Amazon.com

By a recent count, the continent of Africa comprises some 1,300 cultures. Some of them number millions of people, some only a few families; some are thriving, while others are in danger of disappearing, the victims of acculturation or, in extreme cases, of genocide. This diversity--and the dangers to it--is little known outside Africa. PhotographersCarol Beckwith andAngela Fisher highlight both matters in African Ceremonies, an extraordinary two-volume collection of some 850 full-color images. The two artists have traveled to almost all the continent's 53 countries in the last three decades, documenting traditional tribal life in earlier books and articles for National Geographic, among other publications. Here they focus on the religious customs of several dozen peoples, combining stunning images with well-written essays to illustrate the enduring power of traditional beliefs.

Among the book's finest moments are a record of the Fulani cattle crossing, when for 10 days young males drive their herds across the wide Niger River to receive gifts from their grateful compatriots; a sequence showing a healing ceremony of the Himba people of Namibia and Angola, whose "wild women," possessed by lion spirits, are riveting actors on the page; and a remarkable series of photographs of Wodaabe courtship dancers, who compete to attract wives by charming them with exaggerated smiles and the skilled use of cosmetics. The authors note that, as women, they entered places men never could--and as foreigners, they were also often welcomed as "honorary males" and allowed to witness male-only ceremonies. Many of these rites are in danger of extinction as old ways are forgotten and in some cases suppressed. Beckwith and Fisher have captured them before it's too late. Beautifully designed and manufactured, African Ceremonies makes a fine companion toHenry Louis Gates Jr.'s Wonders of the African World, and invites leisurely reading--and constant revisiting. --Gregory McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Finally!A Nonethnocentric Perspective on African Traditions!
The New York Times Sunday Book Review section today had a wonderful review of this book (2 volumes in a slipcase). The documentation of ritual and people performing rituals as the seasons change in Nature and life cycles turn for People is a sacred task. The photographers appear to have embraced their subjects with care and respect - perhaps others will follow in this way in the future. What strikes me most about the book and the reviews is the genuine approach of the authors to the dignity, honor and respect of the African People they have photographed and documented. This alone makes the book a winner for me.

Regarding the book, I am particularly impressed by their treatment of sacredness without judgment and jaded lens. Indeed the art and form of ritual itself creates tradition. The music of these images is at once visual and alive celebrating the sacred as timeless expressions of culture and community.

BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE
HOW CAN ANYONE SAY THAT THESE CULTURES DON'T EXIST ANYMORE, OR THIS IS AN AFRICA THAT NO LONGER EXISTS. THEY TOOK THESE PICTURES WITHIN THE LAST 10 YEARS.. DIDN'T THEY ? DUH ? EVERYONE KNOWS THERE IS A COMMON EVERYDAY AFRICA.. GOING TO WORK GENERAL LIVING ( JUST LIKE US HERE IN AMERICA FOLKS) BUT STILL THERE IS AFRICAN TRIBAL SPLENDOR. JUST LIKE IN AMERICA INDIAN'S GET TOGETHER FOR TRIBAL POW WOWS. THEY STILL EXIST TOO. THE PICTURES IN THIS BOOK ARE SHOCKINGLY GORGEOUS...AFRICAN PEOPLE STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL. PLEASE! THE MEN ARE HANDSOME, THE WOMEN WONDEROUS. IT JUST MAKES ME WONDER WHY THE EUROPEAN STANDARD, HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE "STANDARD" OF BEAUTY. THIS REVUE MAY SOUND SHALLOW, BUT IF YOUR INTO THE HUMAN HAS ART FORM ...BUY THIS BOOK!!

See it before it disappears
A beautiful look at cultural conventions that may soon be relegated to the quaint and unusual.

An Africa that *does* exist, but that is vanishing
The "concise edition" of AFRICAN CEREMONIES opens with a preface by Dr. Malidoma Some, president of "Echoes of the Ancestors" and author of his autobiography OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT and THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA. Malidoma is from the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso. His name means "make friends with the stranger/enemy," and that is why he now lives in the West.

I have met Malidoma on a few occasions (participating in some of his rituals) and I corresponded with him for a time. He has been incredibly helpful and supportive in my own spiritual journey (he is an initiated shaman of his tribe and has recently become the youngest initiated elder), and therefore I trust what he says. Malidoma's preface makes it clear that, sadly, AFRICAN CEREMONIES documents a world that - unlike the claims of some - is not entirely gone, but that is quickly vanishing. Malidoma comments that these photographs are very important because they show the last time that some of these ceremonies will be performed in such elaborate nature, and perhaps they will never be performed again at all.

AFRICAN CEREMONIES continues the tradition of these well respected photographers by providing a beautiful volume of beautiful peoples.

Buy it for what it is
Buyers should understand what this is - a beautiful coffee table book. Beckwith and Fisher present their usual quality of brilliant, sensitive photography. But understand that this is, for the most part, capturing a memory, a fantasy. This Africa no longer exists. Don't buy the book to learn African culture. Buy it if you like photography. As a historical record, it's lacking. One can capture a visual from the outside, but one cannot capture a cultural understanding as readily. ... Read more

Book Description

In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. ... Read more

Reviews (106)

Brilliant, funny insight into post-colonial Africa
What makes this book worth reading -- aside from a captivating style and humorous content -- is precisely what separates it from other excellent books about similar subject matter (Godwin's Mukiwa, Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions): the fact that Fuller makes no attempt to analyze, excuse, or explain the racism and insanity of her family history. Rather than rationalizing her parents' racist attitudes, Fuller chooses instead to simply describe in her wry, matter-of-fact voice precisely how the end of the colonial era was experienced by people implicated in it. She does not try to gloss her childhood experiences with politically correct hindsight, and in so doing thrusts the reader into the desperation and the joy of rural African life in the last three decades. Bobo's mother is one of the most memorable and remarkable personalities I've encountered in African literature. The book is worth reading entirely for its hysterical concluding scenes. Fuller's characters are real and human, in all their extraordinary bizarreness!

Having spent many an hour, like Bobo Fuller, poking grass into ant-lion holes in the hot dusty veld, this moving story captivated me and painted a moving portrait of people fighting the cruelty of the African landscape. Myth and reality are intertwined in a witty and beautiful story. Everyone should read this book!

A different perspective
It was interesting to read a book about life in Africa, from the perspective of a white woman brought up in a family who clung fiercely to the notion of white supremacy with every last bit of their strength. I disagree with a previous reviewer, however, who seemed to excuse the racism of the Fuller parents by implying that the historic and political situation they were in "made" them that way. Racism is racism, no matter what the circumstance.

Despite the attitudes of the Fuller parents, their daughter Bobo has documented a well-written account of their life in various African countries, and provides vivid details about the smells, sights, and emotions that the continent evokes for her. Her writing really gives the reader a sense of both the incredible harshness and danger(poisonous snakes, itchy vegetation, scary militaristic governments, etc) of Africa, but also its gentleness and great beauty.

Although I think Alexandra Fuller writes very well, and I appreciate her honest writing about her parents' behavior and attitudes, I couldn't warm to the family. Despite their numerous trajedies and troubles, I found it difficult to feel sympathetic. In contrast, when I read "The Flame Trees of Thika", another memoir of an African childhood by another white woman, Elspeth Huxley, I rooted for her colonial, turn-of-the-century, white-is-right parents, Robin and Tilly, through all their successes and setbacks. They held the same attitude of racial superiority as the Fullers, yet there is something intrinsically more likeable about how they handled themselves on a continent where they were the minority race, political upheaval or no. After reading Fuller's memoir, it was a relief to pick up "Nervous Conditions" by black female Zimbabwean Tsitsi Dangarembga, and read about three-dimensional black Africans. Her book is set in 1960s Rhodesia, for those interested (A. Fuller recommends it herself in the Afterword section of her memoir). Despite my personal reaction to this book, I recommend it to anyone interested in African writing, because I think that Alexandra Fuller's perspective is just as important and valid as that of any other African writer.

Bravo
A wonderful insight into the mind of a child and a precise memoir of life itself. Life isn't straightforward and simple, yet we survive, thrive and love, even in the most difficult situations. Ms. Fuller: You said it all and you said it well.

Just meanders . . .
I read this book for my book club. It just seemed to meander through her childhood, no real plot or climax. Yes, this girl definitely had a different type of childhood, but what makes it that interesting or significant?????

A very different childhood
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller is an extraordinary memoir of growing up white in war ravaged Africa. Alexandra, called Bobo by her family, was born in 1969 in England. Her parents moved the family to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1972. Always suffering from "bad, bad luck", which included losing three children, the family moves from farm to farm within Rhodesia and Malawi.

Fuller's writing style is rich, lyrical and many times, funny. I could picture the land, feel the heat and smell the smoking fish that embodies the Africa she describes. I found myself laughing even as I was shaking my head in disbelief at some of the choices her parents made. Bobo's mother, Nicola Fuller, is racist, resilient, strong and mad as a hatter. In other words, she's the most memorable character in the book.

Of course, to Fuller all of this stress and strife was, while not exactly normal, expected. She was a child, after all, and it's all she'd ever known. As I was reading, I couldn't help but think that American kids really have no idea how hard their life could be.

Overall a captivating read. It left me reminiscing about my childhood and reflecting on how simple and uncomplicated (read boring) it was. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (140)

Modern Atrocities
Gourevitch's book is a gut-wrenching account of the 1994 genocide on the part of the Hutu government to kill 800,000 Tutsi neighbors, not because of the graphic nature but because of the complacency and ignorance of the rest of the world while this was happening. Gourevitch seems personally affected by the genocide, particularly when western nations 1) not only could have stopped the genocide but also 2) aided the Hutus in refugee camps.

Gourevitch's blame falls on the Clinton Administration, the UN and General Kofi Annan and France. The fact that massacres were going to take place, he claims, was within the knowledge of all these different powers even before the massacre occurred.

The bulk of Gourevitch's book is interviews with a cross-section of the Rwandan public who displayed courage, as well as those who didn't.

The theme of genocide progresses throughout the book but then becomes subsumed in a narrative of various relief efforts with names that are difficult to keep track of (RPF, FAR, UNAMIR, etc.)

Gourevitch writes as a journalist, and it differs in many ways from scholarly articles such as "Beyond Nuremberg" by David Cohen, which I read previous to We Wish To Inform You. In trying to draw parallel themes, I found that Gourevitch was seeking to expose how the murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda was carried out even more methodically than the Nazis' Final Solution. His point is particularly disconcerting after having read about the complex legalities of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals, only to have another genocide occur 50 years later, largely ignored by the public. Gourevitch's book effectively changes this, and brings the atrocities in Rwanda to the public, where they can no longer be ignored.

