Book Description
My new friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.
“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”
“Because there is a war.”
“You mean, you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”
“Yes, all the time.”
“Cool.”
I smile a little.
“You should tell us about it sometime.”
“Yes, sometime.”
This is how wars are fought now: by children, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.
What is war like through the eyes of a child soldier? How does one become a killer? How does one stop? Child soldiers have been profiled by journalists, and novelists have struggled to imagine their lives. But until now, there has not been a first-person account from someone who came through this hell and survived.
In A Long Way Gone, Beah, now twenty-five years old, tells a riveting story: how at the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts.
This is a rare and mesmerizing account, told with real literary force and heartbreaking honesty.
Customer Reviews:
Written too well........2007-10-15
I feel a little odd giving 5 stars to a book with such horrific subject matter. The fact is, the author has written such a clear account of all that happened in his life that I was physically affected by some of the chapters I read. No child should ever have to witness much less participate in the events that happened in Sierra Leone (or any war torn country). Beah is a true survivor. I think everyone NEEDS to read this book.
Enlightening........2007-10-03
I think this is a wonderful book, so moving and beautifully written that you wonder how a person can manage to lead a "normal" life after experiencing what he has been through. The author tells the story matter-of-factly without whining or complaining about the hand he's been dealt. Because of this, it makes the story even more impressive.
Not just a good read, a book that enlightens is a must-read.
Fantastic book. Recommend for all ages!.......2007-10-02
This book is truly amazing. It is almost unbelievable to read about the lives of people like Ishmael, but it's true, and it's happening today. Yes, in some parts it is certainly hard to read, but it's worth it. It is better to be shocked and scarred by this book than ignorant to it. Ishmael is a wonderfully optimistic person, and I think we can all learn a lot from his courage. In his own words, Ishmael is not an expert on the history of Sierra Lione, but by putting a face and name to this story, you will still learn a lot from him! I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!
Easy to read, hard to digest.......2007-10-02
I read this book on my flight to D.C. a couple of months ago. It was probably the fastest I have ever read a book. It was very easy to understand and painted an incredibly vivid picture in my mind. The content is important and the way Beah wrote his story makes it accessible to all.
Painful but Poignant.......2007-09-27
This book is not for the fainthearted who wants a feel good story; this is tough book to read, however, it is an important book to read as well. So often us here in the west are isolated from the fact that there are tough places to live on this planet, places where people are forced to do unspeakable acts and are exposed to unimaginable acts of violence.
This book takes on the voyage of a young man named Ishmael, who lived in the war torn country of Sierra Leone. His life is completely turned upside down by the civil war in that country. Ishmaels story is first a story of losing his family, than of losing his innocence as he is forced to fight for the Countries Army that's fighting the "rebels". After that the story focuses on his rehabilitation in a place called Freetown and eventually his new life in the United States (although I would like to know more about how he is today).
The most amazing part of this story as an American who simply didn't understand the truth, is that this Ishmael was 12 years old and was killing people, not because he was an animal, but because he was drugged and forced to become one merely to survive. This is a concept that as westerners we look on and go oh that's too bad, but do we really take the time to understand that this happens all the time in the same world we live in? Do we take the time to understand that there is big world out there and for the most part it isn't that safe little havens we take for granted? I challenge anyone who reads this book to be able to look at the world the same again.
Book Description
A master spy's memoir of playing the game in the most strategically influential country in 1960s Africa.
Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country had declared its independence, the army had mutinied, and governmental authority had collapsed. As he crossed the Congo River in an almost empty ferry boat, all he could see were lines of people trying to travel the other way--out of the Congo. Within his first two weeks he found himself on the wrong end of a revolver as militiamen played Russian-roulette, Congo style, with him.
During his first year, the charismatic and reckless political leader, Patrice Lumumba, was murdered and Devlin was widely thought to have been entrusted with (he was) and to have carried out (he didn't) the assassination. Then he saved the life of Joseph Desire Mobutu, who carried out the military coup that presaged his own rise to political power. Devlin found himself at the heart of Africa, fighting for the future of perhaps the most strategically influential country on the continent, its borders shared with eight other nations. He met every significant political figure, from presidents to mercenaries, as he took the Cold War to one of the world's hottest zones. This is a classic political memoir from a master spy who lived in wildly dramatic times.
Customer Reviews:
CoS Congo.......2007-08-09
An excellent biography, discusses what happened during the Cold War in the Congo from his point of view. I found it an enjoyable read.
Exciting times.......2007-07-05
A good book giving an overall flavor of the Congo in the early 60's. It would be nice if Devlin had filled in more details however perhaps this is proscribed in his publishing agreement (I presume that he had to run this through the CIA before publishing it). You do get an idea of just what a CIA COS does to try to guide events to follow US policy. He's rather blase about the physical risks of operating in an unstable environment although maybe this is because he survived to tell the tale. I don't think that I would have my family at my side in such an environment.
