African history Books

Book SynopsisOverseas Press Club Award Winner 2016A shocking investigative journey into the way the resource trade wreaks havoc on Africa, The Looting Machine' explores the dark underbelly of the global economy.The Looting Machine' is a searing exposé of the global web of traders, bankers, middlemen, despots and corporate raiders that is pillaging Africa's vast natural wealth. From the killing fields of Congo to the crude-slicked creeks of Nigeria, a great endowment of oil, diamonds, copper, iron, gold and coltan has become a curse that condemns millions to poverty, violence and oppression. That curse is no accident. This gripping investigative journey takes us into the shadows of the world economy, where secretive networks conspire with Africa's kleptocrats to bleed the continent dry. And like their victims, the beneficiaries of this grand looting have names.Trade Review‘Revealing … Explains lucidly how the oil and mineral bonanza subverts societies … particularly acute in analysing how multinationals connive in this institutionalised theft … This intelligent book should give us all pause for thought when we fill our cars with petrol’ Sunday Times ‘A powerful case, through anecdote and evidence, that the dirty trade in raw materials serves individuals’ own enrichment’ The Times ‘[Burgis] presents a lively portrait of the rapacious “looting machine” … a rich collage of examples showing the links between corrupt companies and African elites’ Economist ‘A great scrapbook of exploitation. Burgis has the good sense not to present it in an alarmist way, but with an understatement that is far more powerful … [it] is in part a means of self-exoneration, a way of making amends to those he ultimately could not help … He has done a service to some of the world’s poorest people’ Financial Times ‘Excellent. Burgis ensures that we don’t stop wondering who does what in Africa and how we are all party to what Western “investors” are up to. The post-colonial corruption and rape of African resource to the benefit of western consumption is still alive and horribly well’ Jon Snow ‘Burgis has managed to uncover a system responsible for the wholesale looting of Africa’s mineral resources for the benefit of oligarchic and state interests around the world. Burgis, a gifted young journalist, has tracked down all these characters across some of Africa’s most dangerous hotspots and beyond. Vivid, eye-popping and even at times very funny’ Misha Glenny, author of ‘McMafia’ ‘Makes an important case colourfully, convincingly and at times courageously as he confronts some of those involved in the pillaging’ Observer ‘[An] excellent, finely reported book … The great value lies in its fresh detail, storytelling and the characters Burgis introduces. Crammed with colour and lively investigative reporting’ Literary Review ‘[A] major contribution’ TLS

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Book Synopsis''A historically insightful read''Financial Times ''A wry, rollicking, and provocative history'' Michael Taylor, author of The InterestA thought-provoking analysis of Africa''s relationship with economic imperialism' Astrid Madimba and Chinny Ukata, authors of It's A ContinentWe need to think differently about African economics.For centuries, Westerners have tried to fix' African economies. From the abolition of slavery onwards, missionaries, philanthropists, development economists and NGOs have arrived on the continent, full of good intentions and bad ideas. Their experiments have invariably gone awry, to the great surprise of all involved.In this short, bold story of Western economic thought about Africa, historian Bronwen Everill argues that these interventions fail because they start from a misguided premise: that African economies just need to be more like the West. Ignoring Africa''s own traditions of economic thought, Europeans and Americans assumed a set of universal economic laws that they thought could be applied anywhere. They enforced specifically Western ideas about growth, wealth, debt, unemployment, inflation, women's work and more, and used Western metrics to find African countries wanting.The West does not know better than African nations how an economy should be run. By laying bare the myths and realities of our tangled economic history, Africonomics moves from Western ignorance to African knowledge.*Shortlisted for the BCA African Business Book of the Year*

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Book SynopsisThe shocking, untold story of how African independence was strangled at birth by America’s systematic interference. Accra, 1958. Africa’s liberation leaders have gathered for a conference, full of strength, purpose and vision. Newly independent Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Congo’s Patrice Lumumba strike up a close partnership. Everything seems possible. But, within a few years, both men will have been targeted by the CIA, and their dream of true African autonomy undermined. The United States, watching the Europeans withdraw from Africa, was determined to take control. Pan-Africanism was inspiring African Americans fighting for civil rights; the threat of Soviet influence over new African governments loomed; and the idea of an atomic reactor in black hands was unacceptable. The conclusion was simple: the US had to ‘recapture’ Africa, in the shadows, by any means necessary. Renowned historian Susan Williams dives into the archives, revealing new, shocking details of America’s covert programme in Africa. The CIA crawled over the continent, poisoning the hopes of 1958 with secret agents and informants; surreptitious UN lobbying; cultural infiltration and bribery; assassinations and coups. As the colonisers moved out, the Americans swept in—with bitter consequences that reverberate in Africa to this day.Trade Review'[White Malice] gives us an unprecedented look into the murky underworld of Cold War geopolitics and the motivations of its major players.' -- African Business'White Malice is a triumph of archival research.' -- Africa Is a Country

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Book SynopsisMasterful, Pulitzer-prize winning literary epic about the painful and complex realities of slave life on a Southern plantation. An utterly original exploration of race, trust and the cruel truths of human nature, this is a landmark in modern American literature.Henry Townsend, a black farmer, boot maker, and former slave, becomes proprietor of his own plantation as well as his own slaves. When he dies, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to profound grief, and things begin to fall apart: slaves take to escaping under the cover of night, and families who had once found love beneath the weight of slavery begin to betray one another. Beyond the Townsend household, the known world also unravels: low-paid white patrollers stand watch as slave speculators' sell free black people into slavery, and rumours of slave rebellions set white families against slaves who have served them for years.An ambitious, luminously written novel that ranges from the past to the present, The Known World seamlessly weTrade Review'A very moving epic' Andrea Levy, author of Small Island 'Majestic …[its] cumulative effect devastates' Daily Telegraph 'A moral epic, skilfully and sensitively constructed' Sunday Times 'A powerful experience … rich in character and plot' Guardian 'A masterpiece' Time Magazine ‘Jones immerses us in a world of slaves and slave owners with unerring mastery' Geoff Dyer, Telegraph Books of the Year An engrossing epic tale. The indications of what's to come mean a sense of doom hang over this beautifully crafted tale, people with luminous characters. It's a moving look at the moral complexities of slavery.' Metro ‘The Known World is an achievement of epic scope and architectural construction, which nonetheless reads like a string of folk tales told by someone slyly watching for your reaction – tales told by a conjurer who distracts you so well that you never know what hit you.’ New York Times ‘The best new work of American fiction to cross my desk in years.’ Washington Post ‘Jones has woven nothing less than a tapestry of slavery, an artifact as vast and complex as anything to be found in the Louvre. Every thread is perfectly in place … The first paragraph exquisitely connects, nearly 400 pages later, with the last. Against all the evidence to the contrary that American fiction has given us over the past quarter-century, The Known World affirms that the novel does matter, that it can still speak to us as nothing else can.’ Houston Chronicle

