The Heart Of Africa

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)

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.

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."

Connecting a tumultuous past with an uncertain present, this is the complete story of a region whose fate will affect an entire continent. photo insert.

Africa’s Media Image in the 21st Century is the first book in over twenty years to examine the international media’s coverage of sub-Saharan Africa. It brings together leading researchers and prominent journalists to explore representation of the continent, and the production of that image, especially by international news media. The book highlights factors that have transformed the global media system, changing whose perspectives are told and the forms of media that empower new voices. Case studies consider questions such as: how has new media changed whose views are represented? Does Chinese or diaspora media offer alternative perspectives for viewing the continent? How do foreign correspondents interact with their audiences in a social media age? What is the contemporary role of charity groups and PR firms in shaping news content? They also examine how recent high profile events and issues been covered by the international media, from the Ebola crisis, and Boko Haram to debates surrounding the "Africa Rising" narrative and neo-imperialism. The book makes a substantial contribution by moving the academic discussion beyond the traditional critiques of journalistic stereotyping, Afro-pessimism, and ‘darkest Africa’ news coverage. It explores the news outlets, international power dynamics, and technologies that shape and reshape the contemporary image of Africa and Africans in journalism and global culture.

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.

When Vietnam veteran and foreign correspondent Charlie Gage is recruited by the shadowy Thomas Colfax to assist with something called Operation Atropos, he has no idea he is about to be enlisted for guerilla warfare in northeast Africa. Once he realizes he’s a mercenary, however, he is not at all concerned. Ever since his young secretary was killed by a grenade at their bureau office in Beirut a couple of years before, he has lost all volition. Which is why he so readily capitulates not only to Colfax, but also, and more dangerously so, to every command of Jeremy Nordstrand, the mystical megalomaniac determined to achieve greatness on their seemingly suicidal mission. Set in the forsaken yet exotic deserts of Ethiopia, Horn of Africa is a vividly detailed and masterfully plotted novel chronicling a broken man’s struggle for salvation and inner freedom in the midst of a broken nation’s fight for stability and peace.

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.