Reunion in Barsaloi

Book Description

In a sequel to her international bestseller The White Masai, Corinne Hofmann continues her personal account of a white European woman in love with a Masai tribesman in remote Kenya. Fourteen years after fleeing with her baby daughter, Corinne returned to Kenya in the summer of 2004 to reunite with Lketinga and his family in their village, Barsaloi. Nervous and uncertain as to how he would react on seeing her again, she found to her relief that she was welcomed unreservedly by all who remembered her—Lktinga, who still thought of her as his number one wife; his brother James, now a schoolteacher; and especially Lketinga's mother, who had looked after Corinne with such care all those years before.

Customer Reviews:

If you loved the first one, you'll love this one too........2007-09-02

Just a short review, my title really says it all. Simple writing style again, but the story is an adventure so the writing doesn't need to be. Ms. Hofmann travels back to her village in Kenya where she married and lived with a Masai warrior for years, and bore him a child. Fourteen years later, they accept her back. Her husband seems to have changed for the better (not as immature and petulant as in the first book). The rest of the village is over joyed to have her back for a short visit. She also takes a couple of days to visit the film set of the White Masai movie being filmed (which I would love to see but it's in German). Careful when ordering this book... the ISBN number is the same as another Swiss book and I ordered the wrong one by accident (it had the same title and same ISBN, but different author) So be careful and make sure it's Ms. Hofmann who wrote it! My only criticism, I would love to see pictures of the teenage Napirai (her daughter with Ltekinga) but I can understand her protecting her identity. Also, I'd love to know how to pronounce Ltekinga too! Over all I couldn't wait for this book to be printed in English and it was satisfying to be able to get some closure and updates on the African family members and what has happened to her and her daughter also, since the author returned to Switzerland.

Average customer rating:

Class book
A faith Rediscovered
Exciting!
rediscovering the essential...
Essential Reading!

Christianity Rediscovered
Vincent J. Donovan
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 1570754624

Customer Reviews:

Class book.......2007-03-30

This book was required reading for my Master's in theology. The book opened my eyes in the aspect of the realization that to bring Christ to different cultures one must understand that culture. It does not matter if the culture is in Old Africa or modern day Chicago. I would rate the book high on my list of books to read.

A faith Rediscovered.......2007-03-29

This book is quite insightful concerning missionary work in East Africa. It also digs deeply to bring to the suface the core message of the Gospel. This book will challenge you to reconsider your beliefs and approach to evangelism. Highly readable and deeply insightsfull, this is a great work.

Exciting!.......2007-01-15

A documentary of one man's experience as a missionary to the Masai of East Africa, but much more. Challenges long-held views on both the purpose and the method of missions while maintaining an unwavering committment to the gospel.

Quotation: "Dear Bishop, ...Suddenly I feel the urgent need to cast aside all theories and discussions, all efforts at strategy--and simply go to these people and do the work among them for which I came to Africa. ...just go and talk to them about God and the Christian message. Outside of this, I have no theory, no plan, no strategy, no gimmick, no idea of what will come. I feel rather naked. I will begin as soon as possible...."

rediscovering the essential..........2006-12-01

Vincent Donovan was a pioneer, and an apostolic voice. His book "Rediscovering Christianity" is a great illustration of the devout need to share the gospel in an effective way, and then to let the gospel have it affect/effect on individual and on the culture.This 25th annioversary version has some nice extras, especially a remembrance from his sister. Because he addresses the issue of culture and faith, more specifically, church, this book is again influential and causing discussion, especially with regards to emergent issues. Well written, inspiring, and worth the read!

Essential Reading!.......2006-03-02

In a pluralistic age where Christians are seeking to re-discover a solid sense of the gospel, Donovan's book challenges our assumptions, our modern ideologies and our pride and takes us back to a very simple yet profound understanding of the living Way, Jesus. As a missionary who has helped to redefine missions, Donovan invites the African church to tutor himself and all of us as well on this journey of discovery. This is helpful reading for anyone, Catholic or Protestant, or a curious seeker who'd like to discover more about God moving within world culture than as a set of rigid doctrines.

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya

Average customer rating:

Interesting and worth reading but clearly not objective at all.
Take with several LARGE pinches of salt
Good and Depressing
An important story interred in academic prose
Compelling

Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya
Caroline Elkins
Manufacturer: Owl Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Kenya | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

East Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0805080015
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Amazon.com

Forty years after Kenyan independence from Britain, the words "Mau Mau" still conjure images of crazed savages hacking up hapless white settlers with machetes. The British Colonial Office, struggling to preserve its far-flung empire of dependencies after World War II, spread hysteria about Kenya's Mau Mau independence movement by depicting its supporters among the Kikuyu people as irrational terrorists and monsters. Caroline Elkins, a historian at Harvard University, has done a masterful job setting the record straight in her epic investigation, Imperial Reckoning. After years of research in London and Kenya, including interviews with hundreds of Kenyans, settlers, and former British officials, Elkins has written the first book about the eight-year British war against the Mau Mau.

