Average customer rating:
- Great alpabet book
- The alphabet at its best
- Culture at its best
- A gorgeous tribute to African culture for children
- Twenty-six tribes of Africa and some of their customs.
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Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions (Picture Puffin Books)
Margaret Musgrove
Manufacturer: Puffin
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ASIN: 0140546049 |
Customer Reviews:
Great alpabet book.......2006-06-03
This is a book that describes different African tribes from each letter of the alphabet. This is a great way to teach children about African tribes, and the book also pronounces each tribe so it is easier to read. The illustrations are wonderful and full of detail. This would be a great lesson in the classroom to learn about Africa. It would also be great to use each page as a poster or transparency.
The alphabet at its best.......2004-06-18
Ho hum, thought I when I first saw this book. Yet another African alphabet book. It wasn't too long ago that I read, "Jambo Means Hello", the Swahili alphabet book by Muriel Feelings that was published in 1974. That book was okay, but I was disappointed that it didn't distinguish between tribes or acknowledge the advance of technology in Africa in the 1970s. Then I picked up this 1976 Caldecott winning book and upon reading it I was stunned. This book is everything that "Jambo Mean Hello" SHOULD have been. With meticulously researched information, delicate details, and stunning illustrations this book deserves to be read to every single child in elementary school for as long as there are either children or schools.
The book goes through the alphabet by naming a different tribe for each letter. First of all, I was surprised that there actually was an African tribe for every letter in the alphabet. Shows what I know. As we view each tribe we get a stunning illustration of their clothing, towns or villages, and activities. Author Margaret Musgrove describes their life, picking out the most interesting details for each. Through this method we learn that in Baule legend the crocodiles aided them when they were at war with the Ashanti. Or we find out that in the Tuareg tribe the men are veiled and the women do most of the talking, storytelling, and poetry. From A to Z we see a wide spectrum of African inhabitants, ending with a map of Africa that shows where each tribe resides.
But it doesn't stop there. Feelings explains in her Author's Note in the front that modern technology is changing the face of African life, though she contends that the traditions pictured in this book are still being passed on from generation to generation. She points out that some customs mentioned here are unique and relate only to that particular tribe while other values and philosophies are shared by all. She is even so careful as to point out that many (not all) African language prefixes are added to denote the plural. She, however, has used the root words throughout the book for simplicity's sake. Should you have any doubts about the background of this author, you can read in a tiny note on the publication page that she lived and studied in Ghana for years and a list of publications consulted is included. And if you've any doubts about the illustrations, don't. As noted, even the interwoven designs at the corners of the pages are based on Kano Knots. Every article of clothing, every animal, every home depicted here is accurate and beautiful.
I don't mean to pooh-pooh "Jambo Means Hello", but that book hasn't got anything on the amazing "Ashanti to Zulu". It's stunning.
Culture at its best.......2003-02-11
This is an amazing book, practically one of a kind! The information, illustions, and luster of the indigenous African cultures is beautiful to behold. I recommed introducing young children to cultures and peoples as varied as the come to fully portray to them the true beauty of this creation, life. There is nothing so intricate, so inveloping and powerful as life in this form. Pronounciation is given for the tribes names to bring ease of reading, which is, in fact, very enjoyable.
A gorgeous tribute to African culture for children.......2002-08-25
"Ashanti to Zulu" presents 26 African tribes, from A to Z, and lets children learn something about the culture and customs of each one. Aside from being a learning experience, the book is visually eye-popping; the illustrations are so gorgeous you'll want to blow them up and frame them. The book won a well-deserved Caldecott Medal for the best illustrated children's book of 1977. It's a great book for helping children to learn about some of the peoples of our least-known populated continent, and the pictures will hold the kids mesmerized. It's a volume that belongs on every youngsters bookshelf.
Twenty-six tribes of Africa and some of their customs........1999-05-17
An A-to-Z alphabet book for children in which the examples for the letters are twenty-six different tribes in Africa, exhibiting some of their varied traditions and customs. Hence, children learn of other peoples. It was illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon and it won the 1977 Caldecott Medal for best illustration in a book for children.
Book Description
Volume 1 of the monumental work containing about 25,000 words and terms that occur in texts ranging from 3000 B.C. to 600 A.D. Each entry consists of a transliteration of the word, the word in hieroglyphs, and the meaning in English. Indispensable to serious student.
