Great African Reads discussion

I don't know how to introduce this thread. I guess it's pretty self-explanatory. I'll ask Alex to move his post about the Amazing Race to this thread...
:D

Although this topic might turn out to be a bit narrow...maybe there should be a general "Babble about random Africa-related crap" thread or something? But yes, anyway, here's my babbling:

I'm not sure where to put general Africa-related banter, so whatever, I'll put it here: the contestants on The Amazing Race have been in Ghana recently. I love when AR goes to Africa because there's always one team that breaks down and ends up screaming something like, "I'm so sick of all these black people!", so now I know who to hate.

Anyway, one of the challenges involved African geography, and I was all excited because I'm awesome at that. But I think it turns out that all they had to do was locate Ghana - the country they were actually in - which many of them couldn't do anyway.

I think I've posted this before, a long time ago, but here's a great Flash game that tests your knowledge of African geography. I play it (and the other geography games from that site) periodically to make sure I still know where everything is.

Well...the whole folder is meant for that, but sure, I could rename this thread to more accurately convey randomness within randomness....a very specifically random thread. Then I'll make a thread for film and telly.

There. I changed it. It makes much more sense now.

No, I love anything to do with rambling. That's my specialty!

I'm assuming that cat is from, visits, or otherwise likes Africa. Hahaha. I should post a pic of my dad's cat who came home with him from Kenya. But alas! Goodreads does not let me upload pictures from my phone!

My daughter wants to take her cat with her when we move to Kenya! My husband is trying to convince her that they have prettier cats there already and the Kenyan cats will already know about snakes. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Is there a quarantine period? Prob'ly.

I don't think my dad's Kenyan cat was quarantined in the US but I might be wrong. I think she just brought a health certificate with her. My dads wife made her a green card lol.

Alex wrote: "Is there a quarantine period? Prob'ly."

I don't know about Kenya, but there was no quarantine in South Africa (and none on the return to the U.S.), so I took both my cats with me when I moved to South Africa for a couple of years. They loved it! They have always been indoor cats, but at the house I rented I had a walled off and very protected garden (yard).

I love that Marieke's dad's wife made a green card for that cat. :)

What was the Kenyan cat's name? Just curious.

They named her "ms. Pretty."
she was more or less feral but adopted my dad. His wife also fell in love. She died a couple of years ago from mammary gland cancer. She was quite old. She always observed people and as long as there wasn't too much noise she would come check you out. I feel lucky that she liked me and my husband. I will try to post a picture soon. She was a really pretty cat.

Check The True Size of Africa at

http://www.edge.org/documents/Edge-Se...

i love the term "immappancy!"

for western hemisphere comparison, i'd like to see North and South America overlaid on Africa...so Canada, the U.S., Mexico plus the tiny Central America and all the countries of South America.

that map is an interesting concept, but it's also a bit deceptive, since Africa is a continent, yet the person making it placed individual countries (except for Europe--which is sooo small!!!) over top of it...which could potentially reinforce the mistaken notion that Africa is a country (another embarrassing problem amongst Americans, btw).

Interesting map. The other problem with American kids is they don't know much about the size of their own or other countries either, usually, so the comparison might not help them much.

Big day for me today; my husband's brother and his wife from Kenya have been visiting their daughter in another city and will be coming to spend a few days with us. Haven't seen them in four years. My sister in law speaks no English and I speak only a little Swahili, so our gossiping involves a lot of raising eyebrows and significant looks! Still, she loves to gossip and usually gets her point across. She's hilarious; I can't wait.

Andrea wrote: "Interesting map. The other problem with American kids is they don't know much about the size of their own or other countries either, usually, so the comparison might not help them much.

Big d..."

aww! that sounds like an awesome visit! my mom speaks almost no german and my host-mom from germany is not comfortable with english...but they love each other to pieces and have a ton of fun visiting with each other. and my college roommate and dear friend speaks very little japanese but has wonderfully fond memories of visiting her great-aunt in japan, who spoke zero english...lots of "baby talk" and funny faces. communication is a wildly creative thing!!

speaking of maps...can Google succeed in Africa?

Here is something truly random... I would like an app that would play a selection of music from that country or even city in Africa, or anywhere, when I'm looking on a map, a visual Pandora if you like.

Yes! I want that too. :D

You are all invited to two of the events at the 9th Ghana International Book Fair, 2-6 November, 2010.

