Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea
10 best books like Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea (Robert D. Kaplan): Darfur: A Short History of a Long War, Blue Clay People: Seasons on Africa's Fragile Edge, In Ethiopia with a Mule, Somebody's Heart Is Burning: A Woman Wanderer in Africa, The Black Nile: One Man's Amazing Journey Through Peace and War on the World's Longest River, Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival, Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe, Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa, To Timbuktu: A Journey Down the Niger, Tropical Gangsters: One Man's Experience with Development and Decadence in Deepest Africa
Darfur: A Short History of a Long War
| Author | Alex de Waal |
| ISBN | 1842776975 |
In the predominantly Kobe village of Girgira close to the Chad border, local people said that Antonovs, gunships, troops, and militia from West Darfur killed 148 people in January 2004. [the quote relates the story of one woman who was held and raped for 7 days, whose handicapped brother was shot and...
| Author | William Powers |
| ISBN | 1582346445 |
"A haunting account of one man's determination and the struggles of a people living in a deeply troubled country."--Booklist
When William Powers went to Liberia as a fresh-faced aid worker in 1999, he was given the mandate to "fight poverty and save the rainforest." It wasn't long before Powers...
| Author | Dervla Murphy |
| ISBN | 0006547982 |
Spurred on by romantic childhood memories of names such as Prester John, the Queen of Sheba and the Lion of Judah, and by a vision of Ethiopia as beautiful, dangerous and mysterious, Dervla Murphy set out on a hazardous trek through the Ethiopian highlands. She travelled against official advice and,...
| Author | Tanya Shaffer |
| ISBN | 1400032598 |
“It's my life, and if I want to run from it I can,” quips Tanya Shaffer. An incorrigible wanderer, Shaffer has a habit of fleeing domesticity for the joys and rigors of the open road. This time her destination is Ghana, and what results is a transformative year spent roaming the African continent....
| Author | Dan Morrison |
| ISBN | 0670021989 |
A spectacular modern-day adventure along the Nile River from Lake Victoria to the Mediterranean Sea
With news of tenuous peace in Sudan, foreign correspondent Dan Morrison bought a plank-board boat, summoned a childhood friend who'd never been off American soil and set out from Uganda,...
Born in the Big Rains: A Memoir of Somalia and Survival
| Author | Fadumo Korn |
| ISBN | 1558615318 |
This powerful memoir portrays the life-altering transformation of a feisty nomad girl who undergoes genital excision. Crippled with rheumatism as a result of the cutting, Fadumo Korn, who once freely roamed the deserts of her native Somalia, is sent to live with a wealthy uncle, brother to the...
Where We Have Hope: A Memoir of Zimbabwe
| Author | Andrew Meldrum |
| ISBN | 0802142516 |
Where We Have Hope is the gripping memoir of a young American journalist. In 1980, Andrew Meldrum arrived in a Zimbabwe flush with new independence, and he fell in love with the country and its optimism. But over the twenty years he lived there, Meldrum watched as President Robert Mugabe consolidated...
Famine Crimes: Politics and the Disaster Relief Industry in Africa
| Author | Alex de Waal |
| ISBN | 0253211581 |
"A powerful critique of the international humanitarian agencies dominating famine relief in Africa." --Foreign Affairs
"This is unquestionably an important book by a writer whose accomplishments as a researcher, critic and activist on famine and on human rights in Africa are widely respect."...
| Author | Mark Jenkins |
| ISBN | 0688115853 |
Twenty years ago, when the author and his best friend, Mike Moe, were eighteen years old, they lit out from Wyoming to explore the world. They washed up in Africa and without forethought or planning set off for the most remote place on earth they could imagine: Timbuktu. Stopped by disease and the desert,...
| Author | Robert Klitgaard |
| ISBN | 0465087604 |
I'm not really sure why I enjoyed this book so much; the author talked a lot about economic restructuring/ governmental organization/ etc (snore). But, every time it threatened to get bogged down, he redirected his focus to the people, culture, and natural beauty of the country. He came away from his...
| Author | Ann Jones |
| ISBN | 0375705333 |
The adventure began when a young British photographer, Kevin Muggleton, suggested driving from one end of Africa to the other–“You know, the old ‘Cape to Cairo’ sort of thing.” For the renowned feminist writer Ann Jones, it soon became an expedition with a mission: to find the legendary...
| Author | Robert Calderisi |
| ISBN | 0300120176 |
After years of frustration at the stifling atmosphere of political correctness surrounding discussions of Africa, long time World Bank official Robert Calderisi speaks out. He boldly reveals how most of Africa's misfortunes are self-imposed, and why the world must now deal differently with the...
