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The Wizard of the Nile by Matthew Green
Brief Summary
The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted
The civil war in Uganda has bled on for over two decades, spilling over into Sudan and the Congo and drawing only occasional interest from the West. The rebel insurgency in the north is led by "the wizard of the Nile," Joseph Kony, whose Lord's Resistance Army is infamous both for its wish to rule Uganda according to the Ten Commandments and its unrelenting brutality.
Matthew Green journeys up the White Nile in order to answer what seemed at first a simple question: "How could one maniac leading an army of abducted children hold half a country hostage for twenty years?" His quest is complicated not only by his plunge into a war zone to find the notoriously elusive Kony, but because the conflict itself continues to resist his, and our, attempts to understand it.
He meets the victims maimed or raped by Kony's soldiers; the soldiers themselves, who were first children, victims of abduction; the refugees living in poverty and fear in overcrowded camps; the foreigners working to bring peace; and the political leaders who have their own reasons for preferring war to peace.
Green is an invaluable guide to this forgotten conflict, providing honest, intelligent insight into suffering too little understood and too long ignored.
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ISBN:9781566567367
Author:Matthew Green
Empire State Building War And Welfare...
Brief Summary
This history of administrative thought and practice in colonial Kenya looks at the ways in which white people tried to engineer social change.
It asks four questions:
• Why Kenya’s welfare operation was so idiosyncratic and spartan compared with that of other British colonies?
• Why did a transformation from social welfare to community development produce further neglect of the very poor?
• Why was there no equivalent to the French tradition of community medicine?
• If there was a transformatory element of colonial rule that sought to address poverty, where and why did it fall down? The answers offer revealing insight into the dynamics of rule in the late colonial period in Kenya.
ISBN:9780821413999
Author:Joanna Lewis
Religion and Politics in East Africa
Brief Summary
Religion & Politics in East Africa: The Period since Independence
This volume describes attempts by governments to manage religious affairs in both Muslim and Christian areas of East Africa. It also shows how religious denominations act in opposition to one-party state regimes; Islamic fundamentalism.
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ISBN:9780852553848
Author:Holger Bernt Hansen and Michael Twaddle
Africa’s Urban Revolution
Brief Summary
The facts of Africa's rapid urbanization are startling. By 2030 African cities will have grown by more than 350 million people and the continent will have surpassed the 50% urban mark. Yet, in the minds of policy makers, scholars and much of the general public, Africa remains a quintessential rural place.
This lack of awareness and robust analysis means it is difficult to make a policy case for a more overtly 'urban agenda'. As a result, there is, across the continent, insufficient urgency directed to responding to the challenges and opportunities associated with the world's last major wave of urbanization.
Drawing on the expertise of scholars and practitioners associated with the African Centre for Cities, and utilizing a diverse array of case studies, the book provides comprehensive insight into the key issues - demographic, cultural, political, technical, environmental and economic - surrounding African urbanization.
ISBN:9781780325200
Author:Edgar Pieterse and Susan Parnell
Crossbones by Nuruddin Farah
A gripping new novel from today's "most important African novelist". (The New York Times Review of Books) A dozen years after his last visit, Jeebleh returns to his beloved Mogadiscio to see old friends. He is accompanied by his son-in-law, Malik, a journalist intent on covering the region's ongoing turmoil. What greets them at first is not the chaos Jeebleh remembers, however, but an eerie calm enforced by ubiquitous white-robed figures bearing whips.
Meanwhile, Malik's brother, Ahl, has arrived in Puntland, the region notorious as a pirates' base. Ahl is searching for his stepson, Taxliil, who has vanished from Minneapolis, apparently recruited by an imam allied to Somalia's rising religious insurgency. The brothers' efforts draw them closer to Taxliil and deeper into the fabric of the country, even as Somalis brace themselves for an Ethiopian invasion. Jeebleh leaves Mogadiscio only a few hours before the borders are breached and raids descend from land and sea. As the uneasy quiet shatters and the city turns into a battle zone, the brothers experience firsthand the derailments of war.
