New in paperback. Traces shifts in perspectives on African culture, arts, and philosophy from the conflict with European modernist interventions in the climate of colonialist aggression to present identitarian positions in the climate of globalism, multiculturalism, and mass media. By focusing on what may be called deconstructive moments in twentieth-century Africanist thought on intellectual landmarks, revolutionary ideas, crises of consciousness, literary and philosophical debates this study looks at African modernity and modernism from critical postcolonial perspectives. 280pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

The recent containment policies aimed at regulating immigration flows towards Europe have profoundly altered the dynamics of migration in Africa. The impact of these policies is apparent in the redefinitions of the routes, itineraries and actors of migration. But their effect can also be felt in migrant categories and identities and in the perceptions of migrants in the societies through which they transit or the communi-ties which they have left behind. By placing the problem of border control at the very heart of the migration issue, the policies aimed at the restriction of migration flows have changed the meaning and significance of migration. More than ever before, both migrants and institutions in charge of border control construe migration mostly around the challenge of border-crossing. In the Global South, the transit situation in which would-be border jumpers are retained blurs the distinction between temporary migration and settlement. This contributes to change, in various ways, the relationship to strangers, from renewed forms of solidarities to the reactivation of latent xenophobic sentiment, whether around the Mediterranean or en route towards South Africa, the other migration hub on the continent. The editors of this volume have decided to work on the notion of threshold as an operative concept for addressing the multiple dimensions of the issue: the discursive and conceptual frameworks that constitute the backbone of threshold policies aiming to keep undesirables beyond borders; the constitution of stopping places, intermediate areas and relay towns, which all represent threshold Spaces that challenge local urban equilibria; and the experience of liminality, in which individuals caught for a time between two states (as migrant on the road and as immigrant, the state to which they aspire), experience the typically ambigu-ous situations characteristic of 'threshold people' (Turner). 288pp, USA. LEXINGTON BOOKS.

The present volume makes critical views of this important writer accessible to the general reader as well as the scholar, discussing Coetzee's main works in chronological order and introducing the dominant themes in the academic discussion of his oeuvre. The volume highlights Coetzee's exceptionally nuanced approach to writing as both an exacting craft and a challenging moral-ethical undertaking. It discusses Coetzee's complex relation to apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, the land of his birth, and evaluates his complicated responses to the literary canon. Coetzee emerges as both a modernist and a highly self-aware postmodernist - a champion of the truths of a literary enterprise conducted unrelentingly in the mode of self-confession. 272pp, USA. CAMDEN HOUSE.

Explores a broad set of issues raised by political transition and transitional justice through the prism of the South African TRC. South Africa constitutes a powerful case study of the enduring structural legacies of a troubled past, and of both the potential and limitations of transitional justice and human rights as agents of transformation in the contemporary era. South Africa's story has wider relevance because it helped to launch constitutional human rights and transitional justice as global discourses; as such, its own legacy is to some extent writ large in post-authoritarian and post-conflict contexts across the world. Based on a decade of research, and in an analysis that is both comparative and interdisciplinary, Paul Gready maintains that transitional justice needs to do more to address structural violence and in particular poverty, inequality and social and criminal violence as these have emerged as stubborn legacies from an oppressive or war-torn past in many parts of the world. 288pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

HIV/AIDS continues to take a tremendous toll on the populations of many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In some countries with high HIV prevalence rates, life expectancy has declined by more than a decade and in a few cases by more than two decades. Even in countries with HIV prevalence of around 5 percent (close to the average for sub-Saharan Africa), the epidemic can reverse gains in life expectancy and other health outcomes achieved over one or two decades. This volume highlights work conducted under the umbrella of a World Bank work programme on The Fiscal Dimension of HIV/AIDS, including country studies on Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, and Uganda. It aims for a comprehen-sive analysis of the fiscal costs of HIV/AIDS, with a wider scope than a costing analysis focusing on only the policy response to HIV/AIDS. It embeds the analysis of HIV/AIDS costs in a discussion of the fiscal context, and interprets these costs as a quasi-liability, not a debt de jure, but a political and fiscal commitment that binds fiscal resources in the future and cannot easily be changed, and very similar to a pension obligation or certain social grants or services. 308pp, USA. WORLD BANK PUBLICATIONS.

