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in praise of the calabash is a poetic tribute to the African way of life. The calabash, which is the fruit of a vine, is used as a bottle, bowl or pipe in various parts of Africa. It embodies individuality and community at the same time. Calabashes are used during festivals, funerals, and other tribal fun fare. It is the primarily used utensil for libation.
In this collection of poems, Prince Kwasi Mensah pays homage to the past, present and future. He singles out historical figures like Yaa Asantewaa, a warrior-queen who stood against foreign invasion. Prince picks out various unique features of the African life for discussion.
in praise of the calabash is about identity and ideology. It is a poet's odyssey to find himself amidst the claims other things have on him. ... Read more

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"[T]his is scholarship of the highest quality . . . Peel lifts the Yoruba past to a dimension of comparative seriousness that no one else has managed." --Thomas McCaskie

In this magisterial book, J. D. Y. Peel contends that it was through their encounter with Christian missions in the mid-19th century that the Yoruba of southwestern Nigeria came to know themselves as a distinctive people. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

excellent look at historical records
This book is a scholarly look at 19th century Yorubaland through close reading of Church Missionary Society archive materials (reports, journal entries, letters, etc.) which detail Mission activity, historical events, religious prosthelization, and numerous anecdotes of daily life and cultural struggle (between competing factions of Africans, as well as between Christianity and indigenous religion) during this chaotic period of Yoruba history. Many of the missionaries were themselves African and thus had a solid cultural and linguistic background from which to draw their observations, though, as Peel notes, they also had their agendas. As the foundation of the Yoruba modern intelligencia came out of the missionary movement (as did the written form of the Yoruba language and the first inscribed histories), this is a critical historical moment that Peel explores using contemporary 19th century eye-witness accounts. As the title notes, Peel feels that this religious encounter between Yoruba indigenous religion and British/Yoruba Christianity is very relevant and formative to the modern notion of being Yoruba. It is very thorough (and thus a tad slow) and aimed primarily at a scholarly readership.

I truly doubt the previous reviewer actually read the book, as it is the 19th century missionaries who use the word "pagan" to describe indigenous religion, not the author.

Old wine in a new bottle.
I found this book to be unfocused, and the title, misleading. It's repeated description of the Yorubas and their religion as "pagans" and "paganism" is a throwback to the 18th century. The chapter, "Making Country Fashion", which takes an 18th century "pidgin english" phrase by "Saro" returnees and applies it to the Yoruba religion patently trivializes the religion. His translation of Yoruba words and phrases, in many instances, is erroneous or misleading. His conclusions, in many instances are unsupported or at best tenuous. For instance, his confident "certainty" that the Ifa divination system was derived from Islamic geomancy. He also dredges up old controversies, such as the existence, or lack thereof, of one God in Yoruba religion. In conclusion, this book contributes nothing to the discourse, and is a waste of money. ... Read more

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A young Nigerian girl re-discovers her father and her native country and comes face to face with the hidden secrets of her past which will reveal her true identity. ... Read more

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Two book set. BOOK 1: DIRECTORY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS - Contains project descriptions for the International Exposition of Rural Development. All over the world rural development projects have been initiated which aim at activating local power and promoting local initiative - the alternative projects in the First World and the self-help or towards self-help in the Third World. BOOK 2 - APPROACHES THAT WORK IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT - Covers emerging trends, participatory methods and local initiatives. Chapters include: Development - For What? The Role of the private voluntary sector. The growing relationship between NGOs and the UN System. Partners in Dialogue. The Collaborative Mode. Strengthening Indigenous Institutions. Management development. Cultural Dimensions. Theology of Development. Participation: The basis for development. Training for participation. Integrated development - a Mexican example. Evaluation as if people mattered. Imaginal education. Empowering the grassroots. Catalyzing primary health care. Cooperatives: Key to Nigeria's rural mobilization. Self-Reliance by default in Tanzania. Empirical strategies of bottom-up development. Development with a human face. ... Read more

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In the seventies, as signs of decay began to show in the capitalist experiment of the newly independent African countries, a "bard of the misrule" emerged on the streets of Lagos. Often shirtless and armed with his trademark saxophone, Fela Anikulapo Kuti tore his way into popular culture with Afrobeat music. Blending ethno-traditional forms with the reigning highlife and jazz rhythms, Afrobeat drew lyrics from the flip side of neo-colonial society and Fela's London and American experience in the sixties.

