Into Africa is a passionate immersion into the incredible variety of the continent - its tribes, languages, governments and ancient empires; its cultures, art and music.
| ||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Ostensibly a visit to ancient empires, this book intertwines history with modern politics to paint a portrait of the entire continent of Africa. Replete with all those quirks and scandals that make history fun to read, it shows us how Africans find joy despite constant warfare and cruel rulers. We laugh, for instance, at the image of the hated Libyan army being chased out of town by a horde of Chadic civilians in minivan taxis. Not just a travelog like Pam Ascanio's White Men Don't Have Juju (Noble, 1992), this superb distillation of sociocultural and recent political events proves to be both entertaining and informative. Award-winning journalist de Villiers grew up in South Africa. A good basic book for those who want insight into Africa's complex civilization; highly recommended.?Louise F. Leonard, Univ. of Florida Libs., Gainesville
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Africa," according to the authors, "is going in all directions at once" and always has been. Their report combines a firsthand account of the inconsistencies, accomplishments, and plain horrors currently reported by the media with Africa's long history of rising and falling empires, wise kings and bloody tyrants, shifting territories and migrant populations. It is a history as disorderly as that of Europe, and the authors would have the outside world understand that Africa is a conservative continent that maintains a constant state of flux. They also assert that "hardly anyone in Africa any longer blames Africa's problems on colonialism." Altogether, this book presents unfamiliar facts reinforcing an unusual point of view. -- The Atlantic Monthly, Phoebe-Lou Adams
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
wonderful overview of Africa past and present,
By
This review is from: Into Africa: A Journey Through the Ancient Empires (Hardcover)
"Into Africa" is a wonderful, almost breathless, whirlwind tour of the African continent. The travels described in the book may have begun as a search for what remains of the ancient empires that once existed, but became as much a discovery of what Africa is today, and what it will become.Authors Marq De Villiers and Sheila Hirtle divide the book (and the continent) into nine sections, each with its own distinct character and history. Part one looks at southeast Africa, highlights of which include a visit to the impressive stone ruins of Great Zimbabwe, ruins which produce a sound when one's ear is pressed against them, the source unknown. We are introduced to the Makuni or the "Living Stones" of Zambia, named not after the famous explorer and missionary but rather for the fact that a chief begins his duties by swallowing a small stone, which lodges in his gut and becomes an embodiment of his people. This region is also home to the colorful Maasai warriors, often noted by tourists in colorful red garb (so that people will want to photograph them), nomadic pastoralists that have been pushed out of the increasingly artificial wildlife sanctuaries of Ngorongoro and the Serengeti despite having lived there for many hundreds of years. Part two looks at the east coast of Africa, the lands of the Swahili speakers. Fabled east Africa, long a tropical coast skirted by (increasingly threatened) coral reefs and (disappearing) dhows, one can still find along it Lamu, near the Somali border, still an island of coral brick buildings and mosques dating back to the 14 century. Even more famous is exotic Zanzibar, fabled island known to the ancients and part of Tanzania in name only, once a famous source of spices. The third section looks at southern Africa, a land largely shaped by the Zulus and the migrations they caused in the 1800s thanks to the tyrant Shaka Zulu. We read about mountainous Lesotho, well known for its conical hats, vigorous ponies, and blankets (called Victorians), a distinct national character that is only 150 years old, invented by arguably Africa's wiliest diplomat, Moshoeshoe the Great; and Swaziland, one of the last of the traditional African monarchies, famous for the Umhlanga or Reed Dance, where barely clad young maidens symbolically offer themselves to the king as brides. The enigmatic San or Bushmen of the Kalahari also receive attention. Part four looks at the ancient rain forest lands of the Kongo, long a source of slaves for the world and even well into the 20th century under the yoke of forced labor by France (in the Congo) and Belgium (in Zaire). It is a troubled region, but one of great contrasts; separated by the Stanley Pool of the mighty Congo River are two very different capital cities; Brazzaville of Congo the authors describe a sleepy and pleasant town, in vivid contrast