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Author: Neshani Andreas
Publisher: Heinemann
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9780435912086
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAnnotation Mee Ali has good reason to be thankful; she has a happy marriage. For some in her village, marriage turns out to be a loveless entrapment.
Author: Neshani Andreas
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2017-03-27
Total Pages: 191
ISBN-13: 147863510X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThrough the voice of Mee Ali, readers experience the rhythms and rituals of life in rural Namibia in interconnected stories. In Oshaantu, a place where women are the backbone of the home but are expected to submit to patriarchal dominance, Mee Ali is happily married. Her friend, Kauna, however, suffers at the hands of an abusive husband. When he is found dead at home, many of the villagers suspect her of poisoning him. Backtracking from that time, the novel, with its universal appeal, reveals the value of friendships, some of which are based on tradition while others grow out of strength of character, respect, and love.
Author: Neshani Andreas
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-11-01
Total Pages: 193
ISBN-13: 1803288213
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Purple Violet of Oshaantu is the moving story of two ordinary women living in rural Namibia. In exploring tales of their marriages to vastly different men, Neshani Andreas exposes the burdens they carry and the friendships they must forge in order to survive. When Ali arrives in the village of Oshaantu, she is met with a cold welcome. Only the young mother next door, Kauna, is willing to truly accept Ali's presence. Kind-hearted and married to an abusive husband, Kauna quickly becomes more than just a neighbour – she becomes a friend, daughter, and someone to mentor. Disaster strikes when Kauna's husband is suddenly found dead at home, causing the villagers to suspect her of poisoning him. What follows is an emotive account of Kauna's journey into widowhood and Ali's bittersweet reflections on the beliefs and customs of her village. Beautiful and thoughtfully written, Andreas paints a vibrant picture of friendship and sisterhood in traditional Namibian society. 'A gentle fighter for women's rights, who used her writing as a weapon.' Mariama Bâ 'One of Namibia's finest post-independence novels.' Erika von Weitersheim
Author: Bessie Head
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2013-09-16
Total Pages: 113
ISBN-13: 1478611618
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRead worldwide for her wisdom, authenticity, and skillful prose, South African–born Bessie Head (1937–1986) offers a moving and magical tale of an orphaned girl, Margaret Cadmore, who goes to teach in a remote village in Botswana where her own people are kept as slaves. Her presence polarizes a community that does not see her people as human, and condemns her to the lonely life of an outcast. In the love story and intrigue that follows, Head brilliantly combines a portrait of loneliness with a rich affirmation of the mystery and spirituality of life. The core of this otherworldly, rhapsodic work is a plot about racial injustice and prejudice with a lesson in how traditional intolerance may render whole sections of a society untouchable.
Author: Sifiso Nyati
Publisher:
Published: 2008
Total Pages: 130
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"The other presence is a novel that depicts and portrays beliefs, attitudes and viewpoints of African village people on the concept of death. The underlying belief is that, in African traditional set-ups, there is no death that occurs innocently. Behind every death, there is some form of mysterious work by either a sorcerer or a spell. Even in the situation where a Western clinic diagnoses a patient as a HIV carrier, the cause of the death of that person would have to be interrogated. The book illustrates how elder Sinvula, battles with the insinuations and accusations that he is responsible for the death of his nephew, Akapelwa. Ma Simanga, the bereaved mother has vowed not to leave a stone unturned. This time, she would stretch her trip to East Africa where answers would be given about the cause of her son's death. As in other deaths in her family, the pension payout from the deceased's contributions would be used to pay the seers."--Page 4 of cover
Author: Sol T. Plaatje
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2024-02-01
Total Pages: 225
ISBN-13: 1803288965