MBAASEM FOUNDATION

WOMEN, WRITING AND THE AFRICAN SOCIETY

LITERARY FORUM

Date: Friday, November 5th, 2010
Venue: Main Conference Room, Trade Fair Center
8:00 am – 9:00 am Registration
9:30 am – 11:00 am On African Love Stories
Panelists: Karin Sohlgren & Prof. Omolara Ogudipe-Leslie
11:30 am – 1:00 pm Women, Writing and The African Society
Keynote address by Amma Darko, Author of Beyond the Horizon
2:00pm – 3:30pm A New Generation of Women Writers & the Literary Landscape
Panelists: Mamle Kabu, Mariska Taylor-Darko and Elizabeth Irene Baitie
3:30pm – 5:30pm Exploring the Works of Sutherland, Aidoo, Darko and Others
Panelists: Dr. Helen Yitah, English Department, University of Ghana
Entire event is free and open to the public
For more information contact: mbaasem33@yahoo.com or 027 742-6045

CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

Date: Saturday, November 6th, 2010
Venue: Ashesi University
8am – 9am Registration
9am – 1pm Creative Writing: Poetry and Prose Narrative
Resource: Manu Herbstein, writer
Dr. Mawuli Adjei, University of Ghana
Dr. Prince Adika, University of Ghana
Dr. Helen Yitah, University of Ghana
2pm – 3pm Writing for local and global audiences
3pm - 5pm Review & Critique Clinic
Review of submitted works-in-progress
Event is free and open to the public.
The workshop is limited to 50 participants. To reserve a place, please contact:
Email: mbaasem33@yahoo.com
Mobile: 027 150-4276 or 027 742-6045

Mbaasem (http://mbaasemghana.org/wp/ ) translates as Women’s Concerns.

Wouldn't it be wonderful, if one could just drop in on these events!

Friederike wrote: "Wouldn't it be wonderful, if one could just drop in on these events!"

Yes!!!
Any chance any of this will be webcast at some point, Manu?

Marieke wrote: "speaking of maps...can Google succeed in Africa?"

My husband is slightly obsessive about looking at google maps of his area of Kenya. The weird thing is that some of the "newer" satellite photos that have come up when areas reach better resolution are clearly ten or more years old. We can tell this by large buildings that no longer exist or that have been built over the years. So if the satellite images are old, where is googlemaps getting them. Who was taking high resolution satellite photos of rural Kenya back in the eighties and how are they now getting posted as current? Kind of gives one a weird feeling.

Andrea, tell your husband to check this Arcade Fire video out. You plug in your childhood address (hopefully that works for Kenya) and it builds a music video that includes Google images of your neighborhood. It's the most exciting thing I've seen on the internet in years.

And yes, it is weird that Google somehow has satellite images from ten years ago. Creepy.

i guess Americans are not alone in the universe.

LOL! Wise words...

was looking for an appropriate thread for my question...but anyways I'm wondering how many people in this group have been in the peace corps? I know I've seen some people mention it in posts before. I'm in the process of applying and it would nice to talk to some people if they have been through it. Thanks!

Sarah wrote: "was looking for an appropriate thread for my question...but anyways I'm wondering how many people in this group have been in the peace corps? I know I've seen some people mention it in posts before..."

Hi Sarah, great question! i will set up a "meet 'n' greet" type thread to help with connections like that...

:D

Sarah, i made a dedicated thread and one member has introduced herself already! :D

great! thanks, Marieke!

I’m in Cape Town for December and January. Today I happened to be in Sea Point so I popped in to the CAFDA second-hand bookstore. (CAFDA = Cape Flats Distress Association.)

I spent R90, about USD13. This is what I got.

For my grandson Kwaku who has just turned 3, four delightful picture books in isiZulu, Ngobunye ubusuku, Mina nginjani? Lulwane, uzokwenza na? and Kuhlanzwa izimpahla, all in mint condition.

Five novels by South Africans:
Alex La Guma’s The Stone Country
Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter
Consuela Roland’s The Good Cemetery Guide
Mandla Langa’s The Naked Song & other stories
(I’ve just finished his The Lost Colours of the Chameleon, which was rated the best book in the Africa Region of the Commonwealth Writers Prize, 2009. Mandla’s wife, June Josephs, runs the excellent Xarra Bookstore, well worth a visit if you happen to be in Johannesburg.)
Kole Omotoso’s Just Before Dawn, published in 1988 before he became a South African citizen

Three books with Ghanaian connections.
Sonia Bleeker’s teen non-fiction The Ashanti of Ghana, published in 1966
(It starts like this: “Pomp and Splendour. The Ashanti are a Negroid people who live in the land that is now called Ghana. The men average about five feet five inches in height. The women are shorter, averaging little more than five feet. Men and women are usually slender, and they have a dark skin, broad nose and a long head. Although clothing is not a necessity in this hot, humid country . . . etc. etc..”)
Martin Ballard’s teen historical novel The Speaking Drums of Ashanti (1970)
Kwame Nkrumah’s Voice from Conakry (1967), short wave radio talks broadcast after the coup of 1966.

And, finally,
Nawal el Saadawi’s God Dies by the Nile
Mariama Ba’s second novel Scarlet Song written while, the blurb tells us, ”she was aware that she was dying.”

Now all I need is time to read them. Some of you seem to read a hundred books a month. How do you manage that?

wow that's an amazing haul, Manu!! some of those authors i am not familiar with. i have a feeling we will need a year for South Africa when we get there on our Tour.

i wish i could read 100 books in a month... :D

Manu, you are so far ahead of me, I feel like I could read many books every month and not catch up. Sounds like you had a great time book hunting.

