A volume in the `Meridiens' series; aimed at students, business people and tourists, providing a general introduction to the country, its history, people, economy and development, etc. Maps, notes, bibliography, photos, basic statistics, notes on hotels, airways, banks, etc. French text, 2nd edition, 264pp., PARIS. KARTHALA, 286537050X

Well illustrated travel guide to Djibouti with plenty of information on the country's history, economics and politics. Include travel and accommodation information. Text in French. Index, maps, 237pp, FRANCE. EDITIONS DU JAGUAR.

On this reimagined globe, a stream of sorry humanity flows from the West, from the slums of America and the squalor of Europe, to escape poverty and desperation in the prosperous United States of Africa. It is in this world that an African doctor on a humanitarian mission to France adopts a child. Now a young artist, this girl, Malaïka, travels to the troubled land of her birth in hope of finding her mother and perhaps something of her lost self. Translated from the French by David Ball and Nicole Ball. 134pp, USA . UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS.

Seventeen short stories portraying Djiboutians from their own point of view. Drawing on the Somali/Djiboutian oral tradition to weave pieces of legend, proverbs, music, poetry, and history together with references to writers as diverse as Soyinka, Shakespeare, Djebar, Baudelaire, Cesaire, Waugh, Senghor, and Beckett, Waberi succeeds in bringing his country into a context that reaches well beyond the Horn of Africa. Gloss, 88pp, USA. UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS.