Great African Reads discussion

Sorry for the very, very, very belated thread for our Jan & Feb selections... my bad, summer and Christmas "got in the way"!

In Jan & Feb, we'll be hopping across to Guinea-Bissau, a tiny country on the coast of Western Africa.

Here are some thoughts about books, quite heavy stuff. Feel free to add others!

The Bush Rebels: A Personal Account of Black Revolt in Africa by Barbara Cornwall

Armed Struggle in Africa: With the Guerrillas in "Portuguese" Guinea by Gerard Chaliand

Fighting Two Colonialisms: Women in Guinea-Bissau by Stephanie Urdang

No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky by Basil Davidson

Probably also quite academic is Anthropology and Egalitarianism: Ethnographic Encounters from Monticello to Guinea-Bissau by Eric Gable.

Also came across Nadine Nyangoma as an author from Guinea-Bissau. Her books only seem to have been published in French though.

And on a very different note... for those who love food and recipes from around the world, there's Cuisines of Portuguese Encounters: Recipes from Angola, Azores, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Goa, Guinea-Bissau, Macau, Madeira, Malacca, Mozambique, Portugal, and Sao Tome and

i love food. i'm totally getting that book. it's cracking me up that the title just ends with "and."

Marieke wrote: "i love food. i'm totally getting that book. it's cracking me up that the title just ends with "and.""

Yeah, I thought you would! ;) (get the book, I mean)

Yup. I'll be reading Amilcar Cabral: Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts

Sho wrote: "Yup. I'll be reading Amilcar Cabral: Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts"

I couldn't find a good one for Amilcar Cabral (got a lot of obscure ones) so I left him out. Good that you found one that's selected texts - thanks, Sho!

Not a lot of happy Anglophone fiction in Guinea-Bissau, I guess.

Marieke wrote: "i love food. i'm totally getting that book. it's cracking me up that the title just ends with "and.""

I have that cookbook and love it. The title really doesn't end in "and", lol. I will have to find it and edit the title in Goodreads. Not very much of the cookbook takes place in Guinea-bissau, though.

Tough country to find books in. I have a copy of Fighting Two Colonialisms: Women in Guinea-Bissau collecting dust in my tbr pile.

Maybe G-B should be a free-for-all, with each person reading a book that interests her and reporting back to the group.

Diane wrote: "Marieke wrote: "i love food. i'm totally getting that book. it's cracking me up that the title just ends with "and.""

I have that cookbook and love it. The title really doesn't end in "and", lol...."

Great news about the cookbook, Diane! I mean the fact that it is good, not that it doesn't end in "and." ;)

Sho wrote: "Maybe G-B should be a free-for-all, with each person reading a book that interests her and reporting back to the group."

This is certainly something we can consider...then members who are able to read non-English books can share with the group their impressions about available G-B literature. :D

I looked up some G-B poets, but they're not published in English.

I think this is one country where I'll have to read a travel book or memoirs but I haven't found one yet. Nor have I looked. :/

Here is another academic-esque type:


Planting Rice and Harvesting Slaves: Transformations along the Guinea-Bissau Coast,1400-1900 by Walter Hawthorne

I have searched long and hard for fiction or memoirs (in English) from this country and have come up with nothing.

Does anyone know of any books that are about the region but give a fair about of space to G-B or the area that became G-B?

I think I'd be interested in any of these if I could find them, but I'd love some opinions to help choose.

OK, by process of elimination based on library availability, looks like I'll be reading Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings. No Fist Is Big Enough to Hide the Sky got great reviews on Goodreads, though, so I'll consider following up Cabral's words with that history.

I think we should go ahead and use Sho's suggestion of doing a free-for-all for this stop and hopefully most people who want to participate will find something that is interesting as well as accessible...and we can all share our thoughts on what we find with each other. I'll set up a discussion thread shortly.

Chelsea wrote: "Is this a possibility? Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau"

I thought that might be good but then looked into it and found it to be quite academic so didn't end up suggesting it.

I like Sho's idea, it's a really tough country to find books for that are not academic and/or published in languages other than English. I take it there's consensus to do so?

Chelsea wrote: "Is this a possibility? Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau"

FYI, This book is available on Kindle.

I've just fetched Cabral's Selected texts and No Fist. I also fetched Tired of Weeping to see how academic it is. All three of these books are short and we've got two months...I might read them all!

Marieke wrote: "I've just fetched Cabral's Selected texts and No Fist. I also fetched Tired of Weeping to see how academic it is. All three of these books are short and we've got two months...I might read them all!"

Haha, you couldn't help yourself, could you?! ;) Happy reading!! :D

haha! you know me too well.

but...they couldn't find the Cabral selected texts. so i will try to get my hands on a different one, maybe. i did get No Fist successfully already. still waiting for Tired...

Here are a couple of other leads I dug up when searching for books from G-B authors:

"Hi Shawn,
I've looked in all the usual places plus:
http://www.africanbookscollective.com/
http://www.lulu.com (for African self-publishers)

There really doesn't seem to be anything out there. I'm really sorry.

The following books may be of help to find an author if you can view a copy:

Post Colonial Literature of Lusophone Africa, Patrick Chabal 1995, UK.
HURST & Co, 1850652511
A comprehensive study of the post independence Portuguese and Creole literatures of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome and Principe. Places it in the historical context, with many quotations in the original language and in translation. Index, bib, vi, 314pp,

SEASONS OF HARVEST: Essays on the Literatures of Lusophone Africa Burness, Donald & Afolabi, Niyi (Eds.) A collection of critical essays by emergent scholars on the work of neglected writers from Portuguese-speaking Africa. Index, notes, 254pp, USA. AFRICA WORLD PRESS, 0865438463

2003 Paperback

Both can be seen :
http://www.africabookcentre.com/acata......

One to look out for will be by Freddie Forsyth, as far as I understand it is in progress.
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/people,...-... "

I've begun Revolution in Guinea: Selected Texts. It's heavy reading in that it's political texts (and published in 1969, when the conflict was still ongoing), but I'm enjoying how smooth Cabral is at pitching to the different audiences.

Sadly, I haven't come up with a good suggestion for Guineau-Bissau that is published in English. No Fist Is Big Enough sounds terrific, but I notice Amazon.com has a only a few used copies starting at $139USD. Ouch! I hate to see Tour d'Afrique skip Guinea-Bissau. It just doesn't seem right. I think we should read Tired of Weeping, even if it isn't our cup of tea.

Sharon, I think we've decided to do a free-for-all for this stop so each participant should pick something that is both interesting (hopefully) and available where they live. And then we can share our thoughts with each other about what we are reading and some of us will be reading the same book or books as others. I've managed to get my hands on both No Fist and Tired of Weeping and I'm hoping to get something similar to what Sho is currently reading. I'll open a proper discussion thread shortly and link back to this one so others can review suggestions that have been posted here.

Marieke wrote: "Sharon, I think we've decided to do a free-for-all for this stop so each participant should pick something that is both interesting (hopefully) and available where they live. And then we can share ..."
Hi Marieke, By free-for-all, do you mean that we should read any book about G-B? Or any African book? I thought you meant skip the whole country. Please clarify.

I meant any book having to do with G-B...I'm sorry that wasn't clear.

FYI:
National radio: Ill president of tiny West African country of Guinea-Bissau dies at 64