The author was born in the highly successful self-governing British colony, Southern Rhodesia. His love of his country and its people is as clear in this book as his disbelief and anger over British and South African policies of political expendiency that forced Rhodesia out of the western camp into one clearly forseen to become a one-party Marxist dictatorship.

Winds of Destruction is the story of the author's life before and after joining the Royal Rhodesian Air Force. The book centres on the writer's involvement with air and ground operations in Rhodesia's thirteen-year war against the communist forces of Marxist Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo who sought to gain power by force.

Shattered Dreams at Kilimanjaro covers the period from the establishment of the former colony of German East Africa in the late 19th century until the formation of the independent State of Tanganyika in 1961. The book focuses on a small group of German settlers who ventured into a new world - German East Africa - to establish farms and businesses in the Mt Kilimanjaro region.

This venture was ultimately not successful due, in part, to the tropical diseases contracted by some of the settlers, whilst others were disillusioned with the poor economic returns. The main reason for its failure, however, was the outbreak of World War I and the devastating effects this had on the settlers, culminating in dispossession and deportation. Before the war the settlers had achieved a great deal by clearing virgin land and cultivating it with coffee and an array of vegetables and fruits. Others had started businesses such as building and flour milling.

After World War I the former German colony became the British Mandate Territory of Tanganyika. Some former settlers returned only to lose everything again when World War II broke out and all Germans were interned and their properties confiscated. Many of the settlers were deported to Germany in 1940; others were interned in Africa for the duration of the war before being repatriated to Germany.

It is fitting to record the history of these adventurous and hard working people. They overcame severe personal hardships and disappointments and, in the end, earned little reward for their toils. Nevertheless, they left a lasting legacy because agriculture was brought to a region in tropical East Africa from which crops are still grown and food produced. Similarly, their businesses gave rise to ongoing enterprises in that region.

The book is illustrated with many historical photographs.

Encounters in West Africa is perhaps unique in its kind, informative, critical and at the same time entertaining. It gives an overview of West African history, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Amistad Revolt. It refers to major events since the European colonialism; aspects of cultural heritage and traditional beliefs in sorcery and witchcraft, secret societies, initiation and wedding ceremonies and the status of African women.
The author explains how slavery fueled the engine of western economies through draining African wealth and human resources and addresses the critical question "Why Africa endowed with rich resources remains the world's poorest region in the twenty-first century!" In response, while recognizing the internal political conditions and social instability as the major constraints, he blames the West and the United States in particular for ignoring Africa despite giving much attention to some other territories. He then draws attention to the pressing issues facing Africa and the challenging role of the international community and Western media for a change of policy. The author believes that education should be given first priority in any donors' assistance package to Africa which should include health care education and sharing knowledge and technology transfer with effective community involvement.
The author's aim is to enrich the awareness of the reader about the potential resources, rich heritage and traditional values of Africa with the hope to promote international partnership with the continent.
The last parts of the book cover the author's interesting memoirs, some advice to visitors before travelling to the region and references to institutions and NGOs affiliated with West Africa.

The dialogues in Black history that compromise this unique volume recapitulate the past, provide a picture of the present and point toward the future.

The participants in the dialogues- a teacher or moderator and a group of students of varying backgrounds- review for the reader the black experience on the North American continent: the slave trade that had its nefarious beginnings in the early 1500s; early attempts at resistance and revolution; the events leading up to the Civil War and black participation in that conflict; the gains and losses of the Reconstruction era; historic court decisions, and along the way, thumbnail sketches of important figures in black history.

It is a history of oppression and injustice and man's inhumanity to man, as much illuminated by the responses of the student participants in the dialogues as by the recital of the facts. The students are alternately sickened by the harrowing experiences of their forebears so much of which is like a bad dream that one wants to banish immediately upon awaking and full of pride at the accomplishments achieved by individual blacks, often as a result of great sacrifice.

If the black experience of the present is typified by the young speakers of these exchanges, then the future of their race, and therefore, of all humanity, is brighter than even the most optimistic among us would dare to predict. They are impassioned, inquiring, full of both outrage and good humor, determined to know their history so intimately that the mistakes of the past can never be repeated in the future. We Have Known Rivers is a sign of life that provides sustenance to mind and heart.

