Probably the best map of the region for planning an overland expedition for travel. Although becoming outdated with the use of GPS, it is nonetheless the map for determing overall a trip to the region.

This book is quite dense. It makes for slow and contemplative reading. As a review of the anthropological literature of the Middle East, it should be a required text for any graduate or upper level undergraduate social sciences course focussing on the Middle East or Central Asia. Original source material is summarized and analyzed in comparison to other viewpoints, particularly across time. Anyone with further interest in particular areas of culture could skim the footnotes to find the complete citations for the original material. Each chapter also concludes with an annotated list of further readings, which would also be quite useful for the interested reader. My favorite sections were the second chapter, Intellectual Predecessors: East and West, and the last part of the last chapter, Writing Middle Eastern Anthropology.

This book offers a comprehrensive insight in the colourful world of the many types beads used in the trade with West Africa. With about 3000 diffrent colour combinations of glass beads. A must for every collector of beads. And fun to recognise the collected beads.

I was given a copy of Misoso for my birthday. It was a gift from one of my best sister-friends when she found that I was to become an aunt.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this to my niece, who is now 5 years old. pssssst(I also keep a copy in my office)This book is entirely appealing. The stories will transport one to a different time and place. The pictures are simply gorgeous ...the size of the pages are perfect for reading to groups of children, the vibrant colors, the rhythmic language...If only the prints in the book were commercially available....

It has replaced Make Way for Duckling and Where the Wild Things Are as my favorite children's books. If things couldn't get any better, this book is a compilation of SEVERAL stories.

The lessons learned in this book are universal; hence, children of all ethnicities will appreciate them. This book DEMANDS to be read out loud; luckily, Ms. Aardema's flare for words can make a lyrical storyteller out of anyone.

This gentle, brave man was explorer, missionary, doctor, scientist and anti-slavery activist. He traveled 29,000 miles in Africa and added about a million square miles to the known portion of the earth. His writings were decisive in ending three hundred years of African slave trading. And here's the end of the story: he died of fever in a small African village while kneeling in prayer by his bedside. His body was returned to England and is buried in Westminster Abbey. But his heart, as he wished it to be, was buried by the natives, in Africa.

A fascinating life, well-told. A book to not only enjoy, but treasure.

This is a fantastic tale of two young women - thoroughly engaging. Anyone who wants to learn about what it was like to live in Apartheid South Africa should read this book, however it would appeal to any young woman who knows what it is to have friendship. Despite the author being my grandmother - I can honestly recommend this book to all ages. It is a wonderful piece of fiction that is not to be missed!

"Teams of researchers from three areas with longlasting conflicts--Israel, South Africa, and Northern Ireland--report on the role peace and conflict resolution organizations have played in the promotion of peace. The authors provide not only a considerate account of an era of initiatives to resolve a protracted conflict, but they have also successfully integrated for the first time literatures on social movements, non-governmental organizations, and civil society. A groundbreaking and unique project."

Bert Klandermans, Dept. of Socio-Cultural Sciences, Free University, Amsterdam

"Peace making is a virtuous circle. Ending intransigent conflict requires successful political negotiations, a continual commitment to non-violence, and the demonstration of new ways of living together. Professors Gidron, Katz and Hasenfeld provide the ground breaking analysis of how peace and conflict resolution organizations show conflict-torn societies how to reimagine their futures. Examining Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Israel/Palestine, these scholars and their colleagues demonstrate the organizational structure of hope-and the whole world owes them a debt of gratitude for it."

Barbara J. Nelson, Dean, UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research

"Gidron, Katz and Hasenfeld have edited a volume of extraordinary reach, an extensive and complex series of case studies of peace and conflict resolution organizations in three national arenas. Carefully contexualizing the nature of ethno-racial and socio-political conflict in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel-Palestine, they examine the networks among peace advocates and the role of voluntary sector organizations in seeking peace and justice. They grapple in exemplary fashion with cross-national problems of coming to consensus about definitions, research methods, theoretical schemes and the resultant politicization of findings. A major work with enormous implications for students of national and international conflict and for policy-makers and public advocates concerned with conflict resolution and peace-making."