Charts his many encounters and is a top pick.......2007-06-17
Author Larry Devlin arrived as the new chief of station for the CIA in the Congo five days after the country declared its independence, the army mutinied, and the government had collapsed: as he entered the country, streams of residents were fleeing. During his first year he was accused of murdering a charismatic political leader, saved the life of the man who carried out the military coup, and found himself confronting unheard-of challenges in Africa. CHIEF OF STATION, CONGO charts his many encounters and is a top pick especially recommended for college-level and military holdings strong in African culture and history.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
-.......2007-06-12
A little too general, very maddening that he left out so many details. But a necessary read for those interested in the Congo in the 60's
History Lessons.......2007-06-07
This book rewards its readers with good deal of information on a variety of subjects. It undoubtedly provides a very accurate account of the struggle of the former Belgium Congo to become a variable nation state. In the course of doing this, its author provides a plausible description of the chaotic condition of an imploding nation state and its leading political players of the period, including the controversial Patrice Lumumba and the man who turned out to be his chief rival Sese Seko Mobutu. Finally the book opens a window on how the U.S -Soviet Union Clod War rivalry played out in an newly independent African state like the Congo.
On a rather different level, Larry Devlin provides a good explanation of what a pro-active CIA Station Chief (COS) of 1960 did to earn his keep. One can carry away a good deal of information about good `tradecraft', the use of non-official cover (NOC) agents, and the vital need for a close relationship between the COS and the U.S. Ambassador. For a long period Devlin was not only COS Kinshasa (Leopoldville), but also the only CIA representative in the Congo. As a result, he discloses quite a bit about the art and craft of recruiting and maintaining `agents' in the field. Although virtually all memoirs written by former intelligence folks tend to be somewhat self-serving, from this book it is clear that Devlin really was good at his job and did his best to protect the national security interests of U.S. and equally important to help the Congolese build a viable and independent nation state. That in the end the Congo continues to be a near failed state was due to factors well beyond Devlin's control.
The problem then as now of course is that a really good CIA operative like Devlin and a really poor operatives are treated pretty much the same way by CIA. The system is really designed to homogenize everyone into the same bland blend. Also it is clear that CIA of 2007 would never allow a COS the kind of freedom of action that Devlin had in 1960.
Anyone with an interest in Africa or the CIA or both ought to find this well written and informative book fascinating.
Average customer rating:
- Must read for anyone who considers themselves a writer
- A Classic...
- VERY INSPIRING!
- An adventurous life
- MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME
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West with the Night
Beryl Markham
Manufacturer: North Point Press
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ASIN: 0865471185 |
Amazon.com
One of the most beautifully crafted books I have ever read, with some of the most poetic prose passages I could imagine, such as the following, resonating with a stately and timeless quality so absent in our modern life:
There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. Its voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so; for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo.
Born in England in 1902, Markham was taken by her father to East Africa in 1906. She spent her childhood playing with native Maruni children and apprenticing with her father as a trainer and breeder of racehorses. In the 1930s, she became an African bush pilot, and in September 1936, became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic from east to west.
Book Description
West with the Night is the story of Beryl Markham--aviator, racehorse trainer, beauty--and her life in the Kenya of the 1920s and '30s.
Customer Reviews:
Must read for anyone who considers themselves a writer.......2007-10-11
This book is a hidden treasure. Markham offers a rich history of her life and the western influence upon east Africa, the land where she grew into a woman. Her writing style takes descriptive to a new level. This is an excellent book for readers of thirteen to ninety years of age. Enjoy!
A Classic..........2007-07-27
Quite simply one of the best books I've ever read. West with the Night transports readers to a real life era of adventure (the 1930's in particular) in an Eastern Africa that scarcely resembles the region today. Markham's beautifully described tales of her adventures as a bush pilot make this one of those books that is hard to put down at the end of the day. As for her writing style, Ernest Hemingway's comment that she "Can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves writers" sums it up. I highly recommend this novel.
VERY INSPIRING!.......2007-07-05
This is one of the best books I have ever read! The writing is superb and colorful. The author takes you on a journey through Africa. Also, I found this book to be very spiritual. Beryl Markham was an accomplished pilot and very courageous and ahead of her times. I savored every word!
An adventurous life.......2007-07-02
Wonderfully written story of Beryl Markham's life growing up in Kenya East Africa and her career as an aviator. You can almost picture Markham sitting on the veranda at the Muthaiga Country Club telling tales of high adventure. It has been questioned whether she actually wrote the book or whether it was written by her third husband Raoul Schumacher. Either way it is a great story of a fascinating woman. Well worth the read.
MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME.......2007-06-30
AFTER READING THIS BOOK THE FIRST TIME, IT WAS SO GOOD I READ IT AGAIN 5 WEEKS LATER. THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME. I READ MORE THAN A BOOK A WEEK PLUS SEVERAL EVERY WEEK ON CD. I HAVE NEVER FOUND ONE TO COMPARE TO THIS.
GREAT
Book Description
Journalist Greg Campbell leads the reader down the international diamond trail of brutality, horror, and profit - providing an on-the-ground and in-the-mines story of global consequence.