A life changing experience
The genocide in Rwanda was a tragedy beyond belief, especially considering that after the Jewish Holocaust of WW2, the international community had sworn never to allow such a mass murder to happen again. Yet as thousands of people screamed out in pain and anguish for their lives to be saved, for the violence to stop, for justice to prevail, no one heeded their cries. Reading this book, and others on this genocide, opened my eyes to the painful truth of what happened in Rwanda. It broke my heart, realizing there was no rescuer, no savior for the hundreds of thousands of murdered persons who perished in 100 days. No happy ending. No white knight (or whatever color) galloping in to save the day. Philip Gourevitch eloquently writes about what happened, uncovering the bitter truth of Western inaction and describing the horrific scenes of evil in the course of the genocide. The victims, whether they be Hutu or Tutsi, appear real to the reader, never seeming too unrealistic as to turn someone away from the book. Gourevitch makes them on paper what they were in real life: human beings, and this affects the reader even more. Reading this book is a life changing experience, as the reader is forced to ask painful questions during and afterwards about what happened, why it happened, and why it was allowed to happen. Why do human beings do this to each other? Why didn't anyone stop it? Why didn't enough people care enough to bring it to the spotlight of public attention? Gourevitch, in a significant part of the book, writes of how the murderers, the Hutu Power militia, were saved, fed and protected by international aid agencies and governments who arrived too late to save the genocide's victims. The irony is painful, and even more such for Americans such as myself is the realization that America is to blame for the prolonging of the genocide, and for a majority of the lack of action on the part of other nations. Gourevitch exposes the American government's heinous actions: denying a genocide was even occuring at first, and once the bodies were piling up, trying to label it something other than a genocide so that America wouldn't be forced to act to halt the holocaust. When African nations sought to put an end to the genocide, America dragged its heels and did its best to slow the effort. As a young man raised in a family full of military veterans and fierce patriots, it is shameful for all of us to believe our government, our nation, would do such a heinous thing, but it did, and from the truth perhaps some good can occur. More genocides are going to occur in the very near future, whether they be in Sudan, Indonesia, Burundi, one of the former Soviet Republics, or anywhere else, and the call to arms will be made to prevent/stop the genocide occuring. Will anyone answer?

An eye opener - The US press did not provide this view!
Gourevitch does a nice job of changing from past to present throughout the book to weave a story that is much different from what the US press provided. At points he seems to take sides in this social divide, but overall he provides what appears to be a clear and even handed accounting of what is in essence the worst of mankind. The writer's style lends itself to quick reading.

Heartwrenching Documentary
This book will rip your heart out if you have the compassion for this poor, strife-ridden country (and many others like it). I am still trying to understand the Dark Continent and why all these tragedies happen in such brutal ways (I am an avid reader of the pan-African countries and visited Botswana and Zimbabwe last year). Philip Gourevitch paints a pretty bleak picture, but I believe what he relays is very accurate for everything else I have learned about this genocide through international reports. I would love to see Steven Spielberg (or someone as talented) do for this book what he did for Schindler's List. This story needs to be told. These brutalities are still going on there, and, in other countries of Africa. Only now, in 2004, are the perpetrators of these horrendous acts now being brought to trial (with only a glimpse in your local newspaper, if at all). I definitely recommend this book, but only if you have a strong stomach. If you are interested in other countries, I strongly recommend "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz", Michela Wrong (Congo) and "Our Votes, Our Guns", Martin Meredith (Zimbabawe). Primitive man arose from Africa. The industrial nations left the African nations in obscurity while beating them down and teasing them with our so called progressive ways (and exploiting their natural resources at their expense). Has this led to the corruption of the new African leaders? Power? Greed? The atrocities that follow? Why can't the African countries overcome the stigma befallen them? We can only better understand these conundrums if we educate ourselves.

Read Now! It is a must as an American, as a human
I just finished this book today 3 days shy of my 22nd birthday. I had to read it for Comparative Politics at the university I attend. I am glad I read it.
I barely remembered the genocide. I was 11 and 12 years old when it occurred and only remember hearing blurbs on the news back then. Now, ten years later, I am abosolutely amazed and frightened that something like this can happen (and is happening. Look at the Sudan.) This book was sad and depressing, but it opened my eyes about how heartless mankind can be. I am appalled at the LACK of help, interevention, ANYTHING that the international community did. I am still trying to grasp why this happened and why the world was tricked into helping the Hutu Power hiding in the refugee camps.
I recomend this book to anyone who can read. Please read it. We, as humans, always say we will never forget. Many of us have. It shouldn't happen again, but it will if people do not understand what can and has happened... over three times in the last 60 years. Read it now. ... Read more

Book Description

In the 1880s, as the European powers were carving up Africa, King Leopold II of Belgium seized for himself the vast and mostly unexplored territory surrounding the Congo River. Carrying out a genocidal plundering of the Congo, he looted its rubber, brutalized its people, and ultimately slashed its population by ten million--all the while shrewdly cultivating his reputation as a great humanitarian. Heroic efforts to expose these crimes eventually led to the first great human rights movement of the twentieth century, in which everyone from Mark Twain to the Archbishop of Canterbury participated. King Leopold's Ghost is the haunting account of a megalomaniac of monstrous proportions, a man as cunning, charming, and cruel as any of the great Shakespearean villains. It is also the deeply moving portrait of those who fought Leopold: a brave handful of missionaries, travelers, and young idealists who went to Africa for work or adventure and unexpectedly found themselves witnesses to a holocaust. Adam Hochschild brings this largely untold story alive with the wit and skill of a Barbara Tuchman. Like her, he knows that history often provides a far richer cast of characters than any novelist could invent. Chief among them is Edmund Morel, a young British shipping agent who went on to lead the international crusade against Leopold. Another hero of this tale, the Irish patriot Roger Casement, ended his life on a London gallows. Two courageous black Americans, George Washington Williams and William Sheppard, risked much to bring evidence of the Congo atrocities to the outside world. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young Congo River steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming above them all, the duplicitous billionaire King Leopold II. With great power and compassion, King Leopold's Ghost will brand the tragedy of the Congo--too long forgotten--onto the conscience of the West. ... Read more

Reviews (123)

10 Million Dead - Hochschild documents the Congo holocaust
Researcher Adam Hochschild provides a lurid and surprisingly fascinating account of the brutal exploitation of the Congo under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium and beyond. With the real-life stories of Henry Morton Stanley, William Sheppard, Leon Rom, Joseph Conrad, Roger Casement and others as foundation, Hochschild is able to outline the rise of Leopold, and to paint a vivid portrait of his development from an unlikable and oafish young heir of the Belgian throne to a cunning and vicious ruler responsible for the death of approximately 10 million African men, women and children. More than that, this book is also the story of E.D. Morel, an Englishman whose chance discovery of apparent misdeeds in so-called "trade" with the Congo gave rise to the most extensive and politically powerful anti-slavery and anti-colonization movements of the century.

I recommend this title for its readability (few historians ever make their subject matter as accessible to general readers), its underlying - and savvy - political analysis of the brutality of European colonization across Africa, and its detailed account of what it took to launch, extend and sustain a human rights movement.

I recommend pairing this work with Michela Wrong's "In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz," which details Congo's later struggles under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Horrifying history of colonial cruelty!
Lets face it! Belgium is not a country that readily springs tomind when one thinks of perpetrators of mass murder &genocide. This makes the harrowing story of King Leopold's Ghost all the more harrowing. His single-minded, obsessive desire to carve out a piece of the "African cake", that most of his neighbouring European colleagues were busy doing in the late 19th. century, is fascinating enough. His cunning use of contempory international personalities, the manipulation of the media, the guise of an anti-slavery organisation to further his ends, might even allow one a grudging admiration for the man's abilities. However, his cavalier indifference to the suffering & death of millions of the Congo natives that he caused in the sordid pursuit of personal profit, is quite simply appalling. One is left with a feeling of admiration for the fierce & dauntless opponants of this tyranical regime, contempt for the lily-livered support they received from statesmen of so-called enlightened countries & loathing for the king that brought these deeds to pass. The book, I would mention, is well written, well researched & recommended.

The Unknown???
King Leopold-this is a story that deserved to be told but wasn't. It was one of the biggest and one of the cruelest colonial regimes in Africa. It is a story of manipulation, drama, brutal murders, corruption, and immorality. In my opinion, King Leopold of Belgium is one of history's most notorious characters. Due to Leopold being the heir to the throne, as a child he was drawn towards wealth and indulgence. Greed drove him. Even into his adulthood, greed and self-indulgence were the traits that surfaced when he realized through gaining colonies he could continue to accumulate his riches. He positioned himself as a concerned leader of the people who wanted to combat the Arab slave trade that pervaded Africa. In the public eye, he was seen as a humanitarian, but the real facts didn't support that popular opinion and contradicted his image. Leopold used unethical methods to acquire his land. He ordered his men to force the natives, the Congolese, into manual labor. His inhumane treatment of them was characterized by killings, whippings, destruction of crops and local villages, and taking, as hostages, the wives and children for those who resisted or didn't produce enough rubber or ivory for the day. According to the author, Adam Hochschild, there was an estimated ten million Congolese deaths during Leopold's colonization process. (That sounds familiar.) Sadly, King Leopold's name isn't mentioned with the Hitlers and the Stalins of world history in the classrooms, as it rightfully should be. As people during that time started to find out the truth, Leopold resorted to cover-ups, lawsuits and bribery. In my opinion, Hochschild has done a fantastic job telling a story that most haven't heard to enable them to understand the outcome and, more importantly, the motives behind it.

A great read
This is a must read if you are at all interested in Africa and the atrocities commited there. Normally i don't like history books, but after reading the introduction I was hooked. it is very easy to read, and reads like a novel. It is a history of King leopold's Congo, how came to be and how it was brought down by the hard work of a few individuals that created a world wide mouvement to stop him. The book discribes in detail the horrors that occured and how the people of the Congo were mistreated. Hochschild has a way of bringing the charachters to life through revealing their past and showing them as real human beings as opposed to one dimentional characters from history. In the beging of the book he discribes the history of the Congo, and how King Leopold aquired it. In the second half of the book he shows how his rein was pulled down by the first major humanitarian effort of the last century.

A Colonial Morality Play
The story in "King Leopold's Ghost" is a powerful one -- colonization taken to its extreme -- but the book is rendered mediocre by the author's trite moralizing, lack of historical rigor, and tiresome reliance on depicting every actor with either a halo or horns.

Hochschild's constant speculation into motives and fits of amateur psychoanalysis made it difficult to separate the matters of record from dramatic characterizations. The substantive research is rather thin and commonly presented in relative terms such as "many", "some", and "few" without context for comparison. At no point did I gain a clear insight into how widespread or coordinated were the atrocities or how damaging the secondary effects may have been (the chapter addressing this is awfully feeble). Leopold, here an antagonist of extraordinary guile, is only weakly connected to the governmental and business interests with which he worked; the reader is given pages of anecdote concerning the king's depravity with nearly no overview of the system in which he operated.

The final chapter is a model of the book's flaws. It considers the Belgian process of forgetting which followed their foray into colonialism, aided by international sympathy during the first world war. Instead of pursuing this interesting and somewhat complicated topic in more detail, however, we are duly regaled with additional vignettes of heroism and villainy. The book then concludes with a sermon aimed squarely at us in the choir. While some readers might find this inspirational, it bored me.

Assuming that research into the history of the Belgian Congo is ongoing, I'll look for a more definitive and less melodramatic account. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

I can't believe I read this garbage
A year ago in my freshman language arts class, I was forced to read The Dark Child. Previously having been assigned garbage such as Nectar in a Sieve and Things Fall Apart, I expected this book would be terrible as well. I was not to be disappointed.
I soon discovered that The Dark Child was a sort of childhood memoirs written by a native of rural Guinea, which is described as a primitive paradise. After choking down five pages of the poorly written (or poorly translated?) prose, I thought to myself, "Could there be a premise less compelling than a boy living an idyllic life in 1920s rural Africa?" I mulled over this thought for a while and decided that there wasn't. This book is plagued by the fundamental problem that the reader knows, doesn't want to know, or doesn't care about what's coming next. Even if you are interested in what life was like for Camara Laye's people, you will be put off by the poor writing and the utter directionlessness of this book - indeed, I constantly found myself dumbfounded by the meandering descriptions, the contrived dialogue, and the pointless vignettes.
In conclusion, I would suggest to the prospective buyer that you spend your money on something better-done and more enjoyable, such as a porn DVD.

