Georges Simenon was a Belgian writer best known for his detective stories. He wrote literary novels, too, like this one published in 1933. It’s about a young French man, Joseph Timar, who goes to Gabon to take a position with a French company operating there. He finds himself in a world where there are three… [Read More]
Blog
Tag: West Africa
Cote d’Ivoire: Still Wretched
The Africa project has not gone away. I still want to learn something about every country on the continent, but it’s taking a while. It doesn’t help when I select very weighty books, either. Which brings us to Cote D’Ivoire: The Conundrum of A Still Wretched of the Earth, an academic overview of the crisis… [Read More]
Guinea-Bissau: Warriors at Work
The Africa blogging project has been delayed by reading! I just finished another long book about a small country, Warriors at Work: How Guinea Was Really Set Free, by Mustafah Dhada. It’s the story of the country’s revolution against Portugal. Guinea, now known as Guinea-Bissau, attracted Portuguese slave traders in 1446. Portugal didn’t achieve control… [Read More]
Senegal: West Africa Today
My African-Country-a-Week project has arrived in Senegal. This is a former French colony with 13 million people and per-capita GDP of $2100, making it one of the wealthier countries in Africa. It is also one of the continent’s most stable democracies. I needed a break from reading weighty books, so I watched a documentary instead…. [Read More]
