Book reviews

  Martin Plaut and Paul Holden, Who Rules South Africa Jonathan ball, Johannesburg and Cape Town, 2012. Midrand and beyond The ANC policy conference in Midrand at the end of June was a forerunner for what is to come at

Read the rest of Who Rules South Africa? Negotiating the complex web of ANC politics – By Keith Somerville »

Writing a book about Somalia has become a cotton industry of late. Countless pundits with little or no experience of the country try to reduce its extraordinarily intricate conflict to images of destruction, decay and death. But Mary Harper’s book,

Read the rest of Getting Somalia Wrong: a history of international misreading – By Abdi Aynte »

It’s always been hard to find a framework for analyzing Somalia.  It has one of the most ethnically homogenous populations in Africa – Somalis share the same language, culture, religion and clan structure – yet the country seems constantly riven

Read the rest of Getting Somalia Wrong? – Signs of hope in a shattered state – a realistic but empathetic analysis – review by Keith Somerville »

The next book in the African Arguments series is Getting Somalia Wrong by BBC journalist Mary Harper. It is a complex account of a country too often stereotyped by one or two of its most notorious characteristics – recently these

Read the rest of Getting Somalia Wrong: faith, war and hope in a shattered state – By Magnus Taylor »

Noo Saro Wiwa’s heritage made writing a book about Nigeria a complicated proposition. As the daughter of murdered environmental activist Ken Saro Wiwa, one can imagine how Noo fought the idea of piggybacking on her long deceased father’s fame when,

Read the rest of Noo Saro Wiwa goes home: Looking for Transwonderland – A review by Magnus Taylor »

“I’ve given up on being negative – there are too many things to save, and too many important things to do,” says Jonathan Ledgard – a foreign correspondent and author whose work has been compared with that of the German

Read the rest of “If Somalia fails, it will fail like a Catherine Wheel” – in conversation with Jonathan Ledgard, author of ‘Submergence’ – By Magnus Taylor »