African Stars

In recent years black South African music and dance have become ever more popular in the West, where they are now widely celebrated as expressions of opposition to discrimination and repression. Less well known is the rich history of these arts, which were shaped by several generations of black artists and performers whose struggles, visions, and aspirations did not differ fundamentally from those of their present-day counterparts. In five detailed case studies Veit Erlmann digs deep to expose the roots of the most important of these performance traditions. He relates the early history of isicathamiya, the a cappella vocal style made famous by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. In two chapters on Durban between the World Wars he charts the evolution of Zulu music and dance, studying in depth the transformation of ingoma, a dance form popular among migrant workers since the 1930s. He goes on to record the colorful life and influential work of Reuben T. Caluza, South Africa's first black ragtime composer. And Erlmann's reconstruction of the 1890s concert tours of an Afro-American vocal group, Orpheus M. McAdoo and the Virginia Jubilee Singers, documents the earliest link between the African and American performance traditions. Numerous eyewitness reports, musicians' personal testimonies, and song texts enrich Erlmann's narratives and demonstrate that black performance evolved in response to the growing economic and racial segmentation of South African society. Early ragtime, ingoma, and isicathamiya enabled the black urban population to comment on their precarious social position and to symbolically construct a secure space within a rapidly changing political world. Today, South African workers, artists, and youth continue to build upon this performance tradition in their struggle for freedom and democracy. The early performers portrayed by Erlmann were guiding lights—African stars—by which the present and future course of South Africa is being determined.

African Star is the author's memoir of his first voyage as a teenaged cadet on the ship of that name in 1961. It relates his experiences among grizzled seamen aboard ship and ashore in the ports of South and East Africa. It is a humorous re-telling of his coming of age, but it also relates his experiences with and reactions to the injustice of the apartheid system then in full force in South Africa.It is also the story of a bygone era when thousands of American men went to sea in American merchant ships that plied the oceans far and wide. Sadly, that is no longer the reality in 2021, but is now a distant memory. This book serves as a time capsule for the practices and people in the US maritime industry prior to the revolutionary changes wrought by technology, economics and politics that have brought about its near extinction today.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A candid and moving memoir of how one woman’s pregnancy forced her to confront her definition of how to live a successful life “Slyly ironic, frequently hilarious, [Martha] Beck’s memoir charts the journey from being smart to becoming wise.”—Time This edition includes a new afterword about Adam. From the moment Martha and her husband, John, accidentally conceived their second child, all hell broke loose. They were a couple obsessed with success. After years of matching IQs and test scores with less driven peers, they had two Harvard degrees apiece and were gunning for more. They’d plotted out a future in the most vaunted ivory tower of academe. But when their unborn son, Adam, was diagnosed with Down syndrome, doctors, advisers, and friends in the Harvard community warned them that if they decided to keep the baby, they would lose all hope of achieving their carefully crafted goals. Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. By the time Adam was born, Martha and John were propelled into a world in which they were forced to redefine everything of value to them, put all their faith in miracles, and trust that they could fly without a net. And it worked. Expecting Adam captures the abject terror and exhilarating freedom of facing impending parenthood, being forced to question one’s deepest beliefs, and rewriting life’s rules.

Told in the first person and illustrated with dramatic photography that brings kids close to the action, "African Critters" gives readers a glimpse into the life of a wildlife photgrapher. We are with the author in his jeep, with his camera, and even as he's dressing for bed in the wild. From waiting patiently for leapord cubs to come out of their cave to play, to being charged by elephants who were protecting a new baby, to photographing wild dogs hunting impalas, the stories in this book are both intimate and exciting.

Meet the Greatest heroes of africa--from ancient to modern times "The books in the Black Stars series are the types of books that would have really captivated me as a kid." --Earl G. Graves, Black Enterprise magazine Kofi Annan Askia the Great Bambaata Behanzin Hossu Bowelle Stephen Biko Cetewayo Constance Cummings-John Imhotep Kenneth Kaunda Jomo Kenyatta Khama Sir Seretse Khama Patrice Lumumba Albert John Luthuli Nelson Mandela Menelik II Moshesh Mansa Musa Kwame Nkrumah Julius Nyerere Nzingha Piankhy Rabah Haile Selassie Albertina Sisulu Osei Tutu Youssef I

This book illuminates emerging perspectives and possibilities of the vibrant schooling and civic lives of Black African youth and communities in the United States, Canada, and globally. Chapters present key research on how to develop and enact teaching methodologies and research approaches that support Black African immigrant and refugee students. The contributors illuminate contours of the Framework for Educating African Immigrant Youth which focuses on four complementary approaches for teaching and learning: emboldening tellings of diaspora narratives; navigating pasts, presence, and futures of teaching and learning; enacting social civic literacies to extend complex identities; and affirming and extending cultural, heritage, and embodied knowledges, languages, and practices. The frameworks and practices will strengthen how educators address the interplay of identities presented by African, and by extension, Black immigrant populations. Disciplinary perspectives include literacy and language, social studies, civics, mathematics, and higher education; university and community partnerships; teacher education; global and comparative education, and after-school initiatives. Contributors: Susan Akello Ogwal, Sibel Akin-Sabuncu, Irteza Anwara Mohyuddi, OreOluwa Badaki, Joel Berends, Jasmine L. Blanks Jones, David Bwire, Nyimasata Damba Danjo, Liv T. D‡vila, Priscila Dias Corra, Maryann J. Dreas-Shaikha, Patrick Keegan, Dinamic Kubangana, James Alan Oloo, Lakeya Omogun, Oyemolade Osibodu, Natacha Roberts.

Notes from Africa traces the rise of popular music on the continent – beginning in the 1980s when the term ‘world music’ was coined as a marketing label and African musicians, notably Youssou N’Dour and his contemporaries, began to appear on the international stage. This book explains the musical styles that developed from the 1960s, when many African countries gained their independence. It covers developments in music and society in Senegal, in West Africa and around the continent during the post-independence years and right up to the present day. Jenny Cathcart, drawing on her personal experience in Senegal and her work alongside Youssou N’Dour, offers stories and portraits of daily life in Africa. The results are fresh insights into contemporary culture, religion and politics – as well as future collaborations and developments not only on the continent but in the African diaspora too.