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How Democracy Ends by David Runciman
Brief Summary
Since the end of World War II, democracy's sweep across the globe seemed inexorable. Yet today, it seems radically imperiled, even in some of the world's most stable democracies. How bad could things get?
In How Democracy Ends, David Runciman argues that we are trapped in outdated twentieth-century ideas of democratic failure. By fixating on coups and violence, we are focusing on the wrong threats. Our societies are too affluent, too elderly, and too networked to fall apart as they did in the past. We need new ways of thinking the unthinkable -- a twenty-first-century vision of the end of democracy, and whether its collapse might allow us to move forward to something better.
A provocative book by a major political philosopher, How Democracy Ends asks the most trenchant questions that underlie the disturbing patterns of our contemporary political life.
Crude Nation: How Oil Riches Ruined V...
Brief Summary
Beneath Venezuelan soil lies an ocean of crude—the world’s largest reserves—an oil patch that shaped the nature of the global energy business. Unfortunately, a dysfunctional anti-American, leftist government controls this vast resource and has used its wealth to foster voter support, ultimately wreaking economic havoc.
Crude Nation reveals the ways in which this mismanagement has led to Venezuela’s economic ruin and turned the country into a cautionary tale for the world. Raúl Gallegos, a former Caracas-based oil correspondent, paints a picture both vivid and analytical of the country’s economic decline, the government’s foolhardy economic policies, and the wrecked lives of Venezuelans.
Without transparency, the Venezuelan government uses oil money to subsidize life for its citizens in myriad unsustainable ways, while regulating nearly every aspect of day-to-day existence in Venezuela. This has created a paradox in which citizens can fill up the tanks of their SUVs for less than one American dollar while simultaneously enduring nationwide shortages of staples such as milk, sugar, and toilet paper. Gallegos’s insightful analysis shows how mismanagement has ruined Venezuela again and again over the past century and lays out how Venezuelans can begin to fix their country, a nation that can play an important role in the global energy industry.
Maasai: Language and culture dictiona...
The illusion of power by GG Kariuki H...
Brief Summary
The Illusion of Power: Reflections on Fifty Years in Kenya Politics.
Kariki's political participation dates from 1952, when he pledged an oath to the allegiance of the Gikuyu tribe, the Mau Mau movement and the cause of African unity. Post-independence, he gradually progressed to being a political insider, serving in the Kenyan African National Union (KANU) and the Kenyan Government. In 1983 he was expelled from KANU - the only political party.
It is from this outsider-perspective, and in this climate of fear and uncertainty, without the desired freedom of association and access to political colleagues of the period of struggle, that he nevertheless here recounts his experiences of half a century in politics.
He holds the belief that political evolution is inexorable; and that knowledge about, and reflection on the past is the only way of preventing the tragedy of yet another generation repeating that which they condemned in their predecessors.
The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiongo
My Life with a Criminal by John Kiria...
John Kiriamiti's best-selling novel My Life in Crime has become a classic. Here Milly, his girlfriend, tells the poignant story of her life with the bank robber.
They were in love, and he was gentle, kind and considerate. But after she moved in with him, she discovered his double life. She remained devoted, but the stress of his life bore its toll, and finally they parted. This sequel novel is also a bestseller in Kenya.
The Sinister Trophy by John Kiriamiti
Written by the author of the popular Son of Fate, this follow-up story tells of Adams Wamathina, better known as Son of Fate, who is searching for a trophy which other parties will stop at nothing to get.
The action takes place in Nairobi and Tanzania and Son of Fate finds himself involved with car chases and murder as he becomes embroiled in the chase.
My Life in Crime by John Kiriamiti
The late 1960's and early '70s may be remembered as the years of the great bank and other armed robberies in Kenya. This is the true story of one of the participants in some of those robberies, John Kiriamit. In raw and candid language, Kiramiti tells the story of how he dropped out of secondary school when he was only fifteen years old, and for a time became a novice pickpocket, before graduating into crimes like car-breaking and ultimately into violent robbery.
This spell-binding story takes the reader into the underworld of crime, and it depicts graphically the criminal's struggle for survival against the forces of law.
Visual Voices: The Works of Contempor...