She concludes that the war, one of the bloodiest and most protracted decolonization struggles of the past century, was anything but the "civilizing mission" portrayed by British propagandists and settlers. Instead, Britain engaged in an amazingly brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that seemed to border on outright genocide. While only 32 white settlers were killed by Mau Mau insurgents, Elkins reports that tens of thousands of Kenyans were slaughtered, perhaps up to 300,000. The British also interned the entire 1.5 million population of Kikuyu, the colony's largest ethnic group, in barbed-wire villages, forced-labour reserves where famine and disease ran rampant, and prison camps that Elkins describes as the Kenyan "Gulag." The Kikuyu were subjected to unimaginable torture, or "screening," as British officials called it, which included being whipped, beaten, sodomized, castrated, burned, and forced to eat feces and drink urine. British officials later destroyed almost all official records of the campaign. Elkins infuses her account with the riveting stories of individual Kikuyu detainees, settlers, British officials, and soldiers. This is a stunning narrative that finally sheds light on a misunderstood war for which no one has yet been held officially accountable. --Alex Roslin

Book Description

As part of the Allied forces, thousands of Kenyans fought alongside the British in World War II. But just a few years after the defeat of Hitler, the British colonial government detained nearly the entire population of Kenyas largest ethnic minority, the Kikuyusome one and a half million people. The compelling story of the system of prisons and work camps where thousands met their deaths was the victim of a determined effort by the British to destroy all official records of their attempts to stop the Mau Mau uprising. Caroline Elkins spent a decade in London, Nairobi, and the Kenyan countryside interviewing hundreds of survivors of the camps and the British and African loyalists who detained them. The result is an unforgettable account of the unraveling of the British colonial empire in Kenyaa pivotal moment in twentieth- century history with chilling parallels to Americas own imperial project.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting and worth reading but clearly not objective at all........2007-05-14

An earlier reviewer mentions Ruark's books, "Something of Value," and "Uhuru." "Horn of the Hunter," is another good East Africa piece, although it does not go so much into the Mau Mau Emergency. I would definitely recommend reading Ruark's works to get the other extreme of the East Africa/Mau Mau issue.

Clearly, Elkins is biased in favor of Mau Mau & the Kikuyus in general, probably with reasons of her own. There clearly was some outrageous stuff going on in Kenya during the 1950s-60s, and still probably is.

There can be little doubt the British were out of line, to put it mildy and so were the Mau Mau, also to put it mildly.

This book has a great footnote section where anyone who is really interested in the facts can go for further reading. In all, this is an interesting book, though written in a very dry & tawdry style. It is certainly biased far in favor of Mau Mau and against the British and should be looked on as such.

Elkins would have made a far more powerful impression on this reader if she had at least attempted some journalistic objectivity.

Take with several LARGE pinches of salt.......2007-01-18

The book is very biased towards the Mau Mau side first of all.

Second she has relied heavily on oral textimonies which she fails to question the validity of. Some of these testimonies are laugh out loud ridiculous. She may have noted that testimonies like this have been through out of African and European courts for being made up in order to secure financial compensation. Elkins rubbishes similar statements made by European and Black loyalists.

Elkins also ignores or defends Mau Mau atrocities.

Lastly she asserts that 300,000 people died during the course of the emergency, the only evidence for this is the difference between two censuses. Colonial census were notoriously inaccurate and the main reason the British managed to hide any atrocities they did commit was because they were comitted small scale. 300,000 deaths would have been impossible to keep a secret. Anderson claims around 30,000 Mau Mau died during the course of the rebellion which is closer to the truth.

Good and Depressing.......2007-01-04

This book is very well researched and written. It's also very depressing. The story needs to be told. Excellent for understanding post WWII British imperialism.

An important story interred in academic prose.......2006-08-21

Imperial Reckoning is a curiously disappointing book. It exposes us to a shockingly brutal and little known side of late empire British imperialism with overwhelming documentation, but in such flat prose that the horror and indignation proper to such events is leached away in a numbingly endless drizzzle of facts. This book seems a huge body of tragic facts in search of an organizing narrative. So much so that its chapters could be read in any random order without changing the book's overall readability. Historical tragedies, as much as heroic triumphs turn on random quirks of fortune and clashes of strong personalities, but in academic literature they seem to float on a sluggish tide of inevitable events, usually seen in retrospect and shrouded in a sanctified flotsam of documentation.

Professor Elkins gives some capsule vignettes of the principal colonial administrators, but the central player of this historical drama, Jomo Kenyatta--the colony's most famous political prisoner and later to become Kenya's first president, is presumed so familiar to the reader as to warrant almost no further space. Though he is mentioned repeatedly, we learn only enough about him (16 years in Britain, studied at the London School of Economics, wrote a controversial book, organized a pan-African conference) to make us wonder why he's barely a footnote participant in the story. Little of the temper of the colonial times seems to surface except allegations of an extreme and virtually universal British racism. The Mau Mau terror which inspired this ghastly holocaust seems in this account have been a mere handful of assassinations--so wildly disproportionate to the response that one feels uneasily suspicious. Were the colonials really that murderously bigoted or is Ms. Elkins reluctant to portray a real threat of native terror?

