Africa
Kinzer's account is part sympathetic portrait of Paul Kagame, Rwanda's current strongman president, and part journalistic account of recent Rwandan history, notably the 1994 genocide that ended with the victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (the Tutsi guerrilla army that Kagame led to power).
These two timely books offer useful introductions to Somaliland. Bradbury's account is the more comprehensive, providing both a history of the region and a fairly complete assessment of recent state-building efforts. Lewis, a longtime observer of Somalia, has written a shorter and more pointed account of recent events, grounded in his deep knowledge of Somali culture and history.
Walker's well-written and informative book tells the story man's fascination with ivory, from prehistoric amulets to the massive global trade in the nineteenth century and discusses the impact of the international ban on the ivory trade that has been in effect since 1990.
Deng, a prominent Sudanese legal scholar, blames the adoption of European-inspired models of governance at the time of independence for the region's poor governance and poor record of managing ethnic diversity.
