On an ordinary day, in ordinary New Zealand, an ordinary girl becomes extraordinary. Told through her mother's eyes, Walking to Africa follows the girl's journey through the strange, new and sometimes frightening world of mental health care. We meet specialists A through F, other kids, friends who want to help, an angel/nurse and the Ghostman - alongside therapies and cures, strategies and rites. Walking to Africa is a fluid and unusual narrative collection of poetry that portrays a parent's experience of coming to terms with the new and frightening world of mental health care. Jessica Le Bas wrote the collection to find a place of reconciliation, a harbour from the waywardness of life. By the end of the book she ushers in understanding: mental illness may have no definitive solutions but there are ways of living with it. Walking to Africa is without doubt the most moving collection of poems to appear in New Zealand for many years.

South Africa has a unique set of characteristics that make walking safaris in big game areas one of the safest and most rewarding outdoor experiences: a huge expanse of protected habitat richly populated with wildlife; excellent tourism facilities; a favourable climate; and expertly trained trail guides. Seasoned hikers, Hlengiwe Magagula and Denis Costello describe more than 50 guided walks across 22 parks and reserves in South Africa – from short dawn and dusk walks and multi-day outings from a base camp to backpacking trails that span several days. Facilities range from ultra-luxurious to ‘wild camping’, either in tents or under the stars. Also included is a series of first-hand accounts that vividly illustrate the magical experience of exploring the bush on foot. An advisory section gives a rundown of when to go, what to pack, what to wear, and the dos and don’ts of walking in areas with big game. Both a practical guide to walking in the wild and a lodestar to the wonders and restorative powers of the natural world. Sales points: Multiple trail types, durations and difficulty levels to suit all needs; experts’ selection of safe, affordable walks led by professional guides; practical advice, inspiring first-hand accounts, and full-colour images.

"Traversa" is a fascinating account of the hardships and hilarity Fran Sandham experienced during his epic solo journey on foot across Africa, from the Skeleton Coast to the Indian Ocean through Namibia, Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania. Inspired by the legendary crossings of the great explorers, Sandham left the daily grind of London to undertake an extraordinary adventure. "Traversa" describes his brushes with danger in the form of lions and snakes, land mines and bandits, his 2-month battle with a syphilitic donkey, malaria and the everyday troubles that arise when walking across Africa. Underpinned with stories of the great explorers themselves - Livingstone, Stanley and Galton among others - "Traversa" is the written proof of Sandham's grit, determination and sheer obsession with the continent of Africa.

Song Walking explores the politics of land, its position in memories, and its foundation in changing land-use practices in western Maputaland, a borderland region situated at the juncture of South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland. Angela Impey investigates contrasting accounts of this little-known geopolitical triangle, offsetting textual histories with the memories of a group of elderly women whose songs and everyday practices narrativize a century of borderland dynamics. Drawing evidence from women’s walking songs (amaculo manihamba)—once performed while traversing vast distances to the accompaniment of the European mouth-harp (isitweletwele)—she uncovers the manifold impacts of internationally-driven transboundary environmental conservation on land, livelihoods, and local senses of place. This book links ethnomusicological research to larger themes of international development, environmental conservation, gender, and local economic access to resources. By demonstrating that development processes are essentially cultural processes and revealing how music fits within this frame, Song Walking testifies to the affective, spatial, and economic dimensions of place, while contributing to a more inclusive and culturally apposite alignment between land and environmental policies and local needs and practices.

The pages of this book open the doors to a life-changing experience rich with unexpected fellowship, insight and self-discovery. Ward's adventure walking across the terrains of East Africa, and his encounter with the local people became a faith journey that was to change his life forever. His heart was changed once and for all when he reluctantly accepted God's calling to see the heart of Africa. His WALK is incarnational, a ministry of presence, bridging the gap between "observed pain and shared pain." His is a theology that touches the ground. In Africa, white men don't walk! They come in vehicles, they always drive. Ward was different. Ward Walked. He walked with us across some of the most difficult terrain in West Pokot, Kenya. No white man had ever done that before. So the message went out across the land, "A white man is walking to Mbaro."

Set in both the wilds and slums of Kenya, a powerful story about a brother and sister's brave journey to find a place to call home. 13-year-old Muchoki and his younger sister, Jata, can barely recognize what's become of their lives. Only weeks ago they lived in a bustling Kenyan village, going to school, playing soccer with friends, and helping at their parents' store. But sudden political violence has killed their father and destroyed their home. Now, Muchoki, Jata, and their ailing mother live in a tent in an overcrowded refugee camp. By day, they try to fend off hunger and boredom. By night, their fears about the future are harder to keep at bay. Driven by both hope and desperation, Muchoki and Jata set off on what seems like an impossible journey: to walk hundreds of kilometers to find their last remaining family.

Effective peace agreements are rarely accomplished by idealists. The process of moving from situations of entrenched oppression, armed conflict, open warfare, and mass atrocities toward peace and reconciliation requires a series of small steps and compromises to open the way for the kind of dialogue and negotiation that make political stability, the beginning of democracy, and the rule of law a possibility. For over forty years, Charles Villa-Vicencio has been on the front lines of Africa's battle for racial equality. In Walk with Us and Listen, he argues that reconciliation needs honest talk to promote trust building and enable former enemies and adversaries to explore joint solutions to the cause of their conflicts. He offers a critical assessment of the South African experiment in transitional justice as captured in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and considers the influence of ubuntu, in which individuals are defined by their relationships, and other traditional African models of reconciliation. Political reconciliation is offered as a cautious model against which transitional politics needs to be measured. Villa-Vicencio challenges those who stress the obligation to prosecute those allegedly guilty of gross violation of human rights, replacing this call with the need for more complementarity between the International Criminal Court and African mechanisms to achieve the greater goals of justice and peace building.

A young boy finds a way to help his sister go to school. Victor and his twin sister, Linesi, are close. Only, now that they are eight years old, she is no longer able to go to school with him. Linesi, like the other older girls in their community, must walk to the river to get water five times a day to help their mother farm. But Victor is learning about equality in school. He’s beginning to realize how boys and girls are not treated equally. And that’s not fair to his sister. So Victor comes up with a plan to help. Can one boy make a difference in an unequal world? It turns out, he can!

Everywhere is walking distance if you have the time. When Paula Constant and her husband, Gary, attempt to break away from the conventional 9-to-5 routine, a few weeks lazing in a resort or packed in a tour bus is not what they have in mind. What starts out as an idle daydream to embark on 'a travel to end all travels' turns into something far greater: an epic year-long 5000-kilometre walk from Trafalgar Square in London to Morocco and the threshold of the Sahara Desert. Quite an ambition for an unfit woman who favours sharing cigarettes and a few bottles of wine with friends over logging time on the treadmill. But if the sheer arduousness of walking over 25 kilometres a day through the landscapes and cultural labyrinths of France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco - without a support vehicle - is overlooked in her excitement, then so too is the unexpected journey of self discovery and awakening that lies beyond every bend. Both the companions she meets on the road and the road itself provide what no university can offer: a chance to experience life's simple truths face to face. Paula's transformation from an urban primary school teacher into a successful expeditioner is a true tale of an ordinary woman achieving something extraordinary. It is a journey that begins with one footstep.

Walking Qur'an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa