In Search of the Elusive Zimbabwean Dream


Book Description

This volume deals with his formative years and early professional life. This period constitutes the making of a leader of global stature. His profound odyssey of thought leadership started at the age of 16, and moved through the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), where he graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering. A statement he wrote as a student leader led to the unprecedented closure of UZ. He was injured and detained. His journey of ideas then proceeded to the University of Oxford, where he obtained an MSc in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Robotics and Mechatronics. The next stop was the United States, where he was a Research Scientist at NASA, Professor at MIT and Management Consultant at McKinsey. The book ends with his return to the continent in 2002, equipped with Pan-African, business- and technology-driven developmental strategies and paradigms.







A Companion to African Literatures


Book Description

Rediscover the diversity of modern African literatures with this authoritative resource edited by a leader in the field How have African literatures unfolded in their rich diversity in our modern era of decolonization, nationalisms, and extensive transnational movement of peoples? How have African writers engaged urgent questions regarding race, nation, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality? And how do African literary genres interrelate with traditional oral forms or audio-visual and digital media? A Companion to African Literatures addresses these issues and many more. Consisting of essays by distinguished scholars and emerging leaders in the field, this book offers rigorous, deeply engaging discussions of African literatures on the continent and in diaspora. It covers the four main geographical regions (East and Central Africa, North Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa), presenting ample material to learn from and think with. A Companion To African Literatures is divided into five parts. The first four cover different regions of the continent, while the fifth part considers conceptual issues and newer directions of inquiry. Chapters focus on literatures in European languages officially used in Africa -- English, French, and Portuguese -- as well as homegrown African languages: Afrikaans, Amharic, Arabic, Swahili, and Yoruba. With its lineup of lucid and authoritative analyses, readers will find in A Companion to African Literatures a distinctive, rewarding academic resource. Perfect for undergraduate and graduate students in literary studies programs with an African focus, A Companion to African Literatures will also earn a place in the libraries of teachers, researchers, and professors who wish to strengthen their background in the study of African literatures.







Pursuit of the Elusive Dream


Book Description

Anyone interested in the history of Zimbabwe will love this memoir by Lawrence D. Moyo. It traces the tumultuous events of the First Chimurenga of 1896 through independence from Great Britain in 1980 until the present day. He vividly describes his childhood struggles as the son of a father who abuses his children as 'slave labourers'. Lawrence progressively climbs the educational ladder until he emigrates to the UK with his family. Harping on the theme of 'hidden racism', among others, Lawrence then endures horrific racist treatment from criminally disobedient white and black students in schools he works at as an English teacher. Having become a highly respected educational specialist, he is now retired in the UK, retaining his connections with his family members and friends in Zimbabwe.




Sub-Saharan Political Cultures of Deceit in Language, Literature, and the Media, Volume I


Book Description

This two-volume set charts a cross-disciplinary discursive terrain that proffers rich insights about deceit in contemporary postcolonial Sub-Saharan African politics. In an attempt to produce a nuanced and multi-faceted academic dialoguing platform, the two volumes have a particular focus on the aspects of treachery, fear of difference (oppositional politics), and discourses/ semiotics of mis/self- representation. The major aim of the proposed volumes is to contribute toward the often problematised conversations about the unfolding (post)colonial Sub-Saharan world which is topical in decolonial and Pan-African studies. The volumes seek to place political thinking and postcolonial political systems under the scholarly gaze with the view to highlight and enhance the participation of African cross-disciplinary scholarship in the postcolonial political processes of the continent. Most significantly, it is through such probing of the limitations of our own disciplinary perspectives which can help us appreciate the complexity of the postcolonial Sub-Saharan African politics. The first volume uses Zimbabwe as a case study, while the second volume broadens to examine postcolonial politics in Sub-Saharan Africa more broadly.







The House of Hunger


Book Description

This explosive, award-winning novella of growing up in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), told in exquisite, imaginative prose, touches the readers nerve through the authors harrowing portrait of lives disrupted by white settlers, a young disillusioned black man, and individual suffering in the 1960s and 1970s. Marecheras raw, piercing writings secured his place in African literature as a stylistic innovator and rebel commentator of the ghetto condition. While The House of Hunger is the centerpiece of this collection, readers are also treated to a series of short sketches in which Marechera, with angry humor, further navigates themes of madness, violence, despair, and survival.




Good Economics for Hard Times


Book Description

The winners of the Nobel Prize show how economics, when done right, can help us solve the thorniest social and political problems of our day. Figuring out how to deal with today's critical economic problems is perhaps the great challenge of our time. Much greater than space travel or perhaps even the next revolutionary medical breakthrough, what is at stake is the whole idea of the good life as we have known it. Immigration and inequality, globalization and technological disruption, slowing growth and accelerating climate change--these are sources of great anxiety across the world, from New Delhi and Dakar to Paris and Washington, DC. The resources to address these challenges are there--what we lack are ideas that will help us jump the wall of disagreement and distrust that divides us. If we succeed, history will remember our era with gratitude; if we fail, the potential losses are incalculable. In this revolutionary book, renowned MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo take on this challenge, building on cutting-edge research in economics explained with lucidity and grace. Original, provocative, and urgent, Good Economics for Hard Times makes a persuasive case for an intelligent interventionism and a society built on compassion and respect. It is an extraordinary achievement, one that shines a light to help us appreciate and understand our precariously balanced world.




Rotten Row


Book Description

Petina Gappah returns with another collection of stories, exploring modern Zimbabwe.




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