In 1953, when Dorothy Stephens and her husband lived in married student housing at the University of Michigan, she envisioned a safe, conventional life ahead. She never imagined living in Kenya toward the end of the Mau Mau uprising, plunged into an exotic new world, facing safari ants, wild bees, and a vicious monkey, and discovering a core of strength deep in her security-loving soul. See Kenya through her eyes in its last tumultuous days as a British colony and witness the transformative effect on her life. Meet the emerging young leaders of the independence movement and the fascinating women who became her friends. Travel to Murchison Falls in Uganda and to Ngorongoro Crater in Tanganyika. Accompany her, with her house servant and three young children, on a three-hundred-mile drive to the Kenya coast through desolate bush inhabited by big game, a trip that had a profound and lasting impact.

Within this incredible first novel, extends an amazing skill of black development since the war between the states. Creasie M. Washington presses words firmly together to tell the story of Rufus and his family that never lose hope and belief that they can make their lives rewarding and worthwhile. Follow this family's journey on their ambition to continue the course of action in whatever it takes to become successful in their own eyes. Whether that means completing one's education or facing challenges and obstacles that will confront them in a white dominated world. Ms. Creasie M. Washington uses the theme "Learn to treat others as you would like to be treated," aims to inspire ambitious young black people to have courage. This novel is a distinguished contribution to contemporary black culture and will be treasured by readers of every race who wants to understand more fully the background of black culture's role in American life.

The term ‘Swahili’ describes the Muslim peoples of the East African coast, speakers of Kiswahili or closely related languages, who have historically filled roles as middlemen and merchants, the cosmopolitan products of a trading economy between Africa and the Indian Ocean world. This collection brings together anthropologists working on the greater Swahili world and the issues it confronts, dealing with societies from southern Somalia, northern Mozambique and the Comoro Islands, to Zanzibar and Mafia. The authors discuss a range of contemporary issues such as the shifting roles of Islam on the mainland coast; consumerism, conservation, memory and belonging in Zanzibar; how a Muslim society deals with HIV/AIDS; social change, development and political strategies in the Comoros; and Swahili women in London. The diversity of these themes reflects the diversity of the Swahili world itself: despite a cohesive cultural identity built upon shared practices, religious beliefs and language, the challenges facing Swahili people are multiple and complex. This book comprises articles originally published in the Journal of Eastern African Studies along with some new chapters.

Dad says because of the army he stood shoulder to shoulder with polar bears and watched the sun rise over the frozen fields of Alaska, which sounds really exciting. And because of the Army he slept in sludge, shoulder to shoulder with snakes and watched the sun set over the swamps of Alabama -- which does not. In a timely, but not politically charged way, author Alan Madison looks at the way a family copes with having a parent away on a 100 day, 99 night military tour of duty through the eyes of the very loveable Esmerelda (Esme) Swishback McCarthur. Esme wants to be good while her dad is away. In fact, she feels like it's her duty to be good. But being good can be hard, especially if you have a little brother like Ike. By following Esme's story, as she awaits her father's return, readers will see how heroism can translate to every member of a family. Aside from the military families that this book serves, readers who wonder what it would be like if their mother, father, brother, or sister was sent away will relate to Esme's quiet strength and candor and will understand her worry about what could happen. This story has the potential to speak to readers on a personal level and to turn a concept that seems so hard to grasp--war--into one that feels much more personal.

Thirteen-year-old Anna's passionate dream is to go to high school, the first girl from her tiny farm community back in 1910 to do so. She is determined not to stay at home like her older sister, Mary Ellen, helping their mother and waiting to marry a local farmer. But there is no money to send her to River Heights, seven miles away, and anyway, her mother needs her. When sixteen-year-old Mary Ellen is sexually assaulted by a local boy, the situation gets worse. No one suspects Mary Ellen is pregnant until she gives birth to the illegitimate baby. The surprise birth threatens to ruin the family's standing in the community and Mary Ellen's reputation. Anna wrestles with helping her parents and sister while still striving to make her burning desire to go to high school a reality. Meanwhile she becomes involved in solving the mystery of a missing ring, and in stopping another attack by the boy who assaulted her sister. But how will that help her realize her dream?

"This is a biography of the senior Barack Obama, who is President Barack Obama's father"-- Provided by publisher.

The groundbreaking multigenerational biography, a richly textured account of President Obama and the forces that shaped him and sustain him, from Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, political commentator, and acclaimed biographer David Maraniss. In Barack Obama: The Story, David Maraniss has written a deeply reported generational biography teeming with fresh insights and revealing information, a masterly narrative drawn from hundreds of interviews, including with President Obama in the Oval Office, and a trove of letters, journals, diaries, and other documents. The book unfolds in the small towns of Kansas and the remote villages of western Kenya, following the personal struggles of Obama’s white and black ancestors through the swirl of the twentieth century. It is a roots story on a global scale, a saga of constant movement, frustration and accomplishment, strong women and weak men, hopes lost and deferred, people leaving and being left. Disparate family threads converge in the climactic chapters as Obama reaches adulthood and travels from Honolulu to Los Angeles to New York to Chicago, trying to make sense of his past, establish his own identity, and prepare for his political future. Barack Obama: The Story chronicles as never before the forces that shaped the first black president of the United States and explains why he thinks and acts as he does. Much like the author’s classic study of Bill Clinton, First in His Class, this promises to become a seminal book that will redefine a president.