AfricaFiles
Title: New Books on Africa 2009
Author: edited by William Minter
Category: Africa General
Date: 5/14/2009
Source: AfricaFocus Bulletin
Source Website: www.africafocus.org <http://www.africafiles.org/database/www.africafocus.org>
African Charter Article# 17: Every individual shall have the right to education, cultural life, and the promotion and protection of values.
Summary & Comment: This issue of AfricaFocus features brief notices of 15 books published so far in 2009 that I think AfricaFocus readers are likely to be interested in. This listing, including 10 on continent-wide issues or countries outside South Africa and 5 on South Africa, is far from comprehensive. But it includes a good selection of thoughtful analyses by both African writers and experienced non-African observers of the African scene. DN
New African books 2009
Editor’s Note
This issue of AfricaFocus features brief notices of 15 books published so far in 2009 that I think AfricaFocus readers are likely to be interested in. This listing, including 10 on continent-wide issues or countries outside South Africa and 5 on South Africa, is far from comprehensive. But it includes a good selection of thoughtful analyses by both African writers and experienced non-African observers of the African scene.
Patrick Chabal, Richard Dowden, William Gumede, Wangari Maathai, and Ngugi wa Thiong’o cover a wide range of African issues. Patrick Manning covers the wide African diaspora and its relation to the home continent. Mahmood Mamdani focuses in on the wider issues raised by Darfur. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Peter Uvin, and Kasahun Woldemariam raise broader issues in the context of Liberia, Burundi, and Ethiopia, respectively.
On South Africa, Mark Gevisser and Pippa Green use their biographies of Thabo Mbeki and Trevor Manuel to explore recent South African history, and Alec Russell looks to the next phase of South African history, in a book entitled “After Mandela” in the UK but provocatively retitled for the U.S. market as “Bring Me My Machine Gun.” Iris Berger provides a new overview of South African history from pre-history to the most recent developments, and the new book by cartoonist Zapiro collects his wide array of cartoons featuring Nelson Mandela.
For a much wider selection of books, visit the AfricaFocus Bookshop at: http://www.africafocus.org/books/afbooks.php or
http://www.africafocus.org/books/afbooks_uk.php .
You can browse the bookshop pages by region and country or by selected topics. There are also pages with books from African and Africa-focused publishers: http://www.africafocus.org/books/publishers.php , books by more than 100 AfricaFocus subscribers: http://www.africafocus.org/books/subscribers.php ,
the “100 best African books” of the 20th century:
http://www.africafocus.org/books/100best.php , and suggested gift books: http://www.africafocus.org/books/gifts08a.php and CDs: http://www.africafocus.org/books/gifts08b.php
Suggestions for additions are always welcome. In particular, I’m asking readers to send in additional book titles that they have written or that they recommend, that have been published this year or will be published later this year. I will add these to the web version of this AfricaFocus Bulletin issue as an update, and, and, if the number is sufficient, post them in a future issue of AfricaFocus Bulletin