It's a book one wishes had been written by Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost, Bury the Chains). There's a shocking story buried here that needs to get out. My curiosity is aroused, I want to know more, but I'll have to read a different book. I haven't the tolerance for tedium to finish this one.

Compelling.......2006-07-25

This magnificent book shows how the Brits, using methods of immense savagery, broke the Mau Mau terrorist movement in the 1950s, only to lose the entire colony of Kenya partly in response to the brutishness of their own counterterrorism.
Even though the author is an academic, and doesn't write with the verve and polish of a William Manchester, this book is gripping reading. Elkins lets the facts tell the story, and she certainly has the facts. She seems to have read every relevant document and talked with practically everybody still living who participated in the Kenyan gulag as either a victim or a perpetrator. In her acknowledgements she notes that she learned both Kiswahil and the rudiments of Kikuyu to help her with her interviews (she also had an African translator). Indeed, her book would have been impossible without the Africans' contributions.
One of the other reviewers here complains that Elkins didn't read Robert Ruark's pro-settler "Something of Value" or "Uhuru." But Ruark, an American who probably didn't talk to any Africans in Kenya except his askaris and houseboys, was a naive sucker for the settlers' racist world view. Far more tough-minded than Ruark, Elkins talked to plenty of settlers as well as Africans. The sheer accretion of facts and anecdotes, with almost every sentence footnoted, makes for an overwhelmingly persuasive case.
It is a horrific story of a system that Stalin outdid in duration and magnitude, but not in relative cruelty. Pound for pound the Brits' imprisonment of the Kikuyus, rife as it was with mutilating torture, random executions, systematic rape, enforced relocations and treachery, and massacres, was about as brutal as it gets.
And we owe it to Elkins for bringing these facts, only occasionally referenced in journalism and earlier history books, fully into the light. This is a groundbreaking, iconoclastic work that sheds a new, highly unflattering light on British imperialism. It's tough to think of Manchester's hero biographee, Churchill, in quite the same way.

Average customer rating:

Disturbing, memorable fiction about a changing South Africa
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
Different Expectations?
Excellent insight into cross cultural relationships
A troubling and wonderful tale of longing in South Africa

Kafka's Curse: A Novel
Achmat Dangor
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375405100
Release Date: 1999-01-26

Amazon.com

South African poet Achmat Dangor's first novel is a rich blend of fairy tale and reality. At the heart of Kafka's Curse lies an Arab myth about a gardener who dared to love a princess and was turned into a tree for his presumption. A similar fate seems to have befallen Oscar Kahn, a Jewish South African architect. Abandoned by his wife after contracting a mysterious malady, he dies alone and his body is undiscovered for many months. By the time the neighbors call the police, "there wasn't much left of the body to bury. It was as if it had crumbled to dust." In the bedroom where Oscar breathed his last, a tree has sprouted up through the floor. But the riddle of this man's death is superceded by the secrets of his life: born Omar Kahn, he was, in fact, an Indian Muslim, not a white Jew. In the days of apartheid, these things mattered and Omar/Oscar, who had the temerity to disguise his ethnicity and to marry a white woman, had apparently paid the price for his subterfuge.

Omar's secret may be shocking to his friends and family, but his is by no means the only one. His wife, his nephew, his brother, even his therapist, all have things they'd prefer to keep hidden--but like pulling a loose thread on a very old and fragile seam, the revelation of Omar's past begins an unraveling of secrets and lies going back generations, with tragic results. Dangor tells his story with economy and grace, offering up love, madness, and betrayal in language as lovely as the themes are grim. --Alix Wilber

Book Description

With the publication in South Africa of Kafka's Curse, the prize-winning poet Achmat Dangor joined the ranks of first-rate literary writers--Gordimer, Brink, Breytenbach, and Coetzee among them--to come out of South Africa.

Brilliantly conceived and powerfully evoked, Kafka's Curse is a modern reinterpretation of the Arabic legend of the gardener who loves a princess and, for his transgression, is transformed into a tree. Reset in South Africa as apartheid was coming undone, this is the story of the Khan family, who are both "colored" and Muslim. When Oscar Khan, a budding architect, dares to pursue a woman outside his race and to change his religious identity, he commits a sin and must be punished. His unforgiving brother, a post-apartheid politician, tries to come to terms with Oscar's apostasy but will himself betray both his principles and his family when he falls in love with Amina, a beautiful and spirited psychotherapist.

Kafka's Curse is both part of the tradition of politically charged South African fiction and a bold departure that makes us see that nation as we never have before. Imbued with a timely resonance even as it is narrated with the lyric and imagistic intensity of magic realism, it announces the arrival of Achmat Dangor in the forefront of contemporary literary novelists.

