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Harry’s advent calendar of birds, day 3: Secretary Bird
The Secretary Bird, Sagittarius serpentarius: Because it’s a bird of prey which has evolved long legs like a crane; something I think is just fabulous beyond words. They stalk across the grasslands of...
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Harry’s advent calendar of birds, day 7: mousebirds
I just love this picture of mousebirds feeding on aloe flowers in South Africa: I’m not quite sure about the species — Speckled Mousebird, maybe? — but it doesn’t matter. Here are some more mousebirds,...
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‘The Kingdom of Ife’ at the British Museum
I went to the BM to see the exhibition of art from the medieval west African kingdom of Ife (now in Nigeria). Ife is most famous for some extraordinarily high quality naturalistic heads cast in brass...
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The Whistler by Ondjaki
I have read several books recently that felt like a bit of a chore, so the first point to make about The Whistler is that it is gloriously short. With the help of generous amounts of white space the...
View ArticleNkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
So, the World Cup is almost upon us, and inevitably our attention has been narrowed in on the nervy minutiae of squad selections and injury worries and tactical arguments. So before the action starts,...
View ArticleFootball advertising
As all the sportswear manufacturers unveil their big ad campaigns in the run-up to the World Cup, the one which has been the biggest hit is Nike’s epic Write the Future. And don’t get me wrong, it’s...
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The Fortunes of Wangrin by Amadou Hampaté Bâ
The Fortunes of Wangrin is my book from Mali for the Read The World challenge. It’s a novel — or at least it seems to be universally described as a novel, despite the fact that Hampaté Bâ says in the...
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The Bleeding of the Stone by Ibrahim Al-Koni
The Bleeding of the Stone is a Libyan novel about Asouf, a Bedouin man living a hermit-like existence out in the desert, herding goats and occasionally guiding foreigners to see the rock paintings on...
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Who Needs a Story? — Contemporary Eritrean Poetry in Tigrinya, Tigre and Arabic
Who Needs a Story? is my book from Eritrea for the Read The World challenge. Given that the country only gained independence in 1993 after a 30 year war, it’s not really surprising that the anthology...
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Poceza m’Madzulo by Julius Chongo and Ernst Wendland
Or to give the full title: Poceza m’Madzulo: Some Chinyanja Radio Plays of Julius Chongo with English Translations by Ernst R. Wendland. Poceza m’Madzulo means ‘evening story time’, apparently, and was...
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Redemption Road by Elma Shaw
Redemption Road is a novel about people dealing with the aftermath of civil war in Liberia. I’ll keep this fairly short because I don’t really enjoy being nasty about books, and this is unfortunately a...
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The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison and Skipping Without Ropes by Jack...
I was searching around for a book from Malawi for the Read The World challenge, and found very cheap second-hand copies for sale of these two books of poetry by Jack Mapanje. And since poetry books are...
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Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Somé
Full title: Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. Somé was kidnapped at the age of four and taken first to a Jesuit-run boarding school and then a...
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The Running Man by Gilbert Tuhabonye
I bought The Running Man* as my book from Burundi for the Read The World challenge. I can’t say I was particularly looking forward to reading it, though, because the blurb on the cover — How the voice...
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The King of Kahel by Tierno Monénembo
The King of Kahel is my book from Guinea for the Read The World challenge. It is the first book printed by AmazonCrossing, Amazon’s own publishing imprint specialising in translated literature. They...
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Warrior King by Sahle Sellassie
Warrior King is one of several books in English by Sahle Sellassie, all now apparently out of print. It wasn’t easy to find much information about them so I just went for the one which was available...
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The Land Without Shadows by Abdourahman A. Waberi
The Land Without Shadows is my book from Djibouti for the Read The World challenge. There are a few options available in French, but Waberi seems to be the only choice in English. Having read a few...
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Shadows of your Black Memory by Donato Ndongo
As part of my ongoing quest to read a book from every country, I picked up Shadows of your Black Memory as a book from Equatorial Guinea. It is a childhood/coming of age novel that sets up the conflict...
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The Devil That Danced on the Water by Aminatta Forna
Aminatta Forna’s father was a doctor, then activist and politician in Sierra Leone, rising to be Minister of Finance for a while before resigning in public protest at corruption in the government. But...
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The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah
The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born is a novel set during the last days of the Nkrumah government in Ghana. It’s about a man resisting corruption, quixotically in the view of most of those around him....
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