My Heart Is Africa

In 1996, Scott Griffin left the comfortable routine of his life as a successful businessman to fly solo to Africa in his single-engine Cessna 180 to work for the Flying Doctors Service, an African organization that flies doctors and nurses to remote areas to administer medical assistance. My Heart is Africa is an engaging personal story of his two-year adventure but it is also the story of Africa -- its problems and people, its landscape and limitations, its culture and courage. Griffin's intrepid flying odyssey takes the reader on a journey across Africa and into the lives of the doctors, nurses, aid workers and eccentric characters that crossed his path along the way. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the AMREF Flying Doctors Service.

Banff Award Winner: “Like David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, this is two stories, of an explorer and of the author’s search for him, and both are compelling.” —Library Journal In 1898 the dashing British adventurer Ewart “the Leopard” Grogan fell head-over-heels in love—but before he could marry, he needed the approval of his beloved’s skeptical aristocratic stepfather. Grogan, seeking to prove his worth and earn her hand, set out on an epic quest to become the first man to walk the entire length of Africa, from Cape Town to Cairo, a feat, as the New York Times put it, “hitherto thought by many explorers to be impossible.” A little more than a century later, American journalist Julian Smith also found himself madly in love with his girlfriend of seven years . . . but terrified by the prospect of marriage. Inspired by Grogan’s story, which he discovered by chance, Smith decided to face his fears of commitment by retracing the explorer’s amazing—but now forgotten—4,500-mile journey for love and glory through Africa. Crossing the Heart of Africa is the unforgettable account of these twin adventures, as Smith beautifully interweaves his own contemporary journey with Grogan’s larger-than-life tale of cannibal attacks, charging elephants, deadly jungles, and romantic triumph. “Not only a modern-day travelogue, but also a great historical account of a charming trailblazer, and the story of a modern-day relationship.” —Miami Herald “Smith, a talented travel writer . . . evokes Grogan, his adventures, and his world with both insight and panache . . . and matchless skill.” —The Washington Post “A rapturous adventure narrative that shows love really does conquer all.” —Hampton Sides, New York Times–bestselling author of In the Kingdom of Ice Gold Prize Winner, Society of American Travel Writers Western Writing Awards Banff Mountain Book Competition Winner, Special Jury Mention American Society of Journalists and Authors Award Winner: Best Book (Memoir)

This book takes the reader on a delightful journey into Africa and into the world of a little girl called Tippi who tells her unforgettable story on her return from Africa to France at the age of ten. Tippi is no ordinary child. She believes that she has the gift of talking to animals and that they are like brothers to her. Her world is filled with characters like Leon the Chameleon, Abu the elephant whom she calls ‘my brother’, and leopards, snakes, baboons, lions and ostriches ... ‘I speak to them with my mind, or through my eyes, my heart or my soul, and I see that they understand and answer me.’ My Book of Africa contains the words of a little girl who has the gift of reaching out and touching the people and animals of Africa. It s beautifully illustrated with over 100 magical photographs taken by her parents, French filmmakers and photographers, Sylvie Robert and Alain Degré.

When Eddy Harris went to Africa, he ended up learning a great deal about his own identity as a black American as well as witnessing both the splendor and squalor of the continent. From encounters with beggars and bureaucrats to a visit to Soweto and a hellish night in a Liberian jail, Harris evokes Africa with candor and vividness.

An essay collection that offers “a fascinating glimpse of post-apartheid South Africa” from the bestselling author of My Traitor’s Heart (The Sunday Times). The Lion Sleeps Tonight is Rian Malan’s remarkable chronicle of South Africa’s halting steps and missteps, taken as blacks and whites try to build a new country. In the title story, Malan investigates the provenance of the world-famous song, recorded by Pete Seeger and REM among many others, which Malan traces back to a Zulu singer named Solomon Linda. He follows the trial of Winnie Mandela; he writes about the last Afrikaner, an old Boer woman who settled on the slopes of Mount Meru; he plunges into President Mbeki’s AIDS policies of the 1990s; and finally he tells the story of the Alcock brothers (sons of Neil and Creina whose heartbreaking story was told in My Traitor’s Heart), two white South Africans raised among the Zulu and fluent in their language and customs. The twenty-one essays collected here, combined with Malan’s sardonic interstitial commentary, offer a brilliantly observed portrait of contemporary South Africa; “a grimly realistic picture of a nation clinging desperately to hope” (The Guardian).

Documents the author's journeys through Mali, Mauritania, and Niger, discussing the inspiration for her travels, the women who adopted her into their ranks, and her discoveries about the region's forgotten areas and future promise.

In 1996, successful businessman and certified pilot, Scott Griffin, decided to break from the comfortable routine of his life to go work for the Flying Doctors Service, an African organization that flies doctors to remote areas to administer medical assistance. Griffin also made the daring decision to fly his small, single-engine Cessna 180 solo from Canada to Africa and back again. My Heart is Africa is the engaging, personal story of Griffin’s two-year aviation adventure throughout Africa. Facing storms, equipment problems, fuel shortages and isolation, Griffin successfully made his way to Kenya – little did he know, his harrowing flight over the Atlantic was only the beginning of his adventure. Once in Africa, Griffin circumnavigated the continent, flying over deserts, mountains and jungles both as a medical volunteer and tourist. Throughout his journey – which included being arrested and crashing, then re-crashing, his plane – Griffin discovered the heartrending humanity and beauty of Africa. My Heart is Africa is an absorbing adventure story, but it is also the story of Africa – its problems and people, its landscapes and limitations, its culture and courage. Griffin’s intrepid flying odyssey not only takes the reader on a journey across Africa but into the lives of all the doctors, nurses, aid workers and eccentric characters that crossed his path along the way. My Heart is Africa is a fascinating and gripping account of one man’s quest to push beyond his personal limits in order to explore and experience a new way of life.

The controversy surrounding the significant "Into the Heart of Africa" exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada is explored in this compelling and analytical text. The exhibit has become an international, controversial touchstone for issues surrounding the politics of visual representation, such as the challenges to curatorial and ethnographic authority in multicultural and postcolonial contexts. Asking why the museum's exhibit failed so many people, the author examines such issues as institutional politics, the broad political and intellectual climate surrounding museums, the legacies of colonialism and traditions of representation of Africa, and the politics of irony. By drawing upon anthropological and cultural criticism, the book offers a unique account of the ways in which an ambiguous exhibit about colonialism became the site of an expansiveInto the Heart of Africa."

Thirteen years before the bloody 1994 genocide that swept across Rwanda and left more than a million people dead, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ appeared to eight young people in the remote village of Kibeho. Through these visionaries, Mary and Jesus warned of the looming holocaust, which they assured could be averted if Rwandans opened their hearts to God and embraced His love.

Unable to rest after learning about the Great Depression taking place in America, Kedi, a young Cameroonian, resolves to help starving families in a faraway country, in a story inspired by true events. By the author of the Milo & Jazz Mysteries.