East Africa Books

Out of Africa

Crown

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this book, the author of Seven Gothic Tales gives a true account of her life on her plantation in Kenya. She tells with classic simplicity of the ways of the country and the natives: of the beauty of the Ngong Hills and coffee trees in blossom: of her guests, from the Prince of Wales to Knudsen, the old charcoal burner, who visited her: of primitive festivals: of big game that were her near neighbors--lions, rhinos, elephants, zebras, buffaloes--and of Lulu, the little gazelle who came to live with her, unbelievably ladylike and beautiful.

The Random House colophon made its debut in February 1927 on the cover of a little pamphlet called "Announcement Number One." Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the company's founders, had acquired the Modern Library from publishers Boni and Liveright two years earlier. One day, their friend the illustrator Rockwell Kent stopped by their office. Cerf later recalled, "Rockwell was sitting at my desk facing Donald, and we were talking about doing a few books on the side, when suddenly I got an inspiration and said, 'I've got the name for our publishing house. We just said we were go-ing to publish a few books on the side at random. Let's call it Random House.' Donald liked the idea, and Rockwell Kent said, 'That's a great name. I'll draw your trademark.' So, sitting at my desk, he took a piece of paper and in five minutes drew Random House, which has been our colophon ever since." Throughout the years, the mission of Random House has remained consistent: to publish books of the highest quality, at random. We are proud to continue this tradition today.

This edition is set from the first American edition of 1937 and commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of Random House.

Tears of the Desert: A Memoir of Survival in Darfur

Halima Bashir, Damien Lewis

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Like the single white eyelash that graces her row of dark lashes–seen by her people as a mark of good fortune–Halima Bashir’s story stands out. Tears of the Desert is the first memoir ever written by a woman caught up in the war in Darfur. It is a survivor’s tale of a conflicted country, a resilient people, and the uncompromising spirit of a young woman who refused to be silenced.

Born into the Zaghawa tribe in the Sudanese desert, Halima was doted on by her father, a cattle herder, and kept in line by her formidable grandmother. A politically astute man, Halima’s father saw to it that his daughter received a good education away from their rural surroundings. Halima excelled in her studies and exams, surpassing even the privileged Arab girls who looked down their noses at the black Africans. With her love of learning and her father’s support, Halima went on to study medicine, and at twenty-four became her village’s first formal doctor.

Yet not even the symbol of good luck that dotted her eye could protect her from the encroaching conflict that would consume her land. Janjaweed Arab militias started savagely assaulting the Zaghawa, often with the backing of the Sudanese military. Then, in early 2004, the Janjaweed attacked Bashir’s village and surrounding areas, raping forty-two schoolgirls and their teachers. Bashir, who treated the traumatized victims, some as young as eight years old, could no longer remain quiet. But breaking her silence ignited a horrifying turn of events.

In this harrowing and heartbreaking account, Halima Bashir sheds light on the hundreds of thousands of innocent lives being eradicated by what is fast becoming one of the most terrifying genocides of the twenty-first century. Raw and riveting, Tears of the Desert is more than just a memoir–it is Halima Bashir’s global call to action.

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo

John Henry Patterson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo: AN INCREDIBLE BOOK 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

"The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" (also available in this edition The Man-Eaters of Tsavo (Peter Capstick Library Series)) is a fascinating book that tells of a time on the continent of Africa that is now long past. When the author, John H. Patterson, an engineer for the British Empire at the peak of its power, arrived in the southeastern African region of Tsavo, wild game, including dangerous, predatory man-eaters abounded with such profusion that a man armed with a rifle could sling up and shoot from virtually anywhere, for animals of all kinds densely populated the land. As an engineer in charge of planning and building the railroad and the necessary bridges, Patterson also had the responsibility of managing the workers, primarily Indians imported into Africa from India, their country also being under British rule at that time. Patterson's workers began to become unmanageable when huge, man-eating lions in the Tsavo region began eating the workers on a regular basis, somewhat dampening the coolies' enthusiasm for the already backbreaking job at which they toiled in brutal heat amidst vicious biting insects--though the prospect of the bite of the lions understandably troubled them more. Patterson's book is an enthralling, well-rounded account of his experience there and not merely a hunting tale.
None of this life of relatively unrestrained high adventure could take place in today's Africa, which is dominated by third world dictators who, with the evil assistance of IANSA, heavily restrict the right to bear arms in general and hunting in particular. Anyone interested in this time period should read With the Judaeans in the Palestine Campaign and Warrior: The Legend Of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen.
The world of that time is long gone, as are most of the individuals of that type. More's the pity on both counts.
The edition referred to here is an inexpensive paperback reprint with poor photographs.
Had I known about the Capstick edition (see above) prior to ordering, I would have chosen it instead.
Nevertheless, this "low budget" edition of "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" is well worth the read.
But be warned: you'll want to read more stories like it when you finish . . . and you might even develop a yen to hunt large, dangerous, predatory, man-eating game in the long grass that grows in the vast silent places of what was once the "heart of darkness."

