Recently in Books Category

Elisée writes:

Yesterday FAVL received a visit from NABIE Wabinlé, a Burkinabe author from the TUY Province. He came to present his book of fables, "La Gazelle et le Caméléon: conte bwaba du Burkina Faso." I met NABIE Wabinlé for the first time at a recent meeting held by the new Minister of Culture. His book is compiled of 11 fables, which uses animals to describe different human behaviors. This book, edited by Harmattan, is an excellent choice for the village libraries.

"Chanda's Secrets" is a heartfelt young adult novel by Canadian Allan Stratton. The book focuses on all aspects of HIV/AIDS but more importantly on the stigma surrounding the virus. It's the story of Chanda, a young woman who witnesses friends and members of her family die off one by one from AIDS, though no one in her village wants to acknowledge it. When her own mother gets sick, Chanda is forced to make some very adult and very difficult decisions. "Mama said I should save my anger to fight in justice. Well, I know what's unjust. The ignorance about AIDS. The shame. The stigma. The silence." Based in an unnamed Sub-Saharan African country, this is one of those universal books that any young adult, whether living in a rural African village or in a bustling American city, would appreciate and be affected by.

 "My name is Malidoma. It means roughly 'Be friends with the stranger/enemy'...As my name implies, I am here in the West to tell the world about my people in any way I can, and to take back to my people the knowledge I gain about this world."

And so begins Malidoma Patrice Somé's Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman, which I can say has been one of my favorite books to read this year.
In his autobiography, Somé seeks to create an understanding of two drastically different worlds: the Dagara of Burkina Faso and the western world. Somé was born in a Dagara village during the early 1950s but is kidnapped by a French Jesuit missionary as a "child of God"--trained to be a priest--where he suffers verbal, physical and sexual abuse. At the age of 20 he escapes and finds his way back to his village but, having lost his ability to speak local language and having a European education, he is not accepted by the villagers ("they understood literacy as an eviction of a soul from its body...to read was to participate in an alien form of magic that was destructive to the tribe"). He undergoes a dangerous 6-week long initiation in order to become one of his people again.

 The book is both engaging and fascinating, but I think I enjoyed it so much for two reasons. 1) Somé is Burkinabè. Gotta support Burkinabè authors! 2) Since I arrived in Burkina, I've always been so curious and intrigued by the world of animism. It is such a strange, magical and secretive religion. I remember when I was in Pobé, I asked several of my friends to tell me more about animistic traditions, but they all responded with a shy smile and a shrug of their shoulders. This nassarra wasn't about to get any information about the secret world of animism. This book, much to my excitement, goes in great detail about some of the animistic rituals, traditions and customs Somé witnessed. As a foreigner reading this, you think that it has to be make-believe. The walking dead, visiting the underworld, defying gravity...these things just don't happen in the "real world." Yet for the Dagara people, it's a part of their life. I found it all so fascinating. I also found myself highlighting phrases, writing in the margins and actually wishing I was back in college having to write a paper on this book.

A quick Google search on Somé tells me that he holds three masters degrees, two doctorates and taught at the University of Michigan. He travels the world sharing his story. The book says he lives in Oakland, though it was published in 1994. Something tells me that meeting Somé would be an incredible experience. 

I read Deborah Scroggins'
"Emma's War" while I was in Togo. Emma McCune was a young, beautiful British woman who came to Sudan as a relief worker and ended up marrying a rebel warlord.
I enjoyed the book but did so mostly because of its descriptions of Sudan. Scroggins is a journalist and it shows; the detail and in-depth explanations demonstrate the extensive research she did. It's very well written. I learnt a great deal more on the country's history: colonization, civil war, massacres and the horrific famines.

While Emma's story is interesting, it doesn't really merit an entire book. (In the book itself it says that Emma tried to get writers to help her with her autobiography. They responded with uninterest; one telling her, "There isn't anything there but a black man boffing a white woman.") Thankfully, Scroggins also recognized this. Instead, the book interweaves Emma's story with the history of Sudan as well as Scroggins' own experiences of reporting in the country. As a volunteer I was also interested in her examination of humanitarian work--why they come and how so often they try to do good but really only cause more damage.

Elisee writes:

La semaine derniere j'ai eu la rare opportunité de lire Sankara le rebelle (livre introuvable) qui est le récit de la très extraordinaire vie de Thomas Sankara, par le journaliste malgache Sennen Andriamirado. Un président qui fait de ''l'avions stop'' ou qui est incapable d'inviter des amis à manger parce que son frigo est vide ou qu'il n'a pas d'argent. Voici autant de réalités  et de privations auxquelles était confronté Sankara par souci d'économie pour les maigres caisses de l'Etat. Ces faits, l'auteur en était témoin, lui qui a eu la chance de partager des moments de vie de ce chef d'Etat hors pair dont il était aussi un ami. Sankara invitait les burkinabè à vivre selon les réalités du pays réel, c'est-à dire vivre en tenant compte des maigres ressources du pays. Sankara le rebelle c'est aussi l'histoire de l'évolution politique et sociale de la Haute Volta entre 1974 et 1986, pays qui a été rebaptisé Burkina Faso, ou ''pays des hommes intègres'' par le même Thomas Sankara. A lire !

Last week I had the rare opportunity to read "Sankara le rebelle" ( a book not found in stores); a story on the extraordinary life of Thomas Sankara, by the Malagasy journalist Sennen Andriamirado. A president who often "hitchhiked" on other presidents' planes and was unable to invite his friends over to eat because his own fridge was empty or he had no money. These were real deprivations that Sankara faced in respect toward the country's meager funds. These facts were witnessed by the author, who had the opportunity to share moments of life with this outstanding head of state as one of his good friends. Sankara invited the burkinabè to live by the realities of the country, meaning living in relation to the country's meager resources. "Sankara le rebelle" is also the story of the political and social evolution of Upper Volta from 1974 to 1986; the country was renamed Burkina Faso, or ''land of the upright people'' by the same Thomas Sankara. A book to be read!

Back in March we visited "Le Salon du Livre de Paris," where we met Natacha N'Guessan working at the Michel Lafon publishing stand. We discussed their brand new "Bouba et Zaza" series. The nicely illustrated African children's books (available in French and English) help discuss concepts that may be difficult for adults and parents to explain to children. At the end of our conversation, Natacha promised to send us a few copies. True to her word, we recently received a package with 6 different "Bouba et Zaza" books as well as two posters. The books focus on topics such as how to protect oneself from malaria, HIV/AIDS, accepting difference (living with a disability), proper hygiene, cultural identity and more.
We'll rotate the books around the 11 libraries so that each librarian can use them during activities and see the books' popularity. I personally think these books are fantastic and if a FAVL supporter is interested in donating books, they would be a great choice! Check out more at http://michel-lafon-education.com/

The Peace Corps transit house has a huge take-a-book/leave-a-book library but you have to spend a lot of time digging through the trashy romance novels before finding a good read. Well, I did some digging and was lucky to come across Uzodinma Iweala's award-winning Beasts of No Nation.

The novel follows Agu, a young boy forced to become a child soldier in an unnamed West African country. In a sort of Pidgen English, Agu describes his horrifying experiences of war, murder, mutilation, rape, cannibalism, starvation and thirst.
 From the depiction of a drugged-up Agu chopping up a woman and her child into bits with his machete to the rape scenes of Agu by his Commander, Iweala gets straight to the point, writing in a raw, crude and explicit style. Iweala hides no details but that's exactly what makes readers understand (well, at least try to understand) the horrors that the narrator goes through.
The scene of Agu's first kill is particularly moving yet disturbing at the same time: "...I am bringing the machete up and down and up and down hearing KPWUDA KPWUDA every time and seeing just pink while I am hearing the laughing KEHI, KEHI, KEHI all around me...Commandant is saying it is like falling in love."

I've read several novels and autobiographies on child soldiers (favorite being Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) and I'm always struck by the fact that no matter how gruesome, violent or animal-like the soldiers become, no matter how many women and girls they rape, no matter how many men they mutilate with machetes, I'm always sympathizing with them. Despite their brutality you never forget they are innocent children, forced into a horrible situation.
 
Even though he commits unthinkable crimes, Agu fights to remember his previous self and the good son he once was. The novel shifts between the present day's war-torn atrocities and Agu's past life of living peacefully with his family: his love of books, his childhood friends, his village, his school-teacher father and his religious mother. It is by living through his memories that Agu tries to convince himself that he is not a "bad boy."

Why write a novel on something so horrific? As the Nigerian-American, Harvard-educated author says in an interview in the back of the book:
"I wrote and write about violence because of a desire to understand what makes people kill, rape and destroy. I wrote and write about violence because of a fear that one day I might be on either the delivering or receiving end of aggression. I wrote and write about violence because there is something fascinating and inspiring about the human ability to cope with and prevail over the worst of circumstances. In short, I wrote and write about violence because of a desire to understand my own and other people's humanness."

It's always hard to say no to "free," especially when you're a village library dependant on donors. But when it comes to books, it's OK to be picky.  
Bereba sent up about 200 recently donated books for us to distribute to the libraries up north. All the northern libraries are new and have a relatively low number of books in stock.   
Before going through the boxes, I KNEW most wouldn't be appropriate for the libraries.  But I was determined that we'd find some semi-appropriate books to use. And we did: a couple old history magazines, a few children's books, science books, and lots of French romance novels that for reasons I will never understand remain popular in the village libraries.
Books falling apart, written in other languages and random books including one on the German secret service in 1972 and another on the French tax system/IRS didn't quite make the cut. Donated books can be great. But one should always try to ask the question "How many children/students/adults from a rural African village do I think will actually read this?"  Nearing the bottom of a box, I gave a little yelp as a scorpion, very much alive with his tail high and ready to sting, crawled through the books. I couldn't help but smirk at the irony as the scorpion stopped directly on the book about the French tax system, tail high in the air. It was as if it was telling me "KEEP AWAY FROM THIS BOOK!" I gladly obliged.  

When I was little, I remember having books that were different versions of the "Cinderella" story from countries across the globe including China, India and Mexico. Looking back now, it was pretty cool how the story varied between diverse cultures and traditions. While going through books that Charley recently bought for the Belehede library, I was caught by the African children's book "Mificao." I can't really say that author Marie Danielle Aka had "The Little Mermaid" story in her head at the time she wrote this but still, you can't help but see the resemblance.

Mificao is a young pink carp who lives in a river near the African village of Seyaba. Everyday she watches in envy as young children play in the water. One day her mother catches her crying and she confesses that she longs to be able to play with them. Her mother takes her to the "Genie des eau" who transforms her into a young (pink) girl. The girl befriends the young children and they take her back to Seyaba to discover life in their village. Mificalo loves her new friends but is horrified by their actions: leaving trash out to rot and stink up the village, hurting/killing birds by throwing rocks at them, cutting and burning down trees. So she teaches the villagers how to respect Mother Nature. Soon, however, she becomes incredibly homesick and misses her parents too much. In the end she returns to the river, transforming back into a carp to be with her family.

Not so much...