Another Africa: Photographs by Robert Lyons; Text by Chinua Achebe

by Robert Lyons

Book Overview

Another Africais a book that fuses photographs, poetry, and text to create a view of present-day Africa that moves beyond the stereotypes commonly held by most westerners: an open-air ethnographic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385490380
• ISBN13: 9780385490382
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 9.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Any five of the photos are worth the price of the book

One hundred -- or so --- photos of a continent as large as Africa can't be full-coverage, and I hate to think which of the photos in this book would have been left out, if the scope had increased. I'm a photographer myself (not a pro), and I own many photo books, but none hits me so hard with every photo as this one. They're "hard-hitting," but easy and pleasurable to look at. I admit, I don't want to see flies on the lips of babes, or pestilence. I know it's out there, and Africa has its share. Not that there's a lot of happiness here, but it's not depressing. I came away from it with an impression of Africa I hadn't had. There's a lot of normal people doing everyday things, and people-less scenes that are full without people. They appear to be real, I'm sure they are, but they're so detailed and balanced that you think, "man, this guy has a good eye," and it makes you want to know more about the scene. This book can teach a photographer how to look at a scene. Anyway---I enjoyed it. I haven't read the poetry yet. Well, just a little. It's probably good, and some of it reminds me of Gertrude Stein's automatic writing--but it's not THAT far out.

A respectful and decent view of Africa

This book by Achebe and Lyons is infact a decent and respectful view of Africa.It does not contain pictures of Starving children or wars.The photographs taken by Lyon shows ordinary Africans going about their business with dignity.There is also a very good essay by Achebe discussing the Images of Africa over time.It uses as it's main theme a discussion of Joseph Conrad's book the heart of darkness.He does not shy away from issues such as slave trade and wars,but he treats the subject of Africa's image with dignity.There are also a number of poems after a few pictures.The pictures are about 100. My only grouse with the book is that no pictures were taken of Nigeria and South Africa which are indeed countries that show all the contradictions and hopes of Africa.I say this mainly for sentimental reasons being a Nigerian i would have loved a picture of the hustle and bustle of Ojuelegba in Lagos or the Onitsha market.It is however a welcome addition to my library.