Editorial Review:

Considered to be one of the most famous stories of man-eating lions in modern times, "The Man-Eaters of Tsavo" is the first-hand account of Lieutanant-Colonel John Henry Patterson's encounter with several man-eating lions during the building of the Uganda railway through British East Africa in 1898. Contained within this volume is the original 1907 book with over a hundred photographs and illustrations.

Kenya: A Country in the Making, 1880-1940

Nigel Pavitt

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Editorial Review:

Extraordinary photographs, along with extensive captions, document the transition from a barely explored paradise to a modern nation.

This stunning collection of 720 photographs, many of them drawn from family archives and scrapbooks and all carefully restored, is one of the most important visual records of Africa in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ever to have been published.

The early photographers captured the beauty and dangerous allure of life on this spectacular frontier: the ceremonies and traditional attire of the native people, the fantastic machinery used in construction of the Uganda Railway, the gradual development of trade on the coast and in the country's interior, the hardships of the East African Campaign during World War I, and the pioneering spirit of early European settlers and farmers. Many of the most famous names and places connected with Africa appear in these pages, including Karen Blixen's farm and Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Roosevelt on safari. This is a book to delight anyone who has ever traveled to East Africa or been intrigued by its history. 720 photographs.

In The Company Of Heroes

Michael J. Durant, Steven Hartov

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Hero in the Company of Heroes 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Durant's story takes us from Black Hawk Down and gives us a persalized look into his ordeal in Somalia. But he also gives an itimate look into the lives and beliefs of his captors. This is must read book for anyone interested in the survival of the human spirit.

Great Read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Excellent,excellent book. I'd recommend reading Black Hawk Down first for an overview of the battle, but even if you don't, either way, this is a great book. Mr Durant just tries to tell it like it is, how it happened, and tell the stories of his fallen comrades, who are the "heroes" from the title.

I was in the 101st, in fact I was at Campbell when Durant was flying non SOG missions, and I went to Panama, so his career flashbacks were cool to read as I could relate. But even for someone who may not have been there, the flashbacks provide a backdrop for who he is, who the Night Stalkers were, and the mentality of these SOG operators.

Fantastic read, highly recommend.

Editorial Review:

The New York Times bestseller and gripping personal story behind Black Hawk Down

Piloting a U.S. Army Special Operations Blackhawk over Somalia, Michael Durant was shot down with a rocket-propelled grenade on October 3, 1993. With devastating injuries, he was taken prisoner by a Somali warlord. With revealing insight and emotion, he tells the story of what he saw, how he survived, and the courage and heroism that only soldiers under fire could ever know.

Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda's Children

Faith J. H., McDonnell, Grace, Akallo

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An astounding book... 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

An astounding book that alternates between the girl soldier's story (in her understatement that paints a picture beyond belief) and background information from a Washington, D.C., advocate, including what we can do. Moving beyond words.

Never underestimate the power of evil 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 7 people found this review helpful.

In GIRL SOLDIER, an interesting collaboration, Grace Akallo and Faith J. H. McDonnell tell the story, which we almost never hear about, of the children of Northern Uganda. Faith gives the political and historical background and the `reasons' for the madness, while Grace gives her first-hand account of being one of those stolen children. She tells how they are forced into the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) where girls are made to be soldiers and/or given to commanders as `wives'. Along with other girls who were kidnapped from her high school, she is forced to march without food or water. Any attempt to escape means instant death, usually at the hands of the other children. The youngsters are forced to bite the escapee to death, beat with them sticks, or stab them with bayonets and many other horrendous acts. Grace, during her tenure with the LRA, was once buried alive because they thought she was dead. Fortunately, she clawed her way to the surface and survived.

GIRL SOLDIER is a heartrending story of atrocities that rarely make the US newspapers or other mass media. It is the hidden shame that is frequently ignored. I found Grace to be a very strong young woman with an unbelievable will to not only survive, but to bring the world's attention to these abused young people of Uganda. The book is well written and frightening. In addition to the political background, Faith also lists several things any ordinary American citizen can do to help ease the torture of these children. It is a must read book, even though it is extremely painful. Everyone needs to know of the horrors some children must survive every day of their lives.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ(tm) Reviewers

Editorial Review:

For several decades a brutal army of rebels has been raiding villages in northern Uganda, kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers or wives of commanders. More than 30,000 children have been abducted over the last twenty years and forced to commit unspeakable crimes. Grace Akallo was one of these. Her story, which is the story of many Ugandan children, recounts her terrifying experience. This unforgettable book--with historical background and insights from Faith McDonnell, one of the clearest voices in the church today calling for freedom and justice--will inspire readers around the world to take notice, pray, and work to end this tragedy.

