Showing titles in Africa

According to the ancient sources, Hannibal was nine years old when his father led him to the temple at Carthage and dipped the young boy's hands in the blood of the sacrificial victim. Before those gods, Hannibal swore an oath of eternal hatred toward Rome. Few images in history have managed to...

In The Boer War, winner of the Netherland's 2013 Libris History Prize and shortlisted for the 2013 AKO Literature Prize, the author brings a completely new perspective to this chapter of South African history, critically examining the involvement of the Netherlands in the war. Furthermore, unlike other accounts, Martin Bossenbroek explores the war primarily through the experiences of three men uniquely active during the bloody conflict.

It is difficult to find another soldier's story to equal Captain Darrell Watt's in terms of time spent on the field of battle and challenges faced. Even by the lofty standards of the SAS and Special Forces, one has to look far to find anyone who can match his record of resilience and valor in the face of such daunting odds and with resources so paltry. In the fight, he showed himself to be a military maestro. After 12 years in the cauldron of war, his cause slipped from beneath him, and Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe.

Nelson Mandela led a long and remarkable life. From his earliest days herding cows in a South African village, he became a child of privilege, a rebellious runaway, a successful lawyer, a political dissident, a rising star in the African nationalist movement, an underground saboteur, a political prisoner, a secret negotiator with South Africa's rulers, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, president of his country, and a statesman who held South Africa together long enough to find reconciliation and the path to prosperity.

One night in April 2014, members of the terrorist organization Boko Haram raided the small town of Chibok in northeast Nigeria and abducted 276 young girls from the local boarding school. The event caused massive, international outrage. Using the hashtag "Bring Back Our Girls", politicians, activists, and celebrities from all around the world - among them First Lady Michelle Obama and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai - protested.

It is 1894 in the remote settlement of Bulawayo, in what later became Southern Rhodesia. Recent immigrants from Ireland, Morris and David Langbourne throw body and soul into rebuilding their previously devastated business. Between Morris' brilliant business acumen and David's almost limitless energy, their future looks very promising as they take massive financial and logistical risks and look forward to a booming business in the backwoods of beyond.

In this classic tale of adventure, a young American sea captain named James Riley, shipwrecked off the western coast of North Africa in 1815, was captured by a band of nomadic Arabs and sold into slavery. Thus begins an epic adventure of survival and a quest for freedom that takes him across the Sahara desert.

Surprisingly neglected in accounts of Allied wartime triumphs, in 1941 British and Commonwealth forces completed a stunning and important victory in East Africa against an overwhelmingly superior Italian opponent. A hastily formed British-led force, never larger than 70,000 strong, advanced along two fronts to defeat nearly 300,000 Italian and colonial troops.

As a young woman growing up in Africa, 17-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts.

La situazione libica dopo la caduta dello storico governo autoritario di Gheddafi e le nuove primavere arabe è ancora incerta e caotica. I blandi tentativi della coalizione internazionale di pacificare la regione, così come la sua incerta strategia di alleanze, si scontrano tutt'oggi con l'evidente impossibilità di determinare dall'esterno le sorti di un conflitto ormai esploso su larga scala e determinato da interessi strategici ed economici di portata globale.

Il conflitto siriano ha avuto inizio il 15 marzo 2011 in Siria con le prime dimostrazioni pubbliche contro il governo centrale, parte del contesto più ampio della primavera araba, per poi svilupparsi in rivolte su scala nazionale e quindi in una guerra civile nel 2012; il conflitto è ancora in corso.

Le proteste hanno come obiettivo la destituzione del presidente Bashar al-Assad ed eliminare la struttura dittatoriale che sottomette da anni il Paese.

Autor jedzie do sparaliżowanej przez ebolę Afryki i śledzi losy ludzi w czasach zarazy. Uczestniczy w krwawej ofierze, przedziera się przez lasy namorzynowe i dżunglę, spotyka Polaka z kopalni diamentów, zostaje przemytnikiem, słucha opowieści o zabijaniu dzieci, a w głębi dżungli o czarach, duchach i zombie. W prezencie otrzymuje żonę wodza, częstują go pieczenią z małpy i nietoperza. Widzi męczarnie konających, rozpacz i obojętność wobec śmierci.

Lutz van Dijk zeigt seinen Lesern die kulturelle Vielfalt Afrikas: von der Kultur des Islam im Norden nach Schwarzafrika im Süden...

Once too poor to afford the rat poison with which he planned to take his own life, Robert's legacy tells an astonishing true story of resilience and hope. His work was made famous in the Disney movie Queen of Katwe, a biographical drama about a 13-year-old girl who became a Uganda National Chess Champion under Robert's mentorship. Now, listeners will get a firsthand account of how it all started, and the life of the man behind Phiona Mutesi's world-renowned accomplishments.

Dawit Gebremichael Habte fled his homeland of Eritrea as a teenager. In the midst of the ongoing Eritrean-Ethiopian war, Dawit and his sisters crossed illegally into Kenya. Without their parents or documents to help their passage, they experienced the abuse and neglect known by so many refugees around the world. But he refused to give up. He stayed resilient and positive. Journeying to the United States under asylum - and still a boy - he found a new purpose in an unfamiliar land.

The Great War's East Africa campaign was, and remains, of huge importance. A 'small war', consisting of a few 'local affairs', was all that was expected in August 1914 as Britain moved to eliminate the threat to the high seas of German naval bases in Africa. But two weeks after the Armistice was signed in Europe, British and German troops were still fighting in Africa after four years of what one campaign historian described as 'a war of extermination and attrition without parallel in modern times'.

This is the story of the "Benin Bronzes", their creation, theft, and what should happen to them now. When first exhibited in London, they caused a sensation and helped reshape European attitudes towards Africa, challenging the prevailing view of the continent as "backward" and without culture. But seeing them in the British Museum today is, in the words of one Benin City artist, like "visiting relatives behind bars". In a time of fevered debate about the legacies of empire, loot, museums, and history, what does the future hold for the Bronzes themselves?

Pick up almost any book on early and medieval world history and empire, and where do you find West Africa? On the periphery. This pioneering book tells a different story. Interweaving political and social history and drawing on a rich array of sources, Michael Gomez unveils a new vision of how categories of ethnicity, race, gender, and caste emerged in Africa and in global history.

In a sweeping account, Atlantic Wars explores how warfare shaped the experiences of the peoples living in the watershed of the Atlantic Ocean between the late Middle Ages and the Age of Revolution.

In unforgettable tales of innocence lost under African skies, we follow Godwin's awakening to the often savage struggle between Whites and Blacks, his horror when he is forced to fight in a civil war he detests, and his experiences as a journalist covering the country's violent transition to Black rule as Rhodesia's colonial era comes to an end and the new state of Zimbabwe is born from its bloody ashes. Mukiwa is a poignant, compelling memoir and an invaluable addition to the literature of southern Africa.