Africa Biography

In Blood on Her Hands, award-winning journalist Tanya Farber investigates the lives, minds and motivations of some of South Africa’s most notorious female murderers, from the poisonous nurse Daisy de Melker, to the privileged but deeply disturbed Najwa Petersen, to the mysterious Joey Haarhoff, who died before revealing the fate of her victims. Written in a style lighter than the subject matter might suggest, Blood on Her Hands will keep you listening until late at night.

Teresa O'Kane had always longed to see the world. She owned scads of travel books and maps and was about to buy yet another bookcase to hold the many Lonely Planet guides and travel essays that she had accumulated over the years when she turned to her husband and said, "I'm tired of storing our dreams. Let's live them!" Within a month, they bought one-way tickets to Morocco, leased out their home, and set out on a journey of the African continent top to bottom from Casablanca to Cape Town.

Kandel's memoir is a powerful picture of a young American woman's struggle to reconcile her new marriage with the realities of living in East Africa.

In the second volume of his three-part history, a monumental trilogy that began with Parting the Waters, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Taylor Branch portrays the Civil Rights Movement at its zenith, recounting the climactic struggles as they commanded the national stage. Beginning with the Nation of Islam and conflict over racial separatism, Pillar of Fire takes the listener to Mississippi and Alabama: Birmingham, the murder of Medgar Evers, the "March on Washington," the Civil Rights Act, and more.

Brother Mambo is a memoir of an anthropology graduate student who set out to document African cultural influences in the Guianas of South America. His initial study plan blocked by local immigration officials, he followed a hummingbird and other oracles to an Amazonian river and the Pamakans, Africans who had escaped slave plantations in Suriname to rebuild a society in the rainforest.

From walking with lions in the bush to dodging bombs in Tanzania’s largest city, psychologist Susanne Rheault recounts, with candor and humility, the hard lessons learned during a life working to help impoverished communities in Africa. The daughter of a Green Beret, Susie has lived a transient life ever since she was a young girl. In her engaging memoir, we come to discover her fierce spirit as she seeks out a life of purpose, never shying away from adventures that often carry unseen dangers.

When Dr. Ellen Einterz first arrives in the town of Kolofata in Cameroon, the situation is dire: Patients are exploited by healthcare workers, unsterilized needles are reused, and only the wealthy can afford care. In Life and Death in Kolofata: An American Doctor in Africa, Einterz tells her remarkable story of delivering healthcare for 24 years in one of the poorest countries in the world, revealing both touching stories of those she is able to help and the terrible suffering of people born in extreme poverty.

My Two Centuries in Africa is a humorous, affectionate, intimate book about Africa. It’s a personal memoir about how a guy from Indiana accidentally spent almost 40 years in Africa and lived to tell about it. (Book One covers the 20th century, from 1980-2000 when the author lived and worked in North and West Africa).

Bronnie Ellis Stroud left Indianapolis for Bawku. There, in the sahel, in the northeastern corner of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, and later along the forested coast, he altered the course of a people and a country. A linguist, missionary, and educator, a husband, father, and grandfather, he was an adventurer and a man of unfailing affection. He built churches and schools. More importantly, he formed enduring loyalties that strengthened those with whom he worked. A tireless man, his eyes twinkled blue and he walked fast.

Most histories of the US Army in World War II view the Mediterranean Theater of Operations primarily as a deadly training ground for very green forces, where lessons learned on the beaches of Oran, in the hills of the Kasserine Pass area, and at the collapse of the Tunis bridgehead all contributed to later success in Western Europe. Steven Barry, however, contends that victory in the MTO would not have materialized without the leadership of battalion-level commanders. They operated at a high level, despite the lack of combat experience for themselves and their troops.

This is the extraordinary story of the South African boy whose bravery and fierce determination to make a difference despite being born with AIDS has made him the human symbol of the world's fight against the disease, told by the veteran American journalist whose life he changed.

During his years of reporting from the world's most savage and turbulent regions, Fergal Keane has witnessed the violence of the South African townships and the terror in Rwanda, the most extreme kinds of human behaviour, the horror of genocide, and the bravery of peacekeepers faced with overwhelming odds. As one of the BBC's leading correspondents, he recounts extraordinary encounters on the front lines.

Henri lived only a few short years in Europe before the family moved to the Belgian Congo, a country deep in the heart of Africa. These were the early 1900s at a time when the colonial era was in full swing. The White Man ruled the native population with undisputed authority and many parts of the country were totally uncivilized. Henri adapted easily to his new surroundings and the memoir chronicles his unique experiences with surprising verve and stirring prose.

Africa’s Child is the story of a mixed-race girl growing up in the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania, East Africa. Raised in an orphanage with no knowledge of her origins or family, she endured abandonment, hardships, severe illnesses, and bullying. Her experiences as a child and teenager included physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, social stigma, and racial discrimination. Yet Nhambu tells her inspiring story with warmth and humor.

Alison Blackmore had an unconventional childhood on a remote farm in Matabeleland during a turbulent transition from colonial rule to independence. In Africa Noon she recounts early adventures with her most loyal friend, her dog Shadow. This memoir covers Alison’s early years in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) around 1965, during the period of UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) from Britain.

Helge Timmerberg, Abenteurer und Globetrotter, hat den letzten ihm noch unbekannten Kontinent bereist: Afrika...

The founder of multibillion-rand financial services empire Sygnia Limited, Magda Wierzycka is South Africa’s most successful businesswoman. In this engaging and insightful book, she tells the story of her life, from her childhood in communist Poland, her family’s escape and relocation to South Africa, her early struggles in the male-dominated financial services industry and the formation and growth of her own company, Sygnia.

In 2017, Kurt Davis traveled to Africa and volunteered at many business accelerators and humanitarian nonprofits. Finding Soul, from Silicon Valley to Africa gives listeners a detailed description of not only what Africa is like, but also how the experiences changed and inspired him. Each chapter comes across like a vignette while developing the key themes in the book: experiencing deep empathy for others, releasing ego and identity, and discovering a deeper meaning for life.

As a five-year-old, George Alagiah emigrated with his family to Ghana, the first African country to gain independence from the British Empire. A Passage to Africa is Alagiah's shattering catalogue of atrocities crafted into a portrait of Africa that is infused with hope, insight and outrage. In vivid and evocative prose and with a fine eye for detail, Alagiah's viewpoint is spiked with the freshness of the young George on his arrival in Ghana, the wonder with which he recounts his first impressions of Africa and the affection with which he dresses his stories of his early life.

Finally, a Black professional in Corporate America exposing what it is like to be Black! Papa M Niang was born in Senegal, West Africa, where he graduated high school before moving to France for his undergraduate studies in mathematics.