First discovered in 1930, the diamonds of Sierra Leone have funded one of the most savage rebel campaigns in modern history. These "blood diamonds" are smuggled out of West Africa and sold to legitimate diamond merchants in London, Antwerp, and New York, often with the complicity of the international diamond industry. Eventually, these very diamonds find their way into the rings and necklaces of brides and spouses the world over.
Blood Diamonds is the gripping tale of how the diamond smuggling works, how the rebel war has effectively destroyed Sierra Leone and its people, and how the policies of the diamond industry - institutionalized in the 1880s by the De Beers cartel - have allowed it to happen. Award-winning journalist Greg Campbell traces the deadly trail of these diamonds, many of which are brought to the world market by fanatical enemies. These repercussions of diamond smuggling are felt far beyond the borders of the poor and war-ridden country of Sierra Leone, and the consequences of overlooking this African tragedy are both shockingly deadly and unquestionably global. Updated with a new epilogue.
Customer Reviews:
Blood Diamonds, Bleeding Heart.......2007-03-21
The author is trying to sensationalize the bloodshed that resulted from the diamond trade in Africa. His allegations that the smugglers or the people who buy the product as jewelry are somehow culpable is unsubstantiated. In any other part of the world, such resources would've been a stabilizing factor that enriched the nation economically, bringing jobs, added tax revenues, better schools, etc. This is really a book about the inability of a populace to police itself and the author's focus on the "guilt" of the West is just bullcrap. The one chapter on Al Qaeda and the diamond trade was interesting but short on concrete facts. This is lousy journalism.
It's ironic how marriage engagements are sealed with other people's blood.......2007-03-12
What? The title doesn't make sense? Did you know how many people suffered to get the diamond on your wife's or fiancé's hand? I don't either, but you can take a guess once you read this book. Come, take a ride to a place where children spend their last breaths in a ditch, sifting dirt and mud for the precious stones. Take a walk with the men that die in jungles while transporting this contraband to another country. Sit down with the monsters who butcher the pregnant women, who cut the arms of teenagers, who kill for pleasure.
This is not fiction, my friend, this is real and it occurs even now as you read this review. And it will continue to occur until the value of diamonds remains artificially inflated by DeBeers' monopoly. But I know, next time an anniversary or marriage comes along, you'll still buy a diamond for your wife or fiancé. What do you care, you don't have to die to buy...
By Simon Cleveland
Blood Diamonds.......2007-01-29
Excellent book. Throughly recommend it. If you haven't seen the film Blood Diamonds then it is useful reading this first
Startling and Effective.......2007-01-24
This is a thoroughly engrossing portrait of the chaos that devastated Sierra Leone throughout the 90's. Campbell weaves the many disparate strands that coalesced to cause this tragedy together into a compelling narrative that is far more readable than anything else I've come across on the topic. The work ultimately has little new to say about solutions to such situations, mostly because it reveals the full complexity behind the conflict and the lack of any clear or easy answer. I was pleased to see in the film Blood Diamond that many of the evocative details from this book had been preserved, making it a powerful, and hopefully very important, movie.
Good, But a Little Sparse.......2005-10-19
This book was not at all what I had expected, in that it features a lot of superfluous personal touch that, in a story that isn't Campbell's, just doesn't belong. I wish that it had contained more statistics and factual research than just tales of his visits to Sierra Leone, with less-than-necessary intervals of fact. However, it was still an interesting read, and I definitely recommend it to someone who's seeking a general outline of the history of blood diamonds.
Book Description
In the summer of 1860, more than fifty years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. Timothy Meaher, an established Mobile businessman, sent the slave ship, the Clotilda , to Africa, on a bet that he could "bring a shipful of niggers right into Mobile Bay under the officers' noses." He won the bet. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women. After emancipation, the group reunited from various plantations, bought land, and founded their own settlement, known as African Town. They ruled it according to customary African laws, spoke their own regional language and, when giving interviews, insisted that writers use their African names so that their families would know that they were still alive. The last survivor of the Clotilda died in 1935, but African Town is still home to a community of Clotilda descendants. The publication of Dreams of Africa in Alabama marks the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic Read .......2007-08-21
This book is wonderful, excellent. This book is so educational and knowledge filled, without being an academic bore. I don't even know where to start. I will say buy your hard back copy now. This author deserves financial support through the purchase of this book. The story of the Clotilda Africans should be known.
Dreams tell us about the lives and the journey of 110 Africans who were brought from Dahomey, known today as Benin in West Africa. A schooner by the name of Clotilda was built and dispatched from Mobile Bay to the Kingdom. A newspaper article had appeared in the Mobile Press Register that the King of Dahomey was doing a brisk sale in Africans.
Timothy Meaher, a wealthy businessman in Mobile, had commissioned the building of the Clotilda for the journey to Dahomey, even though the transportation of Africans was abolished in 1808. However, Africans were still being brought into the country.
The Africans were primarily spoils of warfare and the raids of villages. They came from various ethnic groups and cultures. However, the core group, were Yorubas. The Yorubas live in what is now Benin and southwest Nigeria. They had names like "Kossola,, Abache, Abile, Omolabi, Kupollee, Kehounco, and Arzuma."
Ms. Slyviane tells us their story primarily through the eyes of the last survivor of the Clotilda Africans, Cudjo Lewis aka Kossola, a Yoruba. He survived all of his children, wife, and shipmates.
This is a fascinating story of African American history, American history, and African history. Cudjo and his shipmates had dreamed and planned to get back to their homeland, but it never happened.
What makes this book so fascinating is that we actually know the slaver, the captain, the ship, and where they came from. Not only that, about 30 of the Africans lived on Meaher's land. So there is first hand information and resources from the slavers, the Africans, and their descendents
A reference book, a novel, a history book - highly educative, encompassingly tender.......2007-08-10
I cannot recommend this book any more feverishly. It is incredibly well researched and written. The author lays down the historical facts in a clear manner and then leaves the characters to entice you into their lives and speak to you. The stories are never sensationalized, if anything, it is this lack of dramatization that enables the stories to unfold naturally.
The book clearly shows how within a relatively short space of time certain aspects of a culture may vanish, but other aspects which form the core of a community's make-up are improvised regardless of the circumstances and continued down the line (the communal spirit of the Africans, reverence to authority, conflict resolution etc). Cudjo's life was the one delved into in the greatest detail and it evolved to be as remarkable as it was melancholic.
After the last of the African deportees dies, I can only imagine the loneliness that would have haunted him - being alone in America, a land that he had lived in for three quarters of his life, but one that was still alien to him, one where no other local born Africans were in his immediate vicinity would surely have quelled his tenacious will and defiant spirit. For him to have lived the rest of his years, not being able to converse in his native tongue or to express his innermost feelings in a manner capable of being immediately understood by his neighbors would surely have been unbearably painful. There is an African proverb that states that "you know who a person really is by the language they cry in". When all he had ever known was gone and he lamented for them in his native tongue, I wonder, did the people around him understand the depth of his despair? After all his personal losses and tragedies in America, he finally relents of his desire to go back to Africa and surmises that he was indeed alone on earth - his family in America was no more and he figured that his family in Africa would also be no more - an unbearable set of circumstances to accept. The author should be commended for unearthing and bringing to life such a great story, but even more importantly, for doing so in as lucid a manner as is possible. My only question is how on earth do we let a story as remarkable as this just dawdle with no attempt to publicise it more. It would be great if we could have a children's book on the story.
A trip to AficaTown in Alabama is in the offing for my family.
Wonderfully researched personal stories.......2007-07-17
Dreams of Africa in Alabama is a beautifully written and meticulous book. It's evident that Ms. Diouf spent a considerable amount of time and detail with her research. The author describes the Alabama slave trade and the events that lead to the maiden voyage of the modified schooner, Clotilda. She devotes two chapters to the lives of the "shipmates" - one prior to their capture and the other chronicling their imprisonment in the barracoons (slave pens) and their subsequent Middle Passage voyage. The remaining chapters recount the lives of the deported Africans during their enslavement and post emancipation.
In 1808 the United States abolished the international slave trade. In order to circumvent the law, many Southerners modified existing ships to camouflage their true intent and evade naval officials. The Clotilda was one such ship. Seeking to make a profit on the sale of Africans, the Meaher brothers and their associates went about the business of arranging a slaving run. Many of the captured Africans were placed into slavery as a result of lost tribal wars and/or suspect alliances between African Kings and European and American merchants.
When the humiliation and brutality of slavery was over, the shipmates endured Jim Crow, disenfranchisement and other forms of maltreatment. In spite of those obstacles, the Africans purchased land just outside of Mobile, Alabama, and became a self-sufficient community with a bank, farms, schools and churches. The shipmates limited their interaction with non-African people. Other than their contact with Americans and African Americans in the workplace, the Africans made little effort to interact anyone who wasn't from the continent in their personal lives. Intermarriages between Africans and African Americans occurred in small numbers. There were attempts to return to their families and homes in Africa; run-ins with the law; and a desire to dispel the rumors of their savagery and cannibalism.
This book is a sobering and painful account of some of the atrocities Africans endured. Ms. Diouf interviewed the descendants of the Mobile, Alabama slaves, and poured over mountains of archives in libraries and private collections to give the reader an up close and personal view of the lives of the shipmates of the Clotilda. There are many more stories and details to be discovered when you read Dreams of Africa in Alabama.
Book Description
Rough Crossings turns on a single huge question: if you were black in America at the start of the Revolutionary War, whom would you want to win? In response to a declaration by the last governor of Virginia that any rebel-owned slave who escaped and served the King would be emancipated, tens of thousands of slaves -- Americans who clung to the sentimental notion of British freedom -- escaped from farms, plantations and cities to try to reach the British camp. This mass movement lasted as long as the war did, and a military strategy originally designed to break the plantations of the American South had unleashed one of the great exoduses in American history.
