[Review of] John Reed and Clive Wake, eds . A New Book of African Verse

A New Book of African Verse, edited by John Reed and Clive Wake, is actually a new edition of A Book of African Verse, which appeared in 1964 just as black literature of Africa and of the United States was gaining recognition, particularly in academic circles. The authors\u27 intention has been consistently modest. From the first, the authors chose works from contemporary poets of French or English expression from Africa south of the Sahara. Certainly in 1964 their first volume brought attention to almost unknown poetry and was useful as an introduction to new readers of African poetry

[Review of] Ngugi wa Thiong\u27O. Devil on the Cross

James Ngugi without question is Kenya\u27s most prominent and most highly regarded novelist to date. Of the same generation of writers as Achebe, Armah, Soyinka, and Owoonor of West Africa, Ngugi, like them, after a local university education, went abroad for advanced work. In 1964 at Leeds, Ngugi published his novel Weep Not, Child, written when he was a student at Makerere. Shortly thereafter, in 1965, he published The River Between which he had composed even earlier. With A Grain of Wheat the writer completed in 1967 a kind of trilogy, depicting for a western readership a literary explanation and clarification of the historic Kenyan struggle for independence. These novels, written in English, and some plays and short stories brought Ngugi an award in 1965 at the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts and subsequent critical acclaim and broad readership

[Review of] Beverley Ormerod. An Introduction to the French Caribbean Novel

Beverley Ormerod displays real expertise in An Introduction to the French Caribbean Novel. She is a West Indian herself, and she knows the background and culture of the Caribbean: its African slave origins and the present quest for pan-Caribbean identity. After post-graduate research at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris , she earned her doctorate in French at Cambridge University. When necessary, she translates the French originals into English. She also knows various creoles of the islands and appreciates the linguistic variety there. She has taught Caribbean literature for twenty years

[Review of] Mazisi Kunene. The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain

Mazisi Kunene is admirably qualified to transmit both the traditional and his original Zulu poetry to an anglophone audience. He is a scholar and a performer of Zulu oral folk poetry. As leader for his own people, for ten years Chief Representative for the African National Congress in Europe and in the United States, he can interpret the heroic epics of ancestral worth. He has translated into English the great epic poem of the Zulu hero Shaka. Long an exile from South Africa, Kunene was a founder member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain. He has been Lecturer of African Literature at Roma in Lesotho, at Stanford and the University of California, and most recently at Nairobi. Thus he can reach audiences with his translations even though the originals in Zulu are banned in his homeland

[Review of] Pepetela (Artur Pestana). Mayombe: A Novel of the Angolan Struggle

Mayombe: A Novel of the Angolan Struggle, by Pepetela, is a story of a guerrilla base in 1971. The writer, Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santes, fought in Cabinda Province with the MPLA forces that he portrays

[Review of] Kofi Awoonor. Until the Morning After: Collected Poems, 1963-1985

Until the Morning After represents a large share of the poetry and the life of Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor. The poems are grouped by sections, titles of earlier volumes arranged sequentially. Much of Awoonor\u27s rather stormy life, including his political protest, strategic self-exile, and incarceration is reflected in this collection. But there are central themes: a love of land, an ethnic pride, a desire to perpetuate local expressions and natural beauties. Despite his years abroad and extensive travels, Awoonor\u27s poetry is very African. In fact, it is a celebration of Africanness. Characteristically, although he signed his earlier work as George Awoonor Williams, he now writes as Kofi Awoonor, like compatriots (John) Atkuwei [Atukwei] Okai and (Christina) Ama Ata Aidoo

[Review of] Okot p\u27Bitek. Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol

Heinemann\u27s reissue of two early works by Okot p\u27Bitek includes Song of Lawino in Okot\u27s own translation from the Acoli published in 1966 and his shorter companion piece, Song of Ocol, 1967, composed in English only. The volume includes an introduction and brief biography of Okot and a critical analysis of the two poems in the light of Okot\u27s background and other works, written by George A. Heron in 1972. Heron includes a comparison between the Acoli and the English versions of Song of Lawino, and a comparison of the traditional poems inserted into the songs with some of the traditional folksongs collected and translated by Okot himself

[Review of] Beryl Gilroy. Frangipani House

Frangipani House is basically a portrait of Mama King, a patient in a Caribbean nursing home. She reveals much of her past in her reveries as she watches out her window from her hospital room. Matron think I do nothing ... but thinking is hard work .... And everybody think my mind empty, my head empty, and my heart empty. I see people, dead and gone, walking and talking and young. And out of my old worn out body, a young woman walk out and life is like roll of new cloth waiting to roll out. She interacts intermittently with the Matron and the other patients in Frangipani House. She talks with her old friend Ginchi and an old admirer who comes to visit. Her worst problem is inactivity. Always active and effective before, she misses her work

Corporate Governance for Sustainability

The current model of corporate governance needs reform. There is mounting evidence that the practices of shareholder primacy drive company directors and executives to adopt the same short time horizon as financial markets. Pressure to meet the demands of the financial markets drives stock buybacks, excessive dividends and a failure to invest in productive capabilities. The result is a ‘tragedy of the horizon’, with corporations and their shareholders failing to consider environmental, social or even their own, long-term, economic sustainability. With less than a decade left to address the threat of climate change, and with consensus emerging that businesses need to be held accountable for their contribution, it is time to act and reform corporate governance in the EU. The statement puts forward specific recommendations to clarify the obligations of company boards and directors and make corporate governance practice significantly more sustainable and focused on the long term