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Books > Humanities > History > African history > General
David Livingstone (1813-1873) was one of the supreme
representatives of the British Empire. Yet his career suffered many
set-backs during his own life-time, and since his death his
reputation has swung between extremes of adulation and dismissal.
Were his epic journeys through Africa purely to save souls and
counter the slave trade? Or were they the first steps towards
bringing the peoples of Central Africa under the control of
Europeans who would destroy their values and exploit them
economically? Beyond these questions, there lies the puzzle of
Livingstone's own character and its contradictions.
Livingstone's career was certainly an extraordinary one. Born in
poverty in Blantyre, Scotland, he educated himself by heroic
endeavor, later proving him-self to be a remarkable linguist and
scientist. His missionary journeys brought him into contact with a
wide range of African peoples, for whom he showed remarkable
sympathy. "David Livingstone: Mission and Empire is a scholarly and
readable account of Livingstone's life and of his
achievements.
"Tom Epley has done a brilliant job . . . This seminal piece will
become part of our curriculum at the African Leadership Academy . .
. It will stimulate the future leaders of Africa to look at
development issues in a refreshing new manner." Fred Swaniker,
Founder and CEO, African Leadership Academy.
"Author Tom Epley is a myth-busting thinker and planner with a
lifetime career of getting results from dysfunctional organizations
as a highly successful turnaround CEO. Tom Epley has done more
hands-on turnarounds than just about anyone." David Bonderman,
General Partner TPG].
THE TRUTH WE ALL KNOW Despite the billions of dollars in funds for
aid and development that have been poured into Africa, it remains a
crucible of failed attempts at improving the dismal economy, life
expectancy, food supply, and spread of AIDS and other diseases: in
fact continuing decline persists.
THE LIE WE ALL BELIEVE Pouring more money into Africa and sending
more well-intentioned world aid and NGO advisors, bearing new
programs, technology, or other schemes, will help.
THE TRUTH WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND The "fixes" promulgated by the
outside world have not only been wasteful, but have significantly
contributed to the five-decades-long decline of Africa. Radically
different approaches are critically necessary.
Hundreds of economists, journalists, philanthropists, academicians
and bureaucrats continuously present their points of view, but
Epley is the first to apply an entire career of actually getting
results from large complex organizations to Africa s problems. In
The Plague of Good Intentions he offers commonsense, workable, and
proven albeit controversial prescriptive remedies Epley s
iconoclasm stands out . . . medicine of clear but tough thinking .
. . will] help address the pathologies that ail this tragic
continent Geoffrey Garrett, President of the Pacific Council on
International Policy] to create substantive and lasting change for
the people of Africa .
"Epley draws on the rich experience he's had over the past three
decades in successfully 'turning around' more than a dozen failing
companies to derive lessons for reversing the deteriorating
conditions of failing countries . . . Severe changes from what has
been standard practice in the conduct of foreign aid programs . . .
An] insightful, and illuminating book." Charles Wolf Jr., PhD,
Founder of the Pardee RAND Graduate School of Policy Analysis.
Epley warns: Do not give another penny to African causes until you
read The Plague of Good Intentions unless you want to contribute to
the further devastation of Africa
A CONSERVATION HISTORY WITH LESSONS FOR TODAY Conservation Song
explores ways in which colonial relations shaped meanings and
conflicts over environmental control and management in Malawi. By
focus- ing on soil conservation, which required an integrated
approach to the use and management of such natural resources as
land, water and forestry, it examines the origins and effects of
policies and their legacies in the post-colonial era. That
interrelationship has fundamental contemporary significance and is
not simply a phenomenon created in the colonial period. For
instance, like other countries in the region, post-colonial Malawi
has been bedevilled by increasing rates of environmental
degradation due, in part, to the expansion of human and ani- mal
populations, cash crop production, drought and consequent
deforestation. These issues are as critical today as they were six
or seven decades ago. In fact, they are part of a conservation song
that has a long and complex history. The song of conservation was
initially composed and performed in the colonial peri- od, modified
during the immediate postcolonial period and further refashioned in
the post-dictatorship period to suit the evolving political
climate; but the basic lyrics remain essentially the same. This
book attempts to explain the evolution of the conservationist idea
whilst demonstrating changes and continuities in peasant-state
relations under different political systems. The dominant narrative
posits conservation as a progressive movement aimed at
re-organising natural resources and protecting them from
destruction but the idea was contested and deeply embedded in
colonial power relations and scien- tific ethos. Conservation
emerged as an important tool of colonial state interven- tion and
control concerning people and scarce resources. Conservation Song
shows how the idea of conservation was rooted in and driven by a
particular type of science about the organisation of space and
landscapes. It offers a strategic entry point to understanding the
historical roots of Africa's social and ecological problems over
time, which are also intertwined with power and poverty relation-
ships. In the postcolonial period, the conservation tempo subsided
and became neglected in public discourse, only to re-emerge in the
1990s through the democratisation movement.