Hemingway's two extended African safaris, the first in the 1930s and the second in the 1950s, gave rise to two of his best-known stories (The Snows of Kilimanjaro and The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber), a considerable amount of journalism and correspondence, and two non-fiction books, Green Hills of Africa (1935), about the first safari, and True at First Light (1999; longer version, Under Kiliman-jaro 2005), about the second. Africa also figures largely in his important posthumous novel The Garden of Eden (1986). The variety and quantity of this literary output indicate clearly that Africa was a major factor in the creative life of this influential American author. But surprisingly little scholarship has been devoted to the role of Africa in Hemingway's life and work. To start the long-delayed conversation on this topic, this book offers historical, theoretical, biographical, theological, and literary interpretations of Hemingway's African narratives. 426pp, USA. CAMDEN HOUSE.

How do ambitious young men grapple with an unemployment rate in urban Ethiopia hovering around fifty percent? Urban, educated, and unemployed young men have been the primary force behind the recent unrest and revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. This study examines young men's struggles to retain hope for the future in the midst of economic uncertainty and cultural globalization. Through a close ethnographic examination of young men's day-to-day lives, this explores the construction of optimism through activities like formal schooling, the consumption of international films, and the use of khat. 208pp, USA. TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS.

This rich collection of biographies of African men and women adds a crucial human dimension to our understanding of African history since 1800. The last two centuries have been a time of enormous change on the continent, and these life stories show how people survived by resisting European conquest and colonial rule, by collaborating with colonial powers, or by finding a middle way to live their lives through tumultuous times. Bringing the story to the present, the book traces the era of independence since the 1960s through challenges to the rule of African dictators, struggles for the rights of women and mothers, the exploitation of youth and child soldiers, and economic booms and busts. By recounting the lives of real, identifiable people from societies across Africa south of the Sahara and from African communities in Europe, this unique book underscores the importance and power of individual agency in understanding the recent African past, a vital complement to analyses of broader, impersonal social and economic factors. 316pp, USA. ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS.

Examines literatures and histories of the Cape in relation to postcolonial debates about nationalism. How the Cape Colony was imagined as a political community is examined by considering a variety of writers, from major European literati and intellectuals (Camoes, Southey, Rousseau, Adam Smith), to well-known travel writers like Francois Levaillant and Lady Anne Barnard, to figures on the margins of colonial histories, like settler rebels, slaves, and early African nationalists. Complementing the analyses of these primary texts are discussions of the many subsequent literary works and histories of the Cape Colony. These diverse writings are discussed first in relation to current debates in postcolonial studies about settler nationalism, anti-colonial resistance, and the imprint of eighteenth-century colonial histories on contemporary neo-colonial politics. Secondly, the project of imagining the post-apartheid South African nation functions as a critical lens for reading the eighteenth-century history of the Cape Colony, with the extensive commentaries on literature and history associated with the Thabo Mbeki presidencies given particular attention. 232pp, UK. EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Recent efforts in national planning in Kenya have sought to identify development priorities through consultations. The Government of Kenya, in its effort to eradicate poverty and to promote pro-poor growth, established the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) under the Constituencies Development Fund Act of December 2003. This study sought to investigate whether the CDF has improved the livelihoods and welfare of women and girls in the Kenyan society and whether women are being enabled to participate more visibly in the local development processes. 148pp, ETHIOPIA. OSSREA.

A refreshing interdisciplinary study of contemporary Africa focusing on teaching African studies and an analysis of political, economic, socio-cultural, higher education, geography, managerial and scientific developments. It is written by African scholars resident both in the USA and Africa. 324pp, USA. LEXINGTON BOOKS.

Focusing on the issue of the availability of old canonical texts of African literature as a creative resource, this study throws light on how African authors adapt, reinterpret, and re-deploy existing texts in the formulation of new ones. Contemporary African writers are taking advantage of and extending the resources available in the existing native literary tradition. But the field of inter-ethnic/trans-national African literary intertextual studies is a novel one in itself as the theme of African writers' debt to Euro-American authors has been the critical commonplace in African literature. Detailing the echoes and reverberations the voices of the past have generated, and the distinctive uses to which the writers are putting one another's works, the book demonstrates that the influence of local stock is significant: it is pervasive and widespread, and manifests itself in ways both random and systematic, but it is ubiquitous presence in the African literary imagination. 248pp, USA. LEXINGTON BOOKS.