Books, African Interest, Business, Dictionaries & References, Entrepreneurs, History, Home & Living, International Bestsellers
Brief Summary
Visual Voices: The Works Of Contemporary Artists In Kenya.
This book showcases the work of contemporary visual and other artists in a large aesthetically pleasing and well-designed book.
The presentation of the works does justice to selected great art in Kenya today. Susan Wakhungu-Githuku worked with a panel of Art connoisseurs and individuals knowledgeable on the Art scene to select and profile over 50 artists that amply demonstrate the range of Kenya’s artistic talent and flair.
Nairobi The City That Calls Your Name...
Books, African Interest, Business, Dictionaries & References, Entrepreneurs, History, Home & Living, International Bestsellers
THE CITY THAT CALLS YOUR NAME
There is something about Nairobi, the large and fast expanding East African city of cities that gets under the skin of even the most skeptical. What is it about this incongruous metropolis of diverse cultures, tribes, people, of new and old buildings, the clean and the shoddy, the unending traffic amidst the green parks of Uhuru Highway that beckons and lingers within? A city once known as the place of cool waters that now often bakes in the sun, a city that grew out of a Railway outpost, a city that unashamedly holds the largest slum in Africa and yet boasts an ever expanding modern skyline! The double volume of Photographic Slices and Personal Musings, compiled by mother and daughter Susan Wakhungu-Githuku & Natalie Githuku, is a first-of-a-kind and beautifully pays homage to this fascinating ‘city that calls your name’.
Nairobi is packaged in two volumes (Vol 1: Photographic Slices and Vol. 2: Personal Musings).
Makers Of Kenya’s History: Fiel...
Brief Summary
Dedan Kimathi is a story of the man who is now almost universally accepted as the true symbol of Kenya's liberation struggle. A warrior and military strategist to boot, Dedan Kimathi rose through the ranks to become the overall leader of the Mau Mau freedom fighters.
Since his death at the heart of the struggle, he has acquired, in the minds of many, legendary and mythical qualities.
A life Undeserved Maingis Tribulation...
Brief Summary
A life Undeserved Maingis Tribulations is a breathtaking suspenseful, rapid paced and touching search for rewards that really accrue out of hard work, faithfulness and self discipline. In this novel Warugongo Wamathai juxtaposes the labyrinths of the good, bad , genuine, faithful, virtuous, vile, fate, destiny and absurdity that living and relationship serve humanity. A brilliantly woven magnificent piece.
Happy Valley Homes A Selection Of His...
Brief Summary
This booklet is a publication for the Heritage Trust Kenya, a Kenyan non-profit organization and all proceeds will go to the Trust.
It contains photographs and brief histories of an assortment of houses in and around Happy Valley in Nyandarua County.
Names used in reference to each house refer to former owners or names of their farms.
Author: Heritage Trust Kenya
Chasing the Rain: An Africans Quest f...
Brief Summary
Richard Lyth: Oxford graduate, missionary, commando, Frontier Agent, linguist, District Commissioner, Anglican bishop. Lyth lived an epic life much of it spent in the remote southeastern Sudan. During World War 2 he served as Frontier Agent on the Boma Plateau, part of the traditional homeland of the Murle people. There he met a young Murle man named Lado, the subject of this book. The two men became lifelong friends. Over time Lado told Lyth the story of his difficult and extraordinary life. Lyth lived for many years among the Murle people, studying their culture and language. He penned an early edition of this book in 1945, drawing upon his knowledge of the setting and customs of the intriguing Murle culture and integrating them with Lado s personal story. This book follows the life of a man named Lado.
He was born in Sudan approximately 1920. He grew up living the traditional life of his Murle people- herding the goats, planting sorghum and hunting antelope with a spear. But Lado was different. Even as a young boy he wondered about the world around him. As he grew older he was increasingly confused by the different manifestations of the tribal god named Tammu. As a teenager he was captured in a raid and taken away as a slave.
He was later adopted into the tribe that enslaved him. Under these conditions his questions about suffering and God became more intense. He was rescued by British troops and learned Arabic under the protection of the District Commissioner. Eventually he returned to his home at Boma as the official translator for the military. It was here that Lado met Kemerbong (Richard Lyth). A meeting that changed the rest of his life.
Weight of Whispers by Yvonne Adhiambo...
How to Write about Africa by Binyavan...