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize, Cundill History Prize, Fage and Oliver Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Pius Adesanmi Memorial Award Winner of the Historical Writers'' Association Non-Fiction Crown 2020Winner of the American Historical Association''s Jerry Bentley Prize in World History 2020Winner of the Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2019An Observer and Wall Street Journal Book of the Year 2019A groundbreaking history that will transform our view of West AfricaBy the time of the ''Scramble for Africa'' in the late nineteenth century, Africa had already been globally connected for many centuries. Its gold had fuelled the economies of Europe and Islamic world since around 1000, and its sophisticated kingdoms had traded with Europeans along the coasts from Senegal down to Angola since the fifteenth century. Until at least 1650, this was a trade of equals, using a variety of currencies - most importantly shells: the cowrie shells imported from the Maldives, and the nzimbu shells imported from Brazil.Toby Green''s groundbreaking new book transforms our view of West and West-Central Africa. It reconstructs the world of kingdoms whose existence (like those of Europe) revolved around warfare, taxation, trade, diplomacy, complex religious beliefs, royal display and extravagance, and the production of art.Over time, the relationship between Africa and Europe revolved ever more around the trade in slaves, damaging Africa''s relative political and economic power as the terms of monetary exchange shifted drastically in Europe''s favour. In spite of these growing capital imbalances, longstanding contacts ensured remarkable connections between the Age of Revolution in Europe and America and the birth of a revolutionary nineteenth century in Africa.A Fistful of Shells draws not just on written histories, but on archival research in nine countries, on art, praise-singers, oral history, archaeology, letters, and the author''s personal experience to create a new perspective on the history of one of the world''s most important regions.''Astonishing, staggering'' Ben Okri, Daily TelegraphTrade ReviewA Fistful of Shells is the fruit of research conducted in the archives of nine nations and required the author to undertake fieldwork across eight West African states. It shows. [...] This is a stunning work of research and argumentation. It has the potential to become a landmark in our understanding of the most misunderstood of continents. -- David Olusoga * New Statesman *Toby Green's A Fistful of Shells uses a global archive - in Africa, the Americas and Europe - to explore the complex, flourishing and connected economy of West Africa existing long before a European capitalist system established itself on the continent. Extraordinarily written and researched, the book paints a huge, complex canvas, filled with individual detail. -- Julia Lovell * Observer Books of the Year 2019 *A Fistful of Shells is exemplary: scholarly, sensitive, enlightening and often vivid. The author does much more than make Africa seem normal. He proclaims a daunting ambition: to explore the local and global implications of West Africa's economies during the age of slavery. He succeeds. -- Felipe Fernández-Armesto * Wall Street Journal *A work of staggering scholarship, drawing on previously untapped sources locked away in European vaults and historical records which, taken as a whole, contradict the age-old perceptions foisted on Africa ... peppered with astonishing facts ... polyphonic, detailed and vast. -- Ben Okri * Daily Telegraph *Dismantles the racist myth of west African "backwardness" ... The 19th-century imperial vision of Africa as somehow outside of history continues to mark even "world" histories, which often privilege the global north. A Fistful of Shells is an antidote to these histories, and to the master narrative of Africa as historical object, rather than subject. -- Padraic Scanlan * The Guardian *A rich and insightful work ... What emerges is a radically different view of the region from the one that has been generally available. Green concludes by pointing to the lack of history being taught in schools and universities in West Africa and elsewhere; if it is taught at all, it tends to focus on the slave trade. A Fistful of Shells shows that there was so much more, and of so much relevance when looking at the issues of our own time. * Spectator *This original and thoughtful work is based on detailed first-hand knowledge of and collaboration with the cultures and peoples it depicts ... For all its impressive scholarship A Fistful of Shells is notably readable, supported by great illustrations and a stunning cover - and, in the best sense, personal. * Times Higher Education *A sprawling and nuanced look at the steady depletion of a continent with a powerful lament about the lack of academic interest in Africa's precolonial eras. * New York Review of Books *A multifaceted history of West Africa which turns many old assumptions on their heads. Green utterly demolishes the tired Western view that Africa had no history before the arrival of the Europeans, and that they naively ceded power in the region to the newcomers by exchanging valuable goods for baubles. A magisterial, extensive and fresh account of the history of West Africa that rewrites the region and its peoples back into World History, where they belong. -- Miranda Kaufmann, Author of BLACK TUDORSToby Green's book restores the rich African history which she had been denied for too long. Here the author reveals that Africa was never at the margins of global commerce but was in fact a decisive player with the prowess to negotiate and also the goods - ivory, gum, gold - to supply. -- Hassoum Ceesay, National Museum, The GambiaToby Green's transformative book repositions West African history in an entirely new light. It brings into focus the region's fundamental place in shaping the modern world as well as the powerful and also difficult legacy of this today. -- Paul Reid, Director, Black Cultural ArchivesVery seldom do I pick up a history book and wish I had written it myself. Toby Green's A Fistful of Shells is one such book. Brilliantly conceptualized, beautifully written, it breaks with colonially configured regional boundaries - which work to re-create unintended silos of knowledge - to imagine a West and West Central African Atlantic history of money, power, religion, and inequality that is as rich as it is sound. -- Professor Nwando Achebe, Michigan State UniversityThis book represents an extraordinary and admirable archival and bibliographic undertaking. * Times Literary Supplement *

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Book Synopsis A detailed chronicle of a significant opening battle in the Anglo-Zulu War: 'The Zulu attack on Rorke's Drift thrillingly retold' (Richard Holmes). On January 22nd, 1879, the British Army in South Africa was swept aside by the seemingly unstoppable Zulu warriors at the Battle of Isandlwana. Nearby, at a remote outpost on the Buffalo River, a single company of the 24th Regiment and a few dozen recuperating hospital patients were passing a hot, monotonous day. By the time they received news from across the river, retreat was no longer an option. It seemed certain that the Rorkes Drift detachment would share the same fate. And yet, against incredible odds, the British managed to defend their station. In this riveting history, Colonel Snook brings the insights of a military professional to bear on this fateful encounter at the start of Anglo-Zulu War. It is an extraordinary talea victory largely achieved by the sheer bloody-mindedness of the British infantryman. Recounting in detail how the Zulu attack unfolded, Snook demonstrates how 150 men achieved their improbable victory. Snook then describes the remainder of the war, from the recovery of the lost Queens Colour of the 24th Regiment to the climactic charge of the 17th Lancers at Ulundi. We return to Isandlwana to consider culpability, and learn of the often tragic fates of many of the wars participants.

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Book SynopsisEmpower yourself with the guidance and spells of the Orishas. What if you could control what the reality around you returns by controlling the energies you sent to the Universe in actions, words and thoughts? What if you could become the creator of you own happiness, changing the reality around you and achieving your dreams with the power of African Gods and Goddesses? Through African magical traditions and its resemblance with Latin America, the Orishas spirituality and the lessons of the Odus are part of a growing daily process in which magic happens when we start to assume self-responsibility for our choices in life. Once we understand that what happens to us in the present is a consequence of our past choices (or the lack of them), we begin to connect with the holy source of all happiness and joy, becoming conscious and able to create the life we dreamt about. That's what you'll find in the rituals and meditations from African Gods Oracle: a self-transformation tool from which you can ask the Orishas about the goals and anguishes of your life and get the Odus answers that will lead you to success.

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Book SynopsisThis autobiography is about growing up in Egypt. It is also an investigation into childhood perception in which the author uses herself and her memories as an insight into how children see and know. It is a look at Eygpt up to, and including, World War II from a small girl''s point of view, which is also, ultimately, a moving and rather sad picture of an isolated and lonely little girl.Trade ReviewSo vividly evocative that you can smell the dust and dung, jacaranda and the oleander. It offers potent glimpses of British colonial life 50 years ago: the snake-charmer in the garden; the nine-year old Penelope spying on de Gaulle at Government House... The result is a wise, colourful and touching tale * The Times *Lively uses the imaginative power of a mature novelist to evoke the sounds, sights and smells of Cairo which is not so much 'another country as another century' * Independent *

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Book SynopsisThe complex world of Egyptian myth is clearly illuminated in this fascinating new approach to ancient Egypt. Geraldine Pinch explores the cultural and historical background behind a wide variety of sources and objects, from Cleopatra''s Needle and Tutankhamun''s golden statue, to a story on papyrus of the gods misbehaving. What did they mean, and how have they been interpreted? The reader is taken on an exciting journey through the distant past, and shown how myths of deities such as Isis and Osiris influenced contemporary culture and have become part of our cultural heritage. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade Reviewa masterly, clear, and concise account of a complex subject * Dr Richard Parkinson, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, British Museum *Table of ContentsTIMELINE OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY; SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

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Book SynopsisUnravel the history behind of one of the most fascinating ancient civilisations with this engaging, entertaining and educational guide to the ancient Egyptians.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Part I: Introducing the Ancient Egyptians 7 Chapter 1: Getting Grounded: The Geography and History of Ancient Egypt 9 Chapter 2: Examining the Lives of the Everyday Egyptians 29 Part II: Stepping Back in Time 55 Chapter 3: Building a Civilisation with Military Might 57 Chapter 4: Building the Empire: The Glories of the New Kingdom 79 Chapter 5: Looking at the Power Behind the Throne: Royal Women 101 Chapter 6: Following the Decline and Fall of the Egyptian Civilisation 117 Part III: Living Life to the Full: Culture and Beliefs 139 Chapter 7: Enjoying Food and Entertainment 141 Chapter 8: Staying Healthy: Diseases and Medicine 157 Chapter 9: Worshipping like an Egyptian: Religion 171 Chapter 10: Exploring Funerary Beliefs and Mummification 189 Part IV: Interpreting Egyptian Art and Architecture 207 Chapter 11: Deciphering Egyptian Art and Hieroglyphs 209 Chapter 12: Touring the Temples 229 Chapter 13: Excavating the Tombs: Houses of Eternity 253 Chapter 14: Probing the Pyramids 271 Part V: The Part of Tens 285 Chapter 15: Top Ten Breakthroughs in Egyptology 287 Chapter 16: Ten Egyptians Worth Knowing 297 Chapter 17: Ten Ancient Egyptian Achievements 307 Chapter 18: Top Ten Places to Visit in Egypt 317 Chapter 19: Ten Key Egyptologists 327 Index 335

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Book SynopsisA tragic story of the British empire run amok and the plunder of great works of artTrade Review‘Gripping…a must read.’ * FT *‘[A] balanced reconstruction of the Benin saga and probes the difficult choices facing European – and Nigerian – museums… Phillips excels at tracing the roundabout ways in which objects could find their way into museums.’ -- TLS‘The storytelling is crisp, balanced and authoritative… As Britain continues to twist on the thorny issue of racism…this book’s laser-sharp focus on the casenotes from one instance of colonial cruelty allows for a much more informed understanding of the wider issue. Whereas before the now highly valuable Benin Bronzes might have had us looking in the attic for some forgotten heirloom, perhaps now we are left examining our consciences.’ -- Tim Butcher, Spectator‘Mr Phillips, a veteran British correspondent in Africa who knows Nigeria well, adds new and much-needed context to the story of the Edo empire and its bloody finale… Mr Phillips is at pains to show how deeply the Edo people feel the loss of their physical culture… But Mr Phillips is clear-sighted about the political and financial obstacles that must still be overcome.’ -- Economist‘His compelling book is full of African voices… It is balanced, sternly critical of the Brits when that is appropriate, but at the same time humane, reasonable, and ultimately optimistic.’ -- Evening Standard‘[A] valuable guide to a complex narrative… Throughout this tortured history, Phillips writes with journalistic detail, gathering his accounts from many sources, attempting fairness.’ -- The Times‘Damning’ -- Prospect, Best Books of 2021‘A veteran journalist based for years in Africa, Mr. Phillips has written a humane and thoughtful book, devoid of the sort of posturing that mars the debate over the repatriation of objects brought to the West during the colonial era.’ -- Wall Street Journal‘Vivid, dramatic and colourful, Loot is a story of empire running amok. It still has huge resonance in the debate about colonialism and racism today.’ * Kwasi Kwarteng, MP and author of Ghosts of Empire and War and Gold *‘Persuasive… Phillips is scrupulously fair yet damning. He points to the racist hypocrisy that rationalised colonial plunder…[and] covers the ritzy, often clandestine, history of the Bronzes on the western market, where some objects have been sold for up to £10m. Above all, his tale is one of competing ways of assessing material culture.’ -- Prospect‘This timely, thoughtful and beautifully crafted volume deftly guides us through a truly astounding passage of events. These are the kind of histories that change the way that we look at things we thought we knew – whilst shocking us at the things that we simply hadn’t grasped.’ * Gus Casely-Hayford, Director of V&A East and former Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art *‘A fascinating and timely book. A brilliant model of expertly marshalled historical research and compelling narrative.’ * William Boyd, author of Any Human Heart and A Good Man in Africa *‘Reading Barnaby Phillips’s Loot is like walking a sniffing dog through the minds, homes, and storerooms of government agents, military adventurers, museums, art dealers, and collectors… Brilliant and evidenced-based… It is a highly recommended book that will thrill the reader to the last page.’ * Dr Uyilawa Usuanlele, Associate Professor of African History, State University of New York *‘This is a thoroughly researched, well written and timely contribution to the live debate about cultural restitution. Accessible yet nuanced, we hear the voices of a contested history from the looters themselves and the bronze casters of Benin City, to the leaders of the world’s major cultural institutions and so many other players in this drama. Barnaby takes us on a journey raising important questions about empire and the meaning of art, civilisation and culture.’ * Clive Myrie, BBC Chief Correspondent and Presenter *‘Phillips weaves a compelling and evocative narrative from the off, peopled by a cast that propels the story forward, sending the reader on a voyage of discovery that raises some very important questions indeed… accessible, packed with drama and utterly fascinating. It should appeal to a wide audience, from those with an interest in the history of colonialism to art historians and readers who are simply looking for a book that will be difficult to put down.’ -- All About History‘Well-balanced and highly readable.’ -- Peter Frankopan, Air Mail'Brilliant' * South African Mail and Guardian *‘Rarely have books like Loot focussed so in-depth on the perspectives of Africans. As Loot makes clear, whether in the form of Nollywood films or oral histories handed down across generations, Nigerians have had a lot to say about the Benin Bronzes… Phillips kicks off his stylish tome with an in-depth history of the Kingdom of Benin… he paints a touching portrait of the kingdom and the people who inhabited it… it’s possible that a book like Loot could offer some readers the context needed to get behind Phillips’s cause.’ -- Art News‘Debate continues to rage over whether the Benin Bronzes held in London’s British Museum should be returned to Africa. Barnaby Phillips focuses instead on their origins, investigating their medieval authors, and what they can tell us about Africa’s culture and history.’ -- BBC History‘For the first time a comprehensive account of the famed Benin Bronzes, from their creation to their pillaging by British troops to subsequent attempts at recovery. Phillips writes with ease and erudition, highlighting the many complexities that arise with each attempt at addressing this historical injustice.’ -- Alexander Herman, The Art Newspaper‘Readers interested in the diversity of Nigerian views about the Benin Bronzes will be better served by [Loot]… Phillips’s incorporation of local perspectives produces a nuanced picture.’ -- International Journal of Cultural Property

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Book SynopsisIt is a glorious book: an education and an invitation. There is such life in its pages, and such food!' Nigella LawsonA culinary expedition celebrating cooking from across the African continentAfricana travels the continent showcasing its vibrant and varied cuisines that are rich in flavour, diverse in culture and steeped in tradition.Combining recipes passed down the generations with her own modern and inventive style, food writer and cook Lerato shares her own stories of Africa with a delectable sense of adventure.Discover iconic dishes from Nigeria to Madagascar, Morocco to South Africa. There are over 100 recipes to delight and inspire, Spice Island Coconut Fish Curry, Harissa Leg of Lamb with Hibiscus, Senegalese Yassa, Tunisian Tagine, South African Malva Pudding, and the secret to the perfect Jollof.Bursting with flavour and offering a sense of wanderlust, Africana will bring the magic of the continent to your kitchen.Outstanding new book that will wake up your taste buds.' deliTrade Review‘It is a glorious book: an education and an invitation. There is such life in its pages, and such food!’ Nigella Lawson ‘Outstanding new book that will wake up your taste buds.’ delicious. magazine ‘No plantain will go to waste with this book nearby.’ BBC Good Food Magazine ‘Leaf through Africana and you’ll be sticking Post-it notes everywhere … There isn’t a dish I don’t want to cook.’ Diana Henry, the Saturday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY THE AUTHORIn ''70s'' South Africa, Rian Malan descendant of the architects of apartheid, middle-class white boy, friend to blacks went to work as a crime reporter for a local Johannesburg rag. There he encountered first-hand the horrors wrought by apartheid: the poverty, injustice and violence. After an eight-year exile, he returned to write this book. With gripping stories and in mesmerising prose, this is Malan's attempt to understand his country, its racial hatred, and his own tortured conscience.Trade ReviewRian Malan has written a tragic masterpiece and a classic of our time * Time Out *My Traitor's Heart is a tremendous book about candour, honour and race, a witness-bearing act of the rarest courage. No one who reads it could ever forget it * Michael Herr *A tortured, mesmerising attempt to capture exactly the conflicts of [Malan’s] upbringing, conflicts that went to the soul of the emerging nation. * Guardian *The remorseless exercise of a reporter's anguished conscience gives us a South Africa we thought we knew all about: but we knew nothing -- John Le CarreA great swirling devil of a book and it is equal in every way to its vast subject - the black and white country of the heart -- Don DeLillo

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Book SynopsisThe Gayer-Anderson Cat has been one of the most admired objects at the British Museum since its arrival in 1947. This book presents a detailed description of the cat and a discussion of its possible meaning and role in ancient times.

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Book SynopsisBlack Victorians shows how Black lives were visible, present and influential â not temporary presences but established and rooted; and how paradox and ambivalence characterised the Victorian view of race.Trade Review‘The history of Black people in this country is woven into the tapestry that is the United Kingdom. Black Victorians shows us, in vivid detail, how Black people didn't just take part in the Victorian era, they shaped it’ David Lammy MP, author of Tribes‘Meatily researched and illuminating... [brings] to swaggering life a group of Britons who have spent too long in the shadows’ Susie Goldsbrough, The Times‘An important survey of the subject based on painstaking research. Woolf and Abraham's Black Victorians: Hidden in History provides an indispensable introduction to the subject told through the lives of some of the most eminent personalities of the era, as well as those hitherto little known. A significant contribution to the field’ Hakim Adi'This book will generate discussion and change mindsets. It is brilliant’ Dr Maggie Semple OBE‘The book's telling details are liberating for, in spite of the Black Victorians' subjection and degradation, they are presented not as victims, but rather as resourceful, inventive, assertive human beings in their quests for betterment. Their cumulative experiences are skilfully woven into an engaging, richly textured book – an insightful work of scholarship’ Ron Ramdin, author of The Making of the Black Working Class in Britain‘Fascinating, thorough, well-researched and extremely readable, Black Victorians provides invaluable insight into a history of Victorian Britain that is not often told’ Hafsa Zayyan, author of We Are All Birds of Uganda‘Engaging, informative and accessible, Black Victorians shines a light on a little-known aspect of British history. It is written with passion and attention to detail. I highly recommend this book’ Stephen Bourne, author of Black Poppies: Britain's Black Community and the Great War‘Revelatory. Exposing whitewashing, tackling archival obfuscation, and returning little known figures to history, this book restores colour to our vision of Victorian Britain’ Suzannah Lipscomb, author of What is History, Now?

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Book SynopsisThe rise and fall of the business of slave trading - by a bestselling historianTrade ReviewA 'darkly compelling history of the trade'. * MAIL ON SUNDAY *The most impressive single volume history of the subject. Combining grand narrative sweep with vivid, telling detail, Thomas provides an elegant synthesis of contemporary accounts and modern scholarship * LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS *

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Book SynopsisThomas Sankara, often called the African Che Guevara, was president of Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in Africa, until his assassination during the military coup that brought down his government. Although his tenure in office was relatively short, Sankara left an indelible mark on his country’s history and development.Trade Review“Thomas Sankara: An African Revolutionary will serve as an excellent introduction to Sankara and the revolution in Burkina Faso and explain why Sankara continues to be so widely admired throughout Africa and beyond.”“…[A] fascinating read about a leader who not only led a revolution to free his people … but also lived a simple and humble life, uncorrupted by the power of the office he held.” * Africa Renewal *“Harsch’s book helps us understand why [Sankara's] ideas are still very much alive. It's a good read and well worth the price.” * The Bullet *

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Book SynopsisThe Scramble for Africa astonished everyone.In 1880 most of the continent was ruled by Africans, and barely explored. By 1902, five European Powers (and one extraordinary individual) had grabbed almost the whole continent, giving themselves 30 new colonies and protectorates and 10 million square miles of new territory, and 110 million bewildered new subjects. Thomas Pakenham''s story of the conquest of Africa is recognised as one of the finest narrative histories of the last few decades.

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Book SynopsisThe New York Times Book Review Editors'' Choice?A spellbinding work of history that reads like a Cold War spy thriller?about the U.S.-sanctioned plot to assassinate the democratically elected leader of the newly independent CongoA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, The Economist, Financial Times?This is one of the best books I have read in years . . . gripping, full of colorful characters, and strange plot twists.? ?Fareed Zakaria, CNN hostIt was supposed to be a moment of great optimism, a cause for jubilation. The Congo was at last being set free from Belgium?one of seventeen countries to gain independence in 1960 from ruling European powers. At the helm as prime minister was charismatic nationalist Patrice Lumumba. Just days after the handover, however, the Congo?s new army mutinied, Belgian forces intervened, and Lumumba turned to the United Nations for help in saving his newborn nation from what the press was already calling ?the Congo crisis.? Dag Hammarskjöld, the tidy Swede serving as UN secretary-general, quickly arranged the organization?s biggest peacekeeping mission in history. But chaos was still spreading. Frustrated with the fecklessness of the UN and spurned by the United States, Lumumba then approached the Soviets for help?an appeal that set off alarm bells at the CIA. To forestall the spread of Communism in Africa, the CIA sent word to its station chief in the Congo, Larry Devlin: Lumumba had to go.Within a year, everything would unravel. The CIA plot to murder Lumumba would ?zzle out, but he would be deposed in a CIA-backed coup, transferred to enemy territory in a CIA-approved operation, and shot dead by Congolese assassins. Hammarskjöld, too, would die, in a mysterious plane crash en route to negotiate a cease-?re with the Congo?s rebellious southeast. And a young, ambitious military officer named Joseph Mobutu, who had once sworn fealty to Lumumba, would seize power with U.S. help and misrule the country for more than three decades. For the Congolese people, the events of 1960?61 represented the opening chapter of a long horror story. For the U.S. government, however, they provided a playbook for future interventions.

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Book Synopsis_______________ ‘Insightful ... Avoiding both modern conceits and romantic fantasies, Suzman chronicles how economics and politics have finally conquered some of the last outposts of hunter-gatherers, and how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth.' - Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus 'Fascinating' - Sunday Times 'Elegant and absorbing' - Financial Times 'Profoundly moving' - Irish Times _______________ From acclaimed anthropologist James Suzman, a portrait of the 'original affluent society' – the Bushmen of southern Africa – and what their way of life can teach us today. What can we learn from the Bushmen? If the success of a civilisation is measured by its endurance over time, then the Bushmen of the Kalahari are by far the most successful in human history. Anthropologist James Suzman spent twenty-five years in Southern Africa documenting their way of life and encounters with modern society, gathering invaluable lessons about work, wealth, happiness, equality and time. 'To know what it is like to live as people lived for most of human history, you would have to find one of the places where traditional hunting-and-gathering practices are still alive…Fortunately for us, the anthropologist James Suzman did exactly that…The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great.' - John Lancaster, The New YorkerTrade ReviewAn insightful and well-written book, describing the hard transition of foraging communities in Namibia from relative affluence during the Stone Age to contemporary poverty and misery. Avoiding both modern conceits and romantic fantasies, Suzman chronicles how economics and politics have finally conquered some of the last outposts of hunter-gatherers, and how much humankind can still learn from the disappearing way of life of the most marginalized communities on earth. * Yuval Noah Harari, author of SAPIENS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HUMAN KIND and HOMO DEUS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TOMORROW *To know what it is like to live as people lived for most of human history, you would have to find one of the places where traditional hunting-and-gathering practices are still alive…Fortunately for us, the anthropologist James Suzman did exactly that…The news here is that the lives of most of our progenitors were better than we think. We’re flattering ourselves by believing that their existence was so grim and that our modern, civilized one is, by comparison, so great. * John Lancaster, The New Yorker *Suzman’s descriptive prose and affection for his subjects generate the reader’s genuine empathy…This fascinating glimpse into a disappearing way of life leads Suzman to reflect on our world today: a world where wealth and possessions are valued above all other pursuits. Suzman’s account of the lives of Bushmen, past and present, offers plenty of fuel for thought. * Rachel Newcomb, The Washington Post *Mr Suzman deftly weaves his experiences and observations with lessons on human evolution, the history of human migration and the fate of African communities since the arrival of Europeans. The overarching aim of the book is more ambitious still: to challenge the reader’s ideas about both hunter-gatherer life and human nature. * The Economist *[Suzman creates] a feeling for the landscape, the difficulties encountered by the Bushmen, and the pleasures of their simple, if rapidly changing, way of life... In all, this is a delightful book, full of perceptiveness and understanding. * Science *[A] fascinating book. . . Part-ethnography, part-memoir, this is a poignant account of a culture on the brink of extinction. * Sunday Times *Suzman’s talent for evoking the region’s vast and haunting landscapes, his elegiac account of a passing covenant with nature, and his warm and compassionate character sketches of individual Ju’/hoansi, make this a fascinating and at times profoundly moving work of literary non-fiction. * The Irish Times *[T]hrough neglect, abuse and misunderstanding, an ancient way of life is being finally extinguished… Yet, Suzman argues, even now the Bushmen have much to teach us about a social order that, in many ways, offered a freer, fairer existence and a non-invasive adaption to ecology. * Ben Collyer, New Scientist *This book has truth on every page and is filled with important insights that range from hunting and tracking to how we think about time, money, value or success. * Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of THE HARMLESS PEOPLE and THE OLD WAY *This beautiful book--part memoir, part ethnography--offers a window into the lives of one of the most enduring of human cultures . . . If you have ever wondered how it might be to measure wealth not by material possessions but by the strength of social relations between people, read this book. * Wade Davis, author of THE WAYFINDERS and INTO THE SILENCE *[A] beautiful, heartfelt paean. AFFLUENCE WITHOUT ABUNDANCE is learned without being condescending, tender yet unsentimental. It is both a celebration of an ancient way of life and a lament for all that has been lost in our own headlong pursuit of the material. * Peter Godwin, author of MUKIWA and WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN *A spirited ethnography of the ancestral peoples of the Kalahari . . . A welcome contribution to a once-vibrant anthropological literature without many recent entries. * Kirkus Reviews *In his thoughtful, in-depth look, [Suzman] focuses on the Ju/’hoansi people, whom he has been working with for more than two decades… A fascinating examination of a society drastically changed by forced modernity. * Booklist *

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Book SynopsisA Financial Times Book of the Year 'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express 'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times 'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business. And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.Trade ReviewThe stories it tells of dictators such as Robert Mugabe and Muammer Gaddafi are grimly fascinating and leave the reader to ponder why so many of Africa's liberation heroes turned into villains * Financial Times, Books of the Year *A humane, timely, accessible and well-researched book that shines a light on urgent African issues [...] that, when we consider the state of our own societies, can no longer be dismissed as merely somewhere else's problem * Irish Times *Paul Kenyon is a brilliant writer who's been there and tells a story of unparalleled greed and western complicity in vivid detail -- Michael BuerkIt is [the] minute observations that make Mr Kenyon's book so hard to put down * Economist *Mr Kenyon narrates a jaw-dropping tale of greed, corruption and brutality * Daily Express *Well written and sensibly structured... Some of the most revealing passages are based on interviews with retired expatriate executives and diplomats who were witness to the excesses of the early post-colonial years' * Sunday Times *Kenyon's stories of corruption and excess are truly compelling, while his analysis of the West's motivations is astute and illuminating * Culture Trip *A heart-breaking and stomach-churning history but also an utterly absorbing one... Kenyon blends in gripping, authenticating first-hand testimonies from those who were behind the carnage and corruption... This book shines a vital light on how Africa was robbed "in broad daylight"' * UAE National *Highly readable... A chapter on the rise of Félix Houphouët-Boigny is especially vivid' * The Times *A familiar story, but still shocking * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisEvery time you try to say 'Africa is...' the words crumble and break. From every generalisation you must exclude at least five countries. And just as you think you've nailed down a certainty, you find the opposite is also true. Africa is full of surprises. For the past three decades, Richard Dowden has travelled this vast and varied continent, listening, learning, and constantly re-evaluating all he thinks he knows. Country by country, he has sought out the local and the personal, the incidents, actions, and characters to tell a story of modern sub-Saharan Africa - an area affected by poverty, disease and war, but also a place of breathtaking beauty, generosity and possibility. The result is a landmark book, compelling, illuminating, and always surprising. Updated for 2018, Africa remains one of the most comprehensive, intelligent and responsive works on the continent ever written.