A comprehensive review that combines an analysis of the principles and basic procedure of labour law in Cameroon. Yanou draws on solid academic research as well as a wide ranging experience in legal practice across Cameroon and Nigeria to present a coherent and practical elaboration of themes such as employment, dismissal, remedies for wrongful dismissal, compensation for industrial injuries, and trade unions. The book is also motivated by the desire for a repository for members of the Bar and Bench, judges, academics, students and human resources practitioners. 264pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

This volume seeks to identify and examine two categories of colonial and postcolonial knowledge production about Africa. These two broad categories are environment and landscape, and both are useful and problematic to explore. Discussions about African environments often concentrate on Africans as perpetrators of their own land, causing degradation from lack of knowledge and technology. Landscape defines the category of knowledge produced by foreigners about Africa, where Africans remain part of the scenery and yield no agency over their surroundings. To flesh out these categories and explore their creation and how they have been deployed to shape colonial and postcolonial discourses on Africa, this volume investigates the technological pastoral, the points of convergence and conflict between Western notions of pastoral Africa and the introduction of colonial technology, scientific ideas and commodification of land and animals. 342pp, UK. ROUTLEDGE.

Ethnographic study on mobile phone use among Nuba students at the University of Khartoum in Sudan, distinguishes itself from other studies by taking a focused look at the linguistic content of mobile phone interactions via text-messaging, portraying it as a site for the expression of personalized and affective language. While men and women appear to be equally aggressive consumers and producers of text-message poetry, women are formally discouraged in using the phone for relations that go beyond the publicly acceptable norms of keeping in touch and making arrangements. Nonetheless, women use it for such purposes and many manage it discreetly, showing how this technology can serve to subvert discursive norms on gender and marriage. 196pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

Seydou Keïta was born in Bamako, Mali in 1921, then part of the colony of French Sudan and a bustling transportation hub on the route to Dakar. With a Kodak Brownie given to him by his uncle, Keïta took up photography at the age of fourteen, going on to establish what would become Bamako’s most successful portraiture enterprise of the 1950s and 60s. Photographs, Bamako, Mali 19491970 draws on an expanded archive to offer over 400 portraits, mostly unpublished, from the height of the photographers productivity in downtown Bamako. Providing lushly patterned backdrops and props that now serve to date distinct periods in his career, the artist often styled his subjects but also encouraged their active participation, hanging sample portraits around the studio as inspiration. Migratory youth, government officials, shop owners and Bamako’s cultural elite all make appearances here, and while Keïta’s photographs served as both family record and cultural status symbol for the clients who commissioned them, these images have become a lasting visual record of Mali at that time. 412pp, GERMANY. STEIDL VERLAG.

Social movements and civic organizations often face profound strategy dilemmas that can hamper their effectiveness and prevent them from contributing to transformative change and peace. In Zimbabwe two particular dilemmas have fed into and fuelled destructive processes of political polarization-dividing society, leadership, and decision-makers well beyond its borders. As conceptualized in this study, the first is whether to prioritise political or economic rights in efforts to bring about nation-wide transformative change (rights or redistribution). The second is whether and how to work with government and/or donors given their political, economic, and social agendas (participation or resistance). This book investigates these issues through two social movement organizations-the National Constitutional Assembly and the Zimbabwe National War Veterans' Association-and the movements they led to achieve constitutional change and radical land redistribution. Through in-depth case study analysis and peace and conflict impact assessment Spanning the years 1997-2010, lessons are drawn for activists, practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars interested in depolarizing concepts underpinning polarizing discourses, transcend-ing strategy dilemmas, and understanding how social action can better contribute to transformative change and peace. 270pp, USA. LEXINGTON BOOKS.

