The Hyena S Wedding

Set in the aftermath of the genocide in Rwanda, this novel dramatizes the difficulty of rebuilding a society that has been devastated by war. The main character, Musonera, is a survivor whose sad story is all too typical: he is the only member of his family to remain alive. Determined to resist the temptation to become lost in self-pity and bitterness, he accepts a job as a local sector leader and resolves to put all his energy into bringing about a new atmosphere of reconciliation--a daunting task in the face of so much entrenched hatred and so many raw memories. Musonera's wife, Harriet, wishes he would not leave her so often to carry out his official duties, and as the odds stack up against him, he despairs over the complex issues that have to be tackled when a country has a long history of feuding groups.

In this fascinating account of scientific study among forbidding wilderness, a husband-and-wife team describe their trek to the Kalahari to study the little-known brown hyena. The details of the scientific inquiry are provided while the daily challenges of living with children 420 kilometers from the nearest town are described. Despite the hardships, the couple becomes so enchanted by these intelligent animals that they stay for 12 years, documenting many hyena clans and observing behavior only a handful of people have ever seen.

A fascinating ethnography of the Ethiopian Jews living in Israel and their memory of life among the majority Ethiopian Christians.

Biologists studying large carnivores in wild places usually do so from a distance, using telemetry and noninvasive methods of data collection. So what happens when an anthropologist studies a clan of spotted hyenas, Africa’s second-largest carnivores, up close—and in a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants? In Among the Bone Eaters, Marcus Baynes-Rock takes us to the ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia, where the gey waraba (hyenas of the city) are welcome in the streets and appreciated by the locals for the protection they provide from harmful spirits and dangerous “mountain” hyenas. They’ve even become a local tourist attraction. At the start of his research in Harar, Baynes-Rock contended with difficult conditions, stone-throwing children, intransigent bureaucracy, and wary hyena subjects intent on avoiding people. After months of frustration, three young hyenas drew him into the hidden world of the Sofi clan. He discovered the elements of a hyena’s life, from the delectability of dead livestock and the nuisance of dogs to the unbounded thrill of hyena chase-play under the light of a full moon. Baynes-Rock’s personal relations with the hyenas from the Sofi clan expand the conceptual boundaries of human-animal relations. This is multispecies ethnography that reveals its messy, intersubjective, dangerously transformative potential.

Head of the Hyena is the stirring account of a young man’s life-altering experience teaching in the isolated community of Wikondiek. He is joined there by Sabina, a beautiful and strong-willed young woman who is offered a position in the village despite never having applied for it. Their host is Phoebe Asiyo, the sole female elder among the Luo tribe. The daughter of a backcountry preacher, she defied a hostile government to become one of the first female MPs in Kenya, going on to entertain Barack Obama when he visited Luo-Nyanza as a U.S. senator. In Volume 2 of the series, Cameron begins to settle into village life, but every day brings new challenges. Many of his students are malnourished but still manage to run roughshod over him, especially when he is stricken with a mysterious illness. He and Sabina continue to butt heads whenever they leave Wikondiek, braving rattletrap bus and bandit-patrolled roads. In the heart of Africa’s largest urban slum, they meet a young slum-dwelling philosopher who pours out his heart over the purity of ideas. During a soccer match in Nairobi, they are swept up in a clash between hooligans and the army. A solo weekend with a captivating stranger on the edge of Lake Naivasha leaves Cameron utterly bewildered. Filled with unforgettable characters and ambitious in its scope, Head of the Hyena is more than a travel memoir – it is the witty and compelling meditation of a young man of the West grappling with how the past spills into the present to define our identity across generations.

The present volume offers a fresh perspective on political top-down crisis communication across several countries during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes how leaders address the growing awareness of the dangerous impact of social restrictions, along with the controversies surrounding the first vaccination campaigns. Not limited to the Western world, it also offers insights from six East European countries, Uganda, India, and Palestine. Topics discussed range from inconsistent communication patterns to populist xenophobic accents, propagandistic campaigns on vaccines, the impact of authoritarian systems on crisis communication, the contrast between scientific and African folk medicine, and the use of war metaphors. By adopting a comparative perspective, this volume contributes to the growing body of literature on crisis communication during the pandemic, while highlighting important issues and perspectives that have yet to be extensively explored. Moreover, it aims to bridge the gap between linguistic and communication research on leadership communication during times of crisis, stimulating an interdisciplinary dialogue.

In this stunning novel of passion, power, and redemption, a forgotten princess in ancient Egypt must overcome her family’s past and remake history—from the internationally bestselling author of Nefertiti and Cleopatra’s Daughter. “Moran’s careful attention to detail and her artful storytelling bring these people to vivid life, imbuing ancient history with suspense and urgency.”—The Boston Globe The winds of change are blowing through Thebes. A devastating palace fire has killed the Eighteenth Dynasty’s royal family—with the exception of Nefertari, the niece of the reviled former queen, Nefertiti. The girl’s deceased family has been branded as heretical, and no one in Egypt will speak their names. But this changes when she is taken under the wing of the Pharoah’s aunt, then brought to the temple of Hathor, where she is educated in a manner befitting a future queen. Soon Nefertari catches the eye of the Crown Prince, and despite her family’s history, they fall in love and wish to marry. Yet all of Egypt opposes this union between the rising star of a new dynasty and the fading star of an old, heretical one. While political adversity sets the country on edge, Nefertari becomes the wife of Ramses the Great. Destined to be the most powerful Pharoah in Egypt, he is also the man who must confront the most famous exodus in history.