Darfur: A New History of a Long War (African Arguments)

Julie Flint, Alex de Waal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Instructive look at Darfur 5 out of 5 stars.
23 of 34 people found this review helpful.

There are plenty of serious human rights abuses in Africa which Westerners, particularly American corporations and arms dealers have strong complicity in: the 4 million dead in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia under Meles Zenawi, Equatorial Guinea under Teodor Obiang, Chad under Idriss Deby, Uganda under Museveni. One can also mention the horrors of the neoliberal economic model which African governments have followed so studiously. But Sudan and Zimbabwe seem to take up 90 percent of recent Western media reporting about abuses in the region. Both governments, vile as they certainly are, have struck independent courses via US power over the years and so are demonized in the US media. Former Senator John Danforth, US ambassador to the UN in 2004, stated on British tv in 2005 that the main reason the Bush administration made noises about Darfur in the election year of 04' was to please the voting block of fundamentalist Christians who have long believed the Sudanese regime to be satanic.

There is plenty of stuff in this book about the barbaric atrocities of the Sudanese government and the Janjiweed, the paramilitary force which acts as a proxy for the Sudanese military in Darfur.. In Darfur, the driving Arab supremacist ideology was rooted in the "Arab Gathering" group which emerged under the backing of Colonel Qadaffi of Libya in the 70's and 80's. Many in Sudan's government have been influenced by this ideology. The authors provide much quotation from these brethren who stress the need to make Darfur a purely Arab homeland and to cleanse it of non-Arab elements. Qadaffi funded the Sudanese Islamist/Arab nationalist groups Ansar and Muslim Brothers against his enemy, Sudan's then dictator Jafarr Nimieri in the 70's and early 80's. Many in these groups ended up in positions of power after the Islamist regime took power in June 1989. Qadaffi also funded Arab supremacists in Chad during the 80's, many of whom found refuge in Darfur and have since made not insignificant contributions to the violence there.

It also appears from the authors' discourse that the conflict is driven by the struggle for land and water in an area which has seen much drought, and a dwindling supply of water and arable land.....
The authors point out that Arabs of the Bagarra Rizeigat--to which the majority of Arabs in Darfur belong--have kept out of the conflict.... A not insignificant number of the janjiweed are violent criminals released from Sudan's prisons to serve in that body......

Bagarra Rizeigat have protected refugees from Janjiweed terror. The Bagarra Rizeigat chief, Saeed Madibu has resisted efforts by the Khartoum government to bribe him and terrorize him into submission. The authors seem to imply that most of the Arab tribal elites in Darfur would greatly prefer peaceful social, political and commercial interaction between Arabs and African tribes instead of the apopaclyptic ideology of a Darfur cleansed of all black people that Janjiweed leaders profess. Saeed Madibu, in a contumacious act to the Khartoum government, has resurrected meetings of Darfurian tribal elders to negotiate in an equitable fashion, land and resource issues.

One of the two Darfurian opposition groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) is divided between two tribal based factions, the Fur, led by Abdel Wahid and the Zaghawa, led by Minnie Minawi. These two groups spend alot of time making war upon each other, rather than upon the Sudanese army and Janjaweed. They mention that the SLA, perhaps a joint action of the two factions, attacked Bagarra Rizeigat territory in the Summer of 2004 and burned villages, stole livestock and engaged in other such activities at which the Janjiweed are such experts but Said Madibu's forces drove them out of their land.

The JEM is much more sophisticated. Islamists disillusioned with the extreme corruption and violence of the Khartoum regime seem to make up a significant part of the JEM's leadership. In interviews with one or another of the authors, the JEM leaders disavow any association with Hassan Al-Turabi, the Islamist scholar who was Sudan's de facto ruler throughout the 90's until he lost a power struggle with the country's president General Omar Hassan Al-Bashir in 2000 and was thrown into prison. Turabi had attracted many to his cause in the 70's and 80's because he spoke of a brotherhood of Muslims regardless of race and spoke out against the extreme corruption and inequality in Sudan's society. JEM leaders, according to the authors' interview of them, think that Turabi is a disgusting fraud and don't want anything to do with him. However many of them are specifically committed to setting up an Islamic state in the Sudan, which they say will grant freedom of worship to other faiths and will fullfill the ideals of honesty and equality in government that Turabi's variety of Islamists promised back in the 80's but have made such a mockery of in practice. The leaders of the JEM are often former national and regional officials under the current regime and provide the authors with stories probably containing at least some truth, illustrating their own virtue when they were in the service of the current regime, in the midst of grotesque brutality and corruption.

