Testament to the Bushmen


Book Description




Heart of Dryness


Book Description

"We don't govern water. Water governs us," writes James Workman. In Heart of Dryness, he chronicles the memorable, cautionary tale of the famed Bushmen of the Kalahari--remnants of one of the world's most successful civilizations, today at the exact epicenter of Africa's drought--and their remarkable, widely publicized battle over water with the government of Botswana, to explore the larger story of what many feel is becoming the primary resource battleground of the 21st century: water. The Bushmen's story may well prefigure our own. Even the most upbeat optimists concede the U.S. now faces an unprecedented water crisis. Large dams on the Colorado River, which serve 30 million in 7 states, will be dry in 13 years. Southeast drought cut Tennessee Valley Authority hydropower in half, exposed Lake Okeechobee's floor, dried $787 million of Georgia's crops, and left Atlanta with 60 days of water. Cities east and west are drying up. As reservoirs and aquifers fail, officials ration water, neighbors snitch on one another, corporations move in, and states fight states to control shared rivers. Each year, inadequate water kills more humans than AIDS, malaria, and all wars combined. Global leaders pray for rain. Bushmen tap more pragmatic solutions. James Workman illuminates the present and coming tensions we will all face over water and shows how, from the remoteness of the Kalahari, a primitive (by our standards) people is showing the world a viable path through the encroaching desert of the coming Dry Age.




Way of the Bushman


Book Description

The first comprehensive presentation of the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the Tribal Elders • Reveals how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love for healing and spiritual transformation • Explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and animals, and the origins of their dances, rituals, and ceremonies Step into the imaginative realm of one of the oldest continuous cultures on Earth, the Kalahari Ju/’hoansi Bushmen. Translated by Beesa Boo, a Bushman, and interspersed with detailed commentary from Bradford and Hillary Keeney, this book presents the core teachings of the Kalahari Bushmen as told by the tribal elders themselves. Decades in the making, it constitutes the first comprehensive work on the world’s oldest tradition of healing and spiritual experience. Told in their own words, these teachings reveal how the Bushmen are able to receive direct transmissions of God’s love in the form of the universal life force, n/om. The individuals who are filled with this force describe it as an awakened, energized feeling of love that inspires a spontaneous and heightened ecstatic awareness that opens mystical perception. Having your heart transfixed by this force enables true healing and spiritual growth to occur. Experiencing the force in your entire being, through a vision of “God’s egg”, awakens deep spiritual wisdom and extraordinary healing gifts. Those who “own the egg” are blessed with the ability to have direct communication with the Divine, a “rope to God,” and can communicate with others for all “ropes” are connected. Conveying the deep love that is the dominant emotion of Bushman spirituality, the book explores tribal legends and teaching tales, the importance of dreams and encounters with animals, the origins of their dances, such as the giraffe dance, and specific rituals and ceremonies, including puberty rites for boys and girls. “As the elder teachers of the Ju’/hoan Bushman (San) people, we hold the most enduring traditional wisdom concerning healing and spiritual experience. This book is a testimony of our ecstatic ways. We happily share our basic teachings about spirituality and healing with those whose hearts are sincerely open.”




Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World


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In Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, bishop and social activist John Shelby Spong argues that 200 years of biblical scholarship has been withheld from lay Christians. In this brilliant follow-up to Spong’s previous books Eternal Life and Jesus for the Non-Religious, Spong not only reveals the crucial truths that have long been kept hidden from the public eye, but also explores what the history of the Bible can teach us about reading its stories today and living our lives for tomorrow. Sarah Sentilles, author of Breaking Up With God: A Love Story, applauds John Shelby Spong’s Reclaiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, writing that “pulsing beneath his brilliant, thought-provoking, passionate book is this question: can Christianity survive the education of its believers?…A question Bishop Spong answers with a resounding yes.”




Yemen


Book Description

An introduction to one of the most beautiful and ancient countries in the world, published to coincide with the Yemen exhibition at the British Museum. The aim of this account of the Yemen is to introduce newcomers succinctly to the history and scenery of this remarkable country, area by area, with specially commissioned photographs. It includes a chronology, glossary and suggested further reading.




Clicko


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Originally published: Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2009.




A Story Like the Wind


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This is a story of an almost vanished Africa; a world of myth and magic in which the indigenous peoples of the continent lived for uncountable centuries before the Europeans came to shatter it. The main character is a boy who has a relationship with this Africa not unlike Kipling's Kim with the antique world of India. François Joubert, whose Huguenot ancestors settled in Africa three hundred years ago, lives as a solitary child on his father's farm. 'Hunter's Drift'. Here, in the far interior of Africa, he experiences the wonder and mystery of an ageless, natural primitive life, his perception of it heightened by the influence of three people in particular - his Bushman nurse, the head herdsman of the local Matabele clan (his father's chosen partners in the pioneering of Hunter's Drift), and a hunter of legendary fame, now the chief ranger of a vast game reserve nearby. François' meeting with an untamed Bushman, Xhabbo, whose intuitive teaching nourishes his spirit; his strange pilgrimage to the distant krall of a powerful witch-doctor; his dramatic encounter and relationship with the daughter of a retired colonial governor; all are examples of African point and European counterpoint, in a highly original theme, moving to a strangely presaged and omened climax.




The Bushman Way of Tracking God


Book Description

From “the Indiana Jones of the spiritual world” (Utne Reader)—a groundbreaking look at original spirituality with a unique and all-encompassing approach to life that comes from the world’s most ancient religion. The Kalahari Bushmen are the keepers of the world’s oldest living culture. In spite of colossal challenges and never-ending crises, they have survived for over 60,000 years with joy and peace—yet their spiritual teachings, the source of their enduring wisdom, have never been fully presented. For the first time, these ancient oral traditions have been put down onto paper taking you through the veil of original spirituality, connecting the fragments of world religions to a source that is unlike any other. Through this wisdom, you can find the deepest meaning, fullest purpose, and highest joy in life. The Bushman’s Way to Tracking God is articulated through twelve original mysteries, including: activating the non-subtle universal life force (what the Bushmen call n/om), heightening emotional experience, vibratory interaction, direct downloading and absorption of sacred knowledge, extraordinary healing, activation of the ecstatic “pump,” spontaneous ways of rejuvenation, attending the spiritual classrooms, so-called telepathy, an uncommon range of mystical experiences, and last but not least, total bliss.




The Rock Rabbit and the Rainbow


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Sir Laurens van der Post, author, film-maker, storyteller of world-wide renown, soldier, prisoner of war, political advisor to heads of state, humanitarian, explorer, conservationist... the list goes on and on. His extraordinary curiosity, his love for the small and the great, and his tremendous feeling and concern for his surroundings and all that they included, set him travelling the lands and the waters of the world, a messenger in search of meaning. He touched and inspired many along the way, some of whom are to be found in the pages of this book. A true man of his time, Sir Laurens was born in 1906 in the interior of South Africa, served in the British forces during World War II, including three-and-a-half years in Japanese captivity, and lived and worked since that time in London, where he died just after celebrating his 90th birthday in December, 1996. 'The Rock Rabbit and The Rainbow' was originally conceived as a Festschrift, or gift collection of writings, for Sir Laurens by several of his friends and then evolved into its present form, which includes numerous original contributions by Sir Laurens himself.




Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English


Book Description

Post-Colonial Literatures in English, together with English Literature and American Literature, form one of the three major groupings of literature in English, and, as such, are widely studied around the world. Their significance derives from the richness and variety of experience which they reflect. In three volumes, this Encyclopedia documents the history and development of this body of work and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.