This story portrays and affirms the uniqueness of each person: how one moves on in life amidst all the difficulties that life presents. Life is beautiful if we are able to challenge what we can and accept what we cannot change. 214pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

Describes craft production in Zimbabwe, individual producers, groups, workshops, community projects, giving information on how to contact producers and outlining which shops are representing the producers for retail as well as wholesale buyers. It also has useful information on shipping and the current documentation requirements for exporting. After what has been a very difficult decade in many respects for craft producers in Zimbabwe, the objective of the book is to raise the profile of Zimbabwe craft production regionally and internationally in tandem with the new product design work that is currently being implemented. Col photos throughout, 160pp, UK. AFRICAN CRAFT PUBLISHING.

Poverty and hunger continue to be the biggest challenges in Africa, yet eight years into the Maputo Protocol, in which governments pledged to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture, this sector remains seriously underfunded. This collection explores how governance and political decision making about the allocation of resources could transform the smallholder agricultural landscape in southern Africa. It affirms the role smallholder agriculture can play in the pursuit of social and economic justice. 172pp, SOUTH AFRICA. IDASA.

Postcolonial African literature has most often been approached through overtly political considerations, while the language of expression and its role in the elaboration of identity and ideology have been pushed into the background. Yet, it is precisely through the subtle irony of voice and understatement that the politics of representation reaches its most powerful dimension, namely, where language, culture, and intention merge into a common struggle to understand and to be understood. Gloria Nne Onyeoziri offers the first book-length exploration of the linguistic, cultural, and historical problems of interpreting irony in African fiction. Although the author makes reference to numerous African writers, her primary analysis consists of six works by Chinua Achebe, Ahmadou Kourouma, and Calixthe Beyala. By focusing on linguistic, rhetorical, and literary models for analysing irony in discourse, she illuminates the role that irony has come to play in postcolonial African writing while also considering the extent to which irony is already embedded in traditional forms of African discourse that inform that writing. 192pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.

UNICEF estimates that Tanzania has over three million orphans. The Bethsaida Orphan Girls Secondary School seeks to help the most vulnerable of Tanzania's children. Founded by Mrs. Anna Machary in 2005 under the auspices of the non-governmental organization, the Olof Palme Orphans' Education Center, the school currently enrols over 130 orphan girls from all over the country, providing them with free housing, meals, psychological support and a quality secondary education. This book features short stories by thirteen students and has the dual purpose of being a fundraiser for the school and giving the girls a voice. 58pp, TANZANIA. MKUKI NA NYOTA PUBLISHERS.

Two babies are born five minutes apart in a British hospital. Immersed in her rich Nigerian heritage, Yewande grows up able to hear her ancestors voices a double edged sword that heightens her Spiritual awareness, but alienates her sister and brings horrifying revelations about her family's past. Mary is rejected at birth by her mother who has abandoned her African roots as she tries to blend into a small town in suburban Britain. How will each girl survive these legacies on her journey to adulthood? A big, important novel leavened with fun and studded with episodes of astonishing beauty. 420pp, UK. LINEN PRESS.

This study brings to light the complexities and intricacies of transforming schools in the context of two conflicting and contradictory processes of transition: the transition from the colonial system of govern-ment to a totalitarian and centralised system rooted in a Socialist discourse; and the departure from a failed Socialist project en route to an unknown future dictated by a neo-liberal discourse, liberal democracy and free-market economy. 192pp, ETHIOPIA. OSSREA.

In this collection Ayuninjam attempts to capture his sentiments on many plains. He also takes the liberty to capture the sentiments of other persons in his life and in society as a whole as well as the sentiments of other creatures that are part of the chain of life. As a result, much of what follows is occasional poetry, as he has more often than not responded or reacted to his sensations while also being a surrogate for those who could (or would) not express theirs. 68pp, CAMEROON. LANGAA RPCIG.

By 1950, Kenya was on the verge of one of the bloodiest wars of decolonisation fought in Britain's twentieth century empire. Eve is dutifully typing her father s dictated memoirs of his time as a soldier in WWII and in Nairobi during the Mau Mau uprising. With growing unease, she questions his account of what really happened in Kenya. A different story of love and adultery written by Eve s mother, comes to light after her death. The two young sisters recount fragments of their time in Africa; their naive voices break into the adult deceptions. White Lies is about different kinds of war and different kinds of loving. It explores the fragility and partiality of memory and our need to re-write the past so that it does not jar with the stories we tell ourselves and others. 350pp, UK. LINEN PRESS.