Great African Reads discussion

Hello all,

I thought I'd kickstart the selection process for the next country: Chad! Any ideas & suggestions are most welcome - I'm having trouble finding anything (that's not in French and not totally obscure).

Only found a non-fiction book about elephants in Chad (no idea how interesting it is): Heinrich Oberjohann Komoon! Capturing the Chad Elephant . Lots of copies available on Abebooks.

Thanks for your suggestion for Chad - it looks like it might be the only option.

I'll keep your idea for Comoros in mind (again, it's probably our only option :) ).

Sorry, I have really not been on top of things here... shall we (= you ;) ) read Joseph Brahim Seid's Told by Starlight in Chad in Nov/Dec then?

sure...i tried quick-like to do some digging but almost everything is in French. i can look some more and set up a poll for a "second selection" but in any case, i'm game to read this starlight book.

um, i dug again. but i don't know anything, really, about these books (potentially dry/boring and/or depressing):

Limits of Anarchy Intervention and State Formation in Chad

Africa's Thirty Years War Libya, Chad, and the Sudan 1963-1993

Teenager in the Chad Civil War A Memoir of Survival, 1982-1986

Thanks Marieke - so if anyone's interested, we can always read another one (ie. one of the ones you suggest/have dug up). Great... Happy reading... (I first have to try and locate the book, not available in AUS...)

I could only get the Seid book from my city's libraries in French, which is fine; I need to work on my French anyway!

Hi Jeffrey,

if you're willing to work on your French and give this book a go in French - wow, I'm impressed!! I won't get a chance to even begin it until mid-Dec (just too busy at work) but hopefully get around to it over Christmas.

I haven't been able to find a copy in English either, and unfortunately "my" French is non-existent. So I may have to pass this month, but will keep tracking what you guys are up to!

I will also have to pass, haven't been able to track down the book either. Will join you on the next read!

I had ordered it from AbeBooks and then my order got cancelled as the book wasn't it stock after all!! so unless I can find it somewhere else, I may have to pass it too. :(

Did anyone manage to read the Seid book? i started it but just had to return it to the library. i totally lost track of time over the holidaze.

I never managed it because I couldn't get hold of it in the first place. I'm hoping to get the Jan/Feb book from the library next week and having a go at that one.

The Translator by Daoud Hari is about the Darfur conflict, but it also focuses a lot of the refugee camps in Eastrn Chad and Chad's issues.

Thanks, Adrienne. I actually have a copy of this book and it's pretty short, so might try to fit it in soon.

Reviving this to ask if anyone has come across any other books on Chad in the intervening years, perhaps in French? Many thanks for suggestions.

Only a few that look rather questionable:
Educating Darfur Refugees
Nasara
Every Woman's Right
It Could Be Worse
Chadian Diary
Suffering Strong (this is the only one of these that I've read, and it was...not useful)

I list those less as a suggestion that you might find some of them interesting, but rather because they might (maaaaaye) provide jumping-off points for other books. I'll do some digging, though. A challenge!

Most of what I can find looks either (again) rather questionable or out of date or very academic (although the latter might be okay, depending on what you're looking for):

Health and Disease in Chad
Chad: A Nation In Search Of Its Future
The Roots of Violence
Pilgrims in a Strange Land: Hausa Communities in Chad
Two Against the Sahara
In the Dead Heart
A Bend in the Nile
Not on GR: Ambassador to a Small World by Christopher Goldthwait

Sorry -- I doubt these will help much. Most are pulled from ILL searches, but I stuck to English-language books because my French is pretty sketchy.

Thanks! So many finds, wow!

If you read any of them, please report back :)