After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downwards into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years. Then Godwin discovered... View More...
In Shebeen Tales, Zimbabwe's leading author offers a view of his country not from the privileged and insulated perspective of the foreign correspondent or well-heeled visitor, but that of the ordinary person who, with the help of dry wit and illegal beer, pokes fun at the rich and mighty. Struggling against drivers, pompous bureaucrats and the other woes of life in the city, the man in the shebeen sees modern Africa as it really is, not as press releases or tourist brochures would have us believe. View More...
"A fascinating, intriguing, well-argued, and intelligently conceived study of an important problem. . . . The work leads to a conclusion of significance for all of us concerned with better understanding the political world in which Islam is a dominant factor."--Charles Butterworth, University of Maryland Public strategies for international aid and development often fail in areas in which private initiative succeeds. Examining the role of Islamic, Christian, and secular private voluntary organizations (PVOs) in Egypt's socioeconomic development, Denis Sullivan shows that grassroots groups are a... View More...