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Book Synopsis'Why am I not white like everybody else?' Nan came and sat on the edge of my bed. 'What do you mean?' A tender finger brushed against my cheek. 'Well, everyone in this house is white. Why am I Black?'A generation of Nigerian children were born in Britain in the fifties and sixties, privately fostered by white families, then taken to Nigeria by their parents. Coconut is the story of one of those children.1963, North London. Nan fosters one-year-old Florence Olájídé and calls her 'Ann.' Florence adores her foster mother more than anything but Nan, and the children around her, all have white skin and she can't help but feel different. Then, four years later, after a weekend visit to her birth parents, Florence never returns to Nan. Two months after, sandwiched between her mother and father plus her three siblings, six-year-old Florence steps off a ship in Lagos to the fierce heat of the African sun.Swapping the lovely, comfortable bed in her room at Nan's for a mat on the floor of the living room in her new home, Florence finds herself struggling to adjust. She wants to embrace her cultural heritage but doesn't speak Yoruba and knows nothing of the customs. Clashes with her grandmother, Mama, the matriarch of the family, result in frequent beatings. Torn between her early childhood experiences and the expectations of her African culture, she begins to question who she is. Nigerian, British, both? Florence's story is an unputdownable tale of loss and loneliness, surviving poverty, maltreatment and fighting to get an education. Most of all, it's a moving, uplifting and inspiring account of one woman's self-determination to discover who she is and find her way to a place she can call home. Perfect for fans of Lemn Sissay's My Name is Why and Tara Westover's Educated. Audiobook narrated by Adjoa Andoh and featured on the Graham Norton BookclubWhat readers are saying about Coconut:'Wow, how do I even do this book justice... I absolutely loved this... I would recommend this book to everyone... important and powerful... completely captivating and fascinating... stunning.' Sibzzreads, 5 stars'Heart-breaking... eye-opening... heart-warming... I couldn't recommend this enough... fantastic!' NetGalley reviewer'Extraordinarily moving...a stunning read, beautifully written with searing honesty and humor.' Abi Daré, international bestselling author of The Girl with the Louding Voice'One of the best non-fiction books I have read...Amazing.' NetGalley reviewer'I sped through it as I could not put it down.' Goodreads reviewer'Remarkable...with grace, wit, insight and not a little heartbreak.' Adjoa Andoh, actress and star of Netflix series Bridgerton'Incredible... There were places I was shocked; places I was saddened; places I was amazed, and places where I laughed... Florence is now right up there at the top of my mental list of 'inspirational people'. NetGalley reviewer, 5 stars'I found myself completely immersed from the start! Florence writes with honesty, beauty and courage...delving deeply into some of the most important issues of our times.' Christy Lefteri, international bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo'A piece of poetic resilience, Coconut is an integral intervention in our understanding of race, identity and belonging.' David Lammy'Fascinating, emotional and enlightening... I felt myself rooting for Florence all the way... captivating. Highly recommended.' Karen King

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Book SynopsisSpanning Ancient Egyptian culture (ca. 3200 BC to AD 400), the Handbook of Egyptian Mythology is the only complete survey of Egyptian mythology of its kind available in English.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when we consider Africa through a feminist lens and feminism through an African one? And what does it mean to centre selfhood in this journey?

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Book SynopsisDrawing on many years of African experience, John Reader has written a book of startling grandeur and scope that recreates the great panorama of African history, from the primeval cataclysms that formed the continent to the political upheavals facing much of the continent today. Reader tells the extraordinary story of humankind''s adaptation to the ferocious obstacles of forest, river and desert, and to the threat of debilitating parasites, bacteria and viruses unmatched elsewhere in the world. He also shows how the world''s richest assortment of animals and plants has helped - or hindered - human progress in Africa.

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Book SynopsisAn essential overview of great kingdoms in African history and their legacies, written by world-leading experts. From the ancient Nile Valley to the savannas of medieval West Africa, the highlands of Ethiopia and on to the forests, lakes and grasslands to the south, African civilizations have given rise to some of the world's most impressive kingdoms. Yet Africa's history is often little known beyond the devastation wrought by the slave trade and European colonial rule. In this groundbreaking new book, nine leading historians of Africa take a fresh look at these great kingdoms and empires over five thousand years of recorded history. How was kingship forged in Africa and how did it operate? Was dynastic power maintained by consent or by coercion? Did kings - and queens - display and project that power for all to see, or did they hide it away, as beneath the fringed crowns that concealed the faces of sacred Yoruba rulers? In what ways have African peoples themselves recorded, celebTrade Review'A contemporary reawakening of the rise, fall and remains of African ancient kingdoms … Illuminates the many myths and histories that make the continent magical. This book is useful in invigorating new interests in the understanding of Africa’s past and present, especially its history of creativity' - RA Magazine'An enlightening non-colonial history … One would hope the “noble savage” trope was debunked decades ago, but were any more nails required for that particular coffin, then this book provides them' - Geographical'Fascinating … Great insight into the breadth and depth of African history - in particular the history before Europeans arrived on the scene' - Popular History Books'With contributions from an array of leading historians, this is a vital work that corrects the tendency to define Africa’s past by European colonisation' - The Irish Times'There is much that is insightful, new, and useful to commend this book' - The PastTable of ContentsIntroduction: Kings, Kingship and Kingdoms in African History John Parker 1. Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Kings of Floods and Kings of Rain David Wengrow 2. The Sudanic Empires: The Gold, the Arts, the River Rahmane Idrissa 3. The Solomonic Christian Kingdom of Ethiopia Habtamu Tegegne and Wendy Laura Belcher 4. The Yoruba and Benin Kingdoms Olatunji Ojo 5. The Kongo Kingdom Cécile Fromont 6. Buganda John Parker 7. From Hausa Kingdoms to the Sokoto Caliphate Muhammadu Mustapha Gwadabe 8. The Akan Forest Kingdom of Asante John Parker 9. The Zulu Kingdom Wayne Dooling

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Book Synopsisthe greatest Moroccan travel book of all time:vital reading for the new upmarket Marrakesh tourism - one of the bibles of British twentieth-century Orientalism - by the author of A Ring of Bright Water - describes the extraordinary medieval nature of Morocco in the twentieth century, focussing on a family who combined the lethal elegance of gangland mobsters with the opulent charm of hereditary Indian princes, fed by a monopoly in drugs and prostitution - a perennial classic for the backlist which will sell and sell - POS material available

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Book SynopsisBartlett goes beyond Rorke's Drift to tell the largely forgotten story of how the Anglo-Zulu war was really won and lost.

