African Feminism

African feminism, this landmark volume demonstrates, differs radically from the Western forms of feminism with which we have become familiar since the 1960s. African feminists are not, by and large, concerned with issues such as female control over reproduction or variation and choice within human sexuality, nor with debates about essentialism, the female body, or the discourse of patriarchy. The feminism that is slowly emerging in Africa is distinctly heterosexual, pronatal, and concerned with "bread, butter, and power" issues.
Over the past two decades, states in sub-Saharan Africa have gone through numerous economic and political crises that have resulted in the collapse of national economies and the failure of both multiparty political systems and state socialism. Women - who, across the continent, have less access than men to resources and the power that controls them - have suffered most during these crises, and their suffering has often been intensified by the actions of political leaders who tried to impose order in part by further limiting and exploiting women. African Feminism is an exploration of both the discrimination that African women experience and their strategies for coping with it. Contributors present case studies of ten African states, demonstrating that - as they fight for access to land, for the right to own property, for control of food distribution, for living wages and safe working conditions, for health care, and for election reform - African women are creating a powerful and specifically African feminism.Contributors include Tsehai Berhane-Selassie, Carlene H. Dei, Shawn Riva Donaldson, Ilsa M. Glazer, Enid Gort, Betty J. Harris, Dolores Koenig, Takyiwaa Manuh, Gwendolyn Mikell, Maria Nzomo, Brooke Grundfest Schoepf, D. J. Shehu, and Jeanne Maddox Toungara.
Gwendolyn Mikell is Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown University.
African Feminism: The Politics of Survival in Sub-Saharan Africa by Gwendolyn Mikell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998
ISBN: 081221580X

Susan Sontag: Illness as Metaphor

In 1978 Susan Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor, a classic work described by Newsweek as "one of the most liberating books of its time." A cancer patient herself when she was writing the book, Susan Sontag shows how the metaphors and myths surrounding certain illnesses, especially cancer, add greatly to the suffering of the patients and often inhibit them from seeking proper treatment. By demystifying the fantasies surrounding cancer, Susan Sontag shows cancer for what it is - just a disease. Cancer, she argues, is not a curse, not a punishment, certainly not an embarrassment, and highly curable, if good treatment is found early enough.
Almost a decade later, with the outbreak of a new, stigmatized disease replete with mystifications and punitive metaphors, Susan Sontag wrote a sequel to Illness as Metaphor, extending the argument of the earlier book to the AIDS pandemic. These two essays published together as Illness as Metaphor and Aids and Its Metaphors have been translated in many languages all over the world, and continue to have enormous impact and influence on the thinking of medical professionals and, above all, on the lives of many thousands of patients and caregivers.
Illness as Metaphor and Aids and Its Metaphors by Susan Sontag
ISBN: 0312420137

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

The Story of My Life, a remarkable account of overcoming the debilitating challenges of being both deaf and blind, has become an international classic, making Helen Keller one of the most well-known, inspirational figures in history. Originally published in 1903, Keller's fascinating memoir narrates the events of her life up to her third year at Radcliffe College. Helen Keller's story of struggle and achievement is one of unquenchable hope. From tales of her difficult early days, to details of her relationship with her beloved teacher Anne Sullivan, to her impressions of academic life, Keller's honest, straightforward writing lends insight into an amazing mind. Like the original, this centenary edition of The Story of My Life includes letters Keller wrote to friends throughout her childhood and adolescence that chronicle her intellectual and sensory progression, as well as assistant John Macy's commentary on her interpretations of her surroundings.
In addition to reprinting Keller's long-lost original work, this edition contains excerpts from her little-known, deeply personal memoir The World We Live In, which give readers a detailed look into an otherwise unimaginable existence, as well as an excerpt from Out of the Dark, a political commentary Keller wrote during her years as a socialist.
Deftly edited and prefaced by scholar James Berger, this comprehensive anniversary edition celebrates a century of readers' enthrallment with one of the most powerful figures in history.
Random House, 2003

Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914

Gertrude Bell's Arabian Diaries, published here for the first time, rank as one of the great travel narratives, carrying readers along on a desperate and heroic journey that foreshadows the emergence of the future imperial servant in Baghdad in the 1920s.The Englishwoman Gertrude Bell lived an extraordinary life. Her adventures are the stuff of novels: she rode with bandits; braved desert shamals; was captured by Bedouins; and sojourned in a harem. Called the most powerful woman in the British Empire, she counseled kings and prime ministers. Bell's colleagues included Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, who in 1921 invited Bell - the only woman whose advice was sought - to the Cairo Conference to determine the future of Mesopotamia. Bell numbered among her closest friends T. E. Lawrence, St. John Philby, and Arabian sheiks.
In this volume of three of her notebooks, Rosemary O'Brien preserves Bell's elegant, vibrant prose and presents Bell as a brilliant tactician fearlessly confronting her own vulnerability. The fundamental themes of her life - reckless behavior, a divided self which combined brilliance of intellect with a passionate nature, a sense of history, and the fatal gift of falling in love with a married man -- are all here in remarkable detail. Her journey to northern Arabia in 1914 earned Bell professional recognition from the Royal Geographical Society and solidified her reputation as a canny political analyst of Middle Eastern affairs. In addition to Bell's own photographs, O'Brien has provided us an unprecedented first access to excerpts of the Bell/Charles H. M. Doughty-Wylie love letters, the married British army officer with whom she was in love and for whom her diaries were written.
Gertrude Bell: The Arabian Diaries, 1913-1914 by Rosemary O'Brien
Syracuse University Press, 2000

Women Who Lived for Danger

The Special Operations Executive was formed by Winston Churchill in 1940 to "set Europe ablaze." In the SOE women were trained to handle guns and explosives, work undercover, endure interrogation by the Gestapo, and use complex codes. In The Women Who Lived for Danger, acclaimed historian Marcus Binney recounts the story of ten remarkable women who were dropped in occupied territories to work as secret agents.
Once they were behind enemy lines, theirs was the most dangerous war of all, as they led apparently normal civilian lives while in constant danger of arrest. They organized dropping grounds for arms and explosives destined for the Resistance, helped operate escape lines for airman who had been shot down over Europe, and provided Allied Command with vital intelligence. SOE women agents came from all walks of life: from the dazzling Polish Countess Krystyna Skarbek (alias Christine Granville) and the American Virginia Hall, who was from a rich Baltimore family, to Marguerite Knight, a secretary in Walthamstow. Petite Lisa de Baissac lived next to Gestapo headquarters in Poitiers playing the part of a quiet widow, while twenty-year-old student Paola Del Din was sent to find a way through the German front line in Florence. Hot-tempered Paddy O'Sullivan deflected a German officer from examining her suitcase by making a date with him, and Alix d'Unienville feigned madness when captured.
The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Agents of the Special Operations Executive by Marcus Binney
HarperCollins Publishers, 2003

Anne Frank's diary

Anne Frank's diary is among the most enduring documents of the 20th century. Anne documented her life in hiding from 12 June 1942 to 1 August 1944. Initially, Anne Frank wrote it strictly for herself. Then, one day in 1944, Gerrit Bolkestein, a member of the Dutch government in exile, announced in a radio broadcast from London that after the war he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation, which could be made available to the public. As an example, he specifically mentioned letters and diaries. Anne Frank decided that when the war was over she would publish a book based on her diary.
The Diary of a Young Girl: Definitive Edition by Anne Frank
ISBN: 0141315180