The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century  •  Ross E. Dunn TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 359 PAGES A modern historian's account of Ibn Battuta's travels in the medieval Islamic world. When Battuta left his native Morocco in 1325, he intended a pilgrimage to Mecca; however his travels ultimately took him as far as Mali in the west and Malaysia in the east, stopping in China, the Middle East, and much of Africa along the way. With Battuta's peregrinations as a framework, Dunn embarks on a scholarly exploration of the medieval Muslim world. He includes lengthy excerpts from Battuta's writing (Battuta's own account is also currently in print, Item AFR106) . With excellent maps. (AFR103, $21.95)
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 North and West Map 741  •  Michelin 2007 •  MAP A fine map of the north and parts of western Africa, covering Senegal, The Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania and their neighbors as well as all the Mediterranean-bordering countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya) at a scale of 1:4,000,000. (AFR34, $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 Vodun: Art, Psychology and Power  •  Susanne Preston Blier ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 476 PAGES A detailed study of West African vodun traditions, particularly in Togo and Benin. Blier compares the psychological and visual elements of Vodun with related voodoo traditions of Haiti and New Orleans. (WAF74, $45.00)
African Wildlife  •  Raymond Leung  •  James Kavanaugh FIELD GUIDE •  1999 •  PLASTIC CARD • BEST SELLER 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)
Ake, the Years of Childhood  •  Wole Soyinka BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1983 •  PAPER  • 230 PAGES The "New York Times Book Review" called this account of growing up in Nigeria during World War II "a classic of African autobiography, indeed a classic of childhood memories." The author, a Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning playwright, recalls his Yoruba childhood, always mystified by the irrational and hypocritical adult world that surrounds him. (WAF47, $14.95)
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes  •  Maya Angelou BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1991 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES Autobiographical in nature, this book draws on Angelou's experience living in Ghana in the 1960s with a group of Black Americans. Through her powerful prose, Angelou conveys the explores issues of identity and self-discovery. Angelou arrived in Ghana five years after independence during an optimistic time with Kwame Nkrumah as president. (WAF24, $13.00)
Ancient Middle Niger, Urbanism and the Self-Organizing Landscape  •  Roderick James McIntosh  •  Rita P. Wright HISTORY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 278 PAGES A scholarly account of the ancient cities on the Middle Niger, which developed in the first millennium B.C. (WAF94, $34.99)
Angry Wind: Through Muslim Black Africa by Truck, Bus, Boat and Camel  •  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. On his travels through mostly Islamic Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Cameroon and Senegal, Tayler witnessed poverty, the influence of harsh regimes, and both hostility and a willingness to discuss the relationship of the United States to the Islamic world. An Arabic speaker, Tayler (Glory in a Camel's Eye) writes candidly about what he discovers in this complex part of the world. (WAF83, $25.00)
Black Gold of the Sun, Searching for Home in Africa And Beyond  •  Ekow Eshun TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES (WAF109, $13.95)
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)
Bogolan, Shaping Culture Through Cloth in Contemporary Mali  •  Victoria Rovine ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES • COMING IN NOVEMBER An illustrated survey of bogolan, bogolanfini (or mudcloth) textiles, both traditional and contemporary. The making of mudcloth (as it is usually known in the United States) has experienced a revitalization in Mali in the last decades. With chapters on the rural roots, tourist and fine art markets, culture and fashion. Rovine is a curator of African Art at the University of Iowa. (WAF62, $24.95)
Bradt Guide Benin  •  Stuart Butler GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES A comprehensive guide in the growing series by Bradt, noteworthy for its focus on culture, nature and responsible travel. The author includes sights and activities throughout the country. (WAF91, $23.95)
Bradt Guide Burkina Faso  •  Katrina Manson  •  James Knight GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES A practical guide in the popular Bradt series, noted for publishing travel guides to remote and little-visited destinations. (WAF92, $23.95)
Bradt Guide Cape Verde Islands  •  Aisling Irwin  •  Colum Wilson GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 278 PAGES A compact guide to the Cape Verde Islands and their cultural and natural history. With photographs, maps and travel information. (ATL07, $22.95)
Bradt Guide Ghana  •  Philip Briggs  •  Hilary Bradt  •  Annabel Milne GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES A compact, practical guide to Ghana for the traveler with 50 detailed sketch maps, a few color photographs and excellent information on where to go and what to do. It includes helpful information on trip planning, health and safety, with special sections on Mole National Park, the monkeys of Baobeng, the mosques at Larabanga and the eastern highlands. (WAF27, $26.99)
Bradt Guide Mali  •  Ross Velton GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 292 PAGES A compact, detailed guide to traveling in Mali in the British series, strong on practical information. With detailed sketch maps. Second edition. (WAF16, $21.95)
Bradt Guide the Gambia  •  Craig Emms  •  Linda Barnett GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 264 PAGES A practical guide in the British series, featuring a good overview of the country and its natural history, plenty of travel information, 21 maps and a scattering of color photographs. With a chapter on side trips to Senegal. Based in The Gambia, Emms and Barnett are particularly interested in ecology and conservation. This second edition was updated by Richard Human (WAF90, $22.95)
Burkina Faso Map  •  ITMB MAP A colorful traveler's map of the country at a scale of 1:1,000,000. (WAF101, $10.95)
Butabu, Adobe Architecture of West Africa  •  Suzanne Preston Blier  •  James Morris ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 216 PAGES • COMING IN A photographic survey of adobe buildings throughout West Africa, including the great mosque at Djenne (the largest mud building in the world), ordinary houses and huts, arches, domes, colonnades, grillwork and other architectural feats. The book covers a wide geographic scope, taking in Mali and Niger but also astounding villages of Burkina Faso. The accompanying 25-page essay Blier covers the history, technology and cultural significance of adobe in West Africa. With 175 black-and-white and color photographs. (WAF70, $50.00)
The Camel and the Wheel  •  Richard Bulliet HISTORY •  1990 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES Bulliet draws on archaeology, art, anthropology and camel husbandry to explore the implications -- from the Middle Ages to the present -- of the dependence on the camel for transport from Morocco to Afghanistan. Originally published in 1975, The Camel and The Wheel won the Dexter Prize of the Society of the History of Technology. Bulliet is a professor of history at Columbia University. (MDE96, $30.00)
Captain Sir Richard Burton, A Biography  •  Edward Rice BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2001 •  PAPER  • 688 PAGES A splendid, absorbing account of the Victorian explorer, a man of oversize appetites, ambitions and intellect. (AFR99, $27.50)
Captive Passage, The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas  •  The Mariners' Museum  •  Smithsonian Inst. HISTORY •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 208 PAGES A companion volume to the exhibition drawn largely from the collections of The Mariners' Museum in Newport, this book documents the largest forced migration in human history, the transport of men, women and children from West Africa across the Atlantic into slavery in North America, the Caribbean and South America. With essays by a series of experts and hundreds of archival images. (ATL14, $39.95)
Changes, A Love Story  •  Ama Ata Aidoo LITERATURE •  1993 •  PAPER  • 196 PAGES A novel from the remarkable Ama Ata Aidoo. The protagonist Esi Sekyi confronts traditional values in marriage, love, careers, and family in contemporary Ghana. Esi's life is in several ways a symbol of the modern woman-- she is educated, has a career, and is financially independent from her husband-- yet she finds that her gender imposes a limit on her freedom. Aidoo creates a moving portrait of womens' lives in Africa and the problems that are all too familiar in almost every culture. (WAF35, $15.95)
The Commodore  •  Patrick O'Brian LITERATURE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 282 PAGES The 17th in the Aubrey opens with Jack Aubrey and Stephen Matuin home at last in England (the first time since vol 13). It's a relatively happy homecoming for Jack, but one fraught with domestic problems for Maturin. The climax is a tremendous battle off the coast of West Africa. (WAF73, $13.95)
Congo Map  •  IGN MAP A map of the Democratic Republic of Congo with good topographic detail at a scale of 1:1,000,000. It also shows portions of the surrounding countries, including Gabon, Cameroon and ex-Zaire. (WAF04, $16.95)
Conversations with Ogotemmeli, An Introduction to Dogon Religious Ideas  •  Marcel Griaule CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1977 •  PAPER  • 248 PAGES An account of the complex metaphysical beliefs and cosmology of the Dogon people of the upper Volta region. French anthropologist Griaule spent 16 years with his African hosts before they revealed their philosophy to him in these "conversations," originally published in 1948 as "Dieu d'Eau." It also contains interesting material on the drum and its symbolism. (WAF44, $34.95)
