ENCONTERS
IN WEST AFRICA
by Hossein Kamali ISBN 1-55369-210-1
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: the author via email at hkamali@hotmail.com
ENCOUNTERS IN WEST AFRICA contains reflections on the author's extensive experience, travel, observations, and interviews with different individuals and groups while on United Nations missions in Africa. Author Kamali, a person with rich multicultural and international education and life experience, contends that this part of the continent has been significantly neglected. His plea for substantial development aid and assistance to the people of this region is articulated throughout the book.
ENCOUNTERS IN WEST AFRICA presents topics covering various aspects of social life, including the status of African women and traditional institutions such as secret societies, sorcery and witchcraft and their functions with reference to incidents that occurred during his stay in West African communities. Kamali also presents an overview of history and major events. Among the topics covered are the Atlantic Slave Trade and the European colonialism and their impacts on the destruction of West Africa's economies and human values. The author identifies and recommends potential areas for international partnership and roles the UN agencies and the industrial nations could play in improving living standards. Finally, on the basis of the author's field experience, the book provides some advice for visitors travelling to the tropical West Africa region.
The author hopes that this book will generate greater awareness of critical issues facing the people of West Africa and that readers will find these topics and observations enlightening and as well as cause for concern and action.
"The international community, and mass media as the powerful voice of rich nations, have played major roles in keeping West Africa's situation out of the limelight for a long time and it is their moral obligation to correct past mistakes and reverse their biased practices," argues Kamali. "The time has come for the West, which ignored Africa in the twentieth century, to initiate a change of policy toward this continent. To combat poverty and violence in Africa, significant efforts and resources need to be invested, with the fields of education and health as the top priorities, with particular attention to mother and child care. Poverty and violence are pressing issues in Africa, with women in particular being the main victims." Kamali goes on to say, "Any major outside assistance must be planned and implemented with local participation and not be prescribed and imposed from overseas without having examined the patient!"
The author's fascination with working in a multicultural environment with rich heritage, warm and hospitable people, the beautiful scenery of places he visited and studied gave him the incentive to write this book. He witnessed and admired the traditional values and the openness of the people, with whom he met and shared life stories. Hossein Kamali also observed injustice and hardship, much of which can be attributed to colonial powers. He raises the critical question and asks why Africa should remain the poorest and least developed region despite her rich natural and human resources and what the international community could do to deal with the root causes of this situation.
To purchase copies, or read excerpts online, please go to http://trafford.com/4dcgi/view-item?item=1301&16871522-32073aaa
For
review copies or interviews, contact the author via email at hkamali@hotmail.com
Encounters in West Africa
by Hossein
Kamali
168 pages; perfect bound; $16.95 US ($26.95 CDN)
published by
Trafford Publishing
ISBN 1-55369-210-1