Beurden, Sarah Van. Authentically African: Arts and the Transnational Politics of Congolese Culture. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2015.

Drawing on Flemish-language sources other scholars have been unable to access, Van Beurden illuminates the politics of museum collections, showing how the IMNZ became a showpiece in Mobutu’s effort to revive “authentic” African culture. She reconstructs debates between Belgian and Congolese museum professionals, revealing how the dynamics of decolonization played out in the fields of the museum and international heritage conservation. Finally, she casts light on the art market, showing how the traveling displays put on by the IMNZ helped intensify collectors’ interest and generate an international market for Congolese art. The book contributes to the fields of history, art history, museum studies, and anthropology and challenges existing narratives of Congo’s decolonization. It tells a new history of decolonization as a struggle over cultural categories, the possession of cultural heritage, and the right to define and represent cultural identities.

[Source: Ohio University Press].

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Beveridge, Andrew A., and Anthony R. Oberschall. African Businessmen and Development in Zambia. Princeton University Press, 1979. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13x17q8.

Drawing on their extensive fieldwork in Zambia, the authors address these central concerns: the social origins and motivations of African entrepreneurs, and the determinants of their success; the impact of government policies on business growth; the relative performance of Zambians in business; and the effects of small business on Zambian society.

Source: book description by author

J. S. Kofi Bgolonyo

Lecturer in African Music and African Studies/Director, University of British Columbia African Music and Dance

jskofi.gbolonyo@ubc.ca

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Biney, A. 2011. The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah. 1st ed. 2011. New York: Palgrave Macmillan US. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230118645.

Inspired by Gandhi's non-violent campaign of civil disobedience to achieve political ends, Kwame Nkrumah led present-day Ghana to independence. This analysis of his political, social and economic thought centres on his own writings, and re-examines his life and thought by focusing on the political discourse and controversies surrounding him.

Source: Book description by publisher

Bishop, Chris. Africa’s Billionaires : Inspirational Stories from the Continent’s Wealthiest People. Cape Town: Penguin Random House, 2017.

As Forbes magazine heads towards its centenary in 2017, this is a timely look at how the work of entrepreneurs can influence lives in Africa and create the jobs that empty state coffers can no longer afford. Written by the founding editor of Forbes Africa , this is a masterclass on how the brightest and most successful entrepreneurs across Africa made their billions. Chris Bishop gets up close and personal with the biggest names in business on the continent: Aliko Dangote, Patrice Motsepe, Nicky Oppenheimer, Christo Wiese and Stephen Saad, among others. These are the stories of how they not only survived, but thrived, in the fast and furious world of African business: the penniless priest who became a steel baron; the barefoot apple-seller who turned into a mining millionaire; the "knocksman" who went from running dice games and dealing drugs to running a city. This is a rich tapestry of stories about the super-wealthy and the qualities that make them successful, in arguably the most challenging economic arena in the world.

Source: book description by publisher

Bisschoff Lizelle

Senior Lecturer, African film studies, University of Glasgow

telephone: 0141 3306542

email: Lizelle.Bisschoff@glasgow.ac.uk

gla.ac.uk/schools/cca/staff/lizellebisschoff/#biography

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Bisschoff, Lizelle, and David Murphy, eds. Africa’s Lost Classics: New Histories of African Cinema. London: CRC Press, 2014. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315097534.

Until recently, the story of African film was marked by a series of truncated histories: many outstanding films from earlier decades were virtually inaccessible and thus often excluded from critical accounts. However, various conservation projects since the turn of the century have now begun to make many of these films available to critics and audiences in a way that was unimaginable just a decade ago. In this accessible and lively collection of essays, Lizelle Bisschoff and David Murphy draw together the best scholarship on the diverse and fragmented strands of African film history. Their volume recovers over 30 ‘lost’ African classic films from 1920-2010 in order to provide a more complex genealogy and begin to trace new histories of African filmmaking: from 1920s Egyptian melodramas through lost gems from apartheid South Africa to neglected works by great Francophone directors, the full diversity of African cinema will be revealed.

[Source: University of Stirling].

Bisschoff, Lizelle, and Stefanie Van de Peer, eds. Women in African Cinema: Beyond the Body Politic. Milton: Routledge, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315227962.

This book showcases the very prolific but often marginalized presence of women in African cinema, both on the screen and behind the camera. This book provides the first in-depth and sustained examination of women in African cinema. Films by women from different geographical regions are discussed incase studies that are framed by feminist theoretical and historical themes, and seen through an anti-colonial, philosophical, political and socio-cultural cinematic lens. A historical and theoretical introduction provides the context for thematic chapters exploring topics ranging from female identities, female friendships, women in revolutionary cinema, motherhood and daughterhood, women’s bodies, sexuality, and spirituality. Each chapter serves up a theoretical-historical discussion of the chosen theme, followed by two in-depth case studies that provide contextual and transnational readings of the films as well as outlining production, distribution and exhibition contexts. This book contributes to the feminist anti-racist revision of the canon by placing African women filmmakers squarely at the centre of African film culture. Demonstrating the depth and diversity of the feminine or female aesthetic in African cinema, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of African cinema, media studies and African studies.

[Source: Routledge].