Customer Reviews:

Disturbing, memorable fiction about a changing South Africa.......2002-02-13

The title of this disturbing novel is a reference to both Kafka`s "Metamorphosis" and the alienated, lonely characters who haunt his fiction. Both themes crop up throughout Dangor's novel: the fable of the man who turns into a tree, a Muslim of Indian descent who reinvents himself as a "white" Jew, and the nation of South Africa itself, before and after apartheid.

Nearly all of its characters, both white and "colored," live miserable, violent lives--symptomatic of the brutal apartheid realm. Yet Dangor convincingly adopts an astonishing range of voices: the conservative Muslim ashamed of his brother's "passing," his perceptive wife who unexpectedly leaves him, his rebellious and cynical teenage daughter, the married psychotherapist with whom he has an affair (and who may or may not be a psychopathic killer). And the novel's violent conclusion actually offers hope: that South Africa may be able to purge itself of its complicated history, just as some of the novel's women are able to leave behind the pasts that torment them.

Readers who enjoy straightforward plots, explicit symbolism, and unambiguous endings will surely be perplexed by this novel; even the family trees and the glossary won't help much in untangling the book's many possible meanings. The story is often as blurry as the racial lines created during apartheid. Yet I cannot get this novel and its lyricism out of my mind; the more I think about it, the more it seems to make sense of the nonsensical, schizophrenic society in which these people somehow managed to live.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.......2001-10-11

Magical-realism is a very effective form of writing, but there is one caveat. It still ought to be understandable, otherwise it becomes totally abstract. I bought Achmat Dangor's novel in the UK a couple years ago with high hopes. It looked interesting. When I plunged into it recently, however, I found that I was going nowhere fast. It is an involved family saga, it is perhaps an allegory about South Africa before and after apartheid, and it is full of weird, largely-sexual images. In the USA, when segregation flourished, very light African-American descendants sometimes used to "pass", that is, claim to be white and live their lives by passing as white. This practice was no doubt widespread in South Africa too. In KAFKA'S CURSE, everything that is not black or white (an `absolute', that is) survives by passing. A Muslim of Indian descent passes as a Jew, marries a white woman. Crime passes as respectability. Dictatorship passes as democracy. Loneliness passes as marriage. And so on. Everyone is "ducking and diving", but what does it mean ? "Conventionally exotic", a phrase gleaned from the book, comes to my mind. Exoticism is used to wrap a very average product. I don't consider myself a literary idiot, but this one really had me puzzled. Like the art of Jasper Johns or Barnett Newman, if such work grabs you, you may like this novel a lot. If you remain sceptical, you may feel that it is a case of the Emperor's having no clothes. I suggest you try something else in that case and leave the muddled KAFKA'S CURSE for the aficionados of blank novels.

Different Expectations?.......2000-09-06

I was expecting something completely different from the plot. I thought this book was going to be more about the day-to-day life of an Indian Muslim posing as white Jew in post Aparteid South Africa, which leds up to his death. Instead the book focuses its time on life after Omar's/Oscar's death, more particularly revolving around Malik's dilapidated marriage and somewhat difficult children.

I am not sure if Dangor was trying to play on the theme of how Aparteid has affected all the male figures. I think the book would have been much better had there been more discussion about Omar's/Oscar's life, his relationships, and what drew him to 'change'. Although most people do know what Aparteid in South Africa was, it may just seem like a 'distant' thing, considering most of us have never lived under such a ridiculous and absurd government. I thought the book was going to give more insight into the Indian perspective on Aparteid.

The book was also a bit confusing with so many different characters with similar names (Anne and Anna, Salma, Salleem and Sulman) and the ever changing scenes that the author gives no led-ins to. Even with the family trees at the beginning of the book, I was still just as bewildered. And what is with Dangor's obsession with sex. The book seems to exude sexuality left and right unnecessarily.

The bottom line is that I wanted to like this book, but my interest digressed as I perused through it; It came to the point where I didn't even want to read it anymore. I only finishd it so I could have a thorough and fair opinion about it.

Excellent insight into cross cultural relationships.......1999-09-20

This is a hard-to-put-down wickedly humorous and iconoclastic read. The lives of disparate and unusual people are woven into a tongue-in-cheek review of a society that errs in taking itself too seriously. A MUST!

A troubling and wonderful tale of longing in South Africa.......1999-05-13

Wonderfully written, its magic realism captures the madness of both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, as well as the incontrollable human urge to rebel against fate.

Average customer rating:

Great
In one word . . . Amazing!
Great book
One of the "prized" books of my library
Maasai

Maasai
Tepilit Ole Saitoti
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Central Africa | Africa | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0810980991

