It’s our turn to eat” tells the story of John Githongo, a friend of the author, who served as Kenya’s top anti-corruption official, under the government of President Mwai Kibaki in the late 90s.
Politics
It’s Our Turn to Eat – The story of a Kenyan whistle-blower (by Michela Wrong)
October 18, 2012 By 2 Comments
Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe (by Gerard Prunier)
October 14, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Published in 2009 by Hurst Publishers, Gerard Prunier’s book is not just another contemporary history of an African conflict. It questions popular thinking, reviews a number of sources, places the conflict in the context of its time, and is engagingly written. Africa’s World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe stretches its core narrative from the aftermath of the 1994 Rwanda genocide to after the 2007 elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo .
Ways of Staying (by Kevin Bloom)
July 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Over the years, the position of the white South African inside the country could either be labelled a curse or a blessing. Unlike their black fellow countrymen who were tied down by ancestry, when trouble came knocking, whites could always haul out the passports and ‘pack for Perth’. In Ways of Staying (published in 2010 by Portobello Books), South African journalist Kevin Bloom ponders ways of staying even when circumstances motivate for the chicken run.
Eating from One Pot: The Dynamics of Survival in Poor South African Households (by Sarah Mosoetsa)
June 24, 2012 By 1 Comment
A senior lecturer in sociology at Wits University, the author Sarah Mosoetsa works from the premise that the family is the microcosm of society. In her book (published in 2011 by Witwatersrand University Press), Mosoetsa looks at African households in the KwaZulu/Natal townships of Mpumalanga [Hammersdale] and Enhlalakahle [Greytown]. What she finds is shockingly representative of the entire country – indeed the whole continent and the Third World.
Darfur: A New History of a Long War (by Julie Flint& Alex De Waal)
June 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In Darfur: A New History of A Long War (published in 2008 by Zed Books), Julie Flint and Alex De Waal provide a surprisingly accessible account of how the Sudan government, Islamists, the British colonial enterprise, Arab Supremacists and Cold War politics fanned the occasional flares of local conflicts already made worse by climate change.
Eight Days in September – The Removal of Thabo Mbeki (by Frank Chikane)
May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment
On September 20, 2008, South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress, took the unprecedented step of dismissing Thabo Mbeki, the country’s then president from his position as party chairman. The move, which effectively ended Mbeki’s term presidency, marked the climax of a bitter internal struggle within the party. In Eight Days in September (published in 2012 by Picador), author Frank Chikane describes the circumstances that led to this historical event.
Why Africa Is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It (by Greg Mills)
March 27, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The answer to why Africa is poor is simply that its leaders have made this choice, argues Greg Mills in Why Africa is Poor: And What Africans Can Do About It (published in 2011 by Penguin). The Big Man mentality that is ubiquitous all over the continent has done Africa’s development a lot of harm. Aid, on the other hand, has proven to have the opposite of its desired effect in the continent – it has helped us move backwards rather than catapult us forward into the league of other nations of the world.
100 Years of Struggle: Mandela’s ANC (by Heidi Holland)
March 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Like a seamstress, Heidi Holland knits together the 100 years of South Africa’s African National Congress, using Mandela as a thread linking all the patches. In her latest book, Holland ponders the question whether or not the ANC, built through so many years of hard struggle, is able to provide its own raison d’etre – a better life for all.
Defeating Dictators (by George B.N. Ayittey)
December 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Ayittey’s latest book, released on November 8, 2011, and published by Palgrave McMillan, sets out proposals to, “help oppressed people elsewhere in the world battling dictators and struggling to bring democratic change to their countries peacefully – without violence, without firing a shot, and without Western help or intervention.
Insiders and Outsiders: Citizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa (by Francis B. Nyamnjoh)
November 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment
First published in 2006 by Zed Books, in association with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, the book looks at xenophobia in Southern Africa, and what informs it. The author, a professor of anthropology at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, brings his considerable knowledge and insights to bear on the subject.
