The Eye of the Elephant is a wonderful, adventurous journey into the heart and soul of Africa seen through Mark and Delia's eyes. From the very first page you are caught up in their heroic quests to protect the animals they are there to observe. In spite of the unbelievable odds against them, they persevered and put the safety and security of the highly endangered animals FIRST. The elephants in the Luanga Valley are very fortunate to have had Mark and Delia watch over them and be their heroes. I have loved Africa and the African elephant my entire life and I am so grateful for these two selfless, dedicated people who have become the protectors of our most precious wildlife. This is one of my most treasured African stories.

You will immediately be drawn into their story! I was so involved reading this book that I missed my train station stop...you'll feel like you're there with them!

A second story of the Owens's exceptional experiences in the wildlife habitats of Africa.(The first book is Cry of the Kalahari.) The Eye of the Elephant is a warm and personal story of saving the endangered elephants of Zambia. The reader becomes as anxious for the survival of the Owens's as for the survival of the elephants, and the people of Africa. Eye opening to the problems encountered in doing something so nobel and obviously necessary.

Sheila Siddle and her husband, David, are an amazing couple. They show that life is not over when you are at a "retirement" age. They created a whole chimpanzee sanctuary at such an age. Love, compassion, determination, and strong opinions of what is right and wrong all allowed the Siddles to reach out to animals in desperate need. In doing this, they also touch everyone with whom they come in to contact. Mrs. Siddle's book allows them to touch a great deal more of us. Thank you for all of your efforts and for this great book Mrs. Siddle!!

An exhilarating-even heroic-life caring for orphaned chimpanzees (and antelopes, monkeys, parrots, whathaveyou, even a hippo) on a farm in Africa, by Siddle, the caregiver herself. October 18, 1983: "I held a dying chimpanzee in my arms that day and it changed my life forever." So started the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage on Siddle's farm in central Zambia. There, she and her husband and a slowly gathering company of helpers have sought to rehabilitate chimps and return them to the wild. It was very much a seat-of-the-pants operation, relying on instinct with their first charge ("You might say we went a bit too far and nearly humanized' him-something I am careful to avoid now"), but they were good, loving instincts. Word soon flashed through the wildlife community, and the Zambian government, which at that date was cracking down on illegal trade in endangered species, that the Siddles were taking in orphaned chimps. Then they started to appear: chimps confiscated from poachers, chimps neglected or abandoned when their entertainment quotient sagged, chimps turned out by their owners when the novelty wore off. Siddle gives many of the chimps full biographical treatment: their physical and emotional recovery chronicled, their antics retold with obvious affection. She also charts the evolution of their compound, from its original five-acre enclosures to the two 500-acre areas of today. Though the chimps are the focus of her work, the anecdotes Siddle relates cover all their creatures, from the vervet monkey that tore into her husband, to the hippo, Billy, who attended a gathering at the ranch of seminarians from the local mission: "During the scripture reading, Billy seemed content to just stand there, listening meditatively." Then Billy ate the altar cloth. If the orphanage has but a fraction the warmth and gentleness of Siddle's voice in this story, then the word sanctuary would fit well. Beautiful acts, elegantly rendered.

In this beautiful memoir, Sheila Siddle takes readers on magical journey--to Chimfunshi, a wildlife sanctuary Sheila and Dave Siddle founded in Zambia in 1983. Siddle's honest account of their work on behalf of chimpanzees will make you laugh out loud at the wonder and joy of working with wildlife. Siddle's prose also brings the battle for chimpanzees, which is far from won, into vivid and tragic relief. Filled with both humor and profound courage, this book is an inspiring must read for anyone who loves chimpanzees and all wildlife.