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2006-05-26

When I first saw the Maasai book I thought to myself, "Oh great another huge boring book I have to read." However when I opened to the first page the magnificent photographs of the book captured me. I was amazed at the quality of them as well as moved by many of the pictures. This book takes you through the journey of the life of a Maasai. It all starts out with an introduction of the Masaai, then talks about youth, circumcision, warriors, elders, and then wraps it all up with a personal reflection by the author on the Masaai. The book was both informative and interesting at the same time.
Previously I had studied the Masaai in school and thought I learned everything. However when I picked up this book I found out that there was much to learn. Some of the interesting facts I learned included the back-story on how the Masaai originated, how they transition from warrior to adulthood, and the importance of elders in the Masaai society. The author's personal reflection about the Masaai talked about how the modern world is affecting the Maasai today. The book began talking about simple Masaai childhood. Childhood was brief and explained what the kids did around the village. Some of the games they engaged in however surprised me because of the danger factor involved in them. It then slowly transitioned to the awkward teenage stage, which is probably the hardest for the people in the society to go through. In the society it is the stage right before circumcision. The book really gave me an inside view of what it's like to be a preteen in that society. It did such a good job that I was able to understand why kids would want to get circumcised in the first place. After that it transitions to the actual process of circumcision, which after reading the book seems pretty scary if you ask me. That was the only part I actually had learned in class. However it also talked about the many processes, which occur after circumcision. The process of this is both physically and mentally challenging but according to the book pays off in the end. This was definitely one of the most interesting parts of the book because I could sort of relate to them in a way, since I am a teen myself.
After finishing the that chapter and looking at many great photos, the book starts to talk about the intense process of warrior hood. I was surprised how much the Maasai value certain things in warrior hood such as their hair. After warrior hood the book briefly talks about lives of the elders then it moves onto the personal reflection. It began with the quote, "From the farm, the tragic fate of the disappearing Maasai tribe on the other side of the river could be followed from year to year. They were fighters who had stopped fighting a dying lion with his claws clipped, a castrated nation. Their spears have been taken from them, their big dashing shields even, and in the Game Reserve the lions followed their herds of cattle." That quote came from the author Isak Dinesen who wrote the book Out of Africa.
The author then began talking about his personal reflection of the Maasai today and explained how modern civilization was enclosing on the Maasai fast. He, being a Maasai himself talked about how the Maasai must adjust to society for their own protection. According to the author since civilization is advancing so quickly the Maasai cannot fight against it and as the old expression goes, "Can't beat them, join them." Unfortunately the Maasai are defenseless to civilization and must take up the basic aspects of it such as education, land, and resources. At the second page of the personal reflection the author talks about the conflict the Maasai have faced with regarding land. Ever since 1901 the Maasai have had conflict with the Europeans. In 1910 their land was taken over for colonization. According to the Author by now the government has taken over the Maasai land and has taken away a lot ever since the Europeans invaded in the first place. In the end he wrote down suggestions for what the government should do to better improve life for the Maasai. He finally ends on the note that although the Maasai are facing difficult obstacles right now, they will still pull through in the end. So if you like books with information, great photography, and a nice smell this book is definitely for you.

In one word . . . Amazing!.......2005-10-21

Having just spent a month in Africa working in orpahages while also being able to take a tour of a Maasia Village in Kenya, this book reminded me exactly of my experiences there.
The Maasia are incredible people and this book shows those of you who have not had the chance to meet them how amazing their culture is.
The pictures are breathtaking. I felt as if I was back in their homeland.
Great literature as well.
Highly recommended

Great book.......2005-09-11

This book made me travel to Tanzania and Kenia, in my thoughts.
Very good pictures and very real too. It's a book that shows us another culture and ways of living. Worth reading.

One of the "prized" books of my library.......2002-05-26

This book is beautiful. It has beautiful photography, and beautiful text by a man who is of the Masai tribe. I was sad, however, to read that the author of the text (Tepilit Ole Saitoti) says that the Masai way of life is destined for extinction. Though this is inevitable for most indigenous peoples.

Tepilit Ole Saitoti's commentary and insight into his people really make the photographs come to life (the cover photograph is of the author's brother). This is not so much a book as it is an experience, aided by its "over-sized" coffee table format book that gives you the feeling of "stepping" into the beautiful Kenyan landscape. Reading this beautiful book is the next best thing to being able to visit this beautiful land and see these fascinating people in person (which is something I hope to do at some point in my life). What a beautiful land the Masai live in!

Anyone interested in this book would probably find OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT interesting as well. OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT is written by Malidoma Some of the Dagara tribe from Burkina Faso, in West Africa. It is the story of Malidoma's escape from a missionary school (he had been kidnapped), journey back to his village as a teenager, and initiation into the Dagara tribe.

Maasai.......2000-11-13

This is a (not surprisingly) beautiful and very accurate portrayal of Maasai life. It was written by Teplit Ole Saitoti, himself a Maasai straddling a modern lifestyle, with that of an elder in his home village. Carol Beckwith is one of the most sensitive and talented "human anthropology" photographers the world has ever known. She gets photos no one else can, by living the villagers' lifestyles. The result of the collaboration is the view of Maasai life from within.

Book Description

A shocking true story of contemporary slavery: a young girl, snatched from her tribal village in Africa, survives enslavement in Sudan and London before making a courageous escape to freedom.

Mende Nazer lost her childhood at age twelve, when she was sold into slavery. It all began one horrific night in 1993, when Arab raiders swept through her Nuba village, murdering the adults and rounding up thirty-one children, including Mende. .

