China Safari: On the Trail of Beijing's Expansion in Africa

China has now taken Great Britain's place as Africa's third largest business partner. Where others only see chaos, the Chinese see opportunities. With no colonial past and no political preconditions, China is bringing investment and needed infrastructure to a continent that has been largely ignored by Western companies or nations.

Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa

In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes the state of postwar development policy in Africa today and unflinchingly confronts one of the greatest myths of our time: that billions of dollars in aid sent from wealthy countries to developing African nations has helped to reduce poverty and increase growth. Provocatively drawing a sharp contrast between African countries that have rejected the aid route and prospered and others that have become aid-dependent and seen poverty increase, Moyo illuminates the way in which over-reliance on aid has trapped developing nations in a vicious circle of aid dependency, corruption, market distortion, and further poverty, leaving them with nothing but the “need” for more aid.

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles

After a lifetime's close observation of the continent, one of the world's finest Africa correspondents has penned a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa. Dowden's master work in Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles is an attempt to explain why Africa is the way it is and calls for a re-examination of the perception of Africa as “the dark continent.”

A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream

Award winning journalist Mark Gevisser follows the family of former South African President Thabo Mbeki to make sense of the legacy of liberation struggle and understand the future of the country under Jacob Zuma. With unparalleled access to Mbeki and Zuma as well as key ANC leadership, Gevisser presents an intimate yet accessible account of South Africa's past, present and future. With his stunning account of the Mbeki family's history as a backdrop, Gevisser fleshes out the very human elements of a monumental period in world history that will continue to shape African politics for years to come.

Dinner With Mugabe

This penetrating, timely portrait of Robert Mugabe is the psychobiography of a man whose once-brilliant career has ruined Zimbabwe and cast shame on the African continent. Heidi Holland's tireless investigation begins with her having dinner with Mugabe, the freedom fighter, and ends in a searching interview with Zimbabwe's president more than 30 years later. The author charts Mugabe's gradual self-destruction, and uncovers the complicity of some of the most respectable international players in the Zimbabwe tragedy. Probing the mystery of Africa's loyalty to one of its worst dictators, Holland explores the contradictions that cloud the life of a man who had embodied the continent's promise.

The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS

In 1993, Helen Epstein, a scientist working with a biotechnology company searching for an AIDS vaccine, moved to Uganda, where she witnessed firsthand the suffering caused by the epidemic. Now, in her unsparing and illuminating account of this global disease, she describes how international health experts, governments, and ordinary Africans have struggled to understand the rapid and devastating spread of the disease in Africa, and traces the changes wrought by new medical developments and emerging political realities. It is an account of scientific discovery and intrigue with implications far beyond the fight against one tragic disease.

Rabble-Rouser for Peace: The Authorized Biography of Desmond Tutu

To be a rabble-rouser for peace may seem to be a contradiction in terms. And yet it is the perfect description for Desmond Tutu, Nobel laureate and spiritual father of a democratic South Africa. Tutu understood that justice -- a genuine regard for human rights -- is the only real foundation for peace. And so he stirred up trouble, courageously engaging in heated face-to-face confrontations with South Africa's leaders; he stirred up trouble in the streets, leading peaceful demonstrations amid the barely controlled fury of police battalions; he stirred up trouble on the world stage, seeking international disinvestment in the apartheid economy.

The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the heart of Despair

Fifty years ago, as Europe's colonial powers withdrew, Africa moved with enormous hope and fervor toward democracy and economic independence.

When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa

In this book, France's leading medical anthropologist takes on one of the most tragic stories of the global AIDS crisis--the failure of the ANC government to stem the tide of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa. Didier Fassin traces the deep roots of the AIDS crisis to apartheid and, before that, to the colonial period.

When She Was White: The Story of Sandra Laing: race and Reconciliation in South Africa

During the worst years of official racism in South Africa, the story of one young girl gripped the nation and came to symbolize the injustice, corruption, and arbitrary nature of apartheid.

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