The authors mention the US and UK backed Naivasha accords that ended the civil war in Southern Sudan in 2005. In that accord the oil revenues are to be evenly divided between North and South, the SPLA has become the autonomous ruler of the South and army units in the capital are divided 50/50 in membership between the SPLA and the Sudanese army. SPLA leader John Garang was made first vice president of Sudan but he died in a mysterious plane crash shortly after the Naivasha accords. However the war criminals in both the Sudan government and the SPLA were granted amnesty from prosecution.....The authors note the desire for stability in south Sudan with its strategically important oil wealth by the US and UK, the Naivasha accord backers. Darfur in contrast has no important resources.

Editorial Review:

The humanitarian tragedy in Darfur has stirred politicians, Hollywood celebrities and students to appeal for a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Beyond the horrific pictures of sprawling refugee camps and lurid accounts of rape and murder lies a complex history steeped in religion, politics, and decades of internal unrest. 
 
Darfur traces the origins, organization and ideology of the infamous Janjawiid and other rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement. It also analyzes the confused responses of the Sudanese government and African Union. This thoroughly updated edition also features a powerful analysis of how the conflict has been received in the international community and the varied attempts at peacekeeping.  
 

World War I: The African Front: An Imperial War on the Dark Continent

Edward Paice

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The definitive history of World War I's forgotten front: Britain versus Germany in East Africa to secure the belly of a continent.

On August 7, 1914, Britain fired its first shots of World War I not in Europe but in the German colony of Togo. The campaign to eliminate the threat at sea posed by German naval bases in Africa would soon be won, but in the land war, especially in East Africa, British troops would meet far fiercer resistance from German colonial forces that had fully mastered the tactics of bush warfare. It was expected to be a "small war," over by Christmas, yet it would continue bloodily for more than four years, even beyond the signing of the Armistice in Europe.

Its costs were immense, its butchery staggering (in excess of100,000 British troops and 45,000 native recruits dead). Utmost among the tragic consequences, though, was the waste laid to the land and its indigenous peoples in what one official historian described as "a war of extermination and attrition without parallel in modern times." Imperialism had gone calamitously amok.

This eye-opening account of the Great War in East Africa does not flinch at the daily horrors of an ill-fated campaign—not just the combat but also a hostile climate, disease, the terrible loneliness—nor does it fail to recount tales of extraordinary courage and the kind of adventure that inspired fiction like C. S. Forester's The African Queen, William Boyd's An Ice-Cream War, and Wilbur Smith's Shout at the Devil. In all, it demonstrates dramatically why even the most hardened of Great War soldiers preferred the trenches of France to the trauma of East Africa.

Worlds Maasai Warrior

Tepilit Ole Saitoti

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

sitting here with the author 5 out of 5 stars.
29 of 29 people found this review helpful.

I read this book 12 years ago and was so moved that I wrote a letter to to the author - something I have never done before or since. I was so struck by his ability to navigate between two cultures that seemingly had little in common. His book is a testimonial to the flexibility of the human spirit and the power of education. Last week, out of the blue, I received a telephone call from the author. Apparently, he had saved my address all these years. Saitoti is currently in the US as a visiting scholar. He will be speaking in various institutions and he has just started writing a follow up to The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior (The Worlds of a Maasai Elder). I have just shown him these amazon reviews. He is sitting here beside me and
would like to take this opportunity to say: "Thank you to the reviewers of my book for such beautiful reviews and to amazon.com for posting such a wonderful display of my work."

The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Excellent book, very accurate and really worth the money. It gives the picture of a boy growing up as a real Maasai and the new life in civilized world of Germany and USA - a man between two cultures and the difficult question to decide which way to go along. Makes yourself wondering about the way we Western people are living and gives a chance to see our world with other eyers.

After having visited the Maasai area some months ago a good opportunity to compare facts with my own experience and found it even more interesting. Go for it!

Slave: My True Story

Mende Nazer, Damien Lewis

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Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Mende Nazer's "beautiful and at times heart-wrenching "account of her struggle to survive modern-day slavery (The Washington Post)

At age twelve, Mende Nazer lost her childhood. It began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, setting fire to the village huts and murdering the adults. They rounded up thirty-one young children, including Mende, who was eventually sold to a wealthy Arab family in Sudan's capital city, Khartoum. So began Mende's seven dark years of enslavement. Normally, Mende's story never would have come to light, but when she was sent to work for another master-a diplomat working in London-she made a dramatic break for freedom.

Published to critical acclaim for the honesty and clarity of its prose, Slave is a story almost beyond belief. It depicts the strength and dignity of the Nuba tribe. It recounts the savage cruelty of the secret, modern-day trade in slaves. Most of all, it is "a profound meditation on the human ability to survive under virtually any circumstances." (Publishers Weekly)