Product Description
This book is an ethnographic account of the work of transnational, Christian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe.Religious NGOs are one of the voices of pluralism in southern Africa, sometimes challenging the state and at others collaborating with it. The tensions of such engagement are key to understanding the successes and failures of transnational, humanitarian endeavors to foster democratic governance in Zimbabwe.While much scholarship has been focused, theoretically, on the role of NGOs in democratization in Africa regarding international foreign policy, few studies offer empirically grounded insights into how transnational NGOs operate.Even fewer factor in the role of religious discourse in their analysis.The Spirit of Development addresses, ethnographically, how an American discourse of Christian humanitarianism transforms, and is transformed by, local settings. The book builds on scholarship on Christian missionaries in Africa to interrogate the religious dimensions of economic change.Situated in Zimbabwe of the late 1990s, the project engages with scholarship on a range of intersecting topics, including:development studies, the politics of transnational foreign aid, the politics of neoliberal economic discourse, recent debates on civil societies and states in Africa, the global politics of religion, and classical anthropological research on religious conversion.In the late 1990s, religious NGOs were on the forefront of reconfiguring humanitarian aid in Africa - entering where the welfare programs of African states were unable to provide basic services for citizens.Today, religious NGOs occupy a peculiar structural and ideological position in contemporary Africa, working in collaboration with African states and simultaneously providing moral critique. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great ethnography of NGOs in Zimbabwe
The author is an anthropologist who studied two Protestant NGOs, World Vision and Christian Care, at their local offices in Harare, Zimbabwe. She considers how Protestant Christianity is essential to these NGOs' mission, and how their development and child sponsorship projects affect local politics and are affected by international donors and organizational politics.

Okay, I make this sound really boring - but the book is way more readable than my review-writing! Bornstein writes at a level that any thoughtful American can understand, and uses descriptions, quotes and narratives that show the essential relationship between development and Christianity, and the implications that this relationship has for development.

I highly recommend. For a more abstract book on the same broad topic, see Deneulin's "Religion in Development: Rewriting the Secular Script."
... Read more

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From a sociological perspective, there is consensuson the idea that identities are constructed. Thisconsensus forms the basis of this work on thesocial construction of identities in the NationalYouth Service of Zimbabwe (NYSZ). Other aspects ofidentity - its multiplicity and negotiable nature -are used as key terms of reference in theinvestigation of identity construction in the NYSZ.This study investigates how social identity isconstructed in the NYSZ, by whom and for what is itbeing constructed, and, significantly, with whatsuccess the NYSZ is creating the identities, andhow its success can be explained. In this study, itis asserted that the NYSZ is not an ordinary kindof NYS. It is quite exceptional in terms of itsstructure, aims and operation. With regard tosociological theories of NYSs I propose theaddition of a fourth perspective to the threepresented by Sherraden and Eberly: construction ofsocial and political identity. This book should beespecially useful to the growing number ofresearchers on youth service and those who areinterested in the construction of youth identities. ... Read more

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Taking the basic social unit of the household as a point of departure, this research reviews two complex, yet interrelated variables of the land-housing debate. Firstly, the perception of the home centring on the meaning of security of the territorial base of the family and the community; and secondly, the momentum it gives to spatial occupation, dwelling consolidation, use of space and development of home-based enterprise. The investigation of spatial consolidation processes from macro to micro-levels offers a valuable insightas to how people claim and access their right toland. This reveals the skills people use to producedemocratic spaces within their home, neighbourhoodand settlement regarding varying levels of perceived secure life space. This can lead to more sensitiveand supportive housing policy responses regardingurban land reform. The research is based on hearingand discovering the reality from the urban poorthemselves. The exploration follows the life storiesof 8 families during 2001 to 2003 in socio-spatialdetail, within two highly contested settlements inHatcliffe, on the northern periphery of Harare, Zimbabwe. ... Read more

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Humanitarian food aid has been the backbone of manylivelihoods in many parts of the world.With theworld currently battling the impact of naturaldisasters such as Tsunamis, it is undeniable thatfood aid remains an important aspect of sustaininglivelihoods.This book provides an interestinginsight into the political economy of food aidthrough examining the nature of the popular food aiddistributions in Zimbabwe. ... Read more

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There are interactions between poverty, landdegradation, desertification and the propensity forconflicts over the ownership and use of landresources particularly so when land is viewed as theprincipal and indispensable capital for economicdevelopment and poverty eradication. In the case ofZimbabwe, it is essential to understand themediators between historical, socio-economic andenvironmental imperatives and the land ownershipconflict that propelled the Fast Track Land Reform.From an observer perspective, Zimbabwe experiencedincreased risks of failure, on the back of what wasconsidered as the government?s inappropriatemanagement of the land question. The authorities mayhave anticipated but appeared to have miscalculatedthe economic costs of the land reform. However,despite the problems, the land reform increased thequantity of land for the rural households bringingalong prospects for sustained rural economicdevelopment and poverty eradication in the longterm. Thus enhancing the understanding of theselinkages by the international community is needed,and achieving it was an important element of thisstudy. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Foods and Recipes of the World, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 1282 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Provides comprehensive coverage of the foods and recipes of approximately 75 cultural groups from more than 60 countries. Entries provide 10-15 recipes for each group and include data on the agriculture and dietary habits of each group as well as an overview of each group's nutrition and health. ... Read more

