Book Description
With the utterance of a single line—“Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”—a remote meeting in the heart of Africa was transformed into one of the most famous encounters in exploration history. But the true story behind Dr. David Livingstone and journalist Henry Morton Stanley is one that has escaped telling. Into Africa is an extraordinarily researched account of a thrilling adventure—defined by alarming foolishness, intense courage, and raw human achievement.
In the mid-1860s, exploration had reached a plateau. The seas and continents had been mapped, the globe circumnavigated. Yet one vexing puzzle remained unsolved: what was the source of the mighty Nile river? Aiming to settle the mystery once and for all, Great Britain called upon its legendary explorer, Dr. David Livingstone, who had spent years in Africa as a missionary. In March 1866, Livingstone steered a massive expedition into the heart of Africa. In his path lay nearly impenetrable, uncharted terrain, hostile cannibals, and deadly predators. Within weeks, the explorer had vanished without a trace. Years passed with no word.
While debate raged in England over whether Livingstone could be found—or rescued—from a place as daunting as Africa, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the brash American newspaper tycoon, hatched a plan to capitalize on the world’s fascination with the missing legend. He would send a young journalist, Henry Morton Stanley, into Africa to search for Livingstone. A drifter with great ambition, but little success to show for it, Stanley undertook his assignment with gusto, filing reports that would one day captivate readers and dominate the front page of the New York Herald.
Tracing the amazing journeys of Livingstone and Stanley in alternating chapters, author Martin Dugard captures with breathtaking immediacy the perils and challenges these men faced. Woven into the narrative, Dugard tells an equally compelling story of the remarkable transformation that occurred over the course of nine years, as Stanley rose in power and prominence and Livingstone found himself alone and in mortal danger. The first book to draw on modern research and to explore the combination of adventure, politics, and larger-than-life personalities involved, Into Africa is a riveting read.
Customer Reviews:
An Unusual Meeting in Central Africa.......2007-09-15
Dugard is one of the new breed of biographer, in that he knows that every- mans life is made up of truth and fiction. At his best he gives us the more interesting side of both but is always faithful in explaining what has become myth and what can be documented. The life of David Livingstone has become so entangled with his myth that even after reading his diaries it's hard to tell how much is true and how much was perceived as true.
When it comes to Stanley, who reinvented himself so many times not to mention his change of name, always leaves the impression that he has taken the time to edit his journals and diaries. He is very seldom shown to be introspective, except when he uses those emotions to further his own myth. He was a driven man who could never settle for what he had done before, and had to do more than anyone else. The story of Livingstone being found by Stanley at a little village in the Lakes Region of Africa would have been so much more powerful if it had not been deconstructed and rebuilt so many times.
In this format, Stanley finds Livingstone sitting on the front porch of his house/hut and goes over to introduce himself. They are both civilized men who have been beaten down by the nature of Africa and have past the point of exhaustion. Livingstone is on the edge of starvation and has been for the last year. Stanley has crossed parts of Africa which Africans and Arab Slavers fear to go into. I can see Stanley (who idolized Livingstone) being uncertain of how to say hello, and therefore being as differential as possible.
Dugard does a wonderful job of putting both men into the context of the societies they lived in and the people they depended on. It's a fine and interesting story.
tremendous.......2007-03-24
I learned about Livingstone and Stanley briefly in my middle-school years. The details that I remember from that learning experience are sparse, and do nothing to describe the characters in the story.
This book fleshed out the lives of two men in marvelous detail. I never understood the humanity of Livingstone (I knew he was a missionary, a detail that tends to deify someone in my mind). I never understood the nature of Stanley and what drove him to find Livingstone when no one else could. These men were larger than life - both an inspiration to persevere where no one else can or will. Their accomplishments are worlds apart, but equally remarkable.
Stanley and Livingstone's Eponymous Adventure.......2007-01-03
Nearly everyone of a certain age knows "Stanley and Livingstone" and the memorable line "Dr. Livingstone, I presume." It's just one of those cultural snippets that gets passed down. Martin Dugard's interesting book gives the story to that shared and brief tidbit. Quite a story it is.
Dr. Livingstone was a poor boy who made good in Victorian England by earning the admiration of the better classes through exploration and perseverance in Darkest Africa. He would spend most of his adult life on the continent, greatly expanding European knowledge of the geography and peoples there. First as a missionary and later as a great explorer determined to find the source of the Nile River, Livingstone was in his own way a man of peace with great sympathy for Africa and Africans. He particularly detested the very active slave trade and slave raids run by Arabs between the interior and the central eastern coast of the continent.