The Cruelest Journey, Six Hundred Miles to Timbuktu  •  Kira Salak TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 320 PAGES Adventurer Kira Salak's account of her journeys on the Niger River and her record-breaking 600-mile solo kayaking trip to Timbuktu. (WAF75, $26.00)
Dancing Skeletons, Life and Death in West Africa  •  Katherine Dettwyler CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1993 •  PAPER  • 172 PAGES A vibrant account of life in Mali, which won the Margaret Mead Award in 1995. Dettwyler, a cultural anthropologist who lived and worked among the rural poor in Mali, is an unsentimental guide to the culture -- and field of ethnography. Not a simple report, Dettwyler considers her role in the lives of the malnourished children and families she encounters. (WAF14, $16.95)
Dogon, Africa's People of the Cliffs  •  Stephanie Hollyman CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 192 PAGES A cultural portrait of the Dogon people of Mali. For thousands of years, despite extensive contact with Western civilization, the Dogon have maintained their old way of life, living in mud-brick houses below the Bandiagara cliffs, harvesting millet and sorghum in the sandy plains. Stephanie Hollyman's 125 intimate photographs capture the essence of this tightly knit, cooperative society. (WAF46, $49.50)
Eating Apes  •  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. These animals are both endangered and our closest relatives. With 16 disturbing color photographs. (AFR153, $17.95)
Einstein and the Total Eclipse  •  Peter Coles SCIENCE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 80 PAGES An account of the solar eclipse expedition that vindicated Einstein's theory of relativity. In May of 1919, Sir Arthur Eddington led a team to the Gulf of Guinea and Sobral, Brazil to observe the bending of starlight by the sun during the eclipse -- as predicted by Einstein's theory. The success of the experiment immediately propelled Einstein onto the front pages of newspapers around the world. (SCI28, $7.95)
The Ends of the Earth, A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy  •  Robert D. Kaplan TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 476 PAGES Kaplan, a veteran foreign correspondent and wonderful writer, journeys though much of the third world in this far-ranging, insightful report on sociopolitics, the future and other big topics. Organized geographically, he hops from West Africa to the Nile, Balkans, Central Asia, China and Southeast Asia. Two large sections are devoted to Iran and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. (WLD26, $16.00)
Exploration of Africa, From Cairo to the Cape  •  Ann Hugon EXPLORATION •  1993 •  PAPER  • 173 PAGES • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE This jewel of a book chronicles the 19th-century exploration of Africa with hundreds of contemporary paintings and prints, brief chapters on the expeditions, and a very useful chronology. Livingstone, Burton and others speak for themselves in a series of journal excerpts. (AFR03, $12.95)
The Famished Road  •  Ben Okri LITERATURE •  1993 •  PAPER  • 500 PAGES The story of Azaro, a spirit-child who chooses to enter the world of the living. In this case, the living world is an African village that struggles to combat hunger, disease, violence and British rule. Winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, this book by Nigerian-born Okri focuses on human survival and the mysteries of love. (WAF39, $15.95)
A Field Guide to the Birds of The Gambia and Senegal  •  Clive Barlow  •  Tim Wacher  •  Tony Disley FIELD GUIDE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES A guide to 660 species of birds of Senegal and the Gambia, featuring 48 color plates and short descriptions on the facing pages. With several paragraphs about each species with its description, song, habitat, status and distribution. (WAF03, $42.00)
Flashman and the Tiger  •  George MacDonald Fraser LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES Fraser plumbs the annals of history to produce his factual, entertaining tales of folly in the service of her Majesty's empire. This 11th installment in The Flashman Papers (purportedly retrieved and not written by George Macdonald Fraser, a nice conceit), consists of three short adventures, which find our hero cavorting with Bismarck and Emperor Franz-Josef and the future Edward VI. (WAF58, $14.95)
Forests of Gold, Essays on the Akan and the Kingdom of Asante  •  Ivor Wilks CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1996 •  PAPER  • 405 PAGES Through this telling collection of essays, Wilks explores the Akan peoples of Ghana and examines the Asante kingdom in particular. With sections on history, culture and important individuals. (WAF33, $25.00)
The Fortunes of Wangrin  •  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, $17.95)
