Astonishing True Story of the Miracles That Are Changing Africa Born into a long line of witch doctors, Surprise ("Surpresa") Sithole was destined for a life of fear, oppression, and poverty in the jungles of Africa. But at the age of fifteen, he was awakened in the middle of the night by an unfamiliar voice. Urgent, but not harsh, it told him to get up and leave his family immediately. As Surprise stepped out into the night, away from everything dear to him, he had no idea who God was--or what he had in store for him. From miraculous signs and wonders to supernatural deliverance from certain death to divine revivals that overtook countries, Surprise has followed wherever God has led, becoming an agent of hope and change in a continent devastated by war, poverty, and spiritual oppression. Voice in the Night is the amazing true story of what began that night in a jungle hut more than twenty-five years ago: a journey--an adventure--of faith and miracles.

Facing Mount Kenya, first published in 1938, is a monograph on the life and customs of the Gikuyu people of central Kenya prior to their contact with Europeans. It is unique in anthropological literature for it gives an account of the social institutions and religious rites of an African people, permeated by the emotions that give to customs and observances their meaning. It is characterised by both insight and a tinge of romanticism. The author, proud of his African blood and ways of thought, takes the reader through a thorough and clear picture of Gikuyu life and customs, painting an almost utopian picture of their social norms and the sophisticated codes by which all aspects of the society were governed. This book is one of a kind, capturing and documenting traditions fast disappearing. It is therefore a must-read for all who want to learn about African culture.

Presents a collection of African folk tales and myths.

In Voice of the Leopard: African Secret Societies and Cuba, Ivor L. Miller shows how African migrants and their political fraternities played a formative role in the history of Cuba. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no large kingdoms controlled Nigeria and Cameroon's multilingual Cross River basin. Instead, each settlement had its own lodge of the initiation society called Ékpè, or “leopard,” which was the highest indigenous authority. Ékpè lodges ruled local communities while also managing regional and long-distance trade. Cross River Africans, enslaved and forcibly brought to colonial Cuba, reorganized their Ékpè clubs covertly in Havana and Matanzas into a mutual-aid society called Abakuá, which became foundational to Cuba's urban life and music. Miller's extensive fieldwork in Cuba and West Africa documents ritual languages and practices that survived the Middle Passage and evolved into a unifying charter for transplanted slaves and their successors. To gain deeper understanding of the material, Miller underwent Ékpè initiation rites in Nigeria after ten years' collaboration with Abakuá initiates in Cuba and the United States. He argues that Cuban music, art, and even politics rely on complexities of these African-inspired codes of conduct and leadership. Voice of the Leopard is an unprecedented tracing of an African title-society to its Caribbean incarnation, which has deeply influenced Cuba's creative energy and popular consciousness.

An electrifying debut from a winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing E. C. Osondu is a fearless and passionate new writer, whose stories echo the joys and struggles of a cruel, beautiful world. His characters burst from the page—they fight, beg, love, grieve, but ultimately they are dreamers. Set in Nigeria and the United States, Voice of America moves from the fears and dreams of boys and girls in villages and refugee camps to the disillusionment and confusion of young married couples living in America, and then back to bustling Lagos. In "Waiting," two young refugees make their way through another day, fighting for meals and hoping for a miracle that will carry them out of the camp; in "A Simple Case," the boyfriend of a prostitute is rounded up by the local police and must charm his fellow prisoners for protection and survival; and in "Miracle Baby," the trials of pregnancy and mothers-in-law are laid bare in a woman’s return to her homeland. Each of the eighteen stories here possesses a voice at once striking and elegant, capturing the dramatic lives of an unforgettable cast of characters. Written with exhilarating energy and warmth, the stories of Voice of America are full of humor, pathos, and wisdom, marking the debut of an extraordinary new talent.

The Voice of a People: Speeches from Black America is a collection of speeches from some of the leading African American intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers of the past three centuries. While many of their names―such as Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Frederick Douglass―will be familiar to most readers, some―such as Jermain Wesley Loguen, Randall Albert Carter, and Samuel H. Davis―are less well known, but no less important to the history of Black America. The individuals whose voices make up this collection come from a range of professional and personal backgrounds. Many of them were born into slavery. Some escaped. Some were poets, preachers, ministers, and bishops. Some were educators, activists, academics, abolitionists, and suffragists. All of them, despite their differences, contributed to the vibrant, invaluable history of a people who first built this nation before fighting to reclaim its soul for future generations.

This publication provides the first comprehensive assessment of the relationship between trade standards and development priorities in Africa, with case studies of the use of international standards and capacity for compliance in five countries: Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. It describes the economic context of trade standards in these countries, and examines the mechanisms by which standards and regulations are established and revised at local and international levels. It also considers the probable impact of new standards, regulations and related production/marketing practices in key industries.