Pensativities: essays

Description

"What would Obama's 2004 campaign have looked like if it unfolded in an African nation? What does it mean to be an African writer today? How do writers and poets from all continents teach us to cross the sertão, the savannah, the barren places where we're forced to walk within ourselves? Bringing together the best pieces from his previously untranslated nonfiction collections, alongside new material presented here for the first time in any language, Pensativities offers English readers a taste of Mia Couto as essayist, lecturer, and journalist--with essays on cosmopolitanism, poverty, culture gaps, conservation, and more."--;Foreword; The Frontier of Culture; Our Poor Rich People; A Word of Advice and Some Advice without Words; What Africa Does the African Writer Write About?; The Fly or the Spider?; Citizenship in Search of its City; The Brazilian Sertão in the Mozambican Savannah; Animal Conservation: A Noah-less Ark?; Waters of My Beginning; Languages We Don't Know We Know; The Seven Dirty Shoes; Dreaming of Home; Travelling Fire Raisers; The Planet of the Frayed Socks; Half a Future; Baring One's Voice; The Tangles Ball of Wool; What if Obama Were African?; Nutmegged by a Verse; The Waters of Biodiversity. Foreword The Frontier of Culture Our Poor Rich People A Word of Advice and Some Advice without Words What Africa Does the African Writer Write About? The Fly or the Spider? Citizenship in Search of its City The Brazilian Sertão in the Mozambican Savannah Animal Conservation: A Noah-less Ark? Waters of My Beginning Languages We Don't Know We Know The Seven Dirty Shoes Dreaming of Home Travelling Fire Raisers The Planet of the Frayed Socks Half a Future Baring One's Voice The Tangles Ball of Wool What if Obama Were African? Nutmegged by a Verse The Waters of Biodiversity. As if the Sea had Another ShoreThe China Within Us The City on the Veranda of Time Mozambique: Twenty-five Years A Sea of Exchange, An Ocean of Myths The Sweet Taste of Sura Land of Water and Rain Flying Places A Boat in teh Sky over Munhava.