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Book SynopsisFor more than a century, skin lighteners have been a ubiquitous feature of global popular culture—embraced by consumers even as they were fiercely opposed by medical professionals, consumer health advocates, and antiracist thinkers and activists. In Beneath the Surface, Lynn M. Thomas constructs a transnational history of skin lighteners in South Africa and beyond. Analyzing a wide range of archival, popular culture, and oral history sources, Thomas traces the changing meanings of skin color from precolonial times to the postcolonial present. From indigenous skin-brightening practices and the rapid spread of lighteners in South African consumer culture during the 1940s and 1950s to the growth of a billion-dollar global lightener industry, Thomas shows how the use of skin lighteners and experiences of skin color have been shaped by slavery, colonialism, and segregation as well as by consumer capitalism, visual media, notions of beauty, and protest politics. In teasing out lTrade Review“Beneath the Surface is nothing short of a tour de force. Lynn M. Thomas's ‘layered history’ does justice to the immensely difficult subject of skin lighteners. Carefully attending to the complex politics of race and color that are grounded in skin, Thomas at once provides a vibrant history of South Africa and a global history of commodity, beauty, and the body. This landmark study sets a new standard in the field.” -- Julie Livingston, author of * Self-Devouring Growth: A Planetary Parable as Told from Southern Africa *“Allowing for a comparative analysis over a period of time when the global relationships and meanings of skin color became tied to class, race, and racism, Beneath the Surface helps us understand the intense and long-standing interest whites and blacks have had in lightening the color of their skin despite the potential for severe health risks. There is simply no other book like it.” -- Noliwe M. Rooks, author of * Hair Raising: Beauty, Culture, and African American Women *"Beneath the Surface makes a necessary contribution to [a] small pool of work on beauty and geography as Thomas' analysis integrates these subjects in considering the (trans)national politics and racial inequalities that uphold skin lightening.… This book would appeal to both undergraduate and graduate students as well as scholars interested in beauty, geopolitics, race, and colonialism." -- Meena Pyatt * Gender, Place & Culture *“Thomas resourcefully assembles and interweaves sources connecting popular, business, medical and political culture. …. Beneath the Surface would be an engaging key text for students to study a history of race and gender within everyday global beauty cultures.” -- Fabiola Creed * Metascience *"Beneath the Surface is the most comprehensive book regarding skin lighteners available to date and it is both interesting and innovative.… The book has value as a postgraduate textbook relevant to the fields of history, social science, geopolitics, gender studies, geography, psychology, dermatology, and others. The layered, integrated history presented by Thomas in Beneath the Surface is indeed 'a landmark study' of skin colour and skin lighteners that interrogates every influencing factor from slavery and segregation to consumer capitalism, political protests and reinforced social inequities, and beyond." -- Caradee White * South African Journal of Science *"Lynn Thomas’s Beneath the Surface constructs a history of skin lighteners that is simultaneously rigorous in its historical evidence base and virtuosic in its lucid articulation of the technologies as they are mobilised in complex contexts in and beyond South Africa. . . . Its biopolitical argument is convincingly made and compelling." -- Vivette Garcia-Deister * BioSocieties *"This is an impressive book that will surely be a classic for scholars interested in aesthetics, beauty politics, and gender. It is an especially welcome addition to the literature as it centers on African history from a transnational perspective. It also has much to offer those with specialization in the history of science, medicine, and technology." -- Oluwakemi M. Balogun * Journal of African History *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix A Layered History 1 1. Cosmetic Practices and Colonial Crucibles 22 2. Modern Girls and Racial Respectability 47 3. Local Manufacturing and Color Consciousness 75 4. Beauty Queens and Consumer Capitalism 98 5. Active Ingredients and Growing Criticism 150 6. Black Consciousness and Biomedical Opposition 190 Sedimented Meanings and Compounded Politics 221 Notes 237 Bibliography 293 Index

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Book SynopsisThe Russian Revolution of 1917 was not just a world-historical event in its own right, but also struck powerful blows against racism and imperialism, and so inspired many black radicals internationally. This edited collection explores the implications of the creation of the Soviet Union and the Communist International for black and colonial liberation struggles across the African diaspora. It examines the critical intellectual influence of Marxism and Bolshevism on the current of revolutionary ‘black internationalism’ and analyses how ‘Red October’ was viewed within the contested articulations of different struggles against racism and colonialism. Challenging European-centred understandings of the Russian Revolution and the global left, The Red and the Black offers new insights on the relations between Communism, various lefts and anti-colonialisms across the Black Atlantic – including Garveyism and various other strands of Pan-Africanism. The volume makes a major and original intellectual contribution by making the relations between the Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic central to debates on questions relating to racism, resistance and social change.Trade Review'This ideologically diverse collection is uniformly well-written and exceedingly informative. The inescapable and unavoidable conclusion it renders is that the Russian Revolution of 1917 delivered a mighty blow against colonialism, imperialism and forms of apartheid alike. Simultaneously, by implication it blazes the trail and illuminates the way forward for those seeking to create a better world.' Gerald Horne, author of Paul Robeson: The Artist as Revolutionary'Featherstone and Høgsbjerg must be credited with putting together a fantastic edited collection which makes both an important contribution to keeping alive, and shedding new light on, herstories and histories of Black radical rebellion. In doing so, they have further reminded us of the struggles that have, in different ways, been central to the Black Lives Matter movement in recent times, as well as wider transnational (and interconnected) opposition to neo-imperialism.'Stephen D. Ashe, University of Durham, Ethnic and Racial Studies -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Red October and the Black Atlantic – David Featherstone and Christian HøgsbjergPart I Racism, resistance and revolution1 Claude McKay’s Bolshevization in London – Winston James2 From Russian colonies to Black America … and back: Lenin and Langston Hughes – Matthieu Renault3 African American literature in the Soviet Union, 1917-1930s: contacts, translations, criticism and editorial policy – Olga PanovaPart II Spreading the Revolution Across the Black Atlantic4 Bolshevism and African American agency in the African American Radical Press, 1917-24 – Cathy Bergin5 International Communist trade union organisations and the call to black toilers in the interwar Atlantic world – Holger Weiss6 Firebrands, trade unionists and Marxists: the shadow of the Russian Revolution, the colonial state and radicalism in Guyana, 1917-57– Nigel Westmaas7 Racialising the Caribbean Basin: the Communist racial agenda for the American hemisphere, 1931-35– Sandra Pujals8 The Left Book Club and its associates: The transnational circulation of socialist ideas in an Atlantic network– Matheus Cardoso da SilvaPart III Africa, the Soviet Union and the Cold War9 The beginning of the Cold War in the Gold Coast? – Marika Sherwood10 Decolonisation and the Cold War: African student elites in the USSR, 1955-64 – Harold D. Weaver11 ‘Peoples' Friendship’ in the Cold War: the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University – Rachel RubinAfterword: A Black journey of Red hope – Maxim Matusevich

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Book SynopsisMoroccan Other-Archives investigates how histories of exclusion and silencing are written and rewritten in a postcolonial context that lacks organized and accessible archives. The book draws on cultural production concerning the “years of lead”—a period of authoritarianism and political violence between Morocco’s independence in 1956 and the death of King Hassan II in 1999—to examine the transformative roles memory and trauma play in reconstructing stories of three historically marginalized groups in Moroccan history: Berbers/Imazighen, Jews, and political prisoners. The book shows how Moroccan cultural production has become an other-archive: a set of textual, sonic, embodied, and visual sites that recover real or reimagined voices of these formerly suppressed and silenced constituencies of Moroccan society. Combining theoretical discussions with close reading of literary works, the book reenvisions both archives and the nation in postcolonial Morocco. By producing other-archives, Moroccan cultural creators transform the losses state violence inflicted on society during the years of lead into a source of civic engagement and historiographical agency, enabling the writing of histories about those Moroccans who have been excluded from official documentation and state-sanctioned histories. The book is multilingual and interdisciplinary, examining primary sources in Amazigh/Berber, Arabic, Darija, and French, and drawing on memory studies, literary theory, archival studies, anthropology, and historiography. In addition to showing how other-archives are created and operate, El Guabli elaborates how language, gender, class, race, and geographical distribution are co-constitutive of a historical and archival unsilencing that is foundational to citizenship in Morocco today.Table of ContentsPreface | ix Note on Transliteration | xiii List of Abbreviations | xv Introduction | 1 1. (Re)Invented Tradition and the Performance of Amazigh Other- Archives in Public Life | 26 2. Emplaced Memories of Jewish- Muslim Morocco | 63 3. Jewish- Muslim Intimacy and the History of a Lost Citizenship | 89 4. Making Tazmamart a Transnational Other- Archive | 115 5. Other- Archives Transform Moroccan Historiography | 150 Conclusion | 177 Acknowledgments | 189 Notes | 193 Bibliography | 253 Index | 281

