I'm trying very hard to figure out how I can review this book without coming across as an ignorant, bubble-headed liberal or a rabid racist. Hmmm... I don't think it's going to happen. North of South, by the late Shiva Naipaul, is essentially a travelogue of a trip to parts of Africa in the 1970's, specifically Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Welded to the descriptions of people and scenery are sharp observations on class, racism, government and colonialism. Naipaul's eye misses nothing during his travel, and his anecdotes are both humorous and sad. It was interesting to see that this guy is the brother of V.S. Naipaul, who recently won a Nobel Prize for Literature. Anyway, this book is not going to be found on the syllabus of any black studies classes anytime soon.

North of South reveals Africa in all of its glory: degenerate, corrupt and lazy. What really stands out is how Africans have taken Western ideas and applied them to their own situations, often with laughable results. Take the case of Tanzanian Socialism. Naipaul can barely contain a chuckle at the absurdity of this situation. Almost everyone he meets praises the administration, but almost no one has any true sense of what it's all about (to be fair, the same could be said for most nations). The corruption is truly astonishing. Bribery abounds everywhere, especially at border crossings, where tourists are routinely harassed and threatened with imprisonment if their papers aren't in order. A story in which Naipaul is conned when he gets a shoeshine is a good example. Not only does the guy ruin his shoes, he tries to overcharge him in the process. Naipaul constantly has to shell out the bucks to get even the most basic services, if he gets them at all. Hotels are run down traps, prostitution is epidemic, and beggars and the unemployed are everywhere. The few situations where something actually works are attributed to the presence of white expatriates, and even here there is the danger that the black government will step in at any minute and expel the whites.

Probably the most bothersome aspect of this book, and one that costs Naipaul a star in my review, is the bias Naipaul shows in regards to the "Asian" population in Africa. The "Asians" are actually of Indian descent, as is Naipaul. Naipaul reveals that Africans are prejudiced against these Indians and he seems to take it personally (what a surprise! Blacks can actually be racists!). Much time is spent on this problem and it opens Naipaul up to charges of retaliatory prejudice. Naipaul is much more effective when he shows how both blacks and whites have their racist attitudes, and how both races have been brought down together through the process of colonialism.

This is an obscure book that probably will never get much attention in the politically correct atmosphere of America. If you want to make a liberal's head explode, buy this book and tuck it into their stocking next Christmas. If you need a break from the multicultural crowd, this is the book for you.

This is still the saddest, funniest, TRUEST book on Africa ever written. The humor is piercing but compassionate, the glimpse it provides into "emerging" Africa is dead on.

The book's humor will make you laugh a little uneasily, like the best of satire. A wonderfully detailed vision of Africa.

Beyond the Mango Tree was an exciting four star book.It is about an American girl who moves to Liberia,in Africa because her dad is offered a job here.It was exciting because one night thieves came to her house and the guard was hit on the head and almost died and Sarina, the main character, was left alone.This book is also sad because even when Sarina doesn't do anything wrong her mother ties her to a tree and makes her stand in a dark muddy puddle. I have never read anything like this book before and recommend it to readers of all ages.

BEYOND THE MANGO TREE is a sparkling debut. Ms. Zemser is a unique and jazzy talent. I'm looking forward to more of her work.

I thought this was a really fantastic book, the language, the plot and the characters were all very. . . alluring. Sarina's friend Boima supplies a series of dramatic stories throughout the book and Sarina's mother's diabetec probelems are extremely captivating, a must read for anyone who would love to have a change from the everyday world.

I enjoyed the amazing scope of Desmond Tutu's thought process and his ability to commit it to paper; but sometimes I found exploring one thought from so many angles a little unnecessary. I also had trouble with the absence of enough Aparthied history to ensure complete comprehension by all readers of all ages. I longed for more explanation to help me get through this book and really appreciate what happened during Aparthied and in the aftermath for which the commission Tutu was a member was formed.

After the fall of apartheid in South Africa, a remarkable shift occurred. Rather than forming war crimes tribunals, rather than whitewashing or ignoring the past, the democratically-elected government, led by President Nelson Mandela, formed a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In exchange for amnesty, those guilty of war crimes were required to appear before the commission and make a complete and full disclosure of any and all atrocities committed, receiving in turn a full pardon.

This is extremely difficult and painful reading. The atrocities are grisly, and I only had to read about them, not listen to them, nor experience them. In clear, unvarnished prose, Archbishop Tutu covers the difficulties in forming and leading such a commission, the differences and problems the commission members themselves had, and the response to it on the part of South African citizens. Yet, with all of the limitations Archbishop Tutu outlines, this was a remarkable, hopeful, amazing process, unlike any in human history. The book concludes with a fascinating, intriguing discussion on the nature of forgiveness. A wonderful, painful and inspiring book: one that shares the best and worst of the human condition, written by a great moral leader of our time. This book should be required reading for every human being alive.

