As an African, I was eager to read Prevail by Jeff Pearce, a book that tells the amazing story of Ethiopia's victory over Mussolini's invasion of 1935As an African, I was eager to read Prevail by Jeff Pearce, a book that tells the amazing story of Ethiopia's victory over Mussolini's invasion of 1935 – 1941. This victory enabled Ethiopia to remain as the only African country to not have been colonised by the European usurpers, although briefly occupied. The book is based on extensive archival research, widespread interviews with active participants of the war and consultations with experts on Ethiopian history and culture. As a result, the book offers a very comprehensive and balanced account of this remarkable episode in African history.
Pearce does a remarkable job, setting the historical and political context of the war, by explaining the motivations and ambitions of the main actors, and describing the military and diplomatic strategies adopted by both sides. The book vividly portrays the human dimension of the war, highlighting the courage, resilience, and sacrifice of the Ethiopian people, who were able to fight and defeat a modern European army with threadbare weapons. The book also shows the atrocious crimes committed by the Italian invaders, who indiscriminately poisoned Ethiopian people using gas, bombed hospitals, massacred civilians indifferently, and looted Ethiopia´s cultural treasures. Britain and other Western powers abandoned Ethiopia to its fate and tried to appease Mussolini's fascist regime by refusing to sell weapons and ammunition to Ethiopia. In 1936, Emperor Haile Selassie highlights this duplicity and betrayal eloquently when he addressed the League of Nations, "I ask the fifty-two nations who have given the Ethiopian people a promise to help them in their resistance against the aggressor what are they willing to do for Ethiopia? And I answer them: nothing."
The book is not only a history of a war, but also a history of a nation, the continent and black people across the globe. The book shows how black people from all over the world domiciled in major European capitals rallied behind Ethiopia, raising awareness, fundraising for the war effort, and some eventually volunteering to fight alongside their Ethiopian brothers and sisters. Ethiopia prevailed against all odds and inspired other African nations to fight for their independence and dignity.
Pearce has written a book that is not only informative and balanced, but also engaging and thrilling. He has eloquently captured the drama, the horror, and the heroism of this forgotten war. The book is a testament to the power of resistance and resilience, and more importantly, a tribute to the heroes and martyrs who fought for their country's dignity and sovereignty....more
Triangulum by Masande Ntshanga is a science fiction novel that explores the themes of identity, history, and technology in a dystopian South Africa. TTriangulum by Masande Ntshanga is a science fiction novel that explores the themes of identity, history, and technology in a dystopian South Africa. The book takes the reader on a journey through a series of memoir-style journal entries that alternate with transcribed recordings of regression therapy sessions from an unnamed female narrator.
At the core of the story, the narrator is forced to search for her missing mother by her ongoing and mysterious visions of a great machine and a series of triangles. She is desperate to find the source of those visions and their meaning. Visions which she believes hold the key to her mother’s disappearance but which may in fact, be connected with extra-terrestrial life.
As someone who is not into science fiction, I only read this book as part of our Harare book club reading. I have to admit, I was not very excited about it, but I decided to give the book a chance. Although the story unveils in a lackadaisical manner, the book is well written in an engaging and sometimes poetic style. The author was able to create a rich and complex world, tackling important and relevant issues, such as racism, colonialism, environmental degradation, and artificial intelligence.
However, I was not impressed by the story itself. I found the story long and flat, the plot not too deep and the ending abrupt, unsatisfying, and anticlimactic. Perhaps, I am unforgiving to the author partly because I am not a fan of science fiction. Actually this is my second and probably last, science fiction read, all thanks to Harare Book Club. I gave the book a rating of three because I appreciate the writing style and some of the themes he covered. ...more
The book takes one on a journey, haphazardly through time, across the width and breadth of Africa. From the Sahara and the Nile River Valley to the EtThe book takes one on a journey, haphazardly through time, across the width and breadth of Africa. From the Sahara and the Nile River Valley to the Ethiopian highlands, right down to the valleys and plateaus of southern Africa. The author reconstructed the ancient past kingdoms by combining the many fragmented written ancient sources and his own findings from re-examining the existing archaeological evidence.
