Books

Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century, An

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Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century, An
Marie-Helene Boisdur de Toffol , Joelle Busca , Sabine Cornelis , Elsbeth Court , Francisco d'Almeida , Etienne Feau , Till Forster , Joseph Gazari Seini , Joanna Grabski , Sigrid Horsch-Albert , Bennetta Jules-Rosette , George Kyeyune , Alexandra Loumpet-Galitzine , Marylin Martin , Elikia M'Bokolo , and Simon Njami
Manufacturer: D.A.P./Editions Revue Noire
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Modern | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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African Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection
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ASIN: 1891024388
Release Date: 2002-06-02

Book Description

The term "Modern African Art" is not an abuse of language. The 20th century has seen, but not properly documented, the birth, development, and maturation of contemporary art in sub-Saharan Africa, an art which was not simply imported in the 1950s but which finds its sources both in colonial realities and in local cultures and civilizations. Anthology of African Art: The Twentieth Century does not propose to document any one African art, but rather to open up this vast but underexplored field to include a diverse theoretical, historical, geographical, and critical map of this dense and ancient region. Contributions by more than 30 international authors recount the birth of art schools in the 1930s, the development of urban design and public art, and the importance of socially-concerned art during the Independence movements. From Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the Belgian Congo to Ghana, Senegal, and Angola, through the works of hundreds of artists working in every conceivable medium and context, this anthology manages the continental and unique feat of providing a thorough, expansive, diversified, and fully illustrated history of African art in the 20th century. Since 1991, Paris-based Revue Noire Editions has dedicated itself to the multidisciplinary artistic production of the African continent and the African diaspora. Publishers of the critically-acclaimed An Anthology of African Photography, a comprehensive chronicle of African photography from the mid-1800s to the present, Revue Noire also produces a self-titled magazine devoted to contemporary African art and culture.

Sierra Leone at the End of the Twentieth Century: History, Politics, and Society

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Sierra Leone at the End of the Twentieth Century
Siera Leone at the twentieth century: History, politics and

Sierra Leone at the End of the Twentieth Century: History, Politics, and Society
Earl Conteh-Morgan , and Mac Dixon-Fyle
Manufacturer: Peter Lang Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Sierra Leone | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

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In Sierra Leone
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Conflict and Collusion in Sierra Leone

ASIN: 0820441724

Book Description

Sierra Leone's current predicament can best be understood within a continuum spanning its precolonial to its more contemporary history. This study traces the contradictions of the historical legacy and the excesses of the independent nation-state to unravel the sequences of dependency that culminated almost inevitably in political instability, unprecedented socio-economic decline, and civil war. The authors draw on a rich texture of historical and political insights reflecting established knowledge, while also plumbing contemporary orature to present a truly holistic perspective of this soft state. Students, scholars, or general readers interested in the dilemmas of developing states will find this essential reading.

Customer Reviews:

Sierra Leone at the End of the Twentieth Century.......2001-07-16

Balancing personal insight with extensive research, Conteh-Morgan and Dixon-Fyle have managed an in-depth, yet concise and at times self-critical, analysis of modern-day Sierra Leone. I recommend this book to anyone who either needs, or wants, a better understanding of Sierra Leone.

Siera Leone at the twentieth century: History, politics and.......2000-06-08

Fisrt of all, I congratulate the author(s) of this book. For the fact that he wrote about Sierra Leone at the end of the twentieth century. A war turn country which is politically detorated by politician. Historically it is colonized by Britain in 1961 and many of thier decendants where former slaves from the US, Cuba, Spain, UK etc. The culture and society of Siera Leone is okay. It has some little connection with western society in some certain sense unlike the Poro for men, Bondo for women etc. That why I first of all congratulated the author(s) for thier contribution although i not yet read the content of the book. it's a book that is intresting to the world. Because it came to a time (1999) when all international communities uncluding NGOs attensions are focused on that country for it brutal war especially at the end of the 20th century. So that is my preview of the this book. If any questions you let me know through my mail. Thanks.