Manu, please let me know if you see something in English by an author native to Comoros.

R90, Manu, that's incredible!! I love getting good book bargains but you really seem to have struck an exceptional one! Happy reading it all (and hm, I wish I could read 100 books a month, I doubt I'll be able to do that even in year...)

This is really very tangential, but I'm so saddened by defunding of National Public Radio by U.S. Congress yesterday. For those of us in the U.S. "hinterlands" NPRs broadcast of BBC Newshour is our link to the "outside." When big stories are breaking in Africa, I count on NPR to have at least some info, unlike a lot of commercial American outlets. Hope things will turn around

I totally agree w/ you Andrea. I have satellite radio in my car so am now able to listen to BBC World Service every day. I feel like I get a much better perspective on world events than if I got my news solely from CNN. It's so annoying the "legitimate" news outlets in the US would rather discuss Charlie Sheen's latest crazy antics and Lindsey Lohan's newest legal battles than tell us what is happening in the rest of the world.

should clarify that the bill was passed by the House of Representatives. It probably won't be passed by the Senate, and if it is, Pres. Obama can veto it, meaning it would have to go around all over again. So it's probably a false alarm.

The defunding of NPR truly would be a terrible thing. I watch American channels all the time and enjoy some of the podcasts that are produced by NPR and it really would be a loss if they stopped funding. I really do hope it doesn't pass in the Senate. It is held by the Democrats so Andrea is probably right though.

Hey folks, for those of you interested in the progress of the school we are building in my husband's home neighborhood in Kenya,I've posted the latest exciting photo. A pile of stones! Just keep in mind this stone has to be hauled by the truckload up from the floor of the Great Rift Valley to our building site on the plateau. We now have about 1/3 of the total stone we will need.

Andrea wrote: "Hey folks, for those of you interested in the progress of the school we are building in my husband's home neighborhood in Kenya,I've posted the latest exciting photo. A pile of stones! Just keep ..."

that's a pile of milestones! :D

that's actually really exciting, andrea, congratulations!

I don't know if I'll ever write a literary masterpiece (seems unlikely) but I am going to be working on a fundraising cookbook of recipes from East Africa. I'd love to have any recipes representing goodreads friends, so if anybody has East African recipes that they've tried out and liked, I'd love to hear about them. They don't have to be completely original and I can credit other cookbooks if you tell me where you found the original.

Andrea wrote: "I don't know if I'll ever write a literary masterpiece (seems unlikely) but I am going to be working on a fundraising cookbook of recipes from East Africa. I'd love to have any recipes representin..."

Omigosh I totally want to help. And I will buy a cookbook. I love food!!

First I will ask my dad and his wife...

Andrea wrote: "I don't know if I'll ever write a literary masterpiece (seems unlikely) but I am going to be working on a fundraising cookbook of recipes from East Africa. I'd love to have any recipes representin..."

Andrea, if you can find it, you might want to check out The Africa News Cookbook: African Cooking for Western Kitchens. It was published in 1985 by Penguin Books for the Africa News Service. I'm pretty sure it's out of print now, but I found a copy on Amazon a few years ago. It covers the continent. I don't think I've tried any of the recipes from East Africa, but I've liked the ones I have tried!

ISBN is 0140467513.

good luck Andrea! sounds like fun. :)

Hi have the Africa News Cookbook and could send you any of those EA recipes if you can't get a copy. Or I can ask my Tanzanian friends for their submissions, if you like? What is the cookbook a fundraiser for? Any other details I can share, if I am soliciting submissions from my friends and colleagues?

Thanks, everyone. The fundraiser is for the school we are building in Kenya. I hate to repeat too much as I've yacked about it in other posts, but it will be a private high school for about 300 girls, close to home at a moderate tuition, so a really solid secondary education will be available for more girls. I've posted a picture of the pile of stones we've accumulated for building here on our group pictures. You can find us on facebook by searching Simbolei Community Assistance Association. We are working on our website which should be up in about three weeks and will have lots more pictures and details. But I'd be happy to answer any questions people have or to correspond through messages. Don't want to monopolize the group posts. But, okay, I have to brag a little bit. Today, Aidan Hartleysent me a beautiful little piece describing cooking a fish over an open fire on the beach on the coast of Kenya. I'm now thinking of calling the book, "An Essay about Fishing by Aidan Hartley and a lot of other recipes" lol. Just kidding of course!I'd love to have Tanzanian recipes. Not sure about taking recipes from cookbooks. My sister-in-law, who has edited cookbooks, says basically you just need to change a couple of ingredients or measurements and you're okay. But I will look for that book on Amazon, as I'd love to own a copy.

Andrea, it's so exciting!

Wow, Andrea, that is exciting. :) I love the idea of the cookbook though I can't say that I've got much to contribute. :( Is the website for your school project up and running now? I know how long website development can take...

Hi All,
Thanks for all the encouraging words. Our website is up. It is at simboleiacademy.org. Now you can actually see what I look like; I'm a real person. lol