From the evidence presented in the book it is apparent that Africa was deliberately written out of history by people with a clear nefarious agenda. The ancient; Europeans, Moslems, Chinese and the Europeans from Europe´s dark ages who came to trade with Africa´s kingdoms had nothing but positive things to say about our; houses, villages. Cities, laws and justice. It is most unfortunate that many Africans today have bought into the 18th and 19th century European racist propaganda that seeks to suggest that Africans were barbaric and uncivilised and therefore contributed nothing to civilisation.
Our post-colonial education does not help the matter either. As part of my ordinary level education in Zimbabwe, I studied a bit of South African history as required by the History syllabus. I learned more about Jan van Riebeek than I learned about Mapungubwe´s rulers. The book only discusses about the golden rhino and other artefacts that were discovered at one burial site in the kingdom of Mapungubwe. Even though the kingdom was darted with disused goldmines, the Europeans could not believe that the artefact was produced by the indigenous people of the area. They were too unsophisticated and uncivilised to embark on such higher forms of art.
Although I have enjoyed and learned a lot from the book, I strongly feel the book concentrated more on breadth than on depth. As a result, it only managed to scratch the surface for the most part. I particularly liked the ancient written sources that were quoted throughout the book. Although they do not give the complete picture of the past, they give a glimpse of how other people saw us. How I wish we all could view our ancestors with these fresh eyes. ...more
The debate is still ongoing whether the Benin Bronzes held in London’s British Museum and many others museums across Europe and the USA should be retuThe debate is still ongoing whether the Benin Bronzes held in London’s British Museum and many others museums across Europe and the USA should be returned to Nigeria. What Barnaby Phillips does exceedingly well in this book is begin that conversation right at its origin.
As a result, reading the book was like going on a rollercoaster journey through time. From precolonial Benin right up to as late as 2018. In short the book is a story about colonialism, pillage and plunder. It is about Africans trying to recover their stolen artefacts and also about the arrogant British who are flatly refusing to return the stolen property to its rightful owners.
The Benin empire was one of the oldest and most highly developed states in west Africa. When the Portuguese first came to Benin in 1485, they described Benin City as one of the most beautiful and best planned cities in the world. Dapper a 15th century Dutch anthropologist described ¨Benin City¨ as magnificent and elegant. The Portuguese Lourenco Pinto writes in 1691, “Great Benin, where the king resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight and as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the king, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well governed that theft is unknown.” To put things into perspective, London during the same period was described by Bruce Holsinger, professor of English at the University of Virginia, as being a city of “thievery, prostitution, murder, bribery and a thriving black market made the medieval city ripe for exploitation by those with a skill for the quick blade or picking a pocket”.
However, when the British came to invade and eventually loot Benin of its treasures the narrative had changed. As the African saying goes, when the hyena wants to eat its children, it first accuses them of smelling like goats. True to fashion, Sir Richard Burton writing in 1863 says, the Edo (Benin) people are uncivilised and barbaric. It counted for nothing that the Edo people had built the famous ¨Benin City¨, with walls four times longer than the Great Wall of China. To the British, they were primitive people who sacrificed their fellow human beings to occultic gods. They were therefore uncivilised barbarians who had to be saved from themselves.
The soldiers who pillaged and plundered Benin and later burnt it to the ground described their loot as mainly comprising of primitive artefacts. Fast forward two decades later, art historians discovered that the artifacts were of very high quality and were made using a highly sophisticated technique. A technique that had been used in Europe during the renaissance period. The narrative immediately changed. These artefacts must have been brought by the Portuguese, they said. This is despite the fact that the Portuguese never produced anything close to these Benin bronzes in their history. With this discovery, their demand across Europe and the US increased and likewise their prices soared. According to the book, there was an artefact that was recently sold to a private collector for a record fee of over $10 million dollars.
The debate on the return of the stolen Benin bronzes was escalated in 1974 by the Nigerian government, when they asked the British Museum to loan back a mask they wanted to use for their FESTAC festival. The plea was rejected on conservation grounds. They claimed that the humidity in Nigeria would damage the artefact. How disdainful. However, the Nigerians continued demanding the return of their Bronzes. After the emergency of the black lives matter movement, the calls for the return of the bronzes was re-energised. The British argued that they were not going to send them back, but even if they wanted to, Nigeria did not have adequate facilities and resources to look after these precious artefacts. This is akin to a thief who has been caught with a stolen car, telling the owner that they will only return the car once the owner has built a secure garage and secured a good job to enable him/her to look after the car. It would have been comic if it had not been tragic.
