Author: Linda M. Heywood Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 0674237447 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 321
Book Description
One of history’s most multifaceted rulers but little known in the West, Queen Njinga rivaled Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great in political cunning and military prowess. Today, she is revered in Angola as a heroine and honored in folk religions. Her complex legacy forms a crucial part of the collective memory of the Afro-Atlantic world.
Author: Rachel Holmes Publisher: Random House ISBN: 0307510735 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 192
Book Description
Saartjie Baartman was twenty-one years old when she was taken from her native South Africa and shipped to London. Within weeks, the striking African beauty was the talk of the social season of 1810–hailed as “the Hottentot Venus” for her exquisite physique and suggestive semi-nude dance. As her fame spread to Paris, Saartjie became a lightning rod for late Georgian and Napoleonic attitudes toward sex and race, exploitation and colonialism, prurience and science. In African Queen, Rachel Holmes recounts the luminous, heartbreaking story of one woman’s journey from slavery to stardom. Born into a herding tribe known as the Eastern Cape Khoisan, Saartjie was barely out of her teens when she was orphaned and widowed by colonial war and forced aboard a ship bound for England. A pair of clever, unscrupulous showmen dressed her up in a body stocking with a suggestive fringe and put her on the London stage as a “specimen” of African beauty and sexuality. The Hottentot Venus was an overnight sensation. But celebrity brought unexpected consequences. Abolitionists initiated a lawsuit to win Saartjie’s freedom, a case that electrified the English public. In Paris, a team of scientists subjected her to a humiliating public inspection as they probed the mystery of her sexual allure. Stared at, stripped, pinched, painted, worshipped, and ridiculed, Saartjie came to symbolize the erotic obsession at the heart of colonialism. But beneath the costumes and the glare of publicity, this young Khoisan woman was a person who had been torn from her own culture and sacrificed to the whims of fashionable Europe. Nearly two centuries after her death, Saartjie made headlines once again when Nelson Mandela launched a campaign to have her remains returned to the land of her birth. In this brilliant, vividly written book, Rachel Holmes traces the full arc of Saartjie’s extraordinary story–a story of race, eros, oppression, and fame that resonates powerfully today.
Author: Giles Foden Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307538435 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 274
Book Description
When the First World War breaks out, the British navy is committed to engaging the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship—even if the body of water in question is a remote African lake and the enemy an intimidating fleet of German steamers. The leader of this improbable mission is Geoffrey Spicer-Simson whose navy career thus far had been distinguished by two sinkings. His seemingly impossible charge: to trek overland through the African bush hauling Mimi and Toutou—two forty-foot mahogany gunboats–with a band of cantankerous, insubordinate Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen to defeat the Germans on Lake Tanganyika. With its powerfully evoked landscape, cast of hilariously colorful characters and remarkable story of hubris, ingenuity and perseverance, this incredibly bizarre story–inspiration for the classic film The African Queen–is history at its most entertaining and absorbing.
Author: Pusch Commey Publisher: Real African Books ISBN: 1642551767 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 71
Book Description
As Queen Mothers of empires, Warrior Queens, and mothers of humanity, African women have largely shaped the history and civilization of mankind. From the story of the Kandakes of Nubia who confronted and repelled the Greek and Roman Empires ( Augustus Caeser and Alexander the Great ) , to the indomitable Nzinga of Matamba's campaign against the Portuguese, these truly amazing women will put the reader in awe.
Author: Robert Gaudi Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0698411528 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 450
Book Description
The incredible true account of World War I in Africa and General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the last undefeated German commander. “Let me say straight out that if all military histories were as thrilling and well written as Robert Gaudi’s African Kaiser, I might give up reading fiction and literary biography… Gaudi writes with the flair of a latter-day Macaulay. He sets his scenes carefully and describes naval and military action like a novelist.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post As World War I ravaged the European continent, a completely different theater of war was being contested in Africa. And from this very different kind of war, there emerged a very different kind of military leader.... At the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent of Africa was a hotbed of international trade, colonialism, and political gamesmanship. So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with one another not just in the bloody trenches, but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history. With the now-legendary Schutztruppe (Defensive Force), von Lettow-Vorbeck and a small cadre of hardened German officers fought alongside their fanatically devoted native African allies as equals, creating the first truly integrated army of the modern age. African Kaiser is the fascinating story of a forgotten guerrilla campaign in a remote corner of Equatorial Africa in World War I; of a small army of ultraloyal African troops led by a smaller cadre of rugged German officers—of white men and black who fought side by side. But mostly it is the story of von Lettow-Vorbeck—the only undefeated German commmander in the field during World War I and the last to surrender his arms.
Author: Moses L. Howard Publisher: ISBN: 9781939423405 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Nzinga, in history and legend, is a brilliant leader during a time of violent upheaval. This fictional biography brings to life the Angolan culture in a flourishing African kingdom, now lost, where early explorers' maps of West Africa call out: "Here reigned the celebrated Queen Nzinga!"
Author: David A. S. Smith Publisher: ISBN: 9781908241153 Category : Butterflies Languages : en Pages : 812
Book Description
The African Queen is one of the world's commonest butterflies, principally in Africa and Asia. The book concerns its lifecycle and ecology, behaviour, genetics, host preferences, parasites and migration, and especially its phylogeny and evolution. This is a monumental study, an accumulation of 47 years of research, and will appeal to all biologists interested in this topic area.
Author: Alex Haley Publisher: Pan ISBN: 9780330333078 Category : African Americans Languages : en Pages : 915
Book Description
Farverig og dramatisk slægtsskildring fra 1800-tallets USA. Queen er Alex Haleys farmor, datter af en velhavende sydstatsgodsejer og en sort slavepige, og kernen i romanen er hendes tunge skæbne som plantagebarn mellem to verdener
Author: McKenney Marlon Publisher: ISBN: 9781736466629 Category : Languages : en Pages : 48
Book Description
A beautiful Ethiopian princess must use courage, strength, and leadership to conquer a dangerous enemy set on destroying the wealthy Kingdom of Sheba.Princess Makeda was born into a loving royal family but when her father, King Agabos, unexpectedly dies, the lives of Makeda and her mother, Queen Ismenie, are turned upside-down. Grief-stricken, yet angry for vengeance, Makeda must use her intelligence and resiliency to navigate a toxic, male-dominated hierarchy. With the odds stacked against her and her back against the wall, Makeda embarks on the deadliest mission of her life to restore honor and safety to the Kingdom of Sheba.This African Fantasy Epic is beautifully written and illustrated for both grade school children as well as fans of afrocentric anime, comics, and graphic novels. If you like historical fiction with a powerful black female hero, then you will love this ancient tale of courage and redemption. Buy Makeda the Queen of Sheba today to experience her incredible journey from young princess to legendary African queen.
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Author: C. S. Forester
Author: Linda M. Heywood
Author: Rachel Holmes
Author: Giles Foden
Author: Pusch Commey
Author: Robert Gaudi
Author: Moses L. Howard
Author: David A. S. Smith
Author: Alex Haley
Author: McKenney Marlon