This is a lively and well written book which deals with the period of civil war in Mozambique. It was completed and published just before the conclusion of a successful peace process and so provides a particularly clear and powerful view of recent history.It is based on the author's travels within country during the war period and includes extensive interviews. The people he talked and worked with emerge as very vivid and lively characters. The support of the rebels by Rhodesia and South Africa, and the reasons for that support, are well described. A must read for anyone going to work in Mz, strongly recommended for the serious traveler as well.

I bought this book before a trip to Mozambique in the summer of 2000. It was very hard to find books about the country. I ended up coming to Amazon and jsut doing a search. This was one of the books I bought sight unseen. It turned out to be the best. It was the most complete book as far as giving me a big picture of what the people had been through in recent years. The book has many anecdotes to show the typical western reader just how different life is in Mozambique. I found that the sense of poverty as well as generosity and warmth that the author communicated was verified by my own experience. It is the stories of the everyday person in the book that are so wonderful. Stories of the joy of children upon recieving a gift of a pen or the desire of young man for a pair of shoes.

The Mozambicans are amazing people. I apprciated them even more because I had read this this book. I was filled with wonder at the total complete wonderful humanity I encountered given the populations truly horrible experience of war.

Anyone who wants to know about Mozambique's recent history must read this book--not just because it's full of names, facts and dates, but because it's a stunning work of exploration and exposure by a journalist who chose to travel through a viciously dangerous countryside to try to understand the reality of a nation devastated by fear. But more than that, this is also a superb piece of writing: engrossing from beginning to end, every page packed with vivid prose and thought-provoking discussion. I read this book in Mozambique in 1992 and it made an enormous difference

Stephanie Urdang is my Mother. I would like to say that she is one of the most amazing women I have ever come across, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her daughter. I was brought up around such amazing people from all over the world who, like my parents, were very socially-conscience and wanted to make a difference in the world. My Mum is from South Africa, and she knows how apartheid and hate can affect a person- especially women. She now works at UNIFEM at the United Nations, and throughout the past year she has spent her time and energy working with many others to come up with ways to help women all over the world and spread awareness of the true meaning of being a woman. If you want to learn more about the struggles and pride-crushing situations women in Mozambique and all over the world go through every day, then do yourself a favour and buy this book. It will forever change your view on women and what women can accomplish even in the hardest of times. Thank you for your time.

After having spent nearly three years in Angola with an international organization, I have my own views on Angola, the Government and the laboured peace process and left Angola more than a little cynical. Mr. Bredin and Ms. Logan's book covers not only Angola, but (the former)Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It was with great pleasure that I read the book which also accounts the tumultuous events in Angola of 1992, all related with a healthy dose of humour. It brought back a lot of good memories for me and I feel it really captured the essense of the country and the people, not only of Angola, but the other countries through which the Benguela Railroad passes. Armed with this book, I visited some of the major towns along the railway including Benguela and Huambo during my time there, a fascinating experience made all the better by "Blood on the Tracks". An excellent book and a great introduction to the realities of life in Southern Africa.

Mia Couto's books presents us an Africa full of magic and dignity.

This book should be listed as required reading for all. The fact that it was written by a witness to the brutal, inhumane ambitions of mankind, is testimony with which we might more acurately explain some of our social dilemas. The author wrote, without an agenda, what the conditions were on board a slave vessel. Apalling, dehumanizing, brutal. The history depicted is a necessary lesson if we ever hope not to repeat the devestation. Spend 50 day on board a slave vessel and you will carry the experience with you forever.

Cole P. Dodge lent a positive about-face to the reputation of UNICEF, especially in East Africa, during the uneasy decade of the 80s. There is quite possibly no other healthcare/development leader that has achieved so much in the name of an entire continent--Africa. All of his books should be atop the must-read list of Governmental and Non-Governmental healthcare agency professionals alike. Raundelen has taken a keen interest in child psychology issues, to include the impact of war and violence upon children, among the most at-risk to war, and child soldiers. This Norwegian is a leading expert in the field.