Mende was sold to a wealthy Arab family who lived in Sudan's capital city, Khartoum. So began her dark years of enslavement. Her Arab owners called her "Yebit," or "black slave." She called them "master." She was subjected to appalling physical, sexual, and mental abuse. She slept in a shed and ate the family leftovers like a dog. She had no rights, no freedom, and no life of her own.

Normally, Mende's story never would have come to light. But seven years after she was seized and sold into slavery, she was sent to work for another master--a diplomat working in the United Kingdom. In London, she managed to make contact with other Sudanese, who took pity on her. In September 2000, she made a dramatic break for freedom.

Slave is a story almost beyond belief. It depicts the strength and dignity of the Nuba tribe. It recounts the savage way in which the Nuba and their ancient culture are being destroyed by a secret modern-day trade in slaves. Most of all, it is a remarkable testimony to one young woman's unbreakable spirit and tremendous courage.

Customer Reviews:

Is there an end to shame?.......2007-10-16

This book explores a very uncomfortable truth: this is the 21st century and slavery still exists. Following a murderous raid in her native Nuba village in Sudan, Mende Nazer was kidnapped in 1994 with other native children from that area. Her simple tribal life surrounded by a loving, united family came to an end that night. Sold to an Arab family in Khartoum, she learned to survive by "simply" enduring her fate. She was stripped of dignity and humanity, her desperation worsened by the lack of information about the rest of her family, not knowing whether they had survived the raid. It all made her plunge into a deep depression. She was humiliated, beaten and psychologically abused to a devastating extent and for several years. She was later "passed on" to another family, related to the one in Khartoum. This second family lived in London and it was there, in the year 2000, that Mende's fate changed.

This story is a condensation of facts reported simply and clearly by Mende in first person, beginning with her childhood (a very happy one despite her painful female circumcision at a very young age) all the way through her life and up until the events leading to freedom in London. She was helped in this process by journalist Damien Lewis and the result is a compelling read, where all is pieced together in a very accessible way. Mende's young and sober voice emerges with a powerful resonance in its quiet simplicity, a sad reminder of contemporary slavery. It's like a blow knocking the air out of you.

I am omitting details as the reading would be spoiled (also, many reviews and the product description itself are clear enough). I abstain from commenting as the book comments itself and also because, no matter how "used" we are to hear about atrocities nowadays, it is difficult to convey in written words the outrage in the knowledge that such horrors still exist. Just one thing: this should be a compulsory read. It is not only informative and an eye-opener. It also goes to show that, thankfully, goodness still exists despite everything and it unites everybody, irrespective of race, religion, social background.

Sad but excellent story of courage and the will to survive!.......2007-09-27

Mende's story is told in such a simple way. It's as though her emotional growth was put on pause at age 12 - in that she remains very child-like in her response to what's going on around her. Maybe this is what kept her from truly being consumed by hatred toward those who took the most precious thing from her - her family.

It's an excellent read and I'd definitely recommend it. What struck me most was Mende's comments about how she was a good Muslim and did not understand how other's who were supposed to be of her same faith treated her as or worse than the animals they kept as pets!

I think that it was her loving family and tribal life that probably played a great role in giving her the courage to continue on and finally seek means to escape - even though she often writes of her fears. This emotional armor kept her strong and proved to be a real life-line for her when things were the worst.

Difficult Subject - A call to action.......2007-07-23

This is a tough book but one that you must read.

Mende grew up in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. Her family and her tribe are black Africans who lived in peace until the government of Sudan (Arabs in contrast) raided her village and disrupted their peaceful and simple existence. While both followers of Islam, the Nuba were viewed as inferior due to their race and Mende was taken from her family and enslaved. She was stripped of her identity as a Nuba, forced to forgo her faith (one that she shared with those enslaving her), and treated as disposable.

Her story is remarkable in that she survived. Many of her friends taken captive with her did not. This is an unremarkable story in that there are an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide.

My suggestion: read this book and then find some way to help the 27 million Mende's of the world that are relying on you to put an end to slavery for good.

The Nasty Truth Revealed!!! .......2007-06-14

Anyone that desires to get to the crux of the Sudanese abuses needs to look no further. This is a brilliant first-hand account of attrocities committed by the Sudanese government with active colaboration between the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed militia.

The only difference from the harsh realities laid out by this awesome work is that in the recent past, the Sudanese government has become more desperate since they discovered oil in the Western & Southern parts of the country. This has led to even further abuse, and so for anybody that thinks what happened in this book is bad, just imagine it 2 or 3 fold worse than it was in the period the book relates to.

Sudanese and other Arab societies have (prior to the western-world's involvement) and still actively engage in slavery as described in this book.

It's high time the world took a stand against such flagrant abuse of human rights in a more comprehensive & robust way. Mende is one of the lucky few who ever escape the cycle & she needs to be made the face and encouraged to give public talks & presentations in the fight against this canker of society.

