Nothing in Keith Richburg's long and respected journalistic career at the Washington Post prepared him for what he would encounter as the paper's correspondent in Africa. At first all he could focus on was an Africa he tried his best to explain, a continent where brutal murder had become routine, where dictators and warlords silenced dissent with machine guns and machetes, where local officials sought payoffs for the most routine tasks, and where...

A Nigerian-American journalist attempts to dispel the warring, impoverished, and pitiful images of Africa so prevalent in the media with the joyful and innovative country she knows by highlighting the commercial opportunities and technological innovations to be found there.

Multiple Grammy-winner Béla Fleck travels to Uganda, Tanzania, the Gambia, and Mali searching for the roots of the banjo. Part road movie, part historical document, this fascinating film demonstrates the power of music and musicians to reach across cultural boundaries and the limitations of language to create an instant and abiding connection. Whether plaintive or pulsating, the infectious music in Throw Down Your Heart transports viewers into the...

In southeastern Africa, a young Yao girl and her mother find a way for their fellow villagers to escape approaching slave traders.

In his final days, Aidan Hartley's father said to him, "We should have never come." Those words spoke of a colonial legacy that stretched back through four generations of one British family. From a great-great-grandfather who defended British settlements in nineteenth-century New Zealand, to his father, a colonial officer sent to Africa in the 1920s and who later returned to raise a family there-these were intrepid men who traveled to exotic lands...

An exciting, hugely revealing account of China's burgeoning presence in Africa-a developing empire already shaping, and reshaping, the future of millions of people. A prizewinning foreign correspondent and former New York Times bureau chief in Shanghai and in West and Central Africa, Howard French is uniquely positioned to tell the story of China in Africa. Through meticulous on-the-ground reporting-conducted in Mandarin, French, and Portuguese,...

"From savannas to rain forests to deserts, the geography of Sub-Saharan Africa is second to none in terms of diversity. Readers will explore the brilliant, dynamic landscapes and cityscapes of Sub-Saharan Africa through fascinating full-color photographs and fact-filled text. How have people adapted to the land and climate of Sub-Saharan Africa, and what lies in store for inhabitants as the climate starts to change? This book includes fact boxes and...

This fascinating study of mathematical thinking among sub-Saharan African peoples covers counting in words and in gestures; measuring time, distance, weight, and other quantities; manipulating money and keeping accounts; number systems; patterns in music, poetry, art, and architecture; and number magic and taboos. African games such as mankala and elaborate versions of tic-tac-toe show how complex this thinking can be. An invaluable resource for students,...