Read African Child and Radience Of The King together
Fascinating. A young foreigner in Paris, a young foreigner in Camara Laye's African Kingdom. It doesen't get any better. Read these 20 years ago.

George Pope

beautiful
A beautifully textured, fluid and organic autobiography, Camara Laye offers readers a piece of his life in The Dark Child. As part of the Malinke community in Upper Guinea, Laye captures the layered tradition and culture of his community, deemed, perhaps by most, to be simplistic or primitive compared to today's modern standards. Yet it is exactly from Layes descriptions of the traditions of his community that we can begin to understand the psychology of the author. Each chapter is rich with imagery, and his words smack of sincerity and innocence, bringing about an effortless quality and flow to his work--it is as if we are there with Laye experiencing his many transitions, from boyhood to manhood. His descriptions of the communal lifestyle of his people is remarkable. Laye's works like other modern African authors reveal the realities of colonization, and help readers to appreciate and celebrate indigenous African traditions.

It took me a long time to read this book.
I first got this book in junior high by a family friend but never bothered to read it until I entered high school. Not having anything to read, I took it upon myself to read the book. I found myself intrigued by the author's way of life during colonialism and his upbringing in a village and his graduation from high school. It was sad that one of his classmates died unexpectedly. Wanting to find out some more about this author I looked up a book of African authors. Unfortuately he passed away in 1980. He is a great writer and wished that I had read it soon as it was given to me.

Memoir of an African Childhood
Camara Laye was one of the first sub-saharan writers to become well-known outside of Africa. "L'Enfant Noir" or "The Dark Child" (also titled "The African Child"?) was published in 1953 when the author was twenty-five and living in France. It is a pleasantly nostalgic memoir of a childhood spent in the town of Kouroussa (French Guinea, now Guinea) and the village of Tindican, his mother's birthplace. Chapter by chapter Camara recounts his childhood memories: his father's work as a goldsmith and his position in society, his parent's magic, village life, the rice harvest, elementary Koranic education, circumcision and young men's secret society, secondary education in Conakry, girls and courtship, and his departure to continue his studies in France. After almost half a century in print, this deserves to be called a classic. [Note: some authorities state that his family name is Camara (also spelled Kamara) and his given name is Laye; the text supports this at one point. If using search engines to look for information on this author it may be useful to try both versions of his name.] ... Read more

Amazon.com

Some stories are so enthralling they deserve to be retold generation after generation. The wreck in 1815 of the Connecticut merchant ship, Commerce, and the subsequent ordeal of its crew in the Sahara Desert, is one such story. With Skeletons on the Zahara: A True Story of Survival, Dean King refreshes the popular nineteenth-century narrative once read and admired by Henry David Thoreau, James Fenimore Cooper, and Abraham Lincoln. King’s version, which actually draws from two separate first person accounts of the Commerce's crew, offers a page-turning blend of science, history, and classic adventure. The book begins with a seeming false start: tracing the lives of two merchants from North Africa, Seid and Sidi Hamet, who lose their fortunes—and almost their lives—when their massive camel caravan arrives at a desiccated oasis. King then jumps to the voyage of the Commerce under Captain Riley and his 11-man crew. After stops in New Orleans and Gibraltar, the ship falls off course en route to the Canary Islands and ultimately wrecks at the infamous Cape Bojador. After the men survive the first predations of the nomads on the shore, they meander along the coast looking for a way inland as their supplies dwindle. They subsist for days by drinking their own urine. Eventually, to their horror, they discover that they have come aground on the edge of the Sahara Desert. They submit themselves, with hopes of getting food and water, as slaves to the Oulad Bou Sbaa. After days of abuse, they are bought by Hamet, who, after his own experiences with his failed caravan (described at the novels opening), sympathizes with the plight of the crew. Together, they set off on a hellish journey across the desert to collect a bounty for Hamet in Swearah.King embellishes this compelling narrative throughout with scientific and historical material explaining the origins of the camel, the market for English and American slaves, and the stages of dehydration. He also humanizes the Sahrawi with background on the tribes and on the lives of Hamet and Seid. This material, doled out in sufficient amounts to enrich the story without derailing it makes Skeletons on the Zahara a perfectly entertaining bit of history that feels like a guilty pleasure.--Patrick O'Kelley ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Thank you Dean King, and thank you Peter Hillary
After a frustrating run with a dozen or so mediocre books (three best-selling thrillers, two famous name memoirs, three populist science and the universe curios and assorted easy-digest sex and violence trash teasers) I've read TWO brilliant books in the last week! SKELETONS OF THE ZAHARA was one of them. Survival stories can be a real drag after a while, as the miseries begin to mount with no end, but King has managed to make this tale sing with the excitement of legend. There are times when there's something spiritual about the trials of these men, especially when they go out of their minds and into a trippy state with thirst and anxiety. A superb tale.

The other book that has simply stunned me is IN THE GHOST COUNTRY. It's about Peter Hillary's heart-breaking journey to the South Pole, the loneliest and most disturbing oddysey of his life on the edge. Hillary has survived where many, many of his friends have died in the mountains -- and many of them who were at his side at the time. On the body-wrecking and mind-warping haul to the bottom of the world, the ghosts of friends and family rise up to walk with him. Shocking, sad, captivating and a very trippy experience. Too many amazing stories to go into here.

The lessons of suffering in the age of surviving
I was with a group of friends the other evening and we started talking about these uncertain and violent times, and how people seem to be looking for examples and symbols of courage and endurance in the face of anxiety and extinction. After pondering the question of leadership and where to find it... we decided the best place to find it at the moment is in books. Namely, survival stories. Dean King tells a wild and harrowing tale of men desperately trying to keep it together as their alien surroundings swallow them alive. Running parrallel to the marooned band's epic... is King's expedition through the desert in search of his story. At its best it reads like a man clawing through the ashes of an evaporated city. More intimate and ''beautful'', and in many ways more shocking, is Peter Hillary's In The Ghost Country, about his own journey to the bottom of the world and the depths of his mind, his titanic struggle to hold on to his sanity as the ghost of his past rise up before him in living color. A brilliant evocation of the human condition.

Twin journeys very satisfying
King follows in the desperate footsteps of Captain Riley and his marooned crew -- and in the end almost replicates as their struggle for survive and sanity. King lives out their story in his head while tracing their paths through the cruel sands. Well done. An interesting contrast is Peter Hillary's diabolical attempt to complete Captain Robert Scott's famous fatal journey -- chronicled in the beguiling and very different IN THE GHOST COUNTRY -- and nearly ended up repeating it. What makes Hillary's book both important and effective is its exploration of the inner life, of fear and guilt and loneliness, which thereby makes it a book that anyone with half a brain and a full heart can relate to. A great one.

Fascinating tale of survival
"Skeletons on the Zahara" by Dean King reflects a recent trend in history writing towards more personal, localized discussions of history. Books like "Twelve Days of Terror", "The Devil in the White City" and "Krakatoa" taken events that were enormously important when they occurred, but which have, over time, faded into vague remembrance. By looking at these forgotten events, the author has an opportunity to not only tell and original story, but also reflect upon the era as a whole, and draw conclusions about how it shaped, and was shaped by, the event in question.

Handled poorly, this approach can feel severely contrived, as the writer attempts to shoehorn a host of effects into his ill-fitting cause. However, when done successfully, as is the case with "Skeletons on the Zahara", the author brings a unique perspective to the period, while engaging the reader with new adventures. In fact, if nothing else, this is an adventure story, detailing the appalling and yet somehow inspiring story of sailors shipwrecked on the North African coast and captured into slavery.

King sets the stage, by explaining the disastrous consequences the War of 1812 had on the commercial shipping industry in New England, and how limited prospects on land and potentially rich rewards at sea drove men to a life of danger and separation from their families. Offering personal glimpses into the lives of Captain James Riley and his crew, he paints a portrait of ambitious men, living life on the edge between prosperity and destitution. At the same, he offers a glimpse into the life of a merchant on the Sahara, where not just material wealth but life and health itself is determined by the desert's fickle and unrelentingly brutal conditions. By juxtaposing lifestyles that couldn't be more different except of their common precariousness, the author nicely sets the stage for the clash of cultures to come.

When Riley wrecks along the coast of Africa he and his crew find themselves in a world as alien as that of another planet. As they are placed into bondage, there world is literally turned upside down; as white New Englanders they may not have been pro-slavery, but they certainly never anticipated being held in servitude to Africans. Over the following months, Riley, in a remarkable display of leadership and loyalty to his crew manages to wheedle, cajole and bluff their way to salvation even as they suffer horrendously at the hands of their captors and the elements.

While the story of survival is remarkable in and of itself, the glimpse King offers into a time and place most modern American's are entirely familiar with is fascinating. Operating within a clan based feudal system, North Africa in the early nineteenth century was a place of shifting, capricious alliances, where attention to personal survival and aggrandizement were crucial. Although he couldn't have been aware of the labyrinthine political systems he was ensnared in, Riley and his crew on more than one occasion almost sparked open war.

However, it is in placing Riley's narrative within the larger historical context that King's book truly shines. While the aforementioned aspect of slavery is paramount, "Skeletons of the Zahara" also offers insight for our own age. Even as America struggles to understand the Arab mind, King offers at least a glimpse into a culture that is fundamentally different, but not necessarily at odds with, our own. The compassion shown by numerous Arabs to the sailors outstrips the brutal culture in which they operate. This common humanity touched Riley deeply, and made him a crusader for abolitionism for the rest of his life. There is no reason to think this humanity has eroded over the years, and King obliquely argues that it can become the basis for a new understanding with Islamic culture today.

Part adventure story, part history, part social commentary, "Skeletons of the Zahara" breaths new life into a forgotten tale of survival. Given that Riley's narrative helped shaped the minds of such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln and Henry David Thoreau, it is worth reading in its own right, but when coupled with King's historical analysis it rises to a different level. While sometimes presumptuous in his narrative, King has nevertheless produced a book that highlights cooperation and commonality across cultures at a time when such elements are sorely lacking. The author, while primarily interested in telling a fascinating story of survival, is also able to offer precedent for mutually beneficial interaction between American and Islam.

Jake Mohlman

what if a good writer had written this story?
I agree with the other reviewer who said that this story cannot compare with Shackleton's story, but this is still a story worth reading. Too bad it is written by a mediocre writer. Dean King tries to enliven the story by pretending to know what Riley and his shipmates must have said or thought. At one point, he says that Riley picked up a piece of fruit that he must have thought was a date. The fruit was bitter, and King says that Riley made a connection between the looks-good-tastes-bitter fruit and Africa. Except that this little metaphor is fiction and I doubt that Riley ever thought Africa looked good. King's attempts to turn this into a spiritual journey or to find the wisdom hidden in the misery...you'd find better in high school essays. The dialog King makes up is awful. Bad writing. That said, it is still a good story. Borrow it from the library, though. ... Read more

Book Description

A gripping memoir that reads like a political thriller--the story of Malika Oufkir's turbulent and remarkable life. Born in 1953, Malika Oufkir was the eldest daughter of General Oufkir, the King of Morocco's closest aide. Adopted by the king at the age of five, Malika spent most of her childhood and adolescence in the seclusion of the court harem, one of the most eligible heiresses in the kingdom, surrounded by luxury and extraordinary privilege.

Then, on August 16, 1972, her father was arrested and executed after an attempt to assassinate the king. Malika, her five younger brothers and sisters. and her mother were immediately imprisoned in a desert penal colony. After fifteen years, the last ten of which they spent locked up in solitary cells, the Oufkir children managed to dig a tunnel with their bare hands and make an audacious escape. Recaptured after five days, Malika was finally able to leave Morocco and begin a new life in exile in 1996.

A heartrending account in the face of extreme deprivation and the courage with which one family faced its fate, Stolen Lives is an unforgettable story of one woman's journey to freedom. ... Read more

Reviews (197)

five stars for story and three stars for style
Malika Oufkir tells us the powerful and tragic story of her life in the book Stolen Lives. She begins the story describing her life as a princess after being adopted by the king of Morocco. She lived an almost unreal life of luxury while at court. The opulence Malika describes is comparable to the time of Marie Antoinette. From the resplendent court, her life is irrevocably altered when her father fails in an assassination attempt and her entire family is placed in prison including her three year old brother.

The family's story is extraordinary. Their triumph of spirit is remarkable considering the duration and horrors which they suffered. We see the importance of unity and belief of oneself and each other. We see incredible love and sacrifice. But we also see how imprisonment can degrade the human spirit and affect the psyche.

We learn in the preface of the book, how Malika came to hire Michele Fitoussi as the co-author of her book. Throughout the book, the reader cannot help but wonder why. It is a shame that such an interesting and compelling story was so poorly written. The author fails terribly in her attempt to describe herself as a sympathetic person prior to her imprisonment. The continual jumping back and forth in time is confusing and annoying to a reader. I also wondered if perhaps the translation was poor, because of the use of certain words and general lack of eloquence from a person who entertained her family with her stories in their darkest hour.

Another book which may interest readers who liked and appreciated Stolen Lives is In the Time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. Readers who appreciate stories about the triumph of the human spirit will enjoy Stolen Lives.

Amazing story that deserves a better telling.
"Stolen Lives" needs to be evaluated on two different levels - the moving tale of a family imprisoned under the worst conditions for 20 years and the way this amazing story has been memorialized by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi. The subject is engrossing and important, but the book itself is not well-written. This accounts for the disparity in ratings that the book has received.

It is fascinating to read about Malika'a unique and frequently heartbreaking life. The eldest daughter of a Morococcan general, she was taken from her family and adopted by the King. Western readers will find the tales of her life in the royal household surprising and enlightening. Not only was the lifestyle outrageously lavish, it was also consisted of customs and traditions that are completely different from our own. Malika was allowed to return to her own family as a young teenager. She only had a few years to get to know her father and enjoy life outside the confines of the palace. Her father before General Oufkir was implicated in a coup attempt against the King and was assassinated. The rest of the family - Malika, her mother, her oldest brother, three young sisters and three year old baby brother were summarily imprisoned. For twenty years they lived in increasingly brutal and inhumane conditions, persecuted by the King for their father's crimes and forgotten by the world. Thanks to their uncommon courage and ingenuity, the family was able to survive and eventually escape. It's not easy to read about many of the horrors and indignities that were heaped upon the Oufkirs, but it's important that the world know about their story.

Unfortunately, the book is not worthy of this amazing story. It was written by Malika with the assistance of Michele Fitoussi. The first problem is that the book does not give sufficient background about either the history of Morrocco or General Oufkir's powerful role as one of the King's chief aides. Those unfamiliar with Moroccan history will frequently find themself at a loss for context. Second, given that this is Malika's first person account, it necessarily is a very one-sided version of history. Not that I doubt her version of events - I just would have preferred a more complete and well-researched book that included not only Malika's story but also those of her siblings. Malika frequently portrays herself as the backbone of the family, the strongest member who kept them all from succumbing to madness. This very likely is true, but it would have a much greater impact coming from someone else. Finally, the writing style is very repetitive and immature. While Michele Fitoussi is very sympathetic to Malika's story and deserves much credit for persuading her to tell her story, I have no doubt that a more objective and skilled writer would have improved the quality of the book immensely. Hopefully a serious scholar will undertake a complete telling of the Oufkir's story. I, for one, will be anxious to read it.

Shallow and Poorly Written
After living off and on in Morocco for 7 years in the 90's I'd never actually heard of the Oufkirs but I did hear much of the supposed royal excess. I was always taken the stories with a grain of salt. To see them recounted on the pages of this book was interesting to say the least.

It's too bad that this is so poorly written because the story definitely deserves to be told....please someone tell it with a bit more depth.

**Unforgettable**
Some of you may have seen this woman on Oprah a few years back telling of her ordeal. I put off reading this book & had come to the conclusion that I didn't want to read a depressing nightmare of being locked in a remote prison for decades. Then along came a friend of a friend, who encouraged me to read it, that I "needed" to read it.
This book, to me, was life-changing. As I recognize how spoiled us Americans truly are, nothing could've prepared me for this family's struggles.
Malika & her family displayed such amazing gifts of courage & strength that I was blown away. In awe and humbled. Their "tale" was almost just that: a tale. I simply cannot fathom the conditions that these poor people survived in.
As I was continuously mesmerized by their strength during their imprisonment, I was later caught in Malika's greatest feat of all: forgiveness. This woman showed me what a powerful thing it truly is. She forgave with such grace & eloquence that I was just speechless. I speak mainly of her due to the fact that she was "adopted" by the royal family as a child & later cast out in a most horrifying way. As us readers were not given as much detail of her siblings (especially after their release), I can make no assumptions for them. Nevertheless, this family as a whole is an unwavering symbol of love, strength, & survival.
I hope that they are doing well now & thank each one of them for their story.
I hope that I never forget it, for it is a daily reminder of what I have in this life with my freedom & my family.

Amazing Story of the Human Spirit!
I have not done any research to verify if the information in this book is accurate or not. However, it was an excellent read and I highly recommend it! It provided an extraordinary glimpse into the world of human rights abuses and leaves the reader with a deep appreciation for the simple joys that we take for granted.

Malika Oufkir was a teenager in the prime of her life when she was put into horrible prison conditions for twenty years with her family. Her family was being punished for the political actions of her father.

Malika is an excellent story teller and has lives on the inside of the royal family in Morocco so it is very interesting to hear details of her upbringing.

It is extraordinary to hear of the atrocious jail conditions inflicted on this family that was used to such a lavish existence. If you have any interest in human rights or the politics of Morocco then you will be fascinated by this read! ... Read more

Book Description

The period covered in this volume is one which begins with the emergence of anti-slave trade attitudes in Europe, and ends on the eve of European colonial conquest. But except for white conquests in Algeria and South Africa, and colonies of free Blacks on the west coast, the theme is that of African independence, initiative and adaptation in the last phase of its pre-colonial history. Under greater external pressures than ever before, from European trade, exploration, missionary and political activity, African history in this period moved with greater momentum and larger scale than in past ages, with rapid changes in economic and political life. In general the approach in this volume is through chapters focusing on regions of Africa, each written by an established authority in his field. Concluding chapters sruvey the activities of Europeans in Africa, and those of Africans and their descendants overseas. ... Read more

Book Description

The acclaimed New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down is "a shocking account of modern warfare . . . gripping and horrifying" (San Francisco Chronicle)

Destined to become a classic of war reporting, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden's brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War. On October 3rd, 1993, about a hundred elite U.S. soldiers were dropped by helicopter into the teeming market in the heart of Mogadishu, Somalia. Their mission was to abduct two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord and return to base. It was supposed to take an hour. Instead they found themselves pinned down through a long and terrible night fighting against thousands of heavily armed Somalis. The following morning, eighteen Americans were dead and more than seventy had been badly injured.

Drawing on interviews from both sides, army records, audiotapes, and videos (some of the material is still classified), Bowden's minute-by-minute narrative is one of the most exciting accounts of modern combat ever written--a riveting story that captures the heroism, courage, and brutality of battle.

"Black Hawk Down ranks among the best books ever written about infantry combat. . . . A descendent of books like The Killer Angels and We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young."-- Bob Shacochis, The New York Observer

"If Black Hawk Down were fiction we'd rank it up there with the best war novels: The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer, or The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien."-- Tom Walker, The Denver Post

"Stands in a league with Shelby Foote's stirring Civil War Diary, Shiloh."-- Jim Haner, The Baltimore Sun

"One of the most gripping and authoritative accounts of combat ever written."-- Kirk Spitzer, USA Today

"Amazing . . . One of the most intense, visceral reading experiences imaginable."-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
A New York Times bestseller for 14 weeks
Bowden's Black Hawk Down series, which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer was awarded the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award for best foreign reporting ... Read more

Reviews (601)

WOW!!!
Black Hawk Down written by Mark Bowden is an account of modern warfare and the events that played out in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993. Bowden's book, written 3 years after the firefight happened, vividly recreates the battle through the soldiers' eyes during the combat. Black Hawk Down totals 392 pages and is well worth the price for the amount of information and enjoyment one receives when reading the book. Mark Bowden was a journalist writing columns about the Battle of Mogadishu for a newspaper during the 1993 incident. Bowden is a nationally credited journalist receiving many awards for his writing. Having now military experience himself, Bowden gains primary sources for the book from personal interviews with the soldiers, radio tapes of the combat, and video filmed during the combat. Given Bowden's journalistic accomplishments and awards, the type of research conducted, and the first-hand sources used gives him the experience he needs to write the book. Mark Bowden's novel Black Hawk Down does an excellent job in creating a story that is easy and fun to read while implicating accurate details from primary sources. The author makes sure the book is interpreted as popular history and not mistaken for scholarly history. The book focuses on an event that occurred instead of a historical document or artifact. Bowden creates a story that is so intriguing the reader does not want to put the book down. He creates this story through the sources he used to gather his information. The dialogue was taken from personal interviews he conducted with the soldiers who fought in the battle. There might have been some inconsistencies about fact and fiction in the stories because the event took place three years ago and it depends on whom he interviewed. Because of the popular support from the armed forces, as the "Afterword" states in his book, we can say he does an exceptional job at finding the discrepancies and interpreting the truth. The dialogue was also taken from radio communications that were recorded while the battle took place. The physical evidence of audio taped conversations left no room for Bowden to misquote the dialogue.

In the back of Bowden's book, there is a complete bibliography from which he attained all his information. Mark Bowden does not present any new information about the Mogadishu incident, although he does tell the story from the soldiers perspective which is a different approach than other works have done. Throughout the novel, there are no citations from other works except from the material he gathered through interviews and recorded audio. The lack of footnotes and citations throughout the novel guarantees easy and enjoyable reading. Bowden bases most of his work on interviews and government documents and then uses his journalistic and creative writing style to tell a captivating story. He documents how he was able to obtain the sources, who he interviewed, what books and articles he referred to, and where he got the radio tapes. Because of these documented sources, it is hard to question the validity of the information he presents you. Bowden accomplishes his purpose in writing the novel because he gives an accurate and in-depth description of the battle through the soldiers perspective while maintaining a story which is fun and worth the time reading.