The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry: Fourth Edition (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)

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The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry: Fourth Edition (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Various
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

African | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Under African Skies: Modern African Stories
The Poetry of Our World: An International Anthology of Contemporary Poetry
Nervous Conditions
Collected Plays 2
The Dark Child: The Autobiography of an African Boy

ASIN: 0141181001

A History of the Excluded: Making Family a Refuge from State in Twentieth-Century Tanzania (Eastern African Studies)

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A History of the Excluded: Making Family a Refuge from State in Twentieth-Century Tanzania (Eastern African Studies)
James L. Giblin
Manufacturer: Ohio University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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In Search of a Nation: Histories of Authority & Dissidence in Tanzania (Eastern African Studies)

ASIN: 0821416685

Book Description

The twentieth-century history of Njombe, the Southern Highlands district of Tanzania, can aptly be summed up as exclusion within incorporation. Njombe was marginalized even as it was incorporated into the colonial economy. Njombe’s people came to see themselves as excluded from agricultural markets, access to medical services, schooling—in short, from all opportunity to escape the impoverishing trap of migrant labor.

In Search of a Character: Two African Journals: Congo Journey and Convoy to West Africa (Twentieth-Century Classics)

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In Search of a Character: Two African Journals: Congo Journey and Convoy to West Africa (Twentieth-Century Classics)
Graham Greene
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014018578X

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Good book

The Twentieth Century: A Brief History
Richard Goff , Walter G Moss , Janice Terry , and Jiu-Hwa Upshur
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

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The Twentieth Century: Readings in Global History

ASIN: 0072348534

Book Description

Written by a diverse group of scholars who bring their regional expertise together, this unique and comprehensive text uses organization as a key tool to help students appreciate this important period in global history. Its clear prose weaves basic factual information and analysis to create a ‘student-friendly' text while still allowing for professors' personal interpretation. An introductory chapter introduces five key topics or themes whose influence on the various developments and events in the twentieth century are chronologically discussed throughout the text. More analysis, less detail and refined prose combine with new and retained features to make the 6th edition of 'The Twentieth Century: A Brief Global History' a best selling text for the 20th Century World course.

Customer Reviews:

Good book.......2006-11-23

I bought this book for a college course and ended up reading almost all of it. It presents the subject matter very well and is well-written. I don't even really like History all that much and this book had me reading it.

Journey without Maps (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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In the heart of darkness, a ray of light
Excellent transaction
Found what he went looking for and more
Greene's geographical foray
Real Life "Adventure"

Journey without Maps (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Graham Greene
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Travel | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

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The Lawless Roads (Penguin Classics)
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Travels with My Aunt (Vintage Classics)

ASIN: 0140185798

Book Description

His mind crowded with vivid images of Africa, Graham Greene set off in 1935 to discover Liberia, a remote and unfamiliar republic founded for released slaves. Now with a new introduction by Paul Theroux, Journey Without Maps is the spellbinding record of Greene's journey. Crossing the red-clay terrain from Sierra Leone to the coast of Grand Bassa with a chain of porters, he came to know one of the few areas of Africa untouched by colonization. Western civilization had not yet impinged on either the human psyche or the social structure, and neither poverty, disease, nor hunger seemed able to quell the native spirit. BACKCOVER: “One of the best travel books [of the twentieth] century.”
—Norman Sherry

“Journey Without Maps and The Lawless Roads reveal Greene's ravening spiritual hunger, a desperate need to touch rock bottom within the self and in the humanly created world.”
—The Times Higher Education Supplement

Customer Reviews:

In the heart of darkness, a ray of light.......2007-03-01

Graham Greene is a famous 20th C novelist ("The Orient Express") who also wrote a few travel accounts. This is his first, when he was 31 years old and left Europe for the first time in his life to experience the uncivilized "dark heart of Africa" by traveling through the back country of Liberia in 1935. It was a 4-week, 350-mile walk, mostly through an unchanging tunnel forest path, ending each day in a primitive village. He had about a dozen black porters who would carry him in a sling, although he walked much of the way.

