This is an inexpensive, yet wonderful collection of African folk tales. They are brilliant- a must-have!

I think that this book is a wonderful life lesson to many youngsters out there.From the jungles of Africa to a lion's mouth, these stories wil take your eyes to a whole new world!

This book examines the knowledge of the Yoruba people from their own way of expressiing it. In order to know a people I think its important to understand them from their own point of view. First rate scholarship.

After having read Mr. Hallen's other work (Knowledge and Belief of Witchcraft) I was interested to read his newest work. I had been eagerly awaiting the release for months and it was worth the wait!

Mr. Hallen expertly presents the values of the Yoruba culture as they relate to beauty and goodness. As a student and priest of Yoruba religious system, this book is a valuable addition to my library - an important step forward in my studies and the studies of anyone interested in this profound and sophisticated culture.

I think this book is much better than his former volume and would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who has an interest in learning more about the values and perspectives of the Yoruba people.

I extend my thanks to Mr. Hallen, wish him much success and hope that he continues to study and share the world of the Yoruba with the rest of the world.

I use this book to help teach about African culture to my elementary music classes. It is a book with both pros and cons. The story is long winded, and really has no direction. The plot is too tedious for young children. However, the book does explain some aspects of African tribal culture which are well illustrated and meticulously explained. The best aspect of the book is the "How To" section at the end. My students enjoy making their own rainstick, and this is a perfect way to summarize the activity.

I bought this book, along with the Rainstick Kit (available in Toys). It was a Christmas gift for a friend's child. She was able to read the book to learn about rainsticks. At the end of the book, it gave her instructions to make her own rainstick and she also make one from the Rainstick Kit. The story in the book was beautifully told and the pictures and colors were breathtaking. This is an excellent gift idea for someone who likes to both read and do. It is educational and fun and is a great gift idea!

This is a good little book about Nigeria's problems written by a Nigerian for Nigerians. The edition I read was one of the smallest books I've ever seen - even smaller than some of those Noam Chomsky Real Story tracts - which makes sense since it was published in Nigeria for readers who might not be able to afford paying $8.50 for a book. Therefore the reader should keep in mind the audience this book is aimed at: Achebe is writing to Nigerians about how they can clean up their country. He is not writing a serious book about the current troubles of Nigeria and how they can be solved on an international as well as domestic front: the lack of the words 'Shell Corporation' is conspicuous throughout the book.

That being said, this is a good way for a non-Nigerian to see how Nigeria's problems are perceived internally. Achebe is strong in his condemnation of tribalism, indiscipline and especially corruption and the prejudice agains the Igbo people. While condeming most current (this was written in 1983) politicians, he does praise the famous Aminu Kano and other politicians like Bola Ige, Bisi Onabanjo and Ernest Ikoli for putting the nation's interest first, not their own. Achebe looks forward to a time when such politicians would lead Nigerians, not divide them or waste their money needlessly.

Unfortunately, good leadership is not the only answer to Nigeria's problems. Nonetheless, this is still a worthy read.

I first bought this book from a dusty bin in The Metropolitan Hotel in Calabar, Nigeria. I was there on a thirteen day missions trip during the bloody reign of Babangida and I had already experienced, first hand, the trouble with Nigeria. Achebe had been a favorite author since I read Things Fall Apart during my college days, but with this reading he became more than an author -- he became a friend and guide.

In 63 insightful pages he has written a manifesto for the recovery of people of African descent world-wide, of which I am one. He talks about the need for leadership, the scar of tribalism, and a variety of social ills that, as he puts it, Nigerians have relegated to small talk and I am sad to say African Americans have turned into comedy.

This is a must read for people of African descent and anyone else who would like to understand and help. Just recently, I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing the daughter of former Nigerian President Elect Abiola. Her father died while imprisoned a few years ago. Now a congresswoman herself, she has high hopes for Nigeria, but sees similar social ills here in American and agreed that Achebe's views are accurate and needful.

The trouble with Nigeria and African America is that not enough people have read and applied the principles discussed in The Trouble with Nigeria.

I read this on my flight to Turkey, as I experienced my first entry into a truly foreign country. Although I didn't take the risk of travelling outside of the "bubble" that Kaplan talks about, sections of this book definitely pertained to my trip. It altered the way I perceived the world around me. Instead of seeing some Istanbul neighborhoods as helplessly impoverished, I looked for signs of the middle-class ambition that Kaplan spoke of. I also realized that my standards of living are not available to most of the world, and The Ends of the Earth was a good introduction to this concept.

I find particularly interesting the political context in Kaplan's travel writing. Not only do you get the direct visceral experience of travelling through so-called "third world" countries, but you get the political history. My friend said that the book itself is a journey through thought as it is a journey through countries. There is no final answer to why certain cultures develop in one way and others develop in other ways - but you'll certainly appreciate the process as Kaplan visits developing nations across the world and attempts to analyze the past's impact on the present.