You can learn more about Chimfunshi at [the website]

Colors of Africa was Jim Kilgo's last book, he died from his cancer before publication. It is, perhaps, his best book and is truly a good and authoritative book. It is written in his inimitative style and soulds just as through he was talking to you. A great epitaph to a great writer.
R.L. Humphries

I have read many ethnographies in my day, but I can't recall another that has had me at turns astounded by the author's insight, impressed with his prose, saddened by his findings, and laughing out loud at the wry wit of his descriptive voice. I do not normally consider good anthropology "fun" to read, but "EXPECTATIONS OF MODERNITY" bucks the trend. It's well-argued, impassioned, and thoroughly readable.

Author Ferguson is concerned with the experience of "modernity" and "development" as lived by residents of Zambia's Copperbelt, who since the 1970s have experienced an unrelenting slide into social and economic marginalization. He works in case studies drawn from individual interview subjects, census data, and textual asides--boxes featuring news clippings from Zambian papers, or brief "People Watching" accounts of the author's street observations with his research assistant. The discussion ranges from meta-narratives of "progress" and "modernization" to an eye-opening analysis of the opposing styles adopted by Zambian urbanites.

His conclusion is grim: "For many Zambians... recent history has been experienced not--as the modernization plot led one to expect--as a process of moving forward or joining up with the world, but as a process that has pushed them out of the place in the world that they once occupied." The process of globalization has not connected this corner of Africa (and its inhabitants) to the currents of prosperity traversing the world economy; rather it has disconnected them, throwing them out of the garden of "development." Ferguson stresses that they have not been "left out" of world capitalism; the processes of abjection he describes are integral parts of the system.

Even amid the gathering gloom of this analysis, I found myself heartened by the author's occasional humor and by his sympathetic (and self-effacing) accounts of casual encounters in the field. I had not previously had much time for anti-globalization arguments, but Ferguson's disarming approach lowered my skepticism, forcing me to confront the ugly truths of the new world order in a way I had never done before. My hat is off to this man for crafting such a great book.

The book provides detailed descriptions of all the positively recorded fish species in Kariba. The layout is good and easy to use. The book also has interesting background information about the Lake and the fish species recorded there. All in all the book is highly recommended.

There are a lot of good books that have recently come out of Africa, and this is diffenently one of them. Peter Lawrence writes a coming of age story in Africa that reminds one of the stories of Mark Twain. However, I liked this book better, because it is closer to the age I grew up in - which makes it easier to relate to the charaters.

If you like Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, or Mukiwa then you will also like this book. I would also recommend Fireforce and Survial Course by Chris Cocks.

A very interesting book, that I couldn't put down. It tells a story that is fascinating and sad. A tale of the good, the bad and what might have been. Highly recommended.

As usual, Mr. Brown has put in so much creative energy into this brilliant easy to read portrayal of the Lozi people.

The author, an anthropologist, explores the phenomenon of second-hand clothes being exported from the West into Zambia, where they are sold on as "luxury goods". She argues against the idea that this is a North-South neo-colonial or aid transaction, asserting that Zambians are not just passive recipients of recycled clothes, but active consumers making informed (or at least broadly understood) cultural choices. She also explores how clothes, as cultural signifiers, give the wearer meaning in the specific Zambian social context. She also identifies reasons why people choose salaula and its impact on culture and "modernization" in Zambia Hansen explains the whole commodity chain of procurement, distribution and consumption of second-hand clothes. The reader may be surprised to learn that clothes given away to charities may be sold to exporters for resale in developing countries at all.

The most comprehensive survey of Zambian rock art to date. Pressed in Zambia through printed in UK this book is both attractive and informative. Smith presents many of his new research findings including his intriguing suggestion that much Zambian rock art was made exclusively by women. This book fills an important gap in African rock art literature. It is the only book on south-central African rock art to appear since the 1970s. Its publication is greatly welcomed by all who have long been intrigued by the enigmatic schematic rock art of central Africa - so spectacularly different from the Bushman art of southern Africa. Incidentally, the book is still available from the National Heritage Conservation Commission of Zambia, P.O.Box 60124, Livingstone, Zambia or from the Rock Art Research Institute, Private Bag 3, P.O.Wits 2050, South Africa.