I reviewed one of the many stories from this book, The Cow Tail Switch, which is the cover story.

One day in the village of Kundi there was a brave hunter named Ogaloussa. He had to go out to hunt because he had 6 sons and one on the way. He knew they would eat a lot. The first day he had not come home the family was a little worried but not that much. After a week and 3 months of waiting for him they began to really worry. Then the baby was born and they named him Puli. Puli's first words were " Where is my father?" Another son said, "Yes, where is our father?" "I saw which direction he went," said another son.

So the 6 sons set off to find their father. They found him dead with his body parts everywhere. One son said could he put his bones back together and another said he could put the flesh on. "We are not done," yelled another son, "He needs blood and I will give him some." "I can give him breath," said another son. "We are still not done," protested another son. "I will give him the power of movement." "I can give him the power of speech," said the last son and they put him back together.

The sons brought Ogaloussa back to the village and everyone was happy to see him. The next day he made a very nice beaded cow tail and was going to give it to one of his sons. He ended up giving it to Puli who first asked, "Where is my father?" I would rate this story a 7.8 on a scale of 1-10 because it is a great story. I also liked this story because it was interesting how they put him back together

Looking for African folktales? Look first to the work of Harold Courlander. He is one of the finest folktale anthropologists of his generation. "The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories" is one several of his books which are of interest to Africanists. (He also authored several similar books of folktales and traditional literature from other parts of the world.) In 1947 when "The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories" was first published, there were far fewer books of this kind than there are today. Two things that make Courlander's work stand out, even now, are: 1) his well written prose, and 2) the notes, which give the reader more information about the story, where it came from, and how to understand it in the context of the culture that produced it. This second point is especially important today, when a lot of books of so-called "African" stories are published without any background information at all. This collection of stories, all from Western Africa, is great for kids and adults. (Harold Courlander is also the author of "The African", which bears many similarities to "Roots" by Alex Haley, though Haley's book was published years later.)

This book has many great stories in it and I enjoyed each one dearly. One of the all the stories that I enjoyed the most was the Cow-Tail Switch. It was very entertaining and descriptive. I really liked how the sons have magical powers to revive bodies. The details were pretty interesting too. Only if this story was bigger, then it would be an outstanding book. This is a great book!!

As an archaeologist, Pima College instructor and tour guide to the Hopi mesas over the last twelve years I have found my copy of Courlander to be invaluable as a reference volume on these fascinating people. Along with James, (Pages from Hopi History) it has formed the basis of all the information I have needed to better educate the "bahana" on the ways of the Hopitusinom.

This is an exceptional compilation of Hopi stories and legends. Having read many books about Hopi, I have found nothing to compare. This is a 'must read' for all who are interested in building or adding to their knowledge of the Hopi Way. This is not a new book, but the title and the content have stood the test of time. Enjoy!

Like her character, Prudence, Rosa Shand paints portraits. Not only of the African landscape, but also the landscape of the mind. By staying "locked" in the eyes and ears of Agnes, Shand conveys a true, subjective experience of a woman living her life in Amin's Uganda. But The Gravity of Sunlight is not about politics or Africa. It is about Agnes. About her unfulfilling marriage. And the sublimation of her extramarital, interracial desire.

A reader above calls this book racist. Baloney. This book is about Agnes, not the apotheosis of Africans, and the Africans whom Agnes does meet are in no way "demonized." Sadly, this critic's predilection to see racism will distort anything he reads. Furthermore, false accusations like his damage good people and impair our ability to detect real racism when it does occur.

Rosa Shand's first book is filled with simple but beautiful language, description of the physical and the emotional experience of living in Uganda during the time right before and during Idi Amin's political coup. As the story unfolds, Shand manages to very gently capture the very complicated relationships between husband and wife, wife and lover, amidst the rhythms of life in a foreign land, all which help make this a very successful debut novel.

Agnes is our narrator, and she, her husband John and their young children have moved to Uganda. John is a professor teaching at the college; Agnes teaches part-time at the lower school. Each of them is lost in their respective idealisms, and their relationship is suffering for it, as they don't seem to have an intimate connection on any real level. Agnes, who is always searching to fulfill what she feels is a lack of meaningful attachment to her husband, meets Wulf, who is also teaching at the university, and is a friend of her husband's, they embark on a tentative relationship.

What works about this novel, is that this affair, in all its various stages and with all its various consequences, is written in a way that echoes the lifestyle and the political uncertainties of the country. Shand weaves Agnes' story with an intimate look at a society very different from Agnes'and our own, and these dual storylines are revealed piece by piece to the reader as the circumstances of Agnes' daily life allows. She uses deceptively simple language to tell a story of many layers, each one as lush and as precarious as the next. A fine book to curl up with on a wintry weekend, which is about how long it will take to read.

This is simply a beautiful book with well developed characters, scene setting that makes you want to hop a jet to Africa, real emotion, and a wonderful story of love and longing, betrayal, adventure and everyday life. I love this book! With apologies to Barbara Kingsolver, it's similar in that it's set in Africa, it's about a minster, his wife and their children and their time in that strangely intoxicating country, but it's so much more readable than Kingsolver whom I never finished. One of the most interesting aspects of Rosa Shand's novel is the beginning paragraph of each chapter in which she sets a scene or merely ponders on something unrelated to the action. These pieces are so very poetic in themselves. And then there's the story -- Agnes, who many women will relate to, who cannot "will herself" to love her unconnected husband, fantasizes about a man who she becomes inevitably bound with. But enough of that, read it yourself, you won't regret it. (And who in their right mind would call this book racist? The "reviewer" clearly missed the point if he/she even read beyond the first chapter...) Rosa Shand, please write more!

People with long memories might remember that when Alex Haley's "Roots" was released, he was sued for plagiarism. Haley settled out of court when it was shown that entire passages in "Roots" seemed lifted almost verbatim from Harold Courlander's "The African." (Haley said that his research assistants had given him the material without citing the source.) In any case, "Roots" went on to make literary and television history while "The African" seems to have disappeared from the scene. Thanks to "Roots" and all the planatation novels that followed, the story line of "The African" is now familiar and somewhat predictable: Hweshuhunu, a twelve year old boy is caught in a slave raid, transported by ship in a horrific sea voyage to America, and sold to the Blair plantation. There are scenes of plantation life, white masters interacting both kindly and cruelly towards their slaves and so on.

But there are interesting vignettes in the book, such as the way the slaves try to hold on to their old African traditions even as they are forcibly being "Americanized" every day. There is a connection with these slaves and the modern day immigrants who also try to hold on to customs of their original country. In an unfamiliar country, the newcomer tries to construct the familiar, even if it is something as simple as placing in the new home a picture or knick-knacks that are a link to the past. For slaves whose "immigration" was forced and who had nothing (in some cases, not even their clothes), trying to hold on to the old ways is the only way to construct the familiar. The author is well-versed in African customs (see his other books like "The Cow Tail Switch," "The Fire on the Mountain," and "The Hat Shaking Dance") -- and the reminiscences and rituals in the slave cabins are a touching part of the narrative.

This is a collection stories from the Malian kingdom of Segou that date back in most cases a few centuries. Harold Courlander and Ousmane Sako did an extraordinary job with the translation: it reads almost like a piece of modern fiction, but retains some of the original poetry of the Bambara language from which it was adapted.

The tales themselves deal mostly with heroes: children born to noble destinies, chiefs leading their armies into battle, and adventurers out to make names for themselves. These heroes are exclusively men; while there are some notable women characters, in most cases they couldn't be considered role models. I was impressed with the Bambara traditions of ancient warfare: when one village wanted to attack another, for example, its army showed up a day ahead of time to announce its intentions. The two armies would then spend the night drinking and feasting together, and the following morning would line up for battle outside the village gates. Honor was paramount, and these stories recount time and again great leaders who sacrificed countless followers' lives for the sake of honor.

That's one of the disturbing aspects of these stories. Another is the characters' unshakeable belief in destiny. Mystics and diviners are frequently consulted to reveal the future, and if they say that a boy will become a king, or will die young, then there is no getting around it. None of these characters questions his foretold destiny, nor does anyone surpass expectations. Bambara was rigidly structured not just by caste and clan, nobility and slave status, but also by a universal faith in fortune tellers.

Anyone seeking a faithful and engaging perspective into a pre-colonial Malian society will find "Heart of the Ngoni" very helpful. It treats the same region and era as Maryse Conde's "Segu" novels, but without the potboiler plot devices, and I suspect it to be a much more accurate portrayal of life in Segou than Conde's books were. If you can leave aside any reservations about predestination and the "great man" theory of history, these tales will entice you.

By reading the legends of the Bambara, one can get a good idea of what the values of the culture may be. The emphasis they place on their family and ancestors and other values is woven into these timeless stories very nicely. It also accents the similarities between cultures, as there were many legends that reminded me of Western legends. The vignettes were short and sweet, but I did not really like the way they were just thrown together, and I think they could have flowed better had they been arranged in a different way. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend reading the book front to back but to skip around instead.

Gloria Skurzynski wrote this book back in 1981 so much of the material is dated as to the pictures and statistics. The book follows the careers of three women: a wildlife ranger, a wildland fire specialist, and a range conservationist. From encounters with bears to teaching environmental classes to tracking down the causes of forest fires this book helps one to understand the day to day duties of those people who take care of the recreation land around us.