Henry Stanley started life as poor and unmoored as one could be in that day and age. A young crewman out of England on a boat headed to New Orleans, he see destined to finish an early life as one of those mid 19th century petty criminals and ne'er-do-wells who described the seedy side of life. He managed to enlist in both the Union and Confederate armies and fight for both during the Civil War. He had though developed a passion for reading and found himself in the newspaper business out west as a free lance journalist. This occupation would be his life raft. Eventually ending up at the New York Herald, Stanley showed a willingness to go anywhere and endure great hardship to deliver what would today be considered blockbuster news to the voracious readership each of New York's twenty some papers competed for.
Dr. Livingstone's quest for the source of the Nile got him lost, physically weak, and stranded without the resources to get out of the interior. His English patrons and the world feared him lost, and his whereabouts were a source of great concern and focus. Here was Stanley's opportunity. With the promise of his publisher's help (although Stanley had to talk his way into a lot of credit), the journalist outfitted a secret expedition to find Livingstone and bring the story of his demise or rescue to the world. After almost a year of hard slogging through jungle and desert, mutinous porters and expedition members, participation in a native war, dalliance with Arab slavers, death and desperation on the trail and worry that he wouldn't find his needle-in-a-haystack, Stanley arrived at a village to discover a thin, sickly and ragged man much of the world had given up for lost and to whom he was able to greet with the immortal line "Dr. Livingstone I presume."
This is a well written adventure book that will fascinate on many levels. It offers a great portrait of Stanley and Livingstone as men and the great hardships that shaped their lives. Nineteenth Century exploration in Africa with all the disease, war, slavery, and beauty are painted well on the author's canvass. The motivations and mindsets of two men-of-action are thoroughly explored. This book weaves all of the above elements into a gripping story that is well worth the time.
GREAT INTRO TO AFRICAN EXPLORATION IN THE 19TH CENTURY.......2006-07-23
This book tells the intertwined tales of David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley. Dugard (the author) puts together a very well written story, giving the reader context to be excited when the culminating moment of "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" comes about.
The book provides a begginer on African exploration (such as myself) with a very good understanding of the context in Africa and England, as the Victorian era of exploration is at its best. Characters such as Murchison, Burton and Speke are described in detail as to their accomplishments. The reader also gets a good understanding of the discussion behind the source of the Nile and the difficulties involved in determining it.
The personal lives of Livingstone and Stanley are an integral part of the story. The tale how Stanley rose through newspaper ranks in NY and provided scoops on different European wars ahead of european reporters. His dubious character is portrayed in his experiences in Turkey, where he became a robber and was close to losing his life.
This is a rather short book -- 300 pages -- which can be read in a few sittings. If you are interested in exploration or would just like to know what these historical characters were up to, this is a very good book. It may drive the reader to the point of such curiosity that you may find yourself picking up a few of the books authored by the characters themselves (of which there are many).
Very interesting and educational treatise.......2006-05-03
"Doctor Livingstone I presume?" is undoubtedly one of the most well known quotes in history. Very few people, however, are familiar with the history underlying the meeting of Dr. David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley.
This book details the lives of the two men and the historical background through which they were thrown together. Livingstone, one of the foremost explorers of his day is searching for the source of the Nile River. Through a combination of bad luck, poor planning, disease, weather, natives, etc., Livingstone is virtually stranded on the banks of Lake Tangyanika.
Henry Stanley, a newspaper correspondent undertakes a rescue mission at the direction of his publicity hungry publisher. This book details that mission and the international setting under which it took place. The perils of African exploration in the late 19th century cannot be overstated. This book does an excellent job impressing this upon the reader.
I found this book very similar in style and experience to Undaunted Courage (which detailed the Voyage of Discovery undertaken by Lewis and Clark) and River of Doubt (dealing with Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the Amazon basin. If you enjoyed either of these books, you will like this one as well. If you read this book and enjoy it, I highly recommend the other two.
Product Description
Prepare to step into the vast continent of Africa with your elementary students! Avoiding the usual stereotypes, these activities provide young students with a solid look at contemporary Africa. The lessons give them an understanding of the rich diversity found on the continent, including topics such as rural vs. urban life, diversity of languages, physical habitats, and independence of nations. The lessons fully integrate language arts (reading comprehension of non-fiction texts, vocabluary development, and expository writing) with geography skills, and meet national standards in both.
