History / History by country / Africa / East

The Pirates of Somalia: Inside Their Hidden World

by Jay Bahadur

Somalia, on the tip of the Horn of Africa, has been inhabited as far back as 9,000 BC. Its history is as rich as the country is old. Caught up in a decades-long civil war, Somalia, along with Iraq and Afghanistan,...

Islamic Reform and Arab Nationalism

by Amal N Ghazal

Bridging African and Arab histories, this book examines the relationship between Islam, nationalism and the evolution of identity politics from late 19^th Century to World War II. It provides a cross-national,...

I Didn't Do It for You

by Michela Wrong

Scarred by decades of conflict and occupation, the craggy African nation of Eritrea has weathered the world's longest-running guerrilla war. The dogged determination that secured victory against Ethiopia, its...

The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change

by Roger Thurow

The story of a group of Kenyan farmers working to transcend lives of dire poverty and hunger illuminates the challenges, and vital necessity, of transforming Africa’s agriculture sector

The Quest for Press Freedom: One Hundred Years of History of the Media in Ethiopia

by Meseret Chekol Reta

This book is about press development and freedom in Ethiopia, with a focus on the state media. It examines the political and social situations of the monarchy era, the Marxist military regime, and the current...

The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family

by Peter Firstbrook

"Fascinating...adds many interesting details to what we know of the President’s heritage."

--David Remnick, TheNewYorker.com

On January 20, 2009, a few hundred men, women, and children gathered under trees in...

The Last Maasai Warriors: An Autobiography

by Wilson Meikuaya, Jackson Ntirkana & Susan McClelland

How two young Maasai tribesmen became warriors, scholars, and leaders in their community and to the world.

They are living testament to a vanishing way of life on the African savannah. Wilson and Jackson are...

Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

by Mark Bowden

Already a classic of war reporting and now reissued as a Grove Press paperback, Black Hawk Down is Mark Bowden’s brilliant account of the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam...

The Italian Invasion of Abyssinia 1935-36

by David Nicolle & Raffaele Ruggeri

The Second Italo–Abyssinian War began in October 1935, when Mussolini ordered the invasion of Ethiopia from Italian-held Eritrea and Somaliland, thinking that he would easily crush an ill-prepared and badly...

The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change

by Roger Thurow

The story of a group of Kenyan farmers working to transcend lives of dire poverty and hunger illuminates the challenges, and vital necessity, of transforming Africa’s agriculture sector

From Citizen to Refugee: Uganda Asians Come to Britain

by Mahmood Mamdani

In a gripping personal account of the Asians’ last days in Uganda following their expulsion by Idi Amin in 1972, this book interweaves an examination of the country’s colonial history with the subsequent...

The Wizard Of The Nile

by Matthew Green

Somewhere in the jungles of Uganda, there hides a fugitive rebel leader: he is said to take his orders directly from the spirit world and, together with his ragged army of brutalized child soldiers, he has left...

Tanzanian Women in Their Own Words: Stories of Disability and Illness

by Sheryl Feinstein

Tanzanian Women in Their Own Words is a compilation of oral histories by Tanzanian women living with disabilities or chronic illnesses. The narratives encourage readers to consider issues of health care, transportation,...

Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1963-2011

by Daniel Branch

On December 12, 1963, people across Kenya joyfully celebrated independence from British colonial rule, anticipating a bright future of prosperity and social justice. As the nation approaches the fiftieth anniversary...