Book Review: The Old World: Early Man To the Development of Agriculture (Under the editorial supervision of Robert Stigler)

Reading this book, I learnt that how from the flowers, which were identified by the pollens found in the grave, it was possible to determine the burial month of an individual (p. 61).

In southwestern France in Upper Paleolithic times we have the appearance of two cultures, the Aurignacian and the Perigordian, which run almost side by side in the same region (p. 65). Solecki says that the Aurignacian is quite widespread there, through Turkey and the Zagros Mountains as far as Afghanistan (p. 65). Solecki further states that most probably 30, 000 years ago people entered Australia by boat (p. 68).

Perkins. Jr and Daly state that food production most probably began in the Near East in the Highland Zone (p. 72). The authors further state that the theory that the retreat of glaciers was assumed to have shifted the rain belts, causing increasing desiccation- seems to have numerous flaws( p. 74). As per these authors a domestic animal is one 'which breeds in captivity and is of significant economic importance' (p. 80).

Stigler writes that in the Near East the early stages of food production did indeed take place in such mostly upland country and only afterwards did Neolithic settlement  begin to fill  the alluvial valleys and lowland plains (p. 100). Stigler further writes that in Catal Huyuk the entrances were through the roofs which presented a blank façade to the outside world (p. 104). The author further writes that some old world archeologists sometimes refer the "Old Testament effect", which means 'attributing the appearance of any cultural innovation to an immigration of peoples from the outside' (p. 110).Ubaid in Southern Mesopotamia  has origins which are often attributed to a new people coming into the area from south western Iran (p. 114).

Writing on Egypt and India Stigler writes that 'the later dynastic written sources indicate that by Late Pre-dynastic times two parallels lineages of "kings" ruled Upper and Lower Egypt respectively' (p. 140). The author states that in India and Pakistan the links between Mesolithic and the Neolithic are still missing from the archeological record (p. 145). Stigler is of the view that the 'earliest date farming communities known to be of direct relevance to the subcontinent proper are located in Baluchistan' (p. 146). In addition to that the author writes that the site of Kile Gul Mohammad in the Quetta Valley of north-eastern Baluchistan is a cornerstone of the Baluchistan Neolithic, providing the earliest carbon-14 dates for the period in all of India-Pakistan' (p. 146). In geographical extent this was the largest of the four "primal" civilizations of the Old World- Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus, and China- stretching some thousand miles along the great alluvial river valley (p. 150).

This book covers plant domestication, sexual division of labor, deer-slayers in Germany and Poland, transition from hunter to townsman, hunting peoples, agrarian peoples, principal food animals (p. 75), definition of "civilization"(p. 116), historian Karl Wittfogel on irrigation (p. 117), Tasian burial practices and Walter Fairservis' views on first settlements in Baluchistan (p. 148).

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Book Review: Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi says that the very words we use are a product of a collective history (p. x-xi). He says that the present predicaments of Africa are often not a matter of personal choice; they arise from an historical situation. Their solutions are not so much of a matter of personal decision as that of a fundamental social transformation of the structures of our societies starting with a real break with imperialism and its internal ruling allies. Imperialism and its comprador alliances in Africa can never never develop the continent (xii).

According to the author 'the biggest weapon wielded and actually daily unleashed by imperialism against that collective defiance is the cultural bomb. The effect of a cultural bomb is to annihilate a people's belief in their names, in their languages, in their environment, in their heritage of struggle, in their unity, in their capacities and ultimately in themselves (p. 3). Ngugi remembers the time when speaking his native tongue Gikuyu in school led to punishment (p. 11). Writing about his younger days he also narrates how a button was used as a tool to punish those students who spoke their native tongue (p. 11).

The author writes that Swahili in East and Central Africa is used as a means of  communication across many nationalities, but it is not a carrier of culture and history of many of those nationalities whereas in parts of Kenya and Tanzania, particularly in Zanzibar, Swahili is inseparably both a means of communication and a carrier of the culture of those people to whom it is a mother-tongue (p. 13). Ngugi writes that 'rival imperialisms and the colonial practice of divide and rule introduced contradictory representations of the sound systems of the same language, let alone of similar African languages within the same colonial boundary. For instance the Gikuyu language had two rival orthographies developed by protestant and catholic missionaries (p. 67). 

