Friday, February 24, 2017

SOUTH AFRICA: Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

“A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones”

Image from Lonely Planet

Apartheid is something I knew very little of prior to reading Long Walk to Freedom. It is racism and suppression at their finest. And while I am sure there are many triumphs and great things in South Africa’s history, they are overshadowed by the dark cloud of apartheid.

While reading Mandela’s account, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to treatment African Americans throughout our own troubled past. In both cases, blacks and coloreds were thought of as less than their white counterparts. They had no rights and no voice.

Interestingly, during the 50s (and during the height of the Cold War and McCarthyism) when nonviolent protests were rising in both countries (South Africa and America), the protesters were labeled communist and oftentimes arrested on such charges. What easier way to discount the repressed than to play on the fear of many.

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

As for Mandela himself, he gave his life to the belief of equality for all men.  Denied the basic rights many of take for granted, he stayed the cause leading nonviolent protests fighting for the freedoms that whites considered inherent, but blacks saw just out of reach. His recount of time spent in prison (where racism was just as rampant) away from family and friends, with a complete lack of freedom is harrowing.

“I wondered--not for the first time--whether one was ever justified in neglecting the welfare of one's own family in order to fight for the welfare of others. Can there be anything more important than looking after one's aging mother? Is politics merely a pretext for shirking one's responsibilities, an excuse for not being able to provide in the way one wanted?”

With the defeat of apartheid came the release of Mandela and other political prisoners, yet as his points out, there is still much left to do, both in South Africa and the rest of the world. Mandela is a true role model that many should look to especially when waning and in want of inspiration in the fight for equality for all.

“Although few people will remember 3 June 1993, it was a landmark in South African history. On that day, after months of negotiations at the World Trade Centre, the multiparty forum voted to set a date for the country’s first national, nonracial, one-person-one-vote election: 27 April 1994. For the first time in South African history, the black majority would go to the polls to elect their own leaders.”


Further Reading: Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

TURKEY- Dare to Disappoint: Growing Up in Turkey by Ozge Samanci

Image from National Geographic

Turkish history and family dynamics combine for this surprisingly powerful graphic novel about Samanci's life in Turkey. She discusses the oppression of speech, religion, and women in Turkey while also showing a love for other aspects of her country. Her thoughts and worries about fitting in, pleasing her parents, and attempting to be more like her sibling (and what others want her to be) is very relateable. And through it all, she discovers herself. An amazing read that I highly recommend.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Republic of Congo! (Part One) Alain Mabanckou Returns to Congo After 25 Years Away


by Louise

My armchair travels took me to the Republic of Congo in January 2017. There are 2 Congos: the Republic of Congo, with its capital in Brazzaville; and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with its capital in Kinshasa (known from 1971-1999 as Zaire).

The Lights of Pointe-Noire, by Alain Mabanckou
ISBN:978-1-62097-190-1
In this elegant and bittersweet memoir, Alain Mabanckou returns to his Congolese hometown after 25 years in Europe and the USA. Much has changed-- he, too, has changed-- and he must find a way to reconcile his past and present while "trampling on the kingdom of [his] childhood." 

While reading, I mark passages that stand out to me. When I have finished the book, I re-read all the marked sections. These lines map out the thread in the book that resonated most strongly with me. I will share some of those passages from Alain Mabanckou's memoir with you below. Is there a thread here that speaks to you too?