Its an excellent book, thoroughly enjoyed it and learned a lot of new things. ...more
It was a captivating read, well written and fast paced. The blending of fiction with actual historical developments was excellently done, making the bIt was a captivating read, well written and fast paced. The blending of fiction with actual historical developments was excellently done, making the book both exciting and educative. Reading the book, felt as if Birahima (the main character) was directly speaking to me. I was able to capture the mixture of innocence, terror, allure and indifference with which the 10 year old Birahima viewed the world.
In short, Allah is not obliged is the tale of a young boy who is orphaned and has to leave his native village and country in search of his aunt in Liberia. He winds up becoming one of the many child soldiers in Liberia and then eventually Sierra Leone. Through this journey, we hear a very raw and sometimes rude but overall, an incredibly frank Birahima. They did hard drugs, amputated, shot and killed people, they abused young girls and were abused by older girls/women.
The author switching briefly to straight forward polemic, we learn about the crimes and brief histories of the so-called leaders responsible for the instability in the region such as: Foday Sankoh, Charles Taylor, and Prince Johnson. With all this violence and the narrator´s swearing, the book still manages to be funny and light hearted on occasion.
As a person who was not really familiar with the region, the history and the personalities that have perpetrated these many horrors, this book was certainly a valuable introduction. I really enjoyed the story and the author´s writing style.
Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War is a memoir by Leymah Gbowee, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a leader Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War is a memoir by Leymah Gbowee, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and a leader of the women's peace movement in Liberia. The book chronicles her personal journey from an innocent little girl to a traumatized but courageous activist who helped in the mobilizing of thousands of women to help end the brutal civil war that ravaged her country for more than a decade.
As she recounted the horrors of the civil war, the challenges she faced raising her children in the conflict zone, the struggles of being a woman in a patriarchal society, and the sacrifices she made pursuing peace in the face of violence, I could not help but feel inspired. It is a powerful story, well written, short and succinct. From the written word, I could literally envision her in Liberia during this tempestuous period. What I particularly loved about the book is how she blended the national story of Liberia with her own lived experience.
The book is not only a testimony of Gbowee's remarkable achievements, but also a call to action for anyone who cares about social justice and global peace. It is a reminder that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
I loved and enjoyed the book, and more importantly, I learned a lot more about the Liberia and their civil war....more
The book is an okay read. Not very exciting but nevertheless, well written and informative. For the non-historians, the minute details of the author´sThe book is an okay read. Not very exciting but nevertheless, well written and informative. For the non-historians, the minute details of the author´s countless military escapades can seem dispiriting. However, I believe the book is a valuable addition to the body of knowledge on the Southern African liberation history, particularly Zimbabwean liberation history.
Interestingly, the book begins with the author attempting to morally justify Rhodesia´s war against our liberation struggle. He was at pains, attempting to wash clean Rhodesia´s dark stains of the past. Boldly, he claims without shame, the war had nothing to do with race. He contends that it was all about defending Christianity and defeating communism. It is as if our liberation struggle was not about majority rule, or the return of our stolen land and or the restoration of the dignity of our people. I was amused but not surprised. It is too familiar a story among us the subalterns. We the wretched of the earth, had to be saved from our barbaric selves.
That said, the book does afford us any opportunity to view the war through the eyes of a white soldier who rose through the ranks to become a senior officer in the army and more importantly a soldier who participated in some historically significant missions during the war. I have read a number of books about our liberation struggle but almost exclusively through black lenses. This book was a departure from the norm and I am happy to say I am richer from the experience.
My key takeaways of the book
1. In the past I had heard claims from non-authoritative sources that the ZIPRA forces were better trained and better equipped than their ZANLA counterparts but had no means of assessing whether the statement was true or not. The author who was involved in running battles with both revolutionary parties in and outside Zimbabwe supports that notion.