Mark Bowden stays true to his thesis throughout Black Hawk Down, and presents the audience with a book that you do not want to put down. The book is non-stop action that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The novel jumps around from different people's perspective throughout the story, yet his excellent writing skill does not allow you to be confused or lost. He also provides background information about the soldiers and characters when they are first introduced and when he refers to them later in the story. Bowden provided a lot of information about the military and used acronyms for names throughout the story. He used the military style of communicating when he wrote the book. However, Bowden does a superb job in providing the audience with the definition of the acronyms stood for. He defined them in the back of the book where there is an index and by putting the definition in parenthesis next to the acronym. This method of writing almost made it feel as if the reader was actually hearing the radio communications and conversations when it happened. Bowden also provided a few maps in the book to visually show where the battle took place and what the routes of the forces were. The implication of maps made it easier to follow and understand the circumstances better. There are pictures in the back of the novel showing some of the soldiers and equipment they used during the operation.

Mark Bowden wrote the novel Black Hawk Down with the purpose of making an enjoyable and easy to read novel from the soldiers perspective while providing an accurate first hand account of the events in Mogadishu, Somalia on October 3, 1993. Because Bowden used his journalistic writing abilities, his first hand interviews, and actual recordings of audio transmissions, this allowed him to write such a detailed and successful novel. Since the author is a journalist and not a historian, he wrote a popular history story about an event that happened three years before the book was published. Black Hawk Down, which sells for about fourteen dollars, is an excellent book filled with accurate information and is worth reading by anyone interested in modern warfare or the military.

Perspective from a former Ranger
Blackhawk Down is the first readable war story of my generation. I've followed the development of Mark Bowden's book since his first publication of the story in the Philadelphia newspaper. A few years prior to the battle of Mogadishu, I was myself a member of the 3rd Ranger Battalion. At the age of 19, I was a sent to invade Panama as a member of this unit and was fortunate to know several of the men in this book. As a former Ranger, I will tell you that Bowden left nothing out about how these elite units fight, survive, and think. Every moment of the book is the real, gut-wrenching, dirt filled, in your face brutal truth of what it's like to be of this generation and in combat. He accurately and vividly describes the failures of the US administration, the intelligence community, and the soldiers themselves. Bowden also recreates the success brought about in these units through preparation, tough training, discipline, and dedication to your fellow soldiers. Folks, if you ever wanted to know why your tax money goes to fund military training, then read this book. If you ever doubted the military and thought its harsh, disciplined lifestyle was unnecessarily brutal and unkind, then read this book. If you've ever thought about joining the military just for the college money, thinking that you'll never have to fight, then read this book. This one will slap you in the face with the reality of today's elite military units.

An excellent book!
Mark Bowden has done an outstanding job of telling the story of the battle of Mogadishu. U.S. army rangers and delta forces were in Mogadishu trying to kill or capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid, a local warlord, leader of the Habr Gidr clan, who was preventing international relief agencies from properly distributing food in famine-decimated Somalia.

Trying to pluck one well-hidden person from the midst of a very sympathetic populace is not so easy, as we learned then and have re-learned in the case of Ossama bin Ladin. The U.S. began to settle for picking off top Aidid aids.

This battle bagan when U.S. forces learned that two Aidid lieutenants were meeting in a building near the center of the Aidid-controlled section of Mogadishu. The plan called for Delta forces to take the building and capture the men, for army rangers to secure the corners of the block containing the target building, and for black Hawk helicopters to provide overhead cover for the rangers.

It was a reasonably good plan, but it had one very serious weakness. It turned out that the Black Hawks were very vulnerable to fire from rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), a cheap and reliable Soviet made weapons system. RPGs are as common as dirt in third world countries, and Aidid's forces had plenty of them. Two of the Black Hawks were shot down by RPG fire, and two more were damaged so badly that they had to crash land back at the U.S. base. In trying to retrieve the downed Black Hawk pilots and crews (or their bodies), the rangers and Delta forces got shot to hell by an extremely hostile city full of AK-47-toting Somalis.

It is an amazing story, well told by Mark Bowden. Part of the irony and horror of the situation is that we were only trying to help, we were only trying to do good. Yet we ended up getting 19 of our own boys killed and 70 others wounded, and killing perhaps (no one knows for sure) 500 Somalis. The moral to the story is that if you're trying to do good, send missionaries. The army is not a missionary force. The purpose of the army is to kill people, and it should never be deployed unless U.S. national security is implicated, which it was not in Somalia.

Could not put it down.
I first hear about this book years ago when someone suggested it on tv. But I did not pay it any attention until I saw the movie. Once I saw the movie I wanted to know more about what happened with those soldiers. What I loved about the book was Mark Bowden's attention to detail. It is as if you are reading a very long but very interesting news article. I did not sense any bias, as if Mr. Bowden was trying to lead me to see only one side of this story. Needless to say, the book is very informative and has given me a new favorite author. I am reading his other book "Killing Pablo" now and loving it. Read Blackhawk Down.

Only Half the Story
Mark Bowden's story is an excellent retelling of the events of that day in 1993, but it only tells half the story. I don't think he even realized he was telling only part, even though he did try to get Somali voices in it. The real other half, which he does not seem to have a clue about, is that the whole event was a trap, an ambush coordinated and managed by Bin Laden and the Islamists in Sudan and Iran (see Y. Bodansky's book, Bin Laden, The Man Who Declared War on America). Isn't the author even curious about how, without any warning, all of these snipers and other armed individuals knew to be where the US soldiers were at that particular time? Mogadishu was and is a pretty lawless place, but even there I doubt that most areas have that many RPG launchers in one place all the time, just in case US soldiers drop in. The lack of adequate intelligence then and now, has led to the vulnerability of Western nations to terrorism. That and an unwillingness to admit that anyone could hate the US enough to ambush its soldiers, as well as putting hundreds of innocent civilians in the line of fire. Unfortunately, the US did not learn in Mogadishu, at the Khobar Towers, on the USS Cole, or even the WTC bombing in 1993. But it did learn on Sept. 11th.

This book is very good in many ways. But the complete story of these events in Mogadishu has yet to be told. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (6)

A Good Analysis of Africa
Shillington provides a good survey style textbook on African history from antiquity to the modern period. He covers in great detail and quality of the relationship between Africa and Islam as well as the nature of slavery and apartheid. He covers the slave trade in quite a bit of detail, explaining the value of the African as a marketable commodity. He also explains the origins of apartheid as a colonial parting gift that became entrenched racist national policy for more than fifty years. Shillington's survey is quite appropriate for a high school African history class, an undergraduate African history survey or introduction or even as a first book for a graduate African history course. The topics covered here are obviously from an Africanist point of view although there is a minimum, if any, level of bias on Shillington's part.

Admirable Intention
The book is written from an African point of view, which is badly needed in the current world of academia. Shillington does a great job of portraying things from the "other side". The only defect is that he can sometimes be too sympathetic to the other side and penalize westerners, giving the book a slight bias. Despite this, it is an excellent book for getting a look into African history from another angle.

Excellent survey for the first-time reader
Extremely well written and hard to put down.

Shillington has an obvious affection for Africa, but I expected it and allowed for it. I'd recommend this book to anyone looking for a first survey of African history.

I would like to have seen more maps, with less information on each map.

I'm not sure the book would make a good text for college, but it makes a great book for general reading.

Historically inaccurate and biased
I am a fan of Shillington and I expected more from this book. His effort to glorify African leaders and condemn Europeans makes this text biased and inaccurate. I would recommend Blaine Harden's "Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent."

The worst Africa survey I have yet encountered.
In the past year I have had the good fortune to read around 30 or so texts that can be considered excellent choices for an introduction to African history and civilization.

Unfortunately, this book is easily the worst. The illustrations are excellent, but the book is nothing more than a rabin pro-African propoganda dumbed down for elementary or high school students. It is not thought provoking, as all of Africa's ills are blamed on Western colonialism.

It's aimed for a high-school or lower audience. It seems Shillington is more concered with increasing the damaged self-esteem of Black students than with providing an accurate history that will allow those students to see the world realistically. ... Read more

Book Description

This book explores Africa's involvement in the Atlantic world from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. It focuses especially on the causes and consequences of the slave trade, in Africa, in Europe, and in the New World. Prior to 1680, Africa's economic and military strength enabled African elites to determine how trade with Europe developed. Thornton examines the dynamics that made slaves so necessary to European colonizers. He explains why African slaves were placed in significant roles. Estate structure and demography affected the capacity of slaves to form a self-sustaining society and behave as cultural actors. This second edition contains a new chapter on eighteenth century developments. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

An execellent Primer
This work serves as an excellent prelude to Hugh Thomas' SLAVE TRADE: The Atlantic Slave Trade from 1440..., Ira Berlin's MANY THOUSANDS GONE, and Price, et al.'s MAROON SOCIETIES since it touches on many issues developed in those works. In addition, it looks at how African culture influenced and encouraged the slave trade.

Starting with a consideration of African concepts of property (i.e., only personalty and chattel could be considered property by individuals since all realty was under collective ownership and could only temporarily be alienated), Thornton builds on how chattel property, notably slaves, were the basis for individual wealth in West Africa prior to the arrival of Europeans. Next, he considers how this caused the numerous wars and raids that continued to take place throughout West Africa.

He also looks at whether (and to what extent) supposed European superiority encouraged the slave trade - or at least made it a more violent and dehumanizing practice. Europeans governments were kept out of Africa and had to largely rely on factors or intermediaries for trade - with the exception of the Luso-Africans in Angola. Europeans traders had to submit tariffs and bribes to the local rulers and nobility, as well as meet the rulers' quotas at inflated prices.

As to economic pressure for trade, Thornton notes that there were no essential goods which the West sold to these leaders that could not have been otherwise attained in Africa. In addition, iron and horses could be bought from the Arabs and were also produced and bred in West Africa. The sale of Arms, especially, the early matchlocks (harquebuses), but including the later flintlocks provided little or no trade benefits because not only were they not decisive in African conflicts but various European nations were willing to sell weapons if one nation attempted to use the non-sale of weapons as a leverage to force a local government to unwillingly trade in slaves.

Turning to slaves exported to the West, he points out that not only did the fact that many of them were formerly military prisoners mean that they were excellent soldiers for various militias, but that they were also potential leaders of maroon colonies quite capable of being a real military threat to local slave-owners. In addition, many skills acquired from local African activities, such as rice and indigo production, led to their usefulness and importance in work on plantations - and, therefore, to the eventual development of artisan workers and the slave economies of various American (and African island) economies.

Again, an excellent primer for the study of African involvement in the slave trade and the development of the Americas.

Agency of Africans
John Thornton, author of numerous studies centering around Atlantic Africa, presents a history of the slave trade which attempts to focus on (forced) African migration. He tackles approaches taken by scholars such as Mintz and Price to discuss developing New World cultures. Unfortunately, despite his interesting and important ideas and assertions, chapter 7 presents a disturbing view of a homogeneous African culture. One of this book's redeeming features is the agency attributed to African peoples. The (sometimes prevalent) idea that Africans were passive victims in the Atlantic slave trade is overturned.

