It is 1971. The fictional city of Bellport, Massachusetts, is in decline with an urban redevelopment project on the horizon expected to transform this dying factory town into a thriving economic center. This transformation has a profound effect on three African American couples as their own personal transformations take place. Sydney Stallworth steps away from her fellowship and law studies at an elite university to support husband Malachi's dream of opening a business in Bellport, his hometown--The Talking Drum Bookstore and Cultural Center--which he believes will benefit from the new development coming to the city. For Omar Bassari, an immigrant from Senegal, Bellport is where he will establish his drumming career and will be the launching pad for the establishment of his drumming institute from which he will spread African culture across the world. However, he's on the verge of losing his foothold in Bellport and his marriage to college sweetheart, Natalie, as his neighbourhood prepares to be taken by eminent domain. Della Tolliver has built a fragile sanctuary in Bellport for herself and daughter Jasmine, a troubled child prone to nightmares and outbursts, but that sanctuary is in jeopardy because Della's boyfriend, local activist Kwamé Rodriguez, is--unbeknownst to her--the head of an arson ring torching buildings in the neighbourhood scheduled for demolition.Tensions rise as the demolition date moves closer and the pace of the arsons picks up.The couples find themselves at odds with a political system manipulating their lives and question the future of their relationships. The Talking Drum explores intra-racial, class, and cross-cultural tensions, along with the meaning of community and belonging.

Would you trade a precious friendship for the prettiest things you've ever seen? Ariella and her talking drum Tito, are getting ready for the spectacular Eko dance competition. Jealous Princess Adeteni decides to convince Ariella to hand over Tito, in exchange for some of the prettiest things Ariella has ever seen. Will Ariella succumb and trade in her best friend Tito? This beautifully Illustrated book celebrates African culture in its setting and characterization, woven through with Africa sounds. Readers will learn a valuable lesson on contentment. This book will also make a wonderful addition in any home or class library.

'We cannot imagine life now without a mobile phone' is a frequent comment when Africans are asked about mobile phones. They have become part and parcel of the communication landscape in many urban and rural areas of Africa and the growth of mobile telephony is amazing: from 1 in 50 people being users in 2000 to 1 in 3 in 2008. Such growth is impressive but it does not even begin to tell us about the many ways in which mobile phones are being appropriated by Africans and how they are transforming or are being transformed by society in Africa. This volume ventures into such appropriation and mutual shaping. Rich in theoretical innovation and empirical substantiation, it brings together reflections on developments around the mobile phone by scholars of six African countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania) who explore the economic, social and cultural contexts in which the mobile phone is being adopted, adapted and harnessed by mobile Africa.

Louis L’Amour has been best known for his ability to capture the spirit and drama of the authentic American West. Now he guides his readers to an even more distant frontier—the enthralling lands of the twelfth century. Warrior, lover, and scholar, Kerbouchard is a daring seeker of knowledge and fortune bound on a journey of enormous challenge, danger, and revenge. Across Europe, over the Russian steppes, and through the Byzantine wonders of Constantinople, Kerbouchard is thrust into the treacheries, passions, violence, and dazzling wonders of a magnificent time. From castle to slave galley, from sword-racked battlefields to a princess’s secret chamber, and ultimately, to the impregnable fortress of the Valley of Assassins, The Walking Drum is a powerful adventure in an ancient world that you will find every bit as riveting as Louis L’Amour’s stories of the American West.

The bata is one of the most important and representative percussion traditions of the people in southwest Nigeria, and is now learnt and performed around the world. In Cuba, their own bata tradition derives from the Yoruba bata from Africa yet has had far more research attention than its African predecessor. Although the bata is one of the oldest known Yoruba drumming traditions, the drum and its unique language are now unfamiliar to many contemporary Yoruba people. Amanda Villepastour provides the first academic study of the bata's communication technology and the elaborate coded spoken language of bata drummers, which they refer to as 'ena bata'. Villepastour explains how the bata drummers' speech encoding method links into universal linguistic properties, unknown to the musicians themselves. The analysis draws the direct links between what is spoken in Yoruba, how Yoruba is transformed in to the coded language (ena), how ena prescribes the drum strokes and, finally, how listeners (and which listeners) extract linguistic meaning from what is drummed. The description and analysis of this unique musical system adds substantially to what is known about bata drumming specifically, Yoruba drumming generally, speech surrogacy in music and coded systems of speaking. This book will appeal not only to ethnomusicologists and anthropologists, but also to linguists, drummers and those interested in African Studies.

A collection of poems featuring the animals, people, and cultures of Africa.