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180 full colour stunning photographs of the monumental Zimbabwean Stone Sculptures by world renown Zimbabwean artists. These sculptures were displayed in The Chicago Botanic Gardens and Garfield Park Conservatory in 2003 in an exhibit entitled: Chapungu: Custom and Legend- A Culture in Stone. Historical introduction of the art movement and biographies of artists also covered along with extracts from reviews and visitors' comments. ... Read more

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Guide for an exhibition touring Gardens & Sculpture Parks in the United States. The 67 sculptures of the exhibition are hewn from hard stone monoliths, primarily serpentine stone, found in the landscape of Zimbabwe, but also from verdite and opal in variegated shades. While the sculptures are representational, the artists drew inspiration from a wide range of influences - religious, rites, mythology and Zimbabwe's history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Amazing Zimbabwe sculpture
I am a sculptor, and find the tons of photographs inspiring and instructive.These stone sculptors from Zimbabwe are truly masters of texture and its effect on placing focus in the work.The work is predominantly figurative or animalistic, representing the spirits of their ancestors.The themes represented are both ancient and modern, and more than one generation of sculptors is included. I only wish I had seen these works when some toured the U.S.
Sculptors:You want this.
It also makes a wonderful coffee table book. ... Read more

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The stone ruins of the Nyanga area of eastern Zimbabwe have aroused much interest since they were first reported to the outside world at the end of the 19th century. Early fanciful speculations about their meaning have slowly given way to better understanding based on archaeological research, most recently by the University of Zimbabwe in co-operation with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe and the British Institute in Eastern Africa. The ruins represent the remains of family homesteads and extensive stone-built agricultural terraces. Successive stages of development have been traced, starting with settlements on some of the highest peaks around AD 1300 and expanding gradually for five centuries to cover an area of over 5000 square kilometres. These stages show how the farming community adapted to and exploited the opportunities offered by the varied environments of the Nyanga highlands and lowlands to develop a specialised agricultural system integrating cultivation and livestock. In this book, Robert Soper sets out the accumulated knowledge and understanding of the old Nyanga society, in particular the significance of its agricultural works to which the landscape bears eloquent witness. ... Read more

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Here's a unique approach to learning about world cultures and countries.

In each first-person account of an international trip you'll experience a country through the eyes of a young traveler. Presented as if you are receiving a letter home from your best friend each day, you'll find out all about the country's land, people, cities, religion, wildlife, food, daily life, history, and much more.

The Letters Home From... series is like taking a trip around the world without ever leaving your chair! Each title includes:

• Glossary
• For More Information
• Index

Product Description
The Claim Jump was originally published in South Africa in 1995. The publishing house that undertook the work was embryonic at the time. The editor then moved to Ireland and for a long time circumstance mitigated against a reprint.

Convinced that it should be published internationally he began the hard slog of looking for an established house that might reprint the work.

It was during this process that he came across on demand publishing and considering cost and other factors, the best way forward. The work is thus republished here to bring it to a wider audience.The story of a modern day prospector out panning one weekend, discovers river gold. He stakes out a claim, and almost as if called, trouble approaches.Things suppressed in normal life, greed, lust, ownership, break to the surface. Issues of modern day life that touch us all. What happens when people, when whole cultures lay claim to the same thing.

... Read more

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Throughout southern Africa, shebeens are where jokes are born, news is embellished and exchanged, fights erupt and subside. They are unique vantage points where men go after a day's work, both to escape from the troubled world around them and to observe and comment on it.

In Shebeen Tales, Zimbabwe's leading author offers a view of his country not from the privileged and insulated perspective of the foreign correspondent of well-heeled visitor, but that of the ordinary person who, with the help of dry wit and illegal beer, pokes fun at the rich and mighty. Struggling against drivers, pompous bureaucrats and the other woes of life in the city, the man in the shebeen sees modern Africa as it really is, not as press releases or tourist brochures would have us believe.

Chenjerai Hove looks straight in the eye of a society suffering from drought, economic hardship and AIDS, but does not succumb to despair. With a wry sense of humor, his writer's pen celebrates a people who continue to live life to the full, to laugh and sing, to tell tall tales-whatever is thrown at them.

Chenjerai Hove, who was born in 1956, is Zimbabwe's leading novelist; his books include Bones and Shadows. His work has been translated into German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, French, Portuguese and Japanese. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Hard to find, worth the wait
I learned of this book through reading Mr. Hove's editorials in the Zimbabwe Weekly Standard online. He is an outstanding writer and this book is a series of essays on Zimbabwean life in the 1990s. For anyone who is interested in what is happening there now, the book provides essential background. The country's problems are not new. It is often difficult for American readers to find books by contemporary African authors, and I highly recommend this one. I also recommend checking out Zimbabwe's independent papers on the Web: The Standard, the Daily News, the Independent, and the Financial Gazette. Congress is now pushing through major legislation on Zimbabwe, and the U.S. press barely mentions the country. The British press focuses on limited aspects of the situation. Read what this author has to say, he knows what he's talking about.

A must read for anyone interested in Africa
I read this after I left Zimbabwe, and it brought back so many memories of that beautiful country, full of resourceful people.This book is a snapshot of Zimbabwe in the 1990's, that examines so many aspects of therichly vibrant capital of Zimbabwe, Harare. ... Read more