A groundbreaking study
John Thornton had already established himself as a major historian of West Africa and its relations with Europe before creating this volume for the Studies in Comparative World History series. In this volume he presents the world in which plantation slavery evolved as the collision of many cultures and forces on both sides of the Atlantic, with contributions for good and ill from Africa, the Americas and from Europe. His presentation of slavery, as taking place not just in the Americas nor in Africa, but in the shared society of the Atlantic region bound together by intercontinental trade, forces the reader to acknowlege the active participation of Africans in creating and shaping trans-Atlantic society and the New World. Far from being passive victims of a technologically superior Europe, Africans appear as equal participants in their economic relations with Europeans, and consciously self interested in their participation in the slave trade. The evolution of plantation slavery into a more malignant social arrangement than earlier forms of slave taking and holding traditions is explored considering the input of both slaveholders and slaves. Even those who are truly victimized by the slave trade have avenues of resistance and accomodation. In short, the Atlantic world, with its economic dependence upon slavery, appears as a complex and interesting place. Thornton's presentation of this world is both scholarly and absorbing. He illuminates his arguments with fascinating accounts of individual experiences that often surprise and never disappoint. A must for any serious study of slavery and the African Diasporah.

HELPFUL
This book, since I am taking American History, proved to be very useful in the context that the pillage that the African Americans suffered while maintaining progression in history submitted their true belief system towards society.

GREAT
This book greatly portrayed the African American culture and their movement in American comparative world history. ... Read more

Book Description

This history of Africa from the origins of mankind to the South African general election of 1994 refocuses African history on the peopling of an environmentally hostile continent.The social, economic and political institutions of the African continent were designed to ensure survival and maximize numbers, but in the context of medical progress and other twentieth-century innovations these institutions have bred the most rapid population growth the world has ever seen.The history of the continent is thus a single story binding living Africans to the earliest human ancestors. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Excellent
There isnt much more for me to add to the previous reviews, but I will say that this is an excellently written book that is amazingly wide in its breadth.

Best of African Histories
Iliffe's 'Africans' is the most distinguished and intelligent brief history of Africa yet written. Dry, and at times dense with information, it nonetheless succintly and brilliantly outlines the history of this complex and fascinating continent from earliest man to the democratic movements of the 1990s. Centred around a thesis that the key to Africa's history is population change, Iliffe weaves his tale with masterly skill. Underpopulated until the middle of the 20th century, the central feature of African history till the modern period has been a struggle for the control of scarce labour - land, by contrast, being abundant. Only with the massive population increases and urbanisation of the last fifty years have parts of the continent become over-populated, where a struggle for natural resources among an abundance of competitors has become the defining feature of African society (anyone who has spent time in the dog-eat-dog societies of Kenya or Nigeria can happily testify to this truth). This simple, somewhat tendentious but nonetheless thought-provoking thesis is the thread on which the book hangs, and is a relief from the dry, tedious and abstracted ideological and political theories which other historians have tried to apply to African history. This is a much richer book than such a summary might imply - Iliffe seems to have read every book and article ever written on African history (his Stakhanovite work methods are renowned), and politics, great men, religion, social movements all play a part in the narrative: and, as one has come to expect from Iliffe, African proverbs are studded in the text like diamonds in a tiara, illuminating and making real the events and processes on which he dwells. This is perhaps too dry a book to celebrate completely - Iliffe's Jesuitical approach to historical research lacks passion, and his powerful historian's mind perhaps takes for granted in the reader a too-deep understanding of that subject and its conventions. But ANYONE who wishs to understand more about the African continent cannot do without the learning, wisdom and intelligence that this book offers. Africa has been done a great service.

A history of Africa for the 21st century.
Iliffe's 'Africans' is the most distinguished and intelligent brief history of Africa yet written.Dry, and at times dense with information, it nonetheless succintly and brilliantly outlines the history of thiscomplex and fascinating continent from earliest man to the democraticmovements of the 1990s. Centred around a thesis that the key to Africa'shistory is population change, Iliffe weaves his tale with masterly skill. Underpopulated until the middle of the 20th century, the central feature ofAfrican history till the modern period has been a struggle for the controlof scarce labour - land, by contrast, being abundant.Only with themassive population increases and urbanisation of the last fifty years haveparts of the continent become over-populated, where a struggle for naturalresources among an abundance of competitors has become the defining featureof African society (anyone who has spent time in the dog-eat-dog societiesof Kenya or Nigeria can happily testify to this truth).This simple,somewhat tendentious but nonetheless thought-provoking thesis is the threadon which the book hangs, and is a relief from the dry, tedious andabstracted ideological and political theories which other historians havetried to apply to African history. This is a much richer book than such asummary might imply - Iliffe seems to have read every book and article everwritten on African history (his Stakhanovite work methods are renowned),and politics, great men, religion, social movements all play a part in thenarrative:and, as one has come to expect from Iliffe, African proverbsare studded in the text like diamonds in a tiara, illuminating and makingreal the events and processes on which he dwells. This is perhaps too dry abook to celebrate completely - Iliffe's Jesuitical approach to historicalresearch lacks passion, and his powerful historian's mind perhaps takes forgranted in the reader a too-deep understanding of that subject and itsconventions.But ANYONE who wishs to understand more about the Africancontinent cannot do without the learning, wisdom and intelligence that thisbook offers.Africa has been done a great service. ... Read more

Book Description

Praise for Meeting the Fox

"Orr Kelly has dramatically brought to life the desert war by masterfully weaving the view of higher headquarters with the pathos of the foxhole. Meeting the Fox takes the reader on a gripping journey from North Africa’s beaches and drop zones, the practically forgotten disaster at Sidi bou Zid, to the final battles in Tunisia. Meeting the Fox is destined to rank among the best narrative histories on the American experience in North Africa."
–– Patrick O’Donnell, author of Beyond Valor and Into the Rising Sun

"An almost bullet-by-bullet, shell-by-shell account, Meeting the Fox offers riveting personal experiences from those who fought the Axis forces during the desperate campaign for North Africa."
––Gerald Astor, historian and author of A Blood-Dimmed Tide and The Greatest War, Vols. I—III

As their unproven commanders struggled to match wits with the wily Desert Fox, 100,000 poorly equipped, undertrained, and inexperienced GIs battled their way across North Africa. Hobbled by inferior weaponry and an inexperienced officer corps, these green but courageous citizen soldiers clashed head-on with the fabled German Afrika Korps and its legendary commander, Erwin Rommel. Meeting the Fox tells the unforgettable tale of the men who transformed themselves, in the heat of battle, from a poorly organized army of convenience into a relentless and unstoppable fighting force. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Meeting the Fox is a quality read.
Orr Kelly did an excellent job recounting the history of Operation Torch and the battle for Tunisia. He brought it alive by documenting and re-telling the personal stories of some real American heroes (Major Siglin, Captain Bill Tuck, Colonel Waters, etc.) This is a very enjoyable read that flows without losing the detail. Thank you Mr. Kelly.

not what I ordered BUT great anyway
I think it was OK but not what I expected. I was getting
this book I THOUGHt was for childern. About "Meeting Footloose Fox" on VHS (Disney) is what the grandkids wanted, so I was disappointed first BUT Even though I never expected it I found it a complling read and a histrical masterpiece. So I say A+ and that I never gave before this time. I am Harold McInnes bye.

How the US Army of WWII most people know got it's start
Orr Kelly's "Meeting the Fox" - Great work! Aside from "The Rommel Papers" (E. Rommel/B.H. Liddell) this book is the only book singly dedicated to battles of the North African theatre that I have read so my review may be limited from a comparative standpoint. Yet with a fairly decent number of books on WWII under my belt I can easily state that "Meeting the Fox" was one of the most enjoyable I've read. It's a great complement to "The Rommel Papers" in that it is dedicated to the North African theatre after entrance of the US Army with Operation Torch - the first grand scale allied amphibious landing. "The Rommel Papers" deals more inclusively with the entire North African campaign, and not surprisingly from the German perspective. "Meeting the Fox" is really dedicated to examining the US Army's "trial by fire and blood" (as it was) upon it's first (disastrous) meeting with the German/Italian armies. Kelly paints a nice picture of how the US Army that landed in North Africa changed from a green, poorly trained and often poorly lead force in nine short months to one more familiar to most Americans that fought and won in Northern Europe a year later. Kelly is certainly critical of problems that arose in the early battles, but he is also fair. While others have lain certain and almost singular blame for early failures on Maj. Gen. Fredendall, the highest-ranking field commander during the first bloody loses, Kelly is quick to point out that Fredendall was not the only "incompetent". Moreover, Kelly gives credit to commanders who have shared blame but probably didn't deserve it, such as Combat Command B commander Brig. Gen. Robinett and Ranger leader Maj. Darby. Fortunately for many of those involved in early defeats that were not removed from command, they learned from the experiences and went on to brilliant successes, such as Darby.

"Meeting the Fox" is a well written, easy to read book. There is ample hard information and facts for the serious student and enough literary flare and style for the more casual WWII reader. All in all this book belongs on my Classics shelf and I recommend it highly! ... Read more

Reviews (8)

For those interested in the concepts behind racialism.
Written in 1952, Fanon's novel is a response to Mannoni's 'Prospero complex', which states that white colonizers have a symbiotic relationship to the races they colonize, and that this relationship is built upon a system of mutual dependence. The whites have a need to dominate, and the other races have a need to be dominated. Fanon passionately and accurately REJECTS this theory, saying that the only neurosis resides in the white male, and his innate fear of other races. Taking his discourse to the sports arena and the bedroom, Fanon argues that the white male possesses a sexual-performance anxiety toward other races, especially the African. He fears he will be outmatched on the field, and outlasted in bed, by the African. It is this fear that causes the xenophobic anxiety within the white male, and propels him to subdue and dominate the other races. Fanon argues that the Africans were doing pretty well before the colonizers came along, but now all worlds are forever changed. Although this book is an angry argument against white ideas of dominance, I find it to be largely accurate and an imperative read for anyone hoping to gain greater insight into the 'true' motivations behind racialism.

Great read
Frantz Fanon's work is an excellent insight of how people of color throughout the world have been effected by colonization.

A must read for anyone trying to understand the basics about living in the western world as a person of color.

A gift to humanity
Fanon's amazing book is one of the landmarks in modern thinking, as far as I am concerned. Fanon says he wants to expose the sickness in order for it to be cured. He exposes the sickness inflicted on Africans by the contact with the colonizing white West in a razor sharp accuracy and courage. Fanon is completely honest, sparing no criticism from the Africans nor the Europeans. He gets help from giant figures like Cesaire and Senghor, and creates an emotionally and intellectually charged masterpiece.

I learned from Fanon about the use of language as a colonialist tool, the terrible affect on African self esteem, the psychological turmoil that erupts as a result of the contact with white society.
It is clear the world is not the same today as it was in the 50's, but Fanon's book is just as relevant.
Quoting from Sartre talking about another book by Fanon: "Have the courage to read this book !".

extremely trippy book...
a tome on the black man in europe, mainly martinique...basically what fanon is saying is : brothas try to be like the other, because they hate them selves and they desire to sleep with the other to give themselves worth and that a bad environment and colonialism makes a black man bad ...reading the book is like reading a long prose poem, thoughtful and stunning...take the chance. it's extremely interesting...

more than theory...
frantz fanon's black skin, white mask has something for every reader of every color (including white). his insights into the psychological damage resulting from colonialism, self-denial, racism, and other connected phenomena provide a path for those of us still grappling with these issues some forty years after the publication of this text. moreover, his intellectual contributions are secondary to the compelling force of his personality and integrity that one senses between the lines. this book is as compelling as a novel and as englightening as a mentor. ... Read more

Amazon.com

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. ... Read more

Reviews (35)

A Great Adventure and Slice of History
You don't have to be a hunter to enjoy this book--I'm not, and I loved it. Contrary to the title's suggestion, this book is not merely about the Lions of Tsavo. In fact, both lions are dispatched fairly early in the book. Nevertheless, Patterson's account of their carnage, and efforts to kill them, are detailed and exciting, and probably unlike anything that will ever be written again.

