This is an excellent example of what it is like at the game reserve. My wife and I spent 10 days at Malamala, and this book brought back all of the memorable experiences we had in the bush. We spent some time with Jamie while we were there and he is a true artist with a camera, as well as an enjoyable dinner companion.

My family and I just returned from a photographic safari on the MalaMala game reserve. We purchased the book from the onsite gift store as it represented so many wonderful memories of our adventure in South Africa. Jamie Thom is a wonderful guide and truely has a wonderful gift for photographing these many amazing animals. We highly recommend this photographic work of art to all who love nature.

This is a breathtakingly beautiful view of the animals of the South African Lowveld. Ms. Lumry and Mr. Thom have captured the unique experience of an African Safari with a stunning collection of photos that make you feel like you could reach out and touch the animals. If you're thinking about an African Safari or want to relive the thrill of one you've taken, this is a "must have" book.

Excellent biography of Stanley, who had an incredible life. He was illegitimate, abandoned by his mother, put into a work-house, and had an all-round awful childhood until meeting the kindly fellow in America who adopted him. But the meat of the book is Stanley's three major trips in Africa: to find Livingstone, to explore and continue Livingstone's work, and to relieve Emin Pasha. Each involves amazing hardships and adventures and Farwell does a wonderful job of giving lots of detail and colour as he relates these exciting trips. Worth reading by anyone who has an interest in Burton but isn't sure what to turn to next.

This is one of Farwell's earliest works. I think I have read everything he has written and I am always amazed at the high quality and readability. This book is about Henry M. Stanley, and Africa through his eyes. Farwell refuses to allow modern prejudices to enter into the story. Stanley is unique - emotionless yet idealistic, shy yet driven. Read this book not only to find out about the man, but for the incredible adventures. For an excellent 1 volume history of African exploration, read Africa Explored by Christopher Hibbert.

Henry M. Stanley was the first human to cross equatorial Africa. And he did it roughly four times, fighting beast, insects, disease and the most violent, primitive peoples ever encountered by an explorer. This account of his entire life is fascinating: raised in a Scottish orphanage, adopted by a New Orleans merchant, fought in the Civil War on the side of the South, journalist and -- all training for the hardships of his true calling -- explorer. On his first trip he finds Stanley to deliver the famous quote -- two more trips each more astounding than the preceding are to follow. He retires as a hero of the British exploration community. This book is a gem, well written by an author who rightly reveres deeply his subject. This is a must read for anyone who enjoyed "Undaunted Courage." Stanley is 20 Lewis and Clark's rolled into one man. Maps are good for a paperback.

Godfrey Mwakikagile has written a very important book about military coups in Africa. His focus on West Africa only enabled him to provide more details about this disturbing intrusion into politics by soldiers.

My own country, Ghana, was one of the first to fall under military rule back in February 1966 when Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown. In one of the longest and most important chapters in the book, the author provides a balanced account of military rule in Ghana, as well as a fitting tribute to Ghana's founding father President Nkrumah.

For decades since the sixties, as Mwakikagile shows in his book, many countries suffered under military dictatorship. In Ghana, Jerry Rawlings who comes from the same region I do, the Volta Region, ruled the longest. Although he did a lot of good things for the masses, he was also a harsh ruler. And no one elected him, until later. That's the point, as the author points out in his book. Soldiers do not have the mandate to rule.

And we just hope that they stop storming into office, anywhere in Africa. We are fed up with them, as much as we are with civilian tinpot dictators. And it's very good that the author has provided some of the solutions on how to discourage or stop soldiers from overthrowing governments, and also on how to get them, as well as civilian despots, out of office. And excellent book on how to use the power of the masses to achieve democracy in Africa.

I have lived under military rule in Nigeria. I know what the soldiers did. They destroyed our country. I also know what military rulers have done to other African countries, not just in West Africa. It has been a nightmare.

