kobie03: Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
Powerful, moving story of a poor pastor in a small village in south Africa in 1946, who scrapes together his small savings to travel to Johannesburg to find family members. It is a story of faith ,hope, love, courage,forgiveness and absolution. What change does to a country and its people, what it is to be human. A wonderful rich book, to be read again and again. I thank Bookcrossing for bringing this book to me, I'm a better person for having read this.
mrbaggins1: Playing the Enemy by John Carlin
Fascinating book about the release of Mandela and the role the 1995 Rugby World Cup played in unifying a Nation. Books like Cry the Beloved Country and many other written prior to the New Democratic Better South Africa are classics IMO but we've gone past that- so I'll rather recommend more positive reads about hope and joy.
islandmomma reeled off an impressive list of titles that we should read:
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
Harrowing, true autobiography with self-explanatory title.
King Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild
Grim history of the inheritance of violence Congo owes to Belgium.
Slave by Mende Nazer
Autobiography of the seizing of a young woman from her home village in Sudan, her years as a slave and her deliverance thanks to her own courage, intelligence and faith. I had the good fortune to spend around six hours in her company on a plane journey, and it wasn't until afterwards, when I read her book, how amazing I realized the elegant young woman whose company I had enjoyed was.
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Based on the memories shared with him of a young man forced to flee from Sudan, his years in refugees camps and the joy and disillusionment of his arrival in the US.
So Long a Letter by Miriam Ba
A revealing story of a modern, Senegalese woman's deep feelings about the consequences of polygamy.
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
I figure this needs no explanation?
In a Free State by VS Naipaul
Written in 1970, set in a fictitious African country, but one which readers will recognize from news stories, and the complications of being a colonist at the very end of the era of colonization, but mostly of being the stranger in the strange land.
