| The House Has Fallen: Midnight in Nigeria - Karl Maier. This is the latest current-affairs analysis of Nigeria. The author spent many years in the area and is very knowledgeable; an excellent read. The first paragraph describes perfectly my daily commute in Port Harcourt, down to the choking diesel exhaust. |
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Malaria Dreams: An African Adventure - Stuart Stevens. An off-beat story about a couple trying to get a Land Rover from the Central African Republic to the Mediterranean. Well written with some very funny parts.
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| Out of American: A Black Man Confronts Africa - Keith Richburg. An "African-American" journalist writes of his experience in Africa and the confrontation with his "African roots". |
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Travels In The White Man's Grave: Memoirs from West and Central Africa - Donald MacIntosh. This Brit worked for the timber industry in the 50's, before mechanisation enabled wholesale destruction of the rain forest. Working throughout West Africa, he spent long periods with the local population, deep in the bush. These witty tales, almost 50 years old, could've taken place yesterday. Out of print in the US, it's available through Amazon in the UK. |
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The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War - Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva. A group of white South African journalists, dubbed The Bang-Bang Club, covered the tumultuous events surrounding Apartheid's demise. I found the writers a bit arrogant, but it's a good glimpse into township politics and just how close the country came to civil war.
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Long Walk to Freedom : The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. This huge autobiography is an easy read. Few, if any, Western leaders compare in charm and leadership ability. Even I would resume voting if he were on the ballot.
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Big Men, Little People : The Leaders Who Defined Africa - Alec Russell. While covering Africa for the Daily Telegraph, this journalist was (un)fortunate to meet many of Africa's Big Men. With a chapter dedicated to each leader, it's a great look at the influences of colonialism, tribal politics, the Cold War, and Western ignorance.
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| King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild. Kind of a dry read in the middle but the subject is shocking, as are the photos. The Belgian Congo stands out as the most brutal of all European colonies, with some 4-8 million Africans killed. This is the real Heart of Darkness. |
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We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda - Philip Gourevitch. "In April 1994, the government of Rwanda called on everyone in the Hutu majority to kill everyone in the Tutsi minority. Over the next three months 800,000 Tutsis were murdered in the midst of the most unambiguous case of genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews." That's almost 9,000 people per day, most killed with machetes. A well-written collection of survivor's stories highlighting UN and Western complacency. |
| Another Day of Life - Kapuscinski. Translated from the original Polish, this guy was in Luanda when the Portuguese abandoned its former colony. Funny and sad at the same time. This book, and the one below, are a great introduction to Angolas failed hopes and dreams. |
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Angola: Promises and Lies - Karl Maier. A reporter in Angola during the failed '91 elections, Karl Maier obviously fell in love with the Angolan people. Caught between the superpowers during the cold war, this was the climactic end of the democratic quest and the violent beginning of civil war as big business. After this read, it's hard to believe the Angolans remain so full of life. |
| The Shadow of the Sun - Kapuscinski. Yet more entertaining Kapuscinski tales. Taken from his travels in different parts of Africa, he skillfully describes the Third-World approach to life, where the concept of time does not exist, and life is fleating. |
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| Chocolate Lizards : A Novel - Cole Thompson. Not Africa, but the oilfields of central Texas. In the vein of Lonesome Dove, a light-hearted novel of oilfield trash in their natural habitat. |
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Oman: The True Life Drama & Intrigue of an Arab State - John Beasant. With a strictly controlled media and a low profile, there seems to be few books on Oman (other than travel guides). It's a shame, because although this book provides a good history and a critical (cynical?) look, the verbose author goes out of his way to make it a difficult read. But, it's all there is. |
| Guns, Germs, & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond. Why are some societies the "haves" and others "have-nots"? Why did Europeans come to colonize and dominate the global economy? Turns out those that domesticated plants and animals earliest had a head-start on writing, government, technology, weapons, and deadly germs. But domestication was an accident of geography and environment, not human biology. This book explains a lot of the differences I've encountered in Africa and the Mid-East. |  |
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The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution & Future of the Human Animal - Jared Diamond. Humans share 98% of their genes with chimpanzees. So what is it about that 2% that makes us so different? How did we go from large mammal to world conquerors? This book is somewhat a prequel to Guns, Germs, and Steel, and explores the differences in human reproduction and communication that have enabled us to colonize the globe. In the end, we're destined for extinction but not for the obvious reasons (industrialization or global warming). |