With powerfully vivid storytelling, Schama details the odyssey of the escaped blacks through the fires of war and the terror of potential recapture at the war's end, into inhospitable Nova Scotia, where thousands who had served the Crown were betrayed and, in a little-known hegira of the slave epic, sent across the broad, stormy ocean to Sierra Leone.
Customer Reviews:
Simply Brilliant.......2007-08-25
The story of Granville Sharp is a fascinating insight into how English common law operates and how with diligent study campaigners can use it to alter the nations history. Sharp proved that it had never been legal for one human to own another in England by pointing to a precedent where visiting Russian serfs had been set free in the 16th century. He argued successfully that it didn't matter what foreign laws said, even those in the colonies, as England was a free country. It was an incredible step towards the eventual abolition of slavery.
Wealthy corporations and colonists were not only hell bent on destroying those freedoms once outside of English law, they also wanted to destroy them in England. The West India lobby were massively influential in parliament, boosted by purchasing many seats in rotten boroughs. Many ordinary people feared their influence, as if they could establish slavery in England it would mean that the state would hold powers that could make many other citizens lives miserable. In many ways it was similar to the battle fought between the northern and southern states about the legality of slavery. However, Schama shows how in America, Britain's policy of freeing slaves to fight against the rebels brought the pro and anti-slavery factions together. I couldn't help feeling that unlike Granville Sharp's campaign there was little honour in freeing slaves for tactical reasons and by doing so they possibly set back the cause of abolitionists in America and lost the southern states who would have been more likely to remain loyal.
Slaves and the American Revolution.......2007-08-23
Enlightening TRUE story of the part slaves played in the American Revolution.
This part of history is not taught in American schools.
Interesting to hear the British side to the Revolution.
Well written and fascinating for those interested in another point of view.
The American Revolution and Some Unpleasant Facts.......2007-03-31
"Rough Crossings" is a rare and quite extraordinary book. It offers the reader an insight to a previously near hidden part of American history. It is, simply, a revelation.
American history lauds the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the subsequent revolutionary war as a turning point in world history. This is true. But how many people would understand that the new country, ostensibly based on freedom, was also a slave pariah state especially when compared with Great Britain? I suspect that very few Americans are aware of the facts.
As part of its war strategy, the British offered freedom to any American slave who could cross the lines. Tens of thousands of slaves took up the offer. To them, American freedom meant nothing. It was a revolution for the whites. It failed to address slavery. Indeed, many of the signatories to the Declaration of Independence were themselves slave owners. They were by their words and deeds nothing short of hypocrites.
Simon Schama's book, although somewhat meandering at times, has seemingly unearthed something new to the reader of American history. Not only does he outline the fact that slaves fled their American owners but that many ultimately settled in Nova Scotia. Several years later, the British even tried to establish a utopian new society in Sierra Leone where, briefly, black women could vote. We know that this dream failed but its protagonists were men of great humanity.
It is true that history is often written by winners. The great shame here is that these winners have avoided certain unpleasant facts that spoil an otherwise good story.
a history with an agenda.......2007-03-27
Simon Schama is a historian of all things British with strong points of view. I'm not sure what to make of this book because it almost seems like it was written to a poke a decidedly British finger into American eyes over the events of the revolutionary war.
Schama somehow wants to turn the opportunistic decision of the British authorities to free some slaves during the revolutionary war into a moral act and some sort of revolution. Problem is, it doesn't work very well.
The British had an empire full of slaves. They didn't free any slaves on moral or philosophical grounds. They emancipated the slaves of those in rebellion as a punishment to stamp out the revolution. The other problem is that most of the areas with high concentrations of slaves were sideshows to the revolutionary war. There were no great slave emancipations in New York or Boston or any of the other places were the fighting of the revolution occured.
Schama's most utterly despicable suggestion is to say that the slave emancipations became a key issue in the war and increased support for it. While it was true that the issue increased support for the war in places like the Carolinas and Georgia, those states were hardly the birthplace of the revolution. In making his claim, he insults the people in Boston, New York and Philidephia who were not slave owners and who were the firm supporters of the revolution from day one.
Schama is also an apologist for the postwar behavior of the British. The promises they made after a few years turned into a project that sent the freed slaves back to Africa (Sierra Leone) where they became a local elite to oversee and staff British rule in the area. As in Liberia, an educated ex-slave elite from America showed that they could misrule areas of Africa as well as an european could.
Schama's "goal" in the book seems to be to attack the American Revolution as somehow being about the preservation of Slavery and to morally rehabilitate the British soldiers in North America. In trying to accomplish this, he crosses the line. He misrepresents history and presents a selective case. Nobody can deny the role of slavery in American History from the revolution onward. But trying to reduce events to British heroes and evil Americans serves no good purpose and makes for a rotten history.