Mark Chesler, Professor of Sociology, University of Michigan

I spent almost all of my professional career concerned with the mapping of Africa. And in the course of mapping one scans and extracts a lot of information from various open sources. In the course of this study I became familiar with the social, economic, and military happenings in Southern Africa.
I can say that except for the works of Al J. Venter, a reporter from South Africa, there are very few books with detail on the bush wars conducted by black nationalists in opposition to the minority white rule resulting from colonialism. And often the insurgents had clashed among themselves for ethnic reasons and some blacks remained loyal to the minority governments.
In other cases, when the white rulers gave up and went home as did the Portuguese in Angola and Moçambique the remaining contenders began civil wars backed by the west and by the Communists respectively. In 1976, the Portuguese Army had revolted in protest to the endless bush wars in Africa and overthrew the government. The army had been especially disgusted with the conflict in defense of Portuguese Guinea-(now Guinea-Bissau) located on the shoulder of West Africa, a hot and worthless swamp land which had no economic value and a land where there were few white settlers.
In contrast, the Portuguese ruled lands in Southern Africa had a large settler class, intermarriage was common,for there was no color line there, as there was in English speaking colonies. But still the post independence unrest was such that most of the settlers migrated back to Portugal and some to Brazil. A civil war ensued which is still going on.
Immediately to the south of Angola lies the land of SW Africa, now Namibia, whose international status was not that of a colony but that of a UN mandate gone bad. After WW I the League of Nations had assigned the governing of the former German colony of South West Africa to the Union of South Africa recently formed from the former British colonies of Cape Province and Natal and the two former Boer Republics, conquered in the Boer War at the turn of the century. At that time world opinion backed the poor pitiful (sic) Boers against the big bad British Empire. The black inhabitants of the area had had no say in the matter. They were just there.
The unique thing about the Boers or Afrikaaners, as we now call them is that, first, they had been settled originally some 400 years ago. The cape was a natural stopping point for ships sailing to India before the Suez Canal was buit and the magnificent harbor of Capetown was a busy place. So busy that the English started to settle there, finally took over and the Boers moved inland to get away and enjoy self rule.
This is part of the national legend of the Voortrekkers. Oxcarts across the prairies to the promised land. Does this sound like our western movement in the US? Especially that of the Mormons. The anology certainly rang a bell with American public opinion in the days of the Boer War.
The Boers were a hard people in a hard land. When they moved northeast in their great migration, they ran into another great migration coming southwest from the area of present day Zimbabwe. These were the ancestors of the Zulus who were quite a contrast to the meek Bushmen that the Afrikaners had first encountered. Another hard people. Well the Boers won the first round and subjugated the African tribes. The African majority finally achieved political freedom under the leadership of Nelson Mandela after fifty years of struggle. Now we can hope they get it all sorted out and enforce the social peace which is lacking and spread the economic bounty to a wider participation. The majority is composed of pure blooded Africans.
Now we know why the Afrikaners were so stubborn in clinging to their rule. Even though they were descended from Dutch settlers, so many years ago, their language is now a distinct one. Afrikaans is even the mother tongue of the Colored peoples, the term used for people of mixed white and black ancestry. What this means is that, contrasted to the British descended South African whites and those from India, the fourth major racial group in SA, they are a tribe and think of themselves as such. They are not transplanted Englishmen who, if displaced, could fly back to Blighty; the Afrikaaners cannot go back, they are home. Thus their stubborn efforts to resist assimilation for all the 200 years since the British came to Cape Colony.
For many years the Afrikaaners saw the tides of black nationalism and liberation wash up far away from their borders; so long as Portugal held out in southern Africa and the white Rhodesian regime remained in power there was precious little that armed opposition could do. International sanctions imposed by the UN in response to the refusal to give Namibia its freedom, meant little with such a huge barrier area. Although Namibia had been long ruled as the "Fifth Province", its economic system integrated into that of SA, it is still rich enough in resources and has a population that can go it alone.
Finally, the South African forces which had operated in Namibia and in southern Angola after its independence came home.

I would send a comprehensive write up later

Kourouma creates a narrative in "Monnew" as complex and compelling as Joyce's "Ulysses." The narrative is divided among an indeterminate number of voices (most likely two or three) and in doing so places the reader among the events in the text. The different narratives conflict, and tell different stories of the same event. The reader is thrown amongst this conflictual narrative equipped, with the sharp sarcasm Kourouma is known for, for a reason. The reader cannot truly rely on the narrative and therefore must interpret the situations much in the same way the griot interprets the situation previous to composing an epic or oral tale of it. This unique relationship that Kourouma allows the reader to establish is both engaging and incredibly unique.
Kourouma like many of the top African authors deals with not only the wrongs of colonialism but patriarchy as well. In the west we do not see such compassion for the oppressed gender, as most of our canon consists of European (or of European descent) males writing about men like themselves and not usually giving round characters to the women they portray. Kourouma portrays the strength of the African woman most notably in chapter ten and the ending of the novel with the wife, Moussokoro of the Keita king Djigui.
Kourouma is writing for a purpose in this novel. Like his contemporaries (Ayi Kwei Armah in "2000 Seasons") Kourouma has an incredible ability to deal with history in a way that is encompassing and exciting. By the end of the novel the protagonist who is close to anti-hero status is older than anyone is willing to count and the dawn of African independence is at hand and with it a plethora of new conflicts to confront. In this sense it is somewhat geographically associated prequel to his first novel "THE SUNS OF INDEPENDENCE," which deals with the problems found at the end of "Monnew," throughout its exposition.
This book is at the top of the African Literature reading list. In terms of literature as a whole it is an incredible masterpiece worthy of the world reading. "Monnew" creates such a vivid reading experience that I would recomend it to anyone interested in African Literature, African/World history, or contemporary literary classics that are sure to be enjoyed for a long time.