| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Africa: APIC Web Bookshop
Date distributed (ymd): 980308
APIC Document
APIC's Africa Web Bookshop
We are pleased to announce the debut on the Africa Policy
Web
Site of APIC's Africa Web Bookshop. (Yes, you can really
buy
books there, even if it is in cyberspace!).
On the site at http://www.africapolicy.org/books/vbooks.shtml
you will find listings and recommendations for books
we think
you might be interested in. Some of them you can purchase
at
Amazon, the on-line bookstore, with a direct link from
our
site. Others you can order directly from the publishers
(we
will give you the necessary contact information) or
through a
book dealer such as the Africa Book Centre in London.
This bookshop is doubly virtual -- we are on-line plus
you
don't actually get most of these books from APIC. We
don't
have the staff, the storage space or the capital to
invest in
inventory to maintain a non-virtual bookshop. So, except
for
APIC's own publications, you don't send the order to
us. Order
from Amazon, from the Africa Book Centre, or from the
publisher.
What is in it for us? We are glad to let you know about
books
that may help build a more informed constituency for
Africa.
And, for books that Amazon has in stock, we get a referral
fee. We don't expect to make a lot of money, but we
hope that
it can provide some additional support for our educational
work.
What is in it for you? Book references carefully selected
for
their relevance to Africa policy issues, convenience
in
ordering books unlikely to be available in your local
bookshop, and a way to express your support and appreciation
for APIC services.
Do come take a look. Our virtual bookshop is just beginning.
We are in an experimental stage. How rapidly we expand
from this small start will depend on your response (as
measured by visits and referral fees from Amazon) and
on how
much staff time we find is needed to maintain and expand
the
shop. We hope you find it useful. Browse around and
come back
later.
P.S. We have not yet made a final decision on the name
of the
bookshop -- let us know if you have a suggestion.
************************************************************
SPECIAL ADDITIONAL NOTE
for Readers at U.S. Educational Institutions
(this note is going only to .edu e-mail addresses)
Among the options we are considering for the Africa
Web
Bookshop is to place lists of assigned books for African
Studies courses so that students will have the option
of
ordering through our site rather than through their
campus
bookshop (and our web site visitors would have the advantage
of knowing your book suggestions). We need information
from
you to evaluate whether this is a practical project.
So if you assign books to be purchased for African Studies
courses, we would very much appreciate your answers
to the
following questions. If you do not assign books for
courses,
we would appreciate your passing this note to teachers
at your
institution who do.
1. <Your name>
[ ]
2. <Your institution>
[ ]
3. <Your e-mail address>
[ ]
4. <Would you consider giving your students the option
of
ordering Africa course books that are in stock at Amazon.com
through the Africa Web Bookshop?
Yes [ ] No [ ]
5. <On average, approximately how many Africa course
books do
you assign per year?>
[ ]
6. <Please specify the months in which the semesters
or
quarters in which you teach Africa courses begin.>
[ ]
7. <How many weeks in advance would you be able to
submit
booklists for us to be posted on the site?>
[ ]
************************************************************
The first special feature on the bookshop site is the
suggestions you sent in for airplane reading for President
Clinton's trip to Africa. The suggestions to date are
listed
below. The site also has other key links for African
books
and publishing (also listed below). Your additional
suggestions are welcome, and should be sent to
books@africapolicy.org. To suggest a book for President
Clinton's trip, please use the form at the end of this
posting.
************************************************************
Recommended Reading for President Clinton
According to a White House announcement on February 12, US President Bill Clinton will visit five African countries between March 22 and April 2: Senegal, Ghana, Botswana, South Africa and Uganda. In late January, APIC asked readers of the Africa Policy Electronic Distribution List to suggest books for the President's pre-trip preparation or airplane reading on the trip. The results so far are below.
Books Recommended by APIC Staff
Maryse Conde, Segu. New York: Penguin, 1996. ISBN: 014025949X.
Segu is a powerful and accurate historical novel that describes the impact of Islam and Christianity on a West African society in the 18th century, just before the formation of the United States. Gives insight into complex historical forces that have left their legacy for contemporary Africa. -- Pearl-Alice Marsh, Executive Director, APIC
Karl Maier, Into the House of the Ancestors: Inside the New Africa. New York: John Wiley & Sons, January 1998. 278 pp. ISBN: 047113547X.
Exceptional among books by Western journalists, this readable report finds inspiration in and presents the voices of ordinary Africans who are drawing on their heritage and building the future around the continent. Without avoiding the horrors and problems--from genocide in Rwanda to child soldiers to AIDS--Maier stresses the initiative and determination of rarely acknowledged individuals finding the way ahead one step at a time. -- William Minter, Senior Research Fellow, APIC
Bisi Adeleye-Fayemi and Algresia Akwi-Ogajor, editors. Taking the African Women's Movement into the 21st Century: Report of the First African Women's Leadership Institute, February 22nd to March 14th, 1997, Kampala, Uganda.. London: Akina Mama wa Afrika, June 1997. Available from Africa Books Centre, London.
I highly recommend this concise and inspiring compilation. Much more than your ordinary conference report, it showcases innovative, dynamic activists and scholars in African women's movement activities with representatives from 18 African countries. -- Vicki Lynn Ferguson, Director, Strategic Action Programs, APIC
Books Recommended by Africa Policy Distribution List Readers
Michael Bratton and Nicolas van de Walle, Democratic Experiments in Africa: Regime Transitions in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. September 1997. 352 pp. ISBN: 0521556120.
Best comparative analysis of political change in Africa in many years with hard statistical data. -- Dave Peterson, Program Officer, National Endowment for Democracy
Jerker Carlsson, Gloria Somolekae and Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Aid in Africa: Learning from Country Experiences. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1997. 224 pp. Available from Nordiska Afrikainstitutet (Web: http://www.nai.uu.se/publ/nbeng.html; E-mail: nai@nai.uu.se).
