This is a very useful document with up to date practical information when traveling to South Africa. I liked the no nonsense approach and focus on the really essential information. Wish the links were hot to the resources listed.

THE BEST source for up to date (web-published 5 days prior to my purchase) and accurate info on travel to and within Uganda.
There is none of the nonsense you find in most travel guides, about what to do if you get into trouble, eg: "Notify the police immediately, if you are the victim of...". Instead iJET
simply explains why it may be better to keep your distance from the police. "Keep as low a profile as you possibly can," is the kind of advice that can keep you out of trouble in the first place. Warnings against travel to the Northwestern border areas are based on information reported just days ago by the international press. You'll never find intelligence this up to date in written guidebooks.

I am an avid birder and own all the recognised field guides to birding in the Southern African region. I have used them all extensively and am convinced that the Illustrated Guide To the Birds Of Southern Africa stands head and shoulders above its rivals. I say this for the following reasons:-The combined knowledge of its authors cannot be matched as these are the Guru's of birding in the region with Ian Sinclair undoubtedly the most travelled,most experienced and most knowledgable expert of the lot.His co-authors not being far behind!The quality and accuracy of the distribution maps are, I believe, where the field guide steals a march over other similar guides.The quality of the illustrations which show all the major plumage variations as well as flight patterns makes this an invaluable guide to experienced and novice birders alike.There is currently simply no better book on the market than this one.

Timeless Wilderness was the first book from Gerald Hinde and Richard du Toit to grace my desk. I paged through it with such excitement that I immediately phoned the publisher asking if I could meet the photographers... This book is filled with the most extraordinary images that I doubt any other photographer has ever captured. The first picture that captured my imagination in the book was the hippo's feet... The large aquatic herbivore rolled underwater in an unlikely display of water ballet and Richard du Toit was there to immortalise the moment. The collection of animal interaction shots is simply astonishing. There are shots of conflict between a Steppe Eagle and a Saddle Billed Stork, as well as between Wild Dog and Fish Eagle to name just a few. These are moments so unique they may never be captured on film again.

In writing the text for the book, Richard du Toit really includes you in those unexpected bush moments which one only experiences in a life time of beast watching. His comments show both his extensive knowledge of animal behaviour and his sensitivity in communing with wild creatures.

I do have one criticism of this beatuiful work. Richard du Toit writes magnificently and his lengthy captions left me craving for more. Let's hope that in his next book he lets the ink flow more freely and gives us even more to get stuck into.

I did finally get to meet Richard du Toit and Gerald Hinde. Over a marvellous lunch, I asked why they had named the book "Images from a Timeless Wilderness". Richard's face lit up and he said "There are a handful of places left on earth where you can feel such primal power. This place on the Kwai River feels as though it hasn't changed since the beginning of time. It is the real Eden."

Thankfully, there are talented souls like Gerald Hinde and Richard du Toit to document in exquisite detail the fleeting moments of magic in this African Eden.

Being the editor of this book, I wanted to be the first to say a few words about this significant achievement. Images of Africa is not just any other book on Africa. Images of Africa: Stereotypes & Realities offers rare and exceptional insights into the historical and cultural processes through which the various perceptions of Africa since ancient times came to crystallize themselves in the form of negative images and stereotypes so pervasive and profound that the continent, to date, has had a hard time shaking them off.

Working from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives, the contributors to this volume, including Martin Bernal, world-renowned author of the revolutionary Black Athena, add substantially to the pool of new Africanist/Afrocentrist knowledge and revisionism that, in the past four decades or so, has helped to uncover huge chunks of purposefully hidden and deformed African history. This book therefore sets the record straight by deconstructing the multifarious images and stereotypes that, century after century, came to deform, invalidate and misconstruct the African universe, burying it under layers of historical fallacies that explorers, missionaries and 18th- and 19th-century scholars and thinkers consecrated as historical truths in their attempts to denigrate the non-west in general, and Africa in particular.

Contributors to this impressive volume include not only Molefi Asante, who wrote the preface, but also Martin Bernal, renowned author of Black Athena.

I can only congratulate you if you bought this book. But I also urge others, whether they know Africa well or not, to buy the book because they will see in it a side of Africa that has not always been put forward in books that have endeavored to do justice to the history of this most stereotyped continent.

Imaginings of Sand - André Brink

This beautifully crafted and sensitive book deals with many of the important issues which South Africans must now face in the post-apartheid era. The novel begins with the return of Kristien Muller to her dying grandmother's bedside. The grandmother is a wonderful character, full of enchantment, mischief, energy and most importantly stories. She is the keeper of stories about the family's history and origins, in particular the parallel histories and stories of the women in their family throughout the generations. This is part of the reason for Kristien's return, to receive the gift of stories and memory from her grandmother before the old woman dies. While the novel centres around the relationship between Kristien and her grandmother, Ouma Kristina, the novel is also a complex matrix of parallel and interconnected dialogues with the other characters in the novel, from the past and the present, which constantly interrupt and participate in the central dialogue. Brink deals with the themes of returning home, the re-imagining of the past in order to move forward, recognising roots and ancestry and their implications in the present and the exploration of the dynamics between history and story, the real and the imaginary, and fact and fiction. Brink captures the mood of South Africa on the eve of the elections very accurately, he portrays the heightened states of fear, cynicism and evil alongside the passion, hope, excitement and idealism with sensitivity and compassion, while still conveying a powerful warning to those who wish to thwart the much needed and inevitable transition to democracy. In Ouma Kristina's stories there is a distinctly African flavour, which can be linked to the rediscovery of African tradition in South Africa and the move away from Eurocentric ideologies. Ouma Kristina's stories combine Afrikaner legends and stories with those of the indigenous African people, the KhoiSan and in doing so Brink demonstrates how interconnected the histories of these two groups are, and there is perhaps the suggestion that in rediscovering a shared history lies the hope for conciliation and a better understanding of one another in the future. While this novel has many distinctly South African nuances to it, it should still appeal to a wide readership because apart from the sheer brilliance of Brink's story-telling, the broader themes that are dealt with are really universal in nature and effect most of us at some time in our lives.

Today Ms. Chocolate came to our school and read this tale for the children...not only was the story lively and vivid, but she is a truly wonderful reader who kept the kids spellbound. This is a great book and the pictures are wonderful!

The author of "In Darkest Hollywood" is Peter Davis

Dervla Murphy has to be one of the gutsiest travel writers around. Her exploits in this book include slipping down precipitous slopes and dangerously narrow paths dragging an unwilling loaded mule behind her, sleeping in flea and rat infested hovels, being robbed by armed brigands etc etc. Armchair travellers will just love it!

Diawara's book is provocative and important for understanding African critical thinking in the twentieth century. The book is especially important for the "third perspective" it enables us to gain for a rereading of Richard Wright's <>. I strongly recommend this book to Wright scholars and African Americanists in general.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr., Lawrence Durgin Profesor of Literature, Tougaloo College