In the two decades that followed, Fela ruled the nights from Afrika Shrine, his signature night club, and the days from the turntables of the restless city dwellers along the Atlantic coastline. Fela’s Afrobeat became a dynamic mode of expression in the social history of post-independent West Africa and generated a counterculture that bonded through music, drugs, resistance politics—and ultimately, the nascence of an Afrocentric contemporary global culture. ... Read more

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Chinua Achebe is one of the world’s leading novelists, a writer who, according to Nadine Gordimer, "makes you laugh and then catches your breath in horror."Growing up in the cultural crossroads of colonial Nigeria, he lived and mediated in a world in which people moved between allegiance to traditional Igbo beliefs and values and those introduced by the British, particularly Anglican Christianity under the Church Missionary Society (CMS).

His urge to write developed as an answer to European caricatures of African characters in such novels as Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson or Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.Africans needed to tell their own stories, and Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, became the first attempt by an African to tell a serious African story.Its remarkable success, compared to the works of the best in Greek tragedy, launched the development of a whole continent’s literature, and resulted in the appointment ofChinua Achebe as the founding editor of Heinemann Publishers’ African Writers Series.

Witnessing the fateful 1966 coup led by the young Igbo soldier, Captain Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu, and the horrific backlash against the Igbos, Achebe, then Director of External Broadcasting for Radio Nigeria, began to lose hope in a united Nigeria and subsequently became a lead figure during the Nigerian Civil War in the struggle for Biafran independence.Since the end of the Civil War, Achebe has been an active voice against all forms of indiscipline in Nigeria, teaching, participating in politics, and writing.He is the recipient of several major international awards and recognition.The Times of London named him as "one of the 1,000 Makers of the 20th Century."This book, intended for youth and the general reader, is the story of his remarkable life. ... Read more

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Book Review

Many people merely dream of traveling around the world. This highly unusual man acts on his dreams. Every time he starts to wonder about an interesting place he has not been, he simply packs his bags, grabs a camera and goes to the airport to claim his seat. Soon he is in Brazil, China, Africa or anywhere there are people to meet, things to see and do, like taking pictures, buying art, shaking hands, asking questions and being entertained by professional guides and story tellers. "Hello, how are you, good to meet you. I'm Leon Freeman from Memphis, Tennessee." I found his introduction by a tribesman in Papua New Guinea as a cousin the most striking story of them all.

Mr. Freeman retired from his school teaching career and immediately set out to explore the world. Over the years he visited five continents, sixty-two countries and a string of islands ringing the globe like pearls. He discovered one satisfying fundamental fact: in human essence, we are all one. Whatever differences there might be in our outer physical appearance or our diverse cultural extensions, there are no qualitative differences to the principle: 'all human babies are created equal.'

In this picture book, Mr. Freeman provides the viewer with unforgettable, vicarious experiences to enjoy time and time again for many years to come.

- Maia Jaribu Ajanaku, SMU - Retired Teacher, Entrepreneur ... Read more

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Nigeria is both blessed and cursed by its natural resources: blessed because the federal government gains a huge source of income through oil mining; cursed because of the socio-political and environmental upheaval that oil creates. The littoral states wh ... Read more

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This work is part of a comprehensive series of reference books providing a look at the way of life, beliefs and achievements of the ancient cultures. It begins with early African kingdoms such as Kush, Mali, Ife and Zimbabwe, before moving on to Benin, its warrior kings, contact with Europe, decline and fall. It then turns to later kingdoms, Asante and the Zulus. The second half looks at politics and society, trade, military life, religion, art and everyday life in the kingdoms, especially Benin. The final chapter examines their legacy for present day Africa. ... Read more

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"Excerpt from the book..."

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the coastal parts of Africa
were of course well-known, and in any of the territories round the
coasts there were European officials
... Read more

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"Excerpt from the book..."

Have any of you made a passage on board a steamer between London and
Leith?If you have, you will have seen no small number of brigs and
brigantines
... Read more