"Ali boma yé! Ali boma yé! Ali boma yé!"
It was the famous cry of the Zaireans at the "May 20th" Stadium during the legendary fight between Muhammed Ali and George Foreman. In both Congos, it had become customary to chant it at any brawl. (p.49)
-- 
Yes, I used to sleep there. My dreams were less confined than the space we lived in. At least when I closed my eyes and sleep lent me wings to fly, I found myself in a vast kingdom, not in a shack that looks today like a fisherman's hut straight out of The Old Man and the Sea, or even The Old Man Who Read Love Stories. (p. 71)
--
"These children aren't in a paradise of poverty. Here, look at the photo: that tyre, those flip-flops. . . that's what makes them happy. . . flip-flops to walk in, the tyre they can all climb aboard like a motorbike big enough to carry all their wildest dreams  Every day my nephews and nieces walk out in a long line down the rue du Louboulou. Their childhood knits them together, they wouldn't swap it for all the world. They drink from a small glass, but it's their own.  Your glass is big, but it's not yours, and each time you want to drink from it, you have to ask for permission.  And alas, that permission is never granted. . . ." (p.95)
--
When you're grown up, whatever bush you go into, remind yourself that spirits live there, and be respectful of fauna and flora, including objects that seem unimportant to you, like mushrooms, or the lowly little earthworm trying to crawl back on to the riverbank. In our family, we only hunt squirrels and anteaters, those are the prey given us by our ancestors, because the other animals, unless expressly told otherwise in our dreams, are members of our family who have left this world, but are still living in the next. Would you eat your mother, your father, or your brother? I think not. I know these things sound strange to you, you've grown up in the city, but they are simple truths that make us who we are. Now, you mustn't eat hind or stag meat, because even if it didn't kill you, a part of you would disappear, the part we call luck or, rather, blessing." (p. 119-120)
--
"I don't know why I write, perhaps that's why I tear out pages I've already scribbled on, and throw them in the bin. I know I have no choice, I'll go and retrieve them the next morning and write them again. It doesn't matter how long it takes, as long as one day the book's finished."
They laughed at that, but I didn't. Particularly since my bin right now is filled with crumpled pages. . .(p. 126)
--
This morning I open Dark Side of the Sun, a collection of poems by the most Pontenegrin of Congolese writers, Jean-Baptiste Tati-Loutard. (p. 127)
--
"We've forgotten the true meaning of cinema, little brother! A film you watch at home doesn't affect you like a film you watch with a crowd at the cinema!" (p.139)
--
Guy de Cars. . .without a doubt, had inspired a whole generation of Pontenegrins, not to say French-speaking Africans, with a taste for reading. (p. 135)
--
"Don't forget: some philosophers only interpreted the world; what we have to do now is transform it. That's possibly the only thing I learned from Engels, for everything else you're better off with the philosophy of Antiquity. . ."(p.179)
--
Of all francophone African writers, it is probably the Cameroonian novelist Eza Boto (Mongo Beti) who best describes a colonial town. In his novel Cruel City, the northern part of the city of Tanga is a "little France", imported into the tropics, with its sumptuous buildings, its streets in bloom, while the southern part rots in extreme poverty, without electricity and, when the town sleeps, terror is spread through the streets by criminal gangs. (p.189)
--
That evening, I felt like getting drunk, to forget that I'd been trampling on the kingdom of my childhood.(p.197)
--
There is always something enriching in the suffering of a creator who hopes his bottle thrown into the sea will one day reach its destination. (p. 198)


Congolese flag




Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Hi, Lacy here!

Litsy: Lacythebookworm
Goodreads: Lacy

I'm thrilled to be part of this project! I remember hearing about Ann Morgan's experiences reading globally when her book The World Between Two Covers came out in 2015 and thinking what a brilliant idea it was.

I am a mid-30's academic librarian in a small southern US town. My daily work duties include everything from information literacy and instruction to reference. Can't wait to read the world!

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Core of the Sun by Johanna Sinisalo: FINLAND!

My full review is over on Goodreads but I did want to do some reviewing here as well. Guys, this was so freaking good and terrifying. Like literal chills of what can happen on a slippery slope when you start limiting things by traditional gender roles and expectations. Doing some internet research on this book I turned up some interesting facts, like apparently Finland has a really thriving science and speculative fiction market known as Finnish Weird. This was published three years ago in Finland and only just made it to the US almost exactly one year ago in January 2016.

  The Core of the Sun               Image result for finland

Amazon
Barnes and Noble 

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Hi, I'm Kristy

Litsy Name: Kristy_K
Goodreads: Kristy K

Hi everyone!

I am excited to start this journey of reading around the world. After looking over the books I've read the past few years I realized that I lacked diversity in my subjects. I want to change that so here I am!

A little about me. I'm 31 years old and currently live in Indiana although I lived most my life in California. I work as a medical biller from home, which is perfect for my introverted, shy self, even if it does make it harder to meet people. This is my first time blogging and I'm looking forward to seeing suggestions and getting ideas from everybody on here.

Other countries are so rich with customs and culture and I can't wait delve into all of them! Here's to some great reading ahead!

Hi, I'm Louise!

Litsy Name: Louise
Goodreads Name: Louise

I am a freelance writer/marketer/graphic designer/event organizer living in Western Massachusetts. I also work for a small theater company based in New York that offers productions and educational programs both in the US and across China, Taiwan, and Japan. I have wanted to "read around the world" ever since reading an article about Ann Morgan's reading project a few years ago, but it wasn't until the subject came up on Litsy that I decided to take the plunge. Once the seed was planted, it didn't take long for my enthusiasm to build around not only reading novels from 195 countries around the world, but also exploring the music and cuisine of those countries. There are many ways to learn about a culture, and I want to make this project as complete a sensory experience as possible. As I am also a musician (piano, lyre, & ukulele, mainly), I'm curious about finding sheet music from those cultures whenever possible. It would also be amazing to learn about cultural dances, as so much of a culture is wrapped up in its dance forms. Ah, we shall see! We'll let the novels and the Muses guide us!

I look forward to getting to know my fellow armchair travelers as we explore the world together! Bon Voyage! Gute Reise! Happy Travels!