Dorment History.......2007-03-21
Although I have studied American History, I never read or heard about this part of our history. Although I have studied about slavery in America and its outcome, I never learned about the role the British played in the freeing of American slaves.
Book Description
Here's an exciting new resource for anyone interested in African music and culture. Songs of West Africa by Dan Gorlin contains over 80 traditional African folk songs and chants in 6 languages along with extensive translations, annotations and performance notes. It may be the most complete collection of African songs ever published.
The book highlights traditional songs from the Anlo-Ewe, Lobi, Ga-Adangbe, Egu, Foh, and related ethnic groups from Ghana, Togo, Benin, and Nigeria. There are sacred songs from Afa, Agzogbo, Gadzo, and Yewe traditions. Also major secular and historical music including Agbekor, Kinka, Atsia, Gahu, Takada, and more.
Many of the songs are simple to learn, and can be easily taught to grade school students or adapted to other styles of music. But the scope of this book goes far beyond children's songs. Each song is explained in terms of cultural context, and translated in a way that helps you form your own interpretation of its meaning. You'll discover that singing the songs of Africa is a superb way to learn about her people, culture, and history -- and it's fun!
The text includes music fundamentals, a pronunciation guide, and useful introductions to West African society, sensibility, and spirituality. Using the companion audio CD (included) you learn by singing along like young Africans do - or just listen and enjoy. The CD was studio-recorded especially for this book, so vocals and harmonies are easily heard over the supporting drums. With insightful perspectives and a wealth of information, this book is a must-have for students, teachers, and libraries.
Customer Reviews:
Songs of West Africa" by Dan Gorlin is perfect for me. .......2006-08-24
I have studied in Ghana and continue to study and teach this music here in Philadelphia, and this book has enough substance to feed a small country of song hungry drummers. Also, it seems the Author also sings and plays the support drums, lead vocal and chorus (overdubbed); which is really incredible because the CD sounds so Ewe~! A must have for anyone who values beauty and hard work!
Shawn Hennessey, Leana Song.
At last - a great way to learn some African music!.......2002-09-10
I wasn't sure what to expect when I bought this, but this book turned out to be really fun to read! Part storytelling, part anthropology, part language lessons, the book introduces not just songs from six different tribal groups but a sense of how they see the world. The songs are translated, plus the pronounciations written out, and you can play the CD and read along with it - a great help if you want to try singing or drumming the music.
Average customer rating:
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History of Christianity in West Africa
Manufacturer: Longman Group United Kingdom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Church History
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Social History
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0582646936 |
Customer Reviews:
Flashman And the Peculiar Institution.......2007-06-14
One of the finest in what is likely the greatest series of historial comic novels ever. Harry Flashman is one of Victorian England's most decorated heros and its most craven coward and in this book finds himself unwillingly thrust headlong by his own Scottish merchant father-in-law into the slave trade. During this book, Flashy poses as slave raider, government anti-slave agent, overseer and slave stealer. As always, Flashy's quest to entrench himself in the Garden of Earthly Delights along with his unrivaled ability to create enemies propells him from a quiet card game with Disraeli and friends inexoribly along a twisted and tortuous road that will continue on to Africa, Cuba and New Orleans and in other novels will find him accompanying John Brown on the Harper's Valley raid (Flashman and the Angel of the Lord) and eventually to the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Flashman and the Indians) which he survives to his own great astonishment. Among the cast of unforgettable characters he meets is the mad cashiered Oxford Don and slave ship captain, John Charity Spring, who lashes his crew with the cat and numerous classic Latin quotations. Abraham Lincoln makes several unforgettable appearances as well. Not for the prudish or the PC crowd, but there's scarcely any equal to it for both enlightenment and entertainment.
Jolly Good Read.......2007-04-20
Time to write a Flashman review. Historically astute as I am, I've found the Flashman papers an easy and enjoyable method with which to buff up on history in the 19th century. This is my third encounter with Flashy. Had a blast with each one, but the subject matter in Freedom was somewhat more familiar than the first (Flashman) and second (Royal Flash) offerings. Fine with me, I learned much in the first two. Not for the squeamish or prudish, Flash finds his way to America aboard a slave ship and works his way North on the underground railroad. Coward that he is, Flashy let me down in the final packages. What a cur! Regardless, I'll continue with his exploits and let you know how he's doing. All for now... ta-ta.
One of the best of the series.......2006-07-10
Unbelievably funny. From the first brilliant sentence, we have the pleasure of being witness to a series of non-stop, hilariously horrendous mishaps visited upon poor, despicable Harry Flashman. The plot is as tight and the writing as crisp and witty as any book in the series.
