White Nile, Alan Moorehead
2. L’Afrique noire est mal partie (False Start in Africa), by Rene Dumont
3. Africa in History, Basil Davidson
4. King Leopold’s Ghost, by Adam Hochschild
5. Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen (aka Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke)
6. White Mischief, by James Fox
7. The Scramble for Africa, by Thomas Pakenham
8. No Future without Forgiveness, by Desmond Tutu
9. Sowing The Mustard Seed, Y.K. Museveni (Ugandan President)
10. Death In The Long Grass, by Peter Hathaway Capstick
11. Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
12. Another Day of Life, Ryszard Kapuściński
13. Mansa Musa and the Empire of Mali by P. James Oliver
It wasn’t until second grade that I had a teacher tell me her name was Ms. Starkey, because it was nobody’s business whether she was married or not. At the time, I was mind = blown. Oh, 1980 women’s lib: never change.
*My partner in crime and I were sent out to the kitchen for being naughty (would not happen now - knives!) whereupon we ate all the gingerbread the class had made earlier. I’ve not changed… *
(I’m pretty sure Miss Needham was gay, in a time when you definitely couldn’t admit that for fear of lots of bad stuff. I thought she was cool–she was a tomboy like me!)
We young scamps renamed her “Sister Full-O-Mean-A”. Notorious for her tactic of punishing one by making us sit on our hands… which worked, except for me who quickly figured out that you didn’t necessarily have to place your hands directly under your ass - just shift them forward a bit and your weight was better distributed onto the chair.