Africa is forever on our TV screens, but the bad-news stories (famine, genocide, corruption) massively outweigh the good (South Africa). Ever since the process of decolonialisation began in the mid-1950s, and arguably before, the continent has appeared to be stuck in a process of irreversible decline. Constant war, improper use of natural resources and misappropriation of revenues and aid monies contribute to an impression of a continent beyond hope. How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done? Weaving together the key stories and characters of the last fifty years into a stunningly compelling and coherent narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European ideas of how to organise 10,000 different ethnic groups has led to what Tony Blair described as the 'scar on the conscience of the world'. Authoritative, provocative and consistently fascinating, this is a major book on one of the most important issues facing the West today.

ISBN-13: 9780743232227

ISBN-10: 0743232224

Language: English

Publisher: Free Press

Year: 2006

Pages: 752

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 5:20 p.m.

Portrays the cruelty of white "justice" and the courage of African men and women in preindependent Angola. It is the story of a tractor driver with nationalist sympathies who is arrested, tortured and murdered by the colonial police.

ISBN-13: 9780435902025

ISBN-10: 0435902024

Language: English

Publisher: Heinemann Educational Publishers

Year: 1978

Pages: 84

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 4:41 p.m.

An intense and lively debate on literature and art between thinkers who became some of the great figures of twentieth-century philosophy and literature. With an afterword by Fredric Jameson No other country and no other period has produced a tradition of major aesthetic debate to compare with that which unfolded in German culture from the 1930s to the 1950s. In Aesthetics and Politics the key texts of the great Marxist controversies over literature and art during these years are assembled in a single volume. They do not form a disparate collection but a continuous, interlinked debate between thinkers who have become giants of twentieth-century intellectual history.

ISBN-13: 9781788738583

ISBN-10: 1788738586

Language: English

Publisher: Verso Books

Year: 2020

Pages: 256

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 4:37 p.m.

Kelley unearths freedom dreams in this exciting history of renegade intellectuals and artists of the African diaspora in the twentieth century. Focusing on the visions of activists from C. L. R. James to Aime Cesaire and Malcolm X, Kelley writes of the hope that Communism offered, the mindscapes of Surrealism, the transformative potential of radical feminism, and of the four-hundred-year-old dream of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow. From'the preeminent historian of black popular culture' (Cornel West), an inspiring work on the power of imagination to transform society. From the Trade Paperback edition.

ISBN-13: 9780807009789

ISBN-10: 0807009784

Language: English

Publisher: Beacon Press

Year: 2002

Pages: 264

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 4:33 p.m.

"Diop compares the political and social systems of Europe and black Africa from antiquity to the formation of modern states. Throughout, his intent is not to provide a history as such, but rather guidelines for historians and others who seek a scientific understanding of precolonial societies in Africa, the Mediterranean, and Europe and their links with the earliest known stages of human development. Students and scholars of Africa and world history will be challenged by Diop's original -- thought controversial == analysis of the similarities and striking differences between black Africa and the West." -- Back cover.

ISBN-13: 9780882081878

ISBN-10: 088208187X

Language: English

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books

Year: 1987

Pages: 240

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 4:30 p.m.

The Pan-Africanist debate is back on the historical agenda. The stresses and strains in the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar since its formation some forty years ago are not showing any sign of abating. Meanwhile, imperialism under new forms and labels continues to bedevil the continent in ever-aggressive, if subtle, ways. The political federation of East Africa, which was one of the main spin-offs of the Pan-Africanism of the nationalist period, is reappearing on the political stage, albeit in a distorted form of regional integration. It is in this context that the present study is situated. Backgrounding the major dramas of the union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar this book studies the personalities involved and their politics, and includes an account of the Dodoma CCM conference that toppled President Jumbe. It is also a detailed legal analysis of the union incorporating powerful new material.

ISBN-13: 9789987081059

ISBN-10: 9987081053

Language: English

Publisher: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers

Year: 2008

Pages: 336

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 1:20 p.m.

In Rwanda in 1994 one million people were killed in a planned, public and political campaign. For six years Linda Melvern has worked on the story of this horrendous crime, and this book, a classic piece of investigative journalism, is the result. Its new and startling information has the making of an international scandal. The book contains a full narrative account of how the genocide unfolded and describes its scale, speed and intensity. And the book provides a terrible indictment, not just of the UN Security Council, but even more so of governments and individuals who could have prevented what was happening but chose not to do so. Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews, the author also tells the story of the unrecognized heroism of those who stayed on during the genocide - volunteer UN peacekeepers, their Force Commander the Canadian Lt.-General Romeo A. Dallaire, and Philippe Gaillard, the head of a delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross, helped by medical teams from Medecins Sans Frontieres. The international community, which fifty years ago resolved that genocide never happened again, not only failed to prevent it happening in Rwanda, but, as this book shows, international funds intended to help the Rwandan economy actually helped to create the conditions that made the genocide possible. Documents held in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, as well as hitherto unpublished evidence of secret UN Security Council deliberations in New York, reveal a shocking sequence of events. What happened in Rwanda shows that despite the creation of an organisation set up to prevent a repetition of genocide - for the UN is central to this task - it failed to do so, even when the evidence was indisputable. At a time when increasing attention is being given to the need for UN reform, this book provides evidence to urgently accelerate and focus that process. Only by understanding how and why the genocide happened can there be any hope that this new century will break with the dismal record of the last.

ISBN-13: 9781856498319

ISBN-10: 185649831X

Language: English

Publisher: Zed Books

Year: 2000

Pages: 272

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 1:15 p.m.

Like the brilliant sun, the October Revolution shone over all five continents, awakening millions of oppressed and exploited people around the world. There has never existed such a revolution of such significance and scale in the history of humanity.' - Hồ Chí Minh From Cuba to Vietnam, from China to South Africa, the October Revolution remains as an inspiration. After all, that Revolution proved that the working class and the peasantry could not only overthrow an autocratic government but that it could form its own government, in its image. It proved decisively that the working class and the peasantry could be allied. It proved as well the necessity of a vanguard party that was open to spontaneous currents of unrest, but which could guide a revolution to completion. This book explains the power of the October Revolution for the Third World. It is not a comprehensive study, but a small book with a large hope - that a new generation will come to see the importance of this revolution for the working class and peasantry in that part of the world that suffered under the heel of colonial domination.

ISBN-13: 9789380118666

ISBN-10: 938011866X

Language: English

Publisher: Leftword

Year: 2020

Pages: 132

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 1:13 p.m.

Dubbed the "Marikana Massacre," the Marikana miners’ strike was the single most lethal use of force by South African security forces against civilians since the end of apartheid; those killed were mineworkers in pursuit of a pay raise. Through a series of interviews conducted with workers who survived the attack, this account documents and examines the controversial shootings in great detail. In addition, it includes a narrative of the preceding events as well as of the violence itself written from the perspective of the strikers. Unique and revealing, his book tells of police murders, sadness, bravery, and pride.

ISBN-13: 9781431407330

ISBN-10: 143140733X

Language: English

Publisher: Jacana Media

Year: 2012

Pages: 210

Cataloged: Nov. 25, 2024, 12:44 p.m.