Customer Reviews:
Budge is a GREAT WAY to become FLUENT in this language.......2006-04-07
Budge is the best way to go if you are serious about becoming fluent in this beautiful language. The fact is that Budge puts the symbol, the transliteration, and the translation all together so you can know exactly what word you are reading and you can learn the syntax by reading his texts. You can pronounce it as you are learning it while reading the symbol all at the same time. The other wonderful thing about Budge is that he has loads of works out there. If you study one book, then you can easily move into other books and get the same reinforcement without having to learn some different author's other pronunciation key.
I know it is possible to use these books and become fluent. I am in the process of studying this language and a friend who is already fluent recommended these books for me (actually he reviewed Rosemary Clark's book The Sacred Tradition)--but another key point is to understand the essence behind the language. One who follows the Faith of the Gods of Ancient Egypt will be able to relate more to these texts because in order to understand a language such as this one, one must understand the spirit behind the language. Anyone can pick up a hieroglyphics book and learn to write people's names in hieroglyphics. To really understand the deeper aspect of the language, one must study it from the inside and not just as an observer. It is impossible to truly become fluent in a language by being just an observer.
I would recommend reading The Search for Omm Sety about a woman who was a famous Egyptologist and also practiced the Faith of the Gods. She was one of the few people who learned Ancient Egyptian language fluently and was able to understand and communicate its essence. Omm Sety was a personal friend of Budge and actually helped Budge to edit his work and pronunciation. You also may want to read The Sacred Tradition by Rosemary Clark. She was another author who became fluent in this language and she discussses the use of this language in her writings.
I highly recommend this book. Budge has the very best to offer for anyone serious about learning this language.
The best just keeps getting better!.......2006-03-17
If your reading the Heiroglyphics you will need this book so don't even kid your self if you think you won't because it's worth it's weight in gold.
Get your own copy because I'm not lending mine!
egyptian heiroglyphic dictionaries.......2006-01-26
i have purchased both of the volumes of this set and have found a lot of differences in the main transliteration of the hieroglyphics, but these two books are well worth the money if you are just learning to read and write hieroglyphics.
Egyptian Heiroglyphics.......2005-11-17
I wasn't happy with the book. It is outdated and doesn't measure up to some of the newer editions. I did get some benefit out of it but not enough to say the book was worth the price.
This book is very useful!.......2004-06-10
This book has had very mixed reactions from those who have read it. Budge was writing at a time when people were unsure of the exact values of certain characters, and when many things about the Ancient Egyptians were still unknown. For this reason there are some strange mistakes in his dictionaries that many advanced scholars now criticse him for.
However, this book does offer one of the largest hieroglyphic dictionaries currently available and for this reason it is indispensable.A casual learner, who wants to be able to read the cartouches that appear on monuments and stelae can do so with Budge's king list.
An advanced scholar though, who needs to know the unusual words that can be found only in Budge's dictionaries, will have enough knowledge to correct his outdated transliteration.
For the casual student I recommend this book intensely, as it helps greatly with cartouches and formulaic inscriptions.
For the more advanced Egyptologist I also recommend this book, as it offers as I have said a far less "concise" version of Faulkner's Concise Dictionary.
P.S If you buy Volume One, do not forget to purchase Volume Two!
Book Description
Afrikan alphabets have a rich cultural and artistic history. Many continue to be in current use today. Their story, however, is little known due largely to their past suppression by colonial powers. This book sets the record straight. Both entertaining and anecdotal, African Alphabets presents a wealth of highly graphical and attractive illustrations. Writing systems across the Afrikan continent and the Diaspora are included, analyzed and illustrated: the scripts of the West Africans - Mende, Vai, Nsibidi, Bamum and the Somali, and Ethiopian scripts. Other alphabets, syllabaries, paintings, pictographs, ideographs, and symbols are compared and contrasted. This informative and beautiful book will be of interest to anyone fascinated with African cultural and art.
Customer Reviews:
indispensável........2007-05-17
esqueçamos um pouco essa cultura eurocentrada. olhemos além.
as coisas mais próximas da terra.
Great overview of the history of indigenous African scripts, but incomplete........2006-07-10
This book is fantastic in covering the history of indigenous African scripts, a subject many are unaware of. However, the author should have begun by discussing the beginning of African writing which took place in Ancient Kemet (Egypt). He did not discuss it at all. Perhaps one could claim that it is because the script is no longer in use, but then why did the author discuss some contemporary scripts that are not in use? The only other reason I could think of is because Egypt is already so well known and he wanted to focus on the Sub-Saharan groups that are more disregarded. Fair enough, but then the author should have discussed the Meroitic script of the ancient Nubians of Kush and noted the lack of global interest in deciphering this ancient alphabet.
