Blogs in December 2020

Songs in the Shade of the Cashew and Coconut Trees: Lullabies and Nursery Rhymes from West Africa and the Caribbean 5th December 2020

Songs about children playing in the schoolyard, sisters braiding each other’s hair at the beach, and parents dancing late into the night mesh together thanks to the music. A wide array of styles–nursery rhymes from Gabon, lullabies from Cape...

Read More 

The Rainbird 23rd March 2020

Jan Brokken’s compelling account of his journey to one of the world’s most mysterious and remote countries — Gabon in Central Africa — following in the footsteps of such famous Europeans as Stanley and Schweitzer.

Read More 

A Workman Is Worthy of His Meat 23rd March 2020

In Libreville, the capital of the African nation of Gabon, the colonial past has evolved into a present indelibly marked by colonial rule and ongoing French influence. This is especially evident in areas as essential to life as food....

Read More 

The Primeval Forest 23rd March 2020

“There, in this sorry world of ours, goes a great man.”-Albert Einstein, on Albert Schweitzer In July of 1913, thirty-eight-year-old medical doctor Albert Schweitzer gave up his position as a respected professor at the University of Strasbourg and celebrated...

Read More 

Threatened 20th March 2020

When he was a boy, Luc’s mother would warn him about the “mock men” living in the trees by their home — chimpanzees whose cries would fill the night. Luc is older now, his mother gone. He lives in...

Read More