In "Flash for Freedom", MacDonald Fraser puts old Flashie through a wringer as incredible as it is unbelievably harsh. From a high-powered political house party, during which he puts the moves on Fanny Duberly and makes mildly anti-Semitic comments to future PM Disraeli, Flashman is politically ruined when he almost murders a man, is then forced by his malicious Scotch father-in-law to lay low on what Flash later discovers is a slave ship, goes on a slaving expedition in Africa, fights the American Navy, is coerced by the Underground Railroad into running a supercilious slave to freedom up the Mississipi, then becomes a slave driver on a Southern plantation, eventually being forced into slavery himself, subsequently escaping to freedom with an attractive octoroon, inspiring "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and running into Abe Lincoln along the way. MacDonald Fraser somehow makes it all seem plausible. Phew! As usual, we learn a good deal about history. Although Flashman couldn't give two pence about slavery, GMF paints a vivid picture of the brutality and corruption of the institution, while pointing out the necessary complicity of the Africans themselves and the naive romanticsm of the Abolitionists towards the slaves. John Charity Spring, one of the best characters in the Flashman series, is introduced in this novel. As with all of these books, you'll learn something through your laughter.
Layering dark satire onto the diciest of subjects.......2005-12-11
Flashman is shown at his vile best in this installment of his saga. Signed unknowingly onto a slave ship by his malicious father-in-law to get him out of the country following a scandal, Flashman plunges up to his whiskers into that century's nastiest business. Sailing under an insane, Latin-quoting captain, who brings his tea-serving, equally insane wife along for the voyage, Flashy's misadventures take him from the Slave Coast of Africa to the whorehouses of New Orleans, from the back roads of Mississippi to the frozen Ohio River. Fraser's research into the slave trade is compelling; this is one of the more detailed fictionalizations of the slave trade in most of its horrors that I've ever read. The author gets credit for layering his dark satire onto this diciest of subjects, not something every author would have dared, and not sparing it in the least. It is, of course, almost the perfect vehicle for Flashman's unPC sensibilities, if the reader will forgive the anachronism. His encounter with Abraham Lincoln is absorbing even while satirical; Fraser presents a Lincoln with a frontier-tuned wit that penetrates further than can the capital's shallower sophisticates .
Flashman comes to America.......2004-05-21
Fraser has created another excellent Flashman adventure. The first half (or so) of the book concerns how Flashman ends up serving unwillingly in the crew of a slaving ship (after running afoul of his despicable father-in-law). The second half of the book - a bit weaker than the strong first half, I think - involves Flashman's exploits in the American South after he gets dragooned into helping the Underground Railroad. Flashman encounters a soon-to-be retiring Congressman Lincoln a couple of times during the course of the novel, and these scenes should be fun for fans of Abe.
The plot is strong, the pacing very fast, as we've come to expect from Flashman, and the dialogue is lots of fun. Fraser's historical accuracy is as good as ever. This is the third Flashman book I've read, and it's almost as good as the first book in the series ("Flashman"), which I liked quite a lot, and it's considerably better than "Royal Flash," the second book in the series. I'd recommend "Flash for Freedom" to anyone who's enjoyed the series so far. As with other Flashman books, if you're easily offended by bawdy - though not obscene by any stretch - language or activities, you should take a pass on this one.
Book Description
Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billion-dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African and Zimbabwean mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes, that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots? The real motive lay deep below the ocean floor: oil.
In The Dogs of War, Frederick Forsyth effectively described an attempt by mercenaries to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea - in 1972. And the chain of events surrounding the night of March 7, 2004, is a rare case of life imitating art-or, at least, life imitating a 1970s thriller-in almost uncanny detail. With a cast of characters worthy of a remake of Wild Geese and a plot as mazy as it was unlikely, The Wonga Coup is a tale of venality, overarching vanity and greed whose example speaks to the problems of the entire African continent.
Customer Reviews:
Good story, Written Boringly........2007-07-01
It really is quite an interesting story. I just personally feel that it is a little slow and overly detail oriented - semi repetitive, slightly lacking. Once again, this is a great story, but I think that you would be able to find all the information you would find in this book on wikipedia. There aren't enough quirky facts given to make someone interested in this subject want to read this book. Download it offline, research the names on wikipedia. The End. Thank you and Good Evening!
Great read.......2007-05-25
Fascinating, humorous, and ultimately human and touching look into a world few of us ever see.
Ok, just up front, let's mention in bold type: being in prison in Africa really, really sucks. I think this book makes that abundantly clear.
Second: having a lot of excess time and money on your hands, and then being British or South African to top it off, and living in Africa also tends to create "mischief", apparently (especially if you have military experience and know other guys with military experience and time on their hands, plus wives who don't mind them going on some "reality adventuring" every 5 years).
I have been reading a few books about Africa recently (by the way, the "Zanzibar Chest" is totally amazing). Wong Coup is very good and I read it fast (2-3 days). It tells the story in an amusing and human way of mercenaries who tried to overthrow a small African country. On the one hand, a "fun" read, on the other hand, very harrowing. And yes, it does give us a picture into the human being, because it shows how people react under pressure (for instance, Simon Mann writing "we" from prison, not just about himself, but at least having some notion of being responsible for others, not just himself).
While the author does mock the men who tried the coup, at the same time, he does have a bit of sympathy I think for them. For instance, the statement by one of the South African mercenaries as to "would you try it again", was "Yes. Life is for living" sticks with me. Life is not for holding one's cards to one's chest, but for living out life. Let's face it, most of us sit at boring desk jobs until we retire, with no real risks involved, and no real great rewards either. These guys rolled the dice big-time and lost. I go home now to a Heineken and some reading, or a bar or movie. They spend their time in a hell-hole prison cell in Africa, made for one man, but that now houses 4, shackled and beaten and with food that would make us sick. Their life is terrible. They risked it and lost. At the same time, you do kind of have to admire their courage and sheer moxy for trying this. I am not saying it was ethical or morally desireable. The fact that the men did not keep the coup details private, and tried to just fly the guns in, is pretty much a joke, and the author portrays it as such. The coup itself was a joke, and the read is entertaining. These were men trying to live in the 21st century as if it were the time of Cecil Rhodes, in 1880s Africa. We can laugh at them, but let's face it, few if any of us will role the dice the way they do. I found it interesting to learn that there really are men like this out there. I was very interested in how the "world" works in Africa, of private armies, and dictators exchanging prisoners, mercenaries in their "mercenary frat house" (!), the wives, the media, etc, etc. It was fascinting because I knew so little about this world.
By the way, if you want to see one of the main characters (plotters) in the movie - Simon Mann (ex-SAS and British officer), rent or buy the Paul Greengrass DVD "Bloody Sunday". Mann plays Colonel Wilford. You can get a good idea of what Mann is like. (Mann has since lost weight, so he is heavier in the film than he is now. That "African Prison Diet" took the pounds off).
The Pups of War.......2007-03-21
This is a fun book about a group of aging white mercenaries who plotted to overthrow the dictator of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea. The conspiracy was hatched by one Simon Mann, a bored alumnus of Executive Outcomes, who had visions of getting rich from oil concessions and government contracts after the coup. Alas, Mann had trouble raising money and buying arms, and the out-of-work apartheid-era veterans he recruited as gunmen leaked like sieves (and couldn't hold their liquor). Inevitably, the plot came to the attention of South African intelligence, which arranged for Mann and his troublemakers to be arrested in Zimbabwe en route to Equatorial Guinea.
The author had access to insiders and confidential documents, and he writes knowingly about the seamy side of African business and politics. However, he has a weakness for conspiracy theories and seriously entertains rumors that the U.S. and Spain were behind Mann's plot. In fact, no government installed by white mercenaries could survive in today's Africa, and the U.S. knows that. Our government seems reasonably content with Equatorial Guinea's dictator, who locks up opposition politicians but enables U.S. oil companies to make mountains of money. Condie Rice has publicly called him a friend. Sometimes the truth, however banal, is sleazier than speculation.
Fantastical Story.......2007-02-18
This is a quite amazing story, told with wit and verve. The greed and arrogance of the coup plotters is matched only by their fecklessness and stupidity. Beyond the complexities of the botched plot, the book provides a fascinating portrayal of the political, economic and military dynamicss of contemporary Africa -- it is a thoroughly engrossing read. I read the book cover-to-cover on a long-haul flight between London and Singapore and can thoroughly recommend it to anyone with 13 hours on a 747, time will fly by!
Terrific story, poorly told. 2-3 stars.......2007-02-05
The Wonga Coup has all the ingredients of a sensational story - conspiracy, action, drama, celebrity names, glamorous lives and terrible misfortune - all true. However, the unfortunate part is that it is not only written in a dry, uninteresting way, but the language is awkward, disjointed, repetitive and sometimes lacking in maturity. Although well researched, one feels the author never really organized his copious notes but just copied them down - one thought does not necessarily follow smoothly on to another. It makes for laborious reading. Also, a book like this cries out for photographs. As the events described took place relatively recently, photographs must have been readily available and one can only wonder why the author did not bother to include them.
That said, it is an amazing tale. The plot was for a small, privately funded group of mercenaries to overtake a small rich country situated in the `armpit' of Africa. They would topple the leader and set up an exiled opponent in his place. For their efforts, they would have access to some of the considerable oil in that country.
The country in question was Equatorial Guinea and its president, Obiang Nguema is one of the most corrupt and tyrannical leaders in Africa, a continent that has produced many terrible despots over the years. While keeping his people pitifully poor and without health care, education or any real public services, he himself squirrels away hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts. In this he is aided by American oil companies and banks, who are basically prepared to do anything to keep him happy. Those under him live in constant fear of imprisonment, torture, rape, murder and even cannibalism.
In the group of plotters there were wealthy British financiers and aristocrats, technocrats, weapons dealers, adventurers, mercenaries and foot soldiers. But from the start, their plot was doomed through bad planning, betrayals and loose lips. Before the operation ever really got underway, they were arrested in Zimbabwe and Equatorial Guinea. Thereafter, they suffered unspeakable conditions and brutality in African jails while ludicrous charges were being trumped up against them, to be followed by trials in kangaroo courts.
Instead of the long slog I found the book to be, it should have been a truly gripping tale and could have been material for a good movie.
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