No Future Without Forgiveness chronicles the path that South Africa walked after the election of Nelson Mandela and the end of the systematic apartheid. It was a time when so many people did not even know what had become of their loved ones, and they struggled with how to deal with their grief. They struggled with forgiveness, and they struggled with the connection between confession and truth and forgiveness and reconciliation. Yet in their terrible grief, they did not set up a war tribunal to prosecute, judge and punish those who committed these acts. Instead, they recognized a higher authority. They built a model based on the Christian principles of truth, confession and reconciliation. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." The government formed a Truth and Reconciliation Committee and said to those who committed these horrible acts, "Come and tell us the truth, and we will grant you amnesty and we will be reconciled so that we can heal."..."You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Quite remarkable, right? This is an entire country carrying out the Christian model in the midst of horrendous grief.

In his book, Desmond Tutu talks about this walk with the commission that he led. It's a remarkable story about a remarkable Christian witness. In my opinion, it's one of the most important books of the past century and one that everyone should read

In this book you can see how a woman can hate a man and the man can still love that woman, but the hate of these persons is because he kills her adoptive mother, but in book never say why he killed her, all the book is rolling in that hating all the time, and you don't know why he did that, you hate him and maybe he killed her in self defense. The rest of the story is full of action and courage of all the protagonists.

As I have always said Wilbur Smith brings me the taste of Africa all the time. I am in Zimbabwe and some these things happened so close to home such that when you read his books it is like you have rewinded history. Mr. Smith's knowledge on mining, banking, firearms, politics, love, hate, the African wildlife and research is too good and accurate to be fiction. I have enjoyed the Power of The Sword such that I almost forgot about my exams. His twist and turns, plots and sub-plots are excellent and I am looking forward to the next book in the set. The Poer of The Sword is very powerful.

This book was great - I plan to read all five in the series. I'm fascinated with Africa as described by Wilbur Smith.

I wish to draw attention to the inadequate binding on several of these books. Every time I turn a page, it just falls out of the book. If it were any other author, I would not buy a Fawcett Crest paperback book - 600+ detached pages, it's outrageous. I'll bet the whole series is like that.

In this book, No Turning Back, we meet Sipho, a young African boy who decides to escape the violence inflicted by his stepfather. With this choice come many experiences ranging from begging for money with a gang of boys to working for a white family that offer him most everything but respect. All of these experiences Sipho experiences are all in the name of survival and a quest for something better.
This book has many benefits for children and adults alike. In talking about big issues from the use of drugs (glue as an inhalant in this case) to the very serious issues faced by racism, Sipho's experiences open up many topics of discussion and reflection.
Besides the large physical issues that this book brings to the surface, it recognizes a number of internal issues dealing with emotion. From guilt and anger to friendship and hope, this story gives a real view of an area of the world that so many people are unfamiliar with. Though many of the issues this book addresses are known about, few are recognized as being associated with life in Southern Africa.

I would recommend this book to anyone. It is action packed, yet shows the reality of abuse, homelessness, and the end of apartheid in South Africa. This book show what an abused, homeless boy's life is like. It also shows the severity of apartheid. This is an excellent book for someone who wants to know what apartheid was like and the changes.

NO TURNING BACK is indeed a book that tells more than a story. It is a book that transcend space and culture. This book speaks for all the teens. No matter where they are, teenagers do share the same needs: the need to be loved and cared.They are all vulnerable kids subjected to the evil forces of the society, especially in South Africa where the relationship between the White and the Black was that tense. But deep inside they are just kids, their voices can be heard in NO TURNING BACK.

This book contains some wonderful vignettes but it left me wondering whether this was the first time that the author had travelled abroad. I found that the personal and political agenda to be distracting from what otherwise would have been a very interesting travel book. And finally I note that we Canadians also spell colour with a "u" and call paper napkins "serviettes".

I traveled in southern Africa in 1996 and found Martha's book to be a wonderful travel diary capturing the nuances of that part of the world. Her sensitivity to the unique tapestry of South Africa and Namibia as they struggle to embrace identities as free, democratic countries is very powerful. I didn't want the book to end. Bravo from a fellow WorldTeacher!

Provides a fascinating look at an area and events that rarely get "personal" treatment. The book gives flashes and glimpses of people, situations and areas outside the usual experience. The author also compares this area and events with those of the US at differing periods of time in the US history. I found it very interesting and found myself wanting more at the end. More details, more stories, more information in general. It's a very personal narrative and must be viewed as such so keep an open mind if the reader is not "liberal".

