Obama has written extensively about his father, but little is known about Stanley Ann Dunham, the fiercely independent woman who raised him, the person he credits for, as he says, "what is best in me." Here is the missing piece of the story.
Award-winning reporter Janny Scott interviewed nearly two hundred of Dunham's friends, colleagues, and relatives (including both her children), and combed through boxes of personal and professional papers, letters to friends, and photo albums, to uncover the full breadth of this woman's inspiring and untraditional life, and to show the remarkable extent to which she shaped the man Obama is today.
Dunham's story moves from Kansas and Washington state to Hawaii and Indonesia. It begins in a time when interracial marriage was still a felony in much of the United States, and culminates in the present, with her son as our president- something she never got to see. It is a poignant look at how character is passed from parent to child, and offers insight into how Obama's destiny was created early, by his mother's extraordinary faith in his gifts, and by her unconventional mothering.
Finally, it is a heartbreaking story of a woman who died at age fifty-two, before her son would go on to his greatest accomplishments and reflections of what she taught him.
ISBN:9781594487972
Author:Janny Scott
Moving the Maasai A Colonial Misadven...
This is the scandalous story of how the Maasai people of Kenya lost the best part of their land to the British in the 1900s.
Drawing upon unique oral testimony and extensive archival research, Hughes describes the intrigues surrounding two enforced moves and the 1913 lawsuit, while explaining why recent events have brought the story full circle.
Who Killed Hammarskjold The UN the Co...
Brief Summary
One of the outstanding mysteries of the twentieth century, and one with huge political resonance, is the death of Dag Hammarskjold and his UN team in a plane crash in central Africa in 1961. Just minutes after midnight, his aircraft plunged into thick forest in the British colony of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), abruptly ending his mission to bring peace to the Congo.
Across the world, many suspected sabotage, accusing the multi-nationals and the governments of Britain, Belgium, the USA and South Africa of involvement in the disaster. These suspicions have never gone away. British High Commissioner Lord Alport was waiting at the airport when the aircraft crashed nearby. He bizarrely insisted to the airport management that Hammarskjold had flown elsewhere - even though his aircraft was reported overhead.
This postponed a search for so long that the wreckage of the plane was not found for fifteen hours. White mercenaries were at the airport that night too, including the South African pilot Jerry Puren, whose bombing of Congolese villages led, in his own words, to 'flaming huts ...destruction and death'. These soldiers of fortune were backed by Sir Roy Welensky, Prime Minister of the Rhodesian Federation, who was ready to stop at nothing to maintain white rule and thought the United Nations was synonymous with the Nazis.
The Rhodesian government conducted an official inquiry, which blamed pilot error. But as this book will show, it was a massive cover-up that suppressed and dismissed a mass of crucial evidence, especially that of African eye-witnesses. A subsequent UN inquiry was unable to rule out foul play - but had no access to the evidence to show how and why.
Now, for the first time, this story can be told. Who Killed Hammarskjold follows the author on her intriguing and often frightening journey of research to Zambia, South Africa, the USA, Sweden, Norway, Britain, France and Belgium, where she unearthed a mass of new and hitherto secret documentary and photographic evidence.
At the heart of this book is Hammarskjold himself - a courageous and complex idealist, who sought to shield the newly-independent nations of the world from the predatory instincts of the Great Powers. It reveals that the conflict in the Congo was driven not so much by internal divisions, as by the Cold War and by the West's determination to keep real power from the hands of the post-colonial governments of Africa. It shows, too, that the British settlers of Rhodesia would maintain white minority rule at all costs.
ISBN:9780190231408
Author:Susan Williams
Africas Media Democracy and the Polit...
Brief Summary
This major study explores the role of the mass media in promoting democracy and empowering civil society in Africa.
The author contextualizes Africa within in the rapidly changing global media and shows how patterns of media ownership and state control have evolved and the huge difficulties under which most African media workers labor.
The author also explores the whole question of media ethics and professionalism in Africa. The general analysis is supported by a detailed case study of Cameroon.
ISBN:9781842775837
Author:Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Night Dancer by Chika Unigwe
Brief Summary
Mma has just buried her mother, and now she is alone.
She has been left everything.
But she's also inherited her mother's bad name.
A bold, brash woman, the only thing her mother refused to discuss was her past. Why did she flee her family and bring her daughter to a new town when she was a baby? What was she escaping from?
Abandoned now, Mma has no knowledge of her father or her family - but she is desperate to find out.
Night Dancer is a powerful and moving novel about the relationship between mothers and daughters, about the bonds of family, about knowing when to fulfil your duty, and when you must be brave enough not to. Presenting a vista of Nigeria over the past half-century, it is a vibrant and heartfelt exploration of one woman's search for belonging.
ISBN:9780224093835
Author:Chika Unigwe
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen
Brief Summary
Karen Blixen's "Out of Africa" is the lyrical and luminous memoir of Kenya that launched a million tourist trails, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills...Up in this high air you breathed easily ...you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.' From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa.
Drawn to the intense colors and ravishing landscapes, Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm, and her experiences and friendships with the people around her are vividly recalled in these memoirs. "Out of Africa" is the story of a remarkable and unconventional woman, and of a way of life that has vanished forever. "With its lyrical and luminous picture of Kenya, it launched a million tourist trails". ("Guardian") "A compelling story of passion and a movingly poetic tribute to a lost land". ("The Times").
A work of sincere power ...a fine lyrical study of life in East Africa - Harold Nicolson, "Daily Telegraph" Karen Blixen was born in Rungsted, Denmark, in 1885. After studying art at Copenhagen, Paris and Rome, she married her cousin, Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke, in 1914. Together they managed a coffee plantation in Kenya until they divorced in 1925.
She continued on the farm until a collapse in the coffee market forced her back to Rungsted in 1931. Although she had written occasional contributions to Danish periodicals since 1905 (under the nom de plume of Osceola), her real debut took place in 1934 with the publication of Seven Gothic Tales, written in English under the pen name, Isak Dinesen.
"Out of Africa" (1937) is an autobiographical account of the years she spent in Kenya.
ISBN:9780241951439
Author:Karen Blixen
