Western Africa

For centuries, fishermen have launched their pirogues from the Senegalese port of Joal, where the fish used to be so plentiful a man could dip his hand into the grey-green ocean and pull one out as big as his thigh. But in an Atlantic decimated by overfishing and climate change, the fish are harder and harder to find. Here, Badkhen discovers, all boundaries are permeable - between land and sea, between myth and truth, even between storyteller and story. Fisherman's Blues immerses us in a community navigating a time of unprecedented environmental, economic, and cultural upheaval.

What are Myth and Culture and what is their importance for understanding the development of societies, human evolution and the search for meaning? What is the purpose of culture and how do cultures evolve? What are the elements of a culture and how can those elements be broken down and the constituent parts of a culture understood and compared? How do cultures interact? How does enculturation occur and how do people interact with other cultures? How do the processes of acculturation and cooptation occur and what does this mean for the development of a society? How can the study of myths and...

Ranna Abramson wants to disappear. But she knows she can’t keep running when a former enemy tracks her down in Mumbai with dire news: her onetime lover, journalist Alex Derksen, has disappeared back home in South Africa. Torn between her desire for him and fear of a homecoming, Ranna knows she’s the only one who can find him. But only two things in South Africa would welcome her - the inside of a cell or the bottom of a grave. There, to the police she’s the prime suspect of three murders. To the press she’s the serial killer Black Widow.

Arrah has sacrificed almost everything in her battle against the Demon King. Now, forced to give up the gift of magic she’d sought for so long, she must decipher the legacy of her past life as the orisha Dimma—and weave an uneasy alliance between her beloved Rudjek, the Demon King, and the remaining orishas, hoping to restore peace to all of their worlds. But as Arrah’s half-demon sister resumes her quest for destruction, peace may require the ultimate sacrifice.…

On the heels of the best seller success of her novel The Wedding, Dorothy West, the last surviving member of the Harlem Renaissance, presents a collection of essays and stories that explore both the realism of everyday life, and the fantastical, extraordinary circumstances of one woman's life in a mythic time.

"Ebola Safari: One Nurse's Experience Inside the Sierra Leone Epidemic" is an account of the author’s experience during the West Africa Ebola virus outbreak in Sierra Leone. As a nurse volunteer, he was part of a contingent of healthcare personnel recruited by a United States medical nongovernmental organization to administer skilled medical care to victims infected with the Ebola virus. As a nurse involved with the response to the Ebola epidemic, he finds he has to negotiate a challenging international bureaucracy while simultaneously reconfiguring his developed world medical training to...

Joseph Laroche was an anomaly among the passengers of the Titanic. He was exceptionally well-educated in a time when few Black men had access to an education - and when even fewer were able to travel on a luxurious ship in first or second class. When his family arrived in the United States without him after the Titanic's tragic crash, they were received well along with the other survivors and even sponsored by a wealthy New York heiress. Who was Joseph Laroche? Where was he going, and what was his story? This biography recounts the life of Joseph Laroche.

Senseless killing of innocent people and children, bad governance, bribery, and corruption has taken over the politics of Africans. Today, Africans are dwelling in poverty and backwardness while other countries and continents are doing well. The reason I wrote this book while on a week vacation in Nigeria, was to compare Western politics to African politics. To find out what has gone wrong in African political systems.

To Westerners, the name Timbuktu long conjured a tantalizing paradise, an African El Dorado where even the slaves wore gold. Beginning in the late 18th century, a series of explorers gripped by the fever for "discovery" tried repeatedly to reach the fabled city. But one expedition after another went disastrously awry, succumbing to attack, the climate, and disease. Timbuktu was rich in another way, too. A medieval center of learning, it was home to tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts.

Kate, a recent college graduate, is still reeling from the deaths of her beloved parents when the discovery of hidden letters forces her to re-examine everything she knew about her family. Tacker, a young engineering student and all-around boy-hero, has returned from a West African odyssey where he fell in love with the local culture but was sent home in shame. Kate's and Tacker's stories come together when, on the same day and in different moments, they encounter a young African American man named Gaines. The relationship that develops between the three is complicated, as each one searches for love, freedom, and new beginnings.

With its wide sky and warm earth, Princess Gie Gie’s kingdom is a beautiful land. But clean drinking water is scarce in her small African village. And try as she might, Gie Gie cannot bring the water closer; she cannot make it run clearer. Every morning, she rises before the sun to make the long journey to the well. Instead of a crown, she wears a heavy pot on her head to collect the water.

The Orisha religion is a world religion just like Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Christianity. Archeologists have determined it has been practiced in West Africa since at least 500 BCE but is probably much older. During the transatlantic slave trade the Orisha religion spread to the Western Hemisphere. It was most heavily practiced in the Caribbean and Brazil. It is referred to as Isese (the tradition), Cuban Ifa, Lucumi, Santeria, Regla de Ocha, Brazilian candomblé, Umbanda or simply the Orisha religion. I have been studying comparative religion for over twenty years and the only ...

In 2001, at 47, Thomas DeWolf was astounded to discover that he was related to the most successful slave-trading family in American history, responsible for transporting at least 10,000 Africans to the Americas. His infamous ancestor, U.S. senator James DeWolf of Bristol, of Rhode Island, curried favor with President Jefferson to continue in the trade after it was outlawed.

New from NY Times bestselling author Jean Oram comes an emotional romance that can be read as a standalone or as part of this charming small town series! Ryan Wylder isn’t looking for love. He’s been burned before and has learned his lesson the hard way. But when his sexy new neighbor Carly Clarke takes aim at him with her shotgun during a late-night misunderstanding that sparks his interest, he may have to look out for more than his life—he may have to look out for his heart! Carly Clarke is ready for change. No more men. No more bad decisions or accepting well-meaning interference ...

Simidele is one of the Mami Wata, mermaids duty-bound to collect the souls of those who die at sea and bless their journeys back home to the Supreme Creator. But when a living boy is thrown overboard a slave ship, Simi saves his life, going against an ancient decree and bringing terrible danger to the mami wata. Now Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends - a journey of vengeful gods, treacherous lands and legendary creatures. If she fails, she risks not just the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

What if the richest man in history didn’t hoard his fortune—but gave it away? In the 14th century, a West African emperor named Mansa Musa shook the world with a single journey. His legendary pilgrimage to Mecca, accompanied by tens of thousands and rivers of gold, turned the Mali Empire into a symbol of wealth and wonder. But Mansa Musa was more than a man of riches—he was a visionary who believed that true power comes from faith, knowledge, and generosity.

300 Adages from the Motherland is steeped in the Yoruba culture of Nigeria, West Africa. The most populous Black nation in the world is both rich in culture and wisdom. This collection of Yoruba adages uses timeless life experiences to teach the younger generation life lessons that come with life instructions. Let the wisdom that once nurtured thousands of generations transport you back into a time in which adages taught us all about the joys, pains, consequences, and rewards of life by listening to our elders. May you find the wisdom of old.

The first genocide of the 20th century, though not well known, was committed by Germans between 1904-1907 in the country we know today as Namibia, where they exterminated thousands of Herero and Nama people and subjected the surviving indigenous men, women, and children to forced labor. The perception of Africans as subhuman - lacking any kind of civilization, history, or meaningful religion - and the resulting justification for the violence against them is what author Elizabeth R. Baer refers to as the "genocidal gaze", an attitude that was later perpetuated by the Nazis.

Born in Ghana, West Africa, with one deformed leg, he was dismissed by most people - but not by his mother, who taught him to reach for his dreams. As a boy, Emmanuel hopped to school more than two miles each way, learned to play soccer, left home at age 13 to provide for his family, and, eventually, became a cyclist. He rode an astonishing 400 miles across Ghana in 2001, spreading his powerful message: Disability is not inability. Today, Emmanuel continues to work on behalf of the disabled.

Sloan had a hard enough time being a female bounty hunter in the West. With only her trusty steed Whiskey by her side, she went through town after town writing wrongs. Her methods worked well until she encountered the Franklin brothers terrorizing the women in a small town. Sloan always had a soft spot for women, and she will not let these ruffians have their way with them. Will enlisting the help of a local legend be enough to defeat her new foes?