Actually, I've ready more than one book this year...many more, but this was my favorite. Written as a reflective narrative, not unlike Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the author puts forth a story of a man traveling across the Sahara by bus and traveling through the history of Europeans in Africa. The title comes from the last line in Joseph Conrad's novel, "Heart of Darkness." Linqvist is a master storyteller, and the story he tells helps one understand where much about the origins of racism. This book is timely in that in the US, race relations are going backwards. Lindavist shows how many of the "scientific" assumptions that people hold about Africans are based more on political ideologies carried over from the 1800s rather than real science.

I don't think that many people will read this book because of its subject matter. It's a topic that many people want to avoid or deny. Regardless of this, Sven Lindqvist should be praised and recognized for this fascinating and enlightening book.

As stated above, Barnett was a staffer on the U.S. Mission to the U.N. in 1994 and thus had a first hand view of the workings/failure of the Secretariat, the Security Council, the United Nations and the international community as a whole.

Unlike so many other books about Rwanda, Barnett refuses to simply write off the UN or the international community as uncaring or unconcerned about the unfolding genocide in Rwanda. Rather, he shows that those involved were deeply concerned but trapped by their own rules and internal bureaucratic logic, leading eventually to paralysis and inaction.

Coming fast on the heels of Somalia and Bosnia, Rwanda was left to implode because everyone involved operated on a logical/ethical plane seemingly far removed from the actual humanitarian crisis on the ground. With the UN overstretched and concerned about its reputation/survival, the members states of the security council unwilling to send troops or supplies into a raging anarchy, and UN rules dictating when peacekeeping and intervention were justified, Rwanda was left to fend for itself.

Barnett does a great job of presenting the facts and their corresponding arguments and explaining just how impossible a situation the UN was facing. As he says, none of this justifies UN inaction, but it does help us to understand how and why the world stood by as nearly 1 million people were slaughtered.

This book would not serve as a good introduction of the genocide itself, as the focus is really on the United Nations and its handling of the situation. If it is the actual genocide you want to learn about, read another book ("We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families" is a great introduction, as is Fergal Keane's "Season of Blood.") But if you want to understand how and why the international community so gravely failed Rwanda, this is the best book available.

This book is one of the best I have ever seen for Morocco. It is insightful, full of pictures and diagrams, and packed with information on every page. Eyewitness travel books have quickly become my favourite series of travel books. After reading this, I wanted to go to Morocco right away. It provides you with information on Dining, Hotels and Shopping, while showing you pictures and diagrams of interesting things all over the ocuntry. I recommend this book to everyone!

This book, the companion piece to the exhibition of the same name, is a blessing. Thompson, professor & head of the department of African Art at Yale, directed this incredible exhibition in 1993 at NYC's Museum of African Art. From Ifa in Nigeria, to Santeria in Puerto Rico, to Obeah in Jamaica, to Vodun in Haiti, he and his companion scholars and curators have contributed in a healing circle across the Middle Passage. Shattering damaging, racist mythologies of these religions, _Face of the Gods_ fosters an understanding for these misunderstood religions while maintaining a respectful distance. Complete with analyses, interviews, and color photographs.

This extraordinary conference in Nairobi in March 2000 on "Alleviating Poverty in Africa" was sponsored by the World Bank and the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa and covered a wide range of critical issues facing African nations today. It was the first followup on discussions between the Anglican Church and the World Bank at the 1998 Lambeth Conference. It should be read by anyone interested in Africa's problems and approaches to helping Africans help themselves.

In addition to introductions by James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank and George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, there are excellent review papers on the overall situation in Africa, and a summary, including some excerpts, of the World Bank's exhaustive survey "Voices of the Poor." Other topics include Conflict Prevention, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Corruption, Gender Inequity, Women's Issues in Health and Education, AIDS, Roles of Public and Private Sectors, Microcredit and Microfinance, the Role of the Christian Faith in Development, the Role of the Church in Poverty Alleviation, and my own paper, "Creating a Climate for Private Sector Investment."

As one who attended most of the sessions, I found this book provides a fascinating glimpse into the spiritual dimensions of poverty. A majority of the authors are African. For that reason, the book provides refreshingly different insights from those often found in publications published in Washington, DC.

This is a useful book for anyone who wants to learn more about the problems in Africa as well as those who are more expert and already involved in trying to help to solve some of those problems. At 243 pages, it is very readable and easy to take along for airplane reading.

