Bøger om West Africa

Mariama Bâ's pioneering debut, So Long a Letter, captures the private lives of women in 1970s Senegal.Recently widowed, Ramatoulaye is required to take sole responsibility for the long mourning process of her late husband. A husband she has not seen in over four years - not after he married his second wife. In a letter to her friend, Ramatoulaye recalls both of their experiences as students impatient to change the world, as wives suffering in the private sphere of marriage, and as mothers witnessing the dangers of Westernisation.Undaunted by topics of polygamy, social castes, and religion, So Long a Letter is a novel rich with poetic prose and profound wisdom.'Mariama Bâ is in a class of her own, conveying with real power and poetry a subtle, changing world of female experience.' Guardian 'The most deeply felt presentation of the female condition in African fiction.' Abiola Irele

A stunning betrayal forces a young woman to flee a relationship and forge a new life in one of the most brutal landscapes on earth. Gradually adapting to her new surroundings, she becomes aware of the impending dissolution of an entire culture. A diverse cast of displaced Westerners, local nomads, and djinn converge as everyone scrambles to survive and everything comes undone.

The eldest son of Balogun is shot dead by an unknown person suspected to be an enemy from Olofa-Ija village, while working in the farm, making a long time rivalry which seems to be in the period of ceasefire to be refreshed.

"In Senegal, three modest families share a courtyard. This common space is a small paradise where they meet to cook, dine, talk, evoke memories, and grow together. At one Sunday family gathering, the usual post-meal conversation turns tense when Sada's adolescent son, Dieáiry, asks why his father was so friendly with a government official at a televised ribbon-cutting the day before. The conversation quickly devolves into one about respect and duty.In Empire of Illusion, legendary Senegalese novelist Aminata Sow Fall, explores the powerful themes of family, respect, and ethics. What respect does a son owe his father-and vice versa? How does a family maintain a balance of debate and respect? How does a person maintain self-respect when forced to swim in ethically muddy waters? Aminata Sow Fall, the matriarch of Senegalese social-realist fiction delivers yet another trenchant examination of her society, and of the universal challenge of finding, keeping, and giving respect to oneself and others"--

Fully-illustrated, The Passenger collects the best new writing, photography, art and reportage from around the world.IN THIS VOLUME: Still Becoming by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie・A Nation called Ineba by A. Igoni Barrett・The Niger Delta by Noo Saro-Wiwa・plus: independent cinema and the do-it-yourself society; indiscriminate abductions and discrimination against women; the discrete charm of repair shops and the irresistible fascination with Afrobeat, and much more...Since gaining independence Nigeria has been in a state of permanent crisis. Even the arrival of democracy in the 1990s failed to bring much improvement. It's estimated that over 100 million Nigerians, half of the country's population, live below the poverty line.Violence is widespread: from the Boko Haram terrorists to the new armed secessionist movements and the growing scourge of kidnappings. How to live in a country where the state is, at best, absent? With regular power cuts, virtually non-existent health care and education, and where the army, present in every one of the 36 states of the federation, is not able to control the violence?In these circumstances, the only possible society is a do-it-yourself one that blossoms wherever and however it can. At the first glimmer of opportunity, Nigerians bring out all their dynamism, entrepreneurial skills, and inventiveness. They develop apps to get around the inaccessibility of the banking system, use solar power to render themselves independent from the unreliable public energy grid, sometimes even resorting to artisanal (but deeply polluting) methods to refine oil/petrol, embrace e-commerce and social media to sell their goods, while films produced on shoestring budgets, books and music find success all over the world.Nigeria's energy is unlike that of any other African country. As the generation of generals who won the civil war and governed the country for 60 years dies out, and younger citizens refuse to ignore injustice and violence, the hope is born that a new, vibrant generation will take the country's future into their hands. And, as they are accustomed to doing, fix it.

This book argues that mining area conflicts of Sub-Saharan African countries, like Sierra Leone, and their impacts on mineral development and policy stem from cultural differences in land governance. Extractive industries operating under state laws, which have roots in colonial policies, clash with customary land governance system through landlord-stranger relations.