Customer Reviews:
Great activities.......2005-11-24
This book is great when used with Africa Is Not a Country. Activities are thought-provoking. Excellent for young children.
Amazon.com
Sven Lindqvist, a traveler and historian, paints a broad-brush history of European colonialism, especially in Africa. Drawing his title from Joseph Conrad's fable Heart of Darkness, he turns up 19th-century newspaper accounts of British massacres of wounded Sudanese rebels after the siege of Omdurman, of German concentration camps in what was once called Southwest Africa, of a Belgian captain who decorated his flower beds with the heads of recalcitrant plantation workers. These incidents were not unusual, Lindqvist writes. Neither were they thought especially brutal by their perpetrators, for, he argues, colonialism was guided by a doctrine that placed Europe at the top of the evolutionary ladder and regarded non-Europeans as a separate species bound for extinction--a doctrine that found its ultimate expression in the Holocaust. This is an occasionally gruesome and always provocative study.
Book Description
A brilliant and unsettling intellectual history of Europe's genocidal colonization of Africa.
"Exterminate All the Brutes" is a searching examination of Europe's dark history in Africa and the origins of genocide. Using Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness as his point of departure, Sven Lindqvist takes us on a haunting tour through the colonial past, interwoven with a modern-day travelogue. Retracing the steps of European explorers, missionaries, politicians, and historians in Africa from the late eighteenth century onward, the author exposes the roots of genocide in Africa via his own journey through the Saharan desert. As Lindqvist shows, fantasies not merely of white superiority but of actual extermination—"cleansing" the earth of the so-called lesser races—deeply informed European colonialism and racist ideology that ultimately culminated in Europe's own Holocaust.
Chosen as one of the Best Books of 1998 by the New Internationalist, which called it "a beautifully written integration of criticism, cultural history, and travel writing, underpinned by a passion for social justice," "Exterminate All the Brutes" is a powerful reckoning with the past and an indispensable contribution to the literature of colonial Africa and European genocide.
Customer Reviews:
Explaining genocide: "They were going to die anyhow...".......2007-04-02
"At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races." - Charles Darwin
The words "civilized" and "savage" are relative, as continually reminded by recent history and current events. Sven Lindqvist, in his spare, lucid, imaginative prose demonstrates the moral hypocricy of the "champions of civilization". Yes, this is a book that will be read with an accelerated heartbeat, more than a bit of anger and some tears amongst the more sensitive. It should also be an edifying experience even for the well read. I don't believe this book is about providing any particular group(s) with an extra burden of guilt; we all have more than our share of skeletons in our closets. The real message is, we humans, we all wallow in the same gutter.
Incredibly powerful and relevant still.......2006-11-26
Exterminate All the Brutes is brief and disturbing; Sven Lindqvist unveils the realities and moral convictions we have almost completely repressed. Just as the author suggests, the book shatters the image we have of ourselves, but even more importantly, it is distressing how relevant his ideas and Conrad's `Heart of Darkness' are in the world today - again.
The title of the book is taken from Joseph Conrad's 1902 classic novel - Heart of Darkness. In it, the main character, Kurtz, goes to Africa to bring progress and culture to the uncivilized continent. He is dispatched to Africa as an ivory procurement agent, and as the story develops the reader is confronted with the unreal brutality of the colonial rule. Conrad's work intertwines the themes of `light of civilization' and `darkness of barbarism' and makes reader realize the hollowness of these phrases as Kurtz surrounds himself with chaos and mayhem. Sven Lindqvist develops this theme as he traces the imperial history of European colonialism and condenses it to a single sentence: "Exterminate all the brutes." European world expansion, he claims, and the employed tactics of extermination are the truths we like to forget. Preferring to externalize we look at the Holocaust as a historical aberration, a smear on the path of progress and enlightenment brought to the world by the Western societies. However, as the author points out, just as all of Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz, it would also be the European habits and political precedents that would lay the foundation for the atrocities of the Second World War. What was done in Africa, would be repeated in Europe - we know this, what we lack is the courage to face what we know and draw some conclusions.
The book culminates by pointing to the Holocaust, but one doesn't have to look far to see the same principles being applied in the world today; `Heart of Darkness' is applicable to every nation, culture and ideology. `Exterminate All the Brutes' is an incredibly powerful book.
A surreal examination of violence and its justification.......2003-07-14
I read this book in the winter of 2002-03, as the drive to war against Iraq was at a frenzied pitch. A few months later, on the day of the final ultimatum to Saddam, just before the bombing began, I was at my sister's house visiting. From the next room my nephew lets out a loud sigh, saying "I have to wait two more hours!" I thought he was referring to some show, but he was actually referring to the President's deadline to launch hostilities. So now, in America, war has become almost a staged form of entertainment which we can enjoy with our children from the comfort of our homes. I mention this because Exterminate All the Brutes has, for me at least, many moments which touch upon the surreal thought processes which help to justify the unjustifiable. It's easy to look back at dead empires and point out their evil deeds; less settling is the knowledge that, regardless of our many technological advancements and extreme wealth, we are of a civilization (one among many) that commits and condones extreme violence against the innocent, as long as it furthers the goals of those in power who profit from it. And we the people, like willing sheep, blindly accept the lies. This book makes us look deeper at the falsehoods, with the plea that when we next hear our leadership misguiding us, we can think for ourselves and reject the guilded call to war and slaughter.
Good, but not essential.......2003-06-10
I read this book as an undergrad, and was moved by it. I wasn't moved so much by the analysis of genocide, which I found pretty ordinary (but useful), but by his method of drawing on literary texts from the turn of the century, and his analysis of them. After reading this text, I went out and devoured Joseph Conrad's works, and I have never looked at H.G. Wells' work again in the same way. If you are interested in this literary period, or in linking these fiction works with the thought of European genocide, then get the book. If you are only interested in the roots of genocide, then check it out in the library before you buy it, to see if it will suit your purposes.
Horrifying But True.......2002-07-27
Here's a unique look at the Western world's impact on Africa during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Its told in a sort of travelogue as the author travels through the Sahara. On the way he muses over Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", in which a European issues orders to solve the African native problem by "exterminating the brutes" The details of atrocities committed against indigenous populations in the Congo and elsewhere are horrific. The format leaves something to be desired as at times you're not sure whether you're in the present or back in the past, but perhaps that's what the author intended. Keep "Exterminate All the Brutes" in mind the next time you hear someone talking about bringing civilization to the savages.
Book Description
First published in 1973 - and followed by Volume II in 1976 and Volume III in 1980 - this anthology has assumed classic status in the field of Egyptology and portrays the remarkable evolution of the literary forms of one of the world's earliest civilizations.
Volume I outlines the early and gradual evolution of Egyptian literary genres, including biographical and historical inscriptions carved on stone, the various classes of literary works written with pen on papyrus, and the mortuary literature that focuses on life after death. Introduced with a new foreword by Antonio Loprieno.
Volume II shows the culmination of these literary genres within the single period known as the New Kingdom (1550-1080 B.C.). With a new foreword by Hans-W. Fischer-Elfert.
Volume III spans the last millennium of Pharaonic civilization, from the tenth century B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era. With a new foreword by Joseph G. Manning.
Customer Reviews:
Has All the Virtues Its Predecessor.......2001-12-20
This is an admirable volume II, consistent with what made volume I my first choice. In this volume, there are monumental inscriptions, instructional literature (including some very amusing works on the scribal life), hymns (including the great hymn to Osiris, and the Akhenaten hymns to the Sun), selections from the 'Book of the Dead', some prose tales and a factual narrative. Introductions and notes are terrific. Ka's are left untranslated.
finally, a collection of translations.......2000-05-16
Finally, a collection of good and readable translations of Egyptian literature which both the layperson and the expert will find useful. Lichtheim has given the academic world a much needed reference with the translations of the text and a good introduction to the social history of the creators and the circumstances of the texts being recovered.
Excellently presented.......1999-07-21
Ms. Lichtheim has done a wonderful job in her book, Ancient Egyptian Literature: New Kingdom! Her selections cover a wide range.She has a small introduction to each piece, besides the introductionto the book itself. Her placement of notes at the end of each selection is a godsend, no more madly turning to the back searching for the appropriate notes! An excellent choice for those interested in Egyptian history, or simply those wanting a better understanding of ancient literature. Buy it, it's worth it!