This book is highly readable. You simply do not get bored, and I can't think of another non-fiction book that I didn't want to put down at some point.

This book is not your average travel memoir. It is an introspective analysis of the social and political conditions of developing countries from West Africa to Thailand. Typical travelogues can be titillating, but because the authors actually know so little about the cultures that they are visiting for a short time, readers learn more about the authors themselves than about the countries being described. However, this book is quite different in that respect--Kaplan obviously knows this region well, having worked as a journalist in the region for years. As a journalist, he knows which questions to ask and from whom. He describes conversations with high government officials (many of which wish to remain anonymous), as well as tidbits that he picks up from traveling companions and encounters with ordinary people. He backs up all of these personal anecdotes with hard facts and statistics footnoted to hundreds of resources listed in the bibliography. What he has to say can about the countries and cultures that he visits can be quite disturbing.

One of Kaplan's goals for his trip is to try to discover why some regions of the developing world are bordering on anarchy, or have actually slipped over the edge, and others seem to be working well for the community. By observing societies and talking to leaders as well as ordinary people, he attempts to discover what works to build a civil world. He considers the varying influences that tradition, religion, education, government, and environment may have on a society. While he points out that education, particularly literacy, seems to be vital for maintaining civilization, he finds that there are no absolute factors that can predict which societies will succeed and which will devolve into barbarism.

Many of Kaplan's observations are quite disturbing, such as when he points out entire regions where per capita income has fallen dramatically since the 1960s, yet population has risen, in contrast to other regions with similar levels of development in 1960 where exactly the opposite has happened. What's more, Kaplan points out that many of the reasons for these problems are internal to the societies themselves, such as corruption and traditional practices. The people are understandably frustrated, they have little or no education, and they have easy access to powerful weapons. Unscrupulous or ill-educated leaders can easily point the blame for these problems entirely at the 'West', redirecting the anger of the masses so that the society does not implode with its own violence.

Some readers may find some of Kaplan's comments racist or bigoted, but having lived for 4 years in a place where the majority of the population comes from the countries that Kaplan describes, I find that every word rings true for me. Kaplan has put into words my own observations and speculations about what I see around me. The book is filled with hundreds of short remarks that capture so much of my experience here, such as when he quotes an Indian educator as saying 'Only when children are taught to categorize and to analyze, rather than merely to memorize, can they achieve anything in the modern world. Intercommunal and tribal hatreds'arise from too much faulty oral memory and too little self-motivated analysis.' But the one that will stick with me for years is his point that you can't give wealth, and you can't pump it out of the ground. You can only create wealth. This book will be of interest to anyone who is trying to understand the forces behind current world events. It should be read by all top-level policy makers.

This is not an ordinary "travel book", the author explores the culture, politics, history of parts of the world few westerners know exist. I was particulary interested in his travels through central asia (post soviet union countries) which I knew little about. His themes about population growth, dimishing resources, migrating populations, and their impact on the world were powerful and illuminating. We (in the west) may believe we are immune to the problems of the "third" world, Mr. Kaplan presents a very different picture. I read this book over six months ago and I'm still reflecting on it.

This is not a lighthearted book. In fact, it is a bit grim in parts. However, it is really interesting and I do recommend this book to anyone who likes travel stories that aren't sugar-coated. I didn't know much about French Africa before reading this book, so I learned a lot and found his experiences in the different French African countries was intriguing and unusual. A good travel book, about an area where most of us will never go.

"French Lessons in Africa: Travels with My Briefcase Through French Africa" is a collection of business-travel experiences and observations in ten countries in Francophone Africa (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Zaire). Biddlecombe careens from business-class hotel and international conference center to rural village and farm, and describes his encounters with everything from white magic in Benin, locusts in Mali, to lost luggage in Congo. He shares his encounters with Africans of all sorts: government minister, customs officer, doctor-entrepreneur, gold smuggler, chicken farmer, soap manufacturer, and cassette pirater. He shares his thoughts, knowledge, and conversations covering African leaders, economic development, the CFA franc, colonization and independence, health and nutrition, literature, music, and architecture. All with a great deal of wit and humor. This is no introductory text, but anyone with some basic knowledge of Africa will find this book informative and enjoyable.

Francophone Africa is one of the areas of the world that no one writes much about. Biddlecombe, however, has succeeded in conveying the feelings and conditions of this area very accuratley. This is not just a dry travel book however. Biddlecombe sprinkles his narratives with many hilarious anecdotes to further the reader's understading of why the people in this region act the way they do. Great book.

This book took me to a world of piracy on the high seas that I probably had never thought I'd revisit after Treasure Island. While not exactly a page burner, it is worth the read. Nicholas Griffin gives a enough sense of day to day reality to the characters that makes you connect with what it must have been like to lead these lives. The historical detail and research give a great air of authenticity to the story.