It's written with a very "old school" perspective, with one foot in the 19th (or 18th) century of romantic colonial imperialism, and one foot in the pre-war 1930s perspective of deterioration, rot and things falling apart. Heavy whiskey drinking, descriptions of the festering diseases of the natives, and plethora of bothersome insects, the run down European outposts and a motley cast of white rejects fill many descriptive pages.

It reminds me a lot of Samuel Johnson's "Journals of the Western Isles" (1770s) when Johnson, who had never left England in his life, decided to go to Scotland to see what uncivilized people were like. Just as Johnson brought Boswell who would go on to write his own version of the trip, Greene brought his female cousin Barbara Greene (who remains unnamed in the book and largely unmentioned), who went on to write her own version of the trip in the 1970s called "Too Late to Turn Back", which mostly contradicts Grahams version.

I can't say I totally enjoyed this book, I found Greene's attitude irritating - but therein lies its value, as a snapshot of prewar European zeitgeist. It is reminiscent of "Kabloona" (1940), another prewar travel account to an uncivilized place (Arctic Eskimos) by a young European aristocrat, who also is deeply inward looking and finds a new perspective and appreciation for the "cave man" people he meets. It's very much a transition period between prewar and post-war attitudes and the fluctuation's back and forth, the sense of things falling apart, but also new-found perspective, make it a challenging but interesting work.

Excellent transaction.......2007-02-06

This book provides and excellent background about traveling in the country of Liberia during the mid-19th century. A well written and interesting travelogue.

Found what he went looking for and more.......2006-09-21

Graham Greene was weary and appalled by the world atrocities of the early 20th century. He decided to go looking for life as basic and unspoiled as it was in the beginning. He chose to do so in Liberia, the African nation that had always been under black rule and not colonized or fleeced by Europe in modern times, though even it was a western construct, carved out of the continent by Americans as a homeland to repatriate freed slaves (or, as Greene says, a place to hide mulatto offspring). His trek on foot lasted the month of February 1935, and JOURNEY WITHOUT MAPS is his account of what became a transformative experience.

The title is derived from the fact that there were no true maps available of Liberia at the time. He relied on a caravan of native porters and a lot of guestimations as to what direction and how far it would be from village to village. Once leaving the ragged European communities near the coast, he and his party plunged into that virgin world he sought. What he describes in exquisite detail is now familiar to us via decades of National Geographics but was then, to someone who had never left Europe at that point, a culture shock. He learned to leave behind his English insistence on time table and surprise at naked, ritually scarred bodies, the persistent sound of drums and the utter poverty of villages. He did not let go his own clothes or whiskey or discomfort over rats and insects. He is eventually waylaid by sickness, and in the healing process comes out with a new, more life affirming personal vision. Though it seems as if the details of the daily marches, the insects and discomforts are so much of the same, by the end you see the impact of the experience. He found what he went looking for and more, and he was not afraid to leave some mysteries unsolved.

Greene's prose is clear as a bell and graceful. His observations of contemporary politics and missionaries, as well as the elasticity of truth in such a setting are valuable today, even seasoned with his candid biases.

Greene's geographical foray.......2006-08-15

I've read a number of Greene's novels, but this little travel book was equal to his other publications. As usual, his attention to detail, people, and culture creates wonderful images that bring us right to the Liberia of the 1930s. I shared the book with my sister who lived in Liberia for 27 yrs. and she was astonished at the accurate reporting. His prose is the best I've read for a book devoted to travel experiences.

Real Life "Adventure".......2001-09-24

Not an adventure when compared to fictional safari tales in which the intrepid travellers fight off fierce lions and savage "natives" in every chapter. Instead, an enjoyable and realistic account of Greene's arduous and near-disasterous trek through Liberia. Greene travelled with his cousin, Barbara Greene, who also wrote an account of their journey--Too Late to Turn Back. Interesting contrasts between the two books if you can find copies of both. I had to order a copy of Barbara's book from a used book store in England.