This is an important book because it strikes a fair balance on mutual responsibilities of donors and recipients. Aid effectiveness is possible and the case studies provide ample evidence to this effect. Of course, things can always be better but unless donors are prepared to change entrenched political preoccupations and let development priorities, identified in cooperation with African countries, determine forms and approaches to aid, progress will remain slow in the making. As now the clear "under-performer" in terms of development aid, the US administration and public can gain many insights from this timely book. -- Glenn Brigaldino, GBC-Services in Development Cooperation
Basil Davidson, Search for Africa; History, Culture, Politics. New York: Times Books, April 1995. ISBN: 0812925270.
The search for Africa forms a bridge between the three parallel enterprises of history, culture and politics. It reveals how culture justifies itself by history, how history influences culture, and how politics threads its way through both... This book is indispensible to anyone interested in understanding Africa and Africans... It will help anyone understand why Africans do what they do, where to look for answers for African problems and how to better help them. Africans can help themselves if given a chance. -- John Tra, Owner and Animator of a francophone discussion group named "afrique", Biologist, University of Missouri, Columbia
David G. Maillu, Broken Drum. Nairobi, Kenya: Jomo Kenyatta Foundation and Maillu Publishing House, 1991. ISBN: 9966862137.
Probably the most important African novel of the nineties. Shows with gripping story telling (covering 200 years of history and the present) that the African dilemma is not economically linked only but a matter of broken identity, dividing whole nations. -- Alex Timo Purr, M.A. African Studies, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
Mahmood Mamdani, Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton Studies in Culture/Power/History). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, May 1996. 353 pp. ISBN: 0691027935.
This compelling and groundbreaking book by the highly respected Ugandan scholar makes a number of crucial points with the key claim being that post-colonial regimes have failed to transcend or even seriously challenge the inherited distinction between (urban) citizens and (rural) subjects. -- Richard Pithouse, Department of Philosophy, University of Durban-Westville, Durban, South Africa
Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. New York: Little, Brown & Co, October 1995. 625 pp. ISBN: 0316548189.
An insider's view not only of the life of one of the most important statesman of the 20th century, but an indepth overview of the antiapatheid struggle. -- Frances M. Beal, Free Lance Writer, former Associate Editor of Black Scholar Magazine. Reviewed this book for San Francisco Chronicle at time of publication.
Michael Maren, The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity. New York: The Free Press, January 1997. 287 pp. ISBN: 0684828006.
Makes the argument that the aid system as it now exists empowers dictators and the other institutions that are the reasons for Africa's economic problems to begin with. Set primarily in Somalia, it shows how Western "generosity" played a huge role in the destruction of Somali society. -- Michael Maren, Contributing Editor, New York Magazine
Dubem Okafor, Ph.D., The Dance of Death: Nigerian History & Christopher Okigbo's Poetry. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Africa World Press, Inc., December 1997. 232 pp. ISBN: 0865435553.
The integration of history, biography, and criticism is masterful.... The Dance of Death promises to intrigue and educate the critic, the historian, the political scientist, and the psychologist of culture.... -- Dubem Okafor, Ph.D., Professor, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
*************************************************************
Other Key Links for African Books and Publishing
(1)Africa Book Centre africabooks@dial.pipex.com
This bookshop in London has a wide variety of Africa-related books available for order by e-mail, with credit card payment. (2) Africa World Press http://www.africanworld.com
Along with its affiliate, Red Sea press, Africa World Press publishes a wide range of books on African and African-American subjects.
(3)African Books Collective, Oxford http://wsi.cso.uiuc.edu/CAS/ABC/contents.html
Founded by African publishers to distribute their books overseas, ABC (e-mail: abc@dial.pipex.com ) supplies books from 50 African publishers. Most of its books can be ordered through the Internet Bookshop at http://www.bookshop.co.uk
(4) CODE Europehttp://www.oneworld.org/code_europe
This site contains all the issues of Partners in African Publishing, an extensive news report on efforts to advance publishing on the African continent.
(5) Zimbabwe International Book Fair http://www.mediazw.com/zibf/bull.html
Africa's largest book fair, held annually in Harare. The theme for the August 1-8 event in 1998 is Children in Africa.
Additional Links at Stanford University
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/afrbook.html
A list of links to dealers in Africa-related books accessible by e-mail or the Web.
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/publish.html
An extensive list of other links to publishers of Africa-related books.
[Note to readers without web access: Although web pages such as these are available through web-by-email servers, it is likely to be quite complex to place an order in this way.Our suggestion is that you be in touch with the African Book Centre in London (africabooks@dial.pipex.com), which features orders available by e-mail and distributes occasional listings of new books.]
************************************************************
To make a book suggestion, just put this form in an
e-mail to books@africapolicy.org (cut and paste the
form into a new message) and fill in the blanks. Your
answers can be more than one line, but please keep
within the brackets and don't delete them.
1. <title of book>
[ ]
2. <author(s) of book>
[ ]
3. <place of publication>
[ ]
4. <publisher>
[ ]
4. <year of publication>
[ ]
6. <mailing address and other contact information
for
publisher>
[ ]
7. <URL of publishers' web site, if available>
[ ]
8. <your one- or two-sentence comment on the book>
[ ]
9. <your name>
[ ]
10. <your title and institutional affiliation, or
other
identification>
[ ]
11. <your city and country of residence>
[ ]
************************************************************
From: apic@igc.org Message-Id: <199803090015.QAA25389@igc3.igc.apc.org> Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 19:13:33 -0500 Subject: Africa: APIC Web Bookshop
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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