This trio of sharp-witted essays takes irony to a new level. In 'How to Write About Africa', Wainaina dissects the cliché of Africa and the preconceptions dear to western writers and readers with ruthless precision.
In the same fashion, ‘My Clan KC’ undresses the layers of meaning shrouding the identity of the infamous Kenya Cowboy, while ‘Power of Love’ bemusedly recollects the advent of the celebrities-for-Africa phenomenon, heralded by the mid-eighties hit song ‘We Are The World’.
It also scrutinizes the international NGO circuit and the transactions between ‘dollar-a-day people’ and $5000-a-month United Nations consultants whose started off as ‘$5-dollar-a-day’, 25-year-old backpackers full of ‘love and compassion’ for the continent.
Black Sunday by Tola Rotimi Abraham
Brief Summary
Following the fate of one family over the course of two decades in Nigeria, this debut novel tells the story of each sibling’s search for agency, love, and meaning in a society rife with hypocrisy but also endless life
“I like the idea of a god who knows what it’s like to be a twin. To have no memory of ever being alone.”
Twin sisters Bibike and Ariyike are enjoying a relatively comfortable life in Lagos in 1996. Then their mother loses her job due to political strife, and the family, facing poverty, becomes drawn into the New Church, an institution led by a charismatic pastor who is not shy about worshipping earthly wealth.
Soon Bibike and Ariyike’s father wagers the family home on a “sure bet” that evaporates like smoke. As their parents’ marriage collapses in the aftermath of this gamble, the twin sisters and their two younger siblings, Andrew and Peter, are thrust into the reluctant care of their traditional Yoruba grandmother. Inseparable while they had their parents to care for them, the twins’ paths diverge once the household shatters. Each girl is left to locate, guard, and hone her own fragile source of power.
Written with astonishing intimacy and wry attention to the fickleness of fate, Tola Rotimi Abraham’s Black Sunday takes us into the chaotic heart of family life, tracing a line from the euphoria of kinship to the devastation of estrangement. In the process, it joyfully tells a tale of grace and connection in the midst of daily oppression and the constant incursions of an unremitting patriarchy. This is a novel about two young women slowly finding, over twenty years, in a place rife with hypocrisy but also endless life and love, their own distinct methods of resistance and paths to independence.
Party Politics and Economic Reform in...
Brief Summary
In Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa's Democracies, M. Anne Pitcher offers an engaging new theory to explain the different trajectories of private sector development across contemporary Africa.
Pitcher argues that the outcomes of economic reforms depend not only on the kinds of institutional arrangements adopted by states in order to create or expand their private sectors, but also on the nature of party system competition and the quality of democracy in particular countries.
To illustrate her claim, Pitcher draws on several original data sets covering twenty-seven countries in Africa, and detailed case studies of the privatization process in Zambia, Mozambique, and South Africa. This study underscores the importance of formal institutions and political context to the design and outcome of economic policies in developing countries.
Maps by Nuruddin Farah
Brief Summary
This first novel in Nuruddin Farah's Blood in the Sun trilogy tells the story of Askar, a man coming of age in the turmoil of modern Africa. With his father a victim of the bloody Ethiopian civil war and his mother dying the day of his birth, Askar is taken in and raised by a woman named Misra amid the scandal, gossip, and ritual of a small African village. As an adolescent, Askar goes to live in Somalia's capital, where he strives to find himself just as Somalia struggles for national identity.
History of Nairobi 1899-2012 From a R...
Brief Summary
History of Nairobi 1899-2012: From a Railway Camp and Supply Depot to a World-Class African Metropolis is the second book in the series, History of Kenyan Cities and Towns. The Series looks at the people and events that have shaped the cities’ and towns’ development and the broader impact they have had on Kenya’s development.
History of Nairobi 1899- 2012 follows the City’s origins as a Railway camp in 1899 to 2012 when the Country ushered in the devolved system of government and the Nairobi City Council was replaced by the Nairobi City County. As the Capital City and the seat of National Government, the history of Nairobi also provides a narrative of Kenya’s political development from the early days of the colony to the promulgation of the new Constitution in 2010.
Throughout the text, a large collection of photographs brings to life the evolution of the City in its formative 110 years.
ISBN:9789914702033
Author:Bethwell A Ogot and Madara Ogot
