Bøger udgivet af African Books Collective

Africa's Political Wastelands explores and confirms the fact that because of irresponsible, corrupt, selfish, and unpatriotic kleptocrats parading as leaders, the ultimate breakdown of order has become the norm in African nations, especially those south of the Sahara. The result is the virtual annihilation of once thriving and proud nations along with the citizenry who are transformed into wretches, vagrants, and in the extreme, refugees. Doh uses Cameroon as an exemplary microcosm to make this point while still holding imperialist ambitions largely responsible for the status quo in Africa. Ultimately, in the hope of jumpstarting the process, he makes pertinent suggestions on turning the tide on the continent.

The urban sector in Ethiopia has largely been neglected by researchers and policy analysts, and ignored in debates on poverty. This has resulted in a 'rural bias', which is reflected in development policies and public debate in the country. If one of the goals of development is to reverse the dominance of the rural economy, and to place the urban environment on the centre stage, it is important to shift the balance of the research agenda from the rural to the urban. The papers in this volume were first presented at the Third International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy convened by the Ethiopian Economic Association in 2005.

In Ethiopia, environmental conflicts - struggles over natural or environmental resources - have frequently been caused by competing claims over land, pasture, forests and water, owing to both the intrinsic and the symbolic values of these commodities. Thus the 'environment', far from being a neutral terrain, is subject to competing economic, cultural and religious forces. This study seeks to understand the notion of the environment in relation to socio-economic arguments, and discussions about culture and identity, so as to open up an area of research that has not received as much attention as it deserves.

Rural destitution is a growing phenomenon in Ethiopia, closely associated with population growth, resource scarcity, crop failure and famine. Conducted in a woina dega community in the Wag Hamra zone and a kola community in South Wello in the Ethiopian highlands, this research paper attempts to further understanding about destitution.

The three papers published in this volume were originally presented at the First International Conference on the Ethiopian Economy, convened by the Ethiopian Economic Association in Addis Ababa in 2003. From historical perspectives, the papers consider: poverty and agricultural involution; poverty and urban governance institutions; and HIV/AIDS and poverty.

Set in the fictional and reluctantly bilingual land of Mimbo in contemporary Africa, this story revolves around the tragedy of the haunting Prospère, a semi-literate Mimbolander who is searching for the finer things in life. The novel presents a graphic picture of the frustrations engendered by a society that values wealth over love.

This paper tells the story of four families in Gäta in South Wälo, a Muslim community in rural Ethiopia with a long history. It depicts their lives during a recent period of drought and famine, where the effects of the killer famine of 1984 are still felt. The story provides a rare glimpse of the human suffering behind the grim statistics of poverty and famine in the country. The stories tell of their trading activities and links with the district town, providing insights into the relationships, tensions, and bonds of reciprocity between urban and rural communities.

This work was conceived as a sequel to the African Writers Handbook (African Books Collective, 1999). It is built on the debates emanating from a seminar on scholarly publishing in Africa held in Arusha, Tanzania in 2002, organised by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, the African Books Collective and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). The seminar brought together scholars and publishers against a background of evidence of a revival of interest in higher education and scholarship in Africa after a long period of decline, and the new departures in scholarly publishing afforded by technology. This resulting collection of essays takes stock of the status of scholarly and academic publishing on the continent in the early years of the twenty-first century.

A Fallen Citadel and Other Poems is a powerful collection of over forty prose poems. The poems cover an array of issues ranging from the crisis that ensued after the 2007-2008 elections in Kenya to other social issues: loss of identity, poverty, hopelessness, and AIDs. These poems are powerful, vivid, full of imagery, and delightful. Some begin tragically, but end with hope; they begin with an everyday event, but end with a philosophical question about the meaning of life; and others are not only disturbing, but also thought provoking. Abala's poetic maneuvers in this collection are bound to delight and fascinate any reader.

This songbook for children brings together East African songs from vast and diverse folk heritages. It includes children's play, dance and story songs, and some patriotic and party songs, from the ethnic or language groups of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as some songs from related ethnic groups in regions of Burundi, the DRC, Malawi and Rwanda. The songs bear witness to centuries of African life; and their transcription aims to make music accessible to children from their own cultural traditions. The songbook incorporates the musical scores and song texts, translations of the African texts, notes on the structure of the music, and suggestions of story-telling, poetry, drama, art or dance which teachers or other adults may introduce to bring the songs alive and use them creatively, and to allow children to participate fully in their performance.