Windows on the African Past

Windows on the African Past

Author: Ahmed G. Fahmy

Publisher: Africa Magna Verlag

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 3937248323

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Archaeobotany has significantly increased our knowledge of the relationships between humans and plants throughout the ages. As is amply illustrated in this volume, botanical remains preserved in archaeological contexts have great potential to inform us about past environments and the various methods used by ancient peoples to exploit and cultivate plants. This volume presents the proceedings of the 6th International Workshop on African Archaeobotany (IWAA) held at Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt, on 13-15 June 2009. Studies presented herein clearly illustrate that African archaeobotany is a dynamic field, with many advances in techniques and important case studies presented since the first meeting of IWAA held in 1994. Authors have employed classical and new archaeobotanical techniques, in addition to linguistics and ethnoarchaeology to increase our knowledge about the role of plants in ancient African societies. This book covers a wide range of African countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Canary Islands. It is of interest to archaeobotanists, archaeologists, historians, linguists, agronomists, and plant ecologists.


Literature of Africa

Literature of Africa

Author: Douglas Killam

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2004-11-30

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0313058210

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As more works of African Literature are being incorporated into the Language Arts and Cultural Studies curriculum, it becomes increasingly important to offer students and educators a meaningful context in which to explore these works. As part of Greenwood's Literature as Windows to World Culture series, this volume introduces readers to the cultural concerns of 10 of Africa's most reknowned writers. Written in clear accessible language, close analysis is given for 14 novels, including Achebe's Things Fall Apart, and Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, chosen because of their literary importance and the frequency with which they are assigned. The ten analysis chapters each begin with a brief account of the authors' lives and their writing careers, noting especially the experiences and influences which have shaped their writing. Following this section is a major essay on their most prominent and best known work. Discussion of the historical and cultural issues in the novels is integrated into the literary commentary. Students will gain not a deeper appreciation for the fiction, but a more solid understanding of the core historical issues and cultural concerns that influence and shape the writing. The Introduction outlines the general history and development of Sub-Saharan African Literature. The colonial experiences and postcolonial struggles, the principal subject matter of African writers, differs from region to region. The geographic organization of this guide into West, East and South Africa reflects these different perspectives. Each section ends with a list of critical works that will assist readers and researchers further their understanding of the authors and their works. Short biographical sketches on 80 authors are also provided to expand readers' contact with African literature. The index assists users in identifying not only title and authors but also major themes and topics that the writings reveal.


Narrating the Everyday: Windows on Life in Central South Africa

Narrating the Everyday: Windows on Life in Central South Africa

Author: Asta Rau

Publisher: UJ Press

Published: 2019-01-01

Total Pages: 476

ISBN-13:

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The chapters in this book reflect on the practice of using narratives to understand individual and social reality. They all reveal dimensions of the same concrete reality: contemporary society of Central South Africa. Except for two, all the chapters originated from research in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, situated in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Each chapter opens a window on an aspect of everyday life in Central South Africa. Each window displays the capacity of the narrative as a methodological tool in qualitative research to open up better understandings of everyday experience. The chapters also reflect on the epistemological journey towards unwrapping and breaking open of meaning. Narratives are one of many tools available to sociologists in their quest to understand and interpret meaning. But, when it comes to deep understanding, narratives are particularly effective in opening up more intricate levels of meaning associated with emotions, feelings, and subjective experiences.


Making Sense of the Central African Republic

Making Sense of the Central African Republic

Author: Tatiana Carayannis

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 1783603828

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Lying at the centre of a tumultuous region, the Central African Republic and its turbulent history have often been overlooked. Democracy, in any kind of a meaningful sense, has eluded the country. Since the mid-1990s, army mutinies and serial rebellion in CAR have resulted in two major successful coups. Over the course of these upheavals, the country has become a laboratory for peacebuilding initiatives, hosting a two-decade-long succession of UN and regional peacekeeping, peacebuilding and special political missions. Drawing together the foremost experts on the Central African Republic, this much-needed volume provides the first in-depth analysis of the country’s recent history of rebellion, instability, and international and regional intervention.


The Hotel Book

The Hotel Book

Author: Shelley-Maree Cassidy

Publisher: Taschen

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 3822819115

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Who minds sleeping under a mosquito net when it's royally draped over the bed in a lush Kenyan, open-walled hut, fashioned from tree trunks and shielded from the sun by a sumptuous thatched roof? This selection of the most-splendid getaway havens nestled throughout the African continent is sure to please even the most finicky would-be voyagers. Photos.


Ancient West African Kingdoms

Ancient West African Kingdoms

Author: Jane Shuter

Publisher: Heinemann-Raintree Library

Published: 2008-08

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9781432913328

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Provides an overview of the culture and civilizations of the ancient West African Kingdoms of Mali, Ghana, and Songhai.


Africa

Africa

Author: United Nations Environment Programme

Publisher: UNEP/Earthprint

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 9789280728712

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This stunning 400-page Atlas is a unique and powerful publication which brings to light stories of environmental change at more than 100 locations spread across every country in Africa. There are more than 300 satellite images, 300 ground photographs and 150 maps, along with informative graphs and charts that give a vivid visual portrayal of Africa and its changing environment that provide scientific evidence of the impact that natural and human activities have had on the continent's environment over the past several decades. The observations and measurements of environmental change help gauge the extent of progress made by African countries towards reaching the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals. More importantly, this book contributes to the knowledge and understanding that are essential for adaptation and remediation, and should be of immense value to all those who want to know more about Africa and who care about the future of this continent.


Africa Overland

Africa Overland

Author: Siân Pritchard-Jones

Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Published: 2014-05-02

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 1841624942

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The definitive guide for adventurers crossing the continent since its first edition in 1991.


A Future for Africa

A Future for Africa

Author: Emmanuel M. Katongole

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2017-05-09

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 172523890X

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Civil war, famine, genocide, AIDS--the peoples of Africa have endured horrific human tragedies. Those crises plus widespread economic, political, and social instability have combined to produce what some consider a dire and nearly hopeless situation. Even as this book was going to press, the leaders of the G-8 nations were meeting to talk about what could be done to "aid Africa" in these critical times. A careful look at history would indicate that the answer must come from within Africa and from the African people themselves, not from other nations or the economic programs and solutions they propose. The rapid rise of a Christian social ethics movement as an alternative perspective focused precisely on addressing Africa's challenges using the spiritual resources of its own people is providing a hopeful solution and a timely and powerful coping mechanism for African peoples. One of the leaders of this movement is Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest from Uganda. In A Future for Africa, Katongole wrestles with concrete problems like the AIDS epidemic and widespread military conflicts, as well as fundamental, systemic ones, like poverty, corruption, and tribalism. He then offers faith-filled solutions based on the power and example of Christian community and Christian moral imagination. Katongole's radical message is that a political ethic based on Christian principles as taught in the Scriptures is the necessary foundation for healing, reconciliation, and rebuilding the continent.