But what is so sad is that even the civilian rulers themselves have also destroyed our continent.The only difference is that they are elected, although in rigged elections, which is one of the reasons why soldiers overthrow governments. But the main reason why they do so is to become leaders themselves, and dictators, and thieves. It's such a shame! And an unconscionable waste of our resources.

Talk about theft? Look at Ibrahim Babangida, former Nigerian military dictator. He is one of the richest men in the world, and in history, having amassed a fortune of more than $30 billion within 8 years of his blood-soaked military dictatorship. He ruled from 1985 - 1993, and is still a major player on the Nigerian political scene even today, having bankrolled in 1999 the election of a fellow soldier, Olusegun Obasanjo, who was Nigeria's military head of state from 1979 - 1983.

Where did Babangida get all that money from? He siphoned off billions of petrodollars, and had most of it stashed away abroad, while the Ogoni and members of other nationalities (they are more than just "tribes") in the oil-producing regions of the Niger Delta got nothing. So did his successor, another tinpot military despot, Sani Abacha, who also stole billions - at least $4 billion within 5 years.

Godfrey Mwakikagile, although not a West African, has done a sweeping survey of the region and the devastation wrought by military rulers, as well as "elected" politicians, since the sixties. It is a very interesting study, even if not detailed in all cases. But that is understandable. Covering so many countries, and over such a long period of time, it would have been impossible for him to provide, in a single volume as this one, a detailed account of every military regime in West Africa during the past 40 years. The fact that he was able to focus on the major events, digest and distill all the information he was able to gather to produce such a readable and balanced account, is itself a major achievement.

But the pace at which he is going may also compromise his research. He writes at a brisk pace. He also does research at a brisk pace, based on what he has produced so far. Looking at the list of his works, he seems to have written 7 books within only three years, dealing with major subjects. There's no question that they required extensive research, and his works show that he did it. And since they are also used as college textbooks, there's no doubt that the professors who recommended them for purchase knew they were vital works. All these academics couldn't be wrong. And I believe they all made the right decision. But the writer would be well-advised to proceed with caution when tackling major themes, the kind he has, with the hope that he will provide even more valuable insights into the subjects he addresses; which he undoubtedly can, as one can tell from reading his book. It is a product of a highly analytical mind. And as a fellow African, I am proud of him.

"Military Coups in West Africa since the Sixties" is an invaluable work, choke-full of facts, and well-balanced, by one of our important African writers from Tanzania. The only criticism I have has to do with typographical errors which may even tarnish the author's reputation especially as an academic author, although this is not his fault, as anyone who knows about book publishing will tell you. The publisher should be taken to task for this, while the author should be given all the credit he's duly entitled to, for writing one of the most important books - not only about military coups, but about Africa as a whole since the sixties.

This is, to my knowledge, the first comprehensive study
of military governments in West Africa - in fact anywhere
in Africa - since independence in the sixties. Written
by an East African but who, because of his impressive
credentials and background as a journalist in Tanzania,
is no less qualified to handle the subject about West
Africa; the book is more than just a history of military
coups in West Africa. It is also a prescription for
ending military intervention in African politics, and a
call for consensus building to form governments of national
unity in order to end civil wars and unrest, and guarantee
full participation of all groups in the conduct of national
affairs, in all African countries. The corruption and
brutality of African leaders, both civilian and military,
and other abuses of power, are fully exposed in this book.
So is the involvement of the CIA in the ouster of Dr. Kwame
Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana and an ardent
Pan-Africanist who was also one of the most influential
African leaders in the 20th century. And tribalism, which
has caused so much chaos, misery, and suffering, and
which has been exploited by politicians across Africa,
also gets full attention in this book. In fact, ethnic
hatred almost destroyed Africa's largest and most
populous nation, Nigeria, during the civil war in the
sixties. It was, until then, the bloodiest conflict in
the history of post-colonial Africa. It is because of
this disruptive force of tribalism across the continent
that Africans should seriously consider forming coalition
governments in order to harmonize conflicting interests
in a pluralistic context. The book is well-written, and
well-documented, except for typographical errors here
and there the publisher should not have overlooked. Some
people may blame the author for this. But that shouldn't
be the case. Writers, write. And publishers, publish; and,
in the process, are responsible for what their typists
and copy editors do. So, apportion guilt accordingly.
And give credit where credit is due. There's no question
the author has written a very important book, covering
a lot of territory, and in an objective way as is humanly
possible.

As a black South African I have read a lot of history books about my country and found a lot of distortions. Allister Sparks has come out with the most straight story of how it all came to be. This book tells you both sides of the story: Thank you Allister for representing the truth.

As a European historian who was preparing to travel to South Africa for the first time in the spring of 1998, I found Sparks's analysis of South African thought, culture, and society since the mid-17th century to be extremely helpful. The book is both informative and lively, and I recommend it without hesitation.

Okay, so we all know what took place once the Afrikaaners came to South Africa, but just exactly 'why' did they feel so superior to all people and all races. Where did this mentality come from? Allistar Sparks goes into great detail about the minds of Afrikaaners before they came to South Africa and after. I have read many a book about South Africa and by far this is one of the best. Truthful, and holding nothing back. I applaud Mr. Sparks !

This Congolese market story introduces children to a village where peoples' lives are intertwined and their talents and services contribute to village life. The cause and effect trading process challenges children to follow sequence in an inventive and entertaining way as they ponder the meaning of value beyond money. Luzolo and Kiese show children how they can reach beyond their immediate desires to care for someone in need. Rich illustrations and a unique printmaking process make the brightly colored African clothing pop from the warm village backgrounds.

The pictures are beautiful, vibrant. Quietly raucous story of commerce in a simpler place. Story is a little complex for 6 yr olds, maybe better for 8-9.

A delightful, engaging story that not only entertains but teaches children about the value of a true gift and about the lives of those from different cultures. The colorful illustrations are beautifully rendered and produced by a unique process.

I am a senior in college, and an elementary education major with a minor in anthropology- when I found this book, I was estatic. Its beautiful photography is greatly complimented with Maya Angelou's flowing words. Humor, color, and the similarities with the Ndebele girl (Thandi, which means hope) are sure to attract children. They will learn that even though Thandi is across the world, all children share many similaries- a lesson that should be remembered, especially in modern times. I will definately use this in my classroom someday. Never have I seen such a great childrens book that is infused with anthropology and the study of a culture!

I bought this book today and read it with my 10 year old niece. It has exceptionally beautiful photographs of the Ndebele people. It is a story that reminds us that the simple things in life are the most precious. Thandi tells the story of her people and family and her best friend, a chicken. She is a proud and pure hearted child that shares the culture of the Ndebele people with us. This is a lovely story that is a fun, educational, easy to read one that made me feel young at heart again. I'll be needing an additional copy to share with my grandaughter.

As a reading tutor, I have enjoyed sharing this book with my 4th grade students. It examins the differences of people, our different cultures, and is a colorful and enchanting story. My kids, both boys and girls are facinated by this book, and we always continue a dialogue with it. The recognize the author, as one their parents respect, and enjoy talking about it and laughing about the silly chicken.We have talked about trying to paint houses with a chicken feather, and may jsut try to do this during black history month! I adore this book!

What a bottomless well of encouragement and inspiration one gets from its reading! Nelson Mandela, basing himself on the mass of Black, Colored and Indian, workers, peasants and other democrats of South Africa, was unbreakable at the hands of the horrific, murderous and terrorist system of aparthied. Akin to Nazis Germany, the Jim Crow USA South and Zionist Israel, South Africa enjoyed the backing of the US and British and Israeli governments until it was overthrown.

Joining the African National Congress in 1944 at age 26, he and other youth would lead its transformation from and organization of " gentlemen with clean hands" to the mass revolutionary democratic movement that would lead the revolution over apartheid. Doing so even while in prison for nearly 30 years. He was finally released in 1990 at age 72 and was soon after elected South Africa's president.