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Book SynopsisBinyavanga Wainaina tumbled through his middle-class Kenyan childhood out of kilter with the world around him.This world came to him as a chaos of loud and colourful sounds: the hair dryers at his mother's beauty parlour, black mamba bicycle bells, mechanics in Nairobi, the music of Michael Jackson - all punctuated by the infectious laughter of his brother and sister. He could fall in with their patterns, but it would take him a while to carve out his own. In this vivid and compelling debut, Wainaina takes us through his school days, his failed attempt to study in South Africa, a moving family reunion in Uganda, and his travels around Kenya.The landscape in front of him always claims his main attention, but he also evokes the shifting political scene that unsettles his views on family, tribe, and nationhood. Throughout, reading is his refuge and his solace. And when, in 2002, a writing prize comes through, the door is opened for him to pursue the career that perhaps had been beckoning all along. Resolutely avoiding stereotype and cliche, Wainaina paints every scene in One Day I Will Write About This Place with a highly distinctive and hugely memorable brush.

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Book SynopsisThe vast military campaigns in Africa during World War I were among the most ambitious of the Great War. Many histories, however, have regarded these campaigns as side-shows to the war on the Western Front. World War One in Africa looks afresh at the impact of the strategy of the German and Allied campaigns, and at the great rivalry between General Jan Christian Smuts, who took on the German forces in East Africa, and General Lettow-Vorbeck, celebrated as the only German general to occupy British territory and whose troops finished the war undefeated. Using primary material from British and South African archives, this book is a detailed study of the giants of the campaign, and the battles which would shape the outcome of the Great War as well as the future of the African continent and the British Empire.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Position on the eve of war Chapter 2: To war, 1914 Chapter 3: The outbreak of war: Southern Africa, 1914 Chapter 4: German South West Africa, Angola and Southern Africa - 1915 Chapter 5: War on the waters and in the air - 1915-1917 Chapter 6: East Africa 1915-1917 Chapter 7: Personal, personnel and materiel Chapter 8: Last days - 1918 Chapter 9: Behind the scenes - 1915-1918 Chapter 10: The war in London - 1915-1917 Chapter 11: All for what? Chapter 12: Conclusions Notes Bibliography Forces Index Person Index Place Index General Index

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Book SynopsisSomalia has been called 'a nation of poets'. This volume aims to make available, in English translation, the universal of Somali poetry. It includes the following poets: Raage Ugaas, Xirsi Garaad Faarax Wiilwaal and others. It covers the oral and written medium, the pronunciation of Somali words, alliteration and scansion, a bibliography and more.Trade Review'This is a fascinating and unusual collection that deserves attention.O NBloomsbury Review O ... this anthology of poetry is a breath of fresh air. It provides the reader with the means of gaining a deeper insight into Somali life through what is to the Somalis their most important cultural form, namely, poetry.O NBulletin of the School of Irental & African Studies OThis affordable and beautifully produced book is a small jewel in the field of Somali studies, as it is the fruit of over forty years of dedicated linguistic and literary scholarship by one of the most thorough and accurate translators and analysts of Somali poetry, B. W. Andrzejewski.O NInternational Journal of African Historical Studies Somalia has been called Oa nation of poets.O This volume makes available in beautiful English translation the very best, and most universal, of Somali poetry, from the 19th century to the present. With appendixes covering the oral and written medium, the pronunciation of Somali words, alliteration and scansion, selected bibliography, and sources.Table of ContentsIntroductionThe PoemsRaage Ugaas1 To the Camels2 A Broken Betrothal3 A Horse Beyond Compare4 Riposte to a Young Opponent in a Poetic Duel5 Old AgeXirsi Garaad Faarax 'Wiilwaal'6 A Young Sultan Speaks to His PeopleCali Bucul7 Guulside, the Victory BearerAadan-Gurey Maxamed Cabdille8 Seventy and Ten YearsFaarax Afcad9 Camel Rustling—1Qawdhan Ducaale10 Camel Rustling—2Cali Jaamac Haabiil11 The Death of a FriendMaxamed Cabdille Xasan12 A Fine War Horse13 A Land of Drought14 Treason15 A Terrible Journey16 Folly17 Perhaps the Trumpet Has Sounded18 A Prayer for MaryamXuseen Maxamuud Faarax known as 'Xuseen Dhiqle'19 The Lion's ShareIsmaaciil Mire20 Change of Command21 A Hoopoe Rebuked22 Listen, O Truck23 Fleeting Joys24 What Will Come Next?Saahid Qamaan25 EqualityQamaan Bulxan26 The Stolen Wife27 In Praise of Barni SheekhNuur Ugaas Rooble28 DissimulationCilmi Bowndheri29 A Vain Love30 A Vision31 The MessengerFaarax Shuuriye32 A Chief is Thanked for the Gift of a HorseCumar Xuseen 'Ostreeliya'33 Where True Profit Lies34 In Praise of WerisMuuse Xaaji Ismaaciil Galaal35 The SerpentAxmed Maxamed Good 'Shimbir'36 A Lover's FearsCali Sugulle37 A Happy MarriageXasan Sheekh Muumin38 The Betrayed GirlAxmed Ismaaciil Diiriye 'Qaasim'39 Bitter and SweetMaxamed Ibraahim 'Hadraawi'40 At the Grave of Cilmi Bowndheri41 BeledweynAppendicesI. The Oral and the Written MediumII. Pronunciation of Somali WordsIII. Alliteration and ScansionIV. Selected BibliographyV. Sources

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Book SynopsisThrough The Healing Wisdom of Africa, readers can come to understand that the life of indigenous and traditional people is a paradigm for an intimate relationship with the natural world that both surrounds us and is within us. The book is the most complete study of the role ritual plays in the lives of African people - and the role it can play for seekers in the West.

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Book SynopsisThis book is a photographic journey on the origin and life of Africa Hall in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia a building declared in 2015 Monument to African History and recently renovated which was donated in 1961 by Emperor Haile Selassie to the United Nations. Africa Hall was designed by Arturo Mezzèdimi, a young self-taught architect, to serve as the UN's continental headquarters and was the birthplace, in 1963, of the Organization of African Unity, now African Union.The building came to life with an inspiring story of reconciliation at a crucial moment in African history, when the continent was emerging out of the colonial period and making headway into a new era of independence and envisaged unity. Through its architectural composition and the embedded artworks, it embodied a Pan-Africanist vision and its rising ideals.Edited by the grandson of the architect and representing Italy's contribution to the renovation project, the book sits at the crossroads of photography, architecture, history, and art and comprises an amplitude of independent essays, contributions and recollections from authors of diverse profiles. Through impacting images and short articles, it addresses events of historical relevance on a global scale, for the entire continent of Africa, at a national level for Ethiopia, and locally for the city of Addis Ababa, concluding with an introduction to the life and work of its architect.

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Book Synopsis

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