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BEST OF 2011

Wild Coast

John Gimlette

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FOR THE HOLIDAYS

To the Arctic

Florian Schultz

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OUR FAVORITES

Arctic Dreams

Barry Lopez

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The Pioneer

Replogle

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DISCOVERING GUINEA

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African Predators


by M.G.L. Mills | Gus Mills | Martin Harvey

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2001
  • HARD COVER
  • 160 PAGES

A natural history of the giant cats and other predators of Africa. (AFR114, $39.95)

Ake, the Years of Childhood


by Wole Soyinka

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1983
  • PAPER
  • 230 PAGES

A Nobel Prize-winning playwright, recalls his Yoruba childhood in Nigeria during World War II. (WAF47, $14.95)

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes


by Maya Angelou

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1991
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

A candid memoir of Angelou's experiences in Ghana in the 1960s, just five years after the country's independence from Britain. (WAF24, $14.00)

Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel

Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel


by Jeffrey Tayler

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2005
  • HARD COVER
  • 256 PAGES

The eye-opening account of an American journalist's trek across the Sahel, the southern region of the Sahara Desert, which encompasses Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon, Chad and Senegal. (WAF83, $25.00)

Benin Map

Benin Map


by Institut Geographique National

  • MAP

A detailed road map for travelers. (WAF165, $16.95)

Black Gold of the Sun, Searching for Home in Africa And Beyond


by Ekow Eshun

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 240 PAGES

At the age of 33, Eshun -- born in London to African-born parents -- travelled to Ghana in search of his roots. The resulting narrative is both a portrait of a nation and the story of a search for home. (WAF109, $13.95)

Bogolan

Bogolan


by Victoria Rovine

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 178 PAGES

A beautifully illustrated survey of the transformation of bogolanfini (mudcloth) textiles in Mali from its traditional rural roots to contemporary symbol. With 24 color and 33 black-and-white photographs and maps. (WAF62, $24.95)

Bradt Guide Ghana

Bradt Guide Ghana


by Philip Briggs | Hilary Bradt | Annabel Milne

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2010
  • PAPER
  • 448 PAGES

Complete with maps and town plans, this guide to Ghana features practical information on the country's history, culture and attractions. (WAF27, $26.99)

Bradt Guide Sierra Leone

Bradt Guide Sierra Leone


by Katrina Manson

  • GUIDEBOOK
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 256 PAGES

A comprehensive guide in the popular Bradt series. (WAF133, $25.99)

Changes, A Love Story

Changes, A Love Story


by Ama Ata Aidoo

  • LITERATURE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 196 PAGES

A novel from the multitalented author and playwright, in which the independent Esi Sekyi confronts traditional values in marriage, love, career and family in contemporary Ghana. (WAF35, $15.95)

The Commodore

The Commodore


by Patrick O'Brian

  • LITERATURE
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 282 PAGES

The 17th in the series, With Aubrey back home in England and in battle off West Africa. (WAF73, $13.95)

The Dark Child


by Camara Laye

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 188 PAGES

Laye, Africa's foremost Francophone novelist, writes about growing up in Guinea and the dissonance between the traditions of his village and the encroaching modern world. (WAF120, $14.00)

The Devil That Danced on the Water, A Daughter's Quest


by Aminatta Forna

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 416 PAGES

Forna returns to Sierra Leone to search for the truth behind her father, executed in 1973. (WAF132, $14.00)

Eating Apes


by Dale Peterson | Karl Ammann | Janet K. Museveni

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 320 PAGES

In this powerful book, primatologist Peterson calls for a stop to the consumption of bush meat, especially chimps, bonos, and gorillas, in the forests of Central and Western Africa. (AFR153, $21.95)

The Ends of the Earth, A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy


by Robert D. Kaplan

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 476 PAGES

An insightful, opinionated odyssey to some of the world's poorer and more troubled nations. (WLD26, $16.00)

The Famished Road


by Ben Okri

  • LITERATURE
  • 1993
  • PAPER
  • 500 PAGES

The haunting, Booker Prize-winning novel set in a Yoruba village in modern Nigeria. (WAF39, $16.95)

Forests of Gold, Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante


by Ivor Wilks

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1996
  • PAPER
  • 405 PAGES

A collection of essays that explores the Akan peoples of Ghana and examines the Asante kingdom. (WAF33, $25.00)

The Fortunes of Wangrin


by Amadou Hampate Ba

  • LITERATURE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 376 PAGES

The classic 1976 story of Wangrin, a promising West African boy who leaves his tribal village only to confront the greed and corruption of the French and the colonial government. (WAF108, $19.00)

Ghana Map

Ghana Map


by ITMB

  • 2011
  • MAP

A colorful, folded map of Ghana at a detailed scale of 1:500,000. (WAF37, $12.95)

The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa

The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa


by Alexander McCall Smith

  • LITERATURE
  • 2004
  • HARD COVER
  • 192 PAGES

McCall Smith brings together folktales, often hilarious or bizarre, which he heard as a child growing up in Zimbabwe. (AFR141, $22.00)

God Alone Is King, Islam and Emancipation in Senegal : The Wolof Kingdoms of Kajoor and Bawol, 1859-1914


by James F. Searing

  • HISTORY
  • 2001
  • PAPER
  • 336 PAGES

A history of French colonial policy, the slave trade, and the conflicts between Islam and the aristocracy in 19th century Senegal. (WAF117, $37.50)

The Heart of The Matter

The Heart of The Matter


by Graham Greene

  • LITERATURE
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 255 PAGES

In Greene's masterpiece set in Sierra Leone, a good man is enmeshed in love, intrigue and evil. (WAF166, $16.00)

The House at Sugar Beach, In Search of a Lost African Childhood

The House at Sugar Beach, In Search of a Lost African Childhood


by Helene Cooper

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2009
  • PAPER
  • 368 PAGES

Cooper, a New York Times correspondent, traces her childhood in Liberia, the devastation of civil war and her reunion with a foster sister who had been left behind when her prominent family fled to America. (WAF131, $15.00)

In Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone


by Michael Jackson

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2004
  • PAPER
  • 232 PAGES

Poet, anthropologist and novelist, Jackson vividly evokes the " sights, sounds, smells, and feel of West Africa" in this moving account of his return to Sierra Leone in the wake of a brutal civil war, mixing the story of his friend, the politician S.B. Marah with his own reflections. (WAF162, $22.95)

Islam's Black Slaves, The Other Black Diaspora


by Ronald Segal

  • HISTORY
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 273 PAGES

An authoritative history of the Islamic slave trade. (AFR209, $21.00)

It's a Jungle Up There, More Tales from the Treetops

It's a Jungle Up There, More Tales from the Treetops


by Margaret Lowman | James Burgess | Edward Burgess

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 291 PAGES

This engaging globe-skipping chronicle takes the tropical ecologist and her now-grown sons James and Edward to Samoa, West Africa, Peru, Panama, India and other great habitats. (NAT92, $30.00)

Ivory Coast Map


by Institut Geographique National

  • MAP

The product of the French geographic institute, this detailed map at a scale of 1:1,000,000 covers roads, topography and parks in detail. (WAF121, $17.95)

Kwame Nkrumah, The Father of African Nationalism

Kwame Nkrumah, The Father of African Nationalism


by David Birmingham

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 142 PAGES

The tale of the remarkable life of Kwame Nkrumah, the African statesman who championed for independence, won Africans the right to vote, and became the president of Ghana in 1960. (WAF34, $14.95)

The Last Place On Earth

The Last Place On Earth


by Mike Fay | Michael Nichols

  • NATURAL HISTORY
  • 2005
  • HARD COVER
  • 480 PAGES

A two-volume boxed set, this authoritative, spectacularly photographed book by National Geographic documents Michael Fay's 465-day, 2,000-mile Mega-Transect with photographer Nick Nichols from the Congo highlands to the Atlantic Ocean shore of Gabon. With Nichol's extraordinary color photographs (vol. 1) and a facsimile edition of Fay's diary (vol. 2). (CAF38, $150.00)

A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier


by Ishmael Beah

  • BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
  • 2008
  • PAPER
  • 229 PAGES

This absorbing account by a young man who, as a boy of 12, gets swept up in Sierra Leone's civil war, goes beyond even the best journalistic efforts in revealing the life and mind of a child abducted into the horrors of warfare. (WAF130, $12.00)

Mali Map

Mali Map


by Gizi Map

  • 2004
  • MAP

A fold-up map shown at a scale of 1:2,000,000. (WAF43, $15.95)

Mango Elephants in the Sun

Mango Elephants in the Sun


by Susana Herrera

  • TRAVEL NARRATIVE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 270 PAGES

Teens will especially respond to this lively tale of the transformation of a 23-year-old Californian from bumbling volunteer to a member of the community in this tale of Herrera's two years teaching English in northern Cameroon. (WAF20, $22.95)

Nigeria Map

Nigeria Map


by ITMB

  • MAP

A shaded relief map of Nigeria at 1:600,000. (AFR39, $11.95)

No Longer at Ease


by Chinua Achebe

  • LITERATURE
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 208 PAGES

The story of an Ibo boy who leaves his village for a British education and then finds himself involved with the corrupt Nigerian ruling elite he despises. (WAF107, $12.00)

Onions are My Husband, Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women

Onions are My Husband, Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women


by Gracia Clark

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1994
  • PAPER
  • 488 PAGES

A vivid ethnographic portrait of the women of the enormous open-air Kumasi Central Market in Ghana based on interviews and fieldwork by University of Indiana anthropologist Gracia Clark. (WAF28, $42.50)

Palace Sculptures of Abomey, History Told on Walls


by Francesca Pique | Leslie Rainer

  • ART & ARCHITECTURE
  • 2000
  • PAPER
  • 120 PAGES

An illustrated survey and history of the sculptures and bas-reliefs at the Dahomey palace with 120 color photographs. (WAF77, $29.95)

The Peopling of Africa, A Geographic Interpretation


by James L. Newman

  • CULTURAL PORTRAIT
  • 1997
  • PAPER
  • 252 PAGES

An anthropological study of Africa, which considers, among other factors, genetics, religion, language and technology. (AFR140, $26.00)

Political Islam in West Africa, State-Society Relations Transformed


by Will Miles

  • RELIGION
  • 2007
  • HARD COVER
  • 221 PAGES

With essays on Nigeria, Mali, Mauritania, The Gambia and Senegal. (WAF159, $52.50)

The Scramble for Africa

The Scramble for Africa


by Thomas Pakenham

  • HISTORY
  • 1992
  • PAPER
  • 738 PAGES

Absorbing and meticulously researched, this in-depth history of the Victorian land grab in Africa includes excellent portraits of the egomaniacal personalities who overran the continent. (AFR26, $23.99)

The Seasons of Beento Blackbird

The Seasons of Beento Blackbird


by Akosua Busia

  • LITERATURE
  • 1998
  • PAPER
  • 367 PAGES

A provocative novel dissecting the issues of marriage and African identity by the daughter of a former Ghanaian prime minister. (WAF42, $24.95)

Senegal and The Gambia Map

Senegal and The Gambia Map


by ITMB

  • 2011
  • MAP

A colorful map of Senegal and The Gambia, at a scale of 1:800,000. (WAF69, $12.95)

Still Waters in Niger


by Kathleen Hill

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 216 PAGES

An atmospheric novel set in America and Niger. After living for in the United States for 17 years, an Irish-American woman returns to a small village in Niger where she had once lived with her husband and three daughters. (WAF53, $15.95)

The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi


by Arthur Japin | Ina Rilke

  • LITERATURE
  • 2002
  • PAPER
  • 384 PAGES

An acclaimed debut novel by a young Dutch writer, concerning the tragic fortunes of two Dutch-educated West African princes circa 1830, whose schooling renders them neither Dutch nor Ashanti. (NTH45, $16.00)

Whiteman

Whiteman


by Tony D'Souza

  • LITERATURE
  • 2007
  • PAPER
  • 279 PAGES

D'Souza captures the rhythms and atmosphere of village life on the Ivory Coast in this tale of a relief worker who refuses to leave as tensions build between Muslims and Christians. (WAF129, $13.00)

Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal


by Pierre Thiam

  • FOOD
  • 2008
  • HARD COVER
  • 190 PAGES

This collection of 75 recipes by the Senegelese chef and owner of Yolele and Grand Dakar in Brooklyn warmly captures the flavors, colors and culinary culture of his native country. (WAF141, $21.95)

 

Longitude provides recommended reading for travelers in partnership with the leading tour operators and travel programs for hundreds of destinations worldwide. We've got the classic, new and hard-to-find books and maps to help you get the most out of your adventures.