North of South: An African Journey (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)

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Naipaul's glance at post-Colonial Africa
Sadly neglected and misunderstood masterpiece
Tragic, funny account of the Way We Were ....
African Travelogue
Wonderful

North of South: An African Journey (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics)
Shiva Naipaul
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Naipaul's glance at post-Colonial Africa.......2005-08-27

Shiva Naipaul's _North of South: An African Journey_ is the most cynical book I've ever read. It is a travelogue of the author's visit to three postcolonial African countries in the 1970s: Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Naipaul is a Hindu, born in Trinidad, and he pays attention to the role (and plight) of South Asians (Hindus, Pakistanis, Sikhs, Parsees, etc) in East Africa. He also focuses on the black-white relations in Africa as well. Naipaul gives Africa and everyone involved in its affairs (whites, blacks and Asians) no credit whatsoever. Declining European colonial powers gave their African colonies political independence in the 1960s and a variety of demagogues like and Julius Nyerre in Tanzania who took power spouting third world varieties of socialism and Marxism. Despite claims of social and economic progress, Africa remains as backward as ever. Naipaul freely writes of his disgust with the countries and its deceived leadership from the first page of the book until the last. This book, like another reviewer noted below, certainly is not going to make it into a black studies program anytime soon. It is a relief from portraits of Africa that classify it as a tropical paradise, a land of innocents exploited by evil Europeans, or conversely an AIDS infested human disaster. Naipaul's cynicism shows Africa the way it really is-struggling, corrupt, deceived, but at the same time Afroca is chugging along optimistically in some areas, with idealism and occasional realism, and attempting to do as well as it can to develop itself. No dry textbook prose here; the book is short, easy to read, engaging and very well written.

Sadly neglected and misunderstood masterpiece.......2005-02-12

This is a wonderfully written book; Naipaul's proses flows effortlessly across the page, the connexion between thought and word is seemless. The comparatively small body of work Naipaul produced before his tragic early death has been neglected in favour of that of his less talented, but longer lived, brother (a Nobel Prizewinner). However in this one work, Naipaul's prosody surpasses anything produced either by his brother, or by other twentieth century travel writers like Thoreau. That said, some of the other reviews here are ludicrously jaundiced and do a disservice to the book itself. This is no crude work of 'anti-pc' nonsense (an American political term that the archly European Naipaul would have shuddered at). The prose is not illiberal (in the American sense of the term) but rather aristocratic, in the best tradition of Evelyn Waugh (the writer Naipaul most resembles). Like Waugh, Naipaul's caustic observations rip into the heart of human weakness and frailty, exposing the hypocrisy and cant from all sides. The pretensions of ghastly businessmen disgust him as much as the crudity of the black 'socialists'. Those who seek to defend either Marxism or any form of business enterprise system face Naipaul's perfectly expressed derision. I personally found Naipaul's lack of human feeling at the extent of Africa's poverty a little shocking but it is a rapturous pleasure to be so shocked.

Tragic, funny account of the Way We Were ...........2004-12-23

North of South describes Shiva Naipaul's journey through Eastern Africa as it emerged from colonialism several decades ago. Optimism and energy prevailed alongside a blind faith in imported philosophies which pundits failed to translate meaningfully to the impoverished, illiterate masses around them.

Naipaul is a witty, bold writer with a gift for sharp imagery and an uncanny radar for subtle undercurrents in human interaction - the hypocrisy of the black elite, the jittery desperation of the settlers, the paranoid clannishness of the Asians. He also vividly portrays the deepening poverty and decaying infrastructure that underscored the failure of well-intentioned socialism in Tanzania.

While some racists may use it to justify their beliefs, the book is more a compassionate, humorous look at pre-industrial populations trying to forge national identities from scratch.