Completing the trilogy that began with Links and Knots, Crossbones is a fascinating look at individuals caught in the maw of zealotry, profiteering, and political conflict, by one of our most highly acclaimed international writers.
Security and Post Conflict Reconstruc...
Brief Summary
This book provides a critical analysis of the changing discourse and practice of post-conflict security-promoting interventions since the Cold War, such as disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), and security-sector reform (SSR)
Although the international aid and security sectors exhibit an expanding appetite for peace-support operations in the 21st Century, the effectiveness of such interventions are largely untested. This book aims to fill this evidentiary gap and issues a challenge to 'conventional' approaches to security promotion as currently conceived by military and peace-keeping forces, drawing on cutting-edge statistical and qualitative findings from war-torn areas including Afghanistan, Timor Leste, Sudan, Uganda, Colombia and Haiti. By focusing on specific cases where the United Nations and others have sought to contain the (presumed) sources of post-conflict violence and insecurity, it lays out a new research agenda for measuring success or failure.
This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, peacekeeping, conflict resolution, conflict and development and security studies in general.
ISBN:9780415544405
Author:Robert Muggah
My First Coup Detat
Brief Summary
My First Coup d'Etat: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa
My First Coup d'Etat chronicles the coming-of-age of John Dramani Mahama in Ghana during the dismal post-independence "lost decades" of Africa. He was seven years old when rumors of a coup reached his boarding school in Accra. His father, a minister of state, was suddenly missing, then imprisoned for more than a year.
My First Coup d'Etat offers a look at the country that has long been considered Africa's success story. This is a one-of-a-kind book: Mahama's is a rare literary voice from a political leader, and his personal stories work on many levels - as fables, as history, as cultural and political analyses, and, of course, as the memoir of a young man who, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, would grow up to be vice president of his nation.
Though nonfiction, these are stories that rise above their specific settings and transport the reader - much like the fiction of Isaac Bashevis Singer and Nadine Gordimer - into a world all their own, one which straddles a time lost and explores the universal human emotions of love, fear, faith, despair, loss, longing, and hope despite all else.
ISBN:9781608198597
Author:John Dramani Mahama
Soft Magic
Brief Summary
'Soft magic.' is the debut collection of prose and poetry by Malawian writer, Upile Chisala.
This book explores the self, joy, blackness, gender, matters of the heart, the experience of Diaspora, spirituality and most of all, how we survive. 'Soft magic.' is a shared healing journey.
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So You Want to Talk About Race
Brief Summary
A current, constructive, and actionable exploration of today's racial landscape, offering straightforward clarity that readers of all races need to contribute to the dismantling of the racial divide
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality, inter sectionalist, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the "N" word. Perfectly positioned to bridge the gap between people of color and white Americans struggling with race complexities, Oluo answers the questions readers don't dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
Oluo is an exceptional writer with a rare ability to be straightforward, funny, and effective in her coverage of sensitive, hyper-charged issues in America. Her messages are passionate but finely tuned, and crystalize ideas that would otherwise be vague by empowering them with aha-moment clarity. Her writing brings to mind voices like Ta-Nehisi Coates and Roxane Gay, and Jessica Valenti in Full Frontal Feminism, and a young Gloria Naylor, particularly in Naylor's seminal essay "The Meaning of a Word."
ISBN:9781580056779
Author:Ijeoma Oluo
Black Man White House
Brief Summary
Black Man, White House: An Oral History of the Obama Years
From legendary comedian D.L. Hughley comes a bitingly funny send-up of the Obama years, as "told” by the key political players on both sides of the aisle.
What do the Clintons, Republicans, fellow Democrats, and Obama’s own family really think of President Barack Obama? Finally, the truth is revealed in this raucously funny "oral history” parody.
There is no more astute—and hilarious—critic of politics, entertainment, and race in America than D. L. Hughley, famed comedian, radio star, and original member of the "Kings of Comedy.” In the vein of Jon Stewart’s America: The Book, Black Man, White House is an acerbic and witty take on Obama’s two terms, looking at the president’s accomplishments and foibles through the imagined eyes of those who saw history unfold.