After reading about the Khazars and thinking very little information existed about them and their past, I am amazed at how little is known about 'Ethiopian' Judaism. Mr. Kessler, one of the best sources on the subject, describes to the best of current information the history of the Beta Israel, definitely taking the view that these people are anciently related to Judaism.

His views are controversial -- many have claimed that the source of the Beta Israel was from the Arabian Peninsula, or a break-off from Ethiopian Christianity, although I find the latter hard to believe. I am currently reading other works about them written by Steven Kaplan and other.

Very little is known about the Beta Israel, hopefully much more research will be devoted to understanding them, their past, their history, their customs and their beliefs. I firmly believe that these people are Jews descended, as they believe, from Solomon. Luckily these people are still alive while other groups have unfortunately been relegated to history.

I highly recommend this work and I'm pretty sure most will enjoy it! Thank you David Kessler for all your study and devotion to this topic and to the Beta Israel.

At last! Here is a scholarly and revolutionary approach to looking at white world imperialism and black political, economic, social, and psychological reactions to that imperialism. Dr. Wilson breaks new ground with an airtight analysis of the system of global white supremacy. With skill and grace, he describes how the Afrikan mind has been damaged and reassembled by the oppressors. This book is a must read for anyone interested in freeing their mind. You should watch "The Matrix" right after reading this book!

The family in this books is deemed to be the national average. We are welcomed into their home and life through a series of pictures, quotes and well written simple text.

The family are posed for a photo with all their worldly possessions, then the book takes us through their average day and lifestyle.

It is a wonderful book that gives children an easy way to compare their lives with those of the children in the book. It is simple yet thorough.

An excellent introductory book to real life of families in Ethiopia.

Fantastic Invasion is Douglas Adams in Africa galoshes and all....discovering new tribes like the WaBenzi's and the like. This is a look at the modern African continent with a bit of tongue in cheek and none of the paternalism or simplistic viewpoints that normally pervade literature about Africa and its problems. If you are not a sensitive viewer and want your mind blown away by someone that tells it like it is read this journey through Africa. Notwithstanding that this book is more than 20 years old it still has lessons to teach us all.

A collection of case studies from field research, this book is an excellent illustration of sustainable small-scale agriculture throughout Africa. It also establishes a methodology for reporting farmer and community initiatives to a wider international audience. Agriculture has been around in Africa for a very long time. Early domestication of such staples as wheat and barley took place in Africa, coffee originated there and many food crops and plants still maintain their highest levels of biodiversity anywhere. Above all else then, FARMER INNOVATION is a testimony to creativity, originality and resilience of small-scale men and women farmers in different parts of Africa. As the editors state, what they found and are reporting on represents 'just the tip of the iceberg'; even then they identified over 1,000 innovators during the two-year study.

Reij and Waters-Bayer have gathered evidence of farmer innovation from more than a dozen countries in East, West and Southern Africa. Their research was a collaborative effort with two major, Dutch-funded, regional development programs. The individual field reports followed a clear set of selection criteria and reporting standards. The editors provided the framework, introduction and conclusion and invited a number of research and extension teams, mainly African, to present the individual case studies. The result is the portrayal of 'best farming practices' introduced and/or refined by African men and women farmers, which have proven successful against environmental and economic adversity.

The book is grouped by themes and relevant case studies from each region are summarized. For example, we find a report on how farmers "increase and diversify plant biomass" through the development of planting pits in Burkina Faso, or the use of such pits for improved maize production in southern Tanzania. "Farmer-to-farmer communication" among communities in Tigray (Ethiopia) facilitates the spreading of effective land management techniques, proving that building partnerships and sharing knowledge is an important practical trait of farmer innovators. Farmer Innovators do not work in isolation and their ideas and experiments can have a major impact on the neighbouring community and beyond. It will be important to study lessons from these experiences to influence policy and political and economic leaders: small-scale farmers have an important role to play if agriculture in Africa is to be successful and sustainable. In their concluding chapter, the editors also raise questions regarding the prevailing north-south technology transfer that has been the mainstay of African agricultural development intervention.

FARMER INNOVATION, although not a difficult read, is more designed for the research, extension and agriculture/development community than for the general audience. In order to demonstrate the consistency of their methodology, the editors allow for a certain amount of repetitive description of the consultation and investigation processes involved. The case studies themselves should motivate the reader to persevere. Anybody interested in agriculture and farming systems and techniques will find ample and interesting information in this collection.