Narrative Comes Alive.......2007-06-11

I found this writing something of a watershed for the purpose of capturing the psychological mechanisms and cultural place of slavery from the first person. It will be my primary frame of reference. Although the account of Mende Nazer's specific case, the sole subject of this book, was never corroborated by the text of the British Home Office determinations of 2002 and later, it none the less credibly brings life to, and brings fairly detailed mechanical observation of what a slave experiences within Arab culture. (In light of the Darfur situation, the prevalence of this latter phenomenon is not credibly disputed.) If you want to gain an internalized feeling for what a young African slave feels, thinks, and survives, as well to fathom what a slaveholder might think, feel, and do to establish pyschological influence over a slave within the cultural context of this book, well, this is the book to buy. (Steve Hassan's books on overcoming cult mind control, for me, make a very illuminating complement to this story.) It does as well expose a fundamental juxtaposition between vices within Arab culture and that culture's inextricable centrality to the Islamic religion (a faith with which Arab culture is portrayed to be in conflict in this book).

Ethnology of A-Kamba and Othe (Cass Library of African Studies. General Studies,)

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Ethnology of A-Kamba and Othe (Cass Library of African Studies. General Studies,)
C. W. Hobley
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0714616788

Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (Ancient Peoples)

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Shallow
elagabal ?

Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (Ancient Peoples)
Robert Hoyland
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0415195349

Book Description

Knowledge of pre-Islam Arabia is essential for anyone seeking to understand how Islam arose and the shape it took. Further, knowledge of the cultures, commerce, and conflicts of the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to Muhammed is fatally incomplete without the inclusion of the Arabs and the vital role they played. Arabia and the Arabs provides the only up-to-date, one volume survey of the region and its peoples during this period.
Using a wide range of sources--inscriptions, poetry, histories, and archaeological evidence--Robert Hoyland explores the main cultural areas of Arabia, from ancient Sheba in the south, to the desert oases of the north. He meticulously traces the major themes in the:
*economy
*society
*religion
*art and architecture
*language and literature
*Arabhood and Arabisation.
The text is supplemented by over 50 photographs, drawings, and maps.

Customer Reviews:

Shallow.......2007-04-01

I keep looking for books about the history of Arabs giving a pure academic point of view, unfortunately without success. This book certainely doesnot go deep intothe history of Arabia, nor of the origins of its people or the origins of people who migrated out of Arabia.

It is a big dissapointment.

elagabal ?.......2005-01-10

Why the author does not speak about the emperor Elagabal
and his black stone ?

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Naomi Shihab Nye is a philanthropist, poet, educator...
Looking at the space between our footsteps
Beautiful and sensitive collection not just for children
An exquisite book, and not just for kids.

The Space Between Our Footsteps
Naomi Shihab Nye
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0689812337

Amazon.com

"Poetry is a river / And solitude a bridge. / Through writing / We cross it, / Through reading / We Return." So writes Lebanese poet Kaissar Afif in Naomi Shihab Nye's aesthetically stunning anthology of poetry and paintings from the Middle East, The Space Between Our Footsteps. As Afif's poem beckons, so does Nye, inviting readers into a lush, vivid world in which more than 100 poets from 19 different Middle Eastern countries share their innermost feelings about place, family, war, and peace, scattered amid paintings reflecting pain, hope, and joy with rich, bold strokes.

Palestinian American poet, novelist, and anthologist Nye has made a name for herself with critically acclaimed books such as the autobiographical novel Habibi and the striking poetry collections This Same Sky and I Feel a Little Jumpy Around You. This anthology rivals her previous work in both beauty and inspiration, and was nominated by the Young Adult Library Services Association as one of 1998's Best Books for Young Adults.

But this collection is not for teens only. The personal yet universal sentiments expressed in these poems and paintings will pierce hearts of all ages--as in Sharif S. Elmusa's "But I Heard the Drops": "My father had a reservoir / of tears. / They trickled down / unseen. / But I heard the drops / drip/from his voice / like drops / from a loosened tap. / For thirty years I heard them." Notes on the contributors round out the collection and help bring footsteps a world apart just a little closer together. --Brangien Davis

Customer Reviews:

Naomi Shihab Nye is a philanthropist, poet, educator..........2004-01-31

We are living in a time where being Arab, Muslim, or Southeast Asian makes one a "terror suspect." In this age of fear and ignorance, it is more important than ever for educators and readers of poetry to take a look at Nye's touching portraits of Arab and Arab American life. If these poems reveal the beauty, intelligence, and vitality of Arab and Arab Americans, then -- to the seething reader from Denver, CO-- you may find Nye guilty of being truthful: All human life is precious, and all human beings are capable of exceeding our expectations.

I first fell in love with Nye's poetry through "The Words Beneath the Words" and recommend all of her works. Educators, activists, lovers of poetry, please read and share Nye's work. They are more important then ever in creating peaceful relationships for the future.

