Abrams are proud to publish a newly designed one-volume edition of this definitive work, containing more than half of the magnificent photographs that were in the original edition
- plus several new ones. This carefully conceived work offers a complete introduction to the traditional rites & rituals of Africa, including baby namings, initiations, weddings, harvest blessings, coronations, healing exorcisms, & funerals, among others. Many of these rituals will never be performed again; few have been pictured & described with the intimacy, knowledge, & skill of Beckwith & Fisher. The book also

Includes:: an audio CD featuring tracks of intimate, secret & rarely heard ceremonies from many countries throughout Africa that were recorded over a period of six years by David Bradnum, a musician & award-winning composer.


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Africa is a vast continent with many & varied peoples & cultures. This attractive little guide offers a colourful introduction to the continents landscape, resources, history & the cultural achievements of its people. At the back of the book is a large, colourful fold-out poster map, which can be detached & displayed on a wall or notice-board. It offers an attractive visual reference to the key places, peoples & achievements of African civilizations, from prehistory to the start of the colonial period. The book is packed with fascinating facts about the major civilizations & regions of Africa: North, West, Central, & Eastern/ Southern. It provides lively introductions to each area & civilization, with fascinating features on important themes & sites. The book is richly illustrated with colour photographs, including numerous iconic objects from the British Museums collections. ...

African delights is a unique literary journey through some critical moments in South African history. The journey begins in Sophiatown of the 1950s, one of the most definitive periods in South African urban culture. This part of the book is in dialogue & also pays tribute to Can Themba, once described by Lewis Nkosi as ”the supreme intellectual tsotsi of them all.” The prose takes the reader to the emergency years of the eighties, where we are exposed to the painful rhythms of a society in distress through the eyes of a child. The transitional period of the nineties is reflected through the life of a young man, who has to confront the complexities of the new South Africa while carrying baggage of the old era. The realities of our society, after the first decade of our democracy, are interrogated in the last two sections of the book. The truth stories sparks a dialogue between characters & weaves together human stories that reflect some of the challenges faced by the present day society. The last part of the text, which is also the title of the book, takes a closer look at the social fabric of the contemporary society. The stories collectively create a dialogue between the past & the present & also between various literary & historical texts. The intertextuality of the stories posits history not as a series of events but as interplay between the past & the present while attempting to contrive the future. The simplicity of the prose invites the reader to intimately become part of the journey & laugh, cry, love & hate with the characters. African Delights is a delightful journey of uniquely South African stories from the past to the present & would prove to be an essential companion going to the future. ...

The soothing sounds presented on African Dreamland feature vocal & instrumental blends from Cameroon to Cape Verde. Bedtime only gets easier as Putumayo Kids creates a cultural lullaby experience no child will be able to resist. Featuring new artists as well as longtime Putumayo favorites, African Dreamland is a great mix of talent for young ears. Well-known artists on this album include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Toumani Diabat ...

The soothing sounds presented on African Dreamland feature vocal & instrumental blends from Cameroon to Cape Verde. Bedtime only gets easier as Putumayo Kids creates a cultural lullaby experience no child will be able to resist. Featuring new artists as well as longtime Putumayo favorites, African Dreamland is a great mix of talent for young ears. Well-known artists on this album include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Toumani Diabat ...

In 2015, ever more people from Africa & the Near East took flight & sought refuge in Europe. By the end of that year, some 1.8 million migrants had arrived in the EU, the vast majority across the Mediterranean. Since then, despite measures to host those fleeing the war in Syria in Turkey & to physically seal off some borders in Eastern Europe, refugee numbers to Europe have continued to top half a million annually. A mass migration on a scale not witnessed in modern times appears to be developing, presenting Europe with its greatest challenge of the 21st century. African Exodus places the emphasis firmly on the causes of the refugee crisis, which are to be found not least in Europe itself, & charts ways in which we might deal with it effectively in the long term. Asfa-Wossen Asserate asks why our view of Africa
- a troubled continent, but rich in so many ways
- remains distorted. How can we combat the corrupt, authoritarian regimes that stymie progress & development? Why are millions fleeing to Europe? How is the EU complicit in the migration crisis? & lastly, what can practically be done & what prospects does the future hold?