Ngugi was put in prison, banned from teaching at the University of Nairobi and the exiled (p. 62). He was at his home on 31 December 1977. Ngugi wrote on toilet paper when he did not have paper in jail (p. 74). There was so much repression from 1952 to 1962 during the Mau Mau struggle that more than five people were deemed to constitute a public gathering and needed a license (p. 37).

The author stresses that African literature can only be written in Africa languages, that is, the languages of African peasantry and working class, the major alliance of classes in each our nationalities and the agency for the coming inevitable revolutionary break with neo-colonialism (p. 27). Ngugi stresses on the oral literature (orature). According to him orature ha sits roots in the lives of the peasantry. It is primarily their compositions, their songs, their art, which forms the basis of the national and resistance culture during the colonial and neo-colonial times (p. 95).

The land question is basic to  an understanding of Kenya's history and contemporary politics, as indeed it is of twentieth century history wherever people have had their land taken away by conquest, unequal treaties or by the genocide of prat of the population (p. 44). The colonizers also introduced categorization. The good African was the one who cooperated with the European colonizer whereas the bad African character was the on who offered resistance to the foreign conquest and occupation of his country. The bad character was portrayed as being ugly, weak, cowardly and scheming (p. 92).

Because of its intermediate economic position between the many contending classes, the petty- bourgeoisie develops a vacillating psychological make-up. Like a chameleon it takes on the color of the main class with which  it is in the closest touch and sympathy (p. 22). The author states that under the colonial system, through the racist ideologies the private appropriation of wealth was ensured in a few hands- mostly white (p. 66).

On page 53, Ngugi shares a play in which one of the character named Wangeci says: 

"Think about today and tomorrow.

Think about our home.

Poverty has no permanent roots!

Poverty is a sword for sharpening the digging sticks..."

Ngugi says that 'when that day comes, when the African writer will naturally turn to African languages for his creative imagination, the African novel will truly come into its own, incorporating into itself all the features developed in the different parts of Africa from the different cultures of African peoples as well as the best progressive features of the novel or fiction developed in Asia, Latin America, Europe, America, the World (p. 85). Ngugi also writes that 'drama is closer to the dialectics of life than poetry and the fiction' (p. 54).

While writing about the main aim of the book the author states that 'in this book I have pointed out that how we view ourselves, our environment even, is very much dependent on where we stand in relationship to imperialism in its colonial and neo-colonial stages; that if we are to do anything about our individual and collective being today, then we have to coldly and consciously look at what imperialism has been doing to us and to our view of ourselves in the universe' (p. 88). Ngugi says that 'economic and political control of a people can never be complete without cultural control' (p. 93). 

On page 105 Ngugi quotes Brecht who says in a poem:

"Your science will be valueless, you'll find

And learning will be sterile, if inviting

Unless you pledge your intellect to fighting

Against all enemies of Mankind."

Further in the book Ngugi also writes about colonialism in education, Kamiriithu Community Centre, racism of Hume, Thomas Jefferson and Hegel, class origin of discoveries, his view about the appropriation of the novel, his learnings from different writers, African children and colonial schools. Ngugi has very clearly addressed the main issues on the language question in literature. This book is the author's farewell to English as a vehicle for any of his writings.

In the concluding chapter Ngugi writes that the aim of this book has been about 'national, democratic and human liberation' (p. 108). I want to paraphrase but I think it would be injustice to the powerful words of the author. Ngugi says that 'the call for the rediscovery and the resumption of our language is a call for a regenerative reconnection with the millions of revolutionary tongues in Africa and the world over demanding liberation. It is a call for the rediscovery of the real language of humankind: the language of struggle. It is the universal language underlying all speech and words of our history. Struggle. Struggle makes history. Struggle makes us.  In struggle is our history, our language and our being. That struggle begins wherever we are; in whatever we do; then we become part of those millions whom Martin Carter once saw sleeping not to dream but dreaming to change the world' (p. 108).

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Book Review: Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

I first read this interesting novel on the Swahili coast in 2021. The novel covers various aspects of the history, customs and social life of the people living on the coast. Colonialism, racism, trade, merchants, colonizers, biases, politics, minority communities, education, orientalism, ignorance about oral communities and many other themes are discussed in this novel. I find the writing style of the novelist very different from what I have read before. 