While today's poor countries may not have to follow the painstaking, centuries-long process that western countries did, this is still a reminder that there is no shortcut to institutional development.

For Africans, this nostalgic book shows how far we have come, but is also a challenge to craft a fresh vision for the long distance still left to travel.

African Travelogue.......2002-02-16

I'm trying very hard to figure out how I can review this book without coming across as an ignorant, bubble-headed liberal or a rabid racist. Hmmm... I don't think it's going to happen. North of South, by the late Shiva Naipaul, is essentially a travelogue of a trip to parts of Africa in the 1970's, specifically Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Welded to the descriptions of people and scenery are sharp observations on class, racism, government and colonialism. Naipaul's eye misses nothing during his travel, and his anecdotes are both humorous and sad. It was interesting to see that this guy is the brother of V.S. Naipaul, who recently won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Anyway, this book is not going to be found on the syllabus of any black studies classes anytime soon.

North of South reveals Africa in all of its glory: degenerate, corrupt and lazy. What really stands out is how Africans have taken Western ideas and applied them to their own situations, often with laughable results. Take the case of Tanzanian Socialism. Naipaul can barely contain a chuckle at the absurdity of this situation. Almost everyone he meets praises the administration, but almost no one has any true sense of what it's all about (to be fair, the same could be said for most nations). The corruption is truly astonishing. Bribery abounds everywhere, especially at border crossings, where tourists are routinely harassed and threatened with imprisonment if their papers aren't in order. A story in which Naipaul is conned when he gets a shoeshine is a good example. Not only does the guy ruin his shoes, he tries to overcharge him in the process. Naipaul constantly has to shell out the bucks to get even the most basic services, if he gets them at all. Hotels are run down traps, prostitution is epidemic, and beggars and the unemployed are everywhere. The few situations where something actually works are attributed to the presence of white expatriates, and even here there is the danger that the black government will step in at any minute and expel the whites.

Probably the most bothersome aspect of this book, and one that costs Naipaul a star in my review, is the bias Naipaul shows in regards to the "Asian" population in Africa. The "Asians" are actually of Indian descent, as is Naipaul. Naipaul reveals that Africans are prejudiced against these Indians and he seems to take it personally (what a surprise! Blacks can actually be racists!). Much time is spent on this problem and it opens Naipaul up to charges of retaliatory prejudice. Naipaul is much more effective when he shows how both blacks and whites have their racist attitudes, and how both races have been brought down together through the process of colonialism.

This is an obscure book that probably will never get much attention in the politically correct atmosphere of America. If you want to make a liberal's head explode, buy this book and tuck it into their stocking next Christmas. If you need a break from the multicultural crowd, this is the book for you.

Wonderful.......1999-06-25

The book's humor will make you laugh a little uneasily, like the best of satire. A wonderfully detailed vision of Africa.

A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi (Golden Palm Series)

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Too much left unexplained...
Exellelent introduction to Sufism
From a novice...
not bad...

A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century: Shaikh Ahmad al-Alawi (Golden Palm Series)
Martin Lings
Manufacturer: Islamic Texts Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mecca: From Before Genesis Until Now

ASIN: 0946621500

Book Description

'Almost a prerequisite for any serious study of Sufism in European languages': this was the verdict of Seyyed Hossein Nasr in his review of the first edition of the book. According to the Journal of Near Eastern Studies, it is 'one of the most thorough and intimately engaging books on Sufism to be produced by a Western scholar'. Certainly there is nothing second-hand about it. The author lets Sufis speak for themselves and, in a series of unusual and absorbing texts mainly translated from Arabic, he gives a vivid picture of life in a North African Sufi order. Against this background stands the unforgettable figure of the Algerian Shaikh who was head of the order from 1909 until his death in 1934. The last few chapters are mainly devoted to his writings, which include some penetrating aphorisms, and which end with a small anthology of his remarkable mystic poems.