Looking at the space between our footsteps.......2001-05-06

This is a wonderful book. It is full of the imagery and feelings that in turn, delight, amuse and sadden. Naomi Nye has compiled a collection of writers from various countries within the Middle East. Although the writers come from many countries and competing nationalities, there is a common commitment to peace. Since the poems are translated,rather than presented in the original languages, the reader does not have the benefit of the natural rhythms of the languages the poems were taken from. What the translations lack in terms of rhyme is more than made up by the poets' use of Metaphor. One poet talks about "drinking in the melancholy of morning". Another talks about being passed by trains with eyes looking back at you. The language is effective and persuasive. Many of the poems deal with loss. They deal with the loss of loved ones, the loss of time, the loss of relationships, but more importantly, they deal with the loss of basic human rights and something as basic as a homeland. The book has many fine paintings that supplement the text. They are all very well done and add to the feeling of the book. The reader of this book will not only read, but will also have an experience. All the senses except hearing will be involved. I recommend this book to anyone, particularly to Young Adults.

Beautiful and sensitive collection not just for children.......1998-12-09

This book has room in its heart for the passions and longings of writers from all of the Middle East. It offers readers, in beautiful poetry, the longings for place, for a loved past, for a more secure future, felt by Lebanese, Syrians, Israelis, Turks, Palestinians, Iraqis, Saudis, Egyptians, and more. Meticulously designed and printed, it offers art from across the Middle East that illuminates these poems and helps us learn with our children important lessons about that part of the world.

An exquisite book, and not just for kids........1998-07-07

I bought this book from amazon.com, fell in love with it & wrote the following review for The Capital Times, Madison WI's afternoon newspaper:

That this exquisitely beautiful, painfully direct and ultimately joyful book, "The Space Between Our Footsteps,'' is published under the imprint of Simon & Schuster's Books for Young Readers is an example of how badly we adults need to learn the lessons we try to teach our children.

The poems and paintings of more than 100 writers and artists from 19 countries are loosely grouped by theme,without a condescending preface or explanations of how to feel when we read or view them...This book is an ideal gift for anyone old enough to read "The Diary of Anne Frank,'' and to know that just as, for Anne, life went on as war went on, so it does today. It is for anyone who thinks he or she understands the conflicts in the Middle East, and for anyone whose life needs a sudden rush of beauty.

Book Description

When renowned photojournalist Elizabeth Gilbert first came into contact with the Maasai over ten years ago, their images were everywhere in Africa. Pictures of warriors were printed on postcards, T-shirts, safari advertisements, and hotel logos, but in reality their traditional life was disappearing. So Gilbert — whose photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Men's Journal, Life, and the New York Times — set out on a four-year journey to photograph what was left of traditional Maasailand. Broken Spears is the stunning result of that remarkable journey where Gilbert intimately and poignantly captures the majesty of these people. Over 120 images capture the rituals, secret ceremonies, and landscapes of the Maasai, documenting the life of this extraordinary tribe in the most comprehensive collection of photographs ever assembled. Gilbert's intimate relationship with the Maasai allowed her to photograph centuries-old Maasai ceremonies, including male and female circumcisions, weddings, and perhaps the most dangerous of all Maasai rituals, a lion hunt. A moving photographic journey into the vanishing culture of the Maasai warriors of Kenya and Tanzania, Broken Spears is a haunting testament to a rapidly disappearing way of life.

Customer Reviews:

A Passionate Portrait of a Great People.......2004-02-28

Most photographers either see the members of the noble Maasai tribe hastily when they are tourists or as photojournalists with limited time. Their images don't get far below the surface. On the other hand, photographer Elizabeth Gilbert worked many years, carefully and slowly to gain the Maasai's trust and understand who they are. The result of her efforts is abundantly clear in this moving book that documents their world in a great detail. We don't see flashy events performed for visitors but intimate milestones in their life like the passage to manhood and the rite of marriage. The book leaves us with a clear sense of who these people are and where they came from. In addition, Gilbert has given us a breathtaking view of the country in which they make their home. It is a standout in a field full of Africa books.

A remarkable record of a vanishing society.......2003-10-27

I read this pictorial record of the Maasai in one sitting from start to finish. Rather than being just another coffee table book with pretty pictures, Liz Gilbert intersperses her photographs with insightful essays documenting Maasai history, rituals, and traditions such as marriage, male and female circumcision, coming of age, and even a lion hunt with spears.

Gilbert has clearly done her homework regarding the Maasai, spending many years in Kenya to gain the trust of the tribesmen who allowed her to document their most intimate rituals. The black and white photographs she has assembled have a museum quality about them, especially the portraits.

The author took serious personal risks to achieve these photographs, with the lion hunt at the end representing but one example of her courage. Clearly, the book documents not only the vanishing society of the Maasai, but also a personal journey for the author. This book should be an inspiration for anyone interested in Africa.

STUNNING AND PASSIONATE!.......2003-10-08

This is a truly awe-inspiring book. I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the Maasai or African cultures. In contrast to the recent slew of "white girl in Africa" books which have deluged newstands in recent years, Gilbert's book is a refreshing take on one of Africa's least accessible and mythologized cultures. Individually and collectively the photographs serve to honor a people who are consciously facing the erosion of their societial ways. Broken Spears is a must-have for any serious family book collection

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