Amazon.com
"Poetry is a river / And solitude a bridge. / Through writing / We cross it, / Through reading / We Return." So writes Lebanese poet Kaissar Afif in Naomi Shihab Nye's aesthetically stunning anthology of poetry and paintings from the Middle East, The Space Between Our Footsteps. As Afif's poem beckons, so does Nye, inviting readers into a lush, vivid world in which more than 100 poets from 19 different Middle Eastern countries share their innermost feelings about place, family, war, and peace, scattered amid paintings reflecting pain, hope, and joy with rich, bold strokes.
Palestinian American poet, novelist, and anthologist Nye has made a name for herself with critically acclaimed books such as the autobiographical novel Habibi and the striking poetry collections This Same Sky and I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You. This anthology rivals her previous work in both beauty and inspiration, and was nominated by the Young Adult Library Services Association as one of 1998's Best Books for Young Adults.
But this collection is not for teens only. The personal yet universal sentiments expressed in these poems and paintings will pierce hearts of all ages--as in Sharif S. Elmusa's "But I Heard the Drops": "My father had a reservoir / of tears. / They trickled down / unseen. / But I heard the drops / drip/from his voice / like drops / from a loosened tap. / For thirty years I heard them." Notes on the contributors round out the collection and help bring footsteps a world apart just a little closer together. --Brangien Davis
Customer Reviews:
Naomi Shihab Nye is a philanthropist, poet, educator..........2004-01-31
We are living in a time where being Arab, Muslim, or Southeast Asian makes one a "terror suspect." In this age of fear and ignorance, it is more important than ever for educators and readers of poetry to take a look at Nye's touching portraits of Arab and Arab American life. If these poems reveal the beauty, intelligence, and vitality of Arab and Arab Americans, then -- to the seething reader from Denver, CO-- you may find Nye guilty of being truthful: All human life is precious, and all human beings are capable of exceeding our expectations.
I first fell in love with Nye's poetry through "The Words Beneath the Words" and recommend all of her works. Educators, activists, lovers of poetry, please read and share Nye's work. They are more important then ever in creating peaceful relationships for the future.
Looking at the space between our footsteps.......2001-05-06
This is a wonderful book. It is full of the imagery and feelings that in turn, delight, amuse and sadden. Naomi Nye has compiled a collection of writers from various countries within the Middle East. Although the writers come from many countries and competing nationalities, there is a common commitment to peace. Since the poems are translated,rather than presented in the original languages, the reader does not have the benefit of the natural rhythms of the languages the poems were taken from. What the translations lack in terms of rhyme is more than made up by the poets' use of Metaphor. One poet talks about "drinking in the melancholy of morning". Another talks about being passed by trains with eyes looking back at you. The language is effective and persuasive. Many of the poems deal with loss. They deal with the loss of loved ones, the loss of time, the loss of relationships, but more importantly, they deal with the loss of basic human rights and something as basic as a homeland. The book has many fine paintings that supplement the text. They are all very well done and add to the feeling of the book. The reader of this book will not only read, but will also have an experience. All the senses except hearing will be involved. I recommend this book to anyone, particularly to Young Adults.
Beautiful and sensitive collection not just for children.......1998-12-09
This book has room in its heart for the passions and longings of writers from all of the Middle East. It offers readers, in beautiful poetry, the longings for place, for a loved past, for a more secure future, felt by Lebanese, Syrians, Israelis, Turks, Palestinians, Iraqis, Saudis, Egyptians, and more. Meticulously designed and printed, it offers art from across the Middle East that illuminates these poems and helps us learn with our children important lessons about that part of the world.
An exquisite book, and not just for kids........1998-07-07
I bought this book from amazon.com, fell in love with it & wrote the following review for The Capital Times, Madison WI's afternoon newspaper:
That this exquisitely beautiful, painfully direct and ultimately joyful book, "The Space Between Our Footsteps,'' is published under the imprint of Simon & Schuster's Books for Young Readers is an example of how badly we adults need to learn the lessons we try to teach our children.
The poems and paintings of more than 100 writers and artists from 19 countries are loosely grouped by theme,without a condescending preface or explanations of how to feel when we read or view them...This book is an ideal gift for anyone old enough to read "The Diary of Anne Frank,'' and to know that just as, for Anne, life went on as war went on, so it does today. It is for anyone who thinks he or she understands the conflicts in the Middle East, and for anyone whose life needs a sudden rush of beauty.
(Lin Seagren teaches in Stoughton WI and for the UW-Extension.)
