Mende For Beginners

"Mende for Beginners" is the first in a series of Mende books intended to teach the Mende language to non-Mende speaking individuals and also Mende speaking individuals who wish to learn how to read and write the Mende language. The book is divided into chapters of everyday language: greetings, counting, days of the week, months and seasons of the year, etc. Each chapter has an extensive vocabulary, followed by simple sentences. A tape to accompany the book will be available in the near future, and we are confident that the book, together with the tape will make reading, writing and speaking the Mende language an easy learning experience. The tape will help with the pronunciation of words, which will make it ideal for teaching children and adults alike. It will also help lay the foundation for understanding the advanced form of the Mende language which will be presented in the other books in the series. Please contact us at [email protected] if you wish to purchase the tape.

With his unique combination of marketing, management, and humor, Tom Alman does a masterful yet entertaining job of telling us how to develop successful proposals in the challenging and competitive world of government contracting. Having worked at all levels in this demanding field from subject matter expert in the proposal writing trenches to the corner office of business development VP for a major corporation he speaks with experience-based authority, truly expert knowledge, and uncommon common sense. And while providing a myriad of useful and constructive tips, he debunks all the wrong-headed myths and sacred cows so beloved by naïve bureaucrats placed in charge of a subject they know next to nothing about! Read it to learn more about: Selecting the most promising business targets. Choosing leaders that will deliver. Optimizing field-marketing efforts. Using red teams to improve proposals, not destroy them. Designing an effective business development organization. Putting together the right production team. Finding the winning combination. When you finish, you'll know all about saving money and banking bucks by busting bureaucratic barriers!

First published in 1908, this volume emerged in the midst of the British Protectorate of Sierra Leone. The author, F.W.H. Migeod, studied the Mende nation in eastern Sierra Leone and followed the example of the grammar (1882) and vocabulary (1884) published by Dr. Schoen in using the southern form of the Mende language. Beginning with an introduction to the recent history, culture and characteristics of the Mende nation and Sierra Leone, this volume covers useful phrases, grammar, vocabulary and example reading materials including stories and songs collected from native speakers.

In this erudite and gracefully written ethnography, Mariane Ferme explores the links between a violent historical and political legacy, and the production of secrecy in everyday material culture. The focus is on Mende-speaking southeastern Sierra Leone and the surrounding region. Since 1990, this area has been ravaged by a civil war that produced population displacements and regional instability. The Underneath of Things documents the rural impact of the progressive collapse of the Sierra Leonean state in the past several decades, and seeks to understand how an even earlier history is reinscribed in the present.

The Sande Society of the Mende people of Sierra Leone is a secret female regulatory society that both guards and transmits the ideals of feminine beauty so fundamental to the aesthetic criteria in Mende culture. In this eloquent and moving book, Sylvia Ardyn Boone describes the Society, its rituals and organization, and the mask worn by its members. Her book is an evocative account of Mende life and philosophy as well as a unique contribution to the study of African art, one based on African conceptions about the person and the human body. This is a beautiful and beautifully written book. ... Boone writes in ways that reveal her evident devotion to Mende culture.--John Picton, African Affairs A major contribution to our ethnographic understanding of Mende culture, and to understanding the way concepts of women's bodies encode cultural messages about gender relations.--E. Frances White, Women's Review of Books A respectful approach to [the mysteries of the Sande], by an art historian who has tiptoed where anthropologists feared to tread. Radiance from the Waters deserves to be read. ... It provides something more interesting than esoteric knowledge: an extended meditation on notions of beauty and decorum and the way in which these can be translated simultaneously into art and ... advancement for women.--John Ryle, London Review of Books The first text to illuminate the power of the feminine aesthetic in West African art.--Ms.

This book addresses the gendered political authority in Sierra Leone, a relatively unknown topic, and looks at the part it plays in women's history, political history, political transformation in Africa, and global women's political leadership.