Otherwise, the book is fantastic and the Zimbabwean author a blessing to the global community of people of African descent. His understanding of the unity of our people is unsurpassed and refreshing in light of the separatism we are taught to practice among ourselves.
A fascinating linguistic history.......2004-09-18
Afrikan Alphabets: The Story Of Writing In Afrika is the impressive result of author Saki Mafundikwa's 20-year effort to collect information on writing systems throughout Africa. Pictographs, mnemonic devices, syllabaries and alphabets are all graphically presented with pronounciation guides, and color photographs of people, art and documents, and brief essays concering the histories of various writing scripts. A superb reference guide and a fascinating linguistic history.
Amazon.com
Noted Kenyan scholar, author, and educator Ali A. Mazrui, creator of the groundbreaking PBS series The Africans, teams up with his son Alamin to examine the complexities and contradictions of language and cultural identity on the African continent. The Mazruis explore the challenges of native African languages surviving in countries where the political, economic, and technological discourses are conducted in Eurocentric languages such as English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese. "This linguistic state of affairs," they argue, has resulted from "the failure of African people to be nationalistic enough in linguistic terms." The Power of Babel recounts the history and impact of oral traditions, as well as the influence of Arabic, Christian, and Semitic-based growths in literacy and the imposition of the European concept of the nation-state. The authors also detail the role African American and Afro-Saxon English speakers could play in "African counter-penetration," using English to better educate the West about Africa. This timely and important treatise also finds room to incorporate discussion of such wide-ranging subject matters as James Baldwin, Frantz Fanon, and the rise of Ebonics. --Eugene Holley Jr.
Book Description
Linguists estimate that there are currently nearly 2,000 languages in Africa, a staggering figure that is belied by the relatively few national languages. While African national politics, economics, and law are all conducted primarily in the colonial languages, the cultural life of the majority of citizens is conducted in a bewildering Babel of local and regional dialects, making language itself the center of debates over multiculturalism, gender studies, and social theory. In The Power of Babel, the noted Africanist scholar Ali Mazrui and linguist Alamin Mazrui explore this vast territory of African language.
The Power of Babel is one of the first comprehensive studies of the complex linguistic constellations of Africa. It draws on Ali Mazrui's earlier work in its examination of the "triple heritage" of African culture, in which indigenous, Islamic, and Western traditions compete for influence. In bringing the idea of the triple heritage to language, the Mazruis unravel issues of power, culture, and modernity as they are embedded in African linguistic life.
The first section of the book takes a global perspective, exploring such issues as the Eurocentrism of much linguistic scholarship on Africa; part two takes an African perspective on a variety of issues from the linguistically disadvantaged position of women in Africa to the relation of language policy and democratic development; the third section presents a set of regional studies, centering on the Swahili language's exemplification of the triple heritage.The Power of Babel unites empirical information with theories of nationalism and pluralism—among others—to offer the richest contextual account of African languages to date.
Average customer rating:
- Beautiful, breath-taking
- Awesome Images!
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Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry
Manufacturer: Aladdin
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0689840454 |
Amazon.com
Ashley Bryan's ABC of African American Poetry is not an alphabet book. Award-winning children's book author and former teacher Ashley Bryan has simply hit upon a straightforward way to present the work of his favorite African American poets: he uses a letter of each poem to organize the 25 excerpts and one African American spiritual. His vibrant artwork, with bold strokes of paint reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh, successfully captures the essence of each piece. "As I read," Bryan writes, "images sprang from the lines of the poets... Finally, I chose the sketches that offered a balanced play of images and did finished paintings from them in tempera paints and gouache colors."
Poems ranging from the intense to the whimsical reflect the diverse voices of poets such as Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, and Gwendolyn Brooks. A colorful elephant stands solidly next to Countee Cullen's poem: "Dear Noah: Please save me a spot / Exposed to the sun, where the Mice are not; / But if I must share my chamber, the Ant / Is the one I should welcome. Yours: L. E. Phant." From Langston Hughes we hear, "There are words like Freedom / Sweet and wonderful to say. / On my heart-strings freedom sings / All day everyday." And Eloise Greenfield chimes in with "Harriet Tubman didn't take no stuff / Wasn't scared of nothing neither / Didn't come in this world to be no slave / And wasn't going to stay one neither." This innovative, easy-to-absorb, boldly illustrated introduction to a rich variety of African American poets would be a valuable addition to any child's bookshelf. (All ages)
Book Description
"And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely -- I'll make me a world."