Reviews
"Interesting & Awakening"
.....Ebony Bookshelf

"Informing Afro-American History"
....Publishers Weekly

"Splendid Volume discussing The Black Experience"
.....The New York Times

"Startling, Provocative and Educational"
.....Columbus Call & Post

"Informative & enjoyable, should be required reading for all history students"
.....Delta News Letter - Editor

"I couldn't stop reading it"
.....Rev. Banes

Touch of the Gods portrays the life of a young Nubian named He'o, who was the third Prince of the Kingdom of Wawat Nubia. At about the age of nine, He'o was sold into slavery by two older half-brothers, for the purpose of keeping the royal blood line in tact.

The book questions the validity of the 1967 and 1995 constitutions. The introduction of the 1967 constitution was underhanded, but it was ratified by a duly elected multi-party legislative assembly. The NRM which parented the 1995 constitution has a legitimacy problem. It was ushered into power by Rwandese refugees, and once in power, installed Resistance Committees (RCs) for the sole purpose of aiding the NRM to manipulate elections. For this reason, the ligitimacy of the constituency assembly elections is questionable.

This book exposes the root of the political disaffection in Buganda and the turmoil in the northern and eastern parts of the country. Specifically, it examines the issues concerning the Buganda Agreement of 1900, and the 1962 constitution. It is the author's belief that the solution to the political problems of the country lie in revisiting the 1962 constitution and amending it to the satisfaction of all kingdoms, districts and territories. There is a lack of political maturity at the central government level to allow fair distribution of the national cake equitably to all parts of the country, and only federal jurisdiction can address this. Like an active volcano, the frustration resulting from the lack of a political process that allows peaceful change of government is building up pressure to a point where tragic mass violence is likely to occur. The tremors of Uganda's political volcano are about to turn into a massive eruption.

On December 24, 1989, a group of Libyan-trained armed dissidents, which styled itself the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), attacked Liberian territory from neighboring Ivory Coast. The band of outlaws was led by Charles Taylor, an ex-Liberia government official who escaped from prison in the United States while facing extradition to Liberia for allegedly embezzling nearly one million dollars of public funds. After he fled the U.S. Taylor returned to West Africa, from where he connected with Libya. Sustained by Libyan support, Taylor went to Liberia to spearhead his murderous brand of civil war.

Liberia's dictatorial leader Samuel Doe responded to the NPFL invasion by deploying troops in the conflict area, whose senior ranks were dominated by the military strongman's own ethnic group. The government forces carried out collective punishment against local villagers, killing, looting, and raping, while singling out people from certain ethnic groups whom they regarded as supporters of the invasion by reason of their ethnic identity. The NPFL also targeted members of Doe's ethnic group and other ethnic groups that were seen to be supportive of the government, as well as its officials and sympathizers.

As the war spread from the interior toward the Liberian capital of Monrovia amid widespread death and destruction, the United States responded to the deteriorating situation by dispatching four warships with 2,300 marines to evacuate Americans and other foreigners who were in the country. The U.S. decided not to intervene to contain the unfolding catastrophe. Officials of the George Bush administration maintained that Liberia, which was then America's closest traditional ally in Africa, was no longer of strategic importance to the U.S. Coincidentally, the Liberian civil war started at the time the Cold War was ending.

Located on the West Coast of Africa, Liberia was founded in 1822 by freed black American slaves who were returned to the continent. Their passage was paid by the American Colonization Society, a philanthropic organization, whose members included Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. The Liberian capital Monrovia is named after Monroe, who was president of the United States at the time Liberia was founded. The country's national flag of red, white and blue stripes with a star, bears close resemblance to the American flag. The systems of government and education, architecture and other aspects of Liberian life reflect American taste. Names of places in the country include Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana and Buchanan. More than anywhere in Africa, spoken English in Liberia echoes the rhythms of Black American speech.

Liberia served as the regional headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and hosted a Voice of America relay station that beamed American propaganda, as well as other major U.S. security installations during the Cold War. The Americans also operated the Omega Navigation Tower, which was intended to track the movement of ships and planes in the region and beyond. Once one of Africa's most stable and prosperous countries, Liberia was regarded as a haven for international trade and commerce because of the use of the American dollar as a legal tender. Major U.S. investments in the country included the Firestone Rubber Plantation, the world's largest plantation, which produce rubber for Firestone tires, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Citibank. Pan American Airlines (PAN AM) once operated Liberia's Roberts International Airport, where U.S. fighter jets have landing rights. During part of the 1970s, Liberia's per capita income was equivalent to that of Japan.