Average customer rating:
|
Going into Darkness: Fantastic Coffins from Africa
Thierry Secretan
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 African
| Regional
| History & Criticism
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sculpture
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Ghana
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Administrative Law
| Law
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Death
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Administrative Law
| Law
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0500278393 |
Book Description
In this thorough, lively and carefully researched book, authors Yale Richmond and Phyllis Gestrin explore the complex cultures of contemporary sub-Saharan Africa and bring them to life.Into Africa provides valuable intercultural insights for those who are interested in doing business or working with organizations in sub-Saharan Africa, for professors of African studies, for trainers and development assistance professionals, and for anyone else who wishes to learn more about this dynamic part of the world. The authors examine the significance of community, ethnicity, language, contemporary African society, doing business and establishing professional relationships. They follow this with an exploration of regional differences and then offer detailed guidelines for conducting workshops and training programs in Africa. Also included is a chapter called "Africans, Americans, and African Americans," in which the authors examine issues which reflect the complex interrelationships involved.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Leave Home Without It!.......2000-05-06
"Into Africa, Intercultural Insights" by Richmond and Gestrin was recommended to me by an American teaching in sub-Saharan Africa. I read it in preparation for my own sojourn to Africa University in Zimbabwe. The authors paint a splendid view of pan-African culture and also point out, as much as possible in 250 fast-reading pages, some of the cultural differences within specific areas. The greater value, however, is not the well-written, snap-shot glimpse of African culture, but the differences to be seen by those of us who are products of North American social norms.
"Into Africa" is more than just a way to prevent social gaffs. It provides understanding of otherwise-frustrating experiences, an appreciation of African social roots, and, above all else, an understanding of ones own social/cultural background.
Reading "Into Africa" is as essential to the Africa-bound traveler as getting all those nasty vaccination jabs ... and a lot more pleasant.
Customer Reviews:
a delightful surprise.......2006-02-22
I found this book as I was looking for a travelogue on Africa before I went there. What a delightful surprise it was. I loved it. I've gone on to read everything that Eddy Harris has written. His self-aware, honest reflections of what he is thinking as well as experiencing are a great read. And as a person academically trained in "cross-cultural sensitivity", I thoroughly enjoyed him saying very "unsensitive" things that any American has to really be thinking in some of his circumstances. I gave this book to my sister who has no interest in Africa and she liked it as much as me. It's just a fun (and educational!) read.
Amazing book..........2003-01-30
The first three fourth of the book was amazing. The author painted a clear picture of the places he visited and the people who lived in the places he visited. I was, however, at times a bit annoyed by his failure to go beyond poverty and corruption to find the many positive images of the land and the people. I am an African who was born and raised in the continent ...and although living in the west has improved my "economical situation" I would not change the memories of my childhood for anything.
I also felt that Mr. Harris rushed through the last couple of chapters of the book. They lack the detailed imagery as well as the enthusiasm that was exhibited for the first three fourth of the book.
Still, I thought this was the best travel book I read on Africa.
A Triumph.......1999-09-04
This book was greatly informative of what modern Africa is like. Many of us have misconceptions or just a vague knowledge of the so-called "Dark Continent". Harris opens it up for us. I found his courage and his adventurous spirit to be both touching and inspirational. My imaginings manifested themselves this year when I treked through Spain on the Camino de Santiago- where I met with and engaged the culture, the elements and my own will. The process of discovery and adventure outside commercial tourisim is the REAL way to travel. With travel we change the way we think of where we live ... this book encourages this philosophy and will hopefully provoke people to take some time and go off to discover something. I encourage all readers to discover this book. It will challenge you and the enrichment you recieve may surprise. Thank you, Harris.
Much more than a travel book.......1997-06-02
This is quite possibly THE best non-fiction book I have ever read. It is a triumph of superb, lyrical writing and devestatingly honest philosophical reflection. It is a travel book, certainly - Eddy L. Harris, the author of (to my knowledge) four stunning "exploration" books like this one, travels through Africa top to bottom - but so much more.
Harris not only explores his terrain, he explores its people, its customs and the reaction he gets from Africans. At the same time, he explores his own inner being: what did he, as a Blackamerican, expect to get out of Africa? What did he really come to understand? And so on. As much as the book is about Africa the continent (and the reader is treated to descriptions of villages, recreation, transport, jungles, wildlife, etc.), it is about skin color, people, race, generosity, need, pride, and everything else that makes people human.
The description was beautiful and powerful: I would put the book down for the night, and when I started it again, would be transported instantly back to where Harris was and what he was experiencing, without any sense of a break.