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn epic historical romance, Mhudi is the first novel in English to be written by a black South African writer and renowned as one of Africa's most important literary works. After witnessing the genocide of her tribe, Mhudi wanders the land terrified of encountering enemy warriors until she is suddenly struck by a fear even worse than death; that she is now completely alone. Upon crossing paths with the tribe's only other known survivor, she finds herself at the centre of an extraordinary story of love, war, and unexpected allies. Writing in the early twentieth century, Sol T. Plaatje offers an incredible retelling of South Africa's history that refuses to justify the injustice that was endured. 'More than a classic; there is just no other book on earth like it. All the stature and grandeur of the author are in it.' Bessie Head 'Some of the most compelling and celebrated accounts of the early days of apartheid.' Trevor Noah, New York Times 'One of the most remarkable books on Africa by one of the continent's most remarkable writers.' Neil Parsons
Author: Bessie Head
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2013-09-23
Total Pages: 201
ISBN-13: 1478611677
DOWNLOAD EBOOKRural Botswana is the backdrop for When Rain Clouds Gather, the first novel published by one of Africa’s leading woman writers in English, Bessie Head (1937–1986). Inspired by her own traumatic life experiences as an outcast in Apartheid South African society and as a refugee living at the Bamangwato Development Association Farm in Botswana, Head’s tough and telling classic work is set in the poverty-stricken village of Golema Mmidi, a haven to exiles. A South African political refugee and an Englishman join forces to revolutionize the villagers’ traditional farming methods, but their task is fraught with hazards as the pressures of tradition, opposition from the local chief, and the unrelenting climate threaten to divide and devastate the fragile community. Head’s layered, compelling story confronts the complexities of such topics as social and political change, conflict between science and traditional ways, tribalism, the role of traditional African chiefs, religion, race relations, and male–female relations.
Author: Flora Nwapa
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2013-10-21
Total Pages: 223
ISBN-13: 1478613270
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAppearing in 1966, Efuru was the first internationally published book, in English, by a Nigerian woman. Flora Nwapa (1931–1993) sets her story in a small village in colonial West Africa as she describes the youth, marriage, motherhood, and eventual personal epiphany of a young woman in rural Nigeria. The respected and beautiful protagonist, an independent-minded Ibo woman named Efuru, wishes to be a mother. Her eventual tragedy is that she is not able to marry or raise children successfully. Alone and childless, Efuru realizes she surely must have a higher calling and goes to the lake goddess of her tribe, Uhamiri, to discover the path she must follow. The work, a rich exploration of Nigerian village life and values, offers a realistic picture of gender issues in a patriarchal society as well as the struggles of a nation exploited by colonialism.
Author: Binwell Sinyangwe
Publisher: Heinemann
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 164
ISBN-13: 9780435912024
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis reimagining of the Robin Hood legend tells the story of the young boy behind the bandit hero's rise to fame. Will Shackley is the son of a lord, and though just thirteen, he's led a charmed, protected life and is the heir to Shackley House, while his father is away on the Third Crusade with King Richard the Lionheart. But with King Richard's absence, the winds of treason are blowing across England, and soon Shackley House becomes caught up in a dangerous power struggle that drives Will out of the only home he's ever known. Alone, he flees into the dangerous Sherwood Forest, where he joins an elusive gang of bandits readers will immediately recognize. How Will helps a drunkard named Rob become one of the most feared and revered criminals in history is a swashbuckling ride perfect for anyone who loves heroes, villains, and adventure. From the Hardcover edition.
Author: Mariama Bâ
Publisher: Waveland Press
Published: 2012-05-06
Total Pages: 113
ISBN-13: 1478611235
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWritten by award-winning African novelist Mariama Bâ and translated from the original French, So Long a Letter has been recognized as one of Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century. The brief narrative, written as an extended letter, is a sequence of reminiscences —some wistful, some bitter—recounted by recently widowed Senegalese schoolteacher Ramatoulaye Fall. Addressed to a lifelong friend, Aissatou, it is a record of Ramatoulaye’s emotional struggle for survival after her husband betrayed their marriage by taking a second wife. This semi-autobiographical account is a perceptive testimony to the plight of educated and articulate Muslim women. Angered by the traditions that allow polygyny, they inhabit a social milieu dominated by attitudes and values that deny them status equal to men. Ramatoulaye hopes for a world where the best of old customs and new freedom can be combined. Considered a classic of contemporary African women’s literature, So Long a Letter is a must-read for anyone interested in African literature and the passage from colonialism to modernism in a Muslim country. Winner of the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
