Africa  •  Phyllis Martin  •  Patrick O'Meara CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1995 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES African history and prehistory, popular culture, art and economics with dozens of maps, photographs and drawings. We especially liked the chapter on the contemporary map of Africa. It's all here. Pick and choose those areas that interest you. It's the most popular introductory text for undergraduate African studies courses in North America -- refreshingly free of cant and completely revised in 1995 to reflect changes in African politics. (AFR07, $20.95)
Africa  •  Michael Lewis  •  John Reader CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 320 PAGES An informative survey of the geography, culture and wildlife of Africa featuring 175 color photographs and accompanying text by John Reader (Africa: A Biography of the Continent). Organized geographically, it's the companion volume to an eight-hour television series by PBS and National Geographic. (AFR111, $50.00)
Africa Map, Central and South, Madagascar 746  •  Michelin Travel Publications 2003 •  MAP A fine folded map of the central and southern regions of the continent, covering the continent south of Gabon, Congo, Uganda and Kenya at a scale of 1:4,000,000. This map is very useful for road travel. (AFR36, $11.95)
African Predators  •  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, covering evolution, behavior and conservation, and complemented by full-color photographs. (AFR114, $39.95)
African Wildlife  •  National Geographic NATURAL HISTORY •  NTSC VIDEO An overview of wildlife throughout the continent featuring National Geographic's usual meticulous attention to detail and stunning photography. (SAF52, $19.99)
African Wildlife  •  Raymond Leung  •  James Kavanaugh FIELD GUIDE •  1999 •  PLASTIC CARD A laminated foldout guide illustrating almost 150 species of African animals. This pocket guide is designed for quick reference in the field. (AFR109, $5.95)
The Big Cats and Their Fossil Relatives, An Illustrated Guide to Their Evolution and Natural History  •  Alan Turner  •  Mauricio Anton NATURAL HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES A thoroughly researched and accessible guide to modern felines and their prehistoric ancestors. From the sabertooth tiger to the average house cat, this far-reaching natural history finds links between present-day species and fossil evidence to form an account of the anatomy, behavior and evolution of cats. Includes almost 200 amazingly detailed drawings. (BST50, $26.95)
The Black Man's Burden, Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State  •  Basil Davidson HISTORY •  1993 •  PAPER  • 355 PAGES An evocative work by one of Africa's foremost historians. Davidson compares the optimism of Africans when they finally emerged from foreign rule in the 1950s with today's continuing state of crisis, which he blames, in part, on the colonial legacy. (AFR92, $15.00)
The Bushman Myth, The Making of a Namibian Underclass  •  Robert James Gordon  •  Stuart Sholto-Douglas CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2000 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES A serious and thorough portrait of the Bushmen of Southern Africa and how they have come to represent Western notions of the exotic African. In the revised second edition, Gordon and Sholto-Douglas discuss Namibia's changing political landscape and the exploitation of the Bushmen as a result of the popular film "The Gods Must Be Crazy." (SAF145, $39.00)
Cats of Africa  •  Anthony Hall-Martin FIELD GUIDE •  1998 •  HARD COVER  • 152 PAGES A species-by-species guide to Africa's wild cats, gorgeously illustrated by Paul Bosman. With range maps, conservation status and descriptions. (BST24, $49.95)
Cultural Atlas of Africa  •  Jocelyn Murray CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1998 •  HARD COVER  • 240 PAGES This book is a handsomely illustrated atlas of African history and culture with 96 outstanding maps, 250 color photographs and excellent essays. (AFR47, $50.00)
Field Guide to the Birds of Southern Africa  •  Ian Sinclair  •  Phil Hockey  •  Warwick Tarboton FIELD GUIDE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 447 PAGES With over 900 species and legions of bird watchers, Southern Africa supports as many popular bird guides as North America. Here's a comprehensive field guide by eminent ornithologist Ian Sinclair, a third edition of the popular SASOL guide. The text and 200 color plates by Peter Hayman and Norman Arlott are integrated, making this book a pleasure to use in the field. (SAF12, $35.00)
Footprint Namibia Handbook  •  Sebastain Ballard  •  Nick Santcross GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES A compact guide published in Britain, nicely divided between a general overview of Namibia and practical travel detail on where to go and what to do. (NMB11, $22.95)
The Girl Who Married a Lion and Other Tales from Africa  •  Alexander McCall Smith LITERATURE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 192 PAGES McCall Smith brings together a collection of often hilarious, often bizarre folktales which he heard as a child growing up in Zimbabwe. In addition to the tales from his previous collection, Children of Wax, the best-selling author includes seven new tales from Botswana. In an interesting twist on a writer's creation, the title character of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency provides an introduction. (AFR141, $22.00)
The Healing Land, The Bushmen and the Kalahari Desert  •  Rupert Isaacson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 278 PAGES This dark contemporary tale of discovery works as an antidote to the nostalgia of Van der Post's classic Lost World of the Kalahari. Isaacson, a journalist and travel writer raised with tales of Southern Africa and the San, documents the poverty, social disruption and struggle of a people who have been displaced from their land. The tale revolves around Dawid Kruiper, a traditional Xhomani Bushmen leader and healer, who introduces the author to ancient notions of power, wisdom, healing and strength. Without losing site of his main goal of reporting on the predicament of the Bushmen across their original lands, Isaacson embarks on his own spiritual quest. (SAF135, $13.00)
The Heart of the Hunter  •  Laurens van der Post CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1980 •  PAPER  • 279 PAGES We also carry The Heart of the Hunter, a continuation of the story of Van der Post's encounters with the Bushmen in Southwestern Africa. (SAF32, $13.00)
Hunters and Herders of Southern Africa  •  Alan Barnard CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1992 •  PAPER  • 379 PAGES Subtitled "A Comparative Ethnography of Khoisan Peoples, " this scholarly book looks at the environment and its influence on the cultural and social organization among San ("Bushmen"), Khokhoi ("Hottentot") and Damara of the Kalahari and surrounding areas. It looks at the culture of some of the best-known and most mythologized African peoples. Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology 85. (SAF67, $45.00)
Illustrated Guide to the Game Parks and Nature Reserves of Southern Africa  •  Reader's Digest FIELD GUIDE •  1990 •  HARD COVER  • 440 PAGES A comprehensive guide to 700 parks and reserves with a good overview of each region along with profiles of individual reserves. This thoroughly illustrated resource also includes a key to common plants, insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, and mammals. With excellent maps. (SAF02, $30.00)
Insight Guide Namibia  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2000 •  PAPER  • 295 PAGES An illustrated survey of the country, its history, nature and culture, for the traveler with excellent local maps and hundreds of color photographs. (NMB10, $23.95)
Journeys With Flies  •  Edwin Wilmsen TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 168 PAGES An impressionist account of field work and travels among the Zhu, Mbanduru and Tswana people of the Kalahari culled from the author's journals. It's a short, personal book that complements Wilmsen's published field work. (SAF69, $22.00)
The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals  •  Jonathan Kingdon FIELD GUIDE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 476 PAGES An authoritative, beautifully illustrated guide. It features identification, classification and species information for all known African mammals, including many newly discovered species. Written by one of the foremost authorities on African mammals, this concise guide provides full information on identification, distribution, ecology and conservation status on more than 1,100 species. It includes 480 outstanding color illustrations by the author and 280 maps. (AFR32, $47.50)
Land Filled With Flies, A Political Economy of the Kalahari  •  Edwin Wilmsen HISTORY •  1990 •  PAPER  • 402 PAGES A comprehensive, scholarly review of the Zhu people by an anthropologist who worked in the region from 1973 to 1994, this book overturns the romantic myths of the San-speaking hunters and gatherers of Southern Africa living in splendid isolation. Wilmsen has also written an impressionist account of his years in Southern Africa, "Journeys With Flies" (SAF69). It's a detailed, monumental study of the social relations, diet, work and land use by the San societies of Botswana and Namibia, an especially important work given the long-held western notions of the "Bushman." (SAF68, $32.50)
Lonely Planet Southern Africa  •  Alan Murphy GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 816 PAGES A hefty practical guide to the nine nations of southern Africa, including Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique and Lesotho. Ideal for independent travelers on a multicountry tour, this guide includes exhaustive information about where to sleep and eat, and what to see and do, as well as a useful overview of the region. (SAF121, $31.99)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife  •  Peter Alden FIELD GUIDE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 988 PAGES A compact introduction to the landforms, wild areas, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects of Africa, featuring contributions by experts and almost 600 color photographs. Most of the book is a field guide to commonly encountered birds, mammals and other creatures of the African continent. (AFR25, $23.95)
North of South, An African Journey  •  Shiva Naipaul TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1979 •  PAPER  • 349 PAGES • FAVORITE This is a great book -- engaging and unafraid of controversy. North of South is a sharp portrait of Africa, sensitive to issues black, white and brown -- and occasionally quite humorous. It's the best, most insightful thing we've read about Africa. A brilliant and provocative observer, Naipaul meditates on the travelers, government officials, shopkeepers and European exiles he encounters on a six-month-long journey through Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Fittingly, the book opens at the outdoor cafe of the New Stanley Hotel in Nairobi. (EAF28, $16.00)
The Peopling of Africa, A Geographic Interpretation  •  James L. Newman CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1997 •  PAPER  • 252 PAGES An anthropological study of Africa, which considers, among other factors, genetics, religion, language and technology. With 50 maps. (AFR140, $23.00)
The Remarkable Baobab  •  Thomas Pakenham NATURAL HISTORY •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 144 PAGES It was inevitable that Pakenham, an historian of Africa with a penchant for the world's most striking and bizarre trees, would discover the baobab. In this followup to Remarkable Trees of the World and Meetings with Remarkable Trees, he focuses on the tremendous, twisted boabab trees of Africa, Madagascar and Australia. Of the world's eight species, six are found in Madagascar. With 60 large-format color photographs. (NAT71, $19.95)
The Sixth Extinction, Journeys Among the Lost and Left Behind  •  Terry Glavin CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2007 •  HARD COVER In this provocative, wide-ranging book Glavin looks not at the loss of biological diversity but instead at the fate of languages, culture and traditional beliefs. (CON32, $24.95)
Southern Africa Regional Map  •  ITMB 2004 •  MAP This double-sided map at a scale of 1:2,125,000 shows the continent south of the Zambezi, including all of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa, with the western portion on one side and the eastern on the other. With color photographs and notes on parks and major attractions. Designed for the traveler, this is by far the best scale map available that covers the southern part of the continent. (SAF63, $12.95)
Southern African Birds, A Photographic Guide  •  Ian Sinclair FIELD GUIDE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 144 PAGES A pocket guide to the 265 most conspicuous birds south of the Zambezi River featuring color photographs, with brief descriptions and range maps. (SAF14, $15.95)
Ulendo, Travels of a Naturalist In and Out of Africa  •  Archie Carr BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1993 •  PAPER  • 303 PAGES A memoir of scientific adventures on his home turf in Florida and off in the bush of Malawi and Zambia, this book, by the great Archie Carr, combines good writing with plenty of wit, insight and scientific rigor. (SAF46, $19.95)