[Review of] R. Baxter Miller, ed., Black American Literature and Humanism

The seven carefully documented essays in literary criticism in this excellent short volume are possibly more lively and provocative than those ordinarily found in scholarly publications. The title,however, might well have been: eight black writers and the human condition. Definitions of humanism are varied though not contradictory, but the book is held together by reassessments of black literature which challenge many of the assumptions of previous critics

[Review of] David Cook and Michael Okenimkpe. Ngugi wa Thiong\u27O: An Exploration of His Writings

The two professors of English at Nigerian universities who jointly prepared this small book did three things well. They produced an excellent critical study of Ngugi\u27s writings, amply footnoted and indexed; they presented interesting facts about the Kenyan author\u27s life, and they included enough information to let the works speak for themselves for and about Africa-a welcome change from non-African interpretations

[Review of] Emmanuel Ngara. Art and Ideology in the African Novel

The sub-title of this enigmatic book is A Study of the Influence of Marxism on African Writing. The first of the two parts of the books deals primarily with definitions of Marxist aesthetics. For a serious work, not only are the cliches and terminology tiresome but the choice of quotations is unfortunate. Ngara quotes Marx\u27s and Engel\u27s opinion that Dickens, Thackeray, Emily Bronte and Gaskell wrote novels whose graphic and eloquent pages have issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together. Ngara adds a pronouncement from Mao Tse-Tung on art and literature: ... all literature and art belong to definite political lines. There is in fact, no such thing as art for art\u27s sake .... Commitment is all

[Review of] Kolawole Ogungbesand (Ed.), New West African Literature

This brief collection of eleven scholarly and well-documented critical essays, written largely by African university professors of language and literature who hold degrees from European and American universities, is even more restricted than the title suggests. With a half dozen or so notable exceptions, only the poetry, drama, and novels published since 1965 are discussed here. And not all West African countries are represented

[Review of] Myrtle S. Langley. The Nandi of Kenya: Life Crisis Rituals in a Period of Change

Dr. Langley. who states that this book is an abridgement of her doctoral dissertation, lectures in “missiology” at Trinity College, Bristol. This is a serious, sober, astonishing, and disappointing work

[Review of] Mothobi Mutloatse, ed., Africa South: Contemporary Writings

The twenty-five selections, mostly short stories, reprinted here make painful reading for anyone sympathetic to the black African who must live under the daily indignities of apartheid. Considering the number of writers in exile, one may at first find those still living in South Africa suspect but, although the murderous violence familiar to newspaper readers is absent, there is still pain enough. For those unfamiliar with past or current events, fiction here is history as well as art

The big unknown : the asymptomatic spread of COVID-19

The paper draws attention to the asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases of COVID-19, which, according to some reports, may constitute a large fraction of the infected individuals. These cases are often unreported and are not captured in the total number of confirmed cases communicated daily. On the one hand, this group may play a significant role in the spread of the infection, as asymptomatic cases are seldom detected and quarantined. On the other hand, it may play a significant role in disease extinction by contributing to the development of sufficient herd immunity.http://www.biomathforum.orgpm2021Mathematics and Applied Mathematic