The Mailoni Brothers

Zambia is a nation with a long record of peace, that has enjoyed decades of constitutional rule, and even, in recent years, an increasingly competitive democracy. Peace, constitutionalism, democracy, and nationhood face constant challenges, such as in the elections of 2006 when the ugly language of ethnic confrontation found renewed currency. Moreover, Zambia's economic record and prospects are less equivocal: after over four decades, per capita incomes are lower than they were at the dawn of independence. Historical Dictionary of Zambia, Fourth Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities as well as aspects of the country’s politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Zambia.

I decided to write this book because I had you in mind. If it were not for you, I would have not bothered to do so. Like everyone else, I would be going about doing my own business. But, I am not like that. I know what you are going through because I have been there before. Just imagine a situation where someone survives on other people’s leftover foodstuffs that find its way to the dustbins. Imagine, going without a bath for two weeks! Maybe, think of it this way, you have always wondered why you were brought up at an orphanage instead of a normal family home set up. Suppose, in your own personal investigations, you discovered that you were a product of two irresponsible parents, one of whom dumped you at a rubbish pit. What would you do? Think about it this way, your ambition was to be. At school you worked very hard and managed to obtain 6 points at Grade 12. Alas, you struggle to raise money to buy a CBU or UNZA application form. Even when you are admitted into university and given 75% bursary by the government, you fail to raise the remaining 25% required for you to start you dream programme. All I can say to you is, “Do not give up.” Keep trying and aim to fulfil your dream.

The long-awaited second novel from David Chariandy, whose debut, Soucouyant, was nominated for nearly every major literary prize in Canada and published internationally. An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991. With shimmering prose and mesmerizing precision, David Chariandy takes us inside the lives of Michael and Francis. They are the sons of Trinidadian immigrants, their father has disappeared and their mother works double, sometimes triple shifts so her boys might fulfill the elusive promise of their adopted home. Coming of age in The Park, a cluster of town houses and leaning concrete towers in the disparaged outskirts of a sprawling city, Michael and Francis battle against the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry -- teachers stream them into general classes; shopkeepers see them only as thieves; and strangers quicken their pace when the brothers are behind them. Always Michael and Francis escape into the cool air of the Rouge Valley, a scar of green wilderness that cuts through their neighbourhood, where they are free to imagine better lives for themselves. Propelled by the pulsing beats and styles of hip hop, Francis, the older of the two brothers, dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow. With devastating emotional force David Chariandy, a unique and exciting voice in Canadian literature, crafts a heartbreaking and timely story about the profound love that exists between brothers and the senseless loss of lives cut short with the shot of a gun.

Offers a new take on the identities and life histories of medieval people, in their multi-layered and sometimes contradictory dimensions.