The great challenge is how do you make a reader identify with a group of people who steal and murder for a living? The most interesting character for me was Innocent, the Yoruban black convert to an African brand of Christianity, who comes across as half savage, half mystic. Even the Captain Bartholomew Roberts' fear of the Almighty lent a spice of philosophic reality to what otherwise could have been a very two-dimensional character. Griffin lets us in enough on these inner lives to engage us with the characters.

The reversal at the end was for me an unexpected though intriguing finish with the motives of Phineas Bunch, the cabin boy, who is introduced by the second page, seems a minor character, and yet plays a key role. I won't spoil that surprise! It's a good pirate puzzle piece.

I recommend this book as a good read. It is satisfying as an adventure, as a historical snapshot of the period, written with enough twists and turns to make you enjoy the voyage.

This is an adventure story formed around the goals of the pirate Bartholomew Roberts, or Black Bart as he has been known.

Nicholas Griffin writes very well, and this is his first published book. I will read his next book also. The glossary in the back is very helpful, but I wish it had been more extensive. Also, in the paperback, the printing on the map is too small to read.

It did seem odd to me that an educated person like William Williams found himself among such cutthroats. Why was he there, and why did he stay in the face of the horrors they committed?

If you like boats, adventure, pirates, this is a good book to read.

And, it's a good time to read this book and contrast it with the summer's movie from Disney, Pirates of the Caribbean.

This is a novel about pirates in the early eighteenth century and if you like this sort of thing, you will greatly enjoy this terrific read.

It is written in the third person and told primarily from the point of view of William Williams, a youthful English scholar, impressed by an English slaver, and shortly thereafter captured by pirates. The story is that of his adventures with these pirates and their captain, Bartholomew Roberts, aka, Black Bart, a real life historical personage.

What sets this book apart from its peers is not only its great attention to detail, but the attention it pays to those little things that all of us who read historical fiction are interested in. How is justice meeted out on a pirate ship, for example? How does a captain become a captain, and how does he remain one? How is he able to get these outlaws to do anything? What do they do with their riches? Who would trade with them? For that matter, where do they get their crew? All of this is explored, and all of it is quite interesting. Also conveyed quite well is the way of life in general in this long ago century. If life in London was tough, life in the English navy was tougher. And life on a pirate ship was very, very brutal.

Also exceptional are the characters, who are unusual, but nevertheless completely believable. Along with your typical European cutthroats, there is also mixture of black Africans, Amazonian Indians, and Portuguese merchantmen thrown in. I particularly liked Innocent, the Queequeg of the novel, with his weird philosophy--an illogical mixture of the barebones stories of Jesus and Homer's Odyssey--taught to him by a bored, smirking shipmate. The main impression you get of these guys is their ignorance. None of them can read or write, and all of them are superstitious and childishly cruel. Of course, this makes sense. Pirates were culled from the lowest dregs of society.

The plot is as it must be: there are the wanderings around the Atlantic, the sometimes vicious encounters with merchants, the storm scene, the starvation scene, the mutiny, and finally the scene in which they are brought to justice. But it is fresh, and there is something new to be found in all of it. It is also artfully done. The ending, in particular, is poignant, as we realize that the lives of these poor men--those that survive anyway--are never going to change. They can expect no sympathy during the course of their short, brutish lives, and what little hope they nurture turns out to be illusory.

This was a good read, well written adventure. The "characters" we meet are thoroughly African and provide an insightful view of that country. There are some questions that the book left unanswered. For instance, who is Ann? Why is she travelling with Stevens? And did they learn anything of lasting value from the trip? I loved the adventure. The writing is tight, humorous and makes even the outlandish situations believable.

Stevens' comedy of misdirection and misadventure in Central Africa as he and a lady companion attempt to drive a friend's Land Rover from the Central African Republic to the Mediterranean is some of the most deftly funny travel writing I have encountered. Their near-disastrous passage across the Sahara in a barely functional Land Cruiser (the Land Rover having been commandeered by a CAR bureaucrat)is simultaneously alarming and chucklesome. The overall mood of the book reminded me of the old madcap black-and-white comedies of the 20's and 30's. But when I turned the last page I wasn't satisfied. Stevens doesn't seem to learn much through his adventure. He goes to great effort to overcome physical, mechanical, official, and environmental obstacles. He navigates through a throng of juicy characters, African and European. Yet in the end, he doesn't seem to grow from his experience. These mad escapades are loads of fun to read through, but when the stock of anecdotes runs out, you ask, "So what?" (By the way, his earlier book "Night Train to Turkistan" had the same flaws, but was less well written. I'd give that one a 4.)

This is a story on HOW one travels in Africa. Some stories Stevens paints may sound outrageous or outlandish, but that's exactly how it is in Africa. Experienced in traveling and living in this fabolous continent, I can only say "welcome to reality". The author has a very humorous style of telling wild tales of African Bureaucracy and logic as encountered during their misfortunate trip through the Sahara. I smiled my way through the book that I hardly could put down. The tales are so real (as anyone will testify who has been there) that it rocks the reading chair of anyone getting into the book. Don't read the book, if you are planning your first trip to Africa but read it if you want to immerse yourself in real African mentality, shrewdness, and irrationality held together by a humor hard to resist.

Kaplan is a good writer and creates a strong sense of fear and concern for the reader. He is an intrepid travel who can weave a fantastic story and enthrall the reader. But his talent for writing can also distract the reader. Between the lines one can see that he is taking liberties with facts and inflating single incidents into general conclusions. For example, he will take comments from street vendors in Cairo and make a vast, general conclusion about the state of the country. He also has a terrible habit of generalizing societies and reverting to now much-maligned 'orientalist'writers to support his case. One of the more embarassing moments in this book is when he discusses 'oriental despotism' and uses texts to talk about the unique nature of 'oriental' totalitarianism and its particularly abusing ways of managing society and oppressing people. This from a man who comes from a culture that slaugheter over 22 million humans in world wars, and a country that dropped atomic bombs on civilian populations, murdered millions in Indochina and other unmentionable acts. Is oriental despotism really that unique? Have we forgotten the colonial empires in Latin America, Congo and the rest of Africa, the slave trade etc. etc.. Can anyone really sit and claim that oriental despotism was more/less despotic that what the Occident demonstrated? Amusing to hear him talk about the unique nature of oriental oppression and totalitarianism. These are old racist ideas in not even new guises. A sensitive read will quickly find these tendencies annoying, but I think that most general readers will actually think that they are benefiting from such writers and books. That is sad, because people like Kaplan, who continue to focus on the small differences rather than the larger commonalities between societies and peoples, will continue to create dialogues in their societies that mislead and scare rather than inform and explain

Robert Kaplan writes in a style that drives the reader's eyes to rip the words from the page. This book was not only extremely relevant to current events(strange that it was written several years ago), it gives the reader a real view of life in a part of the world which almost any westerner would not survive two seconds in. Read this and open your frickin eyes to the shaky world we are living in.

Robert Kaplan writes about his experiences traveling abroad from africa to cambodia discussing things like the region's historys and economies. The book provides an interesting comparision among different improvished regions of the world. Reading this book provides a better understanding of the third world.

Dettwyler tells the story of her anthro work in Mali, and it is certainly an interesting read. But there is a tone throughout that is just kind of whiny. Definitely not an ethnography, although I'm not sure it was intended to be, but more of an account of what it is like to do work in rural villages. This is a nice easy read and should give some insight on village life in this part of west Africa, but the book shifts focus quite a bit and the author's tone grows a bit tiresome as the book goes on, but don't let that deter you if you are interested in this subject. Not great, but definitely worthwhile...

I found this book to touch me as a person, while reaching me on an academic level at the same time. It is rare to find an ethnography that engages you as a reader, keeping your interest, that also gets the scientific point across. I found Dancing Skeletons to be one of these rare finds. It's an excellent source of information that also captures your attention on a personal level.

Some of the reviewers of Katherine A. Dettwyler's Dancing Skeletons are critical of her book because they sense that she devoted much of her study to analyzing her own thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes, rather than devoting her full attention to the culture itself. ...
The reviewers of Dettwyler's book must have been disappointed with her study because they were expecting an objective ethnography, free from the exposure of the anthropologist's weaknesses. However, in Dettwyler's book, they encountered her weaknesses (such as when she unexpectedly cried after seeing a child with Down Syndrome) and accounts of her biases (especially toward Malian food). For a social scientist, such accounts deviate from the study at hand, making it more of a personal diary than an ethnography itself.
However, these reviewers seem to have forgotten that Katherine Dettwyler is approaching her field of study from the hermeneutic point of view. Unlike social scientists, who study their subjects objectively as a way to counter bias, hermeneuts use bias as an important tool to better comprehend a culture. Through the self-evaluation of one's thoughts and feelings, and negotiation between informant and interviewer, the hermeneut is able to begin drawing a complete picture of the culture at hand.
Hence, through Dettwyler's questioning and self-evaluation, the reader is able to see Mali through the eyes of a human being and not from a distanced scientist gathering raw data for his or her doctorate study. Through Dettwyler's journey of trial and error, the reader begins to comprehend Mali each step at a time, the very same way Dettwyler does. Instead of being lectured at scientifically, the reader is taken on a trip through Malian society, both rural and urban, experiencing with Dettwyler the joys and tragedies of life in a rural village. Her thoughts and feelings provoke thoughts and feelings on the readers, making them, along with Dettwyler, active learners of Malian culture.