Michael Bishop, Nebula Award-winning author of No Enemy but Time, has just released Blue Kansas Sky, which collects four of his short works - one never before been seen in print - in a single volume. These stories showcase his mastery of different genres, and provide the reader with an sampling from various phases in Bishop's writing career.

"Blue Kansas Sky" is a moving story of a young boy in 1950s small-town America, who struggles between his love for an uncle just released from prison and loyalty to his mother (who blames the man for her husband's death). Bishop incorporated many details from his own childhood to make this tale come alive. There's no science fiction here at all - just an engaging tale, extremely well written. Michael Bishop is adept at incorporating fresh words and unexpected turns of phrase without making the reader scramble for a thesaurus.

In "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thurbana," a well-to-do Afrikaner "ghosts" in and out of reality after a freak auto accident and is forced to watch as the security police interrogate two black laborers - one who plays around with cosmic string theory as a hobby; another who receives pirate radio broadcasts courtesy of a metal plate in his skull. This story is very difficult to get through - not because it is poorly written (indeed, just the opposite); but because it captures in chilling detail the horrors of the old Apartheid system.

"Cri de Coeur" (Cry from the Heart) tells the story of a man who must cope with the responsibilities, and revel in the joys, of raising a son with Down's Syndrome aboard a generational starship seeking to colonize another star system.

"Death and Designation among the Asadi" deals with a human anthropologist living in the wilds of an alien planet, struggling to understand the enigmatic rituals of its lion-maned hominids - without losing his sanity. [After reading this story I asked the author what I should do if I didn't fully understand it - read it again, or embrace the mystery? His answer: "Death and Designation" is my Solaris (a novel by Stanislaw Lem). Real aliens, Lem implies, defy comprehension because they ARE alien. On the other hand, you could read my novel Transfigurations, which incorporates the novella, and which more than one critic badmouthed for explaining rather than embracing the original mystery. They may have done so with some justice.]

Blue Kansas Sky is a wonderful collection of stories that I heartily recommend. It's published by Golden Gryphon Press (a small firm specializing in anthologies).

Blue Kansas Sky is a collection of 4 novellas spanning 3 decades and the full spectrum of Bishop's talent. The title story is a sweet, poignant coming-of-age story set in Bishop's semi-fictional Van Luna, KS: it's all about life and growing up and the random difficulties of doing so. The last line is guaranteed to send you reeling. "Cri di Coeur" and "Death and Designation among the Asadi" are stunning morality tales in the guise of science fiction; as usual, Bishop's characters, no matter where or when they are, portray humanity at its most believable, wanderers who find hope in the most fragile of circumstances. The ringer for me, though, is "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana," a magical-realistic look at the horror of racism, the sin of inaction, all neatly and convincingly tied up with the Theory of Everything. Quite simply: amazing.

This is a collection for fantasists, for realists, for anyone who enjoys one of our best unsung writers at his very best.

Michael Bishop is a Nebula and World Fantasy Awards winning author. Blue Kansas Sky showcases four of his best novellas under one cover. These superbly written stories include Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thuban; Cri De Coeur; Death and Designation Among the Asadi; and the title piece, Blue Kansas Sky. This outstanding anthology is enhanced for the readers with an informative introduction to Michael Bishop and his writing by James Morrow. Blue Kansas Sky is "must reading" for Bishop's legion of science fiction and fantasy fans.

Chain of Fire

Have you ever had a incident where someone treated you badly because the color of your skin or you did things differently than others? That's what happens in this story. It is all prejudice and discrimination. A black tribe is forced to move because they need more room for the white people. The blacks try to stand up for themselves but in the process many get hurt. Will they have to move or will they all possibly stand up for themselves and die? You'll only find out if you read Chain of Fire. If you want my opinion I think that this is a great book because this really could of happen. What I am really trying to say is that the subject of the book could have really happened because it was about blacks and in this time blacks weren't treated fair. This book has to do with prejudice and discrimination. Back in the early 1900's blacks weren't slaves in all parts of the world only in some places but they still weren't treated fair. If you were to rate this book from 1-10 on a rating scale I would give it a 10.

This engaging companion to Journey to Jo'burg tells a passionate story of resistance. Naledi, the teenage girl in Jo'burg, and her brother, Tiro, join with the rest of their village to fight against South Africa's apartheid government that has marked their village to be destroyed and the occupants moved to a barren and nearly unlivable plot of land farther away. The fire within Naledi begins as a smoldering log. As she faces one injustice after another, the fire burns brighter and stronger. Her friendship with Taolo, the son of an active union leader from Soweto, pushes Naledi into a leadership position. She must accept the responsibility and the consequences of resistance.

