This is a remarkable book about religion, racism, sexism, feminism, colonialism, capitalism, socialism … and about an amazing family that came to Africa as missionaries and learned truths that had nothing to do with God and everything to do with humanity. The Price family arrives in the then-Belgian Congo of 1959, headed by Southern Baptist Reverend Nathan Price, a wife-abusing, child-abusing, fanatical tyrant and bitter disappointment of a man. He and his captive wife Orleana and his four daughters arrive unwanted in an impoverished Congolese village […]
Half of a Yellow Sun
Admitted, I read this book solely based on the author’s brilliant TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story”. I did very little research on which of her books to read and ended up with this one because I liked the title and the cover. This book seemed like it was written for me. I do not know much of Africa and I am not one to be touched by stranger’s death on the news. Part of it is due to not being sentimental as […]
In not Out of Africa
Alexandra Fuller had one hell of a childhood growing up in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, Zaire and even a couple of years in Malawi. Her family came from Britain originally, but the family viewed themselves as African. White African. Thus bringing with them all sorts of proper manners and plenty of prejudices. She grew up during the Zimbabwe’s civil war for independence. The book opens with this conversation that took place with her mother when Fuller was about six: Mum says, “Don’t come creeping into our room at […]
King of the severed hands
This work describes King Leopold II’s land grab of the Congo River area during the scramble for Africa of the late 19th century, which led to the deaths of 8 to 10 million Africans, the destruction of their societies, and the devastation of the area’s wild rubber plants. Each chapter takes on a different character or episode through the history. Starting with Stanley’s quest to find Livingstone and journeying through Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Hochschild does a fabulous job telling this brutal story through the eyes of […]
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