African Interest

Brief Summary A take on the traditional German tale Rapunzel in a Southern African setting. Zukiswa Wanner brings young readers a retelling of the classic fairy tale, Rapunzel, with a uniquely South African twist. Refilweis the story of the dreadlocked beauty who is stuck in a cave on top of a mountain awaiting her prince, Tumi. This take on the classic tale will have the children chanting, "Refilwe, Refilwe let down your locks . . . So I can climb the scraggy rocks!” Based on the original version but reimagined for African children, the tale is enriched with magical illustrations by Tamsin Hinrichsen that will keep all children entranced and foster in them a love of reading. ISBN:9781431400980 Author:Zukiswa Wanner

Brief Summary In The Dark Sahara (Pluto, 2009), Jeremy Keenan exposed the collusion between the US and Algeria in fabricating terrorism to justify a new ‘Saharan front’ in Washington’s War on Terror. Now, in The Dying Sahara, he reveals how the designation of the region as a ‘Terror Zone’ has destroyed the lives and livelihoods of thousands of innocent people. Beginning in 2004, with what local people called the US ‘invasion’ of the Sahel, The Dying Sahara shows how repressive, authoritarian regimes - cashing in on US terrorism ‘rents’ - provoked Tuareg rebellions in both Niger and Mali. Further, he argues that US activity has unleashed a new, narco-trafficking branch of Al-Qaeda. Keenan's chillingly detailed research shows that the US and its new combatant African command (AFRICOM) have created instability in a region the size of Western Europe. ISBN:9780745329611 Author:Jeremy Keenan

Brief Summary Dealing with Government in South Sudan: Histories of Chiefship, Community and State. The creation of Africa's newest state, South Sudan, in 2011, involved national and international recognition of "traditional authorities", or chiefs. Chiefship has often been misunderstood to be a timeless or non-state institution, but this book argues for the mutual constitution of chiefship and the state since the mid-nineteenth century, based on research in the vicinity of three towns. The book also demonstrates that while South Sudanese towns have previously been analyzed as centres of alien state power, people came to the urban "frontier" to seek the resources, regulation and justice of the state. Located conceptually - and sometimes spatially - upon this frontier, chiefship became central to local relations with the state, and to state definitions of the local. The book thus addresses broader debates over the role of traditional authorities and the nature of urban-rural and state-society relations in Africa. Cherry Leonardi is a Senior Lecturer in African History at Durham University, a former course director of the Rift Valley Institute's Sudan course, and a member of the council of the British Institute in Eastern Africa Published in association with the British Institute in Eastern Africa. ISBN:9781847011145 Author:Cherry Leonardi

Brief Summary At the end of Tears for the Giraffe, the previous novel in the series, Precious Ramotswe is engaged to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency is firmly established, and all seems to be well. But now, as Morality for Beautiful Girls begins, Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, the hard-working, generous-hearted mechanic and owner of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, is behaving strangely. He is uninterested where once he was enthusiastic, full of self-reproach where once he was confident. In short, he is depressed, so much so that he cannot continue to run his business. To make matters worse, the detective agency, despite its success and high reputation, is losing money. Mma Ramotswe’s assistant Mma Makutsi is eager for a promotion, and there are now two orphan children whom Mma Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni must raise. Drastic measures are called for: a merger and major reorganization. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency closes its offices, moves into a small building adjoining the garage, and Mma Makutsi serves as acting manager of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, as well as assistant detective, while Mr J.L.B. Matekoni is resting. And in truth the two businesses are not so different. People bring their cars in to have the mystery of their malfunction solved much in the same way people bring in their personal problems to have the detectives diagnose and fix them. A Government Man, convinced his new sister-in-law is out to kill his younger brother, enlists Mma Ramotswe’s services, and while she is working on that case, the director of a beauty pageant asks Mma Makutsi to help him find one "good girl” who will not bring disgrace to the pageant and to Botswana, (no small task, as it turns out). As always with the Precious Ramotswe novels, however, the story of how people live—how they treat each other, how deeply they empathize with others, and how well they respect the customs and morality of Africa—is the real story. And with the ever-engaging Mma Ramotswe at the center of the novel, observing, commenting on, and indeed influencing the world around her, this story comes vibrantly and unforgettably to life. ISBN:9781400031368 Author:Alexander McCall Smith

Brief Summary State police forces in Africa are a curiously neglected subject of study, even within the study of security issues and African states. This book brings together important new work on the subject from a group of criminologists, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, political scientists and others, who have engaged with police forces across the continent and the publics with whom they interact to provide street-level perspectives from below and inside Africa's police forces. The collection is in three parts; first it considers historical trajectories and particular configurations of police power within wider political systems, then examines the 'inside view' of police forces as state institutions -the challenges, preoccupations, professional ethics and self-perceptions of police officers, and finally looks at how African police officers go about their work, in terms of everyday practices and engagements with the public, and the meanings that are construed in the course of doing so. The studies span the continent from South Africa to Sierra Leone, and illustrate similarities and differences in Anglo- phone, Francophone and Lusophone states, post- socialist, post-military and post-conflict contexts, and amid both centralization and devolution of policing powers, democratic transitions and new illiberal regimes; keeping a strong ethnographic focus on ordinary police officers and police work at their core. ISBN:9781849045773 Author:Jan Beek, Mirco Gopfert, Olly Owen and Jonny Steinberg

Brief Summary This is the story of a young woman born in Chicago who came to New York, won fame with her play, A Raisin in the Sun–and went on to new heights of artistry before her tragic death. In turns angry, loving, bitter, laughing, and defiantly proud, the story, voice, and message are all Lorraine Hansberry’s own, coming together in one of the major works of the black experience in mid-century America. ISBN:9780451159526 Author:Lorraine Hansberry

Brief Summary Congo's Violent Peace: Conflict and Struggle Since the Great African War Despite a massive investment of international diplomacy and money in recent years, the Democratic Republic of Congo remains a conflict-ridden and volatile country, marked by a series of rebellions, failed international interventions, and unworkable peace agreements. In Congo's Violent Peace, leading Congo expert Kris Berwouts provides the most comprehensive and in-depth account to date of developments since the so-called Congo Wars. Berwouts analyzes such topics as Rwanda’s destructive impact on security in Eastern Congo, the controversial elections of 2006 and 2011, the M23 uprising, as well as Joseph Kabila’s increasingly desperate attempts to cling to power. This will be an essential resource for anyone interested in this troubled, but important, country. ISBN:9781783603701 Author:Kris Berwouts