Naidoo includes a diversity of personalities involved in resistance. Naledi's grandmother's hesitancy turns to quiet understanding while a few villagers choose to side with the apartheid goverment for the perks. Death, beatings, kidnappings and destroyed homes are some of the many consequences the black South Africans find in their struggle. Throughout the story you are shown the strength of community rising up against injustice.

Naidoo has provided strong and proud teenage characters who are not afriad to stand up against injustice. Naledi, Taolo and Tiro are inspirations for all of us.

The Chain of Fire is the best book I ever read. When I first started to read The Chain of Fire, I truly thought it was going to be boring. After a few chapters Naledi finds out that the government is going to tear down their village, then it got interesting. The story is about a girl named Naledi, who lives in South Africa, is trying to stop the government from tearing down their village. My favorite part of the story is when Naledi and the other students in her school did a protest. I liked it when the police came and started a lot of violence.I didn't like the ending because they didn't tell if Naledi liked their new "homeland".

I strongly encourage everyone to buy and read this book. This book tells the story of what it is like to be female in apartheid South Africa. Do not pass up this opportunity to learn more about the legendary Mathabane family!

...about my life, my educational opportunities, my social status. Miriam's Song should be required reading for all spoiled brats who think their lives are difficult. Shame on me for ever taking education for granted! Shame on me for ever complaining that my opportunities in the US are limited because of my gender! This book left an indelible mark on my social consciousness. Not just a touching and eye-opening memoir, but also a story of fierce determination and strength, Miriam's Song ranks among my must-reads. Her story is inspiring and her candid writing makes the reader feel as if she is sitting right there in the room, like an new friend telling you about her life. The text does not attempt to justify or rationalize or otherwise explain the social structure, and is remarkably pure in its telling of Miriam's story. Because this book is free from philisophy and pontification about wrong and right, fair and unfair, here-and-there comparisons, the reader is left to come to these realizations on his/her own and thus the story becomes most poignant. I find myself wondering how Miriam is doing now, and would welcome another book including the rest of her story and her observations of the US. Whole-heartedly recommended. Finished it yesterday and loaned it to a friend today.

How nice it is to sit in our American homes and vaguely read of the troubles of South Africa. I am ashamed to have never paid more attention to this subject. This is a riveting book that takes you past the superficial headlines and into the lives of the blacks who suffered under apartheid.

The Mathabane family lives in a suburb of Johannesburg, in a one-square mile ghetto that is home to over 200,000 people (400,000 by the end of the book). Employment is hard to come by--for one to work, one must have a permit. But to get a permit, one must have a job.

Their home is a two room shack, where four of the children sleep on the kitchen floor. There is a communal tap outside. Raw sewage runs in the street outside their door. Black children are only allowed to be taught certain subjects in a certain manner, and Miriam and her classmates are routinely beaten for any infraction--mistakes in schoolwork, uncombed hair, nails that are dirty/too long, wearing dirty bloomers, or not wearing bloomers at all. (These people live in complete poverty, and it was not uncommon for children to not have underwear.) The young teenage girls are easy targets of sexual abuse. Many become pregnant, single mothers, unable to finish school.

While the story is unbelievably horrifying, their outlook is one of constant hope and faith. I am unable to get this family out of my mind, and I will be reading Mark Mathabane's autobiographical books as soon as I get my hands on them...This is an amazing story of how people in other parts of the world live. I strongly recommend this book.

Antony Thomas states up front that he is certainly no fan of Cecil Rhodes, and from that statement, the reader might expect to be treated to a real chop job. Instead, one gets a remarkably even-handed treatment of Rhodes. It would be easy simply to characterize Rhodes as evil, but to Thomas' credit, he does not take the easy way out. He is more than prepared to exam what can be best described as Rhodes' moral ambiguity.

I would not call Rhodes amoral in the strictist sense. He knew well enough when he was doing wrong to want to conceal his activities. Nor would I call him a ruthless pragmatist. His devotion to his friends was quite real, and in the case of Neville Pickering's death, Rhodes' all-consuming grief ultimately kept him from purchasing land that he knew was rich in gold. His personal feelings kept him from making a second, utterly massive, fortune in gold. That is hardly the action of pragmatist.

Trying to figure out what made Rhodes tick becomes trickier the more one examines his deeds. Even Thomas is vexed at times at how easily Rhodes moves from one alliance to another, and completely reverses his stands on issues such as native rights. By the time of his death, Rhodes was lionized throughout the British Empire as being in the vanguard of imperialists, but Thomas shows that for most of his career, he was strictly pursuing his own economic and political interests, and did not cloak himself in the gard of British Imperialism until it was absolutely necessary.

Thomas does not only focus on Rhodes. He demonstrates that most of the men that Rhodes dealt with could be, at times, just as morally ambiguous as he. Rhodes knew well that every man has his price, and demonstrated it again and again. Men in positions of power were irreconcilably opposed to Rhodes & his plans, at least until Rhodes made the right offer. The Victorians would had one believe that they were paragons of virtue and rectitude, but reading of Rhodes' dealings with them makes such a claim hardly believable.

At the end of his life, Rhodes began to appreciate that a man's legacy would not be measured in the wealth that he amassed or in the deals that he made. For Rhodes, that realization came too late. Most of his accomplishments are now hardly remembered, and the man himself is remembered now more with scorn and revulsion that awe and respect. Yet Rhodes was a remarkable man. Thomas makes the distinction between being a remarkable man and a great man, and in this finds the true tragedy of Rhodes' life: he had the talents to be a truly great man for all ages, but instead used these talents strictly to serve his own interests.

The book is quite easy to read, and is well-organized. To Thomas' credit, he does not report all the stories about Rhodes as gospel, and if the historical record is unclear on certain matters, he will say so. He also examines the conclusions made by other scholars on certain subjects and deals with this quite competently. I was pleasantly suprised, since he is not a historian by profession. I do note with interest that some events (such as the famous story of Rhodes dumping loads of diamonds into a bucket, just after Barney Barnato has purchased them) are reported by Thomas in the book as being stories which may or may not be true and cannot be verified by the historical record, but are presented in the "Masterpiece Theatre" production as being true. It is a good indication that in the book at least, Thomas is trying his best to be a responsible scholar.

Antony Thomas does a very good job of presenting the life events a notable personage, while doing justice to the views of both Rhodes's many apologists and many critics. Rhodes thought his name would live on through his accomplishments for a thousand years, yet in less than a century, most of his work has been undone. Southern Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe and Northern Rhodesia is now Zambia.

I found the most interesting part of the book to be the description of the development and consolidation of the diamond fields at Kimberley. Oddly, the De Beers name which is now synonomous with diamonds around the world came from the name of a farm bought by Rhodes from the De Beers brothers early in the diamond rush. Other than this land sale, the brothers apparently had no role in the industry that made their name famous.

Much of the book deals with the ventures of the British South Africa Chartered Company, including the conquest of Southern Rhodesia (Matabeleland and Mashonaland), and the ill-starred Jemison Raid. The tales of economic and political intrigue, both in Britain and in Africa, are first rate.

This book is a great read for many reasons. On the one hand, it is well written and well argued. Thomas states his judgement on Rhodes in the beginning, which is a negative one, but then weighs what can and cannot be said about the man based on available evidence. He does not make sweeping statements of any kind. He also measures what past biographers have said against the evidence.

On the other hand, the story itself is fascinating. Thomas delivers a convincing portrait of Rhodes, one that punctures the heroic image of the "Colossus of Africa" while still revealing the clever and opportunistic nature of the man. We learn that Rhodes was a sickly child, whose frailty drove him to Africa when he was a teenager. Personal frailty lasted his whole life--and killed him in 1902. Rhodes was not much of a student, though he was driven to go to Oxford to acquire the right credentials. Rhodes had greater ambitions than amassing wealth alone, but we are led to wonder how committed an imperialist and an English chauvinist he was, given his opportunism. Thomas also presents an engaging description of the people around Rhodes. One of the more interesting is that of Barney Barnato, a British Jew who came to South Africa and amassed a larger fortune than Rhodes ever did and who appeared to be a better businessman than Rhodes as well.

The larger story of South Africa is also integrated into the tale. The diamond and gold rushes are described with great detail, including the largely tragic conflicts with native Africans. There is also much detail about the conflicts between the English and Boers, and even the role of Great Power interests (mostly British).

A general sense of adventure and opportunity about South Africa seems to exude from the story throughout. One of the most interesting examples in the book is the story of the relations between white prospectors--including Rhodes and his colleagues--and the native chief Lobengula, whole ruled in the north over the Matabeleland. The description of the massive and fearsome Lobengula, his treasures, his soldiers, his brutality and his ultimate defeat and suicide offer some of the most gripping narrative in the book.

There are not that many weaknesses to the book. A minor one might be that the book could benefit from more maps. There are 2 maps of southern Africa in the beginning of the book, but a few more maps throughout the book detailing the places where key events occurred would have been helpful.