to Kinshasa, capital of Zaire, a much larger, angrier, and dangerous city. Some of the most interesting passages in the book are in this section, particularly of his travels up the Congo River, in war torn Angola, and among the pygmies of Cameroon. The fifth section looks at the Gulf of Guinea, long fabled as the Gold Coast and dominated by the fierce Ashanti, bold enough to challenge the British Empire and almost win. Of particular interest are violent and overpopulated Nigeria; the country of Benin (growing more into a model of how Africa could be), whose ancient kingdom of Dahomey was once noted for "Amazon" warriors; Togo, where vodun (the African incarnation of Haitian voodoo) still reigns; Ghana, perhaps the most "Christian" of the west African nations and a robust democracy; and Liberia and Sierra Leone, whose prospects are gloomy indeed. Section six was quite interesting, examining the peoples and old empires of the Sahel, the grasslands bordering the southern Sahara, as well as the Sahara itself. Once dominated by a series of mighty empires, first Ghana for over 800 years, then Mali, the greatest perhaps of Sub-Saharan African empires, then nearly 400 years later the Songhai. Fabled Timbuktu is covered in this section, the desert city a center of Islamic learning from the 14th century on. The authors' coverage of Mali is especially interesting, notable for Mansa Musa, an African king so extravagantly wealthy he was well known in 14th century Europe after his pilgrimage to Mecca, and his predecessor, Abu Bakari II, the Voyager King, who actually sought to reach lands he believed to exist on the other side of the Atlantic, disappearing from history when he accompanied personally 2000 vessels for a perilous journey into the unknown. Also fascinating was coverage of the Tuareg or "Blue Men" of the Sahara, a fair-skinned desert nomad group where the men go veiled, not the women, and the Dogon tribe, cliff-dwellers in southern Mali that are neither Christian nor Muslim but have instead their own complex religion. The later sections of the book are somewhat shorter, but no less interesting. Part seven looks at the Maghreb and the Barbary Coast of North Africa, an area once controlled by the now extinct Carthage, the land of the Berbers, the Bedouin, and the Moors, once dominated by the Almoravid and the Almohad civilizations, in part infused from the Andalucian culture of Islamic Spain. Part eight devotes some time to Egypt, which the authors maintain it is definitively a part of African civilization, and Ethiopia, a fascinating land of rock-hewn churches and according to some the home of the Ark of the Covenant, and once dominated by the powerful Axumite Empire. The book closes with the Great Rift, believed by paleontologists to be the true cradle of mankind, home to the enigmatic Chwezi or BaChwezi empire, the fabled Mountains of the Moon, and the horror that was Idi Amin in Uganda and is the conflict between the Tutsi and the Hutu in Rwanda and Burundi. A fantastic book!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful,
By "sarchives" (Vancouver, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Into Africa: A Journey Through the Ancient Empires (Hardcover)
The major highlight of this book is that it mentions every country on the continent; many books which view Africa as a whole tend to stick with maybe a dozen of the 45 countries that make up Africa, but the authors have touched, albeit briefly, along all modern African states, and attempt to bring them together as a whole, and make cohesive conclusions about the continent. The continent - a real study of the continent in all of its incarnations. As an overview of the continent, as a pair of authors taking the long view, and reaching unique and enlightening conclusions, there is no better book.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enlightening account of Africa's past and present,
By A Customer
This review is from: Into Africa: A Journey Through the Ancient Empires (Hardcover)
As a seasoned traveller to Africa (on bicycle and 4wd). I was relieved to find this book both informative and enlightening in its excellent balance of past and present times. The lighthearted approach mingled with the odd tribal poem and sometimes witty dialogue will appeal to those for have an affinity for Africa and wish to delve a little deeper. My only real criticism is that the book doesn't delve deep enough - but should it have, then the lighthearted feel would be lost. The style of writing is a joy considering the breadth of Africa and to have the authors own past thrown in at times, reaqlly does purvue a sense of a 'personal account' of this wondrous continent. If you want to feel Africa in your heart and its culture in veins without the security blanket of a tour operator and a 5* hotel this is the book you have been waiting for!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