From Slavery to Freedom, A History of African Americans  •  John Hope Franklin HISTORY •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 742 PAGES A classic history of the African American experience from ancient West African civilizations to the civil rights struggles of the 20th century. First published in 1947, and now in its eighth edition, this book has set the standard for comprehensive studies of the changing roles of Africans in the United States. (USA39, $75.00)
The Gates of Africa, Death, Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu  •  Sattin Anthony HISTORY •  2005 •  HARD COVER  • 382 PAGES An engaging chronological history of the adventures and explorations of the African Association which, starting in 1788, set out into the Sahara, onto the Nile and Niger Rivers, and searched for the legendary city of Timbuktu. Anthony Sattin quotes extensively from the accounts of its diverse members, including Mungo Park, John Ledyard and Jean Louis Burckhardt. (AFR145, $27.95)
Genii of the River Niger  •  Jean-Marie Gibbal CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1994 •  PAPER  • 204 PAGES An ethnography of the people south of Timbuktu, in the Lake Debo region, where water spirits play a vital role in folk traditions and culture. (WAF86, $22.00)
Ghana Map  •  ITMB MAP A colorful, folded map of Ghana at a detailed scale of 1:500,000. (WAF37, $11.95)
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)
God's Bits of Wood  •  Sembene Ousmane  •  Francis Price LITERATURE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 248 PAGES A story of conflict between colonial powers and West African rail workers, set in the late 1940s. Written by Senegal's foremost novelist and filmmaker, Sembene Ousmane, it concerns a strike along the Dakar-Niger railway and the tragic consequences that result. (WAF22, $13.95)
The Golden Trade of the Moors  •  E.W. Bovill HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 269 PAGES A lively scholarly history of over 1,000 years of trans-Saharan trade, originally published in 1968. (NAF44, $24.95)
A Guide to the Birds of Western Africa  •  Nik Borrow  •  Ron Demey FIELD GUIDE •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 816 PAGES A comprehensive handbook -- and guide -- to the birds of Central and Western Africa from Senegal to Chad and the Congo, featuring 142 original color plates by Nik Borrow. With 1,100 detailed, full color distribution maps. (WAF59, $99.95)
Guinea Map  •  IGN MAP A colorful, French-produced map of the West African nation of Guinea at a scale of 1:1,000,000. (WAF87, $16.95)
Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories  •  Chinua Achebe  •  Lynn Innes ANTHOLOGY •  1992 •  PAPER  • 196 PAGES All written in the last 25 years, these 20 outstanding stories showcase both established African writers and new voices in the field. A single-volume introduction to the vast literature of all of Africa. (AFR10, $11.95)
Historical Dictionary of Mali  •  Pascal James Imperato REFERENCE •  1996 •  HARD COVER  • 576 PAGES A scholarly dictionary of important people, places and events in Malian history. With a chronology, six regional maps and detailed entries, it's an expensive but comprehensive academic reference for Mali. (WAF49, $100.00)
A History of Sub-Saharan Africa  •  Robert O. Collins  •  James M. Burns HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES A clear, brief survey of the history and development of Africa, aimed at undergraduates and interested readers, organized thematically. With chapters on climate and geography, the rise of states and empires, the slave trade within Africa and beyond to the Americas, the European conquest, and Africa in the 20th century. (AFR174, $27.99)
In Sorcery's Shadow  •  Paul Stoller  •  Cheryl Olkes TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 235 PAGES An anthropologist's account of his time in Niger (a.k.a. Songhay), and his experiences with local sorcerers and traditional healers. It's an excellent introduction to the role of magic and its moral complications in African culture. Originally published in the 1980s. (WAF55, $18.00)
It's a Jungle Up There, More Tales from the Treetops  •  Margaret Lowman  •  James Burgess  •  Edward Burgess NATURAL HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 291 PAGES Lowman's personable account, written with her two now-grown sons James and Edward, of further adventures up in the trees (and in the kitchen, balancing career and family). It's a engaging globe-skipping chronicle that takes the tropical ecologist and her family to Samoa, West Africa, Peru, Panama, India and other great habitats around the world. (NAT92, $30.00)
Journey Without Maps  •  Graham Greene TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES A classic account of a 1930s journey of discovery from Sierra Leone to the Liberian coast. There's no one better at capturing local personalities and complicated morality than Graham Greene, who had a particular interest in West Africa. (WAF15, $15.00)
Kwame Nkrumah, The Father of African Nationalism  •  David Birmingham BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1998 •  PAPER  • 142 PAGES A popular biography of the African statesman who championed for independence, won Africans the right to vote and became the president of Ghana in 1960. (WAF34, $14.95)
Leo Africanus  •  Amin Maalouf LITERATURE •  1992 •  PAPER  • 360 PAGES A fictional memoir documenting the first 40 years in the life of Leo Africanus (or Leo the African), a Muslim scholar whose travels lead him throughout the Mediterranean and North Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. Based on a real-life figure, Leo is witness to many of the revolutionary changes and figures in the Western world of the period. (MED55, $16.95)
Lonely Planet Gambia and Senegal  •  David Else GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES In its hallmark style, this practical guide to Gambia and Senegal by Lonely Planet features maps, a good overview of culture, history and nature, and much nuts-and-bolts information on excursions, accommodations and sightseeing. With color photographs and excellent travel information. (WAF01, $23.99)
Lonely Planet West Africa  •  Lonely Planet GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 896 PAGES A comprehensive guide to all West Africa, this is the book to carry for travels from Mauritania to Niger, with both a good overview of culture and history and the usual Lonely Planet attention to practical travel information. The bulk of the book is devoted to individual countries. (WAF10, $31.99)
Mali Map  •  ITMB 2004 •  MAP A fold-up map of Mali at a scale of 1:2,400,000. (WAF43, $11.95)
Mande Music, Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa  •  Eric Charry MUSIC •  2000 •  PAPER  • 500 PAGES An in-depth examination of the rich musical traditions of Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and the Gambia, from the 13th century to the present day. Charry focuses on hunter's music, music of the jelis or griots, jembe and other drumming, and guitar-based modern music. Includes maps, illustrations, and musical transcriptions, as well as an exhaustive bibliography, discography, and videography. (WAF102, $29.00)
Mande Potters and Leatherworkers, Art and Heritage in West Africa  •  Barbara Frank ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES • COMING IN A nicely illustrated scholarly cultural history of Mande-speaking craftspeople in West Africa. Dispersed throughout Mali and West Africa, Mande potters and leatherworkers form a distinct social class, where women make ceramics and the men work in leather. With 44 color and 144 black-and-white illustrations. (WAF61, $27.95)
Mango Elephants in the Sun, How Life in an African Village Let Me Be in My Skin  •  Susan Herrera TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 270 PAGES The engaging account of a Peace Corps volunteer in northern Cameroon, incorporating poetry, letters home, and breezy detail on daily life. (WAF20, $22.95)
Mauritania Map  •  International Travel Maps 2007 •  MAP A map of Mauritania, at a scale of 1:2,000,000. (WAF63, $11.95)
Medieval West Africa, Views from Arab Scholars and Merchants  •  Jay Spaulding  •  Nehemia Levtzion HISTORY •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 125 PAGES A scholarly overview of Sub-Saharan Africa from the ninth to the fourteenth century, with a particular focus on Islamization. (WAF103, $26.95)
Memoirs of the Maelstrom, A Senegalese Oral History of the First World War  •  Joe Lunn HISTORY •  1999 •  PAPER  • 280 PAGES A history of colonial military recruitment, training, war time service and repatriation, as told through oral histories of Senagalese veterans. A remarkable examination of a colony's wartime relationship with the mother country. (WAF104, $25.95)
Middle Passage  •  Charles Johnson LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES Winner of the National Book Award, this historical novel, set in 1830, is the richly imagined tale of a recently freed slave in New Orleans who signs aboard a square-rigger bound for Africa. (ATL02, $15.00)
Muslim Societies in African History  •  David Robinson CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2004 •   • 220 PAGES Robinson, a leading scholar, presents a good overview of Islam within the context of African, especially West African, history. (ISL54, $22.99)
Niger Map  •  IGN MAP A good, full-color shaded relief map of Niger at a scale of 1:2,000,000 published by the French Geographic Institute. (AFR38, $14.95)
Nigeria Map  •  Freytag & Berndt MAP A shaded relief map of Nigeria, on a 1:1.5 M scale. (AFR39, $11.95)
Nine Hills to Nambonkaha, Two Years in the Heart of an African Village  •  Sarah Erdman CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2004 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Erdman's vivid account of her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in a small Muslim village in Cote d'Ivoire captures the rhythms, challenges and traditions of Nambonkaha and its people. It's an affectionate, insightful portrait of place, especially poignant since the West African nation would soon be plunged into an ugly civil war between north and south. Erdman dedicated herself to a health clinic in the village. (WAF72, $14.00)
No Longer at Ease  •  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 immersed in the corrupt Nigerian ruling elite he despises. Originally published in 1960, this is Achebe's sequel to Things Fall Apart (WAF56). (WAF107, $10.95)
No Sweetness Here and Other Stories  •  Ama Ata Aidoo ANTHOLOGY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES A collection of eleven short stories about the lives of women and men in postcolonial Ghana and the tensions between traditional village and urban life. Originally published by Doubleday in 1971, Aidoo's stories emphasize Ghana's prominent oral culture. (WAF23, $13.95)
Nomads of Niger  •  Carol Beckwith  •  Marion Van Offelen CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1993 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES • COMING IN Carol Beckwith has made a name for herself photographing the peoples of Africa. For this extended photographic essay, she traveled among the Wodaabe nomads of central Niger for a year and a half, giving her intimate access to the daily life of a family of cattle herders. Marion Van Offelen provides the text accompanying Beckwith's marvelous photos. (WAF52, $29.98)
Of Water and the Spirit, Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman  •  Malidoma Patrice Some BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1995 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Malidoma, whose name means "be friends with the stranger/enemy, " was born under the shadow of French colonial rule in Upper Volta, West Africa. When he was four years old, he was taken by a Jesuit priest and imprisoned in a seminary built for training a new generation of "black" Catholic priests. In spite of his isolation from his tribe and his village, Malidoma stubbornly refused to forget where he had come from and who he was. Finally, fifteen years later, Malidoma fled the seminary and walked 125 miles through the dense jungle back to his own people, the Dagara. Once he was home, however, many there regarded him as a "white black, " to be looked on with suspicion because he had been contaminated by the "sickness" of the colonial world. Malidoma was a man of two worlds, at home in neither. His only hope of reconnection with his people was to undergo the harrowing Dagara monthlong initiation in the wilderness, which he describes in fascinating detail. Malidoma emerged from this supernatural ritual a newly integrated individual, rejoined to his ancestral past and his cultural present. For more than a century, anthropologists and ethnologists have attempted to penetrate the worldview of indigenous peoples. Now a true son of Africa has come forth, with the permission of his tribal elders, to tell us with stunning candor about their way of life. Today Malidoma flys the jetways writing on his laptop computer, seeking to share the ancient wisdom of the Dagara with the rest of the world and bring an understanding of another way of life to his village. His book is a courageous testament to the hope that humanity can learn to live in a global village and see the "stranger" as a friend. (WAF110, $16.00)
Onions are My Husband, Survival and Accumulation by West African Market Women  •  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, $37.50)
Palace Sculptures of Abomey, History Told on Walls  •  Francesca Pique  •  Leslie Rainer ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 120 PAGES This illustrated survey of the palace sculptures at Abomey combines color photographs of the bas-reliefs, archival drawings and period art with a with a lively history of the Dahomey kingdom. With 120 color and 17 black-and-white photographs. The authors are conservation specialists. (WAF77, $24.95)
The Peoples of the Middle Niger  •  Roderick James McIntosh CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1998 •  HARD COVER  • 346 PAGES A scholarly study of the ancient inhabitants of the Niger floodplain, incorporating archaeological discoveries and oral traditions. McIntosh teaches anthropolgy at Rice University, and has done extensive research throughout West Africa. (WAF93, $59.95)
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)
Portuguese Style and Luso-African Identity, Precolonical Senegambia, Sixteenth-Nineteenth Centuries  •  Mark, Peter HISTORY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES A scholarly history of precolonial Portugese influence in Western Africa. (WAF105, $24.95)
The Race for Timbuktu, In Search of Africa's City of Gold  •  Frank T. Kryza HISTORY •  2007 •  PAPER  • 322 PAGES An engrossing account of imperial adventures in early 19th-century West Africa and the quest for fabled Timbuktu (coveted by Europeans as a source of gold). Kryza retraces the usually disastrous expeditions, often military, of Hugh Clapperton, Mungo Park, and Major Alexander Gordon Laing and others today largely forgotten, combining historical research with his own travels in the region. (WAF88, $14.95)
Riding the Demon, On the Road in West Africa  •  Peter Chilson TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 216 PAGES Peter Chilson took to the road in Niger for this portrait of a turbulent and fascinating nation, where rickety bush taxis, packed to the gills with passengers, provide an eye-opening perspective on the nation. (WAF54, $24.95)
The River Where Blood Is Born  •  Sandra Jackson-Opoku LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES A complex, layered novel following the fate of several generations of women from 18th-century Africa to modern America and Barbados. The book combines the spiritual and the material, as one daughter is "chosen" to heed the call of her African ancestors. (WAF41, $23.00)
Roots  •  Alex Haley LITERATURE •  1980 •  PAPER  • 729 PAGES The 30th anniversary edition of Alex Haley's epic story of Kunta Kinte and his descendents. The tale begins in the West African village of Jufureh in 1750 and traces seven generations of one family, to tell the story of Africans in America. An engaging, powerful story of perseverance in times of slavery, it was made into one of the most popular television mini-series of all time. (WAF21, $15.95)
Rough Guide Music Nigeria & Ghana  •  Various Artists MUSIC •  2002 •  AUDIO CD A carefully chosen sampling of the diverse sounds of Nigeria and Ghana. Includes the unique styles Highlife, Fuji, and Afrobeat. (WAF97, $14.95)
Rough Guide Music West African Gold  •  Rough Guide World Music MUSIC •  2006 •  AUDIO CD Subtitled "The big beat of West Africa, Joyous Sounds from a Golden Era, this authoritative compilation showcases the music produced in sub-Saharan West Africa from the late 1950s to the early 1980s, including bands such as Bembeya Jazz, the music of Salif Keita and Dexter Johnson & the International Band and Orchestra Baobab. (WAF100, $14.95)
Rough Guide Music Youssou N'dour & Etoile de Dakar  •  Youssou N'Dour MUSIC •  2002 •  AUDIO CD A guide to the music of the internationally acclaimed Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour and his band Etoile de Dakar. (WAF98, $14.95)
Rough Guide The Gambia  •  Emma Gregg GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES This practical guide in the excellent British series includes a good historical and cultural overview. (WAF112, $19.99)
Rough Guide to the Music of Senegal & Gambia  •  Various Artists MUSIC •  2000 •  AUDIO CD A carefully chosen sampling of the diverse sounds of these West African nations. Includes the celebrated artists Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Cheikh Lo, Tata Dinding Jobarteh and Ifang Bondi. (WAF96, $14.98)
Rough Guide West Africa  •  Jim Hudgens  •  Richard Trillo GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 1312 PAGES A comprehensive guide to all West Africa, including its history and culture. With its region-by-region descriptions, 172 maps and 12 pages of color photos, this guide covers everything from the volcanoes on the Cape Verde Islands to Mali's Dogon country to the national parks of Ghana and Nigeria. (WAF38, $34.99)
Rough Guides Africa 25 Ultimate Experiences  •  Rough Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 80 PAGES Subtitled Make the Most of Your Time on Earth, these colorful pocket guides, 25 in all, published in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Rough Guides, celebrate remarkable, not-to-be-missed things to do and places to go, certain to inspire. With an appendix including, for example, excellent reading and some practicalities, these teasers might just help you choose the next trip. As a celebration of Rough Guides, their scope and personality, they can't be beat. (AFR196, $5.99)
The Scramble for Africa  •  Thomas Pakenham HISTORY •  1992 •  PAPER  • 738 PAGES A well-written, meticulously researched history of the Victorian land grab in Africa. The book includes excellent portraits of the egomaniacal personalities that overran the continent, including Kitchener, Rhodes, Gordon and King Leopold. Subtitled "white man's conquest of the dark continent from 1876 to 1912, " it's an absorbing tale of adventure, tragedy and farce. (AFR26, $23.95)
The Seasons of Beento Blackbird  •  Akosua Busia LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 367 PAGES A provocative novel dissecting the issues of marriage and African identity, featuring a cast of finely drawn characters. The story of Solomon Wilberforce, a successful and loveable children's book author who writes under the pseudonym of Beento Blackbird. Solomon also happens to be polygamous; he spends his winters in the Caribbean with his first wife, and summers in Ghana with his second wife. Everything's fine until he's forced to de-compartmentalize his life. (WAF42, $24.95)
Segu  •  Maryse Conde  •  Barbara Bray LITERATURE •  1996 •  PAPER  • 493 PAGES An epic novel set in the West African kingdom of Bambara (old Mali) in 1797, exhaustive in its detail and thoroughly addictive. Conde transforms actual historical events into a full-blooded, lively tale. Translated from French. (WAF17, $17.00)
Senegal and The Gambia Map  •  ITMB MAP A colorful map of Senegal and The Gambia, at a scale of 1:800,000. (WAF69, $11.95)
Still Waters in Niger  •  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)
Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali  •  D.T. Niane LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 96 PAGES A splendid introduction to Mali's venerable oral traditions. Since the 13th century, Malian griots have told the story of Sundiata, the lion king, who first wrested his throne from a sorcerer, then united West Africa. It's a thrilling tale of destiny and ambition, played out in a world populated by spirits. Niane's version captures the thrill of a Griot's performance. (WAF48, $16.00)
Themes In West Africa's History  •  Emmanuel Akyeampong HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 323 PAGES Geared for university students, these scholarly review articles cover archaeology, ecology and culture, oral traditions, society, politics and religion in West Africa. Editor Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong is a professor of history at Harvard University (WAF114, $24.95)
Things Fall Apart  •  Chinua Achebe LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 209 PAGES This is a fascinating and tragic portrait of an Igbo man confronting his inner turmoil, juxtaposed with the introduction of colonialism which leads to a rapid social disintegration amongst the tribe. This 1958 classic is especially commendable for its rich and balanced portrayal of pre-colonial tribal life -- a depiction which is anything but idealistic. (WAF56, $10.95)
Togo Map  •  IGN MAP A shaded relief map of Togo, on a 1:500,000 scale. (AFR37, $16.95)
Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa  •  Mungo Park EXPLORATION •  2000 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES The classic first-person account of explorations in search of the Niger River, edited and with an introduction by Kate Ferguson Marsters. This edition includes the complete text, and all the original maps and illustrations. Park provides a chronicle of the culture, society and nature of West Africa before the colonial period. First published in 1799, it's also a terrific adventure, the story of a 24-year-old Scotsman exploring, often alone, in uncharted Africa. (WAF40, $24.95)
Travels in West Africa  •  Mary Kingsley  •  Anthony Brandt BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2002 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES • COMING IN A wild success in its first printing in 1897, this account of a naive Victorian woman's experiences in West Africa is fascinating, in part for its insight into prevailing turn-of-the-century Western ideas about the so-called "dark continent." Kingsley -- a genuine explorer -- writes with a self-deprecating wit and deadpan humor of her collecting expeditions throughout West Africa, Cameroon and Gabon. Abridged and introduced by Elspeth Huxley. (WAF05, $14.00)
The Two Hearts of Kwasi Boachi  •  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, $14.00)
Viceroy of Ouidah  •  Bruce Chatwin LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES The tale of Francesco Manoel de Silva and his adventures in the royal court in the West African kingdom of Dahomey (Benin). A stunning demonstration of Chatwin's masterful prose, command of historical detail and fully imagined characters. (WAF18, $13.00)
Wanderings in West Africa  •  Richard Francis Burton TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1991 •  PAPER  • 624 PAGES Intrepid explorer, Islamacist and translator of the Kama Sutra, Burton's interests took him throughout Africa and the Arab world. This account, originally published in 1861, results from his three-year stint in the British Foreign office in Fernando Po, an island off the coast of West Africa. It's a valuable first-hand account of short trips around the West African coast and inland, rich in ethnographic and cultural detail. Two volumes, bound as one, this book also includes a detailed, black-and-white line map of West Africa. (WAF12, $19.95)
Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa, 1830-1914  •  Bruce Vandervort HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 274 PAGES A scholarly history of European military activity in Africa and the impact of imperial wars on both European and African military practices. (WAF106, $19.95)
Wind, Sand and Stars  •  Antoine de Saint Exupery TRAVEL NARRATIVE •  1967 •  PAPER  • 229 PAGES • FAVORITE St. Exupery's luminous account of flying early postal routes throughout the world in the 1930s, including the classic tale of his crash in the Libyan desert. A man of action with the soul of a poet, his memorable stories of flying over South America, Europe and the deserts of West Africa are compelling, specifically the one about going solo in a storm over the Andes. (DES11, $13.00)
Your Madness, Not Mine: Stories of Cameroon  •  Makuchi  •  Eloise A. Briere LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 157 PAGES A collection of short stories from a native of Cameroon. Makuchi (whose full name is Juliana Mukuchi Nfah-Abbenyi) writes of the women of Cameroon and their roles in contemporary society. (CAF05, $16.95)
A Zoo in My Luggage  •  Gerald Durrell BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES Durrell's delightful memoir of a six-month collecting trip to British Cameroon for his new zoo, originally published in 1960. The mission gets funnier in England as Durrell and his wife struggle to find a permanent home for their exotic animals. By the author of Birds, Beasts & Relatives, and My Family and Other Animals. (WAF78, $14.00)