This book is also gives a micro-social look at British imperialism in Africa around the turn of the century...an interesting slice of Africana, especially through our arguably hypersensitive, politically-correct modern eyes.

Generally, an easy read, filled with local color, hunting, and excitement.

An exciting story
I read this book more than twenty years ago after first seeing the display in the Field Museum of the actual lions in the main story.

The story of the predation of the railroad workers is horrifying, and the accounts of the hunt are full of terror and suspense. The almost supernatural powers of the lions to avoid the hunter makes the story almost as entertaining as Dracula. However, as one reader already noted, this story is only a part of the book. I also found the other stories tedious.

And one must also wonder how the laborers could have been "shopped" by the lions night after night, almost like produce in a grocery store, without taking a more active defense. After all, they must have had implements that could have been used as weapons in a pinch.

Not even half as good as Corbett books !
Patterson's book on The Man-Eaters of Tsavo is about a pair of notorious lions which feasted on Indian laborers and coolies working for the British government in building railway and bridge over river Tsavo in Uganda, Africa. The lions attacked together or alone, mostly during night by breaking into the tents and carrying away their victims.The account is written by the man who was the engineer in charge and who ultimately shot both lions. The Tsavo lions are very famous, especially in the western world, because these lions really did something audacious : they almost stranded the spread of the British empire in Africa by hampering the building of the Tsavo railway bridge. Before reading this book, I had read Jim Corbett's books on man-eating tigers and leopards in the Indian Himalaya and after reading Corbett's books I have become his fan and taken a deep interest in jungle and animal stories. That's what led me to hunt down this book and buy it. But I was disappointed not only by the style of narration which is quite drab at times, but also by the author's racist attitude and lack of respect towards nature and wildlife. There's none of the passion for nature and flora and fauna that is present in Corbett's books. Instead Patterson refers to animals ( not only the man-eaters but also other innocent lions and hippos and rhinos he shot) as 'brutes' and 'beasts' and 'devils'. Corbett also hunted down a lot of tigers which were not man-eaters. But later he repented and he became a conservationist and spread the message throughout his writings. He was always respectful of nature. On the other hand, Patterson not only lacked respect for animals but also for human beings. A racist attitude rings clearly throughout his writing. He had an inferior tone towards the non-white coolies who worked for him. He also disrespected African tribes and their dance and customs, which at times, he described as 'savage'. This is one great difference with Jim Corbett who was also a white man (Irish), but had great love and respect for Indian villagers and people. If you have read Corbett's books before, you are going to find this not even half as good. I am liberal enough to give it two stars !

An interesting read
Patterson is a fascinating character. After reading his account, I am left with many questions. It is obvious that he was not much of soldier or engineer during his time in Africa. A soldier would have protected his men better. He would not allow them to be scattered in small camps for miles. He would have built a fortified encampment, something even the ancient Roman army did every night. His engineering seems to have been limited to building bridges.

Having said the above, I do admire his raw courage. It took a lot to set out at night to hunt man-eaters. He was certainly a man of his times. He took a camera with him every where. The result is that he documented Africa and the railroad as it was being built. He is given to jumping to conclusions. He is out hunting. He finds a rock over hang, several weeks after a massive rain and flood. He finds bones in the "cave", well it must be "the den of the man eaters". Not likely, at lions do not den. Forgiven this, he is fascinating to read.

Monument to human incompetence and carelesness
Didn't live up to the hype. The part with the 2 clever lions, which surely must have been the Einsteins of lions, is only about a third of the book but wisely the first part. The rest is certainly valid armchair geography/travel reading on East Africa and tribes which must have been valuable knowledge for the readers at the time of writing.

The style is clear and factual and very neutral. The feeling is the author neither exaggerates nor downplays the events. You could call it typical military style of writing (describing events).

An interesting thing is, that in spite of the incompetence of the author's most trusted and critical staff helpers he never fires or worse, kills them, which their merits or lack there of certainly could have earned them given the time an place (19th century colonnial Africa, the darkest place since medieval Europe).

As en example, on a very critical time his helper carrying extra guns simply vanished as they were in front of the mighty and deadly beasts leving the authors grasping for a non-existing gun.

At another point a helper carrying the necessary light to aim the lion likewise escaped up a tree leaving the author blined in front of the growling lion. None the less, he does not fire the staff or fire upon them. Amazing.

Not surprisingly the barriers of thorny bushes the camps start to barricade with are not well made. The clever and determined lions either find weaknesses in it or simply jump across them. These are indeed to humongous lions well over 9 feet. To top off the incompetency, the entrance is not well sealed off at night but the lions at one time gets throug there.

Astonishing was the fact that a crew on a certain scarry night with lions roaring in the bushes escapes to the main camp, but leavr a sick fellow alone in the unprotected tent. The author rushes out with a party to retrieve the loner, but alass he is already dead of the stress of fright.

At another point the local law enforcement joins to assist in the hunt but proves utterly incompetent for any purpose. Situated in front of the lion at arms length enclosed in a cage separated by strong railroad bars the app. 4 riflemen hits anything but the lion in a shootout, and the lion escapes via the the damages to the construction the riflemen were doing.

Furthermore the chief hands over his powerful rifle to the author, but sure enough the rifle is in so bad condition it misfires in front of the hunted lion due to wear or poor craftmansship. Surely the chief of police could have informed of the poor state of the rifle.

Another folly of the time (not least the authors carelessness) is the homemade ammonition exploding up his face while producing it. None the less, he resumes fabrication in same manner when his eyesight was restored. This was apparently before protective eyeglasses (and brains) were invented.

The reader will also be amazed over the careless housing of the workers sleeping in bare tents or under the open sky until the lions start roaming. Even after they maneaters star fouraging, people still sleep out as soon as there is a break in the lions local roaming for a few days or weeks. No wonder they could devour app. 28 counted Indians workers and app. 100 native Africans the company doesn't even report or count.

Still the same, the author's courage and plight in hunting the lions personally (in spite being in charge of an important railroad construction) is astonishing and he surely must have been the bravest man around, you could call him non-virtual Tarzan (Protected trademark of Disney Co.) ... Read more

Book Description

Challenging the notion that civilization started in Greece, this uncompromising classic attempts to prove that the true authors of Greek philosophy were not Greeks but Egyptians. The text asserts that the praise and honor blindly given to the Greeks for centuries rightfully belong to the people of Africa, and argues that the theft of this great African legacy led to the erroneous world opinion that the African continent has made no contribution to civilization. Quoting such celebrated Greek scholars as Herodotus, Hippocrates, Aristotle, Thales, and Pythagoras, who admit to the influence of Egyptian studies in their work, this edition sheds new light on traditional philosophical and historical thought. Originally published in 1954, this book features a new introduction. ... Read more

Reviews (58)

An important book, regardless of its faults
Any book that can render this kind of reaction by intellectuals and regular folk alike should be on everyone's reading list. In today's culture of complaint, people hide bad art and cheap sensational ideas behind political/ideological fads and the automatic public reactions to their support or refutation all the time. Yet even with a healthy skepticism firmly in place, one must look at the thought provoking questions that this book demands are asked--and the near automatic visceral emotions that seem to go with them.

I read this book several years ago in college. Though I didn't particularly like the preachy style, or much of the rhetoric seemingly impossible to prove scientifically, it successfully started me on an intellectual journey through a plethora of Egyptological authors of the past two centuries and a spiritual awakening. This book, I am reminded, has such power, because it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers.

Before or even after an opinion of this work has become set in stone in one's mind (usually inspired by an emotional knee-jerk reaction, as if the book is little more than a political metaphor and not an attempt to rediscover the actual ancient world) one must ask themselves, as I was again forced to upon re-reading it:

Have you actually READ the book?

Have you read inki_snkm@yahoo.com's review of this yet (June 29, 1998)? Were you aware of the facts he brings to light and refers to- more importantly, the intellectual paradigms he used to formulate his opinions, as those are (linguistics specifically)part and parcel of the methods, principles and practices of all Western scholars?

Why do you think all architecture schools across all of Western civilization throughout the centuries to today begin their students' studies with the Pyramids?

Have you seen the pyramids of the Sudan and Nubia, some predating those of Giza, recently unearthed by German archaeological teams?

And what do you think our Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, et al) would have thought of such a work (and think of the back of the dollar bill before you answer)?

This book, even with the sermon-like fault of its structure (which says as much about when it was written--and what it took for someone with these kinds of ideas to be published at the time--as the author) remains powerful and influential because of the degree to which it wrestles and answers these kinds of questions. STOLEN LAGACY has its faults, but its ability to make you think, whether you want to or not, isn't one of them.

Definitiely worth reading; also worth owning...and continually argued about.

More important for the questions it raises than answers
Any book that can render this kind of reaction by intellectuals and regular folk alike should be on everyone's reading list. Even in today's polemical culture of complaint, where people hide bad art and cheap sensational ideas behind political/ideological fads or automatic public reactions to their support or refutation, one must look at the thought provoking questions that this book arises- and the near automatic emotions that go with them. I read this book several years ago in college. Though I didn't particularly like the preachy style, it successfully started me on an intellectual journey through a plethora of authors of the past two centuries and a spiritual awakening. This book, I am reminded, has such power, because it raises more uncomfortable questions than it answers. In the spirit of such work, the raison detre of all scholarship, I'd like to ask all others past, present and future who have or plan to review this book: have you read inki_snkm@yahoo.com's review of this yet? Were you aware of the facts he brings to light and refers to- more importantly, the intellectual paradigms he used to formulate his opinions, as those are (linguistics specifically)part and parcel of the methods, principles and practices of all Western scholars? Why do you think all architecture schools across all of Western civilization through the centuries to today begin their students' studies with the Pyramids? Have you seen the pyramids of the Sudan and Nubia, some predating those of Giza, recently unearthed by German archaeological teams? And what do you think our Founding Fathers (Washington, Jefferson, et al) would have thought of such a work (and think of the back of the dollar bill before you answer)?

Horrific
This book is terrible and is based on zero fact and offers zero hard evidence. First of, Egyptians are not and never were, black. They are and always have been a Mediterranean people and were always described as such, especially by Roman writers like Manilius. Herodotus never said the Egyptians were black like Ethiopians, he said the Egyptians were as dark as the Colchians, a race living in Caucasia. He used a Greek word that in that context meant "dark" not "black" as propagated by racist black Afrocentrists who feel their history gives them nothing to be proud of and thus feel the need to steal the history of the Egyptian and Greek and Hebrew peoples. That is the real "stolen legacy". Besides, if Egyptians were black and weere supposedly lighter than Arabs then why did they always portray themselves as lighter than Nubians, why do Egyptian mummies have pure Caucasian characteristics and why do Egyptians have lighter skin and more Caucasian features than Gulf Arabs and Berbers? A real appalling book, GReece and Egypt are two different Mediterranean civilizations that influenced each other, helped each other out, and embraced each other. Afrocentrism is a plague to science and it would do well to drop dead.

Pseudo-History at it's best
As a long time researcher of Masonic history it is clear where this work "stole" it's bad ideas--they are ultimately derived from Terrason's _Life of Sethos_ (although Jame's probably did NOT go back this far, his sources are some fictional Masonic works like _The Ancient Mysteries and Modern Masonry_). If you can get a copy of "Sethos" read the 1732 english edition (otherwise you'll have to read it in French).

It is clearly fictional and largely an artifact of the post-Napoleonic Egyptian craze. Of course this was long before hieroglyphics were even translated. Anyone, even knowing a basic history of the ancient world, would have to be insane to take this seriously. It is completely transparent today as simple racism and a desperate need for self-esteem--at the expense of others. Thus the only thing "classic" about this is it is a classic document of pseudohistory and African-American racism.

African Philosophy
This book is a must read !!!!!!!!! The only minor weakness in the book is its preachy style. Nevertheless, this book is great for high school research papers and accurate knowledge of black (African) civilization. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Just one question!
Having spent some ten years in Libya,I found this to be an enjoyable, and very readable book on a most significant, though generally overlooked area of Greco-Roman antiquity. There is still a vast amount of excavation needed, and politics have not helped. There is one point on which I should take issue, however: The author refers to the city of 'Lepcis' in Tripolitania. Either she knows of an alternative spelling, or this is a serious typo. To my knowledge, she is referring to the city of Leptis Magna.

Fascinating topic marred by poor photos
The Roman ruins of Libya have been seen by very few Westerners in recent decades. They are in a remarkable state of preservation. The enormous basilica of Septimus Severus at Leptis Magna, while a ruin, looks like it could easily be put back together to it's former glory. The excellent state of preservation is due both to the desert climate and to the near complete absence of tourism. Eric Newby writing in "On the Shores of the Mediterranean" describes the difficulties he went through in arranging a visit under the Quadaffi government. This book was produced by Italian archaeologists who remarkably have been able to continue their field work during Libya's current international isolation. The book is marred by the poor reproduction of the photos. The pictures are almost all underexposed with muddy shadow areas, flat highlights and an overall lack of contrast. A pity but the book is still worthwhile for a look at sites that most people will never be able to see.

Roman Civilizations-Buried by Sand
This book is magnificent.The first 180 pages are devoted to the western province of Tripolitania, where ruins of the Roman cities of Sabratha, Oea(present-day Tripoli),and Leptis Magna are located along the North African coastline in the Gulf of Sirte. The next 50-odd pages cover the eastern province of Cyrenaica toward Egypt where the Greco-Roman cities of Cyrene, Apollonia, and Ptolemais are found.

The photographs of these cities are without a doubt some of the finest in existence.Heretofore,I have only seen random scenes of these ancient cities, but nothing organized in a book like this.

Unless one has been to Lybia,as I have,it is difficult to imagine the splendor of these ruins.Greco-Roman ruins in Europe pale in comparison.A primary reason for their preservation is the dry climate,and their burial for 1000 years by the shifting sands of the Sahara from the 9th century A.D. Excavations began in the early 20th century.

The Italian authors are experts in archeological research of the Roman era,specifically in North Africa where they have conducted many missions. Their knowledge of the rise and fall of these wealthy,elegant,and powerful cities and their importance to Rome is well presented in the text throughout the book. The writers describe what life must have been like in these cities,and provide accurate maps and reconstructions of their original dimensions where still buried by sand.

For anyone interested in the period of history when these cities flourished-7th century B.C. to about the 4th century A.D.-this book is a must. If you don't like to read-just look at the pictures.

Good-looking picture book on Roman ruins
This is a beautiful book showing some of the extensive Roman ruins left in North Africa. Highly recommended for enthusiasts and browsers.

The book is pretty large, and the pictures are clear and give you a good sense of the urban spaces pictured. ... Read more

Book Description

"When we captured Kigali, we thought we would face criminals in the state; instead, we faced a criminal population."So a political commissar in the Rwanda Patriotic Front reflected after the 1994 massacre of as many as one million Tutsis in Rwanda. Underlying his statement is the realization that, though ordered by a minority of state functionaries, the slaughter was performed by hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens, including even judges, human rights activists, and doctors, nurses, priests, friends, and spouses of the victims. Indeed, it is its very popularity that makes the Rwandan genocide so unthinkable. This book makes it thinkable.

Rejecting easy explanations of the genocide as a mysterious evil force that was bizarrely unleashed, one of Africa's best-known intellectuals situates the tragedy in its proper context. He coaxes to the surface the historical, geographical, and political forces that made it possible for so many Hutu to turn so brutally on their neighbors. He finds answers in the nature of political identities generated during colonialism, in the failures of the nationalist revolution to transcend these identities, and in regional demographic and political currents that reach well beyond Rwanda. In so doing, Mahmood Mamdani usefully broadens understandings of citizenship and political identity in postcolonial Africa.

There have been few attempts to explain the Rwandan horror, and none has succeeded so well as this one.Mamdani's analysis provides a solid foundation for future studies of the massacre. Even more important, his answers point a way out of crisis: a direction for reforming political identity in central Africa and preventing future tragedies. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A good account of Rwandan history from within.
Well written, very good explanation why it happened on such a massive scale.
Most of us have a kind of feelling that "history" happened in the past and somewhere far away. This books tells how history is made today, giving the insight into the regional context of the confict (Congo)...

When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the
The Rwandan genocide was a horrible affair of unequal proportions. I have always wondered though how a whole population can commit such horrendous acts against fellow countrymen/women en masse, as was reported. Surely there must've been something that must've been brewing all along; there must've been an underlying "cause". Despeakable it maybe I wanted to know what in Rwanda's history could've given rise to this. I have read Phillip Gourevitch'sr "We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda", although a good book, is mostly a narrative and I was still left with the unfinished business of why? why? why?. This book filled the void for me. With a historical background of precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial sociopolitical Rwanda, the author provides an amazingly rich analysis of the Rwandan state leading to what heppened in 1994. It has given me the picture I needed to see, to begin to address the issues of why did this awful thing took place. It's a must read to anyone interested in Rwanda and what went on there.

Should become the standard English-language introduction
This new book by Mahmood Mamdani, one of the world's most respected Africa scholars, stands a good chance of replacing Gérard Prunier's "The Rwanda Crisis" as the standard English-language introduction to Rwanda and its genocide. Mamdani's highly-readable account focuses on the political construction of Hutu and Tutsi as racial/ethnic identities, tracing the tale from the pre-colonial era, through Belgium's administration of the country, to the 1959 Revolution and subsequent attempts to develop an overarching sense of Rwandan nationhood. These attempts were cut short by the rise of Hutu Power in the early 1990s, culminating in the horrific outbreak of mass killing in April 1994. The advantage of Mamdani's book is that it offers "history from below," arguing that the racialized hostility between Hutu and Tutsi helps to account for the extraordinary (perhaps unprecedented) degree of popular involvement in the 1994 killing campaign. He also stresses the regional context of the Rwandan civil war and genocide, with separate chapters on Uganda and Congo/Zaire. The book is rich in theoretical insights but never ponderous or pretentious. A "must" for any student of Rwanda or modern African politics more generally (see also Mamdani's award-winning 1996 book "Citizen and Subject," which fleshes out some of the theoretical frameworks used in "When Victims Become Killers"). ... Read more

Book Description

A thrilling account of the greatest geographical expedition of our time-the first-ever complete descent of the Nile River.

Over the past century, many explorers have attempted to run the magnificent Nile, but none succeeded. At least a dozen men died trying, and since 1964, three explorers have been shot, two have drowned, and another simply disappeared.

In April 2004, the renowned adventurer Pasquale Scaturro made history when he completed his epic journey down the Nile in 114 days, traveling 3,250 miles by kayak, from its source in Ethiopia to the shores of Alexandria, where it flows into the Mediterranean Sea. He ran the great river in the face of such obstacles as deadly crocodiles and hippos, arrests by Ethiopian and Egyptian militia, gunfire from Sudanese bandits, extreme temperatures, violent sandstorms, and exposure to malaria.

He details his historical quest here, with critically acclaimed coauthor Richard Bangs, in a breathtaking tale that features a beautiful collection of photographs. MacGillivray Freeman Films is releasing an IMAX movie in conjunction with the book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Frequently Off Track
I read this book just prior to a trip to Egypt and a boat ride (as a lowly tourist) down the Nile. While I enjoyed most of it I found myself questioning whether or not I'd liked to have been on an expedition with these guys.

Although parts smack of rip-roaring adventure I feel that the author (written by Bangs with Scaturro's input) waivered off course a few too many times. I understand that the reader should know the motivation (and sometimes the personality) of the protagonist but there are too many chapters on Scaturro's other adventures, including rafting trips in Colorado and Idaho, the paralysis of his son and even climbing expeditions up Mt. Everest. I was looking for a straightforward tale of the first navigation of the entire Blue Nile. What we get is a treatise on the inner workings of the mind of a daring adventurer, working to overcome seemingly insurmountable problems as well as the demons from his past.

While the story is interesting (you find yourself asking how the heck they persevered) the individuals aren't exactly likeable. His companion, Gordon Brown, comes off as an unbelievable jerk. He assaults one of the Ethiopian crew members, throws fits and stubbornly insists on sticking with his kayak, no matter how much he jeapordizes the efforts of the team. At one point he disappears with his parents to go sightseeing in Luxor, at a very critical moment in the trip.

Scaturro, for someone with so much experience, seems to have started the trip a bit unprepared. He doesn't know Brown, he has no idea how he's going to cross the border into Sudan and, worse yet, decides to tackle the problem of navigating Lake Nasser, under strict Egyptian military control, by forcing his way across. Shouldn't these details have been worked out in advance? Sudan is, of course, problematic but the Egyptian government should have been consulted beforehand. The famous IMAX company should carry some clout. The entire undertaking was almost jeopardized due to a lack of prior permission from host governments.

None of this is to belittle what Brown and Scaturro accomplished. It's an amazing feat. The trials they overcame are incredible...being shot at by bandits, chased by crocodiles, threatened by hippos, intimidated by petty local officials, to say nothing of the life threatening and extremely dangerous rapids they traversed. I salute them for their courage and fortitude.

At times, however, I found myself wondering how Bangs, eight thousand miles away in the US, could have known what Scaturro was thinking or seeing at any given moment. They kept in contact by satellite phone and e-mail but descriptions of sunsets, Scaturro's self-doubt and flashbacks to problems faced on other expeditions come across as what historians call "re-thinking the thoughts." Either Bangs and Scaturro collaborated very closely or the writer did some imaginative filling-in of the blanks.

I'd recommend the book for what it is, a tale of the latest accomplishment of a professional adventurer. Personally, I prefer a more straightforward story, full of detail on what the team was experiencing at any given moment. That might have been accomplished if the person writing the book was actually on the expedition.

Unbelievable story!
Unbelievable yet true and full of perspective.This story combinespersonal journey and triumphs with ancient civilizations and current political and environmental issues.See the IMAX film, too!
LK ... Read more