For decades, a popular demand in South Africa and around the world was: Free Nelson Mandela! This book does an excellent job of showing just why Mandela was so popular among the masses in his country and so feared and hated by apartheid's rulers. He was a first-class revolutionary who fought for decades for his country's freedom and always believed in the power of the masses of people to make change. This book is so inspiring because you read Mandela in his own words, starting as a student leader in the 1940s to a leader of the African National Congress's armed wing in the 1960s to an internationally known political prisoner in the 1980s. He never gave up and he outlasted the vicious apartheid system. The photos in the book also do a great job of showing what the struggle against apartheid was like.

What a wonderful experience-- reading and studying speeches and documents prepared by Nelson Mandela during five decades of struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa! Here are key documents of the African National Congress, including the Freedom Charter that became the central document of the mass movement that brought down apartheid. Also Mandela's speeches at different stages of the struggle, including historic courtroom addresses when he was on trial for his life; documents Mandela prepared as the apartheid regime was forced to negotiate with him and the ANC in the late 1980s; and his first speeches after he was released from prison in 1990.
These speeches give a vivid reminder of the brutal, racist regime that was apartheid (and we should never forget that the South African regime was a pillar of U.S. domination in Africa from the 1940s on.) Mandela gives us a real feel for the determined, difficult, and courageous struggle of millions of people who never accepted submission to apartheid and the world-wide importance of the fight for a democratic, nonracial South Africa. And you see truly inspiring leadership in the persons of Mandela and his fellow leaders in the ANC.
Don't miss the 32-pages of photos that really help bring this rich struggle to life as well!

This scholarly and thoroughly impressive history of the Nile River provides a fine blend of geography and history as it surveys the river's importance to local lives and world events. From its various ecological niches and environments to the special history of its evolution and importance to mankind, The Nile is filled from cover to cover with a wealth of lively and articulate description.

By Robert I. Rotberg

The life-giving Nile of lower Egypt trickles first from two springs in Burundi and Rwanda and then meanders 4,238 miles as the White Nile through great equatorial lakes; loses itself in tangled and difficult swamps; tortuously emerges to run freely toward its confluence with the much more powerful, if shorter, Blue Nile from Ethiopia; and then flows over cataracts and dams through the great desert to the Mediterranean Sea.

Over five millenniums, the nutrient- and silt-laden Nile floodwaters enabled agriculture and civilization to flourish all along its lower reaches. When the annual summer flood failed, however, the northern Sudan and all of classical and modern Egypt suffered hideously.

Collins links the dark ages of dynastic Egypt and the successes of invading outsiders to those sometimes prolonged periods when the Nile withheld its renewing gift. In turn, those dry spells reflected shifts in the rainfall patterns of equatorial Africa and highland Ethiopia, not - as the Egyptians always feared - to the manipulative scheming of Ethiopian monarchs or African chieftains.

There were many efforts to measure the flows of the Nile, and then to harness it effectively. Taming the Nile, the quixotic goal of administrators from early times, led to the first small dams, and in the early 20th century to dams in the Sudan. President Gamal Abdel Nasser's Aswan High Dam of 1970, with its 300-mile lake and its ancillary dam at Roseires in the Sudan, were together intended to regulate the river forever, smoothing out the years of high and low water. But the mighty Nile refused to capitulate, and the impoundment of its waters has led to great silting and weakening of the dams, the impoverishment of Egyptian agriculture, unexpected disease, and unanticipated economic and social consternation.

Collins's seamless biography captures the soul of a river that is both a result of and a continuing influence upon Africa's geology, climate, history, peoples, economy, and politics. Collins roams over the 2 million-square-mile basin of the Nile - the smaller rivers, the large and tiny lakes, and the glacier-capped mountain ranges - and writes movingly of the glory and challenges faced by the immense cascade of water as it makes its way over myriad waterfalls and past pumping stations, villages, towns, and cities to its ultimate destination. He also captures the trials and triumphs of the Nile's sometimes human- assisted passage through the Sudd - a vast eddying swamp-like mass of lagoons and channels that long defied explorers and entrepreneurs as they attempted to follow the White Nile south into equatorial regions.