-- James Weldon Johnson
Thus begins Coretta Scott King Award-winner Ashley Bryan's collection of inspiring excerpts of poems by celebrated African American poets. Beautifully illustrated with his own tempera and gouache paintings, Ashley Bryan's unique alphabet book will delight readers of any age.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful, breath-taking.......2003-07-30
The illustrations in this book are so beautiful, words can not explain. It is a simple read that introduces the little ones to poetry. Most poems are excerpts of a stanza or a few lines and the picture corresponds to the poem. Each poem either starts with the letter of the letter is bold in the poem and ties in the picture. For example, F=freedom, but the poem's first letter is not F, so F is bold in the word freedom. Highly recommended for the entire family.
Awesome Images!.......1999-01-08
We love this book and are purchasing a second copy so we can cut out the images and frame them. Ashley Bryan is a master of art! Bryan uses only portions of poems by wonderful poets, the stanzas chosen match the images perfectly and make the reader want to find the entire poem to read! Highly recommended by this family
Average customer rating:
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Languages of Ghana (African languages = Languages africaines. Occasional publication)
M. E. Kropp-Dakubu
Manufacturer: Kegan Paul
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ASIN: 071030210X |
Average customer rating:
- If this is scholarship, God help us!!
- A giant leap towards a long known fact.
- Dubious work
- interesting but...
- An important Introduction to the Ethiopic Writing System
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Ethiopic an African Writing System: Its History and Principles
Ayele Bekerie
Manufacturer: Red Sea Press
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Enoch the Ethiopian: The Lost Prophet of the Bible : Greater Than Abraham, Holier Than Moses
ASIN: 1569020213 |
Product Description
This is a groundbreaking book about the history and principles of Ethiopic (Ge'ez), an African writing system designed as a meaningful and graphic representation of a wide array of knowledge, including languages. In this important and unique study, Ayele Bekerie argues that Ethiopic is a component of the African knowledge systems and one of the major contributions made by Africans to world history and cultures. The author further elaborates that Ethiopic is a knowledge system which is brilliantly organized to represent philosophical features, such as ideography, mnemonics, syllograpy, astronomy, numerology and grammatology. Ethiopic is not only a cultural agency, but also a foundation to a great literary tradition in Ethiopia, which, for instance, has made a critical contribution to the history of Christianity by organically preserving The Book of Henok, widely believed to be a precursor of Christianity. In a sharp departure from the established view of most Ethiopianists of the old school, Ayele Bekerie contends that the Ethiopic writing system is much older than it has been previously thought, tracing back its origins to as far back as 2,000 B.C.E. This study also explores the dynamic linkages between the Ethiopic and Egyption writing systems, suggesting the possible relationship between all African writing systems of the Nile Valley.
Customer Reviews:
If this is scholarship, God help us!!.......2006-08-22
Nothing like weaving fact and fiction together to come up with a new and politically correct (Afrocentrism) history. Pity the book was never properly peer reviewed. Trained linguists know this book to be non-sense with very dated and often wrong references. Africans have a wonderful and rich heritage and should be very proud of it but this book is mostly just tripe.
A giant leap towards a long known fact........2001-05-22
The author did his homework,refined the facts and gave us a brilliant presentation. Kindly check out GERALD MASSEY: Egypt Light Of The World,Book of Beginnings;ALBERT CHURCHWARD and,ALVIN BOYD KUHN for some real exciting STUFF!
Dubious work.......2000-05-11
A thought-provoking but finally frustrating book whose theses are not backed by the facts. Read with caution. It's worth reading Peter T. Daniel's review of the book on the H-Africa list [H-Net Reviews] as Daniels has a lot of useful things to say on the book which may not be apparent to the non-specialist in Afro-Asiatic languages.
interesting but..........1999-07-08
I find it surprisingly deceiving that Ayele discredits the works of senior Ethiopianist in his fast arguments... The work doesn't seem as thorough as one would have expected, especially coming from reading the reviews. It's more of a historical account than anything else.
An important Introduction to the Ethiopic Writing System.......1999-01-27
This english-language work asks more questions than it answers but a selective reading hints at the powerful and often surprising qualities of the Ge'ez language. It is left up to the reader to to pursue and solve the Ge'ez riddle. Good Luck, cheerful Egyptians, Meroists, Rastafarians and all our good wise men!
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