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Gambella
Anyuak Media
Up to date news from the Anuak diaspora living in the US.
Gambella Today
News of Gambella from mostly Anuak diaspora living in US.
Feyissa, Dereje. Playing Different Games: The Paradox of Anywaa and Nuer Identification Strategies in the Gambella Region, Ethiopia. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2011
A work both scholarly and human, drawing on established sources and personal contacts to try to figure out if there’s a basis for peaceful coexistence between these two differing groups.
Perner, Conradin. Living on Earth in the Sky: The Anyuak; Vol I, The Sphere of Spirituality; Vol II, The Human Territory; Vol III, The Human Being; Vol IV, A Personal Life. Basel, Switzerland: Schwabe AG, Verlag, 2011
Important, empathic and beautifully photographed record of the Anuak way of life.
Hutchinson, Sharon. Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996
A thoughtful and open-minded expansion of Evans-Pritchard’s classic work on the Nuer.
Scroggins, Deborah. Emma’s War. New York: Pantheon Books, 2002
An absorbing, heartbreaking, narrative of the Sudanese civil wars. So beautifully written you can’t put it down.
Partee, Charles. Adventure in Africa. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing, 1990
The story of Don McClure, the controversial “flying”–and bushwhacking, and Rover wynching–missionary who almost singlehandedly brought Protestantism, education, and some measure of medical and food relief to many in the South Sudan and Ethiopia. It was because of this man that I and my husband were brought to Gambella, and we stayed in one of his houses.
Vandevort, Eleanor. A Leopard Tamed. New York: Harper and Row, 1968
A book written by a Presbyterian missionary at the Nasir station, just up the Baro River from Gambella, in the Sudan, about Moses Kuac, a young Nuer who became an ordained Presbyterian minister. Moses was a friend of Don McClure, and we knew him in Gambella, after he had returned in some ways to the traditions of his people.
E. E. Evans-Pritchard, The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1940, reprinted 1971.
A timeless classic for both anthropology and the Nuer, recording a way of life that was never to be as integral again.
Balkans
Association of Albanian Assistance for Integration and Democratic Development
(Alb-Aid; Previously VMA, Victims of Mines & Arms)
Jonuz Kola, Executive Director. A hardworking organization doing much grass-roots good in northern Albania. Very helpful to the author when she was in Kukës.
Broken April
Ismail Kadare, author
www.amazon.com/Ismail-Kadare/e/B000APGW7A
Albania’s Nobel nominee and International Man Booker Prize winner Kadare has written many thought-provoking books. Broken April takes you inside the heart of the next marked victim in a blood feud.
CIA World Factbook: Albania
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/al.html
Environmentally Responsible Action Group (ERA)
NGO in Pejë promoting environmental consciousness and responsibility amongst the youth and community of Kosovo. Ellen Frank, B3P member, is founder and programs director.
High Albania
Edith Durham, author , with Illustrations by the Author and a Map. London: Edward Arnold, 1909 Reprinted in USA by Ayer Company Publishers, 1994
http://www.amazon.com/High-Albania-Illustrated-Edith Durham/dp/1406828556/
Another indomitable Englishwoman, who tromped with no regard for couldn’ts and shouldn’ts through Albanian territory at the beginning of the twentieth century. Through her eyes we see cultures, country, and the roiling politics of the time.
In the Land of Blood and Honey
Angelina Jolie, writer and director
Released late 2011
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Land_of_Blood_and_Honey
Interpersonal drama interwoven with horrors of the Bosnian War which immediately preceded the Kosovo Crisis in the breakup of Yugoslavia. Recently released to good reviews.
Kanuni I Lekë Dukagjinit: The Code of Lekë Dukagjini
Collected and Arranged by Shtjefën Gjecov, Translated by Leonard Fox New York: Gjonlekaj Publishing Company, 1989
http://www.amazon.com/Kanuni-I-Leke-Dukagjinit-Dukagjini/dp/0962214108
An astonishing read, a beautifully presented hardcover with a striking red jacket and English and Albanian on facing pages.
Long Life to Your Children: A Portrait of High Albania
Marjorie Senechal, , text, and Stan Sherer, photographs Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1997.
http://www.amazon.com/Long-Life-Your-Children-Portrait/dp/1558490973
A marvelous book which will take you on a journey to meet the people, country, and life of High Albania. The author slept with this beneath her pillow while writing Spinning Wool.
RACCOON (Reconciliation & Culture Cooperative Network)
New York-based nonprofit furthering understanding, reconciliation and cooperation among Balkan ethnic groups in the Balkans and the US. Directors Indira Kajosevic and Ivo Skoric are B3P members.
http://balkansnet.org/raccoon.html
The Ideas Partnership (TIP )
NGO in Kosovo working to support educational, cultural heritage and sustainable tourism projects. B3P member Elizabeth Gowing is a founding member.
The European Green Belt
http://www.europeangreenbelt.org
The Balkans Peace Park forms a small link in this envisioned chain which would run from the Barents to the Black Sea, incorporating over 400 individual projects and transforming the former Iron Curtain along the borders of 24 countries.
The Tiger’s Wife
Téa Obreht, author New York: Random House, 2011
A wonderful novel exploring the Balkan imagination.
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War
Women Who Become Men: Albanian Sworn Virgins
Antonia Young, author Oxford & New York: Berg, 2000
www.amazon.com/Women-Who-Become-Men-Albanian/dp/1859733409
A fascinating ethnographic study by a woman who has devoted much of her life to furthering the cause of peace in Albania. A founding past president of B3P-UK, she met the author, and assisted her greatly, in Albania.
US Department of State Country Summaries:
Albania
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3235.htm
Kosovo
www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/100931.htm
Kosovo
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kv.html
Peace Parks
Balkans Peace Park Project (BPPP or B3P)
Antonia Young was founding president of the UK group, and the author is coordinating the nascent North American group. Photos of spectacular unspoiled scenery and opportunities to trek or work in the area.
International Peace Park Expeditions (IPPE)
http://peaceparkexpeditions.org
Field expeditions; learn in and work on international peace parks. Founded and run by B3P members Todd Walters and Saleem Ali, a University of Vermont professor who recently published Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution.
Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace: Global Conflict, Analysis, Transformation and Nonviolent Change
Nigel Young, editor-in-chief New York: Oxford University Press, 2010
http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-International-Encyclopedia-Peace-Four-/dp/019533468X
The Peace Parks Foundation
Southern African peace parks, as promoted by Nelson Mandela. Excellent statement of peace parks mission, with many inspiring examples and stunning photos of stunning country.
Peace Parks: Conservation and Conflict Resolution
Saleem Ali, editor Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2007
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
http://www.nps.gov/glac/parknews/news-42.htm
The first one, conceived by Rotary clubs across the US-Canada border in 1931.
A benchmark four volume reference work well worth consulting. Co-founder of the first Peace Studies department in Britain and director of one of the first such programs in North America, Nigel has dedicated his life to the furtherance of global peace.
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