I’m learning a lot with this African-Country-a-Week series. Like: Western Sahara is not part of Morocco. While I was crossing Morocco off the map, I noticed that a goodly area that looked like it was part of the country was actually disputed territory. Here’s the story: This was once a Spanish colony, known as Spanish… [Read More]
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Tag: Africa
Libya: “In the Country of Men” by Hisham Matar
Libya has six million people and lots of oil, making it a wealthy country by the standards of North Africa. Nevertheless, it is a country with a lot of problems. My original plan was to find a book on the history of Libya but was scared off by the number of screeds about the attacks… [Read More]
Tunisia: “Mediterranean Winter” by Robert D. Kaplan
Tunisia is a small country, with a population of about 10 million people. It was also long considered more stable than Morocco, with its constantly changing colonial relationships, and Algeria, which held a revolution against France. But in recent years, Tunisia’s citizens have been protesting against high unemployment, corruption, and rising food prices. it culminated… [Read More]
Algeria: “The Plague” by Albert Camus
I read The Plague for Algeria. It’s not the most definitive book about the country, but I had not read it despite its having been on my shelf for years. (If you are looking for some books about the political and cultural history of Algeria, here’s a great list.) Albert Camus set an examination of… [Read More]
Morocco: “In Morocco”, by Edith Wharton
Morocco is in the northwest corner of Africa, so it gets to kick off my African education project. Morocco is an constitutional monarchy, and King Mohammed VI has been fairly accommodating of democratic reforms in the wake of the Arab Spring. The economy is closely tied to Europe, though, so the problems in Europe are… [Read More]
