The last 5 books I read and the one I am currently reading.
In chronological order…
HAILE SELASSIE I’S ETHIOPIA, VOLUME ONE: THE RISE OF THE PRIESTLY WARRIOR KINGS
BY KWASI BONSU, ESQUIRE (www.dejazmatchkwasi.com)
An excellent and well-researched history of Ethiopia from ancient times up until 1892 and the birth of Tafari Makonnen (the future Haile Selassie I). Told in a mythological storyteller’s style, Bonsu sets up his pending 7-volume series as a real-life Game of Thrones. The facts of this history are already fascinating enough, but Bonsu’s writing elevates it to a new level of page-turning interest. I loved this book so much that I bought 27 copies to sell to local stores and give as gifts.
PHILOSOPHY AND OPINIONS OF MARCUS GARVEY
EDITED & COMPILED BY AMY JACQUES GARVEY
Of course I should have read this one a long time ago. I had, in fact, read many excerpts from this (and other writings of Marcus Garvey) on the website Jah-Rastafari.com more than a decade ago. Some of them I printed and shared with others, or re-read frequently. However, inexplicably, I’d never read the entire book until now. The impetus was a book club invitation I received in email from the JahJahInI Iniative out of St. Lucia (justiceandhealing.com). The topic of the book club was to be Marcus Garvey’s, “Philosophy & Opinions.” When I saw that, I immediately ordered the edition on the right-side of the photo. This one, printed by Martino Publishing of Connecticut, is a faithful reproduction of the original, retaining all the original typesetting and photographs. However, upon opening it I found it did not match the page numbers given by the book club. It turns out they were using the one on the left, so I was compelled to order one of those as well. This version, a special edition published by Frontline Books, adds some visually compelling design features along with an excellent preface and introduction from the publishers. However, it suffers from plentiful typographical errors, missing sentences and photographs, and even two full missing pages from his Application for Pardon. Luckily, I had the other version to reference whenever I found myself scratching my head. Written exactly 100 years ago, Marcus Garvey prophesied and influenced much of subsequent international events. This book is essential to understanding the world we live in today.
SITTING BULL: HIS LIFE AND LEGACY
BY ERNIE LAPOINTE
I picked this one up at the gift shop of the Little Bighorn Battlefield, where I’d spent a night under the stars on my way out to Rosebud, South Dakota for the Lakota Sundance this summer. I had a personal interest in this story based on a family legend that says my grandmother’s grandmother was a daughter of Sitting Bull. This book is the first time a member of the famed Lakota Chief’s own family has endeavored to tell his story. While other histories of Sitting Bull are quite impersonal, this intimate telling of his personality, motivations, and family life had me frequently in tears.
ORTHODOXY
BY G.K. CHESTERTON
Another historical book, this one written in 1908 and recommended to me more than a decade ago by a tattooer friend of mine. The friend and I are both Orthodox Christians now, but this was my first time actually reading the renowned English philosopher’s justifications for his own embrace of orthodox Christian doctrines. A thoroughly arrogant voice, dense with outdated cultural references that had me running to Wikipedia every 5 minutes, it was nonetheless quite fun and entertaining. Point by point, Chesterton makes a compelling and logical case for the embrace of God in Man, and all the subsequent rights and responsibilities that pertain, along with a strong take-down of the popular heretical philosophies of modern Europe and their unfortunate consequences. However Chesterton is still a bigoted eurocentric–of his times–and no apology can be made for that harmful attitude, which emerges from time to time in his writing.
AFRICA ON THE MOVE
BY NANA FARIKA BERHANE
I learned of this book during the recording of a live podcast for the Association of Rastafari Creatives (www.rastafaricreatives.com). After the recording, I ordered two copies signed by the author, a Jamaican Rastafari woman with a distinguished history as a journalist and decades of organizing experience within the Pan-African movements. The book begins with her own powerful poetry on the African diaspora experience, then proceeds to a series of thorough reports on the events of the Global Afrikan Diaspora conferences and the 50th Anniversary celebrations for the Organization of African Unity (today’s African Union). This is Africa’s time–and if you didn’t know–open your eyes, pick your head up, look around, and start paying attention.
A HISTORY OF EAST AND CENTRAL AFRICA: TO THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
BY BASIL DAVIDSON
My current read, and I’m getting pretty close to finishing it, this was another one that sat on my “to-read” list for more than a decade. My mother found it somewhere, but it looked dusty and old and I just didn’t get around to it until this past month. What a mistake. This is an excellent read, summarizing two millennia of history over a large region of a continent home to many peoples, kingdoms, and empires. I thought I knew quite a few things about East African history, but I really knew very little. Written in the late 1960s, Davidson is quite sympathetic to the humanity of Africans and their ongoing independence movements, while highly critical of the depredations of Europeans–particularly the Portuguese and Dutch–on the continent.
So, that’s my 5 + 1. Follow the links, order the books, read them, and draw your own conclusions.
Nic Nakis 