"Hard to find" -- go to the library, it will be well worth the trip. This is an historical novel - my very favorite way to learn historically accurate facts of a people and country interwoven with fictional characters who tell the story to us - and we quietly learn as we read. I was simply interested in Mozambique, and as well, Portugal -- from the point of view that as I grow older I realize how little I truly know! The "Pide" secret police of Portugal before the 1974 revolution are a terrifying revelation of dark forces in our time - within an ancient and proud and accomplished country. The white heat of Mozambique will have you reaching for an well iced lemonade, and an affection for her people will easily come to you. The black fly picture in your mind will make you itch and squirm, and you will wish for their destruction. And when you are finished with the book you will come here looking for more titles on Portugal and Mozambique

"A shattering of silence" tells the adventures of a young mozambiquan girl travelling through her shattered country and following the death of her family. The book is a spirited response to the brutal effects on the mozambiquan civil war, which lasted from 1975 to the early 90th.

As a Mozambican,I purchase every single book or guide written on my country.This is the first one that pays true tribute to my wonderful homeland and all the Mozambicans.The text and photographs,take you in a journey through the country and captures its people in the most genuine way.Though it is esay to read,does not lose its indepth.If there is ONE book to buy on Mozambique - this is the one. As we say in Mozambique,to the authour-Ian Michler - KANIMAMBO! Irene Grilo

Dr. Donoso has written a wonderful account of his medical experiences in refuge camps in Malawi. His writing style is engaging for both the medical professional and the layman. He has enough detail (and footnotes if you really want them) so that you can look critically at his efforts. In addition, at times, his writing is fluid and even poetic. I gave the book only 4 stars because at times the translation was a little rough. I'll bet that this book is really beautiful in the original version. Anyway, if you are interested in the details of delivery of healthcare under trying circumstances, get this book and read it.

An Eloquent Book by a Doctor in the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize Winning Organization, Les Medicines Sans Frontieres

Across the Footsteps of Africa by Dr. Benjamin Puertas-Donoso

Les Medicines Sans Frontieres have won the prestigious and much deserved Nobel Peace Prize for 1999. I would like to congratulate them and praise their dedicated doctors. I was especially touched by this eloquent and beautiful memoir of an Ecuadorian doctor who worked with the American Refugee Committee in Malawi and with Les Medicines Sans Frontieres in Mozambique near the end of their long, brutal civil war in 1993 and 1994.

Dr. Puertas is a gifted writer. The refugee camps where Dr. Puerts worked were not pretty places. But Dr. Puertas took the inconveniences, risks and deprevations of the work in stride. His warm personality bursting with optimism, energy and humility, not only charmed his refugees and coworkers, but captivates his readers as well. However, of course, his success in taking on the gargantuan task of saving lives in wretched conditions was not due to charm alone. In fact he has a genius for organization and administration.

Dr. Puertas does not focus the book on his own accomplishments or dwell on the dirt on the floor in the hospitals. His book is very intelligent and shares with the reader a little of the history of the countries he worked in, their governments and politics and he gives the reader a respectful and balanced idea of what the people, the food and the native cultures are really like. He was very impressed with the good natured people and their incredible strength to endure each day. He traveled quite a bit in the region, met a lot of interesting people, and is a good travel guide for the reader sitting comfortably in his armchair.

Years ago I too lived and worked in Africa. I served as a Peace Corps teacher in Ethiopia. I was teaching English to children who were starving, with many unnamable and unreatable diseases and living without adequate shelter. I can vouch that every word in Dr. Puertas' book resonated true to my experiences in Africa. Africans take their hard life pretty much in stride, but it is indeed very hard. It is organizations like Medicines Sans Frontieres that bring the doctors with skills and abilities to make things happen to improve their lives. Dr. Puertas is to be commended for giving his time and gifts to humanitarian efforts and also for writing such an inspiring and exceptional account of it. It is Dr. Puertas' great gift as a writer to make this story, necessarily suffused with so much human pain and suffering, a great triumph to the human spirit and a romantic adventure. Dr. Puertas is so likeable, his narrative creates suspense because the reader really cares about what happens to him. This book would make a great movie!

This book's first edition in spanish showed me the crude reality of the african health system. This delightful narrative experience of Dr. Puertas' incredible adventure in Africa is very well written. It's contents may prove useful to anybody in the medicine, public health, and medical anthropology fields, especially if related to third world countries.

great book

JLBE