This collection of essays on international relations and conflict
in Africa is offered as a scholarly tribute to Professor Victor
Ojakorotu, a distinguished scholar of African international
politics. The editors, rising scholars Kelechi Johnmary Ani and
Kayode Eesuola, have assembled a team of contributors whose work
examines vital themes for understanding modern Africa. The volume
encompasses assessments of African international politics,
governance, conflict dynamics, and peacekeeping efforts, focusing
on the national conflicts in Central African Republic and Somalia,
protests in South Africa, terrorism in Nigeria, and insecurity in
West African states. The dynamics of diplomacy and challenges of
bilateral and multilateral relations, peacekeeping, gender in
governance, and international trade figure prominently.
International Relations and Security Politics in Africa will be
essential reading for all students of the continent. The second
theme of International Relations and Environmental Conflict in
Africa covers pressing issues of environmental politics, such as
environmental activism and litigation, climate change,
conservation, the challenges of coastal communities, flood
prevention, and waste management. Oil subsidy removal, rule of law,
and the roles of media and religion are also closely considered.
This collection's final theme covers domestic security issues, such
as policing, ethno-religious conflicts, local conflicts between
farmers and herdsmen, and strategies of conflict resolution. Other
issues under discussion include peacebuilding, urban machine
politics, the place of children and youth in nation building, and
the intersection of politics and psychology in self-determination
struggles. Of vital importance to any student of modern Africa,
these chapters offer a solid and detailed compendium of readings to
contextualize key international relations subjects in the real
world. The compendium is also a fitting tribute to the life's work
of one of the brightest scholarly minds Africa has produced.
In Middle Eastern and Islamic societies, the politics of sexual
knowledge is a delicate and often controversial subject. Sherry
Sayed Gadelrab focuses on nineteenth and early-twentieth century
Egypt, claiming that during this period there was a perceptible
shift in the medical discourse surrounding conceptualisations of
sex differences and the construction of sexuality. Medical
authorities began to promote theories that suggested men's innate
'active' sexuality as opposed to women's more 'passive'
characteristics, interpreting the differences in female and male
bodies to correspond to this hierarchy. Through examining the
interconnection of medical, legal, religious and moral discourses
on sexual behaviour, Gadelrab highlights the association between
sex, sexuality and the creation and recreation of the concept of
gender at this crucial moment in the development of Egyptian
society. By analysing the debates at the time surrounding science,
medicine, morality, modernity and sexuality, she paints a nuanced
picture of the Egyptian understanding and manipulation of the
concepts of sex and gender.
The first decades of the twentieth century were years of dramatic
change in Zanzibar, a time when the social, economic, and political
lives of island residents were in incredible flux, framed by the
abolition of slavery, the introduction of colonialism, and a tide
of urban migration. "Pastimes and Politics" explores the era from
the perspective of the urban poor, highlighting the numerous and
varied ways that recently freed slaves and other immigrants to town
struggled to improve their individual and collective lives and to
create a sense of community within this new environment. In this
study Laura Fair explores a range of cultural and social practices
that gave expression to slaves' ideas of emancipation, as well as
how such ideas and practices were gendered.
"Pastimes and Politics" examines the ways in which various cultural
practices, including taarab music, dress, football, ethnicity, and
sexuality, changed during the early twentieth century in relation
to islanders' changing social and political identities. Professor
Fair argues that cultural changes were not merely reflections of
social and political transformations. Rather, leisure and popular
culture were critical practices through which the colonized and
former slaves transformed themselves and the society in which they
lived.