Independent since 1847 as Africa's first republic, Liberia's plunge into anarchy began after a bloody military coup that ended the rule of descendants of the freed slaves, who monopolized political and economic power for over a century. During the 1980 coup, President William Tolbert, who tried to institute some meaningful political reforms but was seen to be not pro-American, was butchered in bed at the presidential Executive Mansion. Then 28-year old Master Sergeant Samuel Doe of the Liberian armed forces, who seized power, promised Liberians equality and good governance, and he also adapted a very pro-American policy. Over a period of five years, the U.S. provided half a billion dollars in aid to the Doe regime, despite evidence that the regime had become increasingly brutal and corrupt. The U.S. endorsed Doe after he rigged the 1985 presidential elections and unleashed a reign of terror that resulted to hundreds of Liberians being killed. The bloody conflict surrounding the election eventually led to the Taylor-led armed insurgency to drive the dictator from power.

Over the course of seven years of civil war, seven major armed factions emerged, and the country was partitioned. In parts of the country controlled by the various factions, marauding armed thugs terrorized defenseless people. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people lost their lives, and almost the entire country was destroyed. During this period of horror and starvation, people struggled to sustain themselves on an assortment of hitherto inedible leaves and substances. For example, the food situation was very desperate during the early part of the war that dogs literally turned into wolves and survived on eating dead human bodies that littered about. The living ate the dogs when food ran out. Hundreds of thousands of Liberians became refugees in neighboring countries and other parts of West Africa, while almost the entire population remaining in the country was displaced.

The civil war was so peculiarly horrible that some West African countries, led by Nigeria, took the unprecedented step in African history to organize a military force, called ECOMOG for short, to intervene and halt the slaughter of defenseless people, and to restore peace. Other countries that made up the original ECOMOG force, which was supported by the United States and the United Nations, included Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Gambia. The original ECOMOG force entered Liberia about eight months after the war started, and Liberia had turned into a "slaughter house," according to then Gambian President Dawda Jawara, who was chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional organization that groups together 16 West African countries. Senegal, Uganda and other countries later provided troops.

The West Africans also acted out of fear that the Liberian conflict might spill over into neighboring countries and eventually destabilize the sub-region. The NPFL force also included Libyan-based dissidents from some of the West African countries, who were planning their own revolutions to seize power in their respective countries. Some of those revolutionaries had been involved in unsuccessful military coups and armed rebellions to unseat the governments in their countries of origin. Libya, declared by the U.S. as a leading sponsor of terrorism around the world, was known for its military adventurism in West Africa. Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi, using his country's oil wealth to spread his staunchly anti-Western vision of pan-African revolution, reportedly hosted and trained hundreds of men, some of whom are now rulers of African countries. Gadaffi also used the opportunity of the Liberian civil war to undermine U.S. influence in Liberia. And Gadaffi may have had good reason for wanting to contain American influence in Liberia. The CIA reportedly used Liberia as a base to attempt the destabilization and overthrow of Gadaffi's regime.

For their part, Burkina Faso and the Ivory Coast also played pivotal roles in Taylor's campaign of death and destruction. Burkina Faso's president Blaise Campaori, another Libyan protege who seized power by murdering the leader of that country, provided foreign mercenaries and training bases for Taylor's rebels, and his country served as the centra

Shattered Dreams at Kilimanjaro covers the period from the establishment of the former colony of German East Africa in the late 19th century until the formation of the independent State of Tanganyika in 1961. The book focuses on a small group of German settlers who ventured into a new world - German East Africa - to establish farms and businesses in the Mt Kilimanjaro region.

This venture was ultimately not successful due, in part, to the tropical diseases contracted by some of the settlers, whilst others were disillusioned with the poor economic returns. The main reason for its failure, however, was the outbreak of World War I and the devastating effects this had on the settlers, culminating in dispossession and deportation. Before the war the settlers had achieved a great deal by clearing virgin land and cultivating it with coffee and an array of vegetables and fruits. Others had started businesses such as building and flour milling.

After World War I the former German colony became the British Mandate Territory of Tanganyika. Some former settlers returned only to lose everything again when World War II broke out and all Germans were interned and their properties confiscated. Many of the settlers were deported to Germany in 1940; others were interned in Africa for the duration of the war before being repatriated to Germany.

It is fitting to record the history of these adventurous and hard working people. They overcame severe personal hardships and disappointments and, in the end, earned little reward for their toils. Nevertheless, they left a lasting legacy because agriculture was brought to a region in tropical East Africa from which crops are still grown and food produced. Similarly, their businesses gave rise to ongoing enterprises in that region.

The book is illustrated with many historical photographs.

