The Zanzibar Chest

Author: Aidan Hartley
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802189784
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 371

Book Description
An examination of colonialism and its consequences. “A sweeping, poetic homage to Africa, a continent made vivid by Hartley’s capable, stunning prose” (Publishers Weekly). In his final days, Aidan Hartley’s father said to him, “We should have never come here.” Those words spoke of a colonial legacy that stretched back through four generations of one British family. From a great-great-grandfather who defended British settlements in nineteenth-century New Zealand, to his father, a colonial officer sent to Africa in the 1920s and who later returned to raise a family there—these were intrepid men who traveled to exotic lands to conquer, build, and bear witness. And there was Aidan, who became a journalist covering Africa in the 1990s, a decade marked by terror and genocide. After encountering the violence in Somalia, Uganda, and Rwanda, Aidan retreated to his family’s house in Kenya where he discovered the Zanzibar chest his father left him. Intricately hand-carved, the chest contained the diaries of his father’s best friend, Peter Davey, an Englishman who had died under obscure circumstances five decades before. With the papers as his guide, Hartley embarked on a journey not only to unlock the secrets of Davey’s life, but his own. “The finest account of a war correspondent’s psychic wracking since Michael Herr’s Dispatches.” —Rian Malan, author of My Traitor’s Heart

The Zanzibar Chest

Author: Aidan Hartley
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0006531210
Category : Africa, Sub-Saharan
Languages : en
Pages : 40

Book Description
Weaving together stories, his family's history, and his childhood in Africa, Hartley tells what he saw. "The Zanzibar Chest" is an enthralling narrative of men and women meddling with, embracing, and being transformed by other cultures in one of the most important examinations of colonialism ever written.

Confessions of a Mullah Warrior

Author: Masood Farivar
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 1555848230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Book Description
“If you liked The Kite Runner, you must read this riveting, firsthand account by one of the real Afghan mujahideen . . . An extraordinary tale.” —Leslie Cockburn Masood Farivar was ten years old when his childhood in peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan was shattered by the Soviet invasion of 1979. Although he was born into a long line of religious and political leaders who had shaped his nation’s history for centuries, Farivar fled to Pakistan with his family and came of age in a madrassa for refugees. At eighteen, he defied his parents and returned home to join the jihad, fighting beside not only the Afghan mujahideen but also Arab and Pakistani volunteers. When the Soviets withdrew, Farivar moved to America and attended the prestigious Lawrenceville School and Harvard, and ultimately became a journalist in New York. Farivar draws on his unique experience as a native Afghan, a former mujahideen fighter, and a longtime US resident to provide unprecedented insight into the ongoing collision between Islam and the West. This is a visceral, clear-eyed, and illuminating memoir from an indispensable new voice on the world stage. “Like the war poets who told you what it was really like to be in the trenches, Farivar survived to tell us about life on the front lines of the clash of civilizations—and it rings with more truth than any other account of these famous events I’ve ever read. In these troubled times, this is a book that is brave, honest, humane, and full of love.” —Aidan Hartley, author of The Zanzibar Chest

Not Untrue and Not Unkind

Author: Martina Newberry
Publisher: Arabesques Editions
ISBN: 9961926048
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 106

Book Description

Africa

Author: Richard Dowden
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 0786741422
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 593

Book Description
After a lifetime's close observation of the continent, one of the world's finest Africa correspondents has penned a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa. It takes a guide as observant, experienced, and patient as Richard Dowden to reveal its truths. Dowden combines a novelist's gift for atmosphere with the scholar's grasp of historical change as he spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone; analyzes the impact of oil and the internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan; and examines what has gone so badly wrong in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. Dowden's master work is an attempt to explain why Africa is the way it is, and enables its readers to see and understand this miraculous continent as a place of inspiration and tremendous humanity.

My Friend the Mercenary

Author: James Brabazon
Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic
ISBN: 0802195954
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 541

Book Description
“Intensely vivid story of war and the peculiar breed of warriors who fight in 21st-century Africa . . . and tribute to an extraordinary comrade-at-arms.” —Kirkus Reviews In February 2002, British journalist James Brabazon set out to travel with guerrilla forces into Liberia to show the world what was happening in that war-torn country. To protect him, he hired Nick du Toit, a former South African Defence Force soldier who had fought in conflicts across Africa for over three decades. What follows is an incredible behind-the-scenes account of the Liberian rebels—known as the LURD—as they attempt to seize control of the country from government troops led by President Charles Taylor. In this gripping narrative, James Brabazon paints a brilliant portrait of the chaos that tore West Africa apart: nations run by warlords and kleptocrats, rebels fighting to displace them, ordinary people caught in the crossfire—and everywhere adventurers and mercenaries operating in war’s dark shadows. It is a brutally honest book about what it takes to be a journalist, survivor, and friend in this morally corrosive crucible. “A classic story of intrigue, greed, and violence in one of the most dysfunctional countries in the world. It is a gripping story that I couldn’t read fast enough.” —Sebastian Junger, New York Times–bestselling author