Counterintuitively, more of the merged waters of the Nile come from the Blue branch, not the much longer and more tortuous White system. The Blue starts higher than the White, at 9,000 feet, and then rushes into shallow Lake Tana. From shores ringed by Coptic Christian monasteries, the Blue carves a great arc through the lava dikes and sandstone plateaus of western Ethiopia, strengthened by three significant and many minor tributaries until it leaves the highlands and crosses into the Sudan as a source of regular refreshment.

As in any great biography, there are diversions off the main channel. Collins swoops readers into the Baro Salient, that riverine mapmaking mistake that thrusts Ethiopia into the southern Sudan, where commerce coursed clandestinely across borders. He takes us on a fascinating search for 15-foot canaries - not in John Williams' standard "Field Guide to the Birds of East Africa" - high up in the Mountains of the Moon (the Ruwenzori Range). And he supplies unexpected facts. For instance, as mighty as the Nile may be, its volume of fresh water delivered to the Mediterranean is only 2 percent of the total of the Amazon River and 15 percent of that of the Mississippi River. For much of its 160 million-year history, the Nile emptied into the Indian Ocean; only in comparatively recent geological times has it flowed north.

This is an easy book to read and to like. Yet there are occasional anachronisms, where sketches of people or places forsake the findings of modern linguistic and ethnological scholarship, and repetition of pet phrases or factoids. But the book's big flaw is the fault of the publisher: The quality and clarity of the maps and photographs are inadequate for a study as important as this panoramic biography of a pulsing river.

' Robert I. Rotberg directs Harvard's Program on Intrastate Conflict and is president of the World Peace Foundation.

from the January 09, 2003 edition - ...

There are a lot of great books on the Nile; Emil Ludwig's classic and Alan Whitehead's come to mind. This is another, updated version, that fills in a lot of the blanks left by the earlier books. It is well written and up-to-date. The emphasis is on politics and history but the author also appreciates the physical wonder that is the Nile. The author spends a lot of time talking about this place and that place, but the book is full of excellent maps to guide the geographically perplexed. It is a good read for the adventurous as well as those interested in the challenges facing modern Africa.

No More Strangers Now is a good book.It tells about how people would fight for their lives.How they would sometimes hide in their houses because some people would break in and shoot them.It had a lot of violence in it but it would teach you how white people would treat people of color. The book was very good.I think the last chapter was the best. It told about teenagers that were Chinnesse,Afican,Japansse,White,and Mexican.They were all friends they slept over. They even go to the mall. People would just stare at them,thinking they were wierd.I would like everybody to read this book - No More Strangers Now.

Tim McKee and Anne Blackshaw have collaborated on an important book that speaks to anyone who is interested on where South Africa is headed and where it has been. In words and photographs, the two capture the mixture of hope, confusion and uncertainty that these young South Africans face in their changing nation. Their words are frank. Their photos compelling.

As an avid reader and a teacher, I love this book! I have been savouring it for breakfast, a chapter a day, careful not to read too much and exceed my emotional limits, often moved to tears, and always impressed by the strength and passion of the young South Africans. Not only is it a joy to read, it is one of the most educationally exciting books I have ever discovered. What a great tool for opening the minds of young people around the world and helping them to seize on both their own place in history and their ability to shape the future. The voice and image of young South Africa is so poignantly conveyed, I feel as if I have just returned from an intensely revealing reality tour, making several great friends in the process. In No More Strangers Now, Blackshaw and McKee have delivered an honest, eloquent and visually stunning breakthrough!

Few leaders have earned the respect President Julius Nyerere did. Even fewer have continued to inspire admiration after they left office.

Dr. Henry Kissinger, an arrogant intellectual, acknowledged Nyerere's brilliance and was even outwitted by him during the Rhodesian crisis, as documented by the author (see Appendix IV). He also got a potent "dose of African nationalism," as David Ottaway wrote in "The Washington Post," when he met President Nyerere in Tanzania in 1976 to discuss the Rhodesian crisis. They differed on how to resolve it, prompting reporters to ask Nyerere if he thought Kissinger's mission to Africa was a failure. As David Ottaway who covered the event wrote in "The Washington Post": "Nyerere responded professorially by saying 'A mission of clarity is not a mission of failure.'" Kissinger, a former professor at Harvard, got a good lecture on African nationalism and the Rhodesian crisis from Nyerere, a man of immense intellect Africa will always be proud of. He was indeed an African colossus who did bestride this narrow world, as Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui put it in his moving tribute to one of the giants of this century.

Nyerere spoke for Africa, and the world listened. He also represented the entire Third World in negotiations with the industrialized nations when he served as chairman of the South Commission after he retired as president of Tanzania. And he died a leader, one of the best the world, not just Africa, has ever produced. He was, simply put, Africa's best president. And Godfrey Mwakikagile, an African intellectual himself, has done justice to him by writing this book, immensely rich in detail, probably the best ever written about Nyerere.

The best way to honor Nyerere is to emulate his devotion, humility and simplicity. As "Newsweek" said when he died: "The world has lost a man of principle."

Dr. Julius Nyerere is gone, but he is still with us in terms of inspiration and the ideals he taught. A world leader of unparallelled commitment, especially of the Third World, he will be missed by millions round the globe.

He was also an inspiring orator with a razor-sharp intellect who was given a standing ovation for his incisive analysis and oratorical skills when he addressed the British Parliament in the seventies. A staunch Pan-Africanist, and a selfless statesman par excellence, he stood tall on the same level with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah but exercised far greater influence than Nkrumah after Nkrumah was overthrown in 1966. On the intellectual plane, only Leopold Sedar Senghor, president of Senegal, came a distant second to him among African leaders.

It has been said that intellectuals have a weakness for fellow intellectuals, as Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui once wrote. Nyerere was one such intellectual. He enjoyed immense respect and profound admiration among Western intelectuals. Having attended school in Britain at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, he was even described as a Western intellectual. He was also taught in the Western intellectual tradition by the British in colonial Tanganyika.

Yet, he was more than a "Western" intellectual, if one at all. He was a world intellectual who was highly admired and respected by millions of people around the world, not only for his superb intellect but his exemplary leadership.

Befitting his title Mwalimu, he was also described as the greatest teacher of our time, as former Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojukwu said, quoted by the BBC, following Nyerere's death. But that was probably an understatement, although that's not what Ojukwu meant. Mwalimu Nyerere was one of the greatest teachers of all times, embraced by people of all races and nationalities. And he taught by example.

He was indeed a legend in his own time, and will remain one for generations. Godfrey Mwakikagile has written a book which puts this legend in proper perspective. It is also a book that has earned the author a place among his readers as a respected authority on Nyerere. And his work is not compromised by bias despite his strong admiration for Mwalimu Nyerere as a leader and as an intellectual. He has written a book which will be of great interest to many people including scholars, especially those interested in Tanzania's foreign policy under Nyerere.

Dr. Nyerere did, indeed, deserve the title, "The Conscience of Africa," if not of the world.

One comes to this new book by Godfrey Mwakikagile, a Tanzanian author who once worked with the "Daily News" in the 70s, hoping for insights into the host of complexities that Nyerere embodies.

One finishes the book with a considerably expanded knowledge of the documented life - details of family history, recollections of friends and associates widely interviewed, ample citations from Nyerere's published letters and occasional writings and numerous quotations from others' letters and memoirs that characterize the leader.

Mwakikagile gives readers an extensively researched life of the Father of the Nation with a breadth of detail about his history and early years. For a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the interior narrative of Mwalimu Nyerere, one needs not look elsewhere.