Books & Links about Africa

Books

Here are some books we've read about Africa that we can recommend if you're interested to learn more about this fascinating continent:

Paul Theroux - Dark Star Safari
Although he's always a bit grumpy, he still manages to write some interesting stuff about Africa. Especially his view on foreign aid is quite interesting to read (and luckily we don't drive around in a white Landrover...)

Nelson Mandela - A long walk to freedom
Must read! Very interesting autobiography of one of the most influential persons in Africa. Gives you a great insight in the person Mandela, but also in the history of the ANC.

Roel van der Veen - Afrika: van de koude oorlog naar de 21e eeuw
Unfortunalely for English natives, this book is written in Dutch. Gives an overview of the history of Africa in the last 50 years. Sometimes a bit tough to get through, but very interesting for everyone who wants to learn more about this continent

Zakes Mda - Ways of Dying
Written by a South African writer, this book gives you a nice insight in the South African black culture. About a 'professional mourner' at funerals, a most unusual profession even in South Africa.

Peter Godwin- Mukiwa: a white boy in Africa
A white boy grows up in Zimbabwe and experiences first hand the apartheid system, the civil war and the Mugabe regime. Interesting and very well written.

Alexander McCall Smith- The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Mme Ramotswe is the African Miss Marple: traditionally built and with a pot of steaming rooibos tea in her office. She drives all around Botswana in her tiny white fan to solve her clients requests. Trusting on her intuition and a copy of the detective handbook, she lives up to your expectations, or as a critic noticed: forget about the library, the body is in the mud hut! The sequal, Tears of the giraffe, is also very well worth reading and part 3 and 4 have also been published.

Philip Gourevitch - We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
Why did it all happen? That's the main question Philip tries to answer in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. He frequently visited Rwanda between '95 and '98 and talked to survivors, country leaders and killers. Furthermore he gives a thorough overview of the events that lead to the massacres in '94 and the troubles in the refugee camps after the genocide. Interesting book for anyone who wants to understand a bit more about the recent history of this troubled country.

Fergal Keane- Season of Blood: A Rwandan Journey
More about Rwanda, written by the former BCC correspondent in South-Africa who visited Rwanda just after the end of the massacres. The power of his account lies in de description of his emotional shock at the sight of barely imaginable cruelty, and in his personal testimony of the survivors he interviewed.

Michela Wrong- In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo
The "Leopard" reigned Congo (formely known as Zaire) for more than 25 years in which he built his own Versailles, travelled in chartered concordes and drank pink champagne while his country sunk into the deepest chaos imaginable. How this all happened is the main question Wrong addresses. She goes back to the Belgium king Leopold, who shows remarkable similarities to Mobutu and focusses on the role of the Worldbank and other interantional aid organizations. She also introduces you into daily life in Kinshasa, where people are still able to hang on and even enjoy life in spite of their economic misery. A very well written book and a must read for anyone who would like to understand more about this vast central African country.

Nadine Gordimer- July's people
Fascinating novel on Bam and Maureen Smales, whites in South-Africa's apartheid period. As they are threatenend by mobs they run off and hide at their servant's village. And there they find out what apartheid really means and they discover that it is virtually impossible to bridge the gap.

Ryszard Kapuscinski - Shadow of the Sun
Kapuscinski writes very entertaining about 40 years of foreign correspondency in Africa. What's especially striking is that not many things have changed in those years. Often we've found those countries he writes about in the same way as in the 1960's.

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