Some of the chapters in the book are Hasan Ali, Fredrick, Pearce, Rehana, An Interruption, Amin and Rashid, Amin and Jamila, Rashid and Amin, and A Continuation. The setting of the novel is based in a small town along the coast from Mombasa. In 1899, when Hassanali sets out for the mosque he finds and exhausted Englishman. Hassanali rescues the man named Martin Pearce. Pearce recovers and visits Hassanali to thank him for help and support. There Pearce meets Rehana, the sister of Hassanali. Pearce finds her attractive and hence begins the love affair. This all happens on the brink of the twentieth century.

Some of the interesting sentences in the novel are:

• Happy to be disturbed (p. 49).
• Exaggerating his willingness to listen (p. 52).
• Left them bereft and disconsolate in unfamiliar silences (p. 64).
• When inspiration deserts you, it deserts you completely (p. 97).
• You are over-salting the dish (p. 139).
• Elysian pastures (p. 149).
• Knowledge sometimes obscures what was known before (p. 210).

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Book Review: 11 Life Lessons from Nelson Mandela by Ndaba Mandela

Ndaba Mandela, the grandson of Nelson Mandela, writes this book as an account of his experiences with his grandfather. This includes his upbringing by his grandfather, troubles in life, lessons and principles learnt from his grandfather.


Based on eleven chapters this book brings to light the dimensions of Nelson Mandela’s life, never discussed before. The author discusses apartheid in daily life in South Africa. The police could raid any house on any street at any time considered appropriate by them. He further says that black South Africans had been deprived of educational, social, political and economic opportunities and it wanted to take many generations to overcome the disadvantaged position. Moreover, the author writes about his grandfather’s struggle in life. His grandfather had lived twenty-seven years of his life in prison. Nelson Mandela said: “But If you learn your enemy’s language, you have a great power over him.” That is why he wanted his grandson to learn different languages.”


Ndaba traces history of Mandelas, discusses various short stories and memories to explain his opinion about certain ideas. Ndaba narrates a story about losing his school journey twice. On hearing this Nelson Mandela gets upset and teaches him a lesson. I believe this story shows a strong, disciplined and principled Mandela who wanted to buy good strong training of his grandson. Ndaba further writes about his grandfather that he was very punctual about his morning walk and exercise. When there were first presidential elections in in South Africa Nelson Mandela was hesitant to participate. He wanted someone young who had a better insight of the current issues of South Africa.


Ndaba talks about the strained relation between his parents and how he was to live with his grandparents due to his strained relation. Ndaba’s mother and his father died of HIV. First his mother then his father. Both times he was not aware about the nature of their illness. This had a huge effect on Ndaba who believes that he should have been told by his family members.


Madiba (Nelson Mandela) asked his black countrymen to forgive the atrocities of apartheid. He was using nonviolence not as a moral principal but as a strategy. In jail he was observing the happenings in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. They gained their independence and kicked out the white people resulting in a dead economy. The author views Nelson Mandela’s forgiveness as part of a leadership strategy. In 1998, Madiba went to Kwazulu-Natal for a ceremony where eight-five black families received 600,000 hectares. There at the event he said: “Our land reform program helps us redress the injustices of apartheid. It fosters national reconciliation and stability.”


Once Queen Elizabeth called Mandela. He said, “Hello? Elizabeth! How are you? Good, good. Oh, yes, I’m fine, thank you”. Later Mandela’s wife said, “Madiba, you cannot just call her Elizabeth”. “What are you talking about? She calls me Nelson. We always call each other by our first names. Don’t forget, I ‘m royalty”.


Chapter nine is an interesting chapter in which Ndaba goes to the mountain to attain the tribal custom of manhood after his grandfather’s approval. The details are an interesting read. While Nelson Mandela was at Robben Island, he wrote to the Commissioner of Prisons, I have never regarded any man as my superior either in my life outside or inside prison”.


Ndaba says that his grandfather believed that one’s resolve- one’s truth is the voice that roams within, His grandfather taught him to listen to it. Nelson Mandela died on 5^th December 2013. He was the icon of endurance, forgiveness, harmony and reconciliation. Earlier in life struggled for an armed movement through Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK). In 1962 he traded abroad to arrange guerilla training for members of MK. When in jail Mandela said: “Prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Only free men can negotiate”.


Ndaba Mandela concludes the book with a message to fellow South Africans. He wants them to fight for economic emancipation as the fight is not over yet.

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