This book deals with the generosity of a people who have nothing, thje patient endurance of a people who have been trampled on for centuries. This is not to say that the book was a typical liberal interpretation of the Third World; nor were Harris' experiences as a black man what one might expect. In fact, Harris' honesty was astounding. He described his neuroses about germs (and how he had to get over that in a hurry!), his anger at the condition of the African people, his sadness and pity at the tyranny of black officals. And in South Africa, he found not only a peace which he did not expect, he even felt so overwhelmed he retreated into a formerly white-only luxury hotel, an oasis amid the poverty of the black population. This, of course, was the source of further inner exploration about his guilt and his place as a black man, but an American - a true "Native Stranger."
All
Amazon.com
In April 1994, South Africa held its first ever democratic elections, ushering Nelson Mandela into office as the nation's first black president. What has followed that election, as the country attempts to reinvent a society founded on racism and the indignities of apartheid, is the subject of Fault Lines. "How does a nation deal with the memory of its brutal past?" is perhaps the question that most guides David Goodman, a journalist and longtime observer of South African life. Like the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, the political instrument of South Africa's struggle to come to terms with apartheid-era crimes, the strength of Fault Lines rests on an unflinching yet compassionate quest for truth. Goodman brings all his investigative skills to the task of getting an answer from all sides. He juxtaposes profiles of a victim of police brutality and the former security officer who helped torture him, or a well-off Afrikaner farmer and his neighbor, a black South African forcibly removed from his land. While formal apartheid has ended, Goodman finds "an unfinished revolution," with many citizens still mired in terrible economic and social injustice. Fault Lines is fascinating, if disturbing, reading for anyone interested in understanding the history and present of what the author calls "the most exciting country in the world." --Maria Dolan
Book Description
South Africa has experienced one of the world's most dramatic political transformations. David Goodman, a journalist and activist who has witnessed South Africa's struggles since the darkest days of apartheid, chronicles the historic transition from apartheid to democracy. This compelling story is told through the lives of four pairs of South Africans who have experienced apartheid from opposite sides of the racial and political divide. Taken together, these profiles provide the first in-depth look at the social dynamics of post-apartheid South Africa.
Part social history and part personal drama, Fault Lines is an account of what happens to real people when their country is reinvented around them. The struggle to reconcile past evils is captured in the stories of a former police assassin and his intended victim. The rise and fall of South African racism is portrayed through the lives of the late Prime Minister H.F. Verwoerd--the notorious "architect of apartheid"--and his grandson, now a member of the ruling African National Congress. The battle to break out of poverty is detailed in the story of two black women: one an impoverished domestic worker and new city councilor, the other a Mercedes-driving member of South Africa's new black elite. The struggle for the land is told through the eyes of two neighbors: a black farmer who was evicted from his lands in the 1980s and has returned to start over, and a conservative white farmer who participated in the eviction and now does business with the man whose life he nearly destroyed. These powerful stories are accompanied by the photography of award-winning South African documentary photographer Paul Weinberg.
Customer Reviews:
Views from both sides.......2004-01-22
Goodman has compiled a great book here with views on important events in South African history. These events are examined with narratives from both sides, white and black. The aftermath of each event is traced as well.
Well-written, but not exactly as advertised.......2002-12-14
I originally bought this book because it was published about five years after Apartheid's official demise and promised to be about "the New South Africa." There aren't many stories that come out of that country these days and it is difficult finding real information about the transition to full democracy. Regretfully, this book adds little to the quest for answers about South Africa's future.
The author does a good job of interviewing various segments of South African society, but nearly 75% of the book focuses on Apartheid, which has been effectively dead since 1990. This book has the same feel as the many dozens of others that were written prior to Mandela's election. Technically the author is conducting the interviews post-Apartheid, but the reliance is on the old ghosts of the past to excuse tacit failure.
Perhaps most frustrating are the slight clues dropped along the way that hint at corruption and crime, two areas most indicative of national direction (especially in Africa), although the author never indulges us with detail. This is unfortunate because a lot of effort was spent to put together a book that gives precious little insight into whether South Africa will wind up as another Zimbabwe, or if the continent's last great hope will manage to retain its economy and pull up its neighbors as many of us were so hopeful of in 1990.
