Recommended Reading
“When Helping Hurts – How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert
Churches and individual Christians typically have faulty assumptions about the causes of poverty, resulting in the use of strategies that do considerable harm to poor people and themselves. Don't let this happen to you, your ministry or ministries you help fund! A must read for anyone who works with the poor or in missions, When Helping Hurts provides foundational concepts, clearly articulated general principles and relevant applications. The result is an effective and holistic ministry to the poor, not a truncated gospel.
“Foreign to Familiar” by Sarah A Lanier
Foreign to Familiar is a splendidly written, well-researched work on cultures. Anyone travelling abroad should not leave home without this valuable resource! Sarah Lanier is not only a perceptive author, but she has also lived and worked cross culturally worldwide. She has character, insight and experience that qualify her to share intercultural wisdom that will be life changing for her readers.
“28 Stories of AIDS in Africa” by Stephanie Nolen
In 28, Stephanie Nolen, the Globe and Mail’s Africa Bureau Chief, puts a human face to the crisis created by HIV/AIDS in Africa. She has achieved, in this amazing book, something extraordinary: she writes with a power, understanding and simplicity that makes us listen, makes us understand and care. Through riveting anecdotal stories – one for each of the million people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa – Nolen explores the effects of an epidemic that well exceeds the Black Plague in magnitude.
Nelson Mandela’s “Long Walk to Freedom”
The autobiography of former South Africa president, Nelson Mandela: Since his release in February 1990, after spending 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela emerged as the world’s most significant moral leader since Mahatma Gandhi. As President of the African National Congress and spiritual figurehead of the anti- apartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving South Africa towards black-majority rule. And throughout the world he is revered as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.
“Cry the Beloved Country” by Alan Palton
Cry the Beloved Country is the deeply moving story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set against the background of a land and a people riven by racial injustice. Remarkable for its unforgettable characters, Cry the Beloved Country is a classic work of love and hope, courage and endurance.
“The Fate of Africa” by Martin Meredith
An epic biography of postcolonial Africa illuminates its current devastating problems. What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the span of two generations?
Recommended Viewing
“Yesterday”
“Yesterday,” written and directed by Darrell Roodt, became the first South African film nominated for an Oscar (and an Independent Spirit Award and an Emmy). Yesterday is much more than a movie: it’s a transcendent experience that catapults the audience from the confines of their lives into the heart and daily routine of a rural mother with HIV, after whom the film is named. Beautifully shot in the foothills of the Drakensberg, this story of courage in the face of hardship and hostility has universal appeal.
“The Power of One” (based on the book written by Bryce Courtenay)
Based on the novel by Bryce Courtenay and set against the racial strife of 1930s South Africa, THE POWER OF ONE is a spirited tale of a young boy’s fight against oppression starring Stephen Dorff as P.K., a lonely English orphan who is forced to endure racial hatred at an exclusive Afrikaaner boarding school. Perpetually the outsider, he is constantly tormented by his British-bashing classmates. With the onset of WWII, P.K. is taken in by Doc (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a liberal German scientist, and becomes his ward while incarcerated in a political prison. In prison, he meets Geel Piet (Morgan Freeman), a strong African boxer who teaches him the power of African myth, dialect, and the fine art of boxing.