The Zanzibar Affair

Author: Samantha Ford
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781533269096
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
An enduring love story set against the spectacular backdrop of East and Southern Africa, New York and France, and spanning decades, are the very essence of this remarkable debut novel. Love, betrayal, passion and death are woven into this romantic novel with exquisite skill. A book to read and to relish. Samantha Ford is destined to become a contemporary romance bestseller with her stories out of Africa. The love story... A letter, found by her daughter Molly, in an old chest on the island of Zanzibar reveals the secret of Kate Hope's glamorous but anguished past, and the reason for her sudden and unexplained disappearance. Ten years previously Kate's lover and business partner, Adam Hamilton, tormented by a terrifying secret he is willing to risk everything for, brutally ends his relationship with Kate. A woman is found murdered in a remote part of Kenya, bringing Tom Fletcher to East Africa to unravel the web of mystery and intrigue surrounding Kate, the woman he loves but hasn't seen for over twenty years. In Zanzibar, Tom meets Kate's daughter Molly. With her help he pieces together the last years of her mother's life and his extraordinary connection to it. Stories from Africa When you read this book you will understand that Samantha is a very accomplished writer who describes human feelings only the way a woman can. Love and passion sear through the pages as does a clear indication that she has lived in and experienced love on the continent she adores. Africa is, of course, that continent and she has demonstrated that she can describe East and Southern Africa in original and evocative terms. She has been on many safaris and observed first hand the lifestyles that she draws upon to write her stories from Africa. Fiction they may be, but they give you an insight into the lives of the rich and powerful, both at work and at play. This is a book to get lost in, an absorbing story of suspense and intrigue, and one which it is hard to believe is a début novel. But don't worry Samantha has completed her second novel, The House Called Mbabati, due to be released in June 2016, and has made a start on her third. So if you love this book you will not have too long to wait for another story out of Africa.

Shadowland

Author: Peter Straub
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101665505
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 505

Book Description
“As if Harry Potter was written for grown-ups, Peter Straub’s Shadowland delivers carnage, blood, pain, fairy tales, and flashes of joy and wonder, just like real magic.”—Grady Hendrix You have been there...if you have ever been afraid. Come back. To a dark house deep in the Vermont woods, where two friends are spending a season of horror, apprenticed to a Master Magician. Learning secrets best left unlearned. Entering a world of incalculable evil more ancient than death itself. More terrifying. And more real. Only one of them will make it through.

The Arab Chest

Author: Sheila Unwin
Publisher: Arabian Publishing Limited
ISBN: 9780954479268
Category : Arabian Peninsula
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This is the first exhaustive study of a piece of furniture that has been used in the Arab world for centuries, and on the East African coast since the early 1800s. The Arab chest caught the attention of expatriates and travellers throughout these regions, and by the mid-20th century it had become a collector's item in the West. The author, Sheila Unwin, first came across the chests in East Africa in the early l950s. Since then she has been determined to discover their provenance and unravel their stylistic origins. This journey of detection is reflected in her historical overviews, which cover the early Arab trading networks, Arabs and Persians in East Africa, the Gulf and Oman, the Mughals in India, and the early explorations and trading expeditions of the Portuguese, Dutch and British from East Africa to the Far East. Her study of these enables her to trace the cultural influences that have combined to produce the chests, and to chart their complex origins. More than a historical survey, the book is also a guide to the classification, care and cleaning of chests. It is lavishly illustrated with archive and contemporary photographs and maps, while line drawings demonstrate the differences in classification and type of chests and fittings. Owners of these fine pieces will find this an invaluable companion and resource. Sheila Unwin greatly enriches our appreciation of an artefact which can now be seen, in the light of her research, as a fascinating embodiment of the old Indian Ocean trading network.

The Granta Book of the African Short Story

Author: Helon Habila
Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 1847084389
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Book Description
Presenting a diverse and dazzling collection from all over the continent, from Morocco to Zimbabwe, Uganda to Kenya. Helon Habila focuses on younger, newer writers - contrasted with some of their older, more established peers - to give a fascinating picture of a new and more liberated Africa. These writers are characterized by their engagement with the wider world and the opportunities offered by the end of apartheid, the end of civil wars and dictatorships, and the possibilities of free movement. Their work is inspired by travel and exile. They are liberated, global and expansive. As Dambudzo Marechera wrote: 'If you're a writer for a specific nation or specific race, then f*** you." These are the stories of a new Africa, punchy, self-confident and defiant. Includes stories by: Fatou Diome; Aminatta Forna; Manuel Rui; Patrice Nganang; Leila Aboulela; Zo Wicomb; Alaa Al Aswany; Doreen Baingana; E.C. Osondu.