The Ringtone and the Drum: Travels in the World's Poorest Countries
| Author | Mark Weston |
| ISBN | 1780995865 |
Laced with danger, packed with novel insights and told with a humane voice, The Ringtone and the Drum relates the fascinating tale of Mark Weston’s travels in West Africa. His journey through Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso touches a dizzying array of subjects, including the consequences...
Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure
| Author | Julian Smith |
| ISBN | 0061873470 |
Here is the amazing true story of Julian Smith, who retraced the journey of legendary British explorer Ewart ''the Leopard'' Grogan, the first man to cross the length of Africa, in hopes of winning the heart of the woman he loved.
In 1898 the dashing young British explorer Ewart ''the Leopard''...
The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa
| Author | Adam Roberts |
| ISBN | 1586483714 |
Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billiondollar corruption,...
Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil
| Author | John Ghazvinian |
| ISBN | 0151011389 |
Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between...
Me Against My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan and Rwanda
| Author | Scott Peterson |
| ISBN | 0415930634 |
As a foreign correspondent, Scott Peterson witnessed firsthand Somalia's descent into war and its battle against US troops, the spiritual degeneration of Sudan's Holy War, and one of the most horrific events of the last half century: the genocide in Rwanda. In Me Against My Brother, he brings these...
The World's Most Dangerous Place: Inside the Outlaw State of Somalia
| Author | James Fergusson |
| ISBN | 0593068351 |
Although the war in Afghanistan is now in its endgame, the West's struggle to eliminate the threat from Al Qaeda is far from over. A decade after 9/11, the war on terror has entered a new phase and, it would seem, a new territory. In early 2010, Al Qaeda operatives were reportedly "streaming" out of central...
Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror
| Author | Mahmood Mamdani |
| ISBN | 0307377237 |
From the author of Good Muslim, Bad Muslim comes an important book, unlike any other, that looks at the crisis in Darfur within the context of the history of Sudan and examines the world’s response to that crisis.
In Saviors and Survivors, Mahmood Mamdani explains how the conflict in Darfur...
| Author | Michela Wrong |
| ISBN | 0007241968 |
Speaking of my own country, there goes a lot I know only in skimpy details. Thanks to this book, I delved into a deeper understanding of stuff I used to see in the news (and let pass disinterestedly) when I was in High School. Grand corruption has happened in Kenya, and still happens. And to my understanding,...
The Devil Came on Horseback: Bearing Witness to the Genocide in Darfur
| Author | Brian Steidle |
| ISBN | 1586484745 |
Former United States Marine Brian Steidle served for six months in Darfur as an unarmed military observer for the African Union. There he witnessed first-hand the ongoing genocide, and documented every day of his experience using email, audio journals, notebook after notebook and nearly 1,000 photographs....
Lonely Planet South Africa Lesotho & Swaziland
| Author | Lonely Planet |
| ISBN | 1740599705 |
South Africa is the most popular kid on the block in Africa and it's easy to see why. The southern end of Africa teems with adventure: hike, bike and fly amid craggy peaks and open plains, catch a tantalising glimpse of streakily painted zebras in the savanna, encounter the vibrant cultures of San, Khoikhoi,...
Where Soldiers Fear to Tread: A Relief Worker's Tale of Survival
| Author | John S. Burnett |
| ISBN | 0553382608 |
“There is going to be a shooting here and it is a toss-up who is going to get the boy’s first round. The soldier, about ten years old, is jamming the barrel of his gun hard against my driver’s face, and unless the kid decides to go for me, the relief worker, my driver is going to get his head blown off.”
Where...
