|
|
|
|
|
Cana
Publishing (UK) Ltd brings the best of East and West African writing
for your enjoyment. Cana Publishing (UK) Ltd stock a very wide
range
of topics in a number of languages just follow the links:
We
are proud to announce the appointment of to Sales Agents servicing
the London area.
Carol
on 07949556194
or
Antoni
on 07984796879 |
 |
"The Unlkely Burden" a joint production
of Sasa Sema Publications and W.S.P.A is now available world wide
through Cana Publishing UK Ltd.
Please order now and avoid disappointment.
|
The Unlikely
Burden and other stories
Editors; Dipesh Pabari and Lila Luce
Reviewed
by Yvonne A. Owuor
What do farm and transport
animals, companion animals and wildlife have in common? The imagination
of editor and animal welfare professional Dipesh Pabari who has, with
writers from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and
Egypt, woven an insightful tapestry reflecting the relationship of sentient
(and sapient) species with the human beings who share their African life
space. The WSPA Animal Welfare book is an anthology of animal stories
inspired by the African environment.
I found the book to be a refreshing, quirky and insightful read.
Readers who meet with the lives of creatures whose narratives are so carefully
fashioned will be drawn into reflection, laughter, remembrance, and outrage.
The reader may be compelled to note that the struggles, desires, and dreams
of existence are not confined to the human species alone. The reader,
after a few pages, may even be struck by the thought that dominance of
the environment by human beings, the quest for happiness in the battle
for rights cannot exclude the perception of the dignity of all creatures
great and small, however inarticulate or vulnerable to the whim of human
sensibility they are.
Obiero Ojwang’s Three Goats invites the reader to glimpse the knowledge
of anguish in the stricken gaze of a goat. Gitonga the bully and Mwangi
face off over a leg-saving donkey in Stanley Gazemba’s Unlikely
Burden. Aluizah Amasaba Abdul-Yakeen and Karen Menczer’s poignant
tribute to Accra’s bats, a grandmother’s prescience and a
fight for the right of space reads like a thriller. Dawn James’
wily Cairo Cat who becomes Mish-Mish by dint of feline wiles is a story
many readers--some of whom may have bewilderingly became cat owners overnight--will
identify with. Irene Ekpeh and Kingsley Aigbona in The Owl ask “Just
because something does not sound or look right to you, doesn’t mean
it is unnatural. How do you think a goat must feel when it sees you laughing?”
The answer is in there. There are animal characters in the book destined
to move out of the book’s pages and continue their lives in the
imagination of those who will encounter them.
The book evokes memories of tall animal teaching tales told to children
throughout the continent by assorted relatives. These sixteen short stories
not only provide fascinating insights into human-animal relationships,
but are also contemporary tributes to the lives of animals. The stories
avoid the temptation to moralize and are told in eclectic literary styles
that should appeal to readers of all ages and cultures.
The African ecological ‘heritage of splendor’ has either been
decimated or lost in the murkiness of an appropriated past. The present
is often characterized by lurid tales of human-animal conflict that then
justify all manner of excesses inflicted on non-human creatures. Several
African societies that at their core had incorporated a profound consciousness,
knowledge and respect of life in all its forms have relegated the wisdom
of trusteeship of a splendid natural heritage to outsiders, in this becoming
alienated from that which was once theirs.
This little book is a small but important step in reclaiming the intrinsically
African sense of inter-species tolerance and co-existence; a former deeply
lived culture of conservation. In a perfect world there is plenty of room
for all life’s creatures to forge their shared destinies. In the
absence of such perfection, this book is a little dreaming room for the
‘what-ifs” of co-existence among species.
Read the book with your children!
Books can be purchased in Africa through sasasema@wananchi.com
For international orders, visit: http://www.canapublishinguk.com
|