Hughley draws upon satirical interviews with the most notorious public figures of our day: Mitt Romney ("What’s ‘poverty’? Is that some sort of rap jargon?”); Nancy Pelosi ("I play Fuck/Marry/Kill, and there’s a lot more kills than fucks in Congress, believe me.”); Rod Blagojevich ("You can’t sell political offices on eBay; I discovered that personally.”); Joe Biden ("I like wrestling.”); and other politicians, media pundits, and buffoons. It is sure to be the most irreverent— and perhaps the most honest—look at American politics today.
ISBN:9780062399793
Author:D.L. Hughley
Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Cry, the Beloved Country, the most famous and important novel in South Africa’s history, was an immediate worldwide bestseller in 1948. Alan Paton’s impassioned novel about a black man’s country under white man’s law is a work of searing beauty.
Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.
The eminent literary critic Lewis Gannett wrote, "We have had many novels from statesmen and reformers, almost all bad; many novels from poets, almost all thin. In Alan Paton’s Cry, the Beloved Country the statesman, the poet and the novelist meet in a unique harmony.”
Cry, the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son, Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its lyricism, unforgettable for character and incident, Cry, the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance, born of the dignity of man.
Back from Africa
Brief Summary
After enthralling readers around the world with her incredible story of falling in love with and marrying the Masai warrior Lketinga-and living with his family and their daughter in Kenya-Corinne Hoffmann recounts her return to Switzerland and the difficulties she faced.
This frank and revealing memoir details how she built a new life for herself and her daughter while overcoming all obstacles with the same courage and optimism she employed in her life in the Kenyan outback.
Once again, Hoffmann proves herself to be an acute observer and an effective storyteller, and her astonishing and compelling tale will captivate fans new and old.
ISBN:9781905147328
Author:Corinne Hofmann
Joe Kadenge The Life of a Football Le...
Brief Summary
Kadenge na mpira...
This is the stuff of legend; a real tour de force, brilliant and uncompromising, told in simple conversational style that feels like listening to a great storyteller. This is a story that will capture the attention of all Kenyans. It's part birthday card, part an engrossing portrait to a legendary footballer. The story spans decades —from a crotchety start to the incising portrait of a great man of our times.
John Nene is a Kenyan journalist working for the BBC World Service as a sports producer, and is based at their East Africa Bureau office in Nairobi. He has covered sports in Kenya extensively and travelled widely to report on major international events. Some of the big international competitions he has covered are Olympic Games in 1988 (Seoul), 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing), World Athletics Championships in 1993 (Stuttgart), 2001 (Edmonton), 2007 (Osaka) and 2015 in Beijing, 1999 All-Africa Games in Johannesburg and 2012 Olympic boxing qualifiers in Casablanca, Morocco.
The climax to his illustrious career in sports journalism was when he covered the 2010 World Cup in South Africa in which he travelled by road, winning the hearts of sports fans in the region with his lively reports on his way to Johannesburg via Arusha, Morogoro, Mbeya, Kabwe, Lusaka, Livingstone, Francistown and Gaborone. He started his sports journalism career as a boxing correspondent for the defunct Weekly Review/Nairobi Times publications having himself been a boxer, then moved to Kenya Times, Kenya Television Network (KTN) as chief sports presenter, Daily Nation as a sports sub-editor and now with BBC. His creative, incisive, authoritative and well-researched stories have twice earned him the Kenya Media Council Sports Journalist of the Year award. He is currently working on his next book, boxing in Kenya.
ISBN:9789966478764
Author:John Nene
Nairobi then and now 50 years by Step...
Brief Summary
This book is a window into Nairobi's past and a reminder of its present. The transformation we see is uneven - some things and places have evolved unrecognizably, while others remain constant. Nairobi is a place of great change. Rapid development and outward expansion is ever reshaping the landscape. Kenya and the UK have been partners in Nairobi's evolutionary journey throughout.
Not just government, but also in terms of trade and investment, technology, security, knowledge, and people. The Kenya-UK partnership will continue the journey down this road to the future, towards achieving the Kenyan Government's Vision 2030 and beyond.