An excellent introduction to present-day South Africa.......1999-05-23
I first heard about this book on a radio talk show and immediately ordered it through Amazon.com. Listening to the author talk about his views on South Africa was quite interesting because he loves the country and its people and is cautiously enthusiastic about its future, but reading his book reveals that the vast problems South Africa faces are incredibly complex and that it may well take several generations to create an egalitarian society. One really wonders if South Africa will stand the test of time and not become another Rwanda or Yugoslavia.
The author intelligently divided the book into four parts: an introduction in which he talks about his early trips in South Africa under apartheid and the current social situation of the country, four portrait sections in which he includes a pair of interviews with people on opposite sides of the current post-apartheid experience, and a sensible personal conclusion. The reader should expect moving as well as harrowing personal accounts of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Many things throughout the book will bring hope to the reader; however, that hope will be checked by Goodman's well-informed statistics on criminality and unemployment in present-day South Africa. The book definitively deserves a wide readership.
Expands on what I saw in South Africa, October, 1998.......1999-04-10
Having visited South Africa in October, 1998, and seen the extensive squatters areas described by the author, I do not believe that readers of his book can adequately understand the extreme poverty he describes. It has to be seen and experienced to be appreciated. Mr. Goodman's portraits of the eight people in his book gives flesh and humanity to the otherwise dehumanizing nature of apartheid. I think his work is best appreciated if you have seen South Africa for yourself. For your readers who have not been to South Africa, they owe it to themselves to see it. I believe you can not remain unmoved by what you see and one must come away from that experience a better person.
Average customer rating:
- The best book about Africa I've ever read
- Excellent
|
Nomad: One Woman's Journey Into the Heart of Africa
Mary Anne Fitzgerald
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Central Africa
| Africa
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0670848468 |
Customer Reviews:
The best book about Africa I've ever read.......2001-05-13
Mary Anne Fitzgerald, the author, is a journalist for the London Times and other British publications. Her skin might be white, but she's an African through and through. Jailed briefly and then exiled from her home in Kenya in 1988 because she wrote some uncomplimentary articles about the government, she fled with her two teenage daughters to the safety of London. She yearned for her homeland, though, and so she then took assignments to cover stories in some of the most dangerous places in Africa. Along the way, she made her own personal discoveries and wrote this book in 1992.
I've read a few books about Africa but I must say that this is the one that really made me "feel" it. Ms. Fitzgerald is a fine writer and her love for Africa glows from every page, and, in spite of its brutality, corruption, war and famine, I could also see its majestic beauty. She traveled light, with just the clothes on her back and a small knapsack. She lived among Samburu warriors, she dodged bullets with rebels in Ethiopia, she confronted murder and poaching in the bush of the Central African Republic, she lived through the war in Liberia and she consulted practitioners of magic in the Ivory Coast. Often, she feared for her life. But always she wrote a good story.
Her descriptions and interpretations of events are specific. She gets into the heart of the story, setting the scene with her knowledge of history, politics and the details of the infighting for power. I was not acquainted with most of these facts and I found them fascinating. There's only 288 pages in the book but it's a dense read, with something new to learn in every paragraph. I read it slowly, absorbing the information and getting into the skin of this slim middle-aged woman who wears metal bracelets about her elbows and feels more at home in the African bush than she does on a London Street. I give this book my highest recommendation. Read it if you can.
Excellent.......1998-11-26
One woman's experiences in Africa. The book covers alittle politics, alittle history alittle culture and alot of adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed it all.
Books:
- Journey Into Summer (A Naturalist's Record of a 19,000-Mile Journey Through The North American Summer)
- Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You
- Last Place on Earth (National Geographic)
- Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us
- Marine Ecology: Processes, Systems, and Impacts
- Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
- Microarray Gene Expression Data Analysis: A Beginner's Guide
- Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection
- Mover Of Men & Mountains
- National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Western Region (Audubon Society Field Guide)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- News That Matters: Television and American Opinion
- History: Fiction or Science
- Dusty Answer
- Global order: Values and power in international politics
- Friends: A Love Story
- Madame Bovary
- Forages, Volume 2: The Science of Grassland Agriculture
- The Baobab and the Mango Tree: Africa, the Asian Tigers and the Developing World
- Corporate Image and Identity Strategies: Designing the Corporate Future
- Robert Worth Bingham and the Southern Mystique: From the Old South to the New South and Beyond
The White Nile
The Last Expedition: Stanley's Mad Journey Through the Congo
The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, And the World Economy, 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)
The World's History, The, Combined Volume (3rd Edition)
Farther Than Any Man : The Rise and Fall of Captain James Cook
