Uganda Books

The Man-Eaters of Tsavo (Peter Capstick Library Series)

J. H. Patterson

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

Editorial Review:

In 1898 John H. Patterson arrived in East Africa with a mission to build a railway bridge over the Tsavo River. What started out as a simple engineering problem, however, soon took on almost mythical proportions as Patterson and his mostly Indian workforce were systematically hunted by two man-eating lions over the course of several weeks. During that time, 100 workers were killed, and the entire bridge-building project ground to a halt. As if the lions weren't enough, Patterson had to guard his back against his own increasingly hostile and mutinous workers as he set out to track and kill the man-eaters. This larger-than-life tale forms the basis of the entertaining film The Ghost and the Darkness, but for readers who want to know the whole--and true--story, The Man-Eaters of Tsavo comes straight from the great white-hunter's mouth.

Patterson's account of the lions' reign of terror and his own subsequent attempts to kill them is the stuff of great adventure, and his unmistakably Victorian manner of telling it only adds to the thrill. Consider this description of the aftermath of an attack by the lions: "...we at once set out to follow the brutes, Mr. Dalgairns feeling confident that he had wounded one of them, as there was a trail on the sand like that of the toes of a broken limb.... we saw in the gloom what we at first took to be a lion cub; closer inspection, however, showed it to be the remains of the unfortunate coolie, which the man-eaters had evidently abandoned at our approach. The legs, one arm and half the body had been eaten, and it was the stiff fingers of the other arm trailing along the sand which had left the marks we had taken to be the trail of a wounded lion...." This classic tale of death, courage, and terror in the African bush is still a page-turner, even after all these years.

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

Faith J. H. McDonnell, Grace Akallo

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> General

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.

The Birds of East Africa: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi (Princeton Field Guides)

Terry Stevenson, John Fanshawe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Birds of East Africa is the first comprehensive field guide to this spectacular birding region--and one of the best to any region in the world. Covering all resident, migrant, and vagrant birds of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, this small and compact guide describes and illustrates a remarkable 1,388 species in convenient facing-page layout. Featuring 287 new color plates with 3,400 images painstakingly rendered by three experienced artists, the guide illustrates all the plumages and major races likely to be encountered. Set opposite the plates are range maps and concise accounts describing identification, status, range, habits, and voice for each species. Introductory sections provide notes on how to use the species accounts, the nomenclature adopted, conservation issues, where to send records, and maps of protected and other important bird areas.

Between them, Terry Stevenson and John Fanshawe have more than 40 years' experience leading bird tours and conducting conservation work in East Africa. The region shelters a remarkable diversity of birds, including many seriously threatened species with small and vulnerable ranges. The region's birds form a constantly colorful, noisy, and highly extroverted part of the landscape. The book is sure to become an indispensable guide for anyone interested in studying or conserving birds in East Africa, as well as the many visitors who simply want to enjoy the sheer beauty of its birds.

• First comprehensive field guide to the countries of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi
• Covers 1,388 species, with 3,400 color images on 287 plates
• Concise species accounts facing the plates describe appearance, status, range, habits, and voice
• A color distribution map is given for each species
• Information on habitats, protected areas, and conservation issues
• The essential guide to the birds of this spectacular region
• An overview of East African birds
• East African environment
• Seasonality
• Plumage
• Species accounts
• Common alternative names
• Conservation and threatened species
• The local scene
• Glossary, references, and an index

Key Features:

• Small and compact
• Comprehensive species
• All distinctive plumages and races illustrated
• Color plates
• Illustrations
• All species ranges mapped
• Key protected and important bird areas mapped

Uganda (Oxfam Country Profiles Series)

Ian Leggett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Objective and Concise Overview of Uganda 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This Oxfam Country Profile is the most up-to-date overview of contempory Uganda that is currently available. Mr. Leggett has written an objective narrative that covers the major issues facing Ugandans today--education, health, politics, regional conflict, and the economy. Also included are a brief history, current statistics, and additional references. Written with compassion but without sentimentality, the material is presented both from a general perspective and as seen through the eyes of individual Ugandans. The book is profusely illustrated with high-quality photographs. Affordable, essential reading for those planning to travel to Uganda, or for anyone with an interest in the country and its people.

Editorial Review:

Once known as 'The Pearl of Africa', Uganda has, over the last 50 years, suffered the notoriety of rule by dictator Idi Amin, of economic collapse, and of systematic human rights abuses. Yet today, Uganda is widely viewed as an inspirational economic success story, and as a symbol of a more vibrant, successful Africa.
This Country Profile provides a concise account of Uganda's historical and political background, and traces the growth of modern Uganda, where pioneering and imaginative responses to poverty and political pluralism are contrasted with the devastating effects of continuing internal conflicts.
Throughout the book, Ugandan people speak for themselves on such issues as dealing with conflict; the effects of the universal primary education program; and innovative projects to combat HIV and AIDS.

The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, and Power in the Heart of Africa

Bill Berkeley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Tribalism and loyalties 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I liked this book, more because it shed several spotlights on how several things happened that have contributed to past and present conditions in Africa. Much scorn should be rained down on several generations of leaders of the so called industrialized world for prepetuating the continued patronage of really bad people who seem to hold no regard for thier fellow man outside of thier clan or tribe. How divide and conquer is used repeatedly. When the cold war ended, Africa was suddenly abandoned as a front and more support for bad people was prepetuated. Five areas that continually recieve attention for good and bad, mostly bad are the key hotspots, we have to the northeast, Sudan and Somalia, though not much mention of the latter here, in the southwest; Liberia and all of the hate and discontent that a sucession of this leaning and that leaning despots created. In the centre, we have Rwanda, Zaire( the Congo) and Uganda and the very bottom, South Africa. Much of the cause for many of these turmoils seems to be a result of a half hearted attempt to extract the wealth from the country, and leave the mess for some one else to deal with, a general misunderstanding of history and the legacy of colonialism past and present.