50 years in the future many places shown in this book could be long gone. While a few special old places might remain, our vision for the 2063 edition of this book is an ultra-modern Nairobi, a major interchange of the globalized and interconnected world. And a place where we continue to learn from the lessons of the past, as we focus on the promise of the future.
African Nights Kuki Gallmann
Brief Summary
African Nights: True Stories from the Author of I Dreamed of Africa
Africa evokes a deep sense of mystery. It is a place that retains what most of the world has lost: space, roots, traditions, awesome beauty, true wilderness, rare animals, and extraordinary people. In this wonderful and haunting collection of stories, Kuki Gallmann writes of her life in Africa, where every day brings challenge and adventure.
African Nightsis a treasury of memories, in which fascinating people and places are brought to life. The healing powers Africa can have on those who embrace the land as a place of mystery, superstition, danger, and beauty.
ISBN:9780060954833
Author:Kuki Gallmann
The Vendor
Brief Summary
Ngaruwe, a reserved, unapologetic and fiercely independent newspaper vendor is at home in the squalid conditions of a sprawling city slum. His childhood nemesis, Adrian Gachomo - a venal man who never saw a boot he did not want to lick- is a big shot with business interests that bestride the city economy like a colossus.
When the two cross swords, neither the blue chip companies in the city nor the shadowy organized criminal gangs can survive the whirlwind that ensues. The upshot is a deep story infused with big money, power, love and all that gratifies the materialistic soul.
Waithaka Waihenya is a journalist and prolific author of biographies, novels and children's books. He has also been a long-time essayist with the Sunday Standard and a columnist for the Guardian of the UK. He was an Associate Editor with the Standard Group, before joining the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) as Editor-in-Chief and later as the Managing Director.
ISBN:9780195736984
Author:Waithaka Waihenya
Den of Inequities by Kinyanjui Kombani
Omosh is a construction worker at a local slum whose life is rudely changed when he is arrested by overzealous policemen.
Gosti, the local mugger, comes home to find his long lost father, who seems to have great plans for him, or what does he want? On the other side of town, Aileen’s seems to have everything: she is the reigning Miss Campus, daughter of a renowned politician and a ‘cool life’.
A misadventure in a matatu changes her life, forever. What do these three characters have in common? And who is killing police officers so brazenly? And is the counter attack justified?
Here Comes the Sun
Brief Summary
Capturing the distinct rhythms of Jamaican life and dialect, Nicole Dennis-Benn pens a tender hymn to a world hidden among pristine beaches and the wide expanse of turquoise seas. At an opulent resort in Montego Bay, Margot hustles to send her younger sister, Thandi, to school.
Taught as a girl to trade her sexuality for survival, Margot is ruthlessly determined to shield Thandi from the same fate. When plans for a new hotel threaten their village, Margot sees not only an opportunity for her own financial independence but also perhaps a chance to admit a shocking secret: her forbidden love for another woman.
As they face the impending destruction of their community, each woman fighting to balance the burdens she shoulders with the freedom she craves must confront long-hidden scars. From a much-heralded new writer, Here Comes the Sun offers a dramatic glimpse into a vibrant, passionate world most outsiders see simply as paradise.
ISBN:9781631491764
Author:Nicole Y. Dennis-Benn
Fighting the Mau Mau The British Army...
Fighting the Mau Mau: The British Army and Counter-Insurgency in the Kenya Emergency
British Army counterinsurgency campaigns were supposedly waged within the bounds of international law, overcoming insurgents with the minimum force necessary. This revealing study questions what this meant for the civilian population during the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the 1950s, one of Britain's most violent decolonization wars.
For the first time Huw Bennett examines the conduct of soldiers in detail, uncovering the uneasy relationship between notions of minimum force and the colonial tradition of exemplary force where harsh repression was frequently employed as a valid means of quickly crushing rebellion.
Although a range of restrained policies such as Special Forces methods, restrictive rules of engagement and surrender schemes prevented the campaign from degenerating into genocide, the army simultaneously coerced the population to drop their support for the rebels, imposing collective fines, mass detentions and frequent interrogations, often tolerating rape, indiscriminate killing and torture to terrorize the population into submission.
