Out of Africa

There are some interesting new fiction and non-fiction books coming out of Africa lately. Book Buzz this week highlights a few that are available at your local public library. From war survival stories to history and political analysis and from fiction to self-help and art there is something African for everyone.

Happy reading!

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles

By Richard Dowden

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The author, one of the world’s finest Africa correspondents tries to explain why the continent is the way it is in this book on life and death in modern Africa. With a novelist’s gift for atmosphere and with the scholar’s grasp of historical change, he spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone, analyzes the impact of oil and the internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan, and he examines what has gone so badly wrong in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. The book enables readers to see the continent as a place of inspiration and tremendous humanity. For other new publications in pan-African history try: The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year History of the Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa and Asia-and How It Died by Philip Jenkins or The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations by Ira Berlin.

Emma’s War: An Aid Worker, A Warlord,

Death in Sudan

By Deborah Scroggins

962.404 Sc

Emma McCune’s passion for Africa, her commitment to the children of Sudan and her youthful beauty set her apart from other relief workers from the moment she arrived in southern Sudan. But no one was prepared for her decision to marry a local warlord. This is at once a disturbing love story and an up-close look at Sudan. Also from Sudan, look for God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau who at 13 in 1987 was driven from his village, separated from his family and spent years in refugee camps before he came to the U.S. as one of 4,000 Lost Boys of Sudan. His memoir is the subject of a new, award-winning documentary film. For context try Darfur: A Short History of a Long War by Julie Flint and Alex de Waal.

Mandela’s Way: Fifteen Lessons on Life, Love, and Courage

By Richard Stengel

650.1 St

Here you will find the wisdom of the world’s greatest moral leader artfully distilled by a wonderful writer. Through an¬ecdotes both heartwarming and heartbreaking, this inspiring volume makes Mandela’s hard-won wisdom accessible to anyone who wants to play a part in making the world a better place. You may also be interested in Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela, drawn from historic documents archived at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

More than Just a Game: Soccer vs. Apartheid: The Most Important Soccer Story Ever Told

By Chuck Korr with Martin Close

796.33409 Ko

The author tells the little-known tale of how soccer transformed the lives of black political prisoners on isolated Robben Island, during South Africa’s apartheid era. Beginning in 1964, prisoners demanded the right to play soccer during exercise periods and were eventually allowed to form a multi-tiered, pro-level league. Robben Island’s most famous inmate, Nelson Mandela, barely plays a role. See also Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game the Made a Nation by John Carlin.

My Father, Maker of the Trees: How I Survived the Rwandan Genocide

By Eric Irivuzumugabe

276.7571 Irivuzumugabe

In 1994, 16-year-old Eric climbed a cypress tree and remained there for 15 days without food or water–he was attempting to save his life during the Rwandan genocide that claimed the lives of 1 million people in just 100 days. This book is the story not only of his physical survival, but also of his spiritual rebirth and the role he is playing in the healing and redemption of his land and people. See also Children at War by P.W. Singer, the first comprehensive book to examine the growing and global use of children as soldiers.

Natural Fashion: Tribal Decoration from AFr5ica

By Hans Silvester

391.60963

The scene of tribal conflicts and guerrilla incursions, Ethiopia’s Omo Valley is also home to a nomadic people who share a gift for inventive body painting and elaborate adornments borrowed from nature. This collection of 160 large format photographs of Omo fashion will knock your socks off. See also African Beads: Jewels of a Continent by Evelyn Simak and Carl Dreibelbis.

The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa’s City of Gold

By Frank T. Kryza

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Kryza recreates the bold journeys through the unknown Africa of early 19th-century by British explorers Alexander Laing and Hugh Clapperton, who were competing to find the fabled Timbuktu. The city had assumed the quality of a mythic dream, a city paved in gold and the promise of wealth and fame. When the first European arrived in Timbuktu, however, he was received by its governor in a small mud house. This narration of the perilous journey is electrifying. Look also for Stanley: The Impossible Story of Africa’s Greatest Explorer by Tim Geal or The Last Expedition: Stanley’s Mad Journey Through the Congo by Daniel Liebowitz and Charles Pearson.

Say You’re One of Them

By Uwem Akpan

Nigerian-born Jesuit priest Akpan transports the reader into gritty scenes of chaos and fear in his rich debut collection of five long stories set in war-torn Africa. Akpan’s prose is beautiful and his stories are insightful and revealing, made even more harrowing because they are seen through the eyes of children. In another striking debut novel, Beneath the Lion’s Gaze by Maaza Mengiste, Ethiopia’s 1974 revolution tears a family in half. Drought, famine and mutiny in the military are stretching Emperor Haile Selassie’s regime to the breaking point, and when it finally tears, Hailu, a skilled and respected doctor in Addis Ababa, must find a way to shepherd his extended family through the ensuing violence.

Unbowed: A Memoir

By Wangari Maathai

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Maathai, a 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and influential environmentalist and activist, presents a matter-of-fact account of her rather exceptional life in Kenya and illustrates the intrinsic connection between thriving, wisely managed ecosystems and health, justice, and peace. It is the inspiring story of a larger-than-life hero. For another optimistic read try Made for Goodness: And Why This Makes All the Difference by Desmond Tutu.

Zulu

By Caryl Ferey

Readers should be prepared for graphic scenes of violence in Férey’s hard-hitting procedural, which won France’s Grand Prix for Best Crime Novel. In this story Ali Neuman, the chief of the Cape Town police crime unit, investigates the murder of 18-year-old Nicole Wiese, daughter of a member of the Springboks rugby team that won the world championship in 1995. Other new thrillers out of South Africa are: Thirteen Hours and Blood Safari by Deon Meyer. For new fiction set elsewhere in Africa try Eclipse by Richard North Patterson, Lords of Corruption by Kyle Mills, The Various Flavors of Coffee by Anthony Capella or Djibouti by Leonard Elmore.

 • Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.