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Putumayo's African Groove is a collection of cutting-edge African music that highlights the ways modern styles have fused with African traditions. African Groove features musicians from Africa who experiment with hip-hop, remixing & electronic programming as well as international electronica artists who have used the rhythms & styles of Africa as inspiration for trend- setting club music. CD Track listing: 1 Issa Bagayogo, ' Saye Mogo Bana' (Mali) 2 Badenya, ' Boroto' (Burkina Faso) 3 Madeka, ' Mokote' (Ivory Coast) 4 Julien Jacob, ' Kalicom' (Benin) 5 A Peace of Ebony, ' Vadzimu' (Zimbabwe) 6 Hardstone, ' Uhiki' (Kenya) 7 Positive Black Soul, ' Wouyouma' (Senegal) 8 Dady Mimbo, ' Bouba (Cool)' (Cameroon) 9 Thievery Corporation, ' The Lagos Communique' (USA) 10 The Pleb, ' One for Senegal' (Italy/ Senegal) 11 African Rhythm Travellers, ' Khululuma' (South Africa) 12 Ndumiso, ' Mofolo Hall' (South Africa) About this series: Putumayo World Music was established to introduce people to the music of the world's cultures. The label grew out of Putumayo clothing company, founded by Dan Storper in 1975 & sold in 1997. Co-founder Michael Kraus joined Storper to help launch Putumayo World Music in 1993. Since then the label has become known primarily for its upbeat & melodic compilations of great international music characterized by the company's motto: ...

Putumayo's African Groove is a collection of cutting-edge African music that highlights the ways modern styles have fused with African traditions. African Groove features musicians from Africa who experiment with hip-hop, remixing & electronic programming as well as international electronica artists who have used the rhythms & styles of Africa as inspiration for trend- setting club music. CD Track listing: 1 Issa Bagayogo, ' Saye Mogo Bana' (Mali) 2 Badenya, ' Boroto' (Burkina Faso) 3 Madeka, ' Mokote' (Ivory Coast) 4 Julien Jacob, ' Kalicom' (Benin) 5 A Peace of Ebony, ' Vadzimu' (Zimbabwe) 6 Hardstone, ' Uhiki' (Kenya) 7 Positive Black Soul, ' Wouyouma' (Senegal) 8 Dady Mimbo, ' Bouba (Cool)' (Cameroon) 9 Thievery Corporation, ' The Lagos Communique' (USA) 10 The Pleb, ' One for Senegal' (Italy/ Senegal) 11 African Rhythm Travellers, ' Khululuma' (South Africa) 12 Ndumiso, ' Mofolo Hall' (South Africa) About this series: Putumayo World Music was established to introduce people to the music of the world's cultures. The label grew out of Putumayo clothing company, founded by Dan Storper in 1975 & sold in 1997. Co-founder Michael Kraus joined Storper to help launch Putumayo World Music in 1993. Since then the label has become known primarily for its upbeat & melodic compilations of great international music characterized by the company's motto: ...

Writing inspired by four visits to Zimbabwe, her childhood home, from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007, Doris Lessing. In the 1980s & early 1990s, Doris Lessing made several visits to her homel&, Zimbabwe, a country from which she had been banned for twenty-five years for her opposition to the government of what was then white Southern Rhodesia. Vividly mingling memory & reportage, Lessing pays passionate & profound testament to an extraordinary country, its landscape, people & unquenchable spirit. ` African Laughter` is both a shrewd & perceptive portrait of a modern African state emerging from its bloody & terrible colonial history, & a candid & moving insight into the mind of one of this century`s finest writers. ...

The book

Includes:: one hundred colour plates accompanied by in-depth descriptions, as well as numerous black-&-white

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