As a small country on the west coast of Africa, throughout its history Sierra Leone has always embraced diversity - and this willingness to discover and grow has shaped Sierra Leone's rich food culture. Forged by history, people and place, the cuisine is completely unique. Maria Bradford's recipes, inspired by her grandmother's cooking, have at their heart the traditional meals of Maria's childhood, introducing delicious Afro-fusion dishes and flavours. Characterised by key ingredients including tamarind, beans, sesame seeds, mango, chilli and pineapple, in Maria's hands these ingredients become something truly special. Moreover, she tells the story of the cuisine and the people, shedding light on everyday life through exclusive location photography. Through her evocative writing and innovative dishes that draw on tradition while melding contemporary influences, Maria's Sweet Salone is a stunning culinary dive into recipes and a culture unmatched anywhere in the world.

A spellbinding novel about family secrets and bonds, thwarted hope and the brutal realities of life in a society rife with inequality, from the Women's Prize-shortlisted author

A major challenge for the advancement of democratic governance in Africa is the extraction of money by ruling parties from the state to fund their electoral campaigns and gain political advantage over opponents. Drawing upon in-depth case studies of Benin and Ghana, Rachel Sigman considers how, and with what consequences, party leaders control and access public funds to finance their political operations. Weaving together biographical data on government ministers, surveys of civil servants, elite interviews, and archival research, Sigman explains leaders' extraction strategies and connects these strategies to how politicians manage state personnel. In so doing, she challenges the perception of African states as uniformly weak and argues that effective government is possible even in contexts of widespread state politicization, corruption, and clientelism. Demonstrating the profound impact that extractive financing practices have on democratic institutions, Sigman illuminates and develops our understanding of "good governance" across the African continent.

To piger fødes samme dag, 12. februar 1950. Naomi i Nigeria, Pia i Sverige. Naomi ser anderledes ud og bliver udstødt af sin familie, men hun reddes af Jorinda, som kender alt til helbredende planter og lader hende vokse op på savannen med elefanter og løver som venner. Pia fødes på Södra BB i Stockholm i velfærdsstaten Sverige, men hendes forældre er alkoholikere, og opvæksten i et misbrugshjem sætter dybe spor.Af skæbnesvangre stier føres Naomi til Sverige, hvor man yderst sjældent ser mennesker med en anden hudfarve, og i den kridhvide skole i Stockhholm-forstaden Årsta mødes Naomi og Pia. Og fra da er deres liv flettet uigenkaldeligt sammen.Blå længsel er en stærk beretning om menneskers værd og en verden i forandring. Mens Anden Verdenskrig stadig er nær fortid, er tresserne undervejs med ny ungdomskultur, ny mode, ny musik og en ny form for frihed for mælkebøttebørnene Naomi og Pia. De skal komme til at opleve voldsomme sorger og glæder såvel som rigeligt med drama og kærlighed – men som en rød tråd igennem deres uforudsigelige livsrejser løber deres stærke venskab.

Postcolonial Transition and Global Business History is the first in-depth historical study on how British firms sought to adapt over several decades to rapid political and economic transformation in West Africa.

This book explores the history of women's reproductive health in Ghana, arguing that between the 1920s and 1980s, it was largely driven by discourses of development and population control. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in the history of public health, development and Africa.

A detailed account and operational analysis of Portugal's air campaign over Portuguese Guinea from 1963-1974, with particular emphasis on the evolution of counter-insurgent air operations and guerrilla air defense measures.

The book covers the history and activities of the United Nations Operation for Peace in Western Sahara (MINURSO) from its creation in 1991 until the end of 2021. The author of the book himself served as a peacekeeper in Western Sahara, and shares first-hand information and unpublished photographs with readers.

This Element investigates how the Ghanaian household wealth index is impacted by travel time reduction, which is a direct effect of infrastructural investments from 2000 to 2016. The wealth index is constructed based on the possession of selected assets and reflects the well-being of residents in Ghana. The Element employs two datasets, the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the DHS Covariates. The two-stage least square estimation is implemented to establish the causal relationship. The Element finds that a ten percent reduction in travel time from 2000 to 2015 would result in a 1.2 percent increase in the wealth index from 2003 to 2016. This finding is robust to various settings, including the addition of more control variables, the use of different instrumental variables, and the study of both short-term and long-term effects. The analysis lends support to the Ghanaian government's current economic and infrastructure development plans.