Book of the month

How Rich Countries Got Rich...and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor  [May]

In this refreshingly revisionist history, Erik S. Reinert shows how rich countries developed through a combination of government intervention, protectionism, and strategic investment—rather than through free trade. Yet when our leaders lecture poor countries on the right path to riches they do so in almost perfect ignorance of the fact that our economies were founded on protectionism long before they could afford the luxury of free trade. How Rich Countries Got Rich… will challenge economic orthodoxy and open up the debate on why self-regulating markets are not the best answer to our hopes of worldwide prosperity.More

Building Social Business. The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs  [February]

In this book, Yunus shows how social business has gone from being a theory to an inspiring practice, adopted by leading corporations, entrepreneurs, and social activists. He demonstrates how social business transforms lives; offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own; explains how public and corporate policies must adapt to make room for the social business model; and shows why social business holds the potential to redeem the failed promise of free-market enterprise.More

From Mukogodu to Maasai: Ethnicity and Cultural Change in Kenya  [December]

Anthropologist Lee Cronk looks into the question of whether one or an entire group can change one´s ethnicity. He is exploring these issues by repeatedly staying and doing research with the Mukogodu of Kenya. Until the 1920s and 1930s, the Mukogodo were Cushitic-speaking foragers (hunters, gatherers, and beekeepers). However, changes brought on by British colonial policies led them to move away from life as independent foragers and into the orbit of the high-status Maasai, whom they began to emulate. Although Lee Cronk focuses on this particular ethnic group, his observations are worth knowing about since they reflect processes that work within various communities and many times, even against our expectations, and trigger all kinds of unexpected consequences.More

Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World  [July]

Jacqueline Novogratz left a career in international banking to spend her life on a quest to find solutions how to contribute to diminishing poverty in the world. J. Novogratz’s approach differs from other attempts of NGOs with similar goals in that she and groups of people working with her have attempted supporting for-profit entrepreneurial activities.More

Unbowed  [May]

This charismatic and strong Kenyan woman Wangari Maathai talks about her incredibly intense life. In this book W. Maathai shares with the reader memories of her childhood, when only through a coincidental course of events her mother decided to send her to school; her studies at university in Kenya and in the USA, her obtaining a Doctorate degree, founding the renowed Green Belt Movement, struggle in defending women’s rights, a number of futile attempts at helping to bring about a societal change during a dictatorial regime of president Daniel arap Moi, receiving the Nobel Prize, or her work at the ministry of environment. W. Maathai led a movement of activists in a long fight to create new forested areas and/or defend the ones that were already in existence. The government and thugs hired by the government repeatedly used violence against them. Despite this, W. Maathai and other activists just continued in their resilient fight.More

Africa Yearbook 5 : Politics, Economy and Society South of the Sahara in 2008  [April]

The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa - all related to developments in one calendar year. The Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa) focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organizations as well as one article on continental developments and one on European-African relations.

Dead Aid  [January]

In this provocative and compelling book, Dambisa Moyo argues that the most important challenge we face today is to destroy the myth that Aid actually works. In the modern globalized economy, simply handing out more money, however well intentioned, will not help the poorest nations achieve sustainable long-term growth.More

Life Laid Bare (The Survivors in Rwanda Speak)  [September]

In Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak (2005), French journalist Hatzfeld interviewed the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide that killed several hundred thousand Tutsis. Now he returns to speak to 14 survivors, who remember the horrifying atrocity they witnessed, from a 12-year-old schoolboy (who hid in a mound of corpses) to a 60-year-old teacher (who remembers his well-educated neighbors with their machetes). More

Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles  [August]

Richard Dowden takes us on a journey through history and geography of the African continent. Naturally his 553-page book cannot cover all African countries he, however, gives a concise acount of a number of selected states which he especially focused on as a journalist since he first came to Uganda in the 1970s.More

Out of Exile  [April]

Sudan saw a long and devastating civil war that officially ended when a cease-fire was signed in 2005. Despite this official agreement country will have to grapple with the social consequences of the war for years to come. One of the most egregious humanitarian abuses of the war was the displacement of millions southern Sudanese. Many fled to escape violence, while others were forced to move away from their homes as slaves.

Here in this collection of interviews, in their own words, men and women recount life before their displacement and the reasons for their flight, as well as their incredible struggles to reach and survive in the major stations of the "refugee railroads" — the desert camps of Khartoum, the underground communities of Cairo, the humanitarian metropolis of Kakuma refugee camp, and the still-growing internally displaced persons camps in Darfur.More