2. For some reason I did not believe Robert Mugabe´s claims that the Rhodesian government wanted to assassinate him. I had always believed that it was propaganda. I thought if they wanted to assassinate him they could have easily done that whilst he was in Zimbabwe and later in prison. However, this author confirms that they were several attempts to assassinate Robert Mugabe and the ZANLA leadership in Mozambique and about two attempts to assassinate Mugabe post-independence by the military intelligence. Faced with this new evidence, I am forced to rethink my earlier positions on who could have killed general Tongogara and Chairman Chitepo. For some strange reason, I had come to strongly believe that it was an inside job.
3. I had read several texts that alleged that RENAMO a militant organization and political movement in Mozambique was funded and equipped by the South African apartheid regime and supported by the Rhodesian government. What I did not know was that the Rhodesian regime actually trained many of the early RENAMO recruits in Zimbabwe. In return, the Rhodesians used RENAMO as cannon fodder for some of their excursions into Mozambique. Although, the author says they were under strict instructions to avoid confrontations with the Mozambiquan army. Mozambique as a country did pay dearly for hosting ZANLA bases and the ANC exiles. Their country was ravaged by civil war that was fuelled by Rhodesia and South Africa.
Zambia did incur military incursions, several sabotage attacks, some in the heart of the capital from the Rhodesian army. In three of those attacks the author was involved. Zambia was paying the price for hosting ZIPRA bases, which were used as launch pads for incursions into Rhodesia.
The book notes in passing the clandestine cooperation of South Africa and the USA in the backing of UNITA in the Angolan civil war. Not only did they fund and equip UNITA, they had boots on the ground in Angola. I am convinced beyond doubt that the South African boots on the ground were not only to bolster UNITA forces but were training in preparation of their own bush war.
4. The hardliners in both the military and the parliament had been forced to accept the cease fire and the terms of the Lancaster House agreement against their will. They had two enemies, Nkomo and Mugabe but they hated Mugabe more. They thought he was more radical and Marxist. The Rhodesian political leadership in connivance with British were banking on Muzorewa winning. But as the election campaigns were under way it became clear to the military intelligence that Nkomo and Muzorewa were no match for Mugabe´s campaign tactics and that the British were unwilling to entertain Nkomo and Muzorewa´s complains. The military under pretext of unfree and unfair elections planned to usurp power. However, when the elections came the leadership could not make the call. Thereafter, there were attempts to sabotage the new government with the cooperation of the apartheid government of South Africa.
Of course the book is much more than my key takeaways but in a nutshell that is what I found most interesting in the book. It is such a shame that many of our fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts who participated in the liberation struggle are dying without writing their own stories. In the next three decades, if not two, almost all these unrecorded stories will be buried with our sung and unsung heroes and heroines. Perhaps it is a challenge to all of us with surviving relatives who fought in that war, to entice them to speak, for our historians to record and all of us to eternalise their dedication and sacrifice.
In a nut shell, Trapped In A Web of Lies is a story of a young woman based in the UK who is manipulated by a "so called" former soldier turned politicIn a nut shell, Trapped In A Web of Lies is a story of a young woman based in the UK who is manipulated by a "so called" former soldier turned political activist in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, the guy was con artist who was mentioned and popularised by Baba Jukwa (A nameless social media character leaking information from ZANU PF politburo and government meetings) on his famous Facebook page, as being hounded by the dreaded CIO (Zimbabwe's secret service). The young lady as a Zimbabwean in the diaspora wanting to play her part in the struggle for democracy, engages the con artist in a bid to help financially. Unfortunately for her, she ends up falling in love with this con artist. She is emotionally drained by the tales of this guy's fake persecutions and worst of all she loses several thousands of pounds and almost ruins her life and that of her daughter.
The story line is good but can be better and the prose is really good. Hence, I can safely say that the book is a good read. I read it in three days. Had it not been that after reading about 40% of the book, some aspects of the story seemed like repetition I could have finished the book in two days. Thankfully the ending was unusual and unexpected.
In as much as I know that the author wanted to report the truth as is, I personally felt that she could have been a bit more creative both in her content and style. She could have fictionalised certain aspects of the story to give them credence. No matter how hard she tried to explain in the book, it was difficult for me to understand how she continued to send money well after she had discovered that she was being lied to, not once, not twice but thrice. I guess its easy for me to judge as an outsider....more
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