Methodologically innovative and clearly written, "Pastimes and
Politics" is accessible to specialists and general readers alike.
It is a book that should find wide use in courses on African
history, urbanization, popular culture, gender studies, or
emancipation.
Toda naci n est llamada a vivir un equilibrio entre la cultura y el
progreso, a vencer la lucha del Posmodernismo y llegar a una
renovaci n de sus estructuras. En este libro describo la historia
del Pueblo Angolano partiendo desde su ra z cultural, de su dif cil
lucha por su independencia, escurecida por la guerra civil y la
llegada de los acuerdos de paz. Identifico algunos de los factores
que han sido importantes en la b squeda profunda de realizar sus
sue os de llegar a ser un pa?'s prospero y libre.
Die Angola-Boere was afstammelinge van die Dorslandtrekkers wat vir
sewe jaar deur woeste en onbekende lande moes swerf voordat hulle
die “beloofde land” bereik het. Hier vertel die ou Boerepioniers op
hulle eie, ongekunstelde manier van hulle jagvernuf en krygsvernuf
– en hoe hulle in Angola geleef en die land help tem het. Willie
Meester (Opperman) vertel van die kaalvoetjagter Larssen (“die
knapste olifantjagter wat seker ooit geleef het”), die jagkonings
van die Shimborro, die kwaai olifant van Catengue, petaljes met
seekoeie, leeujag en slawerny in Angola. Oom Willem Grobler (’n
Voortrekker-afstammeling) vertel van oom Paul Venter en sy viool en
die veldtogte teen Maranga, Ndoendoema en Huambo. Oom Peet van der
Merwe (skrywer van Ons halfeeu in Angola) vertel van die
Vlugekspedisie (1906) en die Wenekspedisie (1907).
Sitting on the terrace of the royal plantation Frederiksgave, his
favourite retreat, Governor Edward Carstensen came to see the
inevitable: Denmark had to give up her ¬possessions in Africa. As
fate would have it, he came to be the instrument by which two
centuries of Danish involvement on the Gold Coast was terminated,
thereby making way for the emergence of the colonial system that
developed there. After the abolition of the slave trade, Denmark
had struggled to find ways and means to legitimate her continued
stay at the Coast. At an early stage the Danes initiated a number
of attempts to establish experimental plantations to cultivate
export crops such as cotton, coffee and sugar. But a transition
from slave trade to ¬legitimate products required stability and
peace, and a need for control, which the rather limited Danish
presence was not able to maintain. CLOSING THE BOOKS comprises a
compilation of the official reports that the last Danish Governor
sent home during his term of office at the Gold Coast. The reports
reflect his personal views regarding the economic and political
situations there, as well as his ideas on the "civilization of
Africa."
In Conflict and Human Security Threats in Africa, South African
scholar Victor Ojakorotu unravels the dynamics of conflicts and
human security threats now affecting numerous African nations.
While some of these conflicts are local, others are national and
international. This current and highly engaging study captures
multiple cases of insecurity, presenting discussions of terrorism,
kidnapping, militia activities, human trafficking, political
violence, teenage pregnancy, civil war, and armed conflicts, as
well as strategies for their future management. Ojakorotu documents
a philosophical assessment of African politics as well as the place
of the "new" media in the politics of human security and the
development of an African worldview in the post-modern intellectual
arena. This book is a must-read for all students of African and
global politics, as well as policy makers and diplomats working
with Africa, which will soon be home to more than three billion
people and a center of global growth.
This book vividly depicts Somalia from its pre-colonial period to
the present day, documenting the tumultuous history of a nation
that has faced many challenges. Somalia is a nation with a history
that stretches back more than ten millennia to the beginnings of
human civilization. This book provides sweeping coverage of
Somalia's history ranging from the earliest times to its modern-day
status as a country of ten million inhabitants, providing a unique
social-scientific treatment of the nation's key issues across
ethnic and regional boundaries. The book addresses not only Somali
sociocultural and political history but also covers Somalia's
administration and economy, secessionist movements, civil and
regional wars, and examines the dynamics of state collapse,
democratization, terrorism, and piracy in contemporary times. The
author details the extremely rich history of the Somali people and
their customs while documenting past history, enabling readers to
make meaning out of the country's ongoing crisis.
Ideal for high school students and undergraduates, this volume
explores contemporary life and culture in Libya. Libya is one of
Africa's largest nations, but its topography is dominated by a huge
southern desert with some of the hottest temperatures recorded
anywhere in the world. Culture and Customs of Libya explores the
daily lives of the 90 million men, women, and children who struggle
to get by in this authoritarian state, where only a fraction of the
land is arable and 90 percent of the people live in less than 10
percent of the area, primarily along the Mediterranean coast. In
this comprehensive overview of modern Libyan life, readers can
explore topics such as religion, contemporary literature, media,
art, housing, music, and dance. They will learn about education and
employment and will see how traditions and customs of the
past-including those from Libya's long domination by the Ottoman
Empire and 40 years as an Italian colony-are kept alive or have
evolved to fit into today's modern age. Two dozen black-and-white
images A glossary of terms
A merchant's account of his travels through an independent African
state Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Tunisi (d. 1274/1857) belonged to a
family of Tunisian merchants trading with Egypt and what is now
Sudan. Al-Tunisi was raised in Cairo and a graduate of al-Azhar. In
1803, at the age of fourteen, al-Tunisi set off for the Sultanate
of Darfur, where his father had decamped ten years earlier. He
followed the Forty Days Road, was reunited with his father, and
eventually took over the management of the considerable estates
granted to his father by the sultan of Darfur. In Darfur is
al-Tunisi's remarkable account of his ten-year sojourn in this
independent state. In Volume Two al-Tunisi describes the geography
of the region, the customs of Darfur's petty kings, court life and
the clothing of its rulers, marriage customs, eunuchs, illnesses,
food, hunting, animals, currencies, plants, magic, divination, and
dances. In Darfur combines literature, history, ethnography,
linguistics, and travel adventure, and most unusually for its time,
includes fifty-two illustrations, all drawn by the author. In
Darfur is a rare example of an Arab description of Africa on the
eve of Western colonization and vividly evokes a world in which
travel was untrammeled by bureaucracy, borders were fluid, and
startling coincidences appear almost mundane. A bilingual
Arabic-English edition.
Nigeria's democratisation efforts since attaining political
independence from Britain have been tumultuous and have spanned
over three successive republics. A persistent bug decimating
Nigeria's democracy and repeatedly leading to military coups has
been brazen electoral violence perpetrated by the nation's
political elite. Nigeria's 2019 Democratic Experience analyses and
explains what went wrong in Nigeria's experiment with democracy.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation and the world's seventh most
populous nation, also contributes 70% of West Africa's population.
She is sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil producer and has remained
Africa's largest economy by GDP since 2014. The country has
hundreds of diverse ethnic nationalities and languages grouped into
36 states (or federating units) and an independent federal capital
territory. Though recognized as Africa's largest democracy, her
democratisation process since the 1960s has remained tumultuous
with massive electoral violence and political intolerance. This
repeatedly compelled the military to intervene in the nation's
political history in the years 1966, 1983 and 1985. It is these
developments that provided the motivation for this volume to
capture for posterity the conduct of the 2019 General Elections in
Nigeria.
Lumumba-Kasongo examines those forces that contributed to the
fate of multiparty democracy in Africa. The forces include the
state, political parties, ethnicity, nationalism, religion,
underdevelopment, and the global market.
Multipartyism in Africa is not necessarily democratic. However,
the processes toward multipartyism can produce democratic
discourses if they can be transformed by popular and social
movements. As the author points out, almost all social classes have
demanded some form of democracy. Yet the sociological meanings and
teleological perspectives of those forms of democracy depend on an
individual or group's economic and educational status. The dynamics
of the global context, as reflected in the adoption of the
structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the stability
programs of the International Monetary Fund, are likely to produce
non-democratic conditions in Africa. Lumumba-Kasongo challenges the
existing paradigms on democracy and development, so the book is of
considerable interest to scholars and policy makers involved with
African politics and socio-economic development.
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Lahun
(Hardcover)
British School of Archaeology in Egypt; Egyptian Research Account, Guy Brunton
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R740
Discovery Miles 7 400
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Ships in 18 - 22 working days
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