Customer Reviews:

Too much left unexplained..........2006-08-31

Im not really a big fan of Lings dry style of writing,but i also see its benefits.Perhaps i am stil learning to appreciate it.He usually stays well away from the hyperbole you find in the sufism genre.But Hyperbole does help capture certain aspects of a personality that you always feel is missing here.
There is also a sense of understement in the emotional atmosphere ,if The Sheikh was as close to meeting jesus in the flesh as possible,i would properbly have feinted on the spot!

Certain other aspects of Sheikh Alawais life,such as his relationship to his so-called western murids,namely Guenon and Schuon are also left unchartered.
I was hoping for more here,especially considering Schuon became a complete weirdo later on.
Perhaps Lings wished to distance himself from those two,but anyway it left me wondering.
If u can read Arabic im sure you can get more valuable literature about The Sheikh,otherwise its worth having only if u alreayd have a peaked interest in the subject matter.
Otherwise there is much better sufi material out there.

Exellelent introduction to Sufism.......2005-09-26

A fine introduction to Sufism by Mr Martin Lings, one of the great writers on Islam and Sufism in recent years. The book is a biography of the Algerian Sheikh Ahmed al-Alawi the late grand Sheikh of the Alawiyye branch of the Shadhiliyye order one of the largets Sufi orders in Africa. The book begins with an introduction to Sufism for a doctor who has come to treat the Sheikh at his 'Zawiya' (Sufi meeting place)His impressions are unique in itself as a Frenchman and member of the colonialist class who in general looked upon the native Algerians and especially their religious leaders with contempt, although he does not enter the order he is left on reflection of his meeting with the Sheikh a profound feeling that he has truly been in the presence of a man of great spiritual light (describing him on first encounter as being similar to the traditional images of Christ)The book then gives a brief history of Sufism, the Alawiyye order and its founder Sheikh al-Alawi before chapter 2 goes on to explain the doctrine of the Sufi order. Chapter 3 is a translation of some of the Sheikhs works including his poetry.

For anyone who has read the works of Thomas Merton, His Holiness the Dalai Lama or has any interest in Islam or Sufism this book will certainly be welcome on their bookshelf, truly a book for those of a spiritual heart.

From a novice..........2002-12-24

Though I don't know much about such things as whether this book is good in comparison to others, I can give my personal opinion. The first half of the book is more or less a biography, which is both entertaining and inspirational for anyone who likes to read about people and their lives...one interesting side note is that they compare his greatness to that of Ramana Maharshi. In any case...the second half of the book is absolutly amazing, and anyone who is new to the language the sufis use to explain universal truths will say "wow" more than once while reading this book...I would read a page or two and it would be interesting, and then I would suddenly read something that shifted me, made me give thanks and put the book down. This book is not for those who see themself as the judge..it is for those who are thankful for being gifted even the slightest desire to want to know and be with God. You will find something useful here. Peace.

not bad..........2000-08-10

I give it the stars, only because it is the only English translation of the great Shaykh Al Alawi. The BIGGEST mistake of the book, and why oh why did they get away with it was when the story goes how Al Alawi was given the tariq. pg 68 says that he received the tariq in a dream. This is incorrect, and if it wasn't for that I would have given this book more stars! All in all, it was a nice read, there is a photo of him Rahimullah, Is it really him though?? Although it is a biography, at the end there are some of his wonderful poetry, and Mystical sayings to his murid's! That was the highlight of the book, oh and some nice brush ups on Islamic history of that time in the Maghrib area!

Double-Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature

Average customer rating:

wonder theorizing and a great literary voice

Double-Consciousness/Double Bind: Theoretical Issues in Twentieth-Century Black Literature
Sandra Adell
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

African-American & Black | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

wonder theorizing and a great literary voice.......2000-02-04

I had the pleasure to take a course from Professor Adell and this book is an extension of her great work in the classroom. While heavily geared toward the academic, Adell's writing style adds a smooth lyric voice that engages the reader. Don't fool yourself, you should get your mind around this. If not, look out, Professor Adell doesn't take any lip!

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