Editorial Review:

Since 1983 journalist Bill Berkeley has traveled through Africa's most troubled lands-Rwanda, Liberia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, and Zaire-seeking out the tyrants and military leaders who orchestrate seemingly intractable wars. Shattering the myth that ancient tribal hatred lies at the heart of the continent's troubles, Berkeley instead holds accountable the "Big Men" who came to power during this period, describing the very rational methods behind their apparent madness. A New Republic Book

The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History

Jean-Pierre Chrétien

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Editorial Review:

Though the genocide of 1994 catapulted Rwanda onto the international stage, English-language historical accounts of the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa—which encompasses Burundi, eastern Congo, Rwanda, western Tanzania, and Uganda—are scarce. Drawing on colonial archives, oral tradition, archeological discoveries, anthropologic and linguistic studies, and his thirty years of scholarship, Jean-Pierre Chrétien offers a major synthesis of the history of the region, one still plagued by extremely violent wars. This translation brings the work of a leading French historian to an English-speaking audience for the first time.

Chrétien retraces the human settlement and the formation of kingdoms around the sources of the Nile, which were "discovered" by European explorers around 1860. He describes these kingdoms' complex social and political organization and analyzes how German, British, and Belgian colonizers not only transformed and exploited the existing power structures, but also projected their own racial categories onto them. Finally, he shows how the independent states of the postcolonial era, in particular Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda, have been trapped by their colonial and precolonial legacies, especially by the racial rewriting of the latter by the former.

Today, argues Chrétien, the Great Lakes of Africa is a crucial region for historical research—not only because its history is fascinating but also because the tragedies of its present are very much a function of the political manipulations of its past.

Trial Justice: The International Criminal Court and the Lord's Resistance Army (African Arguments)

Tim Allen

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Subjects -> Law -> Criminal Law -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Thoughtful look into an often overlooked situation... 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Trial Justice turned out to be a stimulating and informative read. Allen gives a thorough background on the situation in Northern Uganda and how this crisis has unfolded into its current state; not one part of the story is left untouched. A great book for anyone wishing to explore what international justice means to the world or to learn more about the LRA. Insightful and thought-provoking, I highly recommend Trial Justice as a means of reaching a better understanding of this important, historical event.

Editorial Review:

The first major case before the International Criminal Court is the appalling situation in northern Uganda where Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army abducted thousands, many of them children, and systematically tortured, raped, maimed and killed them. This book argues that much of the antipathy to the ICC is based upon ignorance and misconception. Drawing on field research in Uganda, it shows that victims are much more interested in punitive international justice than has been suggested, and that the ICC has made resolution of the war more likely.

When Hens Begin To Crow: Gender And Parliamentary Politics In Uganda

Sylvia Tamale

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Subjects -> History -> Africa -> General

Editorial Review:

Among African countries, Uganda is unique in its affirmative action program for women. In the late 1980s, President Yoweri Museveni announced his belief that Uganda’s successful development depended on increased gender equity and backed his opinions by setting several women-centered policies in motion, including a 1989 rule that at least 39 seats in the Ugandan parliament be reserved for women.In this fascinating study, based on in-depth interviews with both male and female parliamentarians, women in nongovernmental organizations, and rural residents of Uganda, Sylvia Tamale explores how women’s participation in Ugandan politics has unfolded and what the impact has been for gender equity. The book examines how women have adapted their legislative strategies for empowerment in light of Uganda’s patriarchal history and social structure. The author also looks at the consequences and implications of women’s parliamentary participation as a result of affirmative action handed down by the president, rather than pushed up from a grassroots movement.Although focusing on Uganda, Tamale’s study is relevant to other African and non-African countries grappling with the twin challenges of democracy and development.

Uganda Since Independence: A Story of Unfulfilled Hopes

Phares Mutibwa

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Most concise political history of Uganda available 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book is good for the student who wants a quick overview of Uganda history from 1960 to 1990. Mutibwa writes a good brief history of Ugandan colonial history and avoids political bias in his discussions of the governments of Milton Obote, Idi Amin and Yoweri Museveni. He draws upon unpublished material and his own experience in government plus a range of secondary material to provide the reader with a well-written and concise book.

Yet I do have some complaints about the book. First, while Mutibwa presents an astute analysis of political intrigue and debates in Kampala, he fails to give enough time to social history, especially to the vast majority of the Ugandan population that lives in rural areas. Second, he spends too little time on the economic history of Uganda, neglecting such important events as Amin's economic war in the '70s and Obote's structural adjustment program in the early '80s. Third, he fails to utilize the works of such Ugandan experts as EA Brett, HB Hansen, Kenneth Ingham Dan Mudoola and TV Sathyamurthy in his analyses. Finally, while no fault of Mutibwa, this book is now ten years old, making it unsuitable for the student interested in a history of the NRM.

The above reservations aside, however, this book is still a good read for the average reader.

[Contains 12 black and white photographs and 4 maps]

Child Soldier: Fighting For My Life

China Keitetsi

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Editorial Review:

This is the heartrending account of the author's terrifying journey out of her family home and into the world of bloody warfare. Set in Uganda in the 1970s, China runs away from abuse at home at the tender age of 8 and gets drafted into Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA), fighting to depose Dr Milton Obote's regime.