This book offers a good description of the preceedings leading to Namibia's independence. It highlights the obstacles faced in the establishment and effectiveness of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) from the point of view of one of its most influential members, John Ya-Otto. The writing style is compelling, so even though it is a detailed historical account, it is very readable.

In Wesley's poem "Outside Child," a man hands his wife a child wrapped in a blanket; the child is his, he says, and the wife is angry. "Where is this child's mother?" she asks. This Liberian woman has been a dutiful wife, and she has cared for her own children, and this product of her husband's philandering should not be her concern. But even as she is furious at the man, the "outside" child at her breast has won her over. She will care for this baby, "This thing that will rob her of heart and mind."
So seemed Patricia Jabbeh Wesley's poetry at first glance: poems from outside my world. There are enough African words peppering these poems to merit a glossary at the back of the book. What is this place in Africa to me? I wondered as I began to read. What is this war to me?''it is so far away. But as soon as I looked into the faces of these poems, I cared desperately, and I knew that this war, like all wars, belongs to all of us. Though I am from Wesley's adopted Michigan, land of maples and hickories and cedars, I hold to my breast these poems of the fertile land where kola nut trees and breadfruit trees and palms grow.
As the husband stands before the wife, awaiting the verdict, weeping, she sees him as "a tree after lightning has struck." Throughout this book borne of war-torn Liberia, we read of trees and people felled and uprooted, trees and women offering fruit and crops, trees taking over cities. Children should be running into the woods to play and harvest the fruits, but instead we children march off to war. The Liberian civil war (1989-1996) was famous for its induction of child soldiers, and Wesley brings us the heartbreak of the mothers of those babes with guns and "adjustable ammunition."
The war was unbearable, but the women and men and children who have survived did bear it and continue to bear their losses. There was so much death, according to the poem "War Children," that the ground would no longer accept the dead:
There is no burial ground anymore
In their shallow graves the corpses
dance Liberia's cradles empty.
These poems, however, are not tales of despair. The war-torn landscape is brightened by Wesley's love of village tradition and her joy in remembering the liveliness of Monrovia, as well as her honesty in depicting the more ordinary, ongoing battles of the male-female domestic situation. If the war will just end, these poems seem to say, we will grieve for a long time, but eventually the land will forgive us, the trees will grow and bloom again: the mango, the banana, the breadfruit, the kola nut, and especially the palm, for then the palm wine can flow for the people of Liberia, and all those who left will come home and be welcomed at the doors of their old homes. They will rejoice, as Wesley describes in the first stanza of "One of These Days:"
One of these days
there will be rejoicing
all over the place.
There will be so much shouting,
so much wailing,
so much dancing.
There's going to be
such dancing
as we've never seen before.
There's going to be a day
like that, I say,
and there's no one
who will be able to stop us.

It is a well put together package of articles by knowledgable and talented authors. The articles shed light on a rich culture and vibrant and strong people. It should be read by anybody with an interest in Africa and Oromo people in particular.

I found this book many moons ago in a used book rack. Having recently re-read the volume I am again impressed by seeing a view of South Africa's efforts to halt communism in SW Africa/Namibia. Now that apartheid has ended officially, we the rest of the world can see the other side of life in the southern tip of Africa. Mr. Hooper's description of his time with Koevoet is both exciting and in-depth in his examination of the people conducting counter-insurgency against the communist supported SWAPO. A good, fast read that can allow the reader a chance to expand their knowledge of what attrocities were committed by forces in the name of "global marxism." Balance this work with recently released histories on American work against communism. You the reader can now decide with a more balanced view. Not just a war history but a look at why men fight for seemingly unjust causes.

Berlitz's Vienna pcket guide is a wonderfull gem for our upcoming tour of the imperial capitol. This book, i.e., Berlitz Vienna includes items such as: hotels, museums and resturants. One thing that is sort of obsolete is their usefull expressions since most people having a working knowledge in English.

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Dele Olowu and Soumana Sako, Better Governance And Public Policy: Capacity Building For Democratic Renewal In Africa is a resource of informed and informative essays accessibly written by a variety of learned authors, and presented with three overall goals: to describe recent governance alterations in African countries; to analyze the effects these changes have upon institutional reforms; and to scrutinize building institutional capacities to consolidate economic liberalization and democratization in African countries. A scholarly, heavily researched, wide-ranging study of the unique difficulties and challenges faced by African society and government today, Better Governance And Public Policy is a welcome and timely addition to African Studies collections and International Studies reading lists.

Ted Edwards is one of the last great adventurers, as his experience shows in full detail. Armed with a love for life and what he hoped to be sufficient supplies, he set out across the Sahara, deepening his already-full respect for the desert and its inhabitants (whether they be scorpions, nomads, or camels). His is a fantastic story, which will bring any reader's yearning for exploration to the surface! I recommend it to anyone who has a zest for truly living.

The Bible in Africa covers a rich tapestry of topics, related to the Bible and how it is read and interpreted in Africa. There are over 30 essays written by scholars from all parts of Africa. The essays deal with such diverse topics as Bible Translation in Africa, The reading of the Bible in African Indigenous Churches and particular issues relating to various African peoples and their reception of the Bible. Of particular interest are a number of review essays which cover Biblical Studies in Afica in the Twentieth Century and a comprehensive Bibliography of Publications on the Bible produced in or about Africa.

I was impressed by Tilley's careful recovery of the tenets of Donatism from the polemics of its adversaries (including great Augustine). Donatism was a fourth century church which developed in Roman North Africa around Carthage in the aftermath of the Diocletian persecutions, watered by the blood of confessors of the faith, embarrassingly simultaneous with Constantine's legitimizing the more accommodating Latin church developing in the eastern Imperium. Carefully, by analyzing the polemics which contain the remnants of Donatist thought, Tilley reveals a strong Church which had not taken the establishment turn of the "Latin" church, and indeed stood against it even through the Vandal invasions, until it disappeared with the coming of Islam.

Bill Branch's brilliant book provides an excellent reference for the amateur herpetologist and other interested parties. Covering all the reptiles of the sub-region from the Nile Crocodile to the Geometric tortoise it is filled with interesting and relevant information in an easy to read format. Additionally it includes over 100 colour photographs for easy identification. There is also a chapter which covers the ethics and methods of collecting reptiles - essential reading if you are planning to start out in this field. In my opinion Bill Branch has provided us with the best herpetological Field Guide available today. Published by Struik, this book conforms to the high standard of their other titles in this series.