Exciting local publications of 2008

Dec 30, 2008

UGANDA'S publishing industry made tremendous strides in 2008 than ever before. Local publishing houses - Fountain, M.K,. Net Media formerly Monitor Books, Mukono Printing and Publishing all played key roles in the education sector.

By Zakia Tabetyo

UGANDA'S publishing industry made tremendous strides in 2008 than ever before. Local publishing houses - Fountain, M.K,. Net Media formerly Monitor Books, Mukono Printing and Publishing all played key roles in the education sector.

The National Book Trust of Uganda said the material for the newly introduced thematic curriculum has been produced up to primary three.

In total 120 titles comprising student text books, dictionaries in nine different languages as well as trade publishing saw books in the local fields of politics, fiction, and tourism grace Uganda’s bookshelves.
Fountain publishers produced 95% of all the books outside education. Fountain, which celebrated its 20th anniversary on December 11, also co-published (with international publishers) a number of books which have the potential to transform into classics.
Below is a review of some of the most interesting local publications.

Genocide by Denial: How profiteering from AIDS killed millions
The book by Peter Mugyenyi is arguably the most poignant and fluently told story of the ravage of HIV/AIDS in Uganda. It generalises into Sub-Saharan Africa and the other less opulent communities around the world. But the argument that multinational companies denied Africa the life saver anti-retroviral drugs that were discovered in 1996 is a shocker to anyone who lost a kin. Perhaps no African community has been left unscathed by this pandemic..

From Poverty to Power: How Active Citizens and Effective States can Change the World

Three thirds of the money spent on the Iraq war can save the world from global poverty—this is the most attractive argument in Duncan Greene’s book. The problems of the world stem from nothing outside inequality—an issue of how a handful of men, most in leadership, own accounts with money that can be used to build 100 hospitals in each rural setting in Sub-Saharan Africa.

That there’s something unjust when 800 million people go hungry while an epidemic of obesity blights millions in the rich countries. Foreign aid, instead of lifting a country from a crisis slumps it deeper into catastrophe as money is stolen by a handful of cunning politicians. Researched to the brim, it could be one of the unshakeable pieces to supplement or stand in place of publications from the World Bank that policy makers often use as a basis of decisions. It was published by Oxford.

Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism

The book was authored by Mahmood Mamdani . Many scholars have argued that the mother and father of Africa’s woes is the legacy that the colonialists left behind. Others have consistently argued that the mayhem is born by the mediocrity and sometimes selfishness of the African politician. As of now, Prof. Mahmood Mamdani’s book stands as the best source to demonstrate the honest relationship between the two. This book can uniquely guide contemporary debate on African leadership.

Uganda Districts Information Handbook

This was written by the Fountain Team. This generation has been witness to both national construction and hewing.

Villages have received district badges— for easier services. It is a well-researched, comprehensive, systematic handbook intended to guide researchers, policy-makers, tourists, students, and leaders at every level on the regional timely and sometimes untimely administrative divisions. It provides very valuable information on locations of important sites: schools, hospitals, police stations and tourist attractions. It is a trustable handbook.

Women’s Violent Crime in Uganda: More Sinned Against than Sinning

It was written

by Lilian Tibatemwa Ekirikubinza

“You can tell the status of a nation by looking at the status of its women”—India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

This line is quite precise in reference to a country whose majority of imprisoned women commit violent crimes against those they are meant to cherish. This wonderful piece of research, that treats society and law as items that ought to be in complete harmony with common sense, exonerates them—as helpless victims of a lopsided society.

Through Intricate corridors to Power

Gilbert Bukenya gives us his autobiography. It is a book to read because of the author’s political status: Vice President of Uganda, and also, for the story of his mother who almost single-handedly, fought hard to give her son education. But the book could be forgotten pronto, for its all round

littleness.

The Politics of Liberation in South Sudan: An Insider’s View
Peter Adwok Nyaba, the author of this book, was for a long time an active participant in the struggle to free South Sudan from the shackles of chaotic and lopsided politics of Sudan.It tackles issues of the liberation struggle, the problems faced, the contradictions within the leadership; and the prospects of the struggle.

Abato Batontoma
by Phoebe Nakibuule Mukasa notes that children often ask several questions which are frequently met with clumsy responses.It is a book of poetry with answers regarding such diverse themes as discipline, prayer, medicine, hard work, cleanliness, and etiquette—issues that are absent in some men and women.The music in the poems enhances their appeal.

This tradition of teaching youngsters through storytelling, poetry, drama and music has been the long forgotten ingredient in our ever-changing lifestyle—which suffers a great moral depression. The book stands as a reservoir of tradition and a basis for creative reflection among the young and parents.

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