Founded on 35 years of research into o the post-1945 Anglo-Rhodesian history, this book complements Richard Wood's The Welensky Papers: A History of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland: 1953-1963 (1983) and So Far and No Further! Rhodesia's bid for independence during the retreat from empire: 1959-1965 (2005). Of So Far, Michael Hartnack wrote that 'Once in a lifetime comes a book which must force a total shift in the thinking person's perception of an epoch, and of all the prominent characters who featured in it.' A Matter of Weeks Rather than Months recounts the action and reaction to Ian Smith's unilateral declaration of Rhodesia's independence, the second such declaration since the American one of 1776. It examines the dilemmas of both sides. Smith's problem was how to legitimise his rebellion to secure crucial investment capital, markets, trade and more. His antagonist, the British Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was determined not to transfer sovereignty until Rhodesia accepted African majority rule in common with the rest of Africa. Given British feelings for their Rhodesian kith and kin and Rhodesia's landlocked position, Wilson eschewed the use of force. He could only impose sanctions but hoped they would defeat Smith 'in a matter weeks rather than months'. The Rhodesians, however, evaded the sanctions with such success that they forced Wilson to negotiate a settlement. Negotiations were nevertheless doomed because the self-confident Rhodesians would not accept a period of direct British rule while rapid progress to majority rule was made or the imposition of restraints on powers they had possessed since gaining self-government in 1923. In tune with their allies in the African National Congress of South Africa, the Rhodesian or Zimbabwean African nationalists had already adopted the Marxist concept of the 'Armed Struggle' as a means to power. Sponsored by the Communist Bloc, its surrogates and allies, they began a series of armed incursions from their safe haven in Zambia. Although bloodily and easily repulsed, they would learn from their mistakes as the Rhodesian forces would discover in the 1970s. Consequently, this is a tale of sanctions, negotiations and counter-insurgency warfare.

The military collapse of Biafra on 12th January, 1970, prompted Raph Uwechue to update his internationally acclaimed account of Nigeria's civil war. In this new, revised and expanded edition, Mr. Uwechue has added a series of epilogues and an appendix in which he (a) analyses the causes of Biafra's failure, (b) takes a penetrating look into the future shape of Nigeria and elaborates on his proposals for an elastic federal union and, (c) provides informative portraits of the principal figures involved in Nigeria's civil war.

After providing the reader with introductory material on the background of Nigeria, Uwechue examines the roots of the civil war, the revolution of 1966, political and military failures, secession and minority problems. To ensure that none of Nigeria's many ethnic groups is in a position to dominate the entire country, he suggests the formation of an elastic federation founded on a triangular base: a popularly elected executive President who, as the national umpire takes charge of the country's security; a Senate which represents the interests of the states, which should have increased autonomy; a National Assembly which represents as well as accommodates the interests and conflicts of ideological and party politics at the national level.

"I commend this book to those who are interested in resolving the Nigerian crisis with realism. The brevity of the chapters and its lucid style of presentation make it a must reading..."

"What he proposes to us, after presenting us with a series of verifiable facts, is more than just a solution. It is a method of finding solutions that are at once just and effective. Herein lies his double merit."

Slavery Reparations in Perspective discusses the claims for reparations for the Atlantic slave trade by Black-Americans and some Africans. It identifies the true victims and all the perpetrators. The book examines the pros and cons of the claims and highlights the resurgence of the African slave trade. It appeals to everyone to help in the resolution of the reparations question, as well as nipping the emergent slave trade and the associated problems in the bud. Governments, international organizations and N.G.Os are all to get involved.

Encounters in West Africa is perhaps unique in its kind, informative, critical and at the same time entertaining. It gives an overview of West African history, the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Amistad Revolt. It refers to major events since the European colonialism; aspects of cultural heritage and traditional beliefs in sorcery and witchcraft, secret societies, initiation and wedding ceremonies and the status of African women.
The author explains how slavery fueled the engine of western economies through draining African wealth and human resources and addresses the critical question "Why Africa endowed with rich resources remains the world's poorest region in the twenty-first century!" In response, while recognizing the internal political conditions and social instability as the major constraints, he blames the West and the United States in particular for ignoring Africa despite giving much attention to some other territories. He then draws attention to the pressing issues facing Africa and the challenging role of the international community and Western media for a change of policy. The author believes that education should be given first priority in any donors' assistance package to Africa which should include health care education and sharing knowledge and technology transfer with effective community involvement.
The author's aim is to enrich the awareness of the reader about the potential resources, rich heritage and traditional values of Africa with the hope to promote international partnership with the continent.
The last parts of the book cover the author's interesting memoirs, some advice to visitors before travelling to the region and references to institutions and NGOs affiliated with West Africa.