More than the title reveals, Colors of Ghana is a delightfulintroduction to a plethora of facts about Ghana. The book starts witha solid introduction about the country: flora and fauna, borders,population, ancient and modern history, and languages. It then goes on to enlighten the reader using ten colors: gold, white, orange, gray, green, black, tan, blue, brown, and silver. Each color is used to introduce various cultural, geographical, historical, and other aspects of Ghana. Gold represents the Golden Stool, the symbol of prowess and freedom of the Asante people. White symbolizes various traditional ceremonies, such as babies' naming rites. Orange, the background of the Kyeretiwe kente cloth is presented in the most fascinating manner. The grim slave walls in Elmina are designated by the color gray, while land and wildlife are portrayed by green. Black stands for the black star in the middle of the Ghanaian flag. Tan is the color of traditional drums used for various ceremonies, as well as conveying messages before the advent of telecommunication devices. Blue represents the waters of the Volta Lake, the source of electricity, irrigation and fish life in Ghana. Brown denotes the color of cacao pods that have become roasted in the sun. Finally, silver exemplifies the web of Ananse the spider, the clever character that spans many tales in Ghana and the African Diaspora.

Each section of the books begins with a pronunciation guide that facilitates the utterance of the color in question. Crisply clean illustrations adorn each section, adding meaning and better understanding of the various ideas presented.

This book is extraordinary in the sense that within a few pages, the reader is introduced to a vast repertoire of Ghanaian history, culture, and other factual pieces of information. Littlefield does an excellent job of weaving suspenseful stories around each color. Both children and adults will find Colors of Ghana a delightful companion.

Traditional African powers and imposed western ideas are juxtaposed in this complex and interesting story. If you liked Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible", chances are you will like this book too. In Antonia Saw the Oryx First we meet characters through the eyes of an American doctor who has been in Africa long enough to feel more African than American, yet her perspective is a mixture of both cultures. The characters are complex and very different from each other. Each character seems to represent a different face of Africa - the precolonial, the traditional, the colonized desperate to reclaim his roots, the native-born colonist, and the reincarnated new Africa.

Early in the story, a young woman - Esther - is brought to the doctor's clinic near death from a violent, upsetting episode with a sailor. It took me a while to find the courage to return to the book after that, but the return was worth it. We witness Esther's remarkable rebirth and her gradual transformation to a healer of a more traditional sort. We are thrust(along with the doctor) between the world of traditional African medicine and western medicine, often wondering which really has the greatest power and will prevail in the constantly changing African world. Who belongs in Africa, and who can rightfully find their own place there? The answers will have you thinking a long time!

A social history of Kenya 1957 to 1978, interwoven with the political changes of the times. At the center of the story is Paulina, who progresses from a 16-year old farm girl from Western Kenya to a self-assured and matured woman in Nairobi. Maybe for the first time, an author who lives in Nairobi, tells us about the common people and the disenfranchised masses in that city - something a tourist would never see or even think of. It is a fascinating story, and so very well written. Interwoven with this tale are the political happenings, from MauMau to Uhuru and to the final statehood under Kenyatta. She describes the feuds between the different tribes, such as the Luo from Lake Victoria, the Swahili from the East Coast, and the dominant but persecuted Kikuyu from the Rift valley. Murder and mayhem did not bode well for the new country and the inside readings from this book are fascinating.

On a personal note: early in 1969 I had the very special experience to meet Tom Mboya, who was then 39 years old and a rising star in Kenya's politics. At that time, my stated view was that he would either be president, or be killed. Tom Mboya was assassinated in July of that year. I am very glad to see from this book that this brilliant young man has not been forgotten.

Dr. Ngwainmbi's book distinguishes itself from other books on development communication in three ways; its factual presentation of rural development problems in Africa, its critical analysis of media and the latter's inevitable role in supporting development efforts in Africa, and its unique description of characteristics of rural residents or people in more remote parts of the continent.

With world cultures converging through cyber communications, new political leadership and Generation X, Western thinkers should quickly increase their knowledge of Africa. They should pay attention not only to that continent's undepleted resources but also to its new efforts towarding democracy.

"Communication Efficiency & Rural Development in Africa" is a well-researched product with valuable information.

I highly recommend the book to small scale businesses, entrepreneurs, scholars, policymakers, and students of African New Age development.

Covering not only specifics on species,distribution and family keys, but information on the regions studied, its biogeography and a guide to collection preservation and measurment of fish specimens. This book also looks at conservation, classification, relationships between fish and man, fish biology and a bit on the geographical influences on the fishes looked at.

A fantastic guide for both the layman (amateur or general interest)and the scientificaly minded. A "Robert's Birds" of Freshwater Fishes of Southern Africa

This book illuminates the dark secrets that the ANC preferred not to make public.The facts as described in this important book clarify the extent that the ANC was dominated by the ideologically doctrinaire Communist Party, how divisive internally the ANC became in the wake of skillful South African government countermeasures, and just how far from victory the black movement for freedom was when DeKlerk, a man who has not received his due from history, decided to "un-ban" both the ANC and SACP. I would like to have seen more about the linkage between the collapse of Communism worldwide and the pressures on the South African government, but the focus of this fine book was on the ANC/SACP relationship. And that is not altogether a pleasant story, but it does help to explain why South Africa continues to suffer from internal turmoil now that the apartheid dragon has been slain.

If I had to pick the man who had the most interesting life on this planet, Jean-Pierre Hallet would be at the top of my list. As a field agent for the government of the Belgian Congo, he comes to help them grow crops and gets deeply involved in African society. The things he does are amazing-and it's all true.
At different times he:
lives amongst the field pygmies, (he wrote another book just about that)
loses his hand in an explosion, then swims from crocodiles,
kills a leopard with a knife,
starts an animal hospital,
witnesses a revolution,
goes through the Masai manhood ritual, killing a charging lion with a spear.
Those are just the highlights. A big man with a bushy beard and a mechanical hand , he was making the rounds of talk shows when I was a teen ager.

Having lived in South Africa as an expatriot, I can tell you that this is the best book ever written for a driving tour. It is very accurate down to where he says signs are posted. We did the drive of Natal and the Cape and thoroughly enjoyed reading out loud while driving. I'm sorry to see that it is hard to find!

An essential look at constitution-making processes in South Africa, with excellent guidance for other constitutional democracies -- present and future -- on the politics of power sharing. An outstanding first book by well recognized scholar of the law and society movement and political activist during the years of apartheid.

Professor Peterson believes that:
1)The commercialized use, more than indigenous peoples' use of the forest lies at the root of Africa's environmental problems.
2)Central African traditional ecological knowledge suggests that we would do better to try to control the market forces that lead to overexploitation of the environment rather than unjustly restrict the subsistence practices of people who have lived in these forests much longer than ourselves.
3)The environmental wisdom of Central African forest peoples stems from the knowledge and belief that nature and humans are never separate entities but parts of one system.
4)We are part of nature not set apart from it.
5)Nature and culture, humans and environment, social ethics and environmental ethics, ecology and justice go hand in hand.
6)It is not humans or nature that are central; rather it is life that is primary, and that includes the entire community of life, for all of life is important, all of life is bonded, all of life is sacred.