African Lives: An anthology of memoirs and autobiographies
这本书收录了48位非洲人物的回忆录和自传节选，涵盖政治家、作家等，按地区和国家编排，但选材不均，部分国家缺失。
This somewhat strange book consists of brief excerpts from 48 African ‘memoirs’ and ‘autobiographies’, these terms being broadly interpreted to include some interviews, speeches, travel writing, and ‘as told to’ biographies. It is organized by region, and in alphabetical order of country within each region. Most of it was originally written in English, some is translated from Arabic and French (in one case, German); not one seems to have been written in an indigenous African language. The excerpts are each from three to ten pages long. The majority of the pieces are by politicians, literary writers (including several winners of the Caine and Commonwealth Writers prizes), and other ‘great men/women’, from Ibn Battuta to Ruth First. A few contributors are less notable people, presented as ‘typical’ of some group or other (such as Marjorie Shostak's well-known ‘Nisa … a !Kung woman’). The organization of the book, by nation rather than chronologically or alphabetically, reinforces the impression that the selections are supposed to represent African cultural and political units, though this is not explicitly stated. Ethiopia gets just three pages, which are about growing up in America, by Dagmawi Woubshet, a Professor of English at Cornell. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, has 34 pages, by well-known nationalist politicians (Joshua Nkomo and Maurice Nyagumbo) and a novelist (Chenjerai Hove). Some countries are not represented at all; Lesotho is included, Swaziland is not. Also excluded are Angola, Benin, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Cote d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, and South Sudan.