List of literature
General
Nadia Molenaers - Robrecht Renard “Ontwikkelingshulp faalt: is participatie een redmiddel?”
(2007)
Geschiedenis sedert 1960 en analyse van de ontwikkelingshulp, met prognoses van de veranderingen
ten goede die een ommekeer teweeg kan brengen.
ASIA
Jung Chang “Wild swans: three daughters of China - Wilde zwanen, drie dochters uit China”
(1991) (China)
The story of three generations in twentieth-century China, it is an engrossing record of Mao's impact
on China, an unusual window on the female experience in the modern world, and an inspiring tale of
courage and love. Jung Chang describes the life of her grandmother, a warlord's concubine; her
mother's struggles as a young idealistic Communist; and her parents' experience as members of the
Communist elite and their ordeal during the Cultural Revolution. Chang was a Red Guard briefly at the
age of fourteen, then worked as a peasant, a "barefoot doctor”, a steelworker, and an electrician…
Luong Ung “First they killed my father - Eerst doodden ze mijn vader (2001) (Cambodia)
From a childhood survivor of Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime comes a riveting narrative of war, desperate
actions,
and
the
unnerving
strength
of
a
child
and
her
family.
Until the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking
government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets,
chicken fights, and sassing her parents. When Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh
in April 1975, Ung’s family was forced to flee their home and hide their previous life of privilege...
Anthony Grey: Saigon (2007) (Vietnam)
Vietnam's heady tropical landscape captivates 15 year-old Joseph Sherman on a hunting expedition to
the French colony in 1925. He is lured back again and again by his enduring fascination for the
country and for Lan, a beautiful mandarin's daughter he could never forget. Over five haunting
decades Joseph's life becomes deeply enmeshed with Vietnam's turbulent, war-torn fate - until he
attempts to salvage something of lasting value during the final desperate helicopter scramble to flee
defeated Saigon.
AFRICA
David Van Reybrouck “Congo, een geschiedenis” (2010) (Congo)
Er is aan het begin van de eenentwintigste eeuw nauwelijks een roeriger natie dan Congo, het
reusachtige land in het hart van Afrika, dat barst van de grondstoffen die onontbeerlijk zijn in onze
moderne tijd – én van de gruwelijke conflicten. Hoe kon de vroegere, relatief rustige kolonie van
België, sinds 1960 onafhankelijk, zo veranderen? David Van Reybrouck beschrijft voor het eerst de
verbijsterende geschiedenis van Congo, van ruim voor de komst van de ontdekkingsreiziger Stanley
tot en met de invloed van China in de laatste tien jaar en de recente economische crisis.
Theroux Paul, “Dark star safari. Overland from Cairo to Cape town” (2003) (Africa)
Travelling across bush and desert, down rivers and across lakes, and through country after country –
Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa
– he visits some of the most beautiful landscapes and some of the most dangerous. It is a journey of
discovery and rediscovery – of the unknown and the unexpected, but above all of people and places
he knew as a young and idealistic teacher 40 years before.
Pakenham Thomas, “The scramble for Africa, Abacus History” (2007) (Africa)
In 1880 the continent of Africa was largely unexplored by Europeans. Less than 30 years later, only
Liberia and Ethiopia remained unconquered by them. The rest had been carved up by 5 European
powers (and 1 king: Leopold II) in the names of Commerce, Christianity, Civilization and Conquest.
Meredith Martin, ‘The state of Africa’ (2006) (Africa)
A history of fifty years of independence. An overview of the evolution of the most important states.
What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to
destitution and despair in the space of two generations?
MIDDLE EAST
Fisk Robert “The great war for civilization. The conquest of the Middle East” (2006)
Vivid personal reporting and incisive, angry historical analysis make Fisk’s passionate eyewitness
account of the events in the middle East in to an unforgettable work. Thirty years at the heart of
world-shaking events produces a masterpiece that is personal, tragic and compassionate, a chronicle
of the death by deceit of thousands of men and women – Muslim, Christian and Jew – and of the life
and work of one of the world’s most acclaimed journalists.
LATIN-AMERICA
Mario Vargas Llosa “The feast of the goat - Het feest van de bok” (2001) (Dominican Republic)
Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to
her native Dominican Republic and finds herself reliving the events of 1961, when the capital was still
called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael Trujillo, the depraved,
ailing dictator whom Dominicans call the Goat, controls his inner circle with a combination of violence
and blackmail. But Trujillo's grasp is slipping. There is a conspiracy against him, and a Machiavellian
revolution is already under way that will have bloody consequences of its own…