From School Library Journal
Grade 7-10-- Striking full-color photographs provide lively images of Africa's diversity. The books do not live up to their visual promise, however. Their organization is so fragmented that readers are unlikely to develop an understanding of why these people have made the choices that they have and live as they do. The maps are inadequate. Especially in Nigeria and Kenya , the authors seem to have depended on older books and present an oddly colonial perspective. Such connotations emerge in the focus on comparing "tribes"; overemphasis on exotic small rural groups such as the Masai; and enumeration of customs strange to Americans (e.g., "witch doctors," Ibo twin killing) without adequate explanation. Classifying "tribes" also creates confusion and inaccuracies. In Nigeria , the Ibo are described both as a tribe and as comprising 200 "smaller tribes." On one page, the Fulani are a "race." Although much briefer, Nigeria in Pictures (Lerner, 1988) is a better choice. Pateman says that "the Bantu (a family of languages ) are the largest group of Kenya's many tribes." And he confuses Arab and Swahili people. Sheehan provides a more coherent view of Zimbabwe by emphasizing the emerging nation and values shared among Africans there. However, Patricia Cheyney's The Land and People of Zimbabwe (1990) offers a more accurate and sensitive view of that country, as does Michael Maren for Kenya in The Land and People of Kenya